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Joel Quenneville Holding Chicago Blackhawks Back

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By @seansarcu

Joel Quenneville Chicago Blackhawks

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The Chicago Blackhawks offense has been severely underwhelming to start the 2014-15 season. Some of this is attributable to bad luck, with the team converting a ghastly 4.39% of its shots into goals at 5-on-5. Some of the problem can be traced back to the players, many of whom have looked listless and disinterested for games at a time. The rest of the blame, however — and it is a considerable amount — needs to be laid at the feet of Joel Quenneville, whose nonsensical line combinations have been as big a contributor to Chicago’s offensive struggles as anything else.

Quenneville has staunchly refused to try Brad Richards at second-line center, the role that Stan Bowman signed him to play. Instead, Andrew Shaw — who has been dreadful at both ends of the ice this season — has been regularly receiving top-six minutes at center. Richards has improved mightily after a difficult first few games of the year (and Shaw’s game has stayed in the dumps), but Quenneville has stubbornly declined to change anything. As Shaw continues dragging down the play of the second line, the Blackhawks continue coming up lame on offense.

The issue of Brandon Saad, who Quenneville has slotted on the fourth line for the past several games, is equally egregious. There’s no question that the winger hasn’t started well this season, but it seems absurd to slash the ice time of one of Chicago’s most explosive players just as the team is mired in its worst offensive slump of the last several years. Saad isn’t going to play his way out of a bad stretch by starting 80% of his shifts in the defensive zone and playing a checking game alongside Marcus Kruger. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

Bad decisions by Quenneville have been myriad. His unwillingness to play Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane together is baffling, and his choices of who to punish and not punish for bad turnovers appear entirely arbitrary. Blackhawks players haven’t performed up to par in 2014-15, but the team’s head coach has been even worse.

Sean Sarcu is a Chicago Blackhawks writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter or add him to your network on Google.

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