Andrew Shaw returns to practice
By Cory Buck
Andrew Shaw returned to practice with the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time since he suffered a leg injury in Game 1 against the Minnesota Wild. With the Hawks up 1-0 in their Conference Finals series against the Los Angeles Kings, Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Head Coach Joel Quenneville appears to be in no hurry to put Shaw back in the lineup for Game 2.
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“We’ll see on that,” Quenneville said. “I thought he was OK today. First time with the group there, hadn’t skated in a while. We’re not sure yet on [Game 2].”
This is what happens when you’re the defending Cup champion and you still look like the best team in the NHL.
Andrew Shaw is a hard working, responsible agitator who drives play on both sides of the puck. In other words, he’s a natural fit in the NHL playoffs. But a team as deep and stacked all around as Chicago can afford to wait until Shaw’s 100% to put him back on the roster.
Given that Chicago and LA don’t play Game 3 until Saturday, it would be very Quenneville-ian to hold off playing Shaw for one more game, then unleash him in LA, when the Hawks will need an energy boost against a Kings team playing its first home game of this rematch of last year’s Conference Final.
That would be a case not only of a coach using a player at his best, but a player’s best being exactly what the defending champs need. And that’s why the Chicago Blackhawks are really good.