The Blackhawks` injury situation should improve by the time they play Saturday in Toronto and Sunday in Buffalo. Coach Mike Keenan said Monday he could have wingers Stephane Matteau (broken foot) and Dan Vincelette (knee ligaments) back in the lineup for these games.
Right wing Brian Noonan, who has 17 goals, could be available to play again in two weeks. Recovering from a knee ligament injury, he has started to skate again. Defenseman Keith Brown is expected to be the first injured Hawk to return to the lineup, but it`s uncertain when the veteran will be fully healed from an ankle sprain.
Quarterly report: Like the white-shirted businessman he is, Keenan stresses that the regular season be divided and judged in segments. That way, if the Hawks experience a poor quarter, they have the next 20 games of the 80-game schedule to show progress.
Keenan is promoting the fact that the Hawks were tied with New Jersey for the third-best record in the NHL in the just-completed third quarter. Their 10-6-4 mark gave them 24 points, more than everyone except the New York Rangers (12-5-3, 27 points) and the New York Islanders (12-7-1, 25 points).
Geronimo: For a minute, it appeared some Hawks had been drafted Monday into a military airborne division. There they were on Stadium ice skating with parachutes attached to their backs. The recently acquired Jeff Jackson and a few of the injured players were training with the chutes streaming behind them. By the strain on their faces, they were working hard. Keenan explained the resistance training was being used by several professional baseball and football teams.
Battling duo: Who will reach their Hawk landmark first, Jeremy Roenick or Mike Peluso? Roenick needs six more goals to become the third Hawk to score 50 in a season, a level reached by Bobby Hull and Al Secord. Peluso requires 16 more penalty minutes to eclipse Dave Manson`s club record of 352 in 1988-89.
No diplomat: By the sound of it, President Bush won`t be hiring Hawks senior vice-president Bob Pulford to negotiate any treaties with the new Commonwealth of Independent States. Pulford indicated Monday that his weekend talks with former Soviet officials about releasing defenseman Igor Kravchuk from his Red Army commitments aren`t going smoothly. ”I don`t know where we`re at,”
Pulford grumbled.