The Nordiques who hit town Thursday night bear no resemblance the Quebec clubs that failed to make the playoffs the last five years. This group could go far.
“They have so much talent up front it’s scary,” Hawks coach Darryl Sutter said. “And they still have Peter Forsberg coming sometime in the future. They say he’s going to be a real impact player.”
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Forsberg, a Swede, was one of five players acquired in last June’s trade of Eric Lindros to Philadelphia.
Quebec has scored 25 percent of the time on its power play, a far cry from the Hawks’ 18th-ranked percentage of 17.3.
Give ’em five: Sutter would like his power play to feature “threats at all five spots. That way teams can’t overload.”
He pointed to the years when defenseman Doug Wilson and center Denis Savard were the main power-play performers. “Teams figured it out and took them out of it and left it for the other three,” he said. “Now they’re overloading on Chris Chelios at the point.”
Survey says: The Hawks will begin distributing surveys to their fans at Sunday’s matinee against Ottawa. The team is trying to learn how it can better serve fans and is asking for responses to everything from a earlier starting times to whether parking-lot attendants are courteous.
Doubling up: The Hawks Alumni Association’s scholarship program has been so successful that the organization is going to begin giving two aid packages this year to college-bound students from the Chicago area. The announcements will come Monday at the annual scholarship luncheon in Oak Brook.