Righty- lefty switch has been OK with D- man Murphy
PITTSBURGH — Defenseman Connor Murphy called his mom before the game Wednesday against the Rangers, as he often does, just to say hi. It quickly turned into a coaching session.
“She was telling me to stop drifting over to the right side,” Murphy said with a laugh. “And my mom, nothing against her, but she doesn’t know a lot about hockey. It’s pretty funny that she noticed that. So I guess I was drifting a little bit.”
Occasional muscle- memory relapses aside, Murphy has adapted well to playing the left side for the first time in his career. The game Saturday against the Penguins was his fifth consecutive game on his off side, and he’s coming off one of his best games, playing a season- high 17 minutes, 35 seconds alongside Brent Seabrook in the 6- 3 victory against the Rangers.
A sudden glut of capable right- handed shots, thanks to the emergence of Jan Rutta and Cody Franson, prompted coach Joel Quenneville to give Murphy a try on the left. And while Murphy was skeptical at first, he has been pleasantly surprised.
“It hasn’t been as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Murphy said. “It’s not as awkward as I thought. You just get in the flow of it. You carry over a lot of the same concepts of defending your position on the right side, and sometimes it ends up feeling a little easier to defend in certain ways. It’s still defending, and it’s still just playing hockey.”
Winging it
Nick Schmaltz still considers himself a natural center. Quenneville still projects Schmaltz as a center. But a move back to the wing has done wonders for the second- year pro, who had five assists in the Hawks’ last two games.
Freeing Schmaltz from the de- fensive responsibilities of playing in the middle has allowed him to use his speed to generate scoring chances again.
“Maybe [ I have] just a little more energy off the rush or not as much energy spent in the defensive zone,” Schmaltz said. “So I’m able to stretch the zone out, whether I’m getting a pass out of the zone with speed and I’m able to turn it up or make plays off the rush. I don’t know; it’s just a different look.”
Of course, the last time the Hawks played the Penguins, on opening night, Schmaltz had maybe the best game of his career, with two goals and an assist while centering Ryan Hartman and Patrick Kane. But while Schmaltz remains the Hawks’ second- line center of the future, he’s happy to play alongside Artem Anisimov, the Hawks’ second- line center of the moment.
“He looks like he has the puck more [ on the wing],” Quenneville said. “The speed is the thing that has been noticeable the last couple of games, how much he has had the puck. Maybe his job defensively is passed over to [ Anisimov] a bit more, but at the same time, we still have the luxury of having him in the middle in the course of games, and in the future, as well.”
Classic official
The league officially announced that the Hawks will play the Bruins in the 2019 Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium, as expected. This will be the Hawks’ fourth Winter Classic and sixth outdoor game. Eight teams have never played outdoors, and 10 more have only played once. The Hawks are 1- 4- 0 in outdoor games.
Keith watch
Duncan Keith, who missed the last two practices and the morning skate Wednesday while battling “a bug,” according to Quenneville, was back on the ice Saturday.
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