Quenneville has chalk talk about defense

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Going back to school provided Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville with the perfect venue to demonstrate to his players what they are doing wrong.

“We had a perfect theater for a nice session,” Quenneville said Thursday of the longer-than-normal film session at the University of Denver a day earlier.

The focus was positioning at both ends of the rink.

There are plenty of things to address, whether it’s not having a third player high in the offensive zone, a third caught down low in the defensive zone or how their defensemen react when opponents pinch their blue line.

“We probably let it slide a little when we were scoring many goals and weren’t looking to prevent them at a regular rate,” Quenneville said. “Especially on the road, we want to play tight, and we want to be responsible. An awareness of our positioning is what we’re talking about.”

Onwednesday, it was accompanied by more chalkboard instruction as the Hawks worked in the neutral zone with a variation of the 1-2-2 trap for their game against the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

“We did a little more instructional stuff, working to get out of this,” forward Patrick Sharp said. “You want to make it tough for the other team to skate 200 feet with the puck.”

After taking a back seat to Ray Emery the last two games, Corey Crawford will start in goal against the Sharks. Crawford’s last victory came Jan. 18 against the Buffalo Sabres.

“He played great in here last game [a 1-0 loss on Nov. 23],” Quenneville said. “He had a real strong game.”