CHICAGO — Dave Bolland has turned into a real bother for the Sharks.
The pesky Blackhawks center has been making it difficult for San Jose’s top line, helping Chicago to a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference finals matchup with Game 3 tonight. Star center Joe Thornton slashed Bolland in frustration before a faceoff in Game 2 and the two got tangled up earlier in the game.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is expected to match the line of Bolland, Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd against Thornton’s line, which has included Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley.
Whatever Quenneville and the Blackhawks are doing is working: San Jose, the top seed in the West, has only three goals in the series.
Coach Todd McLellan acknowledged Thursday he might do some mixing and shifting of his own to try and get the Sharks’ offense untracked. It could still come down to finding a way to solve Chicago’s checking line led by Bolland.
“Joel is very good at it. He has a ton of trust and belief in the Bolland line,” McLellan said. “But the simple fact is, if our big line ends up on the ice against those three, they have to find a way to outplay them.”
