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BOSTON -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Viktor Stalberg will play in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins on Monday after being a healthy scratch for the first two games of the series, coach Joel Quenneville said.

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BOSTON -- Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Sunday forward Viktor Stalberg could return to the team’s lineup for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins after being a healthy scratch in the series’ first two games.

Stalberg, who is known for his speed and offensive game, was replaced by forward Brandon Bollig in the series’ first two games. Quenneville said prior to Game 1 he wanted to utilize Bollig’s physical play against the Bruins.

Stalberg has zero goals, three assists and a minus-one rating in 15 playoff games this season. He had nine goals and 14 assists in the regular season.

“He could play [in Game 3],” Quenneville said of Stalberg at TD Garden on Sunday.

Bollig played on the fourth line and had 25 shifts and 14:24 of ice time in Game 1 of the finals. He had three shots on goal, nine hits and a zero plus/minus rating in the Blackhawks’ 4-3 triple-overtime win. In Game 2 on Saturday, Bollig played 14 shifts and logged 8:42 of ice time. He had zero shots on goal, zero hits, two giveaways and a minus-one rating.

On the Bruins’ game-winning goal in Game 2, Bollig was unable to corral a pass from teammate Brent Seabrook along the boards, and the Bruins retrieved the puck and scored moments later.

Quenneville spoke positively of Bollig after Game 2.

“I thought he was fine,” Quenneville said on Saturday. “I thought he had two good games. That [fourth] line, didn't get them out there much in overtime. Every time they were out there, they were a threat to score. Had a lot of offensive zone time. They got the one shift, around the wall, we didn't get there in time. Bang, bang.”

Quenneville also benched Stalberg for two games against the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference semifinals. Daniel Carcillo replaced Stalberg in the two games against the Red Wings. Stalberg returned for Game 3 against the Red Wings and played 10 consecutive games leading up to the Stanley Cup finals.

Stalberg’s playing time in the playoffs has often been less than what he was given in the regular season. He averaged 14:07 of ice time in 47 regular-season games and has played more than 12 minutes just twice in the playoffs. He has played less than 10 minutes in seven of those games.

“I don't know what to do," Stalberg said prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. "You can't get too down, too upset or too frustrated about it. There's two weeks left in the year. We're going to try to win it. It's simple as that. If I'm playing, I'm playing. If I'm not, I'm not. I can't do much about that right now. When I was playing, it felt like I wasn't playing at times when [there's] so little ice time. It is what it is. Obviously, it's frustrating. At the end of the day, it's two more weeks and hopefully [we] have a Cup here. That's all that matters.”

Although he appeared in just 19 regular-season games this year and none so far in the postseason, it might be time for Chicago Blackhawks forward Jamal Mayers to make his playoff debut in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins on Monday.

Conventional thinking in the aftermath of the Hawks' 2-1 loss in Game 2 was that Viktor Stalberg might return to the lineup in place of fourth-liner Brandon Bollig.

Bollig wasn’t able to corral a pass from Brent Seabrook in overtime Saturday, and the Bruins pounced for the winning goal in the ensuing sequence. While Bollig wasn’t around to talk about it after the game, his confidence must have taken a hit, though coach Joel Quenneville’s assessment that it was a bang-bang play was spot on.

No one should be beating Bollig up over it, but it would be understandable if he was a little gun-shy the next time he takes the ice -- so maybe he shouldn’t.

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CHICAGO -- The talk is bound to start up again.

Should Chicago Blackhawks brawny forward Brandon Bollig be playing in the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins instead of speedy -- and more experienced -- winger Viktor Stalberg?

After being unable to handle a pass around the boards in overtime, which led to the winning goal by Daniel Paille in Game 2, Bollig is a candidate to sit out Monday's Game 3. Though coach Joel Quenneville didn't indicate anything of the sort after the game Saturday.

"I thought he was fine," he said. "I thought he had two good games. That line, didn't get them out there much in overtime. Every time they were out there, they were a threat to score. Had a lot of offensive zone time. They got the one shift, around the wall, we didn't get there in time. Bang, bang."

Quenneville isn't wrong about any of that. The fourth line has been decent, but that mostly has been because of Michael Frolik and Marcus Kruger. And the pass around the boards was a "bang, bang" play, but would a more skillful winger have grabbed it? No one can know the answer, but Quenneville likes to make changes after a loss. And with just one goal on the board in Game 2, he might make the same move he made in Game 3 against Detroit: play Stalberg.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Thursday he was pleased with forward Brandon Bollig's play in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals after not playing in the previous 14 playoff games.

Bollig replaced forward Viktor Stalberg in the Blackhawks' lineup on Wednesday. Bollig hadn't played since Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals on May 5.

Bollig played 25 shifts and 14:24 in the Blackhawks' triple-overtime 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 1 on Wednesday. He tied Andrew Shaw for a team-high nine hits. Bollig also had three shots on goal and a 0-plus/minus rating.

"I thought he had a real strong game for us," Quenneville said of Bollig. "I liked what he brought to the team. I thought defensively responsible. I thought he ended up in the offensive zone a lot. Defensively, you're comfortable with him. I thought he was physical. I thought he had a purpose behind his game. He brought what we were looking for."

Quenneville said prior to Game 1 he was replacing Stalberg with Bollig because the 6-foot-2, 223-pound Bollig provided the team with a more physical player against the Bruins. Bollig played in 25 regular-season games, averaged 8:01 of ice time, had a minus-1 rating and had 41 hits.

Bollig played on the fourth line with Marcus Kruger and Michal Frolik on Wednesday. Dave Bolland, who was on the fourth line previously, was moved to the third line and assisted on the winning goal.

Stalberg, who was a healthy scratch on Wednesday, was also benched for the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals against the Detroit Red Wings. He has three assists in 15 playoff games.

Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville confirmed Wednesday that Brandon Bollig will replace Viktor Stalberg for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins.

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If you were playing amateur coach leading up to the Stanley Cup finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins you may have to start over. That's what it sure seems like Hawks coach Joel Quenneville did leading up to Game 1 on Wednesday.

Quenneville broke up all four of his lines that just completed a five-game series win over the Los Angeles Kings. And it looks like forward Viktor Stalberg is headed back to the bench with bulky winger Brandon Bollig returning to the lineup. The moves center around three aspects -- a newly increased role for Dave Bolland, the Bruins' propensity to run over the opposition as much as go around them and keeping all-world Bruins’ defenseman Zdeno Chara away from either Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews.

“It might be one of the reasons,” Quenneville said after Tuesday's practice about the latter issue.

Coaches don’t like to tip their hand regarding their playoff strategy so Quenneville wasn’t saying much more than that. Bruins coach Claude Julien will have to pick who Chara defends. Kane lined up with Michal Handzus and Bryan Bickell on Tuesday while Toews was between Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp. Mixing and matching the top two lines doesn’t come as a surprise as Quenneville has done it throughout the playoffs.

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Chicago Blackhawks forward Viktor Stalberg might be headed back to the bench for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals against the Boston Bruins, coach Joel Quenneville said Tuesday.

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LOS ANGELES -- Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson had no interest Wednesday in recounting the experience of blocking a shot with his knee and basically fighting through a penalty kill shift on one leg during Game 3 of the Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Kings.

"I don't really want to talk about that," Hjalmarsson said after participating in Wednesday's practice at Staples Center. "Do you guys have any questions about the game or something like that? I don't want to talk about getting shot."

Hjalmarsson wouldn't go there, but his teammates and coach were more than willing to do so. They praised Hjalmarsson for his toughness.

The Blackhawks were on a power play in the opening minutes of the third period when Hjalmarsson blocked a hard shot from the Kings' Slava Voynov with the inside of his left knee. He dropped immediately to the ice and remained face-first on the ice for nearly 10 seconds. With the play still going on, he cringed and struggled to get back to his feet.

Despite barely being able to stand and slowly hopping around on one leg near the bottom of the left circle, Hjalmarsson continue to try to help his unit. When the Kings' Jeff Carter moved the puck into the left circle and went to shoot, Hjalmarsson dove feet-first in an attempt to block it.

Again laying on the ice, Hjalmarsson pushed himself back onto his feet. He finally skated hunched over to the bench while attempting to put zero pressure on his left foot after the Blackhawks cleared the puck out of their defensive zone nearly 40 seconds from when he initially got hit.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville described Hjalmarsson as a warrior after Tuesday's game and expanded on his thoughts on Wednesday.

"He laid there for a while," Quenneville said. "I was waiting for a whistle. Then he got up, tried to block another shot. I've seen Hammer take a lot of blows. It's tough to knock him down. Definitely a relief to see him get up. Knowing he's fine, we're happy to have him back."

Hjalmarsson left the game at 2:49 of the third period and was out for nearly 10 minutes. He returned to the ice at 12:37.

Blackhawks forward Viktor Stalberg was amazed to see Hjalmarsson back on the ice a day later.

"He's a tough guy back there," Stalberg said. "He's not going to make it look like it is worse than it is, that's for sure. When he's down, you know it is going to be pretty painful. When he came to the bench, I was sitting next to him for a while, but I didn't want to say anything because it looked like he was in a lot of pain for a while. It seemed to go over after a while, and I thought he looked pretty good out there today.

"Certainly, last night I was surprised to see him back out there, but it was great to see that. The guys kind of feed off that as well when you see guys battle like that. He said last night that it felt better than he thought after the game, so I wasn't too surprised to see him out there today."

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks weren’t the league’s best regular-season team simply for one or two reasons.

It wasn’t their stars or their goaltenders who carried them every game. While Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane played well enough in the regular season to draw consideration for the Hart Memorial Trophy, and goaltenders Corey Crawford and Ray Emery combined to win the Jennings Trophy, they were far from being the sole reasons for the Blackhawks rolling off points in their first 24 games and eventually capturing the Presidents’ Trophy.

The Blackhawks were better than everyone else in the regular season because they got the most of their entire lineup. Players like Toews and Kane were key to that success, but lesser-known players like Michael Frolik and Marcus Kruger were just as important.

On Sunday, the Blackhawks showed just how dominant they can be when they’re clicking throughout their lineup. The Blackhawks received contributions from nearly everyone on Sunday on their way to a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 2 of their Western Conference finals series.

“When we’re rolling four lines hard with short shifts, I think we have a great hockey team and a great pace in our game,” Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell said. “And I think when we do that we have confidence. I know it wears down their D and their forwards, when we keep them short. It’s fun to be part of.”

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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks have a plan on how to beat Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick in the Western Conference finals.

Whether that plan will work is another story. For the past two seasons, six other teams have lined up a plan to get past Quick, and they all failed in the playoffs.

Quick went 16-4 with a 1.41 goals-against average, a .946 save percentage and three shutouts while helping the Kings to the Stanley Cup and earning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP last season. Now this season, he's 8-5 with a 1.50 goals-against average, a .948 save percentage and three shutouts in the playoffs.

"Well, he's had a special couple years in the playoffs," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Friday. "He's a different kind of goalie the way he moves so quick in the crease or even above it. Traffic is something we talked about. Pucks at the net, second opportunities are the ones you're going to beat them with."

The Blackhawks already faced a hot goalie in the playoffs when they went up against Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard in the conference semifinals. The Blackhawks struggled to figure Howard out during Games 2, 3 and 4, in which they scored a total of two goals.

But as the series progressed, the Blackhawks began taking more shots and getting more players to the net and ultimately put in more goals. They scored 10 goals over the series' final three games.

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CHICAGO -- As the Chicago Blackhawks prepare for a physical Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Kings, coach Joel Quenneville shuffled his lines during Friday's practice by putting hard-hitting Bryan Bickell alongside Marian Hossa and Michal Handzus on the first line.

"I think he's earned that opportunity, how he's played," Quenneville said. "Not just his production offensively, but physically, he's been engaged.

"He's got some speed. He's had a lot of puck time. When he did get the opportunity, he did an excellent job. Gives him a little bit more size and more presence."

The 6-4, 233-pound Bickell is excited for that opportunity.

"The hitting part of my game is to spark the team or give space for the players," Bickell said. "Finish your checks to grind down their defensemen or forwards. That's part of my game. I think it's going to be a physical series.

"We haven't had too much of that the first two series, but we're looking forward to the challenge. It should be fun, too."

The Blackhawks said they realize they're getting into a different kind of series than the one they just completed against the Detroit Red Wings or the first-round series against the Minnesota Wild.

The Kings have had 536 total hits and are averaging 41.2 hits a game through 13 playoff games. By comparison, the Red Wings had more than 30 hits twice in their seven-game series with the Blackhawks, and the Wild averaged 33 hits in their five-game series.

"It's almost like they're a better St. Louis Blues," Patrick Kane said. "They play physical, have players that can score. When they do play physical, it seems to work to their advantage.

"Against them, we'll try to worry about what we have to do. If we play our game, play the fast paced game we've been playing the past few games, it should work well for us. We're excited about doing that, especially after last series, finishing off three strong games."

Hossa also thought the key was sticking to their own game.

"They play a physical game," Hossa said. "We know that. We play a quick game. We know how we can beat them. We just have to attack their weakness."

Hawks forward Viktor Stalberg is expecting this series to leave a mark.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of blue arms and backs at the end of it," Stalberg said.

DETROIT -- The scenarios are clear-cut.

If the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Detroit Red Wings in Game 6 of their Western Conference Semifinal series on Monday, they force a Game 7 in Chicago. If the Detroit Red Wings win, they take the series and eliminate the Blackhawks.

What isn’t so definitive is which team is feeling any pressure entering Game 6. The Blackhawks said Monday the pressure is on the Red Wings, but the Red Wings said otherwise.

“We talk about it all the time,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said after Monday’s morning skate. “Do you want to be tight and tentative or do you want to be loose and driving? Which one sounds like fun to you? Let’s play. There are six teams left in hockey. Play, let’s have some fun. The better you play, the longer you get to play. If you don’t play good, you get to go home.”

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DETROIT -- Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville and his players believe an official made the wrong call of interference of the goaltender, disallowing a goal that would have tied the Detroit Red Wings in the third period of Game 3 in the Western Conference semifinal series Monday.

The Red Wings scored less than two minutes after the controversial call on Andrew Shaw and went ahead 3-1. The game ended in that score, and Red Wings took a 2-1 series lead.

“I disagreed with the call,” Quenneville said. “He didn’t touch the goalie. ... It certainly [changed the momentum of the game.] We’re 2-2, had everything going, some hits, offensive zone time. Obviously coming back from 2-0 that quick, we were in great shape.”

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Blackhawks forward Viktor Stalberg talks about his team's 3-1 loss to the Red Wings in Game 3.