Bowman gives vote of confidence to embattled Hawks coach Joel Quenneville

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Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville yells to his players in the first period at the United Center Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, in Chicago. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times

Updated: March 15, 2012 8:14AM

Before coach Joel Quenneville addressed reporters Monday, the Blackhawks’ increasingly under-fire coach received an unsolicited vote of confidence from his boss.

Despite the Hawks being mired in their longest losing streak in five years and having plummeted from the league’s best record on Jan. 20 to 12th entering Monday, general manager Stan Bowman said Quenneville was “absolutely” the guy to take the team forward.

“I’m very confident in Joel’s ability [and] our coaching staff’s ability,” Bowman told Comcast SportsNet. “Our players — the effort is there. They’re as frustrated as anybody, you can watch it on the ice. It’s not working. There’s no disputing that, but I don’t buy that assertion [Quenneville’s message is lost] at all.”

But when it has been 24 days since your last ‘W’ and your team hasn’t won a game in its last 10 on the road, you’re going to take some heat. Quenneville acknowledged he was aware of the grumblings about his job security.

“When you lose eight in a row it get’s your attention,” Quenneville said. “Certainly, we’re all aware of our business and how things develop. We can only control what we can control. … It’s something that you don’t think about as you’re going along as a coach … but when you’re in a [certain] situation, it can be reality.”

Six coaches have already been canned this season. But Quenne-
ville remained upbeat he would not be unlucky No. 7.

“I’m confident in what I do and I look forward to the challenge of trying to instill [confidence in] our group to find a way to win,”
Quenneville said.

And several of Quenneville’s players took turns expressing confidence in him and were adamant it would be a mistake to fire the coach that guided many of them to the Stanley Cup just two seasons ago.

“The problem is probably the players,” Patrick Kane said. “I don’t think anyone in here questions [Quenne-ville’s] job or what he’s doing.”

Said Patrick Sharp: “We believe in him and I know that if something were to happen there would be a lot of unhappy people in the room right now as far as players putting that on themselves. We’re the guys out there on the ice that control the outcome of the game a lot of the times. There’s no doubts [about] Joel, that’s for sure.”

Defenseman Sean O’Donnell took special care to drive the point home.

“No one in the room is talking that way, it’s the media that’s talking that way” O’Donnell said. “I kept reading about us and Boston or the Rangers in the Cup final three weeks ago. Now it’s like, ‘Are they going to make the playoffs and are the coaches going to get fired and who are they going to trade?’

“It’s only been three weeks. We weren’t as good as people said we were three weeks ago and we’re not as bad as people say now. We’re not happy with the way things are now, but it’s not as bad as people are making out.”

NOTES: There was no change in the status of defensemen Niklas Hjalmarsson (concussion-like symptoms) and Steve Montador (upper body). Coach Joel Quenne-ville described Hjalmarsson as “day-to-day.” Montador remained on injured reserve.

◆ Quenneville had Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp on the top line in practice after he liked what he saw from the group in third period Saturday against Phoenix.

“We’ve played together in the past and had success,” Sharp said. “We’re looking for any kind of a spark offensively and hopefully the three of us can do that.”

◆ Duncan Keith took a maintenance day and did not practice Monday.

◆ Ray Emery will start in goal Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.