Hearing a pair of young defensemen say they “take pride in defending hard” and “being reliable defensively” must be music to the ears of Jeremy Colliton.
But it strikes a much nicer chord when the play of those defensemen on the ice matches the words coming out of their mouths.
Those words came from Connor Murphy and Carl Dalhstrom, the Blackhawks most consistent defensive pairing of late.
“Him and Murphy have done a great job playing hard minutes against really good players,” said Colliton. “I view it as a huge positive - the progression they’ve shown.