Coaches Learn to Play the Hot Hand  In a lot of ways, it’s kind
of a relief for a coach to be down 4-1 in a game. It frees the
coach up to make riskier decisions, since the game is pretty
much gone anyway.  Last night, down 4-1 to the Flames,
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville rode his third and fourth line
to a tie, only to eventually lose the game. But I loved the
clarity of the move. A lot of coaches go to their big guns, more
out of faith than out of a rational analysis of how they’re
playing. But, as Quenneville showed, sometimes it makes more
sense to play whoever is playing well, no matter what the name
on the back of their jersey says.  Over in New York, coach John
Tortorella, who has a reputation for only rolling his big guns,
gave a lot of even-strength ice time to third- and fourth-liners
Blair Betts, Freddy Sjostrom, and Lauri Korpikoski in New York’s
win over the Caps. Of course, it’s easier for Tortorella, who
doesn’t really have a big gun to roll. But it’s not even like
Tortorella was only tryin