Saad quickly finds comfort zone with Chicago
CHICAGO — Two years can pass in a heartbeat in the NHL, so when forward Brandon Saad returned to the Chicago Blackhawks in June after a two-season stint with the Blue Jackets, he felt like he didn’t need too long to regain his rhythm.
“It’s pretty similar,” Saad said Saturday, hours before the Blackhawks played the Blue Jackets at the United Center. “It was a quick turnaround, and I got pretty comfortable fairly quickly.”
He showed that comfort early in his first regular-season game back with the Blackhawks on Thursday, scoring three goals in a 10-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The 24-year-old Pittsburgh native became the first Chicago player to put together a hat trick in a season opener since Bobby Hull on Oct. 3, 1965.
“We had some looks in preseason, and last game obviously pucks were going in for us, so that feels good and you have an awareness for each other,” Saad said. “Players change, but I think with us it’s just getting pucks in deep and playing down low.”
Saad scored 55 goals and added 51 assists in just 160 regularseason games with the Blue Jackets before being traded to Chicago with goaltender Anton Forsberg and a 2018 fifth-round pick in exchange for forwards Artemi Panarin and Tyler Motte and a 2017 sixth-round pick.
But in that relatively short span, Saad experienced the low of an eight-game losing streak and coaching change to kick off the 2015-16 season and the high of a 16-game win streak last season that helped the Blue Jackets return to the playoffs.
Saad left Columbus in June feeling like he had helped build something with a young Blue Jackets team.
“I got a taste of it last year as well, and it was fun to be a part of it,” Saad said. “That’s just how the league works, I guess. You’re off to somewhere new. They still have a great team, and they should have an exciting year.”
Saad, who has kept in touch with a few of his former Blue Jackets teammates, said he didn’t watch the entirety of his old team’s 5-0 win over the Islanders on Friday, but he saw highlights of a game that included three assists from Panarin, his counterpart in the summer trade.
Based on early returns, there was plenty of excitement to go around for both teams involved in the summer trade heading into Saturday night’s game.
“Saader lights it up the other night (against Pittsburgh). (Chicago) got a good player there,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said Friday. “We’ve got a pretty good one here, too.”
In the books
Left wing Pierre-Luc Dubois couldn’t have drawn up his NHL debut much better.
The 19-year-old rookie logged a little more than 14 minutes of ice time Friday and became the fourth teenager to score in his Blue Jackets debut in his team’s 5-0 win over the Islanders at Nationwide Arena.
His environment wasn’t as friendly Saturday in Chicago and won’t be Tuesday at Carolina, but already having NHL goal No. 1 under his belt will help as he plays his first NHL road games.
“My first NHL game is (finished) — I don’t have the nervousness anymore,” Dubois said Saturday. “I’m just excited to go out and play.”