Hawks get win, miss wing
Snaps kid with victory against Columbus, but could use Saad
He tried Marko Dano up there, but his defense wasn’t quite up to snuff. He tried Teuvo Teravainen, but it just didn’t work out. He went with Andrew Shaw, but he’s more valuable on the right side in a shutdown role. He gave Ryan Garbutt and Viktor Tikhonov turns, but they each ended up a healthy scratch the next game. On Saturday night, he gave Bryan Bickell a chance, hoping to recapture the magic of the past.
But the guy coach Joel Quenneville really needs to plug the hole on the left side of the top line is Brandon Saad. And while he was at the United Center, he was dressed in the uniform of the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
Saad’s return during the Hawks’ 4-1 victory underscored just how much they miss him — and Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg — on the left side of the lineup.
Saad was the perfect linemate for Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, a skilled two-way power forward with Toews’ tenacity and Hossa’s muscle in the corners. The trade that sent him to Columbus netted a second-line center in Artem Anisimov and a highly regarded prospect in Dano, but it also left the Hawks’ lineup out of balance.
Anisimov scored the first goal by a Hawks forward in 179 minutes, 10 seconds to open the scoring late in the second period, and Teravainen banked a power-play goal off a Columbus skate 65 seconds later to give Corey Crawford (22 saves) all he needed in the win. But considering the Blue Jackets had given up 26 goals in their first five games — Hossa scored on a five- on-three and Patrick Kane added an empty-netter — it was hardly a breakout for the offense.
The Hawks entered the game with only one goal in their last two games, and Hossa’s was the first for him or Toews this season.
“You’re up there against top players on both sides of the puck,” Quenneville said of the top-line left-wing role. “They’re important shifts, so you have to have trust in that position.”
Saad has kept tabs on his old team but has plenty of problems of his own. With three goals and an assist through the first five games, he has done well. But the Blue Jackets stumbled into the game with an 0-5 record. Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said it’s hard for a newcomer such as Saad to instantly become a leader, but that his example could help his struggling teammates.
“He’s been really good for our team,” Richards said. “And, for me, it’s as simple as his body language at times. He’s attentive, he’s listening, and then he goes out on the ice and [you see] the way he plays. You can tell he has come from an environment that’s used to winning.”
Saad was excited to be back — and to pick up his Stanley Cup ring. He never expected to be traded, even as a restricted free agent, and even suggested he’d be open to giving the Hawks a hometown discount. But he said his agent and the Hawks never “really got that close” in terms of a new contract. After the trade, he signed a six-year, $36 million deal with the Blue Jackets.
“It’s my first time going through something like that — after having all that success, thinking one thing, then something else happens,” Saad said. “Definitely a lot of emotions, and it was a pretty hectic 48 hours. At the end of the day, it’s part of the business. But it’s good to be back.”
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