Mission accomplished for Hawks as preseason ends with 4-3 win

Now it's for real.

The Blackhawks got mostly what they wanted out of the preseason, which ended Sunday night with a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues at the United Center.

"I thought we found out about some of our guys and we like some of our kids that we feel can help us as we progress here," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said after closing the preseason with a record of 3-4. "I still think we've got some work to do in our team game and exactly our line combinations as well, but I think everyone is excited about playing for keeps this week."

The Hawks scored 3 more power-play goals, giving them 5 in the last two games, and saw 19-year-old defenseman Nick Leddy solidify his spot in the top six with a good 19-minute effort.

"I thought Leddy continued to have another big game for us," Quenneville said. "He looked good back there again and played his off side a little bit there (with Niklas Hjalmarsson). Again he seemed to have the puck a lot, he had a nice gap, we liked his instincts and how he moved."

Quenneville thought 19-year-old rookie winger Jeremy Morin was just OK. Morin was minus-1 in 13 minutes but did assist on Marian Hossa's power-play goal.

With injured winger Jack Skille likely to play in Thursday's opener at Colorado there could be one more cut to come at forward, possibly between Morin and Ryan Potulny.

"We'll see what happened," Morin said. "I think after this I've matured and grown as a player."

Potulny was a healthy scratch for the second straight game putting his place on the opening night roster in question. Quenneville sidestepped a question about Potulny's chances to stick.

Tomas Kopecky finished a strong preseason with his second power-play goal in as many games.

Quenneville is giving Kopecky some big-time responsibility heading into the games that count, playing him on the top line with Jonathan Toews and Hossa and using him in front of the net on the power play with the first unit.

"I thought the way he trended all last year, I thought he progressed," Quenneville said. "I thought he had an ordinary to slow start, but approaching the playoffs and coming out of the Olympics with a big Olympics, he continued that trend and had a good playoffs for us.

"This year he's been really good in training camp and that line has been very dangerous. That whole line looks like they're excited to play together."

With Dustin Byfuglien gone to Atlanta, Kopecky appears to have inherited the job of pestering the goalies in front. He finished with 2 goals and 2 assists in five preseason games.

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