Fiesty Morin shows Hawks he's tough enough to stay

Jeremy Morin is making the right kind of impression with his veteran Blackhawks teammates.

Even before Morin's noticeable contributions to Tuesday's 7-5 win over St. Louis, his teammates remembered the 19-year-old rookie's NHL debut Nov. 6 at Atlanta when he threw himself in front of slap shot from Johnny Oduya early in the third period of a 4-4 game the Hawks went on to win in a shootout.

Morin took Oduya's wicked blast off the back of his leg and couldn't finish the game after trying to skate one more shift.

Against the Blues, Morin made a big hit to set up a goal by Tomas Kopecky and later earned his first career point with an assist Troy Brouwer's power-play goal.

But is was the scrappy Morin's fight with Chris Porter in the third period that left his teammates smiling.

“He's done some crazy things so far when he's been in our lineup,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “Even before (Tuesday's game) we were all talking about that shot block he came up with in Atlanta there. I think everybody on the bench was in pain when we saw him take that puck in the back of the leg.”

Toews said he was surprised to see Morin drop the gloves with Porter in the third period, but he shouldn't have been. Morin and Porter had a history that dated back a few weeks to a brawl-filled game between Rockford and Peoria.

“It was pretty surprising to see him go after the guy that he did on their team, but it's fun to see that,” Toews said. “It gave our team a lot of energy.”

After his brief two-game stint with the Hawks early last month, Morin showed Tuesday he wants to stay longer this time. He was credited with 3 hits, the biggest coming right before Kopecky opened the scoring early in the first period.

“It shows he wants to be here and will do anything to stay,” Patrick Sharp said of Morin's night. “You've got to like the fire in him. He battles hard every shift and he's not afraid of anybody. We like that.”

It hasn't surprised Sharp that Morin is so willing to get his nose dirty.

“He's a tough kid,” Sharp said. “He battled like that all training camp so we knew he had it in him.”

Morin, one of the last cuts of camp, sported a stitched-up cut on the bridge of his nose after Tuesday's game from the fight with Porter.

“Just trying to show I can play on this level,” Morin said.

“I thought he had a real good game and I liked how he played,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought he influenced the first couple-three goals with his positioning and with his forechecking. I thought he played hard and was much better this game than his two earlier games. I thought he was a factor.”

Morin, acquired from Atlanta in the off-season trade for Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel and Ben Eager, drew upon those first two games last month to be better prepared Tuesday after he was recalled from Rockford because of the lower body injury to Marian Hossa.

“To get those first two games and get my feet wet a bit was beneficial for me,” Morin said. “It will be better the second time. The speed of the game is the biggest difference here. You have to be ready to go every shift.”