Shaw brings his unique brand of excitement to Hawks

It was Andrew Shaw’s night Wednesday.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Blackhawks winger seemed to be everywhere, mixing it up with Boston’s 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara in front of the net, setting up Dave Bolland’s clutch goal in the third period, then scoring himself on a double deflection off his shin pad in triple overtime for the 4-3 victory over the Bruins that ended the third-longest game in franchise history.

Shaw then capped his special night by swearing on national TV in a postgame interview that already has gone viral.

“Slip of the tongue,” Shaw said. “I couldn’t think at all, actually. Could barely breathe. I think I made up a word in there, too. I was never good in English.”

The hockey world is finding out what the Hawks and their fans have known since last season — that Shaw is a beauty.

“He’s a handful in the dressing room, too,” teammate Brent Seabrook said. “Yeah, he’s a high-energy guy. He likes to have fun, get guys going, jumping around the room, bouncing around. Yeah, he’s pretty much the same he is on the ice, just without skates on.

“He brings excitement to the dressing room and is big for us.”

Patrick Kane sits next to Shaw in the dressing room and has stories he can tell about his teammate’s antics.

“There are times where I almost got to tell him to shut up because he just asks questions and doesn’t stop talking when you’re next to him there in between periods,” Kane said.

Shaw is having the time of his life — and it shows.

“He’s really excited to be here,” Kane said. “He’s a kid that I think he got passed over twice in two drafts. We picked him up in the fifth round. He came in the next year and played. That speaks to his character, how he can put all that behind him and come in and play in the NHL right away and really be a factor.

“He does a lot of good things for us, whether it’s hits, being an agitator, even scoring goals. He probably scores more goals off his shin pads than he does his sticks. I’m sure he’ll take them, and we will, any way we can get them.”

Seabrook and Kane have both scored big goals in these playoffs, but Wednesday was a first for Shaw, getting the winner in triple overtime in a Stanley Cup Final game.

“It’s definitely exciting to score a big goal like that, being able to score that at home,” said Seabrook, who ended the Detroit series with an overtime goal in Game 7. “You love scoring goals, and there’s no bigger goal than that. I think Shaw is feeling pretty good today, probably had a pretty tough night trying to fall asleep. I thought it was big for him and big for our team, obviously.”

Kane had a hat trick in Game 5 against the Kings in the Western Conference finals, the third coming in double overtime.

“I’m sure he’s going through his text messages, responding today,” Kane said. “But for sure, you know, after Game 5 in L.A., I think you find it tough to sleep and you’re riding high on adrenaline, especially after scoring an overtime winner.

“It was a huge goal. I’m sure he’s very excited about it, and we are as a team, too. It’s definitely enjoyable.”

It wasn’t so much for the Bruins, whose coach was asked about Shaw.

“I don’t think we do our game planning around Mr. Shaw,” said Boston coach Claude Julien. “Our game plan is against the Chicago Blackhawks. We know he’s an agitator. We know he’s good at embellishing, too, at times. We know all that stuff. We’ve done our research.”

Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith just smiled when asked about Shaw.

“He’s a battler out there and we’re glad to have him on our side,” Keith said.