Shaw's return a hit
Hawks captain Jonathan Toews, along with the rest of his teammates, couldn't wait to see Andrew Shaw back in the lineup Saturday night.
"He's got a lot of energy. He brings that physicality. He gets under player's skin. He can score big goals," Toews said. "We're looking for all those things, even though he's missed quite a bit of time."
Shaw delivered on the energy and pysicality for sure in Game 3, registering a postseason-high 6 hits in the Hawks' 4-3 loss to the Kings.
"That's pretty much the game we expect from him," Toews said.
They also know they might have to rein in the energy of the young forward early on in his return.
"I think that's part of it; we want to play determined, we want to play ticked off, considering how we played in (Game 2)," the captain said. "At the same time you've got to try to contain that emotion and not let it be a detriment or kind of, you know, take you back in any way.
"Shaw is one of those guys that's got to be controlled. We want to stay out of the box. At the same time there's a lot of things guys like him can do to give us that energy."
An omen ... or not:
Can teams tell by their morning skate how well they'll play in that evening's game?
Sort of.
"Teams know. You just know. You sense before the game, before warmup you can feel the energy in the room," Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell said. "If you look at it, in Game 1 you saw most of that from us and in Game 2 you saw most of that from Chicago.
"The game has a funny way of working out sometimes. The game you should win, you think, you lose, and the game maybe you shouldn't have, you find the way to win."
Bad numbers:
Dating back to 2010, the Blackhawks have now lost the road opener in their last 10 playoff series. ... The Kings outshot the Hawks 18-7 in the third period.
He said it:
"He's been all right. Goal-scorers, when they don't score, sometimes can press a little bit. In the playoffs certain guys get nullified. The top guys get a lot more attention than other guys. You have to fight through it, make a contribution as best you can."
- Joel Quenneville on Patrick Sharp