Saad, Regin get chance to strut their stuff

"Shooter" has been sidelined.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on Thursday made official what had been rumored for the past couple of days: Patrick Sharp will be sidelined "3 or 4 weeks" with a lower body injury after an apparent knee-to-knee collision with Alexei Emelin on Tuesday night in Montreal.

"You miss a guy like Sharpie, you miss some production, miss some consistency in a lot of areas," Quenneville said. "At the same time, it's a good opportunity for some guys that are looking and want more."

That would include guys like Brandon Saad, who skated in Sharp's spot on the second line at practice Thursday, and Peter Regin, who was called up from Rockford to fill the vacant roster spot.

"Certainly it affects the line combinations and we really liked the way things were going in the Montreal game," Quenneville said of Sharp's absence "Saader gets a chance to move up and Reegs gets a chance to get called up.

"More quality ice time for more guys."

And more guys realizing that with the extra ice time must come extra production as well.

"Most of us in here know it's another chance to step up and fill those minutes that are going to be missing," Patrick Kane said. "He's a big part of our offense.

"I don't think any one guy is going to come in and replace him and do what he does. So as a group we'll try to pick up the slack.'

Sharp, who led the Hawks in scoring last season with 78 points, was off to a solid start this season with 9 points in the first 13 games while averaging 18:30 of ice time.

"We can rely on different guys for offense, even guys that aren't relied upon consistently can step up," Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "We saw the other night; we had all the lines engaged in the offense. The power play has been creating a lot if we're not scoring, giving the team some energy.

"All those things need to get better when we lose a guy like Sharpie."

Regin returns to the big club from Rockford, where he shared the team lead with 10 points.

"He got off to a great start," Quenneville said. "He went down there with a good attitude. He's doing a lot of good things. He deserves it."

To clarify, Regin's attitude greatly improved a few days after he learned he was being sent to Rockford to start the season.

"It was a tough couple of days," Regin admitted. "It wasn't what I expected, but I knew there was that chance with the amount of bodies we had here.

"After the first couple of days I kind of got over the disappointment and started thinking what I could do to get myself back and try to focus on that."

And that would be focusing more on putting the biscuit in the basket.

"I had more of an offensive role down there," Regin said. "It was nice to see the puck go in. I think mentally that gives you some confidence that you can make plays at a higher level and that I can help this team out."

Follow Mike on Twitter @dhspellman.