Spellman: Blackhawks look out for each other

Shortly after Brent Seabrook took exception to Jim Slater's big hit on Patrick Kane by offering up a number of right-handed hits of his own in the direction of Slater's head - the second of two first-period fights in the Blackhawks' 4-2 loss to the Jets on Friday - Kane skated over to Seabrook to say thanks and ...

"I told him he didn't need to do that, though," Kane said. "It was a good hit by the guy and he caught me pretty good, but that just shows the camaraderie here."

And it also shows the Hawks, who are devoid an enforcer and don't play an overly physical game to begin with, nevertheless won't back down from anyone.

"That's huge for us," Andrew Shaw said of Seabrook's response. "It just shows that we're not going to get pushed around out there. We may not have an enforcer, but we do have guys who are willing to step up when needed."

For Kane, moments like those may hurt in the short term in the form of having to kill off a penalty, but are well worth the pain.

"I think it's a good team message even if you go down a man and take a two-minute penalty," he said. "It's a good penalty and more often than not you kill those penalties off."

Friday's game, in which the two teams combined for 59 hits, was physical from the get-go. And as has been the case of late, Hawks forward Bryan Bickell was a man on a mission early, dishing out 2 of his game-high 6 hits in the opening minutes.

After his second hit - coincidentally on Slater - Winnipeg's Anthony Peluso took offense and let Bickell have it to kick off a wild night at the United Center.

Pretty intense stuff for a mid-January game, but something Shaw expects to see a lot more of the rest of the way as the push for the playoffs heats up. And it's something the Hawks will be more than ready to tackle - as a team.

"You have to treat everyone in this room like they're your brother," Shaw said. "You've got their back because you know they're going to have yours.

"That's team toughness to me. You don't need an enforcer; it's more just sticking up for each other when the time is right."

And that's the way it is for a lot of teams in today's NHL.

"I think that we have guys that part of their job description is to make sure that you're hard to play against, and we want to make sure that we all bring a little bit of that to the table," coach Joel Quenneville said.

"But the game has changed. It's tough to have that role (of enforcer) in today's game. So I think by committee, that's basically how a majority of the teams are approaching that now."

Call it team toughness or enforcer-by-committee or whatever you will, but according to Kane, an occasional well-timed response like Seabrook's will pay off big-time down the road.

"Absolutely," he said. "If anything, it sends a message to the whole group that 'Hey, we have some guys that'll stick up for one another and we're not gonna get pushed around.' "

Follow Mike on Twitter @dhspellman