Hawks' Kane to make his debut at home

Jonathan Toews will make his debut tonight at Columbus in the Blackhawks' preseason opener, but fellow rookie Patrick Kane will not.

The Hawks want the 18-year-old Kane to play his first game in the friendly environment of the United Center on Wednesday against the Blue Jackets.

"We'd rather play him at home," general manager Dale Tallon said. "We've got five games in six nights, so they're all going to play."

Veterans Martin Havlat, Robert Lang, Sergei Samsonov, Yanic Perreault, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Nikolai Khabibulin also won't be in tonight's lineup.

The first few exhibition games will be important for coach Denis Savard, Tallon and the rest of the front office staff to look at those rookies that have impressed in the last three days of training camp scrimmages.

"There's a lot of competition for jobs and that's what it's all about," Tallon said. "We've got some tough decisions to make."

While Toews and Kane have been head and shoulders the best rookies in scrimmages, others have played well. Tallon singled out forwards Jack Skille, Troy Brouwer, Kris Versteeg, David Koci and Petri Kontiola and defensemen Magnus Johansson and Cam Barker as making good impressions.

Tallon also likes what he has seen from veteran defensemen Brent Seabrook and Andrei Zyuzin.

"Zyuzin has been solid and Seabrook has looked like a real leader," Tallon said.

Versatility counts: Danny Richmond, a defenseman played left wing during Monday's scrimmage, a position he has seen before.

"He's going to have to be a swing man, playing both positions," Dale Tallon said. "Same thing with (David) Koci."

Tallon said there "definitely" is room on the roster for an enforcer-type player such as Koci, who racked up 223 penalty minutes in 44 games at Norfolk last season and 88 minutes in just nine games with the Hawks.

Tip-in: Denis Savard won't concern himself too much with wins in the preseason.

"I'm not so concerned about the results of the games in the exhibitions," Savard said. "I know the bottom line here at the end of the day is that wins are important, but we're changing a lot of stuff here and I want us to be really sharp in game one (Oct. 4 at Minnesota)."