Led by Kane, Blackhawks' offense has come alive
Looking around the NHL one month into the season, it would be difficult to find a more entertaining team than the Blackhawks.
Led by super sophomore Patrick Kane, the Hawks are 7-3-3 and have scored 48 goals in those 13 games. The San Jose Sharks came out of the weekend with a Western Conference-leading 54 goals, but they have played three more games than the Hawks.
With 15 points, Kane was fifth in the league in scoring heading into Monday's games, flashing the kind of offensive brilliance that hasn't been seen wearing the Indian head since Jeremy Roenick was in his prime putting up 50-goal, 100-point seasons.
"He's a special player with the puck," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "His recognition of the plays and his options are as good as there is in the game.
"I think he sees all his options and he sees dangerous plays and he can thread the needle. It's been fun to watch him. He's just been effective in a lot of ways."
But it hasn't been just Kane. The Hawks are getting offensive contributions from everywhere.
In addition to Kane's 15 points, Patrick Sharp is among the league leaders with 9 goals, rookie winger Kris Versteeg has 3 goals and 12 points, and veteran Martin Havlat is playing his best hockey in three seasons as a Hawk with 5 goals and 14 points.
Havlat played less than 14 minutes in Sunday's 6-1 victory over Calgary, but he was one of the best players on the ice in his 20 shifts with a goal and 2 assists.
"With everyone getting on the scoresheet there's a real confidence in here," Kane said. "I think the way everything is going right now, we've just got to keep going, keep feeling good and confident."
The Hawks have three more home games this week, and it's not crazy to think they could take a 10-3-3 record out on the road for their six-game circus trip.
"I don't like to look that far ahead," Quenneville said.
Jonathan Toews getting his first goal in the win over the Flames should be even more good news for the Hawks' offense going into games this week against Boston, St. Louis and San Jose. Toews had gone 12 frustrating games without a goal before beating Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff in the third period.
"It's good for the whole team," Kane said. "Now that we got that out of the way we can just go play."
The Hawks got 2 more power-play goals against the Flames, giving them 6 in the last four games, all victories.
The power play, which moved up to fourth in the NHL rankings Monday, is 12-for-40 in the nine games since Quenneville took over as coach and tweaked it by mandating that more pucks and bodies go to the net.
The power play was 1-for-19 before Quenneville arrived.
The penalty-killers were 8-for-8 against Calgary and ranked second in the league Monday behind only Minnesota with a 90.6 percent kill rate.
"Our penalty-killing has been awesome," Toews said. "It gives us a lot of confidence."