Kane extends streak to 23 in 4-1 Hawks win
Secondary scoring has eluded the Chicago Blackhawks all season, and coach Joel Quenneville has done everything imaginable to spark any line without the names of Kane, Anisimov or Panarin on it.
Well, don't look now but in the last two games - which included a 4-1 victory over Nashville on Tuesday night at the United Center - all of the Hawks' goals that have not been empty-netters came from players outside of the team's three-man wrecking crew.
In the win over the Predators, Dennis Rasmussen, Andrew Shaw and Teuvo Teravainen staked the Hawks to a 3-1 lead, then Patrick Kane extended his points streak to 23 games with 1:36 remaining by firing the puck into an empty net.
"Great game tonight by Shawzie and Raz's first (NHL) game to get a goal too - that's pretty special," Kane said. "Teravainen seems like he's heating up, too. We're getting some production from different places that we probably didn't see as much in the beginning of the season. That's good."
Kane, who notched his 600th point in his 604th NHL game, is just five games short of cracking the top 10 points streaks in NHL history. Against the Predators, he told linemates Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov to play their game and not worry about the streak.
"Today was business as usual," Quenneville said.
The other big storyline Tuesday was the outstanding play of Corey Crawford, who made 36 saves. Three came on breakaways in the first period and another with 13:11 to go in the second period on a point-blank chance by Calle Jarnkrok.
"He was great," Quenneville said. "He was spectacular. We gave up high quality tonight. We haven't given up that kind of quality all year."
Crawford has made 66 of 68 saves (.971 save percentage) in the team's last two games. He also has allowed 2 or fewer goals in five of his last six starts.
"We've come to expect it from Crow," Kane said. "He's a big part of our team, keeps us in a lot of games when we give up some things. Nothing we're not used to seeing, but great game by him."
Rasmussen scored 10:45 into the game, redirecting a Shaw shot to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. Shaw made it 2-0 on the power play at 5:34 of the second period, assisted by Teravainen and David Rundblad.
Teravainen's goal came 14 seconds into the third period to give the Hawks a 3-1 lead after Nashville had made it a 2-1 game with just 46 seconds left in the second.
The Hawks (15-9-4) jumped ahead of the wobbling Predators (14-9-5 and 3-6-2 last 11) in the jumbled Central Division standings. The two teams meet again Thursday in Nashville, then the Hawks will start a four-game homestand.
"We're going through a bit of a tough stretch right now," said Nashville defenseman Seth Jones. "It's not due to lack of effort, I think, or guys not giving it their all. It's just kind of the way it's going right now. … We have to find a way to stop it, stop the (backward) momentum."