Ruutu could benefit from playing on kid line

Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon has made it clear to Tuomo Ruutu that he wants the winger to focus on being a skill player this season.

So what better way to bring the offense out of Ruutu than for coach Denis Savard to play him on a line with highly skilled teenage rookies Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane?

"I'll just keep my blade on the ice and get my name in the newspaper," Ruutu said jokingly.

"I think it's a great line," Savard said. "I think they're going to have some nice chemistry together. Kane has great vision and great skill. Toews and Ruuty, they do both of everything -- they can bang and crash, they can go to the net, they can make plays. I just think it's going to be a good line for us for a long time.

"It might take time for them to jell, but maybe not. Hopefully they jell real quick and we can keep them together."

The line made its debut Wednesday against San Jose, with Toews returning from a broken finger suffered in the second preseason game.

Toews made an immediate impact, scoring his first NHL goal at 13:43 of the first period when he busted in on Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov and roofed one under the crossbar.

"He's got lots of passion," Savard said of the 19-year-old Toews. "He wants to play, wants to win, wants to do well, just like a lot of our young guys."

Paying the price: Hawks fans never will forget how Jeremy Roenick sacrificed his body for the first eight years of his career.

Roenick admitted the physical play finally caught up with him several years back.

"Probably after my second and third years in Philadelphia (2003-04) it started to get a little tiring," Roenick said. "Then after the lockout and taking a year off, it wasn't an easy thing to come back."

As hard as it is to believe, Roenick turns 38 in January.

"I'm not that old, but I am old in a sense of how I played the game and what I put my body through for so many years," Roenick said.

"In that aspect I am old, but if you see me play and skate, I still do a lot of good things out there and make a lot of good plays. My speed is still up there with a lot of the young kids."

Tip ins: Former Hawks head coach Trent Yawney watched Wednesday's game as a scout for the Anaheim Ducks. … With his groin still not 100 percent, defenseman Andrei Zyuzin sat out again. … Winger David Koci and defenseman Danny Richmond were healthy scratches. … Denis Savard said backup goalie Patrick Lalime would start one of the weekend games, either Friday at Detroit or Saturday back home against Dallas.