Blackhawks' power play starts to pick it up again

SUNRISE, Fla. - After a little bit of a lull, the Blackhawks' power play appears to be coming to life again at a most important time of the season.

The Hawks had 2 power-play goals in Tuesday's 5-3 win at Tampa Bay and are 8-for-31 over the last eight games.

"I think it's been good," Brian Campbell said. "Some games we don't score, but we're getting chances so there's positive energy that's feeding off it. We still have to bear down a bit more, and we did that (Tuesday)."

Patrick Kane's power-play goal at Tampa Bay was his 10th of the season. With Kane's ankle almost back at 100 percent, he is looking dangerous again on the power play as a scorer and setup guy.

"It's nice to see our power play go," coach Joel Quenneville said. "If we can get that going we're going to be good down the stretch."

Injury report: The Hawks placed Patrick Sharp and Nikolai Khabibulin on injured reserve Wednesday.

Neither player went on long-term IR, meaning it's only a minimum of a seven-day stay. In Khabibulin's case, he could play this weekend if need be.

Putting Sharp and Khabibulin on IR opens two roster spots in case the Hawks need to recall a player such as Pascal Pelletier from Rockford. The problem is, they are only about $1 million under the salary cap.

Looking good: Florida Panthers coach Peter DeBoer came away impressed after watching tape of the Hawks on Wednesday.

"That's a very explosive team," DeBoer said. "They have two of the best young players, I believe, in the league in (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane, and an unbelievable skating defense. They're just a real dangerous offensive team that can hurt you in a lot of different ways."

Tip-ins: Former coach Denis Savard will serve as studio analyst for Comcast SportsNet on Sunday, working the pregame and postgame shows when the Hawks meet Minnesota at the United Center. - Steve Konroyd will work as analyst during the telecast with Eddie Olczyk away doing the NBC national game. - The 49 shots the Hawks got at Tampa Bay were the most ever allowed by the Lightning. - Cristobal Huet makes his fourth straight start in goal tonight against the Panthers.