Center Denis Savard and defenseman Keith Brown should be returning to the Hawks` lineup this week.
Brown has been medically cleared to play after being out with a groin pull. It is up to him to tell the Hawks when he feels comfortable enough to skate at full strength.
”I skated again Monday and I should play Wednesday,” Brown said of coming back for the game against Minnesota.
Savard said he hopes to be back, at the latest, for the home-and-home games the Hawks have this weekend with Detroit. He has a bruised ankle.
– Adam Creighton was happy to get his second career hat trick Sunday against Montreal, but honest enough to say he doesn`t think he touched the puck on one of his goals.
He made reference to the first goal of the game, a Dave Manson slap shot that rebounded hard off the back boards and out to the side of the net.
”I thought it might have hit their defenseman and gone in,” Creighton said.
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But eagle-eyed Savard, who was watching from the press box, and others thought it appeared to deflect off Steve Larmer, who was playing despite a sore knee ligament.
If the puck did touch Larmer, that would have extended his scoring streak to 14 games. Instead, his streak ended at 13.
– Who was the last Hawk coach to be thrown out of a game before Mike Keenan got the thumb Sunday? Hawk public relations director Jim DeMaria reports that Orval Tessier, famed for his volcanic temper, was ejected in the 1983-84 season.
– Shuffled aside in all the turmoil that surrounded Sunday`s 4-4 tie with Montreal was the fact the Hawks still haven`t beaten the Canadiens since 1985. In the interim, they are 0-7-5 against them.
– Sunday`s scoreless overtime left the Hawks 1-3-8 in overtimes this season.