”Glad to meet you, I hear you`re the guy who is going to make me a great player,” Blackhawks winger Rob Brown said Saturday when he met Dr. Mark Kling, the club`s physical fitness trainer.
It`s not customary for Kling to travel with the club, but he made the trip Sunday to La Costa Hotel and Spa to work with the players on their weight and biking regimen. After a day off, the team returns to practice Monday, skating at a San Diego rink.
Brown admits he`s a few years behind the rest, so he`s ready for what Kling demands.
”I got out of shape the last couple years,” said Brown, 23. ”I felt pretty good at the beginning with Pittsburgh (where he was a rookie in 1987-88). But maybe I didn`t try hard enough to stay in shape.”
In his five games since being acquired from Hartford for defenseman Steve Konroyd, Brown has just the one assist he earned in his first game.
”I`m determined to make a big impact here,” Brown said. ”This is as good a team as any I`ve seen in the league this season. It`s going to work out. I know what the feeling was in Hartford in the dressing room and what it is here. This is a team of winners.”
On tap: You may soon get a look at the Hawks` top draft choice from 1989-defenseman Adam Bennett. Coach/General Manager Mike Keenan named him as one of the minor-league players he might recall from the Indianapolis Ice within the next month to see how he might help the club as it prepares for the playoffs.
Does Keenan wish now he had kept defenseman Karl Dykhuis, the Hawks` No. 1 draft pick in 1990? Dykhuis is playing with the Canadian Olympic Team and must return to his junior club after that, according to NHL rules. The Hawks could bring him back in the playoffs when his junior season ends.
”It would be nice if we had Dykhuis now at his prime, at the age of 25,” Keenan said of the 19-year-old. ”But at this point, he`s trying to develop his game and he`s where he should be.”
Unemotional: After losing 2-0 Saturday night at Los Angeles, Keenan was as calm as his players had been during the game. ”They seemed lethargic,” he said. ”We had more jump in the pregame skate.”
But he took that attitude in stride, considering his team was playing its fifth game in eight days. ”We were in two time zones and two countries,” he said. ”You don`t want to use it as an excuse, but fatigue is a factor.”