Denis Savard will wind up in the Hall of Fame and he’ll probably go to heaven, too, because he’s as special a person as he is a rare hockey player.
But, when it comes to telling the truth, Savard has to clean up his act.
Upon returning to Chicago early last month, Savard told anybody who would listen that he can’t do what he used to do. The heart was still there and so was the desire, but legs are legs.
“I’m 34,” Savard said with a straight face. “I can’t be like I was when I was 24.”
Tell that to the Toronto Maple Leafs, if you can find them. The Blackhawks won 5-2 at the United Center Friday night, a collective effort if ever there was one by a team that was down and half way out of this Stanley Cup tournament after two opening losses on the home pond.
“Character,” Savard gushed. “What character we have in this dressing room.”
Yeah, and this Savard character was so vital to the cause. He not only picked up where he left off at Maple Leaf Gardens Wednesday night, when he was a blur, he picked up where he left off years ago, when he lifted fans out of chairs he helped fill.
That was across the street at the Stadium, which is now reduced to dust. But the fans who made it the most electric building on the planet, showed up en masse Friday night, and in good throat. The United Center, too, holds its noise well.
Lo and behold, there was Savard, dancing to an old tune. He scored the Hawks’ first goal and assisted on two others in this triumph. He pulled a fast one, did this feisty little Frenchman. On the Leafs and on all of those who thought he might have been brought back home for sentimental reasons.
“I honestly don’t know what it is,” Savard said. “I’m eating well, sleeping well. I feel a lot of energy. I know that I’m motivated, too, by this uniform. We’re all enjoying this. But you take all those other 19 guys in the locker room together, they can’t enjoy it more than me. It’s not possible.”
Was it live or was it Memorex? In the 14th minute of a scoreless match, Savard pounced on a puck in the neutral zone. He then took off, leaving his birth certificate and several Leafs behind. You’ve seen this before from Savard? He did it again.
Savard skated wide right, toward the faceoff circle, where he wound up for a slap shot. Then, instinctively, he paused. Jamie Macoun, the lone Toronto defenseman back, was waving his stick, menacingly. So Savard took one more stride, then cranked a bullet on a clear path past goalie Felix Potvin.
“He’s been unbelievable,” said Hawk coach Darryl Sutter of Savard. “On the ice and off the ice.”
If Potvin couldn’t react to that rocket, he couldn’t see Eric Weinrich’s knuckler that made it 2-1. The puck didn’t lay flat until it found the back of the cage. There wasn’t much of an edge to the third period, however, for the Hawks put the Leafs away, finally but firmly.
This tug-of-war that had lasted almost two weeks was over, and though the Hawks’ defense lived up to expectations, the forwards were there at the end too. If the Leafs had more skill up front with injured Jeremy Roenick on parachute patrol, Savard proved that speed still kills. Not a bad replacement player, eh?
When Savard came back home again, there were no brass bands or camera crews to greet him at O’Hare. They were all with Michael Jordan. Savard left his Tampa Bay squad in Philadelphia, took a flight to Chicago, and slipped into town.
But here it is May, the Bulls have disappeared, and those scruffy Hawks play on. They won’t have to play mighty Detroit next, either. If they do meet the Red Wings, it will be for the conference title, and presumably Roenick will be aboard.
Hockey, not basketball, has inherited the United Center. The Hawks couldn’t ask for more, and that includes Savard. He said he would give us his very best, so he was telling the truth, after all.
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