Bob Murray took a little bit of a gamble on March 4 when he traded established defenseman Keith Carney and tough guy Jim Cummins to Phoenix for center Chad Kilger, an unknown commodity, and veteran defenseman Jayson More.
What the Blackhawks’ general manager envisioned when he made the deal was cashing in on three of a kind–three young, strong forwards in Kilger, Eric Daze and Ethan Moreau playing together as one. The way they’ve produced in six games, Murray’s gamble could lead to quite a few full houses at the United Center.
“That line was dominant (in Sunday’s 8-4 victory over Florida), and since we made that trade for Kilger, that line has been our best line every night,” said coach Craig Hartsburg, whose club concludes a four-game road swing Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres.
On Sunday, Daze bagged a career-high four goals, Kilger had three assists and Moreau had an assist. Since Kilger, 21, arrived, he has a goal and five assists; Daze, 22, has five goals; and Moreau, 22, has a goal and two assists.
Hartsburg has gained so much confidence in the trio, he has them working together on one of the Hawks’ two power-play units.
“They do the right things on the power play,” Hartsburg said. “They don’t do anything fancy. They make simple plays and seem to get scoring chances. They work extremely hard together. That’s the key right now for them.”
“We have to skate and cycle the puck,” said Daze, who is two goals shy of his career-high of 30 with 17 games remaining. “When we’re not doing this, we’re not a good line. We all have good speed and we’re good offensively.
“I think it’s a great line and we’re getting used to each other a lot more.”
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Kilger predicted after Saturday’s 1-0 loss at Tampa Bay, in which his line had several scoring chances, that the puck would eventually start going in. Sunday in south Florida, when it rained, it poured.
“We’re communicating more, know where each other are,” he said.
Righting the ship: The Hawks were 2-7-2 in their 11 games before Sunday, and they had fallen out of a playoff berth in the Western Conference. They got it back with the eight-goal outburst, and Hartsburg says they won’t give it away again.
“We just have to keep plugging away,” he said. “We believe we’re going to make the playoffs and we believe we can do something once we get there.
“We’re probably the only team in the playoff battle that has to deal with so many negatives. Everybody else is happy to be in the battle except us. We should be happy to be in a playoff battle.
“We’d love to be in first or second place, but we’re not, so we have to make the best of where we’re at. It’s an opportunity for our players to grow and do something positive.”
One out of two’s not bad: Before weekend games at Tampa and Miami, Tony Amonte said both were must wins. He wasn’t complaining the Hawks won only one.
“It’s too bad we couldn’t grab four points out of this, but it’s a good start for us,” he said. “We move up on San Jose now, and if we can put a string together of four or five wins, we’ll be right back where we want to be.”
The Hawks are tied with San Jose for eighth place and trail Edmonton by one and Phoenix by three.
Waking up Sunday in ninth played on Amonte’s mind.
“Absolutely,” he said. “We played hard (Saturday) and just couldn’t get any goals. It’s disappointing and frustrating, but it’s all in the past. We talked about it (Sunday morning), there’s nothing we can do about the last month, we just have to move on.”
Speaking of moving on: If it’s Monday, this must be Buffalo. Forty-one of the last 51 days have been spent on the road for Amonte, Chris Chelios and Gary Suter. Since a home game Jan. 24, the Hawks have played 13 games on the road, No. 14 Tuesday against the Sabres, and just three at the United Center. And thrown in for Amonte, Suter and Chelios was a trip to Japan for the Olympics.
Beginning Thursday, five of the Hawks’ next six games will be at home.