With the return of Adam Burish tonight, it will mark the first time in the 2009-2010 season that the Hawks can ice a completely healthy line-up.
Burish will see his first live action since suffering a pre-season knee injury in Minnesota. With his return, Colin Fraser and Tomas Kopecky are expected to be healthy scratches. Don't quote me, but look for forward lines similar to these tonight:
Sharp-Toews-Kane
Brouwer-Bolland-Hossa
Ladd-Madden-Versteeg
Eager-Burish-Byfuglien
That is depth. Dustin Byfuglien would be a 2nd or 3rd liner on most teams, and he now finds himself on the Hawks' 4th line. That also makes me think he could be a top trade candidate before next season. But let's worry about that in July.
Adam Burish is what many like to call an "energy player". He isn't going to find himself on any offensive highlight reels, but he does make a positive impact on this Hawks team. At the very least, his enthusiasm and positive outlook should help prevent the 2nd period collapses that Hawks fans have grown accustomed to seeing recently. "I feel better than I did before," Burish said. "I'll be excited, obviously. I might have to tone it down a little bit, but I think that's what I'm looking forward to bringing to this group."
Hopefully Burish doesn't tone it down at all. My favorite Adam Burish memory took place in the 2007-2008 season in the middle of the epic post-Toews-injury losing streak. Nearly half the team was hurt, so a bad combination of Blackhawks and Icehogs traveled to Anaheim to face the Ducks. An Anaheim player went knee to knee on Jack Skille, a Rockford call-up and former college teammate of Burish's. Before you could blink, Burish had skated past the puck and through several players to get to the culprit, and was beating him into submission. It took several officials and players to pull him off.
Fighting and scrappy play might be Burish's trademark, but let's not push aside what he could bring offensively. I'm a big believer in offensive momentum coming from solid 4th line shifts, and Burish helps provide these on a regular basis. Burish also scored multiple big goals in last year's playoffs, the most memorable being in the 3rd period of Game 6 vs. Vancouver.
Tonight is a big game against a good team. The Kings are 39-22-4, and sit in 5th place in a competitive Western Conference. They feature one of the most underrated players in the league in forward Anze Kopitar. They are also coming off an impressive 6-0 win on Monday night over the Blue Jackets.
Tonight is, again, a good test for the Blackhawks, and an even bigger test for goaltender Antti Niemi. Is tonight the night a Hawks goalie steps up and says "I'm your playoff goalie"?
With 17 games remaining, only one or two performances can be enough to make up Quenneville's mind. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: Adam Burish, Antti Niemi, Anze Kopitar, Chicago Blackhawks, Joel Quenneville, Los Angeles Kings
