Eric Daze played perhaps the best 20 minutes of his Blackhawks career Sunday night for reasons both obvious and subtle.
Two goals and an assist are about as obvious as it gets. Daze scored the tying goal on the power play and set up the game-winner three minutes later as the Hawks rallied for a 6-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs to keep the playoff flame flickering.
But Daze has always scored goals, not as many as Hawks fans would like or perhaps when the games meant the most, but Daze has scored more than 20 goals in each of his six full seasons in Chicago.
The things Daze hasn’t always done–or even been asked to do much–are the subtle reasons why this is becoming the best all-around season for the 6-foot-6-inch native of Montreal.
Eric Daze the one-dimensional goal-scorer is maturing into Eric Daze the complete player.
“Alpo has a lot of confidence in me and puts me on the ice late in a game or for a face-off in our zone,” Daze said of Hawks coach Alpo Suhonen. “It’s always nice for a coach to have confidence in you at a crucial moment. At this time of my career, that’s what I want.”
So there Daze was, late in Sunday’s game with the Hawks nursing a one-goal lead, breaking up a centering pass in front of his own net. Or earlier recognizing that his defensemen were in a change and hustling back from the neutral zone to touch-up for an icing. On the game-winning goal, Daze blew past Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle for a loose puck in the corner and fired a blind, backhand pass to Chris Herperger.
He is now an integral part of the Hawks’ penalty-killing unit, which Sunday held the high-scoring Leafs without a threat.
Before, late in a close game with the Hawks ahead, Daze would be on the bench watching. He had trouble getting on the power play earlier in his career, let alone being entrusted as a penalty killer and on many nights the screams from the upper balcony of the United Center would be “skate Daisy!” Not anymore.
“The loose puck in the corners, he really goes [after it],” Suhonen said. “He’s now using his speed and size very well. I’m not so sure he was doing that early in the season.”
He wasn’t. Daze had one goal, no assists and was a minus-5 through the first 10 games of the season. On Oct. 29, after the morning skate in Minnesota, Suhonen told Daze he would be scratched from the lineup that night.
Daze fumed and publicly asked to be traded, saying it was time for him to play on one of the first two lines.
“It was just a matter of wanting more and wanting a bigger role,” he said.
Despite maintaining his trade request for the next couple of weeks, it went largely ignored by Hawks General Manager Mike Smith, who attributed Daze’s outburst to frustration with his play.
“I thought Mike and Alpo handled that well,” Hawks captain Tony Amonte said. “That seems like years ago now.”
Slowly the metamorphosis from an awful season to his best began to take shape. Daze was also scratched the following game in Boston, but since then hasn’t gone more than four games without a point. His longest goal-less streak is six games in early December.
“After I asked for a trade, I still had a good attitude and wanted to help the team win,” he said. “I scored a few goals and got my confidence back and started playing on the penalty kill. Playing more has helped me a lot.”
He is on a tear with 10 goals in his last 10 games. He is on pace to have career highs in both goals and points. He is where he believes he belongs, on the top line and becoming one of the team’s most valuable players.
“He’s playing at a high level, for sure,” Suhonen said. “With his talent, you have to give him every chance there is. The last couple months he has become one of the key players on the team.”
Late in Friday’s 1-0 victory over Atlanta, Amonte and Atlanta’s Jiri Slegr got tangled and Daze jumped in to defend his captain, receiving a game misconduct. He’ll never be a Bob Probert-like intimidator, but it’s that type of action that goes a long way within a team. In his sixth season, Daze is now one of the team’s veterans who needs to show leadership and set an example.
“He saw I was going to get beat up,” Amonte said. “He just jumped right in there.”
Daze has always been referred to as a “streaky” player, who gets his goals in bunches–like he is now–and then disappears for long stretches. Even he admits that while he’s going good now, he needs to continue it night in and night out.
“I have to keep playing the way I’ve been playing the last couple months,” he said. “I want to take the next step forward.”
