“I surprised myself on how good I felt,” Eric Daze said Saturday morning after playing his first game for the Blackhawks since Oct. 16 in the previous night’s 5-2 loss to Anaheim. Daze reported no stiffness in his surgically repaired back.
“I’m just tired,” said Daze, who worked 26 shifts and spent 20 minutes 49 seconds on the ice. He had a game-high nine shots on goal, assisted on the Hawks’ first goal and scored the second on a shot from the left circle.
“Dazer was outstanding,” coach Brian Sutter said. “If we had more players like him, the game would have been the other way.” . . .
When Anaheim coach Mike Babcock met reporters after the game, he immediately came to the defense of Sutter, who has been barraged with negative publicity after a heated confrontation with 24-year-old Hawks center Tyler Arnason in a Nashville bar last Sunday.
“I know there’s a quality, quality man down the hall,” Babcock said. “This guy is a good person and is trying to make a kid better. Let’s put all that in perspective.”
Babcock recalled a conversation he had with Adam Oates when the veteran center who had played 17 NHL seasons for five other teams was signed by the Mighty Ducks as a free agent in the summer of 2002.
“When he came to sit in my office I asked him, `Oatsy, who is the best coach you ever played for in the NHL?’ And he told me it was this guy right here (Sutter).” . . .
Rookie goalie Adam Munro, who suffered a mild concussion during his second NHL game Wednesday against Tampa Bay, will be sidelined for a week, according to GM Bob Pulford.
