Kris Versteeg was flying up and down the ice, Michal Rozsival was rifling shots from the blue line, Patrick Kane was doing things with the puck that only Patrick Kane can do and the rest of the Blackhawks were going about their business during practice Monday.
Meanwhile, coach Joel Quenneville surveyed the scene, taking in the team that is as close to full strength as it has been all season.
“We like our team,” Quenneville said after practice at the United Center. “We like the options. Prior to (Versteeg) getting hurt and (Rozsival) getting hurt, we had a pretty good idea how it was going to begin. We think we have a lot of good ingredients.”
When they face the Flyers on Tuesday night at the United Center, the Hawks could field their full lineup as they envisioned it coming out of training camp. Injuries to Rozsival and Versteeg waylaid those best-laid plans, but the veterans are back and Monday’s practice gave a pretty good indication of how the Hawks will move forward.
Versteeg, who missed the first four games with a lower-body injury, said the plan is for him to make his season debut against the Flyers, barring a setback. He certainly looked capable while displaying speed and finesse skating on the second line alongside Kane and center Andrew Shaw. That reconfigured line was a departure from Kane and Shaw skating with Brandon Saad.
“I haven’t seen possession,” Quenneville said of that trio. “They’ve had more shifts in their own end the last couple of games.”
Enter Versteeg, who is eager to prove his injury woes are behind him.
“I just try to bring energy and bring my skills and try to be offensively and defensively sound,” Versteeg said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help those guys. Obviously, Kane is world-class and he can create so much on his own so I’ll just try to get open for him and get myself in good scoring positions if I am playing and I’m with him. With Shaw, he goes to the net and he gets loose pucks.”
Saad found himself on the right side of the third line with fellow winger Bryan Bickell and center Brad Richards.
“I’m just going to try to play the same way,” Saad said. “Richards, I played a little with him at the start of the year, and Bickell I’m familiar with too, so I think as a line we can do some real damage and I’m looking forward to getting it going.”
Saad has mainly been a left winger throughout his Hawks career and said it will be an adjustment on the right side.
“I’ve played right wing before so I don’t think it will take too long to get back on track,” Saad said. “You see the ice from a different side and handling pucks is usually on your back side so you practice that.”
The way Quenneville has a tendency to throw his lines into a blender and hit puree during games means the new lines may not last long anyway, but one thing was clear Monday: The odd man out — for now — appears to be Jeremy Morin. The winger has been held off the scoresheet in the first four games and has seen limited ice time. During practice, he did not skate on a regular line during line rushes.
“I’m just coming to practice and hopefully I’m in the lineup,” Morin said. “If I’m not, I’ll work my way to get back in. … I have to earn my ice time and keep working at it.”
Twitter @ChrisKuc
