It was a tale of two Blackhawks in their home-and-home against the Dallas Stars to kick off the 2011-2012 season.
On Friday, we saw a squad eerily similar to last season. Corey Crawford was brilliant for much of the game, but the offense was non-existent, with just a Nick Leddy goal in the waning minutes showing up on the scoreboard.
Of course, that was also a team that lacked Dave Bolland, Ben Smith,and Viktor Stalberg, while also rolling with an 18-year-old in his first NHL action, in Brandon Saad, and Brandon Pirri, who had just one game of big league experience under his belt.
After dropping the season opener on Friday, by a 2-1 count, the Hawks made sure they came to play on Saturday. Making his season debut was Bolland, as well as Marcus Kruger, who was recalled in favor of the preseason star Pirri.
Overall, the Hawks dominated the course of the game. They controlled the puck throughout and limited the Stars to just 21 shots on goal. Unlike the previous night, the new guys showed up to play, with Andrew Brunette scoring his first Blackhawk goal, and the team also getting solid performances from Jamal Mayers (who squared off against former Hawk Jake Dowell), Sean O’Donnell, and Marcus Kruger.
Similar to Kruger, Bryan Bickell also turned it on after a disappointing preseason. He might be finally be realizing that physical aspect that his game has been missing since he joined the Hawks full time last year. Of course, the stars joined in as well, with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp each notching goals.
But the story of the weekend was Dave Bolland and what he brings to these Blackhawks. Twice before have we seen Bolland return from injury to spark the Hawks, with the most recent example coming when the team nearly pulled off the comeback from that 3-0 deficit against the Canucks last postseason.
After missing the last weekend of the Blackhawks’ preseason, and Game 1 of the regular season, Bolland returned and was a force. He scored two of the Hawks’ five goals for the game, with one of them coming with the net empty in the last minute. Bolland’s real goal came on a wrister almost from the blue line.
That was only one aspect of The Rat’s game on Saturday, though. He was a wizard in the faceoff circle, winning almost 70 percent of the draws, and was plus-2 on the night. If he can consistently perform in the draws and on the offensive end, he makes the Hawks that much more dangerous.
At this point, it’s not even a stretch to say that Bolland is a member of the Hawks’ core. His importance is on almost as high of a level as Sharp or Marian Hossa. If Bolland can stay healthy, which has been an issue over the course of the past couple of seasons, he might just be in for that breakout year that so many had pegged him for before the season started.
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