Chicago Blackhawks: Brandon Saad's Hard Work Finally Pays Off

It was only a matter of time before Brandon Saad finally put one on the stat sheet, and that day finally came on Tuesday night for the Chicago Blackhawks rookie.

In his first true action with the Blackhawks, aside from a couple of games in the regular and postseason last year, we’ve seen some extremely impressive play from Saad. And it hasn’t just been in one part of the game that his play has been that terrific either. It’s been all of them.

Coming into the season, we knew what Saad was capable of. How long it would take for him to put it all together would be another story, and it looks like it hasn’t taken him too long.

Whether it’s his speed on the rush, his strength in going to the net, or his smarts out on the ice and knowing where he needs to be, Saad has been excellent. His recent play has generated numerous scoring chances. But prior to Tuesday, he had absolutely zilch to show for it on the stat sheet.

That changed when he finally managed to put one in the back of the net against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night. Saad scored off of a beautiful one-timer from Brent Seabrook that brought the Hawks within a goal of the Sharks. They’d go on to win the game by a pair of Patrick Kane goals.

We’ve seen plenty of players on the Blackhawks work their tails off in the first 10 games of the season, and Saad may be working harder than any of them – he’s put 120 percent on the ice every single time.

The first one is the hardest one. Now that he has that out of the way, we could see the tallies pile up for Brandon Saad.