Daniel Carcillo is returning to the Blackhawks’ lineup Sunday night against the Dallas Stars, and he’ll be expected to add what he usually does.
Carcillo went down Oct. 25 against the St. Louis Blues with what appeared to be a right knee injury. When he returns Sunday, he’ll do it on a line with Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw. Bickell is looking forward to Carcillo’s return and seeing what the feisty winger will bring.
“I think he looks good,” Bickell said. “I think I’ve been talking to him a little bit and I think he feels good and he’s ready. Hopefully, with me and (Shaw) we will build some chemistry early and hopefully stay as a line and hopefully have confidence.”
Clearly, the Bickell-Shaw-Carcillo trio will be tasked with playing physically and maybe getting under an opponent’s skin. At least that’s what Bickell is expecting.
“We need to bring more physicality to our game, open the ice up for our teammates and give those (defensemen) second thoughts going to get the puck,” Bickell said. “If we do that, I think we’ll create turnovers and hopefully we can get chances.”
Carcillo was expected to miss about four weeks when he suffered the injury but will return slightly ahead of schedule. He took part in a Hawks morning skate Tuesday and by all accounts looks good and ready to go.
“Coming off that injury there, I thought there might be a little time to see him get up and recapture that pace again,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “That first time he skated here about a week ago, he looked like he was flying. He’s excited about getting started tomorrow.”
“Excited” is probably a good word to use about the emotional Carcillo.
“I know he likes to have fun and then come game time he has like a switch where he gets angry and serious,” Bickell said. “He brings that physicality that we need. Me personally, I need to pick it up and hopefully we can spark each other.”
