DETROIT — NHL rinks are, officially, 85 feet wide.
But Dominik Kubalik plays like they’re about 50.
The highly anticipated European import demonstrated in his Hawks preseason debut Tuesday a magnetic attraction to the center of the ice — and a dynamic offensive skill set to complement that.
Kubalik scored twice to singlehandedly bring the Blackhawks back from a two-goal deficit, though they ultimately still fell to the Red Wings 5-3.
“It’s my first game, so obviously I want to show off a little bit that I can shoot, I can do some stuff, so those were my first thoughts,” he said. “I felt pretty good today.”
His natural tendency to migrate towards the slot — and there’s no better place to go than that — translated into a goal late in the second period when a Carl Dahlstrom point shot rebounded off right to him. He buried it easily on the backhand.
It was a fairly easy goal, but it only happened because Kubalik was where he needed to be. Kubalik’s second tally, however, was by no means easy.
Slotted onto the top power play unit alongside Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome and Andrew Shaw — as good an indication as any of coach Jeremy Colliton’s immediate faith in the 24-year-old winger — Kubalik took a pass from Philip Holm and one-timed the puck into top netting 10 times faster than it takes to say, ‘‘You’re on the team.’’
“I don’t hold the puck a lot,” Kubalik said. “I’m just trying to put it on net whenever I can, and try to be around the net — there’s always rebounds and stuff like that.”
A popular dark-horse pick before the preseason started to earn one of the Hawks’ open top-six winger spots, Kubalik is no longer a dark horse. He’s a leading candidate.
Lehner allows 2 softies
In his own Hawks debut, goaltender Robin Lehner made 15 saves on 17 shots over about 29 minutes of action.
The defending Vezina Trophy finalist looked fantastic early, including miraculously deflecting a breakaway attempt over the crossbar with a cobra-speed glove reaction.
His strong first impression took a hit later, as he gave up an unscreened short-side goal in the first period and then a strange second tally. Still, there’s nothing to fret about: the Lehner vs. Corey Crawford battle for the No. 1 goalie role won’t be decided in a day.
“The first goal, obviously I’ve got to have that, but I thought I made some good saves, felt pretty good,” he said. “Just going to get better and better — the puck slows down, you see the puck better, every practice now.”
Boqvist takes ‘D’ seriously
Adam Boqvist looked like, well, quintessential Adam Boqvist in the first preseason game Monday in Washington: Dangerous (to the other team) in the offensive zone, and dangerous (to the Hawks) in the defensive zone.
He scored a beautiful, highlight-reel goal in the second period after jugging the puck in midair around the back of the goal, then sniping it far corner from a tough angle. He also lost his man on the penalty kill, leading to a Capitals goal.
And that’s nothing new for the aggressive 19-year-old defenseman, as high as his ceiling is.
“Even though he’s dynamic offensively, if we can convince him that the defensive side of the puck is really important, not only is it good for the team, but he’s [also] going to get more offense out of it,” Colliton said. “That’s sort of the plan.”
