Brandon Saad still tries to keep in touch with his buddies on the Columbus Blue Jackets, with whom he played the last two seasons and helped revive a moribund franchise. A text here, a call there, though it gets tougher to keep up the contact once the hectic regular season begins.
So while he didn’t watch Columbus’ impressive season opener on Friday night, he did catch the highlights. And he noticed that Artemi Panarin — the man for whom he was traded in a true blockbuster deal in June — had three assists, to match Saad’s three goals in the Blackhawks’ opener.
But, no, Saad’s not keeping score.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said with a laugh. “He’s a great player, and they’ve got a good team over there.”
Both teams are happy with the trade so far. But Saad and the Hawks got one-up on Panarin and the Blue Jackets on Saturday in a 5-1 victory. The Hawks offense carried over its mojo from the 10-1 thrashing of the Penguins on Thursday, with Saad and Patrick Kane each posting a goal and an assist as the Hawks again blitzed a backup goaltender, this time Joonas Korpisalo. Corey Crawford had 31 saves, again overshadowed by the dazzling offensive display.
“Two big wins,” Kane said. “I mean, you start off that way against Pittsburgh and then you get another [emphatic] win against a good team in Columbus. You’ve got to love the way we started, and hopefully we can build off this.”
Up next, a trip to Toronto to play the Maple Leafs, who also have 15 goals in two games.
“Some nights, they go in a little easier than other nights,” Joel Quenneville said.
The fun was tempered by an injury to Nick Schmaltz, however. One of the catalysts for the brilliant offensive performance in the opener, Schmaltz left the game after less than two minutes, sandwiched between David Savard and Jack Johnson just as Ryan Hartman sent a cross-ice pass to Kane for the first goal of the night.
Schmaltz was slow to to get up, and slow to get back to the dressing room. He briefly returned to the bench, but immediately turned around and went back to the room, done for the night with an upper-body injury. Quenneville said Schmaltz won’t make the trip to Toronto and Montreal, but might be available for Thursday’s home game against Minnesota.
Schmaltz, Hartman and Kane had combined for five goals and nine assists through 62 minutes of hockey. But without Schmaltz, the Hawks were still effective. Saad scored his fourth goal of the season on a power play at 6:04 of the first, once again crashing the net for a rebound and scoring as he fell to the ice. He looks every bit the prototypical power forward the Hawks projected him to be back in 2012.
“We were saying he’s not a ‘Man-Child’ anymore, he’s just a man,” Kane said with a laugh.
Jonathan Toews made it 3-0 midway through the second period after Richard Panik smeared Seth Jones in the corner, jarring the puck loose for Saad to tee up Toews in the left circle. After Sonny Milano responded for Columbus, Kane sent another beautiful backhand pass to set up Jan Rutta’s first NHL goal. Panik, who didn’t get an assist on Toews’ goal because he never touched the puck, got a goal of his own at 14:05 of the third.
Kane — who exchanged pleasantries and “I miss you”s with Panarin during warmups — has two goals and four assists through two games, and nearly all of them have been spectacular. He and Saad have been leading the way for the Hawks, who are off to a nearly perfect start. It’s early, of course, but it’s awfully promising.
“Every point he’s had has been a highlight play,” Quenneville said. “It’s special to get the opportunity to see that.”
Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com
Twitter: @marklazerus
