Savard Looking to Make History

By Todd McClamroch in News on Dec 5, 2006 2:08PM

Denis Savard can make Blackhawks history with a victory at Minnesota on Tuesday night. On Saturday night when the Blackhawks came from behind to defeat the Nashville Predators 4-3 in OT, Denis Savard became only the second Blackhawks coach to win his first three games as head coach, the first being Sid Abel (1952-53 season). No Blackhawks coach has ever won their first four games as coach of the team. Prior to Savard's promotion the team had only won 3 of the previous fifteen games.

Savard has been getting help from a range of players including Jeff Hamilton, Tony Salmelainen and Tuomo Ruutu, who have teamed up to score a combined nine goals during the last three games. Nikolai Khabibulin has also been on top of his game over the past week. He earned a 2.00 goals against average, saving 92.5% of shots, and was selected as the NHL Second Star of the week.

The Blackhawks were hoping to bolster the lineup with the return of Martin Havlat for tonight's game. But, after a training session on Monday, the Hawks have decided to let Havlat travel to Minnesota, but he is not expected to play. Chicagoist was glad to hear that Savard would rather let the injury heal more thoroughly to ensure Havlat does not wind up injured again shortly.

The Blackhawks travel to Minnesota on Tuesday then return home to the United Center on Thursday to host Phoenix.