BUFFALO, N.Y. — Blackhawks fans and league observers were a little skeptical when general manager Stan Bowman said last month that he didn’t expect to make a big move before the March 1 trade deadline.
Bowman professed confidence in the current roster, which has a significant chunk of younger players, to keep improving as the season went along.
Bowman must have known something, because shortly after he made those comments on Jan. 30, the Hawks embarked on their best stretch of hockey this season, a trend that continued Sunday with a 5-1 victory against the Sabres at KeyBank Arena. The Hawks haven’t looked look like a team in need of much help since the beginning of the month.
They have won six of their last seven with their lone loss, Saturday against the Oilers, coming on a night the Hawks put 39 shots on net.
"Stan’s a smart man," winger Patrick Kane said. "If he feels a move needs to be made, then he’ll make it, and we’ll kind of just be in here trying to play the right way. But I think at the same time, we feel confident with our group right now."
What made Sunday’s game so significant was that each line scored a goal. At the end of last season, coach Joel Quenneville lamented the fact that the Hawks’ four-line rotation wasn’t as strong as it had been in recent years.
"All the lines were doing the right things," Quenneville said Sunday. "We’re playing our best hockey that we’ve seen throughout most of the year and in this last stretch here, particularly on the road."
First up Sunday it was rookie Ryan Hartman, who scored his 14th of the season on a filthy wrist shot in the first period. Then Marian Hossa, who has dropped to the third line to help balance the lineup, gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead in the second period with his 21st goal of the season.
Later in the period, the percolating top line of Jonathan Toews, Richard Panik and Nick Schmaltz got a rebound goal for Toews, his 12th, off a Panik shot at 15:26.
Finally, the second line of Artem Anisimov, Artemi Panarin and Kane, which had been quiet most of the night, gave the Hawks their fourth and fifth goals in the third when Anisimov scored to cap a nice bit of tic-tac-toe passing between the three at 3:29 and Kane put on a puck-handling clinic in front of goaltender Robin Lehner before putting the puck in the net at 6:36.
It was Kane’s 20th goal of the season, meaning Kane now has at least 20 goals in each of his 10 NHL seasons.
"That seems to be when we’re playing our best, we have that four-line rotation as we like to call it," Kane said. "Every line’s producing. It’s huge for our team game, it’s huge for all the players, too, as far as taking pressure off and not worrying about certain matchups."
The deadline is looming, but over the last few weeks the Hawks have been making the case to Bowman that he was correct in his initial diagnosis. The Hawks may not need a major piece to make them contenders, not if Quenneville can count on each line to produce the way they did Sunday.
"Stan has done a great job this time of year trying to do everything he can to make us better in a tight situation knowing there’s a lot of obstacles and hurdles to stay under the cap and try to improve at the same time," Quenneville said. "Some of our younger guys have progressed."
Perhaps they have progressed enough to keep the Hawks relatively quiet the next few days.
chine@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ChristopherHine
CHRIS HINE’S THREE STARS
1. Ryan Hartman, Blackhawks: Got the Hawks on the board with a pretty goal.
2. Patrick Kane, Blackhawks: Scored his 20th goal and added an assist.
3. Scott Darling, Blackhawks: Another solid night with 25 saves.
Up next: At Wild, 7 p.m. Tuesday; CSN.
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