Hawks’ Brunette still going to be key guy

Talk to anyone who has been around Andrew Brunette in Colorado, Minnesota or Nashville, and nobody has a bad word to say about him.

Good guy. Good teammate. Good player.

“One of my all-time favorite guys,” Predators coach Barry Trotz said this week at the United Center. “For a guy who couldn’t skate in the National Hockey League, he’s had a 15- or 16-year career right now, and he’s fantastic in the room. He’s great down from the top of the circles, he’s fantastic as a playmaker and behind the net, as he says, he gets his big butt back there and creates some space back there for himself to make plays.”

While Brunette’s first month with the Blackhawks hasn’t been an eye-popping success, there still is no reason to believe signing the 38-year-old veteran to a one-year contract as a free agent last summer was a mistake by general manager Stan Bowman.

On the contrary, this is a guy who still is going to score some big goals for the Hawks before it’s over, including when he truly counts in the playoffs.

As Trotz noted, Brunette isn’t the greatest skater. Hawks coach Joel Quenneville was one of the first to point that out last summer after Brunette was signed.

Brunette playing on the first line with Jonathan Toews remains a work in progress, but it’s not because of what some fans believe, that Brunette can’t “keep up” with Toews. It’s more the two haven’t found the right way to play off each other once the puck is in the attack zone. Toews and Brunette both like to have the puck around the net.

“It always takes a little time,” Brunette said. “The more you play with each other, the more confident you get.”

Quenneville is hardly ready to give up on Brunette playing with Toews. And there is no rush to make that decision, especially with Patrick Kane working out so well at center on the second line with Marian Hossa and now Patrick Sharp.

Brunette is going to get his 18-25 goals, like he always does, and be a key when the power play turns around.

Keith sidelined:

Talk about uncharted territory.

The Hawks will play a game without Duncan Keith on Thursday against Florida for the first time since January 2009, when the defenseman sat because of a concussion.

Keith suffered an injury to his left hand in Monday’s win over Nashville blocking a shot that Joel Quenneville is calling a day-to-day situation.

Quenneville said Wednesday that he expected Keith to return to the lineup soon.

This will be only the seventh game Keith has missed in seven seasons in the NHL.

The defense pairings for Thursday’s game against the Panthers will look like this: Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson, Nick Leddy and Sean O’Donnell, Steve Montador and Sami Lepisto.

Carcillo returns:

Daniel Carcillo is back from his two-game suspension with the understanding he might have to change the way he looks for hits, like it or not.

Carcillo was suspended for shoving Carolina’s Joni Pitkanen from behind into the end boards in a game last Friday.

“The biggest thing, you have to think now before you hit and in a game that’s this quick, once you stat thinking you’re kind of not playing the game the right way,” Carcillo said. “You have to react in this game because everything happens so quick.

“It’s a tough thing to do, but if you want to keep playing this game you have to adapt, just as they changed the rules.”

Carcillo practiced Wednesday on the fourth line with the Marcus Kruger and Jamal Mayers.

Joel Quenneville decided to keep the streaking Viktor Stalberg on the first line with Jonathan Toews and Andrew Brunette.

“I don’t think we’re going to change too much of the look,” Quenneville said.