Gruff, grizzled Blackhawks forward Pat Maroon looks like someone who would enjoy chewing tobacco, and he does. He usually keeps some pouches in his locker.
When that tobacco goes missing, though, it might be surprising to hear that Lukas Reichel — the fashionable German kid without a single facial hair — is the primary suspect.
“I don’t really take chew, but sometimes I steal it from him,” Reichel said Tuesday with a mischievous grin. “He hates it.”
Antics like that have helped Maroon and Reichel, the Hawks’ oddest couple, form a close friendship. Maroon has become the unexpected perfect mentor that Reichel always needed to find his rhythm in the NHL.
“He’s a funny kid,” Maroon said. “Everyone gets a kick out of him — everyone gets a good laugh at least once a day out of him. I just enjoy seeing his success.
“For young guys, people don’t give them enough time. They expect them to come out of the gates and be a superstar right away. Sometimes it takes time for kids to develop and find their way in this league, and I’m just happy he’s starting to find that.”
In the past, Reichel struggled to translate his natural talent into NHL effectiveness largely because of a lack of confidence. Although he made progress with accepting and moving on from mistakes last season, he had a tendency to get in his head and second-guess himself when things didn’t go well.
After 14 years and three Stanley Cup titles, Maroon approaches hockey with a polar-opposite mentality — which has proved contagious to Reichel. Maroon also tries to keep Reichel in the moment by talking to and messing with him between shifts.
“There’s never a bad day in the NHL,” Maroon said. “I try to keep my linemates loose, [so we] just go out there and play the game. You can’t be worried about mistakes or what’s going to happen.”
Said Reichel: “It’s more about having fun on the bench. It’s just the way he is. You look at him, and he’s a funny guy. It’s funny being around him.”
Ryan Sun/AP Photos
Those efforts are paying dividends: Reichel is playing his best hockey in two years, and it doesn’t appear to be a blip.
He entered the matchup against the Stars on Thursday with six points in 10 games, ranking second on the team in five-on-five points per minute. Even on shifts in which he doesn’t produce, he’s still winning puck battles, breaking down defenses, diligently forechecking and backchecking and making smart decisions in every zone.
Coach Luke Richardson has admitted he never expected Maroon and Craig Smith, another well-traveled veteran, to be such suitable linemates for Reichel, but it has worked out that way. That trio has outscored opponents 3-1 in 52 minutes of five-on-five ice time together the last few weeks.
Against Dallas, they were finally broken up for the best of reasons: Richardson promoted Reichel onto a new-look first line with Connor Bedard and Taylor Hall. Only time will tell if they click together — along with the rest of the team, they struggled against the Stars — but Reichel has earned the opportunity.
“[He has played well] three, four, five games in a row, so to me, that’s becoming consistent,” Richardson said recently. “There’s no reason to take a step back and relax. It’s a tough league, and he has realized that. Hopefully this is something sustainable for him.”
The chemistry between Maroon and Reichel, however, is most evident on the bench and in the locker room, not on the ice, so it shouldn’t be disrupted by this line shake-up.
“The most important thing is [Reichel] feels comfortable right now,” Maroon said. “From talking to him, the last two years he just didn’t have that comfortability, didn’t have the confidence. It was tough sledding for him.
‘‘He’s got that right now. He’s got that swagger he was probably missing.”
