"It's always fun to play good hockey and all of a sudden you realize, 'Wow, we've been missing this guy for a little while here,'" Toews said of Hossa. "He's only going to make our team better. We all know what [Hossa] brings to our team, so it'll be fun to get him back. He'll be healthy and hopefully rested, more than anything."
Multiple players were given auditions to fill Saad's former role, but Quenneville eventually settled on Andrew Shaw after giving him a tryout in that spot coming out of Christmas break. It worked initially and he stayed on the top line for 23 games, helping the Blackhawks run off a franchise-record 12-game win streak from Dec. 29 to Jan. 19.
Shaw stayed at left wing on that unit after Hossa's injury, and moved to the right wing when Ladd was acquired. Hossa will resume that position upon his return, which means Shaw is headed to the fourth line.
Quenneville hopes the new look provides more balance offensively, helping to ease the scoring burden on the second line of Artemi Panarin, Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane.
"If we can get that [top] line to be productive, and [Anisimov's] line productive, as well, it's a good 1-2 punch," Quenneville said. "We feel there's balance deeper than we've seen at any point this year. We're better when everybody's contributing as four lines, and that's what we're looking for."
The Blues will be a good litmus test.
St. Louis has size, strength and physicality, which makes it a challenge for opponents to win puck battles and spend time in the offensive zone. Unleashing Ladd, Toews and Hossa should give the Blackhawks a better chance to win those confrontations.