"General manager Stan Bowman's offseason plan was to make the Blackhawks bigger and tougher so opponents wouldn't be able to rough up the team's skill players.

One of the most skilled of all the Hawks, Patrick Kane — himself heavier and bulked up as a result of rigorous offseason training — appreciates the free-agent signings of physical players such as Jamal Mayers, Dan Carcillo and Sean O'Donnell.

"Stan kind of reached out to me and told me, 'These are the kind of players who can protect you and help you do your thing,'" Kane said Wednesday at the opening of a Hawks-themed restaurant at O'Hare Airport. "You want that protection and have in the back of your mind people aren't going to run all over the place to try to take you out of the game. If you look at the players we have, I don't think too many players will mess with those guys.""