With wide shoulders and an even wider caboose, Dustin Byfuglien looks as if he could be playing for the Chicago Bears instead of lacing up his skates with the Blackhawks.

But when it comes to exactly how much the 6-foot-4 forward weighs, Byfuglien isn’t saying. He just smiles when asked if he is anywhere close to his listed 257 pounds.

“It’s around there,” he said cryptically. “It’s always fun to hear the numbers that people guess.”

Whatever the scale says, Byfuglien (pronounced BUFF-lin) is coming up very big against the Sharks in the Western Conference finals.

The Blackhawks hold a 2-0 series lead thanks in, well, large part to Byfuglien. He got the winner in the series opener, added another goal with a nifty deflection in Chicago’s 4-2 victory Tuesday and created mayhem in front of Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov that contributed to yet another score.

In fact, his promotion to the Blackhawks’ top line with stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in the second-round series against Vancouver has produced the NHL’s hottest line. Byfuglien is the havoc-causing thunder in the crease that meshes perfectly with the smooth-skating lightning of Toews and Kane.

“Buff is playing awesome,” said Kane, who has 18 points in the postseason. “He seems to be causing havoc every game, tipping pucks in. “… The biggest thing he’s doing is creating room for us. When he’s on the ice, they have to think about him instead of just myself and Toews.”

Byfuglien, who has six goals and two assists in the playoffs, is fast emerging as a force. But several Sharks have known all about him for years. San Jose assistant Trent Yawney was the Blackhawks’ coach when Byfuglien first got called up.

“You could see that he had talent coming out the wazoo, but he just needed to learn how to be a pro,” Yawney said.

Sharks forward Devin Setoguchi knew that even earlier. He had played against Byfuglien, who came up as a defenseman, in junior hockey. And he remembers it being an intimidating experience.

“He was even bigger back then, maybe about 280,” Setoguchi said. “He was a man among boys, playing against 16-year-old kids who were about 160 pounds soaking wet. But even though he wasn’t in shape, he was the only defenseman in juniors that I saw who could come down and score a hat trick.”

With a physique seemingly better suited for a linebacker or tight end, it seems strange that Byfuglien eluded football coaches. His stepfather, Dale Smedsmo, played briefly in the NHL, but Byfuglien already was on the hockey path when Smedsmo entered his life at age 13.

“Growing up in Minnesota, there’s not much football going on there,” said Byfuglien, 25. “I was always playing hockey.”

Once the Blackhawks focused him on slimming down, he began playing excellent hockey. With a soft touch and quick stick, he is versatile enough to play both defense and forward. That’s rather remarkable when you consider that he’s bigger than Sharks bruiser Douglas Murray.

Byfuglien tortured Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo in the second round. Promoted from the blue line to the top forward line in Game 3, Byfuglien planted himself in the crease and recorded a hat trick as the series turned in Chicago’s favor.

But after successfully dealing with Detroit’s immovable object Tomas Holmstrom in their second-round series, the Sharks were confident they could keep Byfuglien out of Nabokov’s way. They did that in Game 1, but Byfuglien still beat the Sharks’ goalie with a wicked laser in the 2-1 victory.

“He’s got such a heavy shot,” said Toews, the Blackhawks’ captain who leads the NHL with 23 playoff points. “Sometimes he just needs to tee it up.”

Then in Game 2, he tormented Nabokov by doing a good imitation of a door.

He scored Chicago’s second goal by redirecting Kane’s shot in front of the net. Then Toews got the Blackhawks’ next goal, deflecting Duncan Keith’s shot as he and Byfuglien were screening Nabokov.

It was a command performance by Byfuglien that now has the Sharks scrambling for a countermeasure entering Friday’s Game 3 in Chicago.

“You’re not going to move that man,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “He’s that big, that strong. He establishes himself. “… Maybe we’ll need to enhance what we do with him, because he made a huge impact on the game.”

Huge is a good way to describe Byfuglien. Even if he isn’t saying just how huge.

Contact Mark Emmons at 408-920-5745.