Toews, Blackhawks keeping their challenges in perspective
The Blackhawks have lost eight games in a row and they're basically out of the playoff picture.
But as frustrating a season as this has been, captain Jonathan Toews said he's keeping everything in perspective.
After practice Friday, Toews reminded reporters that what the Hawks do is play a game for a living and that there are much bigger issues outside the United Center walls.
Two obvious examples, which Toews pointed to, are the murder of Chicago police commander Paul Bauer on Tuesday and the murders of 17 people at a Florida high school. The Hawks held a moment of silence for both tragedies before they played Anaheim on Thursday.
"There's a million things you can use to try and keep things in perspective, to not just be down and negative," Toews said. "We're excited to come to the rink and to do our job. We can have fun with it and find ways to stay positive and get out of this hole that we're in."
Crawford update:
Corey Crawford did not practice with the Blackhawks at the United Center on Friday. The goalie has been out since Dec. 27 with what has been reported as vertigo or post-concussion symptoms.
Asked if Crawford's injury could be a career-threatening injury, coach Joel Quenneville said: "I'm not sure about that. That's too far out."
With the Hawks nearly out of the playoff race, Quenneville was asked about the pros and cons of Crawford returning to game action.
"If he can get healthy and can get playing, that would be the primary goal," Quenneville said. "From there you make your decisions. Right now we don't have to make any other decision other than trying to get him healthy."
No infamy:
Duncan Keith can breathe a bit easier now. His second-period goal against Anaheim on Thursday eliminates the Blackhawks' defenseman from becoming the 15th player to not score when takingmore than 100 shots on goal in a season since 1959-60.
According to NHL.com, the most shots taken without scoring is 154 by former Hawks D-man Gilles Marotte in 1967-68. Keith scored on his 139th shot.
Vancouver's Ben Hutton now has the most shots on goal without scoring with 80.
Slap shots:
Brent Seabrook took a career-high 10 shots on goal against Anaheim on Thursday, topping his previous mark of 8 on Jan. 10, 2010. After an 18-game stretch in which he took just 17 shots, Seabrook has taken 23 shots in the past five games. … Jan Rutta practiced Friday and coach Joel Quenneville said the defenseman is "close" to being able to play in a game.
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