Toews, Kane, Keith unsigned

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to need to work to keep the young nucleus of talent that they have together. And none of the three are under contract yet for 2010. Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane are all free agents at the end of the year.

``There’s no contract, but I like it here and I want to stay here,’’ said Keith. ``It’s a good feeling to be a part of this group. I’d like to be here a long time.’’

``It’d be cool (to stay with the Hawks),’’ said Toews, ``but that’s still something to be determined. I’m not going to lie. It’s exciting to think about, but it’s handled by other people for you. Hopefully the fans want us to stay here a long time, because we do to. We’ll see how it goes.’’

If any of these guys leave, namely Kane or Toews; it's the equivalent of letting Crosby or Malkin walk out of Pittsburgh. You simply cannot let it happen. Get it done Chicago!

Yahoo touched on this earlier, saying that it's impossible to keep all three.

Blackhawks 4 Kings 1 in Toews' return

[Box Score]

Let the record show that in Jonathan Toews' return to the Blackhawks lineup, they scored a couple of power play goals en route to a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

The lone Kings goal was scored by Anze Kopitar, who is a legit superstar in the making. Toews also scored his 2nd goal of the season in his return to the ice, a very good sign for the Hawks.

[Sun Times]

[Puck Daddy]

Jonathan Toews to return Monday night

Jonathan Toews says he is ready to return tomorrow night against the Los Angeles Kings after missing six games with a concussion.

"I got my jump and my energy back," Toews said after practice. "When I'm moving my feet everything feels good and you handle the puck and shoot well too.
That's kind of the deal right now."

This couldn't come at a better time for the Blackhawks who have dropped the past two games without their 21 year old captain. That included an OT loss to the Avalanche out west that was lost in 8 shootout rounds.

Passing the time with NHL 10

While I wait for the brutal stretch to pass for the Blackhawks without Jonathan Toews, I have found myself playing a lot of NHL 10 on the XBOX 360. I gotta say it's a lot of fun, the gameplay is smooth and really a great game of hockey gets carved out. I wish it were a little bit easier to score but I guess it makes it all that much more special when I do.

Operation Sports had a nice article about the top five EA Sports hockey games ever made.

You have to love how they gave NHL 94 on the old Genesis some props. That game literally made me and my friends hockey fans. We used to fight over who would be Steve Yzerman. It was a blast growing up with that game.

Toews to miss fifth straight game for Hawks

Jonathan Toews will miss his 5th straight game with concussion symptoms tonight. This is not really a surprise as concussion is an injury that lingers and if you saw the hit that Toews took, you know it was a bad one.

"It's only been two days I've been back on the ice so it's more than just feeling good, it's about getting your game and getting your legs under you a little bit," Toews said following Thursday's morning skate. "I'll keep working hard and have a couple of good workouts here and see how it goes. Hopefully I'll keep progressing."

Toews was unsure whether he would return for the Hawks' game against the Avalanche in Colorado on Friday night.

"We'll take it day by day just like we have the last couple of weeks," Toews said. "Today was better than yesterday and hopefully tomorrow is the same case. We'll see how everything goes at the morning skate (Friday) morning.

Bummer. We'll recap the Hawks action tonight out in Arizona anyways. Our bet is that he plays next game out.

Columbus Blue Jackets having financial struggles

I live in Columbus. So it's no secret to me that the Blue Jackets are having trouble drawing fans to games. They're losing an annual amount of $12 million dollars a year.

Columbus may have trouble holding on to the NHL's Blue Jackets because the club has been losing $12 million a year in central Ohio, according to a report released Thursday by a business group.

The report from the Columbus Chamber offers a variety of options for strengthening the hockey team's financial position, such as new taxes or fees to support it.

Other suggestions include allowing the team to renegotiate its lease for Nationwide Arena or trying to attract a second major tenant, such as a basketball team.

"It is important that our community retain this team," Dave Blom, chairman of the Columbus Chamber board, said. "The Columbus Blue Jackets impact our regional economy, support thousands of jobs and bring millions of dollars in tax revenue that contribute to our quality of life."

It would be a shame if Columbus lost this team now because they've finally found the right coach with the right roster mix. Plus what are they going to do with that start of the art Nationwide Arena.

It will be interesting to see if the winning we anticipate for the Jackets (who first made the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season) starts to decrease this loss they've experienced.

Toews returns to ice

No word on whether or not Toews will play on Friday night when the Blackhawks next take the ice, but him being able to skate again after his concussion is great news.

After missing two weeks of practice and sitting out four straight games, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was back on the ice with his teammates Wednesday.

It's not certain whether Toews would be cleared to play in Thursday's game against the Phoenix Coyotes or Friday's contest in Denver with the Colorado Avalanche.

Coach Joel Quenneville is expected to address the media after today's practice is completed

Updates to follow, hopefully Toews is back in game action on Friday night.

Jonathan Toews gets hit by Willie Mitchell

First post on here in a while. We're going to be covering a lot of Chicago Blackhawks in the near future. Hopefully Jonathan Toews makes it back from his injury sooner rather then later. He hasn't skated in two weeks.