Without Jonathan Toews again, Blackhawks lose to Jets

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Dennis Rasmussen’s shot goes wide during Sunday’s game. | Associated Press

With each passing day, the sense of worry about Jonathan Toews gets stronger.

What was originally supposed to be a day-to-day injury has kept the Blackhawks’ captain out almost two weeks. He’s skated a little bit recently but won’t be on the ice again for the next few days, as his back injury needs more time to heal.

Most concerning, Toews’ injury isn’t improving.

Toews has now missed the Hawks’ last six games with a back injury since playing only 9:15 against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 23. There had been some hope Toews, who has 12 points in 21 games, would come off injured reserve and return Sunday.

Instead, that comeback will have to wait a bit longer, as Toews skated early Sunday but coach Joel Quenneville said the Hawks would keep him off the ice for the next few days before re-assessing in the middle of the week. Before the Hawks’ 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Quenneville said Toews’ injury isn’t getting better, and that it’s not one he’s dealt with before.

“Well, you certainly miss his presence in all aspects of your team game, his leadership as well, as good as anybody that’s played,” Quenneville said. “You use all those important minutes.”

Andrew Copp’s score with 4:45 remaining in the game gave the Jets the lead for good and handed the Hawks a loss in their sixth game without Toews. The Hawks are 3-2-1 with Toews out and have scored just 12 times (including a shootout goal), losing the last two games.

Clearly, the longer Toews is out, the harder it gets for the Hawks.

“I think you see it a lot of times with injuries where sometimes when you’re missing a guy right away for a couple games it might not really show up in the lineup and guys are excited to get that chance,” said Patrick Kane, who set up Artemi Panarin’s game-tying goal with 6:54 left in the third. “The longer you go missing a great player there’s going to be a hole missing. It’s nothing we can control.

“Guys like myself and other guys are going to have to step up and try to, whether take on a little bit more ownership in leadership or playing the right way and trying to do whatever you can to help this team win.”

With Toews sitting out, the Hawks have had to improvise. They’re missing their best two-way player and have to pay closer attention to certain parts of their game, not to mention try to pick up the slack offensively in a lineup that doesn’t make as much sense when Toews is out.

“You have the lines a little mixed up here as we’re going along and we seem to be changing as we’re going into games. I still think you have to find a way to do what you can to make a contribution and look to make it more of a simpler game plan, keep it tight, not play a wide-open game,” Quenneville said. “I think our offense has been a little tighter than it’s been most times, but I think our defense, we’ve been playing relatively well defensively and that’s what we have to continue to build upon without Jonny around.”

Scott Darling, playing in place of the recovering Corey Crawford, made 30 saves and kept the Hawks in Sunday’s game.

“(Toews) does everything out there (and) in the room too,” Darling said. “We definitely miss him but we’re professionals and guys are stepping up trying to fill… it’s a massive void, but we’re doing everything we can to fill it.”

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