Thursday 10/22 Injury Updates – Toews and Seabrook

»
S
I
D
E
B
A
R
«

October 22nd, 2009 by Tab Bamford

Brent Seabrook black jersey Early Thursday afternoon, Coach Joel Quenneville said the Blackhawks were “encouraged” by what they saw from both center Jonathan Toews and defensiveman Brent Seabrook. Both players will be monitored and their progress will be evaluated again on Friday.

Both players are still considered available for Saturday night’s game against the Nashville Predators.

Toews took a nasty, but legal, hit from Willie Mitchell in the third period and staggered to the bench. He would not return to the ice, and was taken to the locker room early.

Seabrook also has an “upper body injury” after getting kicked in the chest. He would return to the ice, but was limited. After a few attempts to contribute, he did not return for the closing minutes, either.

5 Responses

C.B. writes:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Tab,

The hit was clean, but are you concerned about the Blackhawks having a true enforcer to deter teams from lighting Toews up again?
Tab Bamford writes:
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm

CB – What concerns me is when talented, young players let fundamentals go in the heat of the game. The Hawks need Toews to keep his head up more than they need an enforcer.

But, with respect to your question, the Hawks do have an enforcer on the roster. His name is Ben Eager, and he’s out with concussion issues right now (go figure). Adam Burish would drop the gloves in Eager’s absence, but he’s out w/ an ACL. In a year or two, Kyle Beach will be here to beat people up.

So do the Hawks need to add someone to the roster specifically to protect the young players? No, because they don’t have enough roster spots for their talent as it is. They need to stay healthy, by playing smart hockey.

Thanks for the question though. Great thought!
Jon Orlak writes:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:55 pm

I agree with Tab, Toews needs to keep his head up at all times, especially in the open ice. However, the player passing the puck needs to do a better job at seeing the play develop. Its like a quarterback in football, passes over the middle are near death for receivers. The quarterback needs to make sure that the defenders are a reasonable distance away so the hit can be avoided. however, the injuries to Eager and Burish seem to put the Hawks in a weak spot when it comes to the teams overall toughness. It seems like the Hawks have to make way until they return.
Tab Bamford writes:
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm

The pass up the middle of the ice was dangerous, but the Goon wasn’t out of the box when the pass was released. The entire team needs to be aware of the time on a PP (especially when you’re blowing a 2-man advantage), and where the box is. Toews got rocked because he didn’t know the situation and had his head down.

To Jon’s other point, I’m not sure Eager and Burish are the answer. Teams are going to spend the entire regular season trying to find a chink in the Hawks’ armor (other than Huet), and last night the Canucks found out on behalf of the rest of the league that you can get inside the young players’ heads.

I respect Versteeg coming to Toews defense (the dead-puck probably took another goal off the board as Sedin had 1-on-1 w/ Niemi), but he and Byfuglien need to keep their cool. Take a good long look at the Goon, remember his face, and plant him the next time these two teams play. Seabrook does a GREAT job at cleaning up messes in an appropriate time later on; go check the Winter Classic footage for a great example.

The learning points for the Hawks from Wednesday night’s disaster are that A) you can’t take a veteran team for granted and B) pay attention.
Friday Injury Update: Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook | Committed Indians writes:
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm

[...] Blackhawks’ coach Joel Quenneville indicated that he saw good progress from both Captain Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook from their “upper body injuries,” and that both will be game-time decisions for [...]