Jonathan Toews will miss his fifth straight game Saturday in Philadelphia with a back injury he sustained Nov. 23 in San Jose. The Blackhawks placed the captain on injured reserve Friday (retroactive to Nov. 24), and activated defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk to take the open roster spot.
Toews said Friday the second-period collision during his last shift wasn’t the first time he was hurt in the game.
“(It’s) just something that started to aggravate in the first (period),” Toews said. “(I) tried playing in the second (period) and that instance … went down like a ton of bricks.”
The Hawks placing Toews on injured reserve is largely for roster purposes. With van Riemsdyk set to return from a shoulder injury, Chicago would’ve been over the active roster limit. By temporarily putting Toews on IR, the Blackhawks have some extra time to figure out how to get back to 23 players.
Toews skated before Friday’s practice, and coach Joel Quenneville said he will be re-evaluated for Sunday’s home game against Winnipeg.
Jonathan Toews mostly just stickhandling and skating casually at the moment. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/c5PduphQ1j
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 2, 2016
Once Toews/TVR are healthy, Blackhawks will have a few options:
– send Forsling back to Sweden
– trade/waive TVR
– trade/waive Rozsival— Second City Hockey (@2ndCityHockey) December 2, 2016
With Toews out of the lineup and Marian Hossa taking a maintenance day, the Hawks’ lines looked like this:
#Blackhawks lines:
Panarin-Anisimov-Kane
Hartman-Hinostroza-Tootoo (for Hossa)
Rasmussen-Kruger-Panik
Desjardins-Schmaltz-Motte— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 2, 2016
The Hawks are 3-0-1 in Toews absence.