NEW YORK – Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook will play when the Blackhawks face the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
Toews (back), who missed nine games, was back on the Blackhawks’ top line, flanked by Ryan Hartman and Marian Hossa, at Tuesday morning’s skate. For Toews, it’s been a frustrating wait; he was hurt on Nov. 23, started skating early this month and then had to take time off before resuming skates again on Sunday morning.
“The last three days have been really good days where I really feel I got over the hump and feeling confident that I can go in and get contact in the game,” Toews said.
The Blackhawks went 5-2-2 in Toews’ absence, which didn’t surprise the captain.
“It’s always been one of the qualities that’s great about our team, resilience and guys are ready to step up and assume more responsibility,” Toews said. “Nice to see us get the goaltending, get the defensive play and win some of those tight games.”
[SHOP: Gear up, Blackhawks fans!]
Coach Joel Quenneville said they’ll monitor Toews’ minutes, which will likely be down some.
NHL
“I don’t expect him to get 20 minutes like he’s accustomed to, but we’ll watch him on the special teams and see how that works out and how he’s handling it and how he’s playing, as well,” Quenneville said. “He’ll tell us basically how much he’s going to play tonight by how he’s doing.”
Seabrook (upper body) felt pretty good after skating on Sunday but still had to be cleared to play.
“This kind of injury, just gradually feeling better was the big thing and the last couple of days I felt really good,” said Seabrook. “I’ve been skating a few days. that wasn’t a problem. It was the other test I had to do and good to go.”
Scott Darling will start for the Blackhawks.
It’s the second time in five days the two teams have met. On Friday, former Blackhawks backup goaltender Antti Raanta recorded a 1-0 shutout. Raanta, who was named the league’s No. 2 star for the week, has two consecutive shutouts and will start again on Tuesday.
BLACKHAWKS AT NEW YORK RANGERS
6 p.m.
TV: CSN
Live Stream: CSNChicago.com and NBC Sports app
Radio: WGN 720 AM
Chicago Blackhawks
Forward lines
Ryan Hartman-Jonathan Toews-Marian Hossa
Artemi Panarin-Artem Anisimov-Patrick Kane
Dennis Rasmussen-Marcus Kruger-Richard Panik
Andrew Desjardins-Vinnie Hinostroza-Tyler Motte
Defensive pairs
Duncan Keith-Brian Campbell
Niklas Hjalmarsson-Brent Seabrook
Gustav Forsling-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltender
Scott Darling
INJURIES: Jonathan Toews (back), Brent Seabrook (upper body), Corey Crawford (appendix).
New York Rangers (via New York Daily News)
Forward lines
Michael Grabner-Kevin Hayes-J.T. Miller
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello
Marek Hrivik-Oscar Lindberg-Jesper Fast
Nicklas Jensen-Josh Jooris-Brandon Pirri
Defensive Pairs
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Nick Holden
Brady Skjei-Kevin Klein
Goaltender
Antti Raanta
INJURIES: Rick Nash (groin), Matt Puempel (concussion), Mika Zibanejad (broken fibula), Pavel Buchnevich (back).