Blackhawks lose to Jets; is it time to worry about Toews?

Now maybe it's time to be concerned about Jonathan Toews.

Maybe.

With Joel Quenneville locking up information about injuries as well as Fort Knox protects the country's gold, it's tough to tell just how serious this upper-body injury to Toews really is.

But after hearing the update Sunday, things certainly seem to be trending in the wrong direction.

Toews, who did get on the ice before the Hawks lost 2-1 to Winnipeg at the United Center, said last week that he was playing through pain for some time before aggravating the injury on Nov. 23 at San Jose. In the days following that loss to the Sharks, Quenneville told reporters the Hawks' captain was questionable, questionable, questionable, questionable and doubtful for the first five games Toews missed.

Sunday, not only did Toews miss a sixth game, but Quenneville said the injury is "not getting better" and the team will keep him off the ice for "a few days and get a better assessment (in) the middle of the week or so."

In their first four games without Toews, the Hawks went 3-0-1, but now they've dropped two in a row and will be without Corey Crawford (appendectomy) for 2-3 weeks.

Quenneville didn't answer directly whether he was concerned about Toews' long-term prognosis, but Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith both think the Hawks have more than enough to weather this storm.

"Every team deals with injuries," Kane said. "We're just dealing with a couple big injuries for us at this time. I thought Scotty (Darling) played great today; only gave up a couple goals.

"We've got to score more than 1 goal to be in a hockey game."

Said Keith: "Obviously Jonny helps out the offense. But we've got guys in here like Marian Hossa that have several goals in this league too, and lots of good players that can create offense."

Not many of them are doing it lately, though, as the Hawks have just 11 regulation goals in their last eight games.

"There should be more offense, whether it's off the rush with our defense or in zone," said Quenneville, whose team had 3 just shots on goal vs. Winnipeg after one period. "We didn't have enough offensive zone time. We didn't have any net presence. After 40 minutes, we only had maybe only one scoring chance."

The loss ended a 12-game point streak at home for the Hawks, who are 16-8-3 overall and 10-2-2 at the United Center.

The Hawks fell behind 1-0 when Bryan Little scored with 44 seconds left in the second period, but they tied it when Artemi Panarin buried a one-timer off a perfect feed from Kane with 6:54 left in the game. Winnipeg retook the lead, though, two minutes later when an Andrew Copp slap shot beat Darling.

The Hawks were presented with a golden opportunity to steal a point or two with 2:49 left when Jacob Trouba was whistled for a double minor, but nothing came of it and the Jets (13-13-2) escaped with their fourth victory in five games.

Darling made 30 saves, including 3 on breakaway chances by Nikolaj Ehlers, Adam Lowry and Dustin Byfuglien.

"We're lucky to have him as a goalie we can look to when we've got a guy like Crow out," Keith said.

The Hawks' best chance to score in the middle stanza came when Dennis Rasmussen found a loose puck off to the side of goalie Connor Hellebuyck, but Rasmussen's attempt whizzed behind Hellebuyck and through the crease.

"The puck was bouncing and it came off fast," Rasmussen said. "Didn't have the best angle, but I should score on that one."