Toews joins Hawks on road trip, but he won't play

This is almost too cruel.

Jonathan Toews is like a little kid sitting at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning. He knows the big guy has been there and he can't wait to see which things have his name on them, but he still has to wait for his sleeping parents to give him the final OK.

A day after thinking and hoping that he might be back in the lineup Thursday night at Minnesota, Toews will have to wait a little longer to throw on the sweater, perhaps until the regular season finale at Detroit Saturday.

But after missing 20 straight games — 21 including Thursday — due to concussion symptoms that won't completely go away, the Hawks captain has become a master of tempering his enthusiasm and not getting his hopes up too high.

“It's the only way to get through this,” Toews said following practice Wednesday. “It's great to have optimism to hope to play (Thursday). But the way it's been the past two or three weeks, you always think the next game will be the time that you'll make your comeback, and when you don't, it's pretty disappointing.

But …

“This isn't a tragedy, it's not life and death. I can still go to sleep at night. It's disappointing. It's not fun, but again, it's reality and you have to deal with it.”

Or as coach Joel Quenneville is wont to say, like he did again Wednesday, “it's all part of the process.”

In addition to Toews, Dave Bolland is out for Thursday night's game as well with an upper body injury.

The good news for Toews is that he's traveling with his team on this two-city trip. And that alone beats the alternative.

“It's step one; I'll take that,” he said. “It's better than sitting at home by myself.

“It's not fun being at home watching the game on my TV in my living room. You miss out on a lot. I feel like I'll be a little bit closer to being in the picture again.”