Flu limited Toews in Game 1

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - When Jonathan Toews plays only 13-plus minutes in a Stanley Cup playoff game, you know something is wrong with the Blackhawks' captain.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville fessed up Friday and admitted he kept Toews on the bench for much of Thursday's 5-3 loss to the Canucks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals because the center has been fighting the flu all week.

Toews practiced Friday at GM Place and is expected to be close to 100 percent for Game 2 tonight.

"Johnny's a proud guy and doesn't want to use any excuses, but he's been kind of under the weather the last couple days," Quenneville said. "That's why we didn't use him as much (Thursday) night, but he's recovering and feels good."

Quenneville was tempted to play Toews more but his captain was struggling with his energy level and finished the night minus-2 and lost 8 of 11 faceoffs.

"You don't want to overplay him knowing that you might burn him out for what's going to take place in the series," Quenneville said. "He was fine, but he definitely wasn't up to where he normally is."

Toews never spoke of his health Friday with reporters, only blaming himself for not playing better and taking a hooking penalty in the first period.

"No one's making any excuses," Toews said. "For me, personally, there are things I have to do better. There were 2 goals in the second period I was out there on.

"Every player has those little things nagging, but you play through it. Everyone is playing through something, whether it's their team or ours."

Quenneville thought penalties by Toews, Andrew Ladd (a double minor) and Duncan Keith killed the Hawks in the first period when they were shorthanded for almost eight minutes and fell behind 1-0.

The Canucks had 7 power plays to the Hawks' 3.

"Clearly, to me, the thing we had a hard part with was the undisciplined penalties," Quenneville said. "We give them 7 power plays and lose all the momentum and the chance to get ourselves in that game. To me, that was the greatest thing that we learned - that you can't take penalties against that team."

Down 3-0 going to the third period, the Hawks finally got their skating game going and fought back to tie on 2 goals from Patrick Kane and another by Dave Bolland.

"We'd like to have that pace from the start of the game," Quenneville said. "We've got to build on what maybe took place in that third period."