Change of plans: Toews may play Sunday

CALGARY, Alberta -- Apparently, desperate times call for desperate measures.

A day after saying there was no chance Jonathan Toews would play Sunday at Vancouver, Blackhawks coach Denis Savard changed his mind Thursday and admitted the rookie center might be back in the lineup against the Canucks.

Toews had a good skate Thursday morning and impressed Savard with how he battled on his knee. Toews will go through full practices today and Saturday at GM Place.

"There's a chance," Savard said of Toews returning Sunday. "If I do decide to play him, I'm just going to play him power play and penalty-killing. I've got to be really careful here, but according to the doctors and the trainers, it's going to be six weeks in a couple days and the knee is tight.

"I don't guarantee he'll play. He's going to practice with us (today) and Saturday and we'll see how it goes."

Toews has been out since Jan. 1 when he sprained his left knee at Los Angeles. The Hawks were 4-12 without him going into Thursday's game against the Flames.

Skille sits: Rookie winger Jack Skille was a healthy scratch Thursday, replaced in the lineup by Craig Adams.

"I had a talk with him and I want him to watch a game," Denis Savard said. "He's young and he has to learn. The last two games he's been so-so, so I want him to watch up above and see it's not that difficult."

Savard said Wednesday in Edmonton that if one of the Hawks' young players needed to be a healthy scratch then he didn't deserve to be with the club.

With Jason Williams and Dave Bolland expected to rejoin the team next week, Skille almost certainly will be returned to Rockford.

Hurting again: Ben Eager missed his third straight game with concussion symptoms that have returned.

Eager missed 13 games earlier with a concussion that the Hawks now believe he sustained while with Philadelphia during a fight with Pittsburgh's Gary Roberts.

The Hawks acquired Eager from the Flyers on Dec. 18 for Jim Vandermeer.

Phaneuf fallout: The six-year, $39 million contract Dion Phaneuf got from the Flames on Wednesday should affect deals for defensemen all around the NHL.

Hawks general manager Dale Tallon has to sign Brent Seabrook and now wonders what the new asking price will be. Seabrook, scheduled to be a restricted free agent, earns $942,000 and could want to be paid in the neighborhood of $3 million a year.

So close: Dustin Byfuglien's 11 shots on goal at Edmonton left him 1 shy of the team record for a game shared by Doug Wilson and Grant Mulvey.