Kane: It wasn’t me who taunted Thornton

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Maybe now this story will go away.

Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane on Friday denied he was the one who said something unflattering to Boston’s Shawn Thornton last Tuesday after the Bruins’ winger was cut by Fernando Pisani’s skate.

“I didn’t say anything,” Kane said. “You’ve got the wrong guy on that one. I don’t know what happened.”

There has been speculation Kane was the guy, primarily because he was surrounded by three Bruins when he came out for his next shift, one of them 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara.

“I was coming out for the faceoff, and the next thing I know three guys are around me, so I don’t know if they thought I said it or what,” Kane said. “I didn’t say anything to him, and when the three guys surrounded me I said, ‘what did I do to deserve this?’”

Kane is about a foot shorter than Chara.

“Yeah, I could probably take Chara down with my right hand,” Kane said.

Johnson honored:

The Chicago chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association has nominated center Ryan Johnson as the Hawks’ representative for the Masterton Trophy, which goes annually to the player demonstrating dedication, sportsmanship and perseverance to hockey.

“It means a lot,” the 34-year-old Johnson said. “Obviously this sport means a lot to me and has been good to me. I owe a lot to the game and to be able to put the amount of time and effort into the game and my career means a lot to me.

“I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of years and have some longevity. A lot of that comes from people, when I came into the league, showed me what it means to be professional – Scott Mellanby, Bret Hedican and Paul Laus, guys like that.”

Fingers crossed:

While there is no news regarding Dave Bolland’s recovery from his concussion, Joel Quenneville would not rule the veteran center out of the playoffs should the Hawks make it.

“I’m optimistic that could happen, but we’ll see,” Quenneville said. “We’ll continue to keep our hopes up, knowing there is progress. Maybe one day all of a sudden you could see him back doing things we want him to do to get back on the ice.”

Time to step up:

The Hawks went into the last six games of the season knowing there was more to the playoff race than watching what the teams around them were doing.

“We’ve been watching a lot of scoreboards night to night for a while here, but we have to take care of our own business for sure,” Quenneville said.

“I probably stopped watching the scores five or 10 games ago and just started focused on ourselves,” Kane said. “It’s nice when you get help from other teams, but you always want to be playing well yourself going into the playoffs.”