Break gives Burish more time to rehab

When Adam Burish saw that Detroit's Johan Franzen was returning to the Red Wings' lineup last Tuesday, he asked Blackhawks doctors what was up.

Burish and Franzen each tore the ACL in their knee, but Franzen did it more than two weeks after the Hawks winger and returned about three weeks sooner than Burish's target date.

"He had his done a different way," Burish said. "He had his knee fixed a different way than I did, and if you get it fixed a certain way you can come back faster.

"Trust me, I asked the doctors how is this guy back before me; something is not right here.

"I think part of it was (Franzen) was trying to get back before the Olympics so he could play there. From everything I hear, it's not the safest to come back that early, so I'm going to spend a couple extra weeks here."

While many of his non-Olympic teammates scatter to Mexico and Jamaica next week for some sun and rest, Burish is going home to Madison, Wis., to skate and further rehab the knee.

He expects to play after the break on March 3 against Edmonton, March 5 against Vancouver or March 7 against Detroit.

"I'm going to use this time as a mini-training camp with my trainer to be ready that first week back," he said.

"You watch him in practice and he has a lot of pace to his stride," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

Last day to rest: Joel Quenneville gave his six Olympians an extra day off from practice Thursday because of the hectic schedule they have coming up.

The Hawks will practice again Friday ahead of games Saturday against Atlanta and Sunday at Columbus. The six Olympians then will fly from Columbus to Vancouver, practice with their respective countries Monday, and play their first games Tuesday or Wednesday.

"We're going to have 10 days off next week and they're going to be real busy," Quenneville said. "This gives them a chance to get some rest and maybe get a little bit more organized. They play a lot now and they're not going to have the luxury we're going to have the next 10 days.

"We have two games here that are very important for us and we want to get some momentum going into the break."

Replacing Madden: With John Madden out until after the Olympic break with a lower-body injury, Kris Versteeg will jump back to center this weekend against Atlanta and Columbus.

Joel Quenneville would rather move Versteeg to center and leave Patrick Sharp at left wing on the first line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

"We can look at Sharpie, but I like that line and I didn't want to mix it up last game and going into the next game I think we'll keep those guys together because they're going good," Quenneville said.

Fun and games: Brian Campbell called his charity poker tournament to benefit autism Wednesday night at the Horseshoe Casino a big success with all 500 tickets sold out.

Nobody knew which Hawk lasted the longest in the poker tourney, Troy Brouwer or Cam Barker, but they all knew Joel Quenneville went out first.

"Geez, I played well to get knocked out early," Quenneville joked.