Carcillo could be close to return

Daniel Carcillo, who injured his right knee in the first game of the season at Los Angeles, has started skating again and could return to practice this week.

Carcillo skated with injured Blackhawks teammates Steve Montador and Rostislav Olesz on Tuesday at the United Center, coach Joel Quenneville said.

Montador has missed all season with a concussion, while Olesz hasn’t played all year because of a knee injury.

“We had three guys skate prior to practice, and they’re all progressing,” Quenneville said. “Danny still is not in our practices yet, but hopefully at some point this week he might get injected. He started skating last week, probably the middle of the week.”

Carcillo was skating on the first line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa when he got hurt, but that role now belongs to rookie Brandon Saad.

Where does Quenneville see Carcillo fitting back in when he does return?

“We love those kinds of decisions,” Quenneville said. “We welcome tough ones. The depth is something that when we went into the start of the season, you know you’re going to get tested and challenged. Today we look relatively healthy, but we’ll see. Danny had a great first game back and hopefully he’ll be at that pace when he gets back.”

Since the Hawks never put Carcillo on injured reserve they do not need to make a roster move.

Montador and Olesz are on IR. The Hawks are paying their full salaries, which is $2.75 million for Montador and $3.1 million for Olesz.

Crunching numbers:The Hawks were only 2-for-23 on the power play on their six-game road trip, but they believe those numbers are deceiving.#147;Our power play didn#146;t look like it had a good trip, but every game we were pleased with our power play,#148; Joel Quenneville said. #147;We liked the in-game momentum it was sustaining or creating, we had a lot of entries, we had a lot of puck retrievals, had net front presence, we had some good shots and good looks. It didn#146;t slow us down in games and that#146;s how we like to measure it.#148;Jonathan Toews agreed with his coach and has no concerns about the power play.#147;We have nights where it#146;s tic-tac-toe and a shot, everything clicks for us and it goes in,#148; Toews said. #147;Some nights you do that and it doesn#146;t go in and you don#146;t create anything. Whether we score or not, we#146;ve got to keep that one consistency where we#146;re at least gaining some momentum off the power play.#147;We always know that as long as we#146;re working hard as a five-man unit we#146;re going to get at least that out of it.#148;No slowing down:Teemu Selanne, Anaheim#146;s 42-year-old winger, led the Ducks with 14 points coming into Tuesday#146;s game.The ageless Selanne show no signs of slowing down and has impressed even his coach, Bruce Boudreau.#147;He#146;s the first one I#146;ll ask all the time, #145;How are you feeling?#146;#148; Boudreau said. #147;He says, #145;I#146;m like a box of chocolates. You just open it up and you never know what you#146;re going to get. Sometimes you get the good chocolate and sometimes the not so good.#146;#148;Selanne is coming off a 4-point game in a shootout win at St. Louis on Saturday. He had 2 goals and 2 assists in the Ducks#146; season opener and 3 assists against Minnesota on Feb. 1.#147;There are nights like in St. Louis when he was tremendous,#148; Boudreau said. #147;He gets his legs going and he#146;s done it a couple times this year. For a man of his age doing what he#146;s doing, it#146;s quite remarkable.#148;