Blackhawks' Toews picks up the scoring pace
When Jonathan Toews tapped home a perfect feed from Patrick Kane for a power-play goal to open the scoring Sunday night at the United Center, it gave the Blackhawks' captain 10 goals on the season.
It ties the second-fewest games Toews has needed to reach double-digit goals and is a vast improvement over the past three seasons when he's needed 38, 45 and 33 games to get there.
"Oh, that's good," Toews said when informed of how his pace ranks over the course of his career. "It's nice. I'm getting opportunities, finding pucks around the net. … It's nice to see them go in."
That's exactly where Toews was standing when Kane found him at 8:26 of the first period. It was just the Hawks' second power-play goal under new coach Jeremy Colliton, but it was a huge conversion in their 3-1 victory over Minnesota at the United Center.
"Our penalty kill, our power play - everything is starting to really fall into place," Toews said. "We're finding our confidence."
Leaning on vets:
Brent Seabrook saw about 25½ minutes of ice time for the second straight game Sunday, something new coach Jeremy Colliton is just fine with.
"We need something to hold on to as a group here and him and (Duncan Keith) have been around for a while and they're comfortable with each other," Colliton said. "We're trying to develop the whole group. That's what we need to do in order to win."
When Colliton paired Seabrook with Keith four games ago, he moved rookie 19-year-old Henri Jokiharju down to the second pair with Erik Gustafsson. Jokiharju's ice time has been under 19 minutes in three of six games under Colliton; under Quenneville, that happened only once in 15 games.
"Sometimes young guys, it's a little easier for them to play with the young guys and the older guys it's easier to play with older guys," Colliton said.
Slap shots:
Henri Jokiharju's 10 assists are No. 1 among rookies. Five of those helpers came in the Hawks' first three games. … Jonathan Toews needs 6 assists to move into ninth in franchise history. With 10 more, Toews will have 400. … Wild defenseman Matt Dumba took a season-high 7 shots on goal against the Hawks on Sunday. It's the second-highest total of his career, behind only the 9 he took on Jan. 2, 2016. … Andreas Martinsen has 22 hits in the Hawks' last four games. … Duncan Keith has just 2 goals on 244 shots in his last 113 games. … Brent Seabrook needs 2 goals to reach 100 for his career. … Chris Kunitz, Luke Johnson and Brandon Manning were the Hawks' healthy scratches against Minnesota on Sunday. It was the second healthy scratch of Kunitz's career, with both coming this season. Manning has been scratched in three of the last five games.