Jonathan Toews had nine penalty minutes for a single incident on Friday. Toews was assessed a two-minute minor for boarding the Sharks' Joe Thornton, but then Toews continued to push Thornton until the two finally dropped the gloves and fought. Toews ended up with a second minor for unsportsmanlike conduct and five for fighting. "The last few games, including last season, there's always some stuff going on, be it after the whistles or during the play. I guess it just comes down to players trying to get under your skin and test you a little bit," Toews said. "I figured at some point I had to stand up for myself. It came down to that, I guess." Before Friday, Toews had just one minor penalty all season.

Jonathan Toews is taking his role as the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks seriously. Toews was named captain before the start of the 2008-09 season and now that he is 24 years of age, it means more to him. "I want to improve on how I am in the locker room, on the bench, as an individual and just bringing that positive energy, especially when things maybe don't go right," Toews said. "I'm trying to stay even-keeled and not get frustrated. That's something I've been focusing on." Toews has already lifted the Stanley Cup over his head as captain and it doesn't get better than that.

Jonathan Toews didn't play in Europe during the lockout, but he's still off to a great start. Toews is evidence that there's more than one way to stay sharp over an extended layoff. He spent three days a week doing informal skates during the work stoppage. "It wasn't the same thing as playing on a team, being in Europe or being in that everyday routine. But we pushed ourselves hard," Toews said. "I'm sure a lot of guys across the league thought the same thing, that 'Hey we don't know when this will end.' We just kept that optimistic feeling that at some point it was going to happen, and we wanted to be ready to play our best hockey when it did." Chicago is 6-0-1 going into Friday's game against Vancouver.

Jonathan Toews lit the lamp in the Blackhawks' 3-2 shootout loss to the Wild on Wednesday night. It was the captain's fourth of the season, and his seventh point in six games. He's primed to perform at a point-per-game level this season. Andrew Shaw also had a marker, his first of the season. Assists went to Bryan Bickell, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa.

Jonathan Toews notched a goal in the Blackhawks' 3-2 win over the Blue Jackets on Saturday night. The Hawks' captain now has three goals on the season, his latest considered the game-winner. Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland had the other markers for Chicago, which is now 5-0-0 on the season. Patrick Kane had two helpers and two penalty minutes in the win as well.

The Chicago Blackhawks are a perfect 8-8 when it comes to the penalty kill this season. Chicago was awful last season as they were 27th in the NHL in that department after spending a lot of the season worse than that. But it's been the opposite in the early going. "Our penalty kill is great," Toews said. "Were getting pucks out and doing the little things and just making it harder on them in our zone. You do that and eventually they're going to try and make some plays and make some mistakes off that." The Blackhawks have looked very good thus far and although it is early, they have the talent to be a Stanley Cup contender.

Jonathan Toews, who was very outspoken during the lockout when it came to Gary Bettman, spoke on Sunday to the commissioner. Bettman was in Los Angeles Saturday as the Kings raised the Stanley Cup banner to the rafters. Chicago were the opponents and the two talked briefly outside the Chicago dressing room. "It was a brief but positive conversation - I'll leave it at that," Toews said. "(That) other stuff doesn't really matter anymore." Looks like all has been forgotten since both sides settled their dispute and that is good for the game of hockey.

Jonathan Toews (flu) will play on Saturday, although Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville will monitor his playing time. Quenneville is hoping that Toews will be fine to handle his normal workload, but that might not happen. All the same, fantasy teams that have Toews should feel free to start him on Saturday.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville "anticipates" Jonathan Toews (flu) playing Saturday. Chicago's captain didn't practice Friday, but signs are pointing to him being in the lineup for the season opener versus the Kings. "There's good enough progess [Friday] that we anticipate him playing," Quenneville said.

With the lockout about to end, Jonathan Toews isn't convinced that it really had to go on this long. ''It's just more of a relief," said Toews. "We're excited to get back in front of our fans and just be together on a daily basis. But the realistic thing that sets in is: Did it really have to go this far? Did we really have to miss over three months? It's unfortunate. We know we've got a long road ahead of us to try and build this game back and earn the respect from the fans again." The good news is that the two sides were still able to salvage the season, so they won't have to recover from the stigma of yet another lost campaign. The shortened season should be exciting, with even game being critical to a team's chances of making the playoffs.