Jonathan Toews‘ status for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Boston Bruins is uncertain after the Blackhawks center was beat in Game 5 to the point that he missed the third period because of injury.
Toews was quiet in the first three games of the Cup Finals, but he scored in the high-scoring Game 4 affair, and he assisted on two Patrick Kane goals before sitting out the third with an upper-body injury in Game 5.
The B’s play tough hockey, and they seemed to go especially hard on Toews. Zdeno Chara nailed the center twice with shots to the head (pictured), and Dennis Seidenberg also leveled him. But the hardest hit of all — the one many believe contributed most to Toews’ injury problems — was a nasty hit by Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk.
Boychuk said after the game that he doesn’t think he’ll be suspended because he believes his hit was clean.
“He was cutting to the net and I came across and read it and hit him,” Boychuk said, via NHL.com “Tried to hit him clean. I thought it was. I don’t know how he fell, awkwardly, or how he fell; but I’m going to try and play physical. He’s going to drive the net like he’s supposed to and I’m going to hit. … He was bending forward so (I) was just trying to stop him from going to the net.”
The Blackhawks are hopeful Toews will be ready for Game 6 on Monday.
“We’re hopeful he’ll be ready next game, upper-body,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow. I checked on him a couple times there. I think he wanted to play, but we’ll see.”
Here is video of Quenneville’s comments on Toews:
