The view from Chicago

The Chicago Blackhawks reached the midpoint of their season last night with a 21-17-3 record — they were 31-10-3 through 41 games last season — but managed to break their three-game losing streak by beating the Kings last night. The Blackhawks went 4-0-0 against the Kings this season, and here’s a sampling of how last night’s Kings-Blackhawks game was presented in the Chicago media, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Blackhawks’ locker room…

Toews returns, scores deciding goal in Hawks’ win (Chicago Tribune)

King-sized `W’ for Hawks (Chicago Sun-Times)

Toews shows again why he’s so special (Daily Herald)

Sharp won’t be outdone in L.A. (ESPNChicago.com)

Toews’ return doesn’t lack for drama (ESPNChicago.com)

COACH JOEL QUENNEVILLE
(on the game…) “Toews had a gigantic effort tonight. Sharp had some huge goals for us. Crawford made a huge save early in the game and at the end. He was crucial in us coming up with two points. … Necessary win , huge win for us. Now it’s forward onto the next half of the season.”

“It was a little chaotic during the third. We’ve got to have more composure, that’s one thing we need to take from this game. … The importance of today’s game for us was huge. Our concern wasn’t the past few games. We did some good things. Out power play is what got us into the game tonight and was a large part of it as well.”

JONATHAN TOEWS
(on the game…) “We’ll take a win any way we can. We did some good things. Another slow start, we came out in a pretty good spot in the first period. Power play kept us in the game and Crawford was good. … We’ll take two points where we can. I think it’s games like this, where you come out on top, you’ve still got to look at the mistakes you made and try to get better at those things. … Tonight was a good game to get out of our three-game rut. We got a busy week at home and hopefully we can take advantage of it.

“(The) Kings are a talented team and they’re a smart, well-coached team too. I think we played smart for the most part, but there were some mistakes and give-aways where we gave them some unearned scoring chances. We’ve got to be smarter and I think we’ll be more comfortable going into third periods.”

PATRICK SHARP
(on Toews’ play…) “Jonathan is our captain, he’s our leader out there. He does a lot of things that aren’t noticed on the score sheet. It’s nice to have him back in the lineup and it’s nice to be healthy as a unit.”

(on the game…) “I’m happier that we broke this losing streak, we won a game, and we’re healthy in here and ready to start over again. … We’re finding ways to play the game. It was a pretty ugly 40 minutes and our power play kept us in it. We got better down the stretch. There were a lot of individual battles. Our competition level felt higher tonight. A win is a win and we’ll take it. … We’ve got a good unit, pucks are going in. Who knows what’s going to happen in the next 41 but so far, so good.”