Patrick Sharp is sporting a line of stitches across his cheek but considers himself the lucky one of the Blackhawks who endured having his face sewn together with a needle and thread during Monday night’s scrimmage.
Patrick Kane has a vertical line of stitches running from above his upper lip to below his bottom one.
“I take mine over his,” Sharp said before the Hawks’ 2-1 exhibition victory in overtime Tuesday night against the Red Wings at the United Center. “His is in the mouth area and that’s a little more painful than in the cheek. I got lucky on that one.”
The Hawks are hoping to get lucky through the rest of training camp and exhibition games by avoiding any injuries as they head into the 2014-15 regular season.
Seeing Sharp and Kane, two vital cogs to the Hawks’ quest for a Stanley Cup, head to the dressing room during a scrimmage is the type of thing to give coach Joel Quenneville and general manager Stan Bowman nightmares.
A big sigh of relief came in the form of Sharp and Kane not only returning to Monday’s scrimmage but also taking the ice for the exhibition against the Wings. The one thing that seemingly could derail a Hawks team loaded with talent and experience from a deep run in the postseason is injuries. With just more than two weeks remaining and five more exhibitions until the regular season opens Oct. 9 against the Stars in Dallas, the players want to be cautious but won’t be taking it easy to avoid getting hurt during contests with little meaning.
Kane scored the Hawks’ first goal with Jonathan Toews netting the winner in overtime.
“When you don’t go hard, that’s when the injuries happen,” Sharp said. “You see (Monday night), a game with moderate intensity … and I get a high stick and ‘Kaner’ gets a puck in the face. When you play your positions and you play hard usually you’re safe out there. It’s easy to say it’s a long season and you want to pace yourself but that’s how you get yourself into trouble. Hockey is a game where you need to play all out every shift.”
Added defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson: “Usually when you think about going into a situation not to get hurt … you’re the guy who ends up getting hurt. If you go into a situation 75 percent, it’s pretty big chance you get out of there hurt.”
Hjalmarsson, who led the Hawks and was 19th in the NHL in blocked shots last season with 157, did concede he won’t be as quick to sprawl in front of many slap shots during preseason.
“I’ll probably save those for the regular season,” he said. “Other than that, I’ll play as hard as I can.”
Quenneville is all for that.
“We like to play one way, and that’s all out,” he said.
Sidelined: Teuvo Teravainen and Joakim Nordstrom did not skate Tuesday and are considered day-to-day with upper-body injuries.
So long: The Hawks trimmed the camp roster when they assigned goaltenders Mac Carruth and Kent Simpson to Rockford. Also, the team released forward Ryan Schnell and defensemen Kirill Gotovets, Justin Holl and Zach Miskovic. Those four players also will report to Rockford.
The active roster now includes 26 forwards, 16 defensemen and four goaltenders.
Twitter @ChrisKuc
