Blackhawks captain Toews enters NHL's COVID-19 protocol

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks put captain Jonathan Toews and Henrik Borgstrom in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol on Tuesday, giving the winless team five players on the list.

Toews and Borgstrom missed practice after they joined fellow forwards Patrick Kane and Jujhar Khaira and defenseman Riley Stillman in the protocol. Assistant coaches Marc Crawford and Tomas Mitell are away from the team for the same reason.

The use of the COVID-19 list doesn’t necessarily mean any of the players or coaches tested positive. They could have been deemed a close contact of someone who tested positive. The team was 100% vaccinated at the start of training camp.

Chicago is 0-5-1 heading into Wednesday night's game against Toronto. Kane is tied with defenseman Seth Jones with a team-high four assists and leads the Blackhawks with five points overall.

Toews had two assists during Sunday night's 6-3 loss to Detroit for his first points since missing all of last season with what he described as chronic immune response syndrome.

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