"It's a possibility that he could go [Monday]," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He obviously means a lot to us in a lot of ways. He's so useful [for] a coach to put him in a lot of different situations. We're very excited about the chance of getting him [back]."

Toews was originally ruled out two weeks after enduring a hard check from Blues winger Matt D'Agostini on Tuesday. If he plays Monday, Toews would have been out less than a week and missed just two games. The Hawks were staring at possibly being without Toews for up to seven games.

After practice Saturday in Chicago, Toews said he wasn't 100 percent, but that he was feeling better everyday.

"It felt pretty good," Toews said. "It's been getting better everyday. So that's obviously a good sign. Just a couple days off definitely makes you want to come back. You go out there and it's fun. It's refreshing just to be back on the ice with the boys. It's only been a couple of days, but it feels a lot longer than that.

''I'm just pretty happy about where it is right now considering what the normal diagnosis is for this injury. Everyone said it's around two weeks. If it keeps going at this pace, hopefully it will be quicker than that.''