Nov. 26--DENVER -- Andrew Shaw was the first player to take the ice for the Blackhawks' practice in the Mile High City on Tuesday.
There was no mistaking that the forward is eager to return to action after missing the first three contests of the Hawks' six-game circus trip with an upper-body injury. Shaw apparently will get that chance Wednesday night when the Hawks face the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.
"I feel great right now," Shaw said. "Full of energy and excited to be on the ice with the guys and try to contribute as much as I can."
Shaw had lobbied to play Sunday night in the Hawks' 4-1 loss to the Canucks but was held out one more game to make sure the injury was healed completely.
"I think I'm ready all the time (but) that's what the team is here for, they make sure everything is healed up," Shaw said. "You don't want it to linger. We wanted to give it an extra day to make sure everything was OK."
Coach Joel Quenneville said the Hawks can use Shaw's presence in the lineup. The veteran has three goals, three assists and a team-high 19 penalty minutes in 18 games.
"We like the way he plays," Quenneville said. "He gives our team a lot of different dimensions, net-front presence on the power play, scrappy guy in the puck area (and) he has a lot of skill to complement that as well."
More returns: Antti Raanta participated in practice after battling an illness over the weekend. The goaltender was supposed to start against the Oilers on Saturday night but fell ill in the morning and Corey Crawford instead was in goal. Raanta also served as backup the next night against the Canucks. The illness prevented the Finnish netminder from making his first appearance in an NHL game since Oct. 25 against the Blues.
"Of course I was disappointed," Raanta said. "You're feeling pretty bad and then you're not even getting the game. It was a tough weekend for me but that's how life goes sometimes. I just have to get myself ready and ... into good condition. That's the main thing now."
Raanta is expected to start one of the Hawks' back-to-back games Friday and Saturday against the Ducks and Kings, respectively.
Quenneville said Daniel Carcillo will play against the Avalanche after the winger returned to Chicago to attend the birth of son Austin Wolf Carcillo on Monday.
Money talk: According to Forbes, the Hawks are the NHL's fourth most valuable franchise at $825 million, an increase of 32 percent from a year ago.
The Maple Leafs are No. 1 at $1.3 billion, the Rangers second at $1.1 billion and the Canadiens third at $1 billion.
Forbes reported that the average NHL team value rose 18.6 percent during the past year to an all-time high of $490 million. The increase is fueled by the league's new Canadian media deal with Rogers Communications.
In addition, Hawks fans ranked second behind Penguins fans in the category of NHL's Best Fans, based on a formula that included crowd reach among the population, TV ratings, attendance, sales of merchandise and social media.
Early, often: The NHL released first-week voting totals for the Jan. 25 All-Star Game at Columbus. The Hawks dominated the voting with four players among the Top 10 -- Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford ranked fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively.
Voting at NHL.com/vote concludes Jan. 1 with the top six vote-getters by position set to take part in the game.
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