The Best Highlights for the Chicago Blackhawks' Stars in 2014-15

The Chicago Blackhawks stubbed their collective toes when they dropped a 2-0 decision at the United Center Tuesday night to the Colorado Avalanche despite firing 54 shots on goal against Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov.

Despite that frustrating loss, the Blackhawks have been quite sharp in recent weeks and have climbed to second place in the Central Division.

As usual, stars like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have been doing more than their share for head coach Joel Quenneville. In this piece, we look at some of the top highlights from Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Kane and Toews through Chicago's first 40 games of the season.

Patrick Sharp

Patrick Sharp is one of the Blackhawks' best goal scorers, and he's coming off a 2013-14 season in which he led the team with 34 goals and 44 assists.

However, Sharp's 2014-15 season came to a halt in early November when he suffered a knee injury in a game at Montreal, and he missed about a month of action. He has been skating well since his return in December and has been looking quite comfortable in recent games.

He had perhaps his best moment of the year when he scored the game-winning goal in overtime Jan. 5 at the United Center versus the Dallas Stars. 

Sharp drove down the slot, took a pass from Duncan Keith and then fired a wrist shot that beat Dallas' Kari Lehtonen for his eighth goal of the season.

Jonathan Toews

The captain of the Blackhawks has a reputation for coming through with his biggest plays when his team needs him the most.

Jonathan Toews got started at that aspect of his game early in the season when the Nashville Predators came to the United Center Oct. 19.

The score was tied 1-1 in overtime, and the Blackhawks were killing a penalty. Instead of lying back as the Blackhawks defended in a four-on-three situation, Toews intercepted a pass along the wall and sped in on a breakaway versus Predators goalie Carter Hutton. The Nashville goalie stayed with Toews and stopped his initial shot, but Toews got his own rebound and tucked it in the net for an early-season winner.

It helped set the tone for what has been another All-Star season for Toews.

Patrick Kane

Patrick Kane loves to score spectacular goals and put his imprint on nearly every game he plays.

He was in rare form when the Toronto Maple Leafs came to the United Center Dec. 21 for a Sunday night game.

Kane was the fastest and sharpest player on the ice that night and made the primary assists on two first-period goals that allowed the Blackhawks to take a 2-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes. After a scoreless second period, Kane was on the attack again in the third period.

He scored a power-play goal as he tucked the puck past Toronto goalie James Reimer. Kane regularly looks like he can do whatever he wants with the puck on his stick, and this play was no exception.

Duncan Keith

After winning his second Norris Trophy in 2014, Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith didn't take too long to get started in 2014-15.

He scored the season-opening goal for the Blackhawks in Dallas Oct. 9. The Stars had been getting the better of the play in the first period and were outshooting Chicago 8-2 in the final minutes.

The Blackhawks worked the puck into the Dallas zone, and Keith got it along the half-boards. Without any warning, he wound up and fired a rocket of a slap shot that got through Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen and got the Blackhawks' season off to a good start.

Chicago would go on to win the game 3-2 in a shootout.

Brent Seabrook

Defenseman Brent Seabrook is having perhaps his best regular season with the Blackhawks. He has already scored seven goals, and it seems likely that he will hit double figures in goals for the first time in his career.

Seabrook was at his best Dec. 16 in a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild at the United Center. After Minnesota took a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period, Seabrook tied the score on a blast from the slot after taking a pass from Kris Versteeg.

The shot was perfectly placed with maximum velocity and beat Minnesota goalie Niklas Backstrom decisively. Seabrook also added two assists for the Blackhawks in his most productive game of the season.