Blackhawks G Thibault out 2-4 weeks with broken finger

  Thibault went down after MacInnis' blast from the right faceoff circle went off his glove 3:49 into the first period. MacInnis is a five-time winner of the hardest shot competition at the All-Star skills competition whose shot has been clocked in excess of 100 miles per hour.

  "I don't want to be responsible for hurting anyone," said the 1999 Norris Trophy winner. "It was just one of those things. He just got his glove on it."

  "It's still bleeding, it hasn't stopped," Thibault said. "I knew right away. I took my glove off and it was bleeding. It was unfortunate. ... From my experience before, it's not a very long injury. It's your catching hand, and when you catch the puck it will be very tender. I don't think it will be a month."

  Thibault broke the same finger during the 1996-97 season with the Montreal Canadiens.

  "It was a rocket," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "It had to have a lot of mustard on it to break the goalie's hand through his glove."

  Thibault, 24, entered tonight's game with a 2-9-3 record, one shutout and a 3.19 goals-against average for the last-place Blackhawks. After signing a multi-year contract in the offseason, the former Montreal Canadien has split playing time with rookie Steve Passmore. Thibault was replaced tonight by another rookie, Marc Lamothe, who surrendered seven goals on 25 shots.

  A Montreal native, Thibault was acquired from the Canadiens in November 1998 with defensemen Brad Brown and Dave Manson for goalie Jeff Hackett and defensemen Eric Weinrich and Alain Nasreddine.

  Thibault immediately took over as Chicago's No. 1 goalie and went 21-26-5 last season with four shutouts and a 2.71 GAA. Before the trade, Thibault was splitting time with Jose Theodore in Montreal and was 3-4 with a 2.61 GAA.

  The 5-11, 170-pound Thibault had trouble living up to impossible expectations after coming over from Colorado in the December 1995 deal that sent future Hall-of-Fame netminder Patrick Roy to the Avalanche.

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