Hidden past: Carcillo a captain, altar boy

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SUNRISE, Fla.Gino Carcillo playfully dodged the question of his son Daniels childhood.

You dont want to know, the elder Carcillo said with a laugh, as he watched his son practice in person as part of the Blackhawks dads trip here to Florida.

Growing up, actually, in his younger stages he was captain of his team, Gino continued. He took care of his club and any problems; any fights or misunderstandings, he would be there. Hell go to war for you, right to the end.

That part hasnt changed for Carcillo, who will be back in the lineup Thursday night when the Blackhawks play the Florida Panthers.

The Blackhawks have made these family trips an annual eventthe fathers get theirs this year, the mothers went on a California trip last year. This isnt the first one for the Carcillos, who went on two together when Daniel played for the Philadelphia Flyers.

But the fun of it never ends, and this was the first time Carcillos been able to spend time with his dad since the summer. The two also teamed up on the golf course with other teammatesdads, where Daniel said, I carried our team for sure. The Lepistos were busy eating hot dogs and staring at birds they dont see in Europe.

Daniel, the middle son of three in the Carcillo family, concurred that there wasnt a whole lot of unordinary moments in his altar-boy, youth-group childhood.

Thats true, actually, Daniel said. I had pretty strict parents; if I didnt do well in school wouldnt play hockey. I was a really good student, believe it or not. It was a pretty normal childhood.

Carcillo didnt want to dwell on his suspension, other than he was glad it was done. A few days ago he joked that he thought about changing his last name, hes under such scrutiny in the league. Gino laughed that off, too.

He was born a Carcillo and hell die a Carcillo, said Gino. Sometimes (hes targeted); but hes built that reputation on his own, though, you have to remember. But when he was younger, I dont understand it, he never fought. He was a 20-30 goal scorer. When he went to the AHL (Wilkes-Barre) for Pittsburgh, thats when he started fighting. That carried him through.

Still bothered by suspension

Daniel Carcillo didn't want to dwell on the two-game suspension he completed earlier this week but he's still not happy about it. And the Blackhawks forward insinuated that Carolina's Joni Pitkanen, who went into the boards on the hit, may have embellished a bit.

"Its Joni Pitkanen. Ask around the league. Hes a big guy but he goes down easy," Carcillo said of Pitkanen, who never missed a shift in that game and logged the most ice time of any Carolina player that night. "It's a quick play and it happened. Thats that. I honestly dont want to dwell on it."

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