HIS NUMBERS MIGHT BE DOWN, BUT DON’T COUNT JONATHAN TOEWS OUT
For a moment in time, you could have this conversation: Who was the more valuable player, Sidney Crosby or Jonathan Toews?
It didn’t seem far-fetched the way it seems far-fetched now. Crosby scored the famed Golden Goal at the Vancouver Olympics; Toews led Team Canada in scoring in the tournament.
Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009. Toews’s Chicago Blackhawks won the Cup in 2010. Toews won the Conn Smythe Trophy and followed it up by winning Cups in 2013 and 2015. The argument all but ended when the Penguins won the Cup the past two years, with Crosby taking home the Conn Smythe each time.
So, where is Toews now, in his 11th National Hockey League season with the magnificent Blackhawks and with his scoring numbers in decline after captaining three championships?
He is ranked 27th on TSN’s cumulative list of the top 50 NHL players. Some players would celebrate that ranking, but not Toews. In the list’s previous eight years, he never placed lower than eighth overall. Twice he was second behind Crosby. Twice he was third.
On this year’s rankings, he was 14th among NHL centremen. He was 22nd on my list of top 50 projecting this year’s players for the network, and to be honest, I felt guilty placing him that low.
It still doesn’t feel right because it’s Toews, the player the great Dave Keon most likes to watch in today’s NHL, the centre who is measured more by victories than goals scored, measured more by the intangibles that can’t be captured on a chart or a graph. Maybe Keon likes Toews so much because of the similarities between the two.
Jean Beliveau used to say Keon was the most challenging centreman he would match up against. The numbers didn’t always tell you that: The game did. A lot of the NHL still says the same thing about Toews. They just don’t know who exactly he is anymore, where he fits in, or whether he can be a franchise-changer again.
“The only thing that’s changed is his production went down,” said Stan Bowman, the Blackhawks general manager who will pay Toews more than US$13 million in salary and bonuses this season.
“He’s the same player. He still does a lot of stuff that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. I get why his ratings are down, his points and all, but he’s still somebody everybody in Chicago believes in. He’s our leader. He sets the pace with his intensity, his competitiveness, his leadership. I think his productivity will return to normal levels this season.
“With some players, offensive production outpaces their effectiveness. With some guys, it’s the opposite — their effectiveness is higher than what they show on the scoresheet. With Jonathan, even when he’s scoring 70, 80 points, it’s not the points that define him, it’s about all the other stuff he does.”
Mike Babcock understands all that and believes in it. He had Toews with him in a central role on the gold medal-winning Olympic teams in 2010 and 2014, and the World Cup of Hockey team in 2016.
“I think he’s a conscience for your team,” Babcock said. “(The Blackhawks) don’t win any of their championships without that guy. He does the right (thing) every single day. The bigger the day, the bigger the moment, the better he plays.”
In Babcock speak, Toews is “a real good man, a real good leader, a real good person and a great player.”
The Blackhawks traded for Brandon Saad, whom they had traded away, ostensibly because they needed someone to play with Toews. They didn’t have the right fit. They figure Saad is a pair of comfortable shoes for Toews.
“When you’re playing against the best players on every team, you need help on your line,” Bowman said. “Jonathan was being weighed down a little when he didn’t have the help he needed. I think you’ll see a different player this year.”
Maybe the Toews of old. Maybe someone close to that kind of difference-maker.
Toews admits having a long summer, having more rest — after being eliminated in four forgettable games last April — helps. He hasn’t had many of those over the years.
This was a summer to get rest, to do more work — if the two in fact are interchangeable. The game has changed, he admits. He needed to work on some things, quickness among them. He wants to expand his offensive game.
He may never be back in the Crosby conversation, but as Alexander Ovechkin is proving once again, one season can have little to do with the next. It doesn’t mean that Toews can’t be relevant, important, be a serious Captain Serious once again.
“I was kind of in awe of Taser at such a young age in how focused and dedicated he was,” said the veteran Patrick Sharp, who is back with the Hawks again. “Not that that’s changed, but I see the fire in his eyes again.
“More than anything, he’s mentally determined to get back to the level he was when he entered the league.”
He’s the same player. He still does a lot of stuff that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet … He’s still somebody everybody in Chicago believes in.