St. Vital’s Toews healthy, optimistic despite Blackhawks’ woes

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This article was published 29/11/2018 (2473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jonathan Toews is the archetype of a winner in the hockey world.

For starters, he’s a three-time Stanley Cup winner, a two-time world junior gold medallist and a two-time Olympic gold medallist. All of which made it strange to hear the 30-year-old captain call for his Chicago Blackhawks to be the “spoiler” prior to their Thursday night tilt with his hometown Jets.

But the Hawks, losers of 12 of their last 15 games heading into Thursday’s action, are that kind of a team.

Fighting to stay relevant in a salary-cap world that has helped to wreak havoc on its roster, Chicago is a team in transition after winning three Stanley Cups in a span of five seasons between 2010 and 2015.

Longtime bench boss Joel Quenneville was fired on Nov. 6 after a 9-11-5 start and the Hawks have gone 3-5-0 under his replacement, Jeremy Colliton. Chicago followed consecutive first-round playoff exits by missing the post-season completely last spring.

“I feel great,” Toews said following Thursday’s morning skate. “I think the long off-season this past couple of years has definitely helped get that fire back and that energy and coming in this season in really good shape.

“It’s more fun when you’re winning games. It’s tough (and) it’s frustrating when we’ve lost as much as we have in the last five, 10 games but personally I feel good and feel like I’m doing a lot of good things. I feel like I’m going to keep getting better as the season goes along.”

His new coach believes the rejuvenated Toews is just the man to lead them back to contender status.

“I think it’s hard on him,” said Colliton. “He’s a great competitor and wants to win more Cups, so being where we are — no one’s happy, no one’s satisfied. And he’s leading the charge there. I look at that as a positive. We want competitiveness in our group. Now everyone has to do it, every night, every shift.”

Has the man from St. Vital changed much since the title run?

“I can’t stay much about five years ago because I wasn’t here,” added Colliton. “But I think he’s playing pretty well. Very active, making plays, forechecking hard, no one can question his work ethic and he’s been able to produce for us. I think he can do more but I think he’s carry a heavy load right now.

Roster turnover has been steady in recent years and Hawks GM Stan Bowman was massaging his roster again recently, shipping forward Nick Schmaltz to the Arizona Coyotes in return for centre Dylan Strome and winger Brendan Perlini earlier this week.

The club held a mini-training camp to bring the new arrivals up to speed and the guy known as “Captain Serious” was in the thick of it.

“You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do,” said Toews. “Sometimes you ask yourself how bad do you want to win? And what are you willing to do to go out there and win? If that’s what it takes, you’ve gotta do it.”

Sophomore winger Alex DeBrincat, who already has 38 goals in his first 107 NHL games, is a big Toews supporter.

“I think he’s been great through that change,” said DeBrincat. “It’s probably been tough for those guys that have been with Joel for so long but he’s been great through it all. But he’s been great through it all. He’s a great leader, he knows when to speak up. I know we’ve been going through a pretty tough run lately, so he’s been there to keep us positive and keep us going.”

As eager as he is to return the franchise to its storied past, Toews understands the process can be slow and painful. He wants to lead without being overbearing.

“It’s not like you can go at a guy acting like you think you know what he needs,” said Toews. “We’ve got some good young guys who have a lot of talent but also want to learn, want to get better. We try and establish that culture, what it takes to win, to be a good team. And it’s obviously working hard every day, doing the little things right.

“Our young guys have done a great job of trying to be sponges, trying to learn and adapt quick. Because we need everyone to be contributors. And guys that haven’t played a lot of NHL games you’re trying to develop really fast and be guys we can all rely upon every night. Across the board, everyone’s taken that responsibility on pretty well.”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14