Toews as Captain: How Do You Like Him Now?
Don’t know about all of you, but I have been quite impressed with Jonathan Toews as Captain this year. Watching interviews with him it’s easy to understand how he came to be called Mr. Serious. So, despite some concern from outsiders, his maturity level was never an issue, though he is the third youngest captain ever.
What I didn’t expect, however, was for Toews to become something of a scrapper.
Granted he’s a minor scrapper (and certainly no enforcer) behind the likes of Burish, Versteeg, Brouwer, Walker, Byfuglien, and Eager, but a scrapper nonetheless. I’m thinking in particular of the November 18 game between the Hawks and Coyotes where Patrick Kane got a very nasty check in the neutral zone from Martin Hanzal, then hit his head on the skate of Viktor Tikhonov.
Apparently Tazer thought there was some malice there and seized upon an opportunity to take the “guilty” Coyote, Martin Hanzal, to task for the perceived infraction. That turned out to be Toews’ first NHL fight. There would be more to follow, each one leaving us all riveted to the TV in disbelief.
Toews is discerning, picking his moments. He doesn’t appear to be a scrapper by nature, but it’s good to see that he is taking his captain duties seriously (as you would expect Mr. Serious, er, I mean Captain Serious, would), which to him means defending his teammates, even though it may go a bit against his style.