Hawks Hockey Hoiden

After Jonathan Toews sustained what is likely to be a concussion in Wednesday’s game against the Canucks, thanks to a hard hit from Vancouver’s Willie Mitchell, people are still talking about where to assign blame.

First folks were decrying the hit as dirty (a sentiment echoed by fans at the UC who booed because the hit hadn’t been called as roughing).  Then in replays when the hit was determined to be clean, some folks actually started blaming Tazer, saying he should have seen it coming.  Tazer didn’t see it coming because he was looking back for the pass.  There wasn’t time to receive the pass and watch for oncoming traffic, so Tazer chose to receive the pass.  This is what I mean when I refer to Toews as “selfless” or when I say that he does things that aren’t recorded on stats sheets.

I often wonder how anyone can have a single criticism for Toews on the ice.  I can’t remember in my lifetime seeing an athlete with more character (with the exception of Walter Payton).  So, is that old adage true?  Do nice guys really finish last?  Do folks then really want to argue that Toews could have seen the hit coming and braced himself had he simply been a more selfish player?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 2:48 am and is filed under Chicago Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.