Jonathan Toews hawkish as they come in NHL

The Chicago Blackhawks centre’s success is down to his watchfulness, writes Rob McKenzie.

Jonathan Toews, left, is a winner, writes our columnist. Jonathan Daniel / AFP

He circled the Winnipeg Jets net with his body at an angle and his eyes wide open, always moving, ever alert.

The Jets seemed to not know what to do with him, nor even where to start. When the game was done, Jonathan Toews had scored the opening goal and won 15 of 17 face-offs as his Chicago Blackhawks swept aside Winnipeg 4-1.

This was in November and the Hawks, with Toews as captain, were among the top handful of teams in the NHL’s Western Conference. The Hawks are still up there and a third Stanley Cup in five years could well be the pay-off this summer.

“He loves to win, he loves to play,” his wingman Patrick Kane said of Toews after the Hawks won the Cup in 2010. “He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. I think, one of the greats of all time.”

Easy, cheetah.

Toews has yet to win a league MVP award, nor has he ever been one of the three finalists. He has not finished a season in the top 10 in scoring.

Yet if you were a general manager and could pick any player to have on your team for the next five years, you could do no better than to pick Jonathan Toews.

The guy just wins.

He won a gold medal at the world junior championships in 2006. Won another gold at the same tournament in 2007 (and scored on all three of his tries in the shoot-out that settled the final). Won Olympic gold with Team Canada in 2010. Won the Stanley Cup in 2010 and 2013.

What makes him so good? It is not just his physical skills. The thing that stands out about Toews is his watchfulness. He is both playing the game and watching it. Gretzky was the same way. Montana and Jeter and Federer, too. Also Daryl on The Walking Dead.

You see it in their eyes.

Maybe this is what we mean when we say that someone has ice in their veins: amid mayhem, they maintain that second vision, the one that perceives or intuits the whole playing field and adapts accordingly.

Indeed, Toews himself has highlighted his ability to watch and absorb.

In an interview with ESPN in his rookie season, he spoke of having this quality at a young age.

“My dad started taking me to Winnipeg games when I was three or four. My dad told me that he would go buy me popcorn or a candy bar and I would just sit still and want to watch the game.

“He said I was pretty attentive at a young age.”