Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews responded to a question asked on a Winnipeg radio station Thursday about a “situation that has been developing regarding one of your star teammates.”
The teammate referenced in the question is, of course, Patrick Kane, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his Hamburg, N.Y. offseason home in August. The Hamburg Police Department and Erie County prosecutors are investigating.
Here is the interview transcript via Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune:
Host: “Jonathan, I do want to ask you one question about being the captain of the Blackhawks. Obviously, most people are aware of a situation that has been developing regarding one of your star teammates. Obviously, I won’t ask you to comment on anything like that, but when something like that happens during the offseason does your focus as far as dealing with your teammates as well as the media change going into training camp as the captain of the team?”
Toews responded:
“I think you just have to have confidence that things like that will resolve themselves over time. For the time being, you stay together as a team. You support your teammate … uh, teammate, teammates that are maybe going through a rough patch. You know, we saw it last year with some rumors that spread around through social media about several guys in the locker room. It’s not the first time we’ve seen situations like that and eventually you deal with it internally and you stay together as a team and your confidence as individuals and as a group that everyone kind of stays together. At the end of the day we always say to each other that what is said and what is done within the locker room is the only thing that matters. We don’t let anything going on on the outside affect the way we do our jobs and the way we come to work together as a team. Again, I get a lot of credit because I have the ‘C’ on my sweater, but I think we have a great group of guys who understand what it takes to be a leader, what it takes to be a part of a good team. Clearly, it’s more than just what happens on the ice. There’s always a lot of things being said and things going on off the ice, but no matter what, we do a good job of sticking together.”
Toews is the first member of the Hawks organization to expound on a comment about what’s been going on.
The Hawks are scheduled to open training camp Sept. 17 on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.