The Chicago Blackhawks got the W on Friday night against the San Jose Sharks. The 4-1 result was the important part and we’ll have your recap of all the good stuff that came out of the tilt on Saturday morning. But for now, let’s talk a little bit about Jonathan Toews.
Myself and several other fans of the Hawks would like to know just what in the hell the captain was thinking when he decided to drop the gloves with the much larger opposing captain, Joe Thornton.
In the first period, Toews boarded Thornton. The penalty was called, was delayed, and was going to happen. So Toews was already going to the box. But whether he felt that Thornton embellished or was just feeling feisty, Toews decided to keep going.
He tossed in a couple of cross checks while Thornton was on the ice. Then he proceeded to shove him several times after the whistle. Thornton finally obliged and the two went at it for a bit. And by “went at it”, I mean Toews flailed around while Thornton landed a couple of punches in a very underwhelming bout.
Toews ended up getting two for boarding, two for unsportsmanlike, and five for fighting. The Hawks went on a four minute penalty kill, which was made easier by an interference call that sent Patrick Marleau to the box and resulted in some four-on-four action.
That fight could have ended up a lot worse for the Blackhawks, obviously. Toews, who has had multiple concussion issues over the past couple of seasons, put himself into an extremely vulnerable position against a player much bigger than him. If Thornton lands a punch just right, the Hawks season goes down the drain.
Luckily, he didn’t. Instead, Toews just looks like he’s throwing a hissy fit. Yet, he’s lauded as a hero for “sparking” the Blackhawks to victory on Friday night. Somehow, the Hawks fed off of that and ran the Sharks out of their building. Which they looked like they were going to do, fight or no fight.
Of course the Blackhawks players and beat writers are feeding the meatheads in continuing to note that it was Toews that led the Hawks to victory with that fight. Why the Hawks needed a spark against a team that looked drained after losing six in a row is beyond me. Probably because they didn’t actually need the spark.
Are we all making a bit bigger deal out of this than needs to be made? Perhaps. Whether you want to look at it from a Toews health perspective or the fact that it wasn’t really necessary to begin with, it was just a dumb move on Toews’ part. There’s no other way to describe it.
At the end of the day, we all still love the captain. And will probably forget about this by Sunday. Hopefully we don’t see another lapse in judgment like that again anytime soon, though.