CO M I N G OF AGE IN CHICAGO

Coming
Of Age in
Chicago
Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews
have taken their games to the
next level during their third
season in the Windy City.
BY BRETT BALLANTINI

I
t’s been a long time since the NHL’s horizon has
been so inviting.
The league is more and more populated by
baby-faced superstars, players just old enough to
legally crack a post-game beer (or in some cases,
not quite yet). And such newbies are everywhere,
dotting the hockey landscape from coast-to-coast
and throughout North America.

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 CO M I N G OF AGE IN CHICAGO

There’s Kings defenseman Drew

Doughty, at 20 the youngest medalist
in the 2010 Olympics. There’s Steven
Stamkos, the Tampa Bay Lightning
wunderkind who just turned 20 and
already has lapped his class while
streaking toward 150 career points.
Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh
Penguins, at 21, has already tucked
close to 175 career points in his back
pocket and wears a Stanley Cup ring
on his finger. There’s Erik Johnson
with the St. Louis Blues, Luke Schenn
of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sam
Gagne with the Edmonton Oilers,
Peter Mueller with the Colorado
Avalanche, and even Calder Trophy
winner Steve Mason of the Columbus
Blue Jackets…
And oh yeah, there’s these two
fellas in Chicago. You may have heard
something about them, Jonathan
Toews and Patrick Kane. Toews, if
the name doesn’t immediately ring a
bell, is the fella with more nicknames
than facial expressions, all of them
somehow relating to his position as
team captain. Kane, a smaller and
more electrifying playmaker, could
well be Toews’ alter-ego: mischievous,
frank, funny.
Toews is climbing rapidly toward
200 career points and a plus-
50 career rating, while Kane is
approaching a point per game for his
career (rising toward 250) and took
dramatic steps forward defensively
in 2009-10. And the duo, along with
Stamkos, were the only players to
begin the season younger than 22
who finished among the league’s top
50 scorers. In short, either Chicagoan
could be considered the best of the headlined by Kane. “They’ve come “Yeah, I gave him his first,” Kane
NHL’s underclassmen. together quickly at a young age. You’re says, with a smile. “But something tells
But with all apologies to the looking at two remarkably talented me that over time I’m going to get
handy offense-defense combination players on the same line for a long, more [assists] from him.”
of Doughty and Wayne Simmonds in long time. It’s scary.” “No doubt, Kaner got me over the
Los Angeles, no team in the league Judging by nearly any measure, [scoring] hump right away,” Toews
boasts a one-two punch of young Murray and Babcock speak for the says within earshot of his dressing-
superstardom like the Blackhawks’ whole of the NHL on the subject of room neighbor. “He’s such a dynamic
dynamic duo. the Blackhawks’ young superstars. The player, he makes playing fun, and when
“There’s nothing like those two,” pair leads career NHL scoring among he’s on, he makes scoring easy.”
says Kings coach Terry Murray. “You their birth-year peers — a 1988 group Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville
look around the league and there’s a that includes Staal, Mueller and Kyle sometimes still pinches himself over
lot of young talent, including some Okposo (Islanders), among others — the lottery he won by being selected
guys on our team here. But there’s no by a considerable amount, which is no to be the man to lead the duo when he
pair like Toews and Kane.” small feat for players to accomplish in
“No doubt about it, that’s a pairing just three seasons.
any team would like to have on a top Perhaps it’s fitting that the very first
line,” adds Detroit Red Wings coach shot Toews took in the NHL, back on 2008 THE FIRST SEASON
Mike Babcock, who piloted Toews October 10, 2007 was a goal — assisted In their first season in Chicago, Kane
to a gold medal for Team Canada in by Kane, as the only score in a 2-1 loss and Toews finished 1-2 in the 2008
February by defeating a U.S. team to the San Jose Sharks. Calder Trophy voting as top rookie.

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 CO M I N G OF AGE IN CHICAGO
was named the team’s head coach in
October 2008.
“You don’t often see talent like theirs
in the league at their young ages,”
Quenneville says. “To have two such
players on the same team, sometimes
on the same line, that’s a testament to
the men upstairs who lined up such
phenomenal talent.”
Having drafted Toews third overall
in 2006 and Kane the next year after
lucking into the first overall pick in the
draft, it could be argued that picking
the future superstar core of the
Blackhawks was a no-brainer. But no
prospect is a sure thing, and no draft
board is littered only with hits. Look no
further than the Kings in those same
two drafts, tapping goalie Jonathan
Bernier 11th (five NHL games) in 2006
and Thomas Hickey, who’s yet to see
NHL ice, at fourth in 2007.
There’s also a matter of sensing
whether two great players can succeed
together. Teams comprised of sheer
superstars may look good on paper,
but that doesn’t necessarily translate
to Cups in the NHL.
“There’s no number or term you can
use to qualify how good a teammate
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Kane and Toews have been linemates for
“We say it a lot in hockey and in all of
sports, but a lot of those qualities you can’t
teach,” says Savard. “And you’d have to
have been blind not to have seen that both
[Toews and Kane] had all of them.”
a player is, really,” says Denis Savard,
a Hall of Famer and Blackhawks
Ambassador, who was the team’s
head coach when Toews and Kane
made their debuts in the league.
“But certainly you can see right away
their more intangible qualities as
players: decision-making, selflessness,
willingness to exert on both ends of
the rink, hustle, desire.
“We say it a lot in hockey and in all
of sports, but a lot of those qualities
you can’t teach. You have them or
you don’t. And you’d have to have
been blind not to have seen that both
[Toews and Kane] had all of them.”
Both players made a dash to the
top of the organizational depth chart
(Kane broke camp with the big club
straight out of Junior, while Toews
WITH A LITTLE HELP
the majority of their young careers.
played his sophomore season at the
University of North Dakota after being
drafted), but such a bond developed
between Savard as head coach and
Kane as eventual Calder Trophy winner
that the two remain close, exchanging
messages regularly.
Toews, as stoic and driven as Kane
is playful and creative, needed little
mentoring upon his arrival in the NHL.
He began his Blackhawks career with
points in 10 straight games, which is
the second-longest streak to start a
career in NHL history, and was named
an alternate captain by his third month
in the league.
So while it may have created some
slight shockwaves around the league
when the Blackhawks decided to make
the 20 year-old Toews the 34th captain
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 2009 THE SECOND SEASON
Kane and Toews helped the
Blackhawks reach the Western
Conference Final in 2009.

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