Toews rides a wave of optimism back to Chicago

Here is a nice story about former Fighting Sioux star and Chicago Blackhawk Jonathan Toews that was in today's Vancouver Globe and Mail.

Jonathan Toews looks remarkably alert at this moment, minutes after emerging from the Chicago Blackhawks’ triumphant charter flight home. This is the blessing of youth - and a sharp contrast to bleary-eyed teammate Patrick Sharp, who took the first turn at the microphone at Signature Flight Support, near O’Hare airport, where the team’s charter from Vancouver landed late Saturday afternoon.

One day earlier, Toews drove a stake through the hearts of the Canucks’ playoff hopes with a brilliant five-point performance. This afternoon, Toews was explaining why the team cannot take anything for granted heading into Sunday’s fifth game, a possible elimination game with Chicago ahead 3-1 in the series. Toews said all the right things: The Blackhawks will take nothing for granted. The final game is always the most difficult to win. Etc. etc. There is a reason why teammate Patrick Kane calls Toews Mr. Serious. There is an uncommon gravitas about the Blackhawks' young captain that seems oddly out of step with his age, 22.

But it doesn't take away from this stark reality: That for the second season in a row, the Blackhawks’ emerging young nucleus of players is outperforming its opposite numbers with the Canucks. Toews and Kane have done a better job of both leading and marshaling their troops than the Sedins have done on the other side; and as coach Alain Vigneault so memorably put it the other night, Roberto Luongo has been the second best goaltender in this series. Ouch.

Toews suggested Saturday that points on the score sheet seem to fascinate everyone, but it isn’t always indicative of how someone’s playing. Fair enough - although in the last three games, as he took over the playoff scoring lead, the points have been hard to ignore, 17 in all in his last seven games; 18 in 11 games at GM Place, counting the Olympics. A pretty impressive run here.

“Some nights, you’re not going to play your best and everything kinda goes in for you,” said Toews. “Obviously, (Friday) night was one of those nights where you’re around the net and everything seems to find you. Pucks are coming to you, and you get lucky. [Read the rest of the story]

KPD at it again...

Apparently now Kevin Paul Dupoint thinks he is an expert on player salaries. This is the same clown that was the cheerleader and on the bandwagon for running Phil Kessel out of town in Boston. Now he is a critic of player salaries in another NHL Market. [props]

Blackhawks’ dollars don’t make sense

The deals signed last week by Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and especially Duncan Keith officially and forever severed any lingering ties to the old Bill Wirtz regime in Chicago. In Keith’s case, the Blackhawks also severed any ties to reality (a state they rarely lived in during the miserly Dollar Bill’s days).

Beginning next year, young stars Toews and Kane each will pocket an average of $6.3 million for five years. Their annual payouts will be identical: $6.5 million, $6 million, $6 million, $6.5 million, and $6.5 million. Compared with the likes of, say, the Sedin twins (Henrik and Daniel) in Vancouver, or Anaheim’s Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, or Anze Kopitar in Los Angeles, the Kane-Towes payouts are right on the money. Solid value.

However, Keith’s deal is beyond extravagant, all the worse given that fellow Hawks back liner Brian Campbell is hauling in a bloated $7.14 million through 2013-14. Grossly overpriced.

Keith, 26, will earn an average of $7.913 million over the first four years, $7.55 million for the next two years, $5.5 million for another two, $4 million for two more, and then slightly more than $2 million for the final three. Total: 13 years/$72 million, for a cap hit of $5.54 million. If you’re still holding on to your calculator, it exceeds the 12-year/$62.8 million deal, in both gross dollars and cap hit, that career marksman Marian Hossa pocketed with the Hawks in July
[Boston Globe]