News Article: Lottery position shuffle

[BobbyJet]

To a certain extent, instead of blaming the top line's lack of production on not finding the right LW, fans should start holding Toews a bit more accountable. He needs to step up his game more and start getting some points. Hossa too, though he did finally get a goal.

I absolutely love Toews, but I feel like he tends to get a pass if he is not producing. "Oh, he's always a slow starter." Blah blah blah.

Kane has played with a revolving door of mediocre LWs and centers in his career and has still managed to put up good points. Yet he NEVER gets a pass if he is going through a dry spell. He is (somewhat quietly) playing unbelievable right now -- 10 points in 7 games despite all the off ice stuff he has been dealing with. Yet I'm sure as soon as he goes a few games without a point, certain posters will start whining and complaining about him.

Now for the first time, Kane actually has good line mates and boo hoo, Toews doesn't have a perfect LW. It's his and Hossa's turn to deal with a rotating door of players in that spot. It's easy for fans to blame that line's lack of point production on the absence of Saad, but these things tend to happen when you want to make a cool 10.5 mil a year. Time for Toews to step up and show he's worth that contract. I certainly believe he is capable of it.

And for fans who are going to be like "Toews does so much more than just score points," yeah I know. But he's not doing ANYTHING well at the moment. And fans are just brushing it off as him being a slow starter and seemingly being okay with it. Whereas I know if Kane were sucking right now, we'd be hearing a lot of whining.

I disagree with pretty much this entire post. I'll just leave it at that.

 

[JustABlackhawksFan]

Lots of people have said that Toews needs to play better. Nobody is brushing over his weak play thus far.

I think most people also know that odds are, he will improve, because he's either the best or second best player on the team, and has a track record of utter excellence.

As far as the 'poor Kane gets so much criticism' angle, it's the same deal as it always has been.

Toews has multiple jobs. Kane has one. If somebody with multiple jobs does poorly at one of those jobs, he will receive less relative criticism than somebody with one job who does poorly at that sole job.

Well I'm going based off of that "What is wrong with Toews?" thread, in which pretty much everyone said "He's a slow starter. He'll be fine."

And as I stated in my post, Toews isn't doing anything well right now. So since he is sucking at all of his "multiple jobs," criticism is warranted.

Kane also has a track record of excellence. So how come when he goes through a dry spell, people don't leave him alone, knowing that odds are he'll improve? It goes both ways.

I feel there is no denying that Toews gets more of a pass than Kane does when he isn't playing well.

I disagree with pretty much this entire post. I'll just leave it at that.

Fair enough, but it would be helpful if you elaborated a little.

 

[JaegerDice]

I feel there is no denying that Toews gets more of a pass than Kane does when he isn't playing well.

There is also no denying that Toews is asked to do more than Kane.

Kane has one job. Score points. That's it. If he is not scoring points, he is failing at the one job he is asked to do.

If Toews is not scoring points, he is failing at one job, while also being tasked with shutting down the opposition's best, PKing, winning FOs, etc. He contributes to and impacts the game in far more ways than Kane does.

Kane is being paid the same money as Toews, for doing a third the number of jobs of any given night, at best.

Of course he's going to get more criticism than Toews when he's not putting up points.

Kane, for his part, gets a pass on his defensive play so long as he's putting up points. In fact, he's arguably the only player on the team that wouldn't get his ass stapled to the bench for some of the floating, and defensive efforts he gives at times. They both get passes in line with their contributions and impact on the game.

 

[BobbyJet]

Fair enough, but it would be helpful if you elaborated a little.

Well I'm going based off of that "What is wrong with Toews?" thread, in which pretty much everyone said "He's a slow starter. He'll be fine."

And as I stated in my post, Toews isn't doing anything well right now. So since he is sucking at all of his "multiple jobs," criticism is warranted.

Kane also has a track record of excellence. So how come when he goes through a dry spell, people don't leave him alone, knowing that odds are he'll improve? It goes both ways.

I feel there is no denying that Toews gets more of a pass than Kane does when he isn't playing well

okay .... I disagree with the bolded above.

 

[JustABlackhawksFan]

There is also no denying that Toews is asked to do more than Kane.

Kane has one job. Score points. That's it. If he is not scoring points, he is failing at the one job he is asked to do.

If Toews is not scoring points, he is failing at one job, while also being tasked with shutting down the opposition's best, PKing, winning FOs, etc. He contributes to and impacts the game in far more ways than Kane does.

Kane is being paid the same money as Toews, for doing a third the number of jobs of any given night, at best.

Of course he's going to get more criticism than Toews when he's not putting up points.

Kane, for his part, gets a pass on his defensive play so long as he's putting up points. In fact, he's arguably the only player on the team that wouldn't get his ass stapled to the bench for some of the floating, and defensive efforts he gives at times. They both get passes in line with their contributions and impact on the game.

I understand that Toews does a large number of things that are very important. As I said, I love the guy.

I'm not merely saying that Toews gets less criticism than Kane when he's not putting up points. I'm saying he gets less criticism than Kane when he's not playing well as a WHOLE.

Toews has been playing pretty crappy so far this season. And I don't just mean not scoring points. He is knocked off the puck easily, essentially just skating around aimlessly, not generating anything at all, and taking undisciplined penalties to boot. His OVERALL LEVEL OF PLAY has been bad.

And I'm not one to harp on how players need to go super hard every single night. On the contrary, I think that'd be dumb to do during the regular season.

Nonetheless, I'd like to see a bit more from the Captain than the crap we've seen so far, particularly given how much money he is earning. That's all.

 

[Hawkaholic]

The criticism of Kane over Toews could be that, even though Toews is struggling he is still giving 110% effort every night. Whereas with Kane, it seems as though he is lolly gagging around on the ice and not giving full effort all the time.

 

[CourtneyDagger50]

Tik looks good on that line

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Sometimes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that moving 72 or 88 to line 1 won't make this team better.

Both players will produce from any line. Now is the time to experiment, not in February or March.

Most of the time, not sometimes. Kane and Panarin are leading the team in scoring and the second line has been the best line for the Hawks so far. There's no reason to mess with that just because Toews was playing like crap. Toews and Hossa will be ok with pretty much anyone there. Their LW wasn't the problem. I'll take some overpassing from Panarin 8 games into the season if he keeps putting up points and getting more and more comfortable playing with Kane.

 

[Blackhawks]

Tik looks good on that line

I dont know, he has been pretty meh past couple games, lost the puck almost everytime he has it on his stick.