Toews haters on the main board

[The Bad Guy]

In Kane's defense he is often double shifted and also lined up with less than spectacular line mates. Also, without Kane coming back early, I don't think we make it out of the West, let alone win Cup 3.

That said, Toews > Kane.

 

[STC]

I agree, and to take it a step further, this is one of the reason him being the leader of this team is so important (cue the intangible jokes). When your (arguably) best player and leader is working his tail off every shift, when he is playing responsible defensively, when he is being selfless, and when he is doing all the little things, that has a trickle down effect on the team as a whole. It is much easier to demand those things from your players when the captain is leading by example.

These are the same things that were said about Jordan back in the day. His teammates used to say it was really hard to half ass it in practice when the best player in the world was practicing harder than anyone else on the team. It made all his teammates want to be better.

 

[here come the]

He also plays with Sharp/Saad and Hossa. But yeah, Toews is the greatest. Kane sucks. Let's move on.

(Exaggerating to change the subject. This topic isn't about Toews vs. Kane.)

Kane rocks, Toews rocks, Keith rocks, Seabs rocks, Hossa rocks, Hammer rocks. I'm all for dropping it. #letsdoitagain

 

[STC]

But thats the thing... he doesn't produce "a lot" more than Toews. Their points per game is not really all that different, especially at even strength. There would certainly be an argument to be had if Kane produced significantly more than Toews across a big sample size, but he really hasn't. And when you take into consideration all other parts of the game aside from scoring, Toews blows him out of the water.

There is certainly an argument to be had for Keith being as important as Toews (I personally find it difficult to compare a Dman to a Forward), but there really isn't any argument for Kane.

I refuse to compare my favorite players vs each other, but I think its only fair to mention all the variables that go into your statement that Kane and Toews produce similarly offensively. For instance, linemates. Toews plays with Hossa and Saad. Kane plays with Richards and a carousel of crappy left wingers. Surely that could have an impact on offensive output?

On the other hand, there are matchups. Does Toews face tougher matchups because he is on the better line? That would also factor into offensive output.

Lot tougher to say who is better offensively than just looking at PPG and stuff like that.