CertainAffinity*
Guest
It's not about production. Toews has been a slow starter his entire career, and even when he gets rolling he can be streaky. I'm not worried about the fact that he's not putting up points right now.
I'm more worried about the fact that his skating is visibly labored, he's been cutting back on the number of faceoffs he takes game by game (he took a whopping NINE today), he's struggling a lot on the backcheck and having difficulty winning board battles. That last part is key, cause that's kind of what makes him a force. He's been taking short-cuts on the defensive end, using his stick in extended poke checks to try and get the puck off people or past the blue line, in situations where he would normally just skate to close the gap and take the puck away.
Possibly related (or my imagination) he seems really hesitant to shoot the puck and drive to the net, even when he has a wide open lane and is clearly the guy with the best chance available. Still he passes it off.
He's a warrior, so of course he's still going to all the tough areas, battling in front of the net, and all that. But he's clearly not right, and if he is, then Q needs to sit him. Winning games in December isn't important, these aren't the games that matter. Worse case scenario we drop a place in the standings. Have you seen the Western Conference? The only impact that has is that we go from having a tough match-up to having a tough match up. There's no 'easy' road this year.
Putting a hurt Toews into the second-day of a back-to-back against the Kings in December would be incredibly stupid IMO.
I'm more worried about the fact that his skating is visibly labored, he's been cutting back on the number of faceoffs he takes game by game (he took a whopping NINE today), he's struggling a lot on the backcheck and having difficulty winning board battles. That last part is key, cause that's kind of what makes him a force. He's been taking short-cuts on the defensive end, using his stick in extended poke checks to try and get the puck off people or past the blue line, in situations where he would normally just skate to close the gap and take the puck away.
Possibly related (or my imagination) he seems really hesitant to shoot the puck and drive to the net, even when he has a wide open lane and is clearly the guy with the best chance available. Still he passes it off.
He's a warrior, so of course he's still going to all the tough areas, battling in front of the net, and all that. But he's clearly not right, and if he is, then Q needs to sit him. Winning games in December isn't important, these aren't the games that matter. Worse case scenario we drop a place in the standings. Have you seen the Western Conference? The only impact that has is that we go from having a tough match-up to having a tough match up. There's no 'easy' road this year.
Putting a hurt Toews into the second-day of a back-to-back against the Kings in December would be incredibly stupid IMO.