Toews thinking only about Cup

Jonathan Toews might be just 22, but he knows exactly how long it has been since Chicago sipped from the Stanley Cup.

Judging by Toews' normal attention to detail, he might even have the city's drought timed down to the second.

Goodness knows the Blackhawks' captain thinks about it enough.

"Every night before I go to sleep, I'm trying to get the thought out of my head," Toews said. "It's been stressful for a while here, but that's what's so fun about it. If it was easy, it wouldn't be that worthwhile."

Toews delivered his usual stellar all-around effort in Sunday's Game 4 clincher over San Jose.

He also found time to assist on Dustin Byfuglien's game-winning goal with 5:55 to go to run his franchise-record scoring streak to 13 playoff games.

"We had a bunch of power plays where we were getting close there," Toews said. "I think everyone on the bench, everyone on the ice, could feel something was coming."

It's just as easy to count on Toews these days. As he leads the Hawks into their first Finals since 1992, Toews owns 7 goals and 19 assists in 16 games.

To put that into perspective, he's ahead of the monstrous scoring pace set by Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin last year. Malkin posted a playoff-best 36 points in 24 games to lead the Penguins to the Cup and win the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Let's put that into further perspective: The last player to average more than 1.5 points per playoff game while leading his team to the Stanley Cup was Colorado's Joe Sakic in 1996.

Toews, as per his custom, doesn't care to draw a conclusion from all of that stuff, though he did have a huge team-wide lesson reinforced during the Hawks' sweep of the Sharks.

"There's nothing we can't do," Toews said. "We knew that all year. The only thing stopping us is ourselves. We're a talented group, but we're working hard and we're playing the right way.

"You see a lot of talented teams go down, especially in the Eastern Conference. It's tough when you have a target on your back like that."

If there's any downside to the Hawks' ascent, it's the way other teams are going to try to emulate their rise and make that target even bigger.

"I looked at Jonathan Toews' statistics," said San Jose coach Todd McLellan. "I think he ended up with 13 points (last year); they went out in this round.

"Now look at him, what he's got there, close to 30 (points). He's been there, he's done it. They've learned through it. I'd like to think we could be that team."

Maybe another year. This one looks like it belongs to Toews and the Hawks.