Toews staying humble as his starpower soars

Here's one of the best things about Jonathan Toews:

While most of the hockey world wants to talk about when he developed into a superstar, the 22-year-old Blackhawks captain musters a boyish grin and steers the conversation from "when" to "whether."

Judging by some of the leading questions Toews had to field Thursday, fans showing up for Game 3 at United Center shouldn't be stunned to find his No. 19 jersey hanging from the rafters and his hands holding the Conn Smythe Trophy aloft.

The Smythe, of course, goes to the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs ... and almost always goes to someone on the Stanley Cup champ.

Seeing as how Toews leads everyone with 23 points in the playoffs and knocks Stan Mikita out of the franchise's record book Friday if he scores in a 12th consecutive playoff game, perhaps some hype isn't unwarranted.

"I never get tired of talking about Toews," said Hawks fourth-line center John Madden, who owns two Stanley Cup rings. "Johnny's our leader. You saw how great he was in the Olympics and now he's showing it here."

Madden's praise notwithstanding, here's one of the loaded questions Toews needed to defuse after the Hawks' brisk practice on Thursday:

"If you did poll sports writers right now (and ask) who's the leading candidate for the Conn Smythe, you'd be at the top of the list."

Here's another: "How long before you start to think you've put your name up there with the Mikitas and Hulls?"

Cue Toews' aw-shucks grin.

"You guys are going to overwhelm me with all this stuff," he said. "I try not to think about it."

Nobody asked when Toews expects Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe to show up in Chicago to genuflect in his direction, but maybe that query comes next week.

Or, maybe, Toews first convinces everyone that "we" outweighs "me."

"We've got a lot of talent in here, but no one gets too full of themselves in a group like that until you win something," Toews said. "That's obviously what we're working on here. That's the most important thing.

"People will remember certain individuals, but they'll certainly remember the teams that are special and that win championships. That would be the coolest thing to be a part of."

If Toews didn't take this tack, then his teammates would have an actual reason to mess with him. Instead they must resort to trumped-up situations.

Near the end of a practice during the Vancouver series, the Hawks centers gathered at the red line to work on faceoffs with assistant Mike Haviland. Colin Fraser broke into a big smile as he watched Toews skate over and line up across from him.

With Dave Bolland and John Madden standing nearby and chirping away at the captain, Fraser giddily stole a few faceoffs by moving too soon.

Toews responded by skating around and spouting some choice words - and it wasn't easy to tell where his mock anger ended and the real stuff began.

"We just love giving it to him," Fraser said. "He's a very, very competitive guy, whether it's hockey or really anything you play with that guy. He wants to win.

"It's easy to rib him a little bit ... and it doesn't help when you've got six guys skating around the circle giving it to him a little bit."