Toews proving he can step up when pressure's on
There's no better reputation to have as an athlete than to be known as a big-game player.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews already has it at the tender age of 22.
Toews' hat trick and 5-point night in Friday's 7-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals only confirmed it as he put his name in the Hawks' record book on two fronts.
Toews became the first Hawk ever to score 3 power-play goals in a playoff game, and his 5 points tied a team playoff record held by Stan Mikita and Steve Larmer - speaking of big-game players.
"It seems like how he has progressed, he's just getting better and better," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "You saw in the Olympics, it's exactly how he was.
"This year in the playoffs we love the trend he's got. The bigger the games, the more he continues to step forward."
Toews' big night Friday gave him the playoff scoring lead with 18 points before Saturday's games.
Toews had 3 assists in Game 3 on Wednesday, giving him 8 points in the Hawks' two-game sweep at GM Place.
"It's always fun to get on the score sheet," Toews said. "Leading up to (Friday's) game, I haven't been scoring a whole lot of goals so I've been trying not to just factor how many goals I've scored to rate how I'm playing out there.
"There's always other ways to be contributing to your team. There are still a lot of little things I can be better at."
Four of Toews' 5 goals in the playoffs have been on the power play, which is now No. 1 in the postseason.
Toews has been nearly as big a factor around the net in the Vancouver series as linemate Dustin Byfuglien, who preceded Toews with a hat trick in Wednesday's Game 3 win.
"Johnny has had a great series and is doing a great job," Byfuglien said.
"You know those bounces and the puck's going to come to you when you're working hard and playing the right way," Toews said. "We're seeing some pucks go in for our line and it doesn't matter who gets them."
Toews admits the Hawks would love to win Game 5 tonight, end the series and not have to see the Canucks again until next season.
"Of course, it's personal," Toews said. "We all know there's a history. Even regular-season games against these guys feel like the playoffs, but we don't want to get too confident."
As the leader in the dressing room Toews often sets the tone by what he says, and the captain wisely is saying little about the Canucks and their lack of discipline and composure.
"Over and over we're being asked about them and why they're doing certain things, but that's not really our concern," Toews said. "Let them do those things, but the No. 1 thing is we're focusing on our game and what we have to do to score goals and keep pucks out of our own net."