Rozner: Often overlooked, Blackhawks' Toews won't have to apologize for career

Jonathan Toews turned 31 years old Monday.

Yeah, let it stew for a minute, one of those when you wonder where the time has gone.

Already 12 years into an NHL career, Toews is coming off his best offensive season, though without the playoffs it means little to the Blackhawks' captain.

That's what will never be fully appreciated about Toews, often mocked for being too serious in a game where great character truly matters and is frequently overlooked.

Winning means more to him than hanging out at the opposition blue line and cheating for easy points, but chicks dig the long ball and Toews has always sacrificed points for defense.

We don't live in a hockey world where his team-first attitude, his consistent responsibility, is cherished, where his first step is always toward his own net, where he's always thinking about goal prevention first.

In a town where athletes in other sports, who have accomplished nothing, are currently treated as royalty, Toews is always being asked for more.

And that's OK with him. The limelight is not his priority. He does not live to grace the cover of a video game.

It doesn't mean he hasn't had great offensive moments - witness his Conn Smythe in 2010, or his Game 7 in Anaheim in 2015, and 110 points in 128 postseason games is hardly a number to sneeze at.

But the number of rings is the only number he worships.

While there have been many big goals and assists, what also comes to mind is a play in Game 1 of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, when the Hawks were down a goal to Tampa midway through the third.

Toews is in deep on the forecheck as the puck goes the other way, but he turns and burns toward his own goal. He beats five players, including Duncan Keith, back into the defensive end.

He's skating so hard he nearly catches Ryan Callahan between the circles as Callahan busts in alone on Corey Crawford. Feeling Toews' presence, Callahan can't get to the middle of ice, where he has more options to attack Crawford.

Crawford uses the Toews back pressure to his advantage and comes out aggressively at Callahan, who runs out of time and must shoot. Crawford cuts down the angle, Callahan forces a shot from the off-wing.

The goaltender makes the biggest save of the game and the Hawks are still alive, down only a goal.

Less than 2 minutes later, Teuvo Teravainen scores to tie the game. Antoine Vermette gets the game-winner 2 minutes after that and the Hawks steal Game 1 in Tampa, even though they were not the better team that night.

The play by Toews makes no highlight reels, but down 2-0 with under 10 minutes left on the road probably means defeat for the Hawks, who win Game 1 and eventually the Stanley Cup in six games.

Few outside the locker room will remember the play. Crawford probably does. Joel Quenneville might. If Toews remembers and you asked him, he would give Crawford the credit anyway.

Full speed for 180 feet to make a play, in the third period of a game a few days after a brutal seven-game series with the Ducks.

It was such a Toews thing to do. And it saved the game, maybe the series.

Given how he played this season, it's fair to hope that he has many good years left in him, but regardless Toews is a lock for the Hall of Fame, even as experts the last couple of years have decided - quite suddenly - that Toews is overrated.

Beauty is eternally in the eye of the beholder, and maybe those who don't see the splendor in Toews' game don't actually watch the games. Maybe they haven't played it, or maybe they just don't understand it.

Perhaps, they would more appreciate his game if he sacrificed defense for offense, creating 100-point seasons instead of searching for victories.

Perhaps, they would have preferred more 30-goal seasons over nine straight playoff appearances.

Perhaps, they'll never fully understand that if Toews didn't play the way he did, the last decade in Chicago would have looked nothing like it does.

And, perhaps, the Hawks wouldn't have had those three parades.