CHICAGO – Is it a wonder that sports fans find themselves thrown about in their emotions on the winning or losing of their team when the media find an open scab and drill into it for all they are worth?
Such is the case in Chicago the last 36 hours.
Neither Patrick Kane nor Jonathan Toews have scored in the Stanley Cup Final with the Tampa Bay Lightning. One would think it was the end of the world for a club and a pair of players who were celebrated just last week.
The off-day interviews were held Sunday at the United Center and much of the talk was on the play of Toews and Kane and their playing together or not playing together.
“As an offensive guy, you want to be helping produce, especially at this time of year,” Kane said Sunday. “But, you know, we said all along with our team, we don’t really care where the goals come from, as long as they’re coming from our team.
“You know, I think I can help in that area obviously. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m on the team. That’s one of my jobs here, is to try to produce offense. Hopefully start that up next game.”
Scoring slump or not neither Kane nor Toews can be ignored on the ice and thus take attention away from the rest of Blackhawks players.
One of those is Brent Seabrook who has managed to contribute when the rest of the big time forwards are silenced.
“He’s great in the regular season, too. He always has a knack for scoring overtime winners or goals like we scored last night. Obviously we couldn’t capitalize and score the next big one after that,” Toews said of Seabrook. “I feel like you give him the puck in a great situation where he might have a good shot through traffic, he doesn’t miss a whole lot of them.
“I knew I gave him that puck yesterday, I just had a great feeling he was going to score. Sure enough, he did. He’s been playing great hockey all around, but when he gets the opportunities, makes sure he gets his shots through. He has his head up. At the end of the day we’re going to get something off of the offense he’s getting. He’s been dangerous in a lot of ways for us.”
Corey Crawford did not have his best game of the post season in Game 2 and was disappointed in his play. But Toews was supportive of his goaltender Sunday.
“We’ve seen it early in the playoffs. We’ve seen it throughout the playoffs up until this point. A lot of people can say he won us the game, he stole us the game in Game 1. Maybe let in a few goals he wasn’t happy with yesterday,” Toews said. “But at the end of the day he’s always shown that he’s ready to absorb that responsibility. Maybe his unfair share of the losses that our team goes through, but he bounces back.
“I think more often than not the offense that we give up has a lot to do with sometimes our team getting away from our game and letting a team like Tampa play their rush game, their skill game a little bit too much. It ends up in the back of our net. But Corey is there trying to back us up. Always takes more than his fair share of the blame. Like you said, I don’t doubt that he’s going to be wanting to bounce back if he’s talking that way.”
Seabrook placed some of the blame for the four goals in Game 2 on the team’s effort in front of Crawford.
“I think Corey is great. He’s a great goaltender. He’s shown throughout his career that he can bounce back and become the guy that we need and everybody expects him to be,” Seabrook said of his goalie. “I think last night we could have helped him out a lot more than we did. He did make some big saves at big points throughout last night’s game, and especially in Game 1.
“We got to be better as a group and be better in front of him, too.”
In working the scab a little more Sunday Hawks coach Joel Quenneville was asked about the Toews/Kane scoring slump.
“I think that line’s had some decent looks. They didn’t have the production they did in the last couple games of the Anaheim series,” Quenneville said. “Certainly they’ve had some zone time, they’ve had some rush chances. They’ve made them defend. We split them up a little bit in the third, saw how that worked out.
“But, you know, their team defense is aggressive. There’s not a lot of room and time. I think that maybe changing those two guys on different lines will get us a little bit more depth and a little bit more balance, see how they can defend it.”
And just to be sure that scab is peeled all the way back to expose the sore Quenneville was asked if Kane not registering a shot on a goal in Game 2 was an alarming stat.
“He didn’t show up on the score sheet. Whether it’s his shots or a threat to score. I thought that line did some good things. He was down with the two-on-one with (Brandon Saad) Saader that looked like almost a breakaway, some other things that were materializing that were dangerous,” Quenneville said. “Obviously certain games, your top guys aren’t going to appear on the score sheet or look like they’re shut down. I still think they consume a lot of the other team’s priorities as far as being aware defensively.
“So in two games he’s been fine. I haven’t minded his game. I think he’s been a threat. But obviously we would like to see some production across the board. I don’t care what line steps up. I think certainly our team could be more effective in the offensive zone.”
Game 3 is Monday night at the United Center where the Blackhawks hold home ice advantage in the series thanks to a split in Tampa.
An advantage held without goals from Kane or Toews.
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