Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews understands the importance of focusing on his team during difficult times.
While Toews did not comment directly on the investigation into teammate Patrick Kane — and Kane’s name was never specified — he did shed some light on how the team has dealt with tough situations in the past, including when a teammate is under public scrutiny.
“I think you’ve just got to have confidence that things like that will resolve themselves over time,” Toews told TSN Radio Thursday. “And for the time being, you stay together as a team, you support your teammate [or] teammates that are maybe going through a rough patch.”
Kane is currently the focus of a police investigation in Hamburg, N.Y. He has not been charged.
“Eventually you just deal with it internally, you stay together as a team, and you’re confident that as individuals and as a group, everyone kind of stays together,” Toews said, stressing the importance of a team-first locker room. “And at the end of the day we always say to each other what is said and what is done within the locker room is the only thing that really matters. We don’t let anything going on on the outside affect the way we do our job and the way we come to work together as a team.
“I get a lot of credit cause I have a ‘C’ on my sweater, but I think we’ve got a great group of guys that understand what it takes to be a leader, what it takes to be a part of a good team,” Toews said. “Clearly, that’s more than just what happens on the ice. There’s always a lot of things being said and things going on off the ice. But no matter what, We do a good job of sticking together.”
