What an Olympics: Toews, Keith, and Seabrook Return Home with Gold

Jim Neveau, PIB Co-conspirator

When Sidney Crosby’s gold medal winning goal tickled the twine in overtime against the United States, it brought to a conclusion one of the most thrilling Olympic tournaments of all time.

You had Canada’s surprising defeat at the hands of the US in the preliminary round, Slovakia’s defeat of defending gold medalist Sweden in the quarterfinals, and those same Slovaks putting a Yukon-sized scare into Canada in the semi-finals.

Hawks Gold Medalists

Then, in the blink of an eye, Canada went from being 24 seconds short of victory to being right back in a deadlock against the United States in a game that the Canadians had all but sealed away.

With all of drama that unfolded over the two weeks of the Olympics, there was one sub-plot that has a particular interest to Blackhawks fans: the stellar performances of many of Chicago’s players.

Obviously, most of the attention is going to go to Kane’s US team and the Canadian trio of Keith, Seabrook, and Toews doing battle for the gold medal, but in reality, the story is bigger than that of a single game.

Jonathan Toews secured himself a place among hockey’s elite forwards at these Olympics, taking home Best Forward honors and being named to the tournament’s All-Star team. Ryan Miller, Zach Parise, Brian Rafalski, Pavol Demitra, and Toews’ Canadian teammate Shea Weber were also on the team, announced Sunday.

Toews also had the distinction of the best plus-minus mark in the tournament with a plus-9, and he was on the ice for one goal against Canada during all seven games they played.

Toews’ name was made in the quarter-finals when he was assigned the duty of stopping the Russian All-Star line of Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, and Evgeni Malkin. They went a combined minus-6 with one assist in the contest, and it was largely due to the effort of Toews and his linemates.

His goal and seven assists were also instrumental in Canada winning the tournament.

Duncan Keith also had a spectacular tournament, playing more minutes than any other Canadian player (over 145 minutes in seven games, or a little less than 21 per contest) and chipping in six assists.

Ryan Miller (Jim Neveau/THW)

His biggest impact, however, was on the defensive side of the puck, where he played stellar D against some of the best forwards in the world, and all the while still maintaining his trademark ability to make things happen with deep passes out of the zone.

Brent Seabrook didn’t play a lot in these Olympics (he averaged a shade under 8:30 per game), but when he was on the ice, he made his presence felt. Even though fighting is not allowed in the Olympics, he still ratcheted up the physicality every time he stepped off the bench, and without players who are willing to muck it up, Canada would not have won the gold medal.

On the United States team, Patrick Kane may not have had the flashiest stat line (only three goals and two assists in six games), but he stepped up when it mattered the most. His two goals in the semi-final game against Finland, and his two assists in the gold medal game were an example of why this young man was on the team.

He may not have played up to the hype that United States fans had for him, but Kane acquitted himself well during the medal round of the tournament, and should the NHL’s players find themselves representing their countries in Sochi in 2014, Kane will certainly be one of the USA’s top players once again.

The medal-less Slovaks had an interesting tournament as well, and one of their leading players was Marian Hossa. The slick-skating winger had an outstanding tournament offensively, scoring three goals and notching six assists, including three helpers in the team’s stunning victory over Sweden in the quarter-finals.

He had a goal and an assist in the bronze medal game against Finland as well, but obviously his contribution wasn’t enough to get his countrymen a medal.

Tomas Kopecky, often the forgotten Blackhawk at these Olympics, may not have lit up the scoreboard (he only had a single goal in the entire tournament), but he did make good defensive contributions in his 11 minutes of ice time per game, and he did score the game winning goal against Sweden.

Overall, the Chicago Blackhawks made the hockey world aware of just how talented they are with their performances at these Olympics. With two-thirds of their contingent returning to Chicago with medals gleaming around their necks, the organization should be extremely proud of the way they presented themselves in Vancouver.

If their performance on the world stage was any indication of how they will play in crunch time this season, then fans in Chicago could be in for a thrilling ride this spring.