‘The time is now’ — Jonathan Toews eager to break out vs. Blues

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville doesn’t look at center Jonathan Toews as “just a point producer”, but when the Hawks are in a postseason bind, they need Toews to step up and score. If Toews and Paul Stastny play to a draw, it’s a huge win for the Blues.

Toews has been virtually neutralized as an offensive threat against Stastny and the Blues. He has yet to score a goal and has three points wth a plus-3 rating in five games. He appeared to be heating up in Game 5, with an assist and a plus-3 rating in the Hawks’ 4-3 double-overtime victory Thursday night at Scottrade Center.

“The time is now, obviously,” Toews said Friday at the United Center. “I’ve been telling myself that all series. But you can’t let that believe wither away, even if you don’t get the bounces or don’t see the pucks go in. You’ve got to keep working for it. So that’s what I’m going to do and I feel like [Saturday] night’s got to be that night.”

A Hawks playoff series is rarely over without Toews making a dent. He has scored at least one goal in 17-of-20 playoff series prior to this season, and in two of the three series he did not score, the Hawks won 4-1 and didn’t need his help (the other was against the Flyers in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, when Toews won the Conn Smythe Trophy).

And he usually comes up with something when the Hawks are in a bind. Famously in 2011, he was struggling against the Canucks — no goals in the first six games — when he scored a short-handed game-tying goal off a mad dash with 1:56 to play in regulation at Rogers Arena. In 2012, with the Hawks again facing elimination, down 3-1 to the Coyotes, Toews scored the winning goal in overtime in Game 5 to keep his team alive.

The Blues have to be happy with the job they’ve done on Toews so far — but also a little nervous because Toews rarely stays too quiet for too long, even against a good defender in Stastny, who has no points with a minus-3 rating in five games.

“I know Paul’s got his hands full, and he’s done a heck of a job,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “It’s a premier player in the league and it’s a hard match. I think Paul understands every drop of the puck could be the next and last drop of the puck when you play against that man. He’s done a heck of a job at remaining highly competitive against a very competitive player.”

Quenneville, as always, was unconcerned that Toews has not scored a goal in the series.

“Toews demands a lot of attention from our opponents,” Quenneville said. “I know that matchup predominantly him and Paul [Stastny] playing against one another they’re both top players and I think they’re both trying to contain one another.

“I think we’ve had series like that where you measure Jonny’s performance and numbers and think he had a great series and he might not have a lot of offense but you know the guy he’s playing against isn’t doing much either. Some teams are probably satisfied if you can neutralize him the best you can, but Johnny still finds a way to contribute in meaningful ways and I don’t look at him as just a point producer.”

Regardless, there’s no denying that Toews’ playoff goals have had a huge impact — 26 of his 39 career playoff goals (66.7 percent) have either tied the game or given the Hawks the lead (better than both Alex Ovechkin’s .641 and Sidney Crosby’s .577 in that category). In fact, 37 of Toews’ postseason goals have come with the game within two goals. He has 10 game-winning goals in the playoffs. In other words, almost every playoff goal Toews has scored has mattered.

Though he’s a fierce competitor, Toews is a strict two-way player who has a way of pacing himself through the course of a playoff series, waiting for the best opportunity to pounce. There are times in the playoffs when Toews is determined to get everyone else involved. Other times he takes matters into his own hands — like when he scored two goals in the final 1:50 of regulation to tie Game 5 against the Ducks in the Western Conference final. Or when he scored two goals in the first 12 minutes in Game 7 of that series.

“[There’s a fine line] between just doing your job and keeping things simple and doing too much and trying to take on too much,” Toews said. “I think that’s when you start making those mistakes. A smart team that plays a good system and is well-coached like St. Louis will take advantage of that.

“We just have to take what they give us and keep plays alive — all those little things that you have to keep playing and eventually you’ll get those bounces.”