At Brightside, our biggest goal is to focus on optimism in hockey and the Blackhawks. Sometimes that’s hard to do. So instead of finding pessimism and overreactions, we like to break those down, and calm ourselves by calming the public.

This is the first in the series of overreactions and breakdowns. This time we focus on Jonathon Toews.

Overreaction: Jonathon Toews should no longer be captain of this hockey team

Breakdown: While Jonathon Toews is currently MIA on-ice, his impact continues to be felt off of it. Toews is the best leader of this hockey club, even when he’s having down seasons. There simply is no better candidate for the captaincy at this time. Toews is lacking in many areas this season, but he will never lack in being a true captain and remains one of the best in the league, if not best in sports.

Overreaction: Jonathon Toews needs to be benched

While again, he is having a down season this year, he’s one of the three most talented centers in the league. Benching him would not get him into the proper head space to score again. It depends on putting the right wings with him. As I’ve said before on this blog, Toews with Shaw and Garbutt simply did not work and was an experiment that needed to end. It seems like it did. But the best replacement for it did not go into effect. Toews has begun playing consistently with Hossa again – a good thing for both players – but they are missing that last key piece, a piece that trailed the team in ice time vs. the Senators – move Marko Dano up. He plays so well that it’s a shame we’re not seeing him on the ice. He fills the Saad role quite nicely, as seen from when he did play with Toews and Hossa, and he has been trained in the big leagues now. Let that line gain chemistry and we will be back to having two, not one, productive line. Nothing can save the fourth with Kruger and the third needs chemistry time as well.

Overreaction: Jonathon Toews is the worst player on the team

Breakdown: This is a team employing Trevor Daley, Victor Tikhonov, and Brandon Mashinter. After we are rid of those three, and Toews continues to be unproductive, we have something to worry about.