Jonathan Toews wasn’t asked about Patrick Kane specifically. But the Blackhawks captain, speaking to a Winnipeg radio station on Thursday afternoon, did talk of how the he and the team deal with off-ice issues.
Toews was about eight minutes into an interview on TSN 1290 on Thursday when he was asked about a “situation that’s been developing with one of your star teammates.” Toews was asked, “when something like that happens during the offseason, does your focus, as far as dealing with teammates andmedia, change?”
[REPORT: Friend of alleged victim subpoenaed in investigation of Blackhawks' Patrick Kane]
Toews had a lengthy response:
“Yeah, you just have to have confidence that things like that will resolve themselves over time and for the time being, you stay together as a team, you support your teammate or teammates who are maybe going through a rough patch. We saw it last year with some rumors that spread around social media about several guys in our locker room. It’s not the first time we’ve seen situations like that. Eventually you deal with it internally, you stay together as a team and you’re confident as individuals and as a group. Everyone kind of stays together and at the end of the day, we always say to each other, what is said and done in the locker room is the only thing that 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 the credit because I have a ‘C’ on my sweater, but we have a great group of guys who understand what it takes to be a leader, what it takes to be a part of a good team. Clearly that’s more than just what happens on the ice; there are always a lot of things being said, things going on off the ice. But no matter what, we do a good job of sticking together.”
Kane is under investigation for an alleged rape that may have occurred at his home in Buffalo. Kane has not been charged.