The hawks get more consistent scoring and more consistent leadership out of sharp - but they give up buff's consistent physical presence bullying opponents in front of the net and fighting for space as well as his 6'5" frame hitting players into the boards. Its give and take. Still, for the Hawks - since muddy says one of them (Sharp or Buff) had to go - and if thats the case - they chose best for their team. Unfortunately for them - until they get that big presence again I don't think they have the Stanley Cup Finals in their future no matter who their leader is.

good points.

Toews is an elite player.  Period.

Just an interesting fyi...

For what it's worth, I posed the question to two people involved with the NHL (one in the media and one player) that I know and they were split on the question as well. To be fair the player in question plays in the East and doesn't see him a whole lot, but he was the one who said he IS an elite player.

For clarity's sake, my question was phrased exactly like this: "Would you consider Jonathan Toews an elite player in the NHL right now, on the level of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin".

Very excited...in a VERY rare opportunity in Montreal, I'll be getting to meet some of the Hawks players after the game tonight! Scoured downtown Montreal for a silver Sharpie (have a black Winter Classic jersey) for my whole lunch hour...finally found one! This will be the highlight of my season for sure.

Just hope we get the two points tonight.

Posted by andru2797 on 4/5/2011 4:49:00 PM (view original):
Very excited...in a VERY rare opportunity in Montreal, I'll be getting to meet some of the Hawks players after the game tonight! Scoured downtown Montreal for a silver Sharpie (have a black Winter Classic jersey) for my whole lunch hour...finally found one! This will be the highlight of my season for sure.

Just hope we get the two points tonight.

Enjoy.... and if you get the chance be sure to tell Toews to step it up in scoring so I can consider him elite ;)

Hawks are lucky to have Crawford - or this game would be 5-0, not 1-0.

where is Toews?

Nvm.... he's in the box for OT.

And he cost the hawks a point. Wtg Toews. That's leadership. How many games left?

Great game..... price and crawford were FANTASTIC.

If any one player carried the hawks this season it was Crawford. Not Toews.

The goalies were the best players on the ice tonight. Toews had an absolutely terrible night but that call in ot was questionable, as were 3-4 calls for both teams. in spite of that though, it was really fun to be there and the atmosphere was that of a playoff game.

As for meeting the players, meeting some of them was awesome. highlights were Stalberg, Kane, Keith and Hammer who were all great with the surprisingly large blackhawks contingent that gathered. Corey Crawford had like 30 family members there, but he still took the time to take the most pics and sign the most autographs. Pretty much all the guys except Brouwer were more than happy to spend at least some time with the fans.

Speaking of Brouwer, it looked like hell be out a while...reminded me of Cammalleri's shoulder injury which kept him out a few weeks.

That was an insane display of goaltending.  Hawks were flying, but Price was fantastic.

HUGEST game of the year tonight.  Gonna be even tougher without Brouwer also gone from the lineup.