Jonathan Toews on Patrick Kane situation: 'You stay together as a team'

You knew it was coming. A key member of the Chicago Blackhawks was going to be asked a question about Patrick Kane in an on the record interview.

Kane is currently being investigated for rape in Buffalo for an incident that allegedly occurred in early August. Kane has not been charged with a crime.

This kind of happened with Jonathan Toews on TSN 1290 in Winnipeg.

The question below:

Jonathan, I do want to ask you one question about being the captain of the Blackhawks. Obviously most people are aware of a situation that has been developing regarding one of your star teammates. Obviously I won’t ask you to comment on anything like that but when something like that happens during the offseason does your focus as far as dealing with your teammates as well as the media change going into training camp as the captain of the team?

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Below is Tazer’s answer in full (S/t Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune who transcribed the whole thing):

“I think you have confidence that things like that will resolve themselves over time. For the time being, you stay together as a team. You support your teammate … uh, teammate, teammates that are maybe going through a rough patch. You know, we saw it last year with some rumors that spread through social media about several guys in the locker room. It’s not the first time we’ve seen situations like that and eventually you deal with it internally and you stay together as a team and you’re confidence as individuals and as a group that everyone kind of stays together. At the end of the day, we always say to each other that what is said and what is done within the locker is the only thing that matters. We don’t let anything going on on the outside affect the way we do our jobs and the way we come to work together as a team. Again, I get a lot of credit because I have the ‘C’ on my sweater and I think we have a great group of guys who understand what it takes to be a leader, what it takes to be part of a good team. Clearly, it’s more than just what happens on the ice. There’s always a lot of things being said and things going on off the ice but no matter what, we do a good job of sticking together.”

So really, Toews didn’t say a whole lot with using a lot of words. He did bring up the situation earlier in the year when there were rumors about a situation in the Chicago locker room. Toews is a savvy, well-spoken veteran in regards to the media.

Also, even though the questioner said the question wasn't really about Kane ... come on. It totally was.

As we near the hockey season, these questions are going to become more and more frequent around the Blackhawks, and will likely turn into a major distraction.

Also, how will Kane deal with the flood of requests that will no doubt come his way when he reports to Chicago?

This was definitely a preview of what’s to come for the Blackhawks.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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