COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It's genuinely impossible to tell when Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks' superlative two-way center they call Captain Serious, is joking. He might be the one participant in this NHL All-Star weekend who, when asked if he was having fun, had to pause a moment to fully consider the concept.
So take this remark from Toews in that context when the topic arose of a fellow All-Star, the Predators' all-everything defenseman, Shea Weber: "He shoots the puck so hard that what we tell our guys in Chicago is, if you have a chance to keep him from taking it, go for it. But once he's all teed up ... man, get out of the way."
I'll assume, given Toews' default mode and that Weber blistered a puck at 108.5 mph in the Skills Competition here Saturday, that no humor was intended. Because, really, there's nothing remotely funny about going prone in front of frozen vulcanized rubber at that velocity.
Someday, one of those things will kill someone.
And no, I'm absolutely not kidding.
Nor am I kidding when I say that, even setting safety aside, blocked shots are killing the game.
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