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Toews' 4-point outburst leads Blackhawks over Canucks

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

Captain Serious delivered Sunday night.

Chicago Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews put his team on his back with the Vancouver Canucks in town, contributing one goal and three assists as the Blackhawks prevailed 4-2.

The outburst comes at a big time for the Blackhawks who - with the victory - match the Minnesota Wild for top spot in the Western Conference with 65 points.

For Toews, the four-point output was his largest offensive performance of the year and hopefully a glimpse of what's to come as Toews' offensive numbers have taken a dive this season.

The 28-year-old is on pace to post 47 points this campaign - even after his four-point game - which would set a career low. In fact Toews even hit 48 points during the lockout shortened 2012-13 campaign.

The season has been very uncharacteristic of Toews - who has posted 28 goals in each of his last three seasons, averaging 64 points. One glaring difference this year has been his puck luck.

It seems goaltenders have been getting the better of Toews.

After averaging a career shooting percent of 14.6%, Toews has only managed to connect on 6.9% of his shots this season, which once again is by and away his worst career mark.

Factor in the fatigue from playing significant minutes for Team Canada at the World Cup of Hockey, for the Blackhawks' many deep playoff runs, and his nagging back injury - that caused him to miss nine games earlier in the year - and it's clear there could be many factors in Toews' drop in production.

All this considered, Toews still earned an All-Star nod for next weekend's festivities - whether his inclusion was warranted or not can be debated.

His four points on Sunday were certainly a welcome sight for the Blackhawks and for a club once again vying for a top playoff seed, a further increase in Toews' production would go a long way to ensuring Chicago makes another serious run at Lord Stanley.

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