Jonathan Toews has one heck of a streak going -- but it's going to face the ultimate test over the next few months.
The Winnipegger has never been cut from a hockey team. Not in atom, peewee, bantam or midget. Not in high school or college. And certainly not in the pros.
Toews is even perfect when it comes to Team Canada, having already, incredibly, made two world junior teams and two world men's teams.
These days, though, you couldn't blame him for feeling just a touch of anxiety.
Because the St. Vital product is up against it like he's never been up against it before, trying to land a spot on the Olympic team.
This time, the players competing for centre-ice spots have household names like Crosby, Richards, Lecavalier, Thornton, Getzlaf and Staal.
There are Olympic veterans, Stanley Cup winners, leading scorers and MVP's gathered for Team Canada's orientation camp in Calgary this week.
Enough to make a 21-year-old blush.
"It's pretty awesome to come this far," Toews told NHL.com. "To be at this camp, it's almost surreal at times. Again, though, it's just about going out there and playing.
"If you throw sticks on the ice, it's every guy for himself at a camp like this."
With 34 goals and 69 points last season, his second in the NHL, Toews is one of the league's bright young stars.
But so are Sidney Crosby, Mike Richards, Ryan Getzlaf and the Staal brothers, Eric and Jordan.
How many of them can head coach Mike Babcock take into the pressure cooker that will be Vancouver?
Babcock has already said players who've lugged Olympic baggage before will be counted on to help those who never have.
World championships
Sure, Toews has been to those two world championships, but it's not the same as an Olympic Games. On home soil. Coming off a lousy, medal-free finish in Turin.
What's a 21-year-old going to say when things get tough?
"Every guy has to think they have an equal chance to make the team," he said. "Regardless of your age."
Regardless of your natural position, he could have said, too.
There's a glut of centremen on this team, many of them being shuffled off to the wing this week to see how they react.
Yesterday, Toews took his turn along the wall, skating alongside Richards and winger Jarome Iginla.
Earlier, he'd centred Simon Gagne and Martin St. Louis.
That's the thing: everywhere he turns, there's another superstar. Make a great play one shift, somebody else is bound to match it, or top it, the next.
Of course, Toews has overcome the odds before.
He is, after all, the first Canadian to win gold medals at a world championship and a world junior championship in the same year (2007).
With the Chicago Blackhawks, he became one of the youngest captains in NHL history, too, so you know he has intangibles.
But playing well between now and December might not be enough.
You'll also have to convince Team Canada brass that you can take a lesser role than you do for your NHL team. Shed some ego, in order to carry the nation's burden to Vancouver.
Truth is, Toews may be called on to kill penalties and be a checker if he makes the Olympic roster.
So, yes, his streak of never being cut is in jeopardy.
But count him out at your own peril.
Because there's something about the guy -- that shootout performance at the world juniors, his intensity in last season's playoffs -- that defines a heart-and-soul Canadian hockey player.
With skill, to boot.
So go ahead, throw the sticks on the ice. Centre ice.
Bet you Jonathan Toews comes up with one.
paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca
