Mitch Calvert
Pardon Duncan Keith if he’s spending a little extra time on the couch these days.
Including the NHL regular-season and playoffs, the Chicago Blackhawks’ defenceman who grew up in Fort Frances spent 2,387 hard minutes of ice time matched up against the top forwards the world has to offer.
“I’m going to take it easy for the next little bit here, enjoy the city a little bit,” Keith said by phone from Wrigley Field prior to the Cubs’ game on Saturday against the L.A. Dodgers.
“It was a tough loss [versus the Detroit Red Wings],” he added. “[But] it’s over and done with now and we have to take some time to relax.”
The 25-year-old and his ’Hawks teammates endured a journey through two head coaches, a game played outdoors at Wrigley Field in the middle of winter, and a trip to the Western Conference final for the first time since 1995.
That journey came to a screeching halt last week with a Game 5 road loss to Detroit.
“Obviously, they were the better team,” Keith admitted. “I think, more than anything, they have the depth and skill that I don’t think any other team has in the league.
“On top of that, they’ve won so much, they know what it takes, and the biggest thing was they didn’t take winning a Stanley Cup last year for granted,” he stressed.
“They didn’t have that mentality that everything would be easy this year.”
Despite being overmatched against the Wings, the Blackhawks made major strides this season after missing the playoffs a year ago—though Keith conceded the team still has more room to grow.
“I think we all realize we’re still young and still need to get better every day and every game,” he remarked. “We can definitely look at this playoff experience as something we can build on for years to come.”
The ’Hawks beat out the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks en route to the conference final, but Keith said the team has its eyes on the top prize: Lord Stanley’s Cup.
“We’re happy but not satisfied. I think that’s the way to approach it,” Keith said. “We’re a young team and still have to get better and build on what we did this year.
“I think we have depth, solid goaltending, and skill,” he lauded.
“Not the depth quite where the Red Wings are at right now, but we’re striving to become like that,” Keith added. “Now it’s just a matter of keeping that going.”
Chicago was a young team that exceeded expectations by keeping the emphasis on fun and not getting too caught up in the pressures of the playoffs—often engaging in “Mario Kart” tournaments on the road.
“There’s lots of guys who get into that,” Keith noted. “I don’t get into that too much, but we’d have a big lounge area set up in every hotel we stayed at during the playoffs, and it was just for fun away from hockey.”
Keith, who moved to Penticton, B.C. as a teenager and spends much of his off-season in that area, will get back to work in short order in the gym.
“Obviously, you have to use every summer to get better and get stronger,” he stressed. “This summer I want to keep doing that, but a little break here won’t hurt.”
Keith had a career-high 44 points in his fourth NHL season, and again was among the top plus/minus leaders in the league at a +33.
The defenceman added six assists in 17 playoff games while he and defence partner Brent Seabrook were lauded for shutting down some of the best forwards in the league, including Jarome Iginla in round one and the Sedin twins in the second one.
The son of Dave and Jean Keith has one more year left at a salary of $1,475,000, and should be due for a big raise when his
unrestricted free agency rolls around next summer.
“I’m not too worried about that right now, just excited to play another year,” Keith reasoned.
“They can’t start negotiations until the final year kicks in [July 1], and I’ve got one year left and I’m happy playing in Chicago and I’d like to stay, but we’ll see what happens.
“I know there’s a lot of guys on the team that will be at the end of their contract at the same time [notably Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews] who will be tough to fit under the [salary] cap.”
If you’ve watched any ’Hawks games this spring, you surely heard Keith’s and Seabrook’s name mentioned in the same breath for the Canadian Olympic team ahead of the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
“It would really mean a lot to me,” Keith said of the prospect of suiting up for his country. “I think it’s something that won’t be easy to make by any means, there’s so many great players in Canada, and whoever they go with they’ll have a great team.”
Keith, who won a silver medal playing for Canada at the 2008 world championships, said whether or not he gets the nod is out of his control—and he doesn’t want it becoming a distraction going into next season.
“I think, for me, the best thing for me to do is not focus on that because the better I play for the Blackhawks, the better my chances are,” he stressed.
“I play for the Blackhawks, first and foremost, and if Team Canada happens, it happens, and it’d be a dream come true,” he added.
