Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews

Pairing
Pairing:	Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews
Alternative name(s):	Kaner/Tazer, Kazer, 1988
Gender category:	slash
Fandom:	Hockey RPF
Canonical?:	no
Prevalence:	very popular
Archives:
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Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews is a popular pairing in Hockey RPF. Both players were rookies for the Chicago Blackhawks and has since won three Stanley Cups for the team – fans consider them to have effectively resurrected the franchise from its dark era. Both Kane and Toews are highly respected players.

For a time it was the most popular pairing in the hockey RPF fandom, and had the most tagged works on Archive of Our Own, before it was surpassed by Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin.

Origins

As memorably described in a primer by totheviktor:

Patrick Kane is a hideous hockey-playing weirdo who is bad at every aspect of life. "An unattractive, terrible dude?" you say. "He sounds like the worst! Tell me more! Does he happen to have a somewhat attractive, bossy captain/teammate/roommate/BFF/bromeo in his life? Do they perhaps have popsicle eating contests, weep over movies, fail miserably at fighting, buy matching furniture, read Twilight, and get called married by their mothers? As men do?"

They started out their professional careers as rookies with the Chicago Blackhawks (for which they both still play), and were linked extensively in the media from the very start. Fannish folks seized upon how Toews' mother described them as "the odd couple", their popsicle-eating competition, and a series of Youtube videos that talk about them rooming together on the road. The duo also participated a bizarre commercial that fans love to make fun of. As described by totheviktor,

I understand if you can't watch more than a second of it, because it's so creepy and awkward. That's how everyone reacted. In case you had to stop it, let me tell you that it involves a) Tazer asking Kaner for help with pickup lines b) Kaner showing girls video of Tazer in an attempt to seduce them c) Kaner and Tazer engaging in unnecessarily complicated wingman antics and d) THE STRONG IMPLICATION THAT THEY ARE GOING TO FILM THEMSELVES HAVING SEX WITH GIRLS AND THEN WATCH IT TOGETHER IN THE LOCKER ROOM.

After winning the Stanley cup a second time in 2013, Tazer briefly moonwalked on the ice, leading to a Kaner Shuffle/Tazer Moonwalk danceoff at the 2013 Blackhawks convention; gifs of these events were extensively reblogged on Tumblr.[1][2]

They won a third Stanley Cup in 2015, this time in home ice.

Tropes

Since Kane and Toews started out as rookies in the league together, their relationship was often described as tumultuous, having shared the same hotel rooms for the Blackhawks' road games. Common fic tropes include one of them stealth-dating the other, Kaner being short, Tazer going fishing (sometimes with Mike Richards), Kane worrying or freaking out about articles on Deadspin, drunken bro-hookups turning into more, the fallout from Kane's drunken Cinco de Mayo antics, Kane being jealous of Toews' college buddy T.J.Oshie, and Kane trying to pick up girls and failing miserably.

As they grew up together and their personalities matured, both of them have become perceived as veteran figures with the Blackhawks, the portrayal of their relationship have evolved as well. Tropes usually employed are friends-to-lovers, the rookies getting a surprise about them being in an established relationship, moving in together in 9 Walton, and retiring.

Rape allegation

On August 6, 2015, The Buffalo News reported that Kane was being investigated by Hamburg, NY police for an alleged rape the previous weekend. Hockey RPF fandom was shocked, with some writers immediately announcing that they would no longer write pairings involving Kane, and other writers planning to wait and see how the investigation developed.

On November 3, 2015, the District Attorney's office of Buffalo issued a press release announcing that no charges will be brought upon Kane. The investigation finding revealed that there were significant material inconsistencies between the complainant accounts and those of other witnesses, that multiple DNA results lend no corroboration whatsoever to the complainant's claims. This was after pieces of evidence cast reasonable doubt to the accusation, such as a forensic cellphone analysis, statements made by the complainant's friend that she was being pressured to testify for her, and the "rape kit hoax" in which the mother of the complainant falsely tried to impugn the integrity of the rape kit, but was debunked by the DA.

Example Fanworks

• Human Empanada by impertinence

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Resources

• Hide your eyes - it's a Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews primer by totheviktor (written pre-Cinco de Mayo)
• Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews tag on the AO3
• Kane and Toews face off - ESPN article that exemplifies how closely they are linked in the media (December 10, 2013)