CHICAGO (AP) — Jonathan Toews put his Chicago return on his calendar after he signed with his hometown Winnipeg Jets. And then it slipped away as the day approached.
“I was kind of focusing on the next game, and it kind of sneaks up on you. So here we are,” he said.
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Here we are, indeed.
Toews was back in Chicago on Monday for his first game in his first NHL home since he signed with Winnipeg on July 1. The 37-year-old center spent his first 15 seasons with the Blackhawks, winning three Stanley Cup titles.
“It’s a weird situation. You don’t get games like this all the time, obviously,” Toews said. “But just trying to walk that line between, at the end of the day, you want to go out there and play well, and you want to win the game, so you got to keep some level of focus and not get too distracted with all the things going on around you.”
Toews was selected by Chicago with the No. 3 pick in the 2006 draft, one of the first big moments in the team’s rise to the top of the NHL. He was just 20 years old when he became the 34th captain in team history in July 2008.
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Toews was part of a core group that helped Chicago put together the best stretch in franchise history, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Blackhawks also made it to the Western Conference finals in 2014, losing to the Los Angeles Kings in an epic seven-game series.
“I’m just super thankful, really grateful. … I’m always trying to be cognizant of the fact I was thrown into a really incredible opportunity,” Toews said. “I’ll give myself credit, I definitely had a lot of will, a lot of energy coming into my career as a young kid here in Chicago, but it was just a perfect storm. We had so many great players that were finding themselves and finding their careers at the same time.”
The Blackhawks celebrated those Stanley Cup teams on Saturday night as part of the festivities surrounding the franchise’s centennial season. So Toews was able to catch up with a handful of his former teammates on Sunday.
Once nicknamed “Captain Serious” — a reputation that faded away as he showed more of his personality over the years — Toews missed the 2020-21 season and part of the 2022-23 season with what he described as symptoms of long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome.
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The Blackhawks announced before their 2023 season finale that it would be Toews’ last game with the team, and he was showered with cheers throughout a 5-4 loss to Philadelphia.
“He’s the one teammate I’ve ever had where you go out with him in public and people won’t just say they’re a ‘big fan.’ They’ll almost give an emotional thank you to him,” Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy said. “They’ll literally say, ‘Thank you for making my life better.’ That’s what people will say to him.”
After taking a couple years off, Toews is adjusting to life with Winnipeg in his return to the NHL. He scored in four consecutive games before he was kept off the scoresheet during Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to Toronto.
“I think as time went along I’ve been able to feel more comfortable and just find my game and settle in and find a role on this team,” he said.
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