Jonathan Toews will wear a Blackhawks jersey on United Center ice on Saturday.
Indeed, that statement is correct. Just four days after returning to practice, the Hawks’ captain is set to return to action far earlier than anyone expected, with coach Luke Richardson planning to reinsert him into the Hawks’ lineup against the Devils.
It’s now possible Toews could make as many as seven appearances — including two more at home on April 10 and 13 — before the season ends and he becomes an impending unrestricted free agent.
“He’s like, ‘Well, it’s not going to be perfect. It might be ugly,’” Richardson said. “I said, ‘We’re a little bit ugly right now, so you’ll fit.’
“He’s such a veteran, he knows what he can handle. I don’t think he would touch it if it was something he couldn’t handle. So you trust that about him. He has really high expectations — when he plays — [for] himself and the team, which is great. That’s why he’s the captain.”
Toews said Tuesday he has felt improvement — albeit painstakingly slow improvement — since his health issues became so dire after his last appearance Jan. 28 that he needed to take a leave of absence. He has missed 27 consecutive games since, battling symptoms of fatigue and pain caused by chronic immune response syndrome and Long COVID.
And between Tuesday and Friday, despite the physical strains of returning to full practice participation, Toews has continued to feel better and better. That gives him confidence he’ll be able to hold his own in competitive NHL games.
“Not only have things progressed for me on the health side, but just being on the ice and being in a few practices was always going to be an adjustment when you’ve had a month or two off,” Toews said. “It’s nice to get those practices under my belt and feel like I’m getting better day-by-day.
“The recovery aspect was always pretty hard because...when your immune system is always firing off, you feel that inflammation 10 times more than you would normally. It makes every little thing much more difficult. That’s getting a lot better. Everything is seeming to calm down at this point.”
Arguably the biggest reason why Toews is pushing himself to return for the end of this season stems from the extreme uncertainty that lies beyond it. He admitted Tuesday that he realizes “this could be my last few weeks in Chicago as a Blackhawk.”
It seems that realization is more due to the finite nature of his contract expiring — and Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson giving every indication he wants to move on to a new era — than due to any thoughts of retirement, though.
Toews insisted Friday he’s nowhere reaching near any conclusions regarding that retirement question.
“I haven’t gotten too far down that rabbit hole,” he said. “But I would imagine the thought is, [that] when you remember how long and hard a season can be, you know if you’ve either got it or you don’t.
“I don’t feel like, with what I’ve been through...this past season, I have enough clarity on what that decision will be. I’m just doing my best every day to get healthy and get back into a good place mentally and physically. I think either that decision will be clear for me this summer, or it’ll be a situation where I’m really feeling good and...ready to train and prepare to get myself to a place where I can play high-level hockey again.”
Just how much impact Toews can make on the Hawks’ on-ice performance Saturday and beyond remains to be seen.
Entering the All-Star break — immediately after the last time he played — he was tied for the team lead with 14 goals and ranked third with 28 points. Both players who were ahead of him (Max Domi and Patrick Kane) are now gone. Toews also led the entire NHL with a 63.3% faceoff percentage, an area in which the Hawks have struggled mightily during his absence.
But to expect him to immediately resume that playing level would be ridiculous. For one thing, he’ll likely log significantly fewer minutes Saturday than the 17:55 he averaged previously this season. And he not only warned Richardson but also the fans that things might look ugly.
“It’s not going to be perfect,” Toews said. “It’s going to be an adjustment no matter what. Part of getting your legs under you...is getting some games in.”
He compared his personal expectations to the start of the 2021-22 season, when he returned after taking the entire 2021 season off. It took him 26 games to score a goal that time.
On the other hand, it won’t matter much how much impact he makes. The Hawks will certainly remain a bad team, and losing helps anyway in their quest for a guaranteed top-three draft pick. Their loss Thursday against the Blues, combined with the Blue Jackets’ overtime loss, gave the Hawks the NHL’s worst record again by points percentage.
Of far greater significance will be Toews simply taking the ice again for the Hawks — something which felt uncertain or even unlikely a couple weeks ago.
“Even the new guys here who have seen him hoisting the [Stanley] Cup, this is their first interaction with him, and it’s huge,” Richardson said. “It’s a big relief, in a way, for him to get back feeling better and playing. But it’s really important for the team and the organization, at this point in time, to have their leader there.”
Added Toews: “I’m thankful of how supportive the team has been — and my teammates, as well. It’s one of those things that not a lot of people can understand unless you’ve been through it yourself, so I appreciate everyone’s patience with that. I’m just trying to do my best, one day at a time, going forward.”
