The highlight of Jonathan Toews’ return to the Blackhawks lineup Saturday was an assist on a goal to temporarily cut the Hawks’ deficit from two goals to one.
So no, it won’t exactly make the career accomplishments list. But it would’ve been difficult for Toews to do anything Saturday — in the Hawks’ 6-3 loss to the Devils — that would have cleared that extremely high bar.
How Toews played, after all, was never going to be Saturday’s main takeaway. The sheer fact he played at all — the fact he donned a red Hawks jersey during a competitive game at the United Center — was always destined to be the truly significant part.
The captain logged exactly 14:00 of ice time over 18 shifts. He lost the opening faceoff against Nico Hischier — although it was basically a tie — yet still finished 8-for-12 at the dot, maintaining his league lead in that category.
Toews admitted after morning skate he felt “a little bit” nervous — more than usual, at least — for his 1,061st career regulation-season game.
“Always when you’ve been off for a while, some little things aren’t second nature,” he said. “So in a situation like this, [I’ll] just try not to overthink anything. [I’ll] just go keep it simple to start and try to find your feet and your rhythm out there.”
Added coach Luke Richardson: “It doesn’t matter how successful you are or how long he’s played, I still know [that] if you haven’t played for a little bit and you go in, you’re feeling a little bit nervous again. But it’s a good nervous. It’s an excited nervous.”
Since taking the entire 2021 season off to address his first round of immune system-related health issues, Toews has become a significantly more philosophical man.
He frequently mentions his mentality centered around staying in the present and taking things one day at a time, and he said in November he felt “a new ability to sink into what that actually means” — as in, what it takes to “literally just be where you are.”
In this situation, with all eyes on him and such great uncertainty about what his life will look like beyond April 13, that mentality is helping him to stay calm and focused.
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through this whole process is just not look too far ahead, and I’m doing the same thing right now,” he said. “So [I’ll] just enjoy these last bunch of games before the end of the year — with the players, the training staff and everyone that I’ve been part of the Blackhawks family here with — and we’ll go from here.”
From the second Toews stepped out for warmups, he was showered with applause. Chicago fans hadn’t seen him in a game since Jan. 22 against the Kings — shortly before he took the leave of absence — and many likely assumed they might never again.
He was officially slotted as the fourth-line center between Reese Johnson and Austin Wagner, but Richardson nonetheless started that line to get Toews into the lineup announcement.
Eight minutes into the first period, he grabbed the puck and turned a sharp-angle shot into Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood’s diaphragm, recording his lone shot on goal. He had a prime shooting opportunity in the slot on the power play later in the opening frame, but he tried to force a pass instead.
By the third period, Richardson had bumped him up between Lukas Reichel and Andreas Athanasiou on the first line, and he earned the aforementioned assist when he set up the latter for a net-front tap-in with 10:57 left to briefly cut the deficit to 4-3.
The eighth consecutive loss kept the Hawks in last place in the NHL standings with six games remaining.