Dietz: It’s a good time for Hawks fans to thank Toews

Chicagoans have been awfully blessed over the years when it comes to their athletes.

This is especially true when it comes to your fan-favorite Blackhawks: Stosh, The Golden Jet, JR, Kaner, Seabs, Duncs, Hoss, Sharpie, Crow … and, of course, Tazer.

Many of you can close your eyes and envision multiple highlights from each of those icons. You lived and died with each moment, year after year.

And that's why Thursday – when the Hawks play at Winnipeg — will feel so strange. Standing on the other side is going to be No. 19.

The Captain. Jonathan Toews.

It's never easy when a hero abandons your team to play elsewhere, especially when it's a division rival.

But this is different. Toews has overcome so much to reach this point, so it should be easy to root for him to have a successful season.

That has certainly been the case thus far as he has 2 goals and 3 assists while winning 64.2% of his faceoffs in nearly 16.5 minutes of ice time.

Toews' return is borderline miraculous considering the mentally draining obstacles that were in his way. Remember, Toews took the 2020-21 season off to deal with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome. He then returned to a bottom-feeding team for two years and was still not 100%.

After missing two months, he somehow willed himself back onto the ice for the final seven games of the 2022-23 campaign. Fans can easily recall the final image of Toews nearly scoring on an OT breakaway against Philadelphia in the season finale.

What theater that was.

Then the curtain fell and some of us figured that was the last we'd see of Toews in the NHL.

How wrong we were.

“Not scoring that goal – whether it was a sign or not – I kind of held onto the meaning that I had some unfinished business and in some way, shape or form I was gonna come back and play at some point,” Toews said in a recent interview with Elliotte Friedman.

In 2023, Toews went to India for five weeks to take part in a detox known as Panchakarma. It involves herbal remedies, yoga, massage and induced vomiting.

Late last year, he put a post on Instagram that included multiple photos and a message detailing why he chose this route to heal.

“In short, it teaches that our health can thrive when we learn to simplify our lives, create space for stillness, and better align ourselves with nature's rhythms,” Toews wrote. “Not only did it teach me better diet choices specific to my body choice, it has deepened my intuitive relationship with myself and the world around me.”

Toews has always been an outside-the-box thinker when it comes to his health, so it really comes as no surprise that he chose this unorthodox method.

“In our part of the world we're always looking for some sort of secret formula that exists outside of us that can fix any sort of ailment or sensation or feeling we might have within,” Toews told Friedman. “Whereas their mindset over there is it starts in here (points to heart) and everything outside starts to reflect your inner environment.

“When you allow yourself to have that kind of space … then you can see what comes to the surface. Ultimately it's just taking responsibility for what's happening in your life and it kind of flips things around for you.”

Toews signed with his hometown team on June 20 and spent the summer preparing to return.

Five weeks later, a chance meeting occurred when we both found ourselves on the driving range at a Chicago-area country club. His mouth nearly hit the ground when he saw me.

“What are you doing here?” he said.

“This is my side gig now,” I chuckled. “I'm a caddie.”

After his round he was happy to talk, and asked questions about the direction of my life.

This is the great thing about hockey players – they are so real and are truly interested in others' lives. I covered Toews for nearly a decade and this was easily our most casual conversation.

Some of you don't know this, but as sports writers we check our Fan Badge at the door. We no longer root for the teams we cover, so I never cheered for the Hawks when I was on the beat.

But that doesn't mean we can't root for good stories – and, wow, is Jonathan Toews a good story.

As I was pulling my phone out for a quick selfie, he said something to the effect of: “You know, we don't say this enough – but thank you so much for all the coverage over the years. I really appreciate it.”

Hawks fans should say the same thing Thursday: Thank you, Jonathan, for all the goals, the assists, and most of all, the leadership that helped lead to three Stanley Cup championships. We really appreciate it.

John Dietz, a sports writer at the Daily Herald from 1998-2024, covered the Blackhawks from 2014-24. You can reach him at jdietz6917@hotmail.com.