Jonathan Toews’ best Blackhawks moments: ‘17 Seconds’ and other career-defining memories
Bobby Orr was a Chicago Blackhawk. Willie Mays was a New York Met. Joe Montana was a Kansas City Chief. Michael Jordan was a Washington Wizard.
And none of it did anything to diminish their legacies with the teams and fan bases with which they reached megastardom. Especially in this modern age, we’re all a little too precious about a player wearing just one uniform throughout his career. Five, 10, 20, 30 years from now, nobody’s going to remember Jonathan Toews, the Winnipeg Jet (unless he goes full Ray Bourque and wins the Stanley Cup, of course).
So while it might turn your stomach a bit as a Blackhawks fan to see your captain — the captain — in the blue and red of Winnipeg instead of the black and red of Chicago, it should also warm your heart to see him playing in the NHL again, attempting to go out on his own terms, not his body’s terms. After two years of presumed retirement, you get to see Jonathan Toews play again. How cool is that?
Whatever happens in Winnipeg, whenever he does retire, Toews’ indelible mark will always be in Chicago. Ahead of his first game against his old team on Thursday, let’s take a look back at the most memorable moments in a most memorable career.
15. Goal at Colorado, 2007
In just the fifth game of his career, Toews scored one of his prettiest goals — dancing his way through two Avalanche defenders, freezing Brett Clark with a quick shot fake, then toe-dragging his way around Clark before tucking the puck in past José Théodore. Avalanche analyst Peter McNab couldn’t have been more prophetic when he said after the goal, “This is the kind of talent that can bring a franchise back from the dead.”
14. Fight with Joe Thornton, 2013
Toews always seemed to be beefing with Thornton, but it came to a head in February 2013. Thornton had been whacking away at Toews all night, particularly after faceoffs, and Toews finally lost his mind. He cross-checked Thornton in the corner, then gave him a couple extra two-handers for good measure before chasing him into the other corner and goading him into a fight with a few more shoves. It was only the third fight of Toews’ career to that point, and Thornton seemed as surprised as anybody.
13. Final game with the Blackhawks, vs. Flyers, 2023
Unlike Patrick Kane, who was unceremoniously traded on the road at the deadline, Toews knew this would be his final game in a Blackhawks jersey, and quite possibly, his final game in the NHL. So of course, he scored — one last faceoff win, one last power-play tally, one last deflection in front of the net, one last one-knee sliding celebration. The memory of Toews’ dad, Bryan, dancing in the stands as “Chelsea Dagger” blared and fans roared like it was the old days will linger long after Toews finally hangs up his skates.
12. Game 1 at Edmonton, 2020 bubble playoffs
It wasn’t really a playoff game, and it certainly wasn’t a playoff atmosphere. But it was a vintage playoff performance from Toews, who scored twice and handed out an assist to open the expanded bubble playoffs in Edmonton. The Blackhawks went on to upset the Oilers before falling to the Golden Knights in the first round proper. Toews’ throwback effort in Game 1 against Edmonton was all the more impressive in hindsight, as we later learned there were times in that postseason when he essentially had to bench himself because he could barely move his legs to get over the boards. Toews missed three of the next five seasons as he tried to get himself healthy, but not before one last big-time postseason performance.
11. Third intermission of Game 7 vs. Detroit, 2013
There’s no video of this, but enough of his teammates have told the story by now to know it’s no fiction. After Niklas Hjalmarsson’s apparent series-winning goal late in the third period of Game 7 against the hated Red Wings was overturned because of some nonsense between Brandon Saad and Kyle Quincey far behind the play, the Blackhawks were irate. Hjalmarsson took a chunk out of his locker stall with his stick. But Toews stood up in the center of the locker room and told his teammates, “We’ll beat ’em 3-1 in overtime.” With perhaps an F-bomb or two thrown in. And that’s just what the Blackhawks did, with Seabrook’s winner averting disaster and sending them to the Western Conference final.
10. Motown Meltdown, Game 4 vs. Detroit, 2013
This might be No. 2 on Brent Seabrook’s biggest moments, but Toews’ epic crash-out is worth mentioning here, too, because the story of his Chicago career is incomplete without highlighting the wild-eyed emotion with which he played — for better or worse. It’s certainly not Toews’ proudest moment — he hadn’t scored in the first nine games of the postseason, then took three consecutive penalties in barely five minutes of play in the second period of a Game 4 loss as the Blackhawks’ dream season teetered on the brink of disaster — but it was maybe his most human moment.
After a head-pat and a pep talk from Seabrook, who actually entered the penalty box to calm down his captain, Toews bounced back with a cathartic goal in Game 5 and played stellar hockey all the way through the Stanley Cup Final versus Boston.
9. First NHL goal, vs. San Jose, 2007
First game. First shot. First goal. A sign of things to come.
8. The Soldier Field goal, vs. Pittsburgh, 2014
Toews is rightfully hailed for his defense, his heavy play, his work along the boards and around the net. But in his prime, he was incredibly skilled, too. Carving through the accumulated snow and turning Brooks Orpik inside out — just a few days after returning from the Sochi Olympics, no less — was one of the prettiest goals he ever scored, in one of the coolest (coldest, really) settings.
7. Heartbreaker assist, Game 5 vs. Los Angeles, 2013
The famous “heartbreaker” goal is one of Kane’s signature moments, but Toews played a big role in it. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville always preferred to keep Toews and Kane on separate lines to force opponents to pick their poison, but he frequently put them together in the playoffs when he needed them most. The 2013 unit of Toews centering Kane and Bickell ran wild all spring. Here, Bickell forced a turnover on Slava Voynov, Toews pounced on the puck and threaded a perfect pass to Kane on the two-on-one for the series winner and a spot in the Stanley Cup Final.
6. Shorthanded OT game-winning goal, Game 5 vs. St. Louis, 2014
This series tends to get lost in the shuffle when talking about the Blackhawks’ Cup years, but it was a magnificent battle between two great teams that really, really hated each other. The Blues won the first two games at home in overtime, but Toews’ shorthanded winner on a breakaway sprung by Duncan Keith in Game 5 gave the Blackhawks a 3-2 series lead.
5. Hat trick, Game 4 vs. Vancouver, 2010
Just a dominant performance here, as Toews scored three power-play goals and added two assists as the Blackhawks took a commanding 3-1 series lead en route to their first Stanley Cup in 49 years. Toews finished that postseason with seven goals and 22 assists in 22 games, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
4. Game 5 at Anaheim, 2015
Picking between Game 5 and Game 7 of this Western Conference final is impossible because you can’t have one without the other. With the series tied 2-2 and Anaheim leading 4-2 with less than two minutes to go, Toews scored twice with Chicago’s net empty — first on a bar-down one-timer, then on a sneaky sharp-angle shot in the final minute.
This is where Toews broke the previously unflappable and almost unbeatable Frederik Andersen. You got the sense that if someone lobbed a beach ball from center ice at that point, it was going to beat the Ducks goalie. Fortunately for Andersen, Anaheim won the game on the opening shift of overtime before he had to face another shot. But the damage was done. The Blackhawks scored 10 goals over Games 6 and 7 to advance to the Final.
3. Game 7 at Anaheim, 2015
The tension in this series was almost unbearable, with a triple-overtime game, a double-OT game and a single-OT game, and the Blackhawks — down to just four viable defensemen — clawing their way back from a 3-2 series deficit. But Toews diffused that tension almost immediately in Game 7, scoring 2:23 into the game, then scoring again less than 10 minutes later. The game, and the series, was never in doubt after that.
2. ’17 Seconds,’ Game 6 at Boston, 2013
With due respect to Kane and all the other overtime Cup-winners, this remains the greatest ending to a Stanley Cup Final, as the Blackhawks turned a loss into a win in just 17 seconds in the dying moments of the third period in Boston. And it started with Toews winning a puck battle along the boards, then finding Bryan Bickell for the tying goal.
1. The equalizer, Game 7, at Vancouver, 2011
How can a goal in a loss be the signature moment for the ultimate winner? Because this goal — the equalizer at 18:04 of the third period in a 1-0 Game 7 against an arch-rival — is Toews in full: the underrated skill to split two defenders, the wherewithal to nudge the puck over to Marián Hossa while being knocked to the ice by those two defenders, the relentless effort to get to his feet just long enough to dive back to the ice to knock the puck in, the clutch gene that allowed him to score a monster goal in a monster series in which the Blackhawks erased a 3-0 series deficit, and the fiery two-fisted celebration at the bench to get his team going. It was quintessential Toews. In the biggest moments, he was almost always the biggest player.
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