Injured Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews meets the media

Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews covered it all Friday when he met the media for the first time in weeks following the morning skate.

From his recovery from a concussion to his one-car crash, to his deeper love of the game, the Captain had plenty to say.

Here are some highlights:

How did concussion happen?

“You come out of a game and you kind of feel those symptoms I guess and you don’t want to admit to yourself what it might be and you keep going a little bit so it’s not really clear when it might have happened exactly. The toughest thing was just coming to grips with it and saying it’s something I had to deal with and I couldn’t keep playing with ... and here I am three weeks later still kind of hanging in there, getting better every day.”

Did car crash have anything to do with your condition:

“Not at all. A lot of people want to try and tie that in there with this injury, but I guess as they say, when it rains it pours. That was kind of a rough week and you threw that in there with it ... it wasn’t too much fun.”

What happened with the crash:

“It was one of those things where I was more concerned with the traffic that was coming down the one-way and completely didn’t see the obstacle that was in front of me. It was one of those embarrassing things where I didn’t want to get out of my car for a long time. It was around 9 in the morning and two hours later I’m at home getting text messages from friends back home asking me if I was alright. I couldn’t believe how fast it got around.”

Missing the game:

“(Hockey) is so much fun. When you’re in the middle of a long season and you play 82 games and you’re on the ice every single day, after awhile you might take it for granted. I think it was a couple of days in where I was starting to get lonely. It’s one of those injuries where you sit at home and pretty much do nothing trying to heal yourself, so you start to miss the game and miss being in the locker room pretty quick.”

Time frame to come back?

“I thought a week-and-a-half ago that I’d be playing by now. I think that might be the most frustrating thing and the most difficult thing right now; I am back on the ice, I feel good out there and I feel like, ‘Hey, I should be playing in a couple of days.’ Since it’s not (the first time), the level of urgency goes up a little bit.”

About life after hockey:

“It’s hard for any young guy to think about what happens way down the road. All you’re concerned with is getting back to 100 percent and getting to the point where you can go out there and play again. When you do get a lot of time to yourself sitting in a dark room at home you do think about that a little bit.”