CALGARY – There are friendships in hockey, and then there are lifelines.<\/p>\n
Tethered to one another in ways that transcended locker room banter and shared ice time, theirs is a bond forged not just in the intensity of competition, but in the quiet moments between battles, when the weight of the world presses hardest on a man\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n
As emotional leaders of a dynasty, the driving force behind three Stanley Cups in Chicago, as well as Olympic gold for Canada, they always knew they could count on one another in good times and bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So when the two met rink-side in Calgary earlier this week, sharing smiles and plenty of conversation at the conclusion of the Winnipeg Jets\u2019 morning skate, you can bet talk of Toews\u2019 healthy return to the NHL was as much a source of pride and excitement for one, as the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just good to see him back out there,\u201d said Seabrook, who joined the Calgary Flames\u2019 player development department this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope he has an amazing season and gives Winnipeg a good chance to win hockey games. But for me, it’s just seeing him with a smile on his face and seeing him happy and being out there again, because that’s the way he deserves to go out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Support like that was vital in helping Toews through his two-year absence from the game as he battled long COVID, which robbed him of breath, energy and the identity he\u2019d built as one of hockey\u2019s fiercest competitors. It helped the first ballot Hall of Famer become a beacon of hope for millions of others suffering from COVID complications.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through it all, Seabrook was there, not just as a friend, but as a sounding board, a confidant and a believer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought he was retired, I’ll put it that way,\u201d said Seabrook, whose Flames face Toews and the Jets in Winnipeg Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew what he was going through. I knew the battles. I had a lot of conversations when he couldn’t breathe about, \u2018what are we doing here? Are we trying to get healthy? Are we coming back to play?\u2019 There was never a definitive answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deep down, Seabrook knew that the man he dubbed Mr. Serious (later morphed to Captain Serious) would find a way to come through, as the man with 69 career game-winners did so many times with the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n
That support meant everything to Toews as his well-being, let alone his career, hung in the balance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from my rookie season living with him, he’s just one of those guys that cares so much about his teammates,\u201d said Toews, hours before scoring his first goal of the season in a 2-1 win over Calgary Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt showed up in the way he played, and just the way he carried himself every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both known for sacrificing their bodies throughout lengthy careers, Toews said Seabrook was equally as willing to throw his body in front of a puck as he was a teammate\u2019s emotional storm, like he did in one of the most iconic moments of the Blackhawks\u2019 2013 playoff run.<\/p>\n
On the verge of going down 3-1 against Detroit in the second round, Toews took three straight minor penalties, allowing the Red Wings to score twice. The captain was unravelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was then, in a scene that still gets replayed in Chicago sports lore, Seabrook skated over to the penalty box, stepped in, put his hand on Toews’ head, and his face in Toews\u2019 grill.<\/p>\n
Not to berate, but to calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t remember what he said specifically,\u201d said Toews of an exchange in which the seething captain said nothing while staring blankly ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he just recognized I was having a bit of a meltdown. There was a lot of pressure that year. I wasn’t scoring a lot and wasn’t contributing. And at the time, I was like, \u2018dude, get out of my face. This is so embarrassing and humiliating, like, you’re making it worse.\u2019 But afterwards, I look back, I see where he’s coming from, and he’s just trying to just be like, \u2018Dude, chill. We got this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
They did. Seabrook scored the overtime winner in Game 7 to eliminate Detroit, extending their run through L.A. and then Boston, en route to their second Stanley Cup win in four years. They won it again two years later.<\/p>\n
But the real victory was in that box, a moment that summed up their relationship better than any stat line ever could.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that, in a nutshell, kind of shows what kind of guy he is – it really sums it up,\u201d said Toews, 37, who was also there for \u201cSeebs\u201d through a series of hip and shoulder surgeries that led to Seabrook\u2019s retirement in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always that kind of even-keel guy. He didn’t really have any bad days. I wish I could say the same for myself, more of a roller coaster ride. But he was always there to pick you up and talk you out of it when you’re kind of spiralling or not feeling your best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked up to him in a lot of ways. One of my closest friends, and a guy I got to play with all those years. It\u2019s definitely special to look back on our memories we shared together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Memories they can continue building off the ice, knowing how much each one\u2019s happiness means to the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY – There are friendships in hockey, and then there are lifelines. Tethered to one another in ways…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-236031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}