Patrick Kane, Toews\u2019 teammate here from 2007-23, expects Monday to be \u201cincredible.\u201d Kane would know; the forward returned to Chicago with the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 25, 2024, and scored on a breakaway in overtime for a 3-2 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, you never really know what the reception\u2019s going to be like and how it\u2019s going to feel in the moment,\u201d Kane said. \u201cYou can take guesses and kind of think about what it\u2019s going to be like. I remember I did three or four different laps, and they were still cheering, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be the same for him, maybe even more so, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, he meant so much to the franchise and the teams that won, and just being the captain for so long (2008-23).\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been plenty of roster changes in Chicago since Toews\u2019 departure. Of those remaining from his time here, defenseman Connor Murphy, who\u2019s been with the Blackhawks since 2017, played the most with him. They remain good friends, and Murphy said Toews\u2019 connection to the city is something special.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the one guy that, when I was out with him in public in Chicago, I\u2019ve never seen such a reaction,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that people are fans. They\u2019ll come up to him and give a heartfelt, \u2018Thank you for making my life better\u2019 sort of reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people you get the reaction, \u2018Hey I\u2019m a big fan, you\u2019re a great player.\u2019 With him, you can see he\u2019s connected with people in the way of what he\u2019s done for them, whether it\u2019s in the community or his game or leadership-wise and what they\u2019ve brought success to that it\u2019s made people\u2019s lives feel more fulfilled. It shows the impact hockey can have and a guy who lives up to the hype as an idol can make on people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former forward Patrick Sharp, who played 10 seasons here with Toews and also won three Stanley Cup championships, is expecting Toews to experience a return similar to Kane\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause in all moments and the stories I have of Toews, the one that stands out the most is that every time there was a big game, if it was meaningful in the standings, meaningful playoff games, in the middle of a series, maybe just on [Hockey Night in Canada], whatever it was, Jonathan would always come through in the most clutch of times for us,\u201d Sharp said. So, to see him play at the United Center, I know [the crowd] will stand and cheer for as long as Jonny will stand at center ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect the Hawks to have a lot of cool videos to cue up to remind everyone of his greatness and yeah, I\u2019m just sure he\u2019ll do something at a clutch moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toews has moved on with his career, but the memories will certainly come flooding back on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019ll be a pretty cool moment for me,\u201d he said. \u201cAgain, just being able to have a moment to kind of recognize what the game of hockey does for people in Chicago and what it meant for the city \u2026 you make a lot of sacrifices in your life and you kind of put a lot of things on the back burner, but the payoff is incredible to be able to be a part of championship teams that bring such an energy and inspiration to the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going back there, playing that [game] and kind of reliving those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika and independent correspondent Dan Arritt contributed to this story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Kane, Toews\u2019 teammate here from 2007-23, expects Monday to be \u201cincredible.\u201d Kane would know; the forward returned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-416690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}