Jonathan Toews exhaled and then laughed and shook his head in disbelief as the standing ovation continued for four-plus minutes.
“All right, all right,” he said before taking another lap in front of the cheering crowd.
Toews returned to Chicago on Monday night with his hometown Winnipeg Jets, but it was clear that his first NHL city still counts him as one of its own.
Toews waved and patted his heart as he was showered with cheers and chants of “Jonny! Jonny!” during a timeout in the first period. It was his first game at the United Center since he signed with the Jets on July 1.
“I tried to do my best to take it all in and really savor it. To really appreciate the love from the fans,” Toews said.
“Obviously, I spent some special years here in Chicago and that’s what made playing for the Blackhawks so great. Winning championships and all of that stuff aside, just playing for a sports team in this city and calling this home for as long as I did was just incredible.
“I can’t thank them enough. It will always be home and has a special place in my heart.”
There was a noticeable buzz when Toews and the Jets took the ice for pregame warmups. There was a big cheer when he was introduced with the starting lineup and once again when he was shown on the videoboard during the Canadian national anthem.
The Blackhawks showed a Toews highlight video during a break in the action with 12:23 left in the first period. Dotted with No. 19 Toews jerseys and holding posters that read “Welcome back 19,” the crowd of 19,894 stood and cheered throughout the tribute.
When the video ended, Toews jumped on the ice to acknowledge the ovation, and it just kept going as the rest of the Jets and the Blackhawks looked on.
“It felt like forever. I’m not sure what to do after a while in that situation,” Toews said after Winnipeg’s 2-0 loss.
“The boys kept telling me to do another lap. Pretty special.”
Toews was selected by Chicago with the No. 3 pick in the 2006 draft, one of the first big moments in the team’s rise to the top of the NHL.
He was just 20 years old when he became the 34th captain in team history in July 2008.
Toews was part of a core group that helped Chicago put together the best stretch in franchise history, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Blackhawks also made it to the Western Conference finals in 2014, losing to the Los Angeles Kings in an epic seven-game series.
“I definitely had a lot of will, a lot of energy coming into my career as a young kid here in Chicago, but it was just a perfect storm,” Toews said. “We had so many great players that were finding themselves and finding their careers at the same time.”
The Blackhawks celebrated those Stanley Cup teams on Saturday night as part of the festivities surrounding the franchise’s centennial season.
Toews caught up with a handful of his former teammates on Sunday, and Kris Versteeg and Andrew Shaw sounded the horn before the opening faceoff on Monday night.
Once nicknamed “Captain Serious” — a reputation that faded away as he showed more of his personality over the years — Toews missed the 2020-21 season and part of the 2022-23 season with what he described as symptoms of long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome.
The Blackhawks announced before their 2023 season finale that it would be Toews’ last game with the team, and he was showered with cheers throughout a 5-4 loss to Philadelphia.
“He’s the one teammate I’ve ever had where you go out with him in public and people won’t just say they’re a ‘big fan.’ They’ll almost give an emotional thank you to him,” Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy said. “They’ll literally say, ‘Thank you for making my life better.’ That’s what people will say to him.”
After taking a couple years off, Toews is adjusting to life with Winnipeg in his return to the NHL.
He faced his former team for the first time earlier in the season in Winnipeg, notching an assist in the Jets’ 6-3 victory at the end of October.
More recently, Toews had scored in four consecutive games before being kept off the scoresheet during a 4-3 overtime loss to Toronto on Saturday.
“I think as time went along I’ve been able to feel more comfortable and just find my game and settle in and find a role on this team,” he said.
