For Jonathan Toews, Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre was a long time coming. It has been 95 days since the Winnipeg Jets announced his signing. 800 days before his signing Toews suited up in what many thought was his final NHL contest: an April 13, 2023 regular season game for the Chicago Blackhawks - the only NHL team he had known up until this summer. Photo by Scott Stroh [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/34951068-25bc-49a7-8d64-48b2e1fe281c.jpeg] Photo by Scott Stroh Toews turned eight years old the morning after the original Winnipeg Jets played their final game at the old Winnipeg Arena. It was at that point that he wanted to become a player for his hometown team. Nearly 30 full years later, that dream has finally become a reality. In 2011, when David Thompson, Mark Chipman and True North Sports + Entertainment purchased the Atlanta Thrashers and announced the team would be relocating to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season, that news was the least of Toews' worries. Sure, it was his city and offseason home, but the Jets weren't much more than an old Southeast Division opponent to Captain Serious, who was in the middle of earning three Stanley Cups in a six-year run with the Blackhawks. Fast forward a decade-and-a-half and Toews is back in Winnipeg and wearing the polar night blue - a new colour for a guy whom many thought would never shed the red, white and black of Chicago. On Tuesday night, Toews stepped out onto the ice at Canada Life Centre for the first time as a member of the host team and was met with a rousing applause. His first shift resulted in a face-off win. A couple shifts later he drove the puck to the Edmonton Oilers' goal. And shortly after that? Yes, he chased down an Oilers forward on a shorthanded breakaway, much to the pleasure of those gathered at his new home. Did he hear their applause? “No, not really, I guess I was pretty tired.” As a matter of fact, Toews didn't even really like that play at all. “It’s nice to catch the guy. Good scoring chance there," he said. "But I think it was on the power play though, so, obviously, we can make better plays there.” Toews suited up with fellow newcomer Gustav Nyquist and first round, Game 7 playoff hero Cole Perfetti - to whom he credited for much of his success on the evening. "I got sent out with some really good players, so you feel like you can make some mistakes and survive a shift and you get that feeling that you have some confidence to go out there and make plays," he said of Perfetti and Nyquist. Whether or not the team's top line from exhibition game No. 2 sticks through to the regular season will remain up for discussion. But on Tuesday night, the grouping did not look all that out of sorts. Another offseason acquisition, Tanner Pearson, was added to the three-man unit on power plays, to which the group will need to spend a bit more time developing chemistry - as made apparent by a few offensive zone gaffes - one resulting in the lengthy Toews backcheck. "You can’t do it all at once," the Winnipegger reflected. "You can’t over-analyze it or over-think it. But same thing, I think it’s settling into the structure, getting a little more comfortable with my linemates out there - a lot of the little things that will get a bit easier as it goes along.” Battling back from bouts with Long COVID and Chronic Immune Response Syndrome, Toews took time away from hockey - some much time, in fact, that many thought he wasn't ever going to lace up again. Skating out onto the ice for warmups on Tuesday was a monumental moment in his career - one that he'll cherish no matter how his tenure with the Jets plays out. "It’s been a while," he laughed. "Just being here in Winnipeg, being in a new locker room, there’s a lot of things to get used to. But at the same time, those nerves feel good and I’m just excited to play hockey again.” Was he pleased with his performance? Hard to tell. Captain Serious, as he's called, did provide an overall look at his game, which was, expectedly, rather critical. “Some good, some not so good, it is what it is," he reflected. "I felt like I made some plays, but as the game went on I just relaxed a little bit. I think the conditioning is going to come and the jump is going to come." “You get frustrated sometimes, because you want to go out there and find the back of the net right away, and if you don’t you can beat yourself up for those mistakes here and there. But I’m out there with two good players, but for me the reminder is to keep focusing on what we’re doing well and trying to improve every game. It was fun to be out there at the end of the day, and obviously we didn’t get the win but it’s early. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” The Jets lost the game 3-2 to the Oilers on Tuesday, marking the second such score that they have been on the wrong side of in the past three evenings. Winnipeg will now fly to Edmonton in hopes of turning things around with a new lineup on Friday night. The team will then return to Winnipeg for a Saturday night test against the Calgary Flames. Whether or not Toews will see further game action this weekend remains up in the air.
