I’ve to confess one thing immediately: I might need gotten this one flawed. I used to be rooting for Jonathan Toews. Exhausting. And perhaps that’s clouded my view. After every little thing he’s been by way of — the lengthy, brutal slog with lengthy Covid, the arduous work to get again on the ice, the selection to return dwelling to Winnipeg — I needed this to work. Not only for him, however for the Jets, for town, for a hometown boy who had at all times needed to make a distinction right here.
Toews Is Merely Not Having a Beneficial Affect
However, mentioned straight up, it’s not working. At the very least, not the best way anybody hoped. Toews has 9 factors in 33 video games, minus-13. One level previously 17 video games. No objectives since November 11. Sure, he’s nonetheless strong within the faceoff circle, however the spark, the objectives, the sort of performs that used to show video games the other way up? They’re lacking.
The Toews who hoisted three Cups looks like a distant reminiscence.
I maintain circling again to this: he needed this for 2 causes — first, the noble motive — to assist his hometown staff, to present again. And second, a motive that isn’t actually egocentric in any respect. He needed to be dwelling, amongst acquainted faces, in a spot he loves. There’s nothing flawed with that.
However love and loyalty don’t assure factors on the board. And now, I ponder, what’s he considering in that dressing room? He is aware of, everyone knows, that he’s underperforming. And as a frontrunner — a person who’s constructed his identification round main — he can’t be proud of what he’s giving his staff.
What Occurs Now for Toews and the Jets?
So what occurs now? Is that this only a hiccup, a stumble after such an extended layoff, one thing he can work by way of with grit and focus? Or is that this a crossroads second — a second the place he has to ask himself whether or not he can actually add worth to the Jets, even to a staff he loves so deeply? The solutions aren’t straightforward. There’s satisfaction, there’s coronary heart, there’s historical past. And there’s a metropolis watching.
Toews isn’t a rental participant. This isn’t some short-term experiment. That is dwelling. And when the sport he loves begins slipping away from him, it’s not simply statistics on a sheet — it’s private, it’s emotional, and it’s painfully actual.
Now what? The reply gained’t be easy.
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