Jonathan Toews. That’s It. That’s The Blog.

You wanna know what was the only thing that kept me going today except for the dream I had about Harry Styles? The news that Jonathan Toews was looking, and I quote, “ripped” at preseason workouts. Every few days over the past year, I would get so sad thinking about how Toews, who was like a pillar of my childhood/teen years, was battling through something and not feeling well. After all the joy and years of happiness he’d unintentionally given me, I was worried about the guy during his time away from the team with a mysterious illness.

Nothing but positive reports about Jonathan Toews' conditioning as informal workouts continue. In fact, three people in and around the team have told me that he looks particularly strong. "He's absolutely jacked," one person told me. "Ripped."

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) September 20, 2021

Now to hear he’s looking good and “ripped”, it gives me hope. The hope that he will come back. The hope that his days in Chicago weren’t over. It’s been so long since we’ve seen him on the ice. Hearing he’s healthy again and looking great in workouts, it gives me those hopes that I’ve been keeping at bay for about a year. We didn’t know anything for so long that it was worrying to think about. Tazer has been a huge past of the Hawks for so long, a lot of my favorite memories have him involved so to see the captain down and out was worrisome.

The last time we saw Tazer was the playoff bubble (which feels like 20 years ago) where he had 9 points (5G 4A) in 9 games, averaged 18:41 a game, had a corsi for of 51.2%. Before that in the squashed 2019-2020 season, he had 60 points (18G 42A) in 70 games. Say what you will about him “slowing down” as he has aged but Johnny is still THE mother fuckin captain of the Chicago Blackhawks. He is still their leader, their point man, and their top center. I still believe in this man with my heart and soul. He spent a year away recovering from an illness and it might take some time for him to get back on his feet but knowing Johnny Hustle, he’s going to be back out there dazzling the city before we know it.

I went through my Hawks playlist and found some old hype videos of him so do yourself a favor, Hawks fans, watch these. Seeing our goofy captain dazzle the ice, lay some hits, score some dirty goals – it made me smile and start counting the days to the regular season. Enjoy.

This video is the old Hawks but tis one of my favorites:

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