Chicago Blackhawks stand exposed without captain Jonathan Toews-NHL Feature
Chicago Blackhawks’ centre, Jonathan Toews, returned to practice on Friday, March 09, 2012, and the pleasure of having the captain back with the side was very much clear on the faces of his teammates as well as managers.
And why it shouldn’t be when the captain leads them from the front. All the managers, coaches and teammates were hoping for his early return.
Toews showed along with the players after having missed eight straight games while suffering concussion-like symptoms.
It was a rare absence of the team leader, and they all stood exposed without him. New York Rangers’ game of March 09 was his ninth straight miss of the season.
Although he did some workout on the ice on Friday following his limited presence on the ice a day earlier, Thursday, March 08, 2012, he is yet to undergo drills of contact.
So, as of March 09, he remained uncertain about return. In any case, his presence on ice on past Friday was a morale booster for the players, who are struggling since the player’s departure with the injury.
They could not help holdback their excitement to find him among themselves, and in the end, it proved to be a good practice session with all the players giving everything out on the ice and worked beyond their limitation.
For many, it was good to see the captain back and feel the thrill of pulling the entire squad together once again. They are now hoping for Jonathan to join them in the regular season games.
Toews himself said to have been feeling good following the workout and according to the trainers and coaches, he did not experience any symptoms of the injury in the aftermath. It is a good development for the team by all standards.
Missing out on a player is one thing, and missing out on a captain is different altogether. The significance and Toews’ in the team has made his absence even more tormenting.
With 29 goals in the games he has played so far, Toews is ahead of his players. In assists, he is just behind M. Hossa, who has 39 assists.
So the team is missing on two aspects, in fact it is missing on two players, Jonathan the captain and Jonathan the player.
Without the captain, Chicago Blackhawks ended their eight-game streak with four wins and four losses.
Those wins did not come easy for them at all. In fact, they could have ended up losing a couple of those, but luckily survived the scare and came out victorious at the end.
Now, they finally have the good news of their captain getting closer to return, as reflected by his recent workout. But the bad news for them is that they do not have a timeline for his return.
The player has admitted this, and so has the coach, Joel Quenneville. Since there is no guarantee that the player will not suffer the symptoms again the danger remains as a worry sign for him as well as for the team.
The experience of some of NHL and NFL players shows that concussion symptoms are sometime lingering problem and the chances of their reoccurrence are always there, to some extent if not greater.
Both, Blackhawks officials and the player himself are aware and wary of it and can only hope that the player remains fit for rest of the regular season in which around 15 odd more games are left.
The second round is even more important for Blackhawks. At the moment, they are at sixth position in the Western Conference.
They have played 69 games, won 37, lost 25 and went for seven overtime losses. They have amassed 81 points in total, and are well on the course to playoff.
It is possible that they could make it to the second round without Jonathan Toews, but their survival will be much harder.
It is not the team’s ability of performing better and win, but it is the competitive nature of the round that features only the league’s top teams.
So, by and large, Chicago Blackhawks are hoping to have the captain back without the fears of losing him again.
They were lucky indeed to have already escaped the possibility when the player was reported to have been involved in a car crash and remained unscratched. The situation could have worsened for Blackhawks, otherwise.
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