Jonathan Toews’ Unbelievable Journey Back To The NHL

Jonathan Toews’ Unbelievable Journey Back To The NHL

It’s been a long journey to get back to this point. You know, you got to really remind yourself why you’re doing this cuz it’s easy to get discouraged. At least there were moments for me where I got discouraged and and that self-doubt kind of crept in and having to get to a place of of truly understanding myself and uh being a little bit wiser because of it. Now I get the opportunity to play the game that I love for the team that I grew up watching. So, I think it’s a whole new uh level of of dream come true once again. Jonathan Taves, they call him captain serious. Jonathan’s the ultimate leader. Taves moving in. What a move. Oh my goodness. Hawks win. Jonathan Taves. The Chicago Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup. Jonathan Taves, longest tenur and best captain in Blackhawks history. Everybody always talked about you as mature beyond your years. You know, you were a captain at a young age. Everybody always said like that’s a guy who really has it together. I guess we just didn’t really know how much you really felt you still had to learn about yourself in life. I think there’s two sides to that. And a lot of people ask me, what was it like to be a captain at s such a young age? I I often think about it. I’m like, well, I don’t think it’s really fair to put a 21 or a 22y old kid in or whatever it was in that in that situation because it’s not a normal life for anyone, let alone a 20-year-old kid. The other side of it was that perfectionist mentality has kind of a a negative side where, you know, you’re not maybe allowing yourself to just grow and mature at your own pace. whatever criticism or uh shortcoming or just any sort of weakness that maybe someone else would expose in me, I would really feel that and be very sensitive to it and I would absorb that and kind of take it personally. When did you learn to let it go? I would say these last couple years that’s pretty much what it came down to. I think my body just finally quit on me because uh like I said, I was carrying so much um just around every day and that that inner critic was so strong. I just really had to to get away from it all and just kind of go listen to myself and listen to my body, you know? I just wanted to feel the freedom to to be able to choose what I wanted to do and um just kind of honor that inner process I think was really healthy for me. So now when you go away from the rink, how do you let the air out of the tires? Like what do you do? What do you do to get away from it? I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t have a whole new level of patience and and awareness. Being in that place really helps the gas tank stay full. um as opposed to just I think the way I used to operate was more geared towards make yourself as miserable or not necessarily make yourself miserable but but just deal with whatever misery you have to until you accomplish the goal in a way I’m just kind of like letting that go completely and not thinking about it. This coming from Jonathan Taves as some of you may know I’ve been out on a bit of a healing journey. I’ve recently spent five weeks in India undergoing aruveetic detox called poncha karma and I’m happy to say things are trending. It’s been almost a 5 years of searching for a way to heal the inflammatory and immune system issues that took me out of hockey. I googled Ayurveda Toronto where I live and I emailed a bunch of places. Okay. You did your research. Eh, I said I’m going to be interviewing this guy. Can I do it? They said, “I don’t think you would get that experience in Toronto.” Yeah. Like, if you really wanted to do that, you would have to go to India. I’m always um a little bit apprehensive to kind of nudge people in that direction. I think that sort of thing really popped up in my life when I was kind of ready for it and at my wit’s end. So I think if someone’s willing to try something like that and good for them it you know obviously means they’re very open-minded and or desperate which is not a fun place to be even just going all the way to you know the other side of the world to you know the southwest coast of India and you’re really steeped in the culture and the energy of you know a place that’s very foreign to where we live and how we think and how we approach things and I think that was equally as therapeutic as any of the other detoxes or other practices that I was a part of. What did Eastern medicine do for you that maybe western medicine couldn’t? In our part of the world, we’re always looking for some sort of secret formula that exists outside of us that can fix any sort of a ailment or sensation or feeling that we might have within. whereas um their mindset over there is it it starts in here and everything outside starts to reflect your inner environment and I definitely really started to take responsibility for everything that was happening in my life and truly having an understanding and when you allow yourself to have some of that space in your life then you can kind of see what comes to the surface too and I think ultimately it’s just taking responsibility for for what’s happening in your life and kind of flip flips things around for you. Can I ask you what was the hardest thing you went through or the hardest moment? I think after my last game in Chicago that season, I was going to take some time away from hockey and just missing on that breakaway, almost a fluke that it didn’t go right. Jonathan Taves for the win. Saved by Sandstöm. We’ve seen that move go in a hundred times throughout his career. not scoring that goal, whether it was a sign or not, I just I kind of held on to the meaning that I had some unfinished business and and that uh in some way, shape, or form was going to come back and play at some point. He is a threetime Stanley Cup champion and tonight he returns to play for his hometown team, number 19, Jonathan Te. What will make you happy when this is all over? What is going to make you say, you know what, I accomplished this on my own terms and I’m happy with where it went. Well, Stanley Cup in Winnipeg. That’s a good answer. It’s definitely on my mind. Um, but either way, you know, I think I can appreciate the the small things and and the big things as well. Ke snaps one through. Save made. rebound alive and Sroken lunging over. Pell got in front of it. Nyquist tried to jam it in front and they score. Jonathan Taz little slide pass. He’ll get an assist and that’s just a good goal. Is there one thing you would say to people? This really helped me find my peace and I would say maybe try this. I think that you know that joy and peace kind of starts with with us as individuals and working on ourselves and starting from within. That’s not the most convenient information for most of us and it wasn’t for me either. But it’s true. I do believe it is true. Yeah. And once we start taking that responsibility, we kind of turn into this attitude that that the things happen in our lives. It’s not happening to us, it’s happening for us. And then and then uh the rest is history. You have a saying now that you talk about don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. What does that mean? I think these lessons that that uh I’ve kind of learned through this whole process and this whole journey kind of reminded me that it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing and it’s how you do it. And uh I was really able to get enough distance from the game of hockey to just remember how much I love the game and how much I appreciate it. So, not throwing the baby out with the bath water would be not walking away from the h from the game of hockey quite yet and knowing I do have unfinished business and I think a new sense of self and a new kind of approach to just how I deal with life and how I deal with with anything really and bringing that to the game of hockey and just enjoying every last minute that I get to play the game at this level. It’s a privilege and I just uh wanted to remind myself not to take that for granted in any way.

Winnipeg Jets forward Jonathan Toews sits down with Elliotte Friedman to discuss his long battle back to the NHL, the humility he needed to learn during the process, the opportunity to play for the team he grew up cheering for and more.

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