The Chicago Blackhawks as an organization has been sinking slowly for years. It seems like the Blackhawks’ last Stanley Cup Championship in 2015 was played lights years ago, even though it has been 8 years. It was the Blackhawks dynasty with that dynamic duo of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane that took Chicago hockey out of the dark times as they collected three championships. How quickly Blackhawks management and ownership dug the grave of that great run in Chicago sports since the Michael Jordan and the Bulls era in the 1990’s. The 2022-23 NHL season ended with another bad season for the Blackhawks as they missed the playoffs once again. As the ship has been sinking all those years, like something out of the tar pits in prehistorical times, he was the last player off the ship from that dynasty, Captain Serious. At the age of 34 years old, Toews plays his last game ever in an Indian head sweater in front of the Blackhawks faithful at the United center in the last game of the regular season.

In 2006, the Blackhawks drafted Jonathan Toews in the first round with the third pick overall in the NHL draft. In Toews’ rookie season, he came on like gang busters with 24 goals dishing out 30 assists in the first NHL season in the 2007-08 season. A Captain was born with his leadership skills along with his play on the ice. Toews played 15 seasons with the Blackhawks as he was an instant asset to the roster for the reward of playing bad hockey for decades. Finally the front office picked the right players in the draft to build a core. Toews did his part playing in over 1,000 regular season games & not counting all the contests he played in the post-seasons when the team went deep almost every year. Toews would score 372 regular season goals while dishing over 511 assists for a grand total of 883 points all in a Blackhawks uniform, the only team he has ever played for. Health issues have derailed Toews over the last few seasons. Toews would miss the 2020-21 season dealing with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome dealing with long term symptoms of the Covid-19 virus. This season, Toews would only play in 52 games for the Blackhawks as he scored 15 goals with 16 assists for only 31 points. In the 2021-22 season, Toews would play in 71 games and his numbers tell the tale of the tape scoring 12 goals with 25 assists for 37 points. Suddenly the Captain is like a sports car with lots of mileage suffering from rust throughout the body that once upon a time ago was a smooth shiny ride on the ice.

The Captain will be the last link of that Blackhawks dynasty who played his final game versus the Philadelphia Flyers, the first victim in that Stanley Cup championship run. Jonathan Toews has played out his 2014, 84 million dollar contract extension with the full no-trade clause. The Blackhawks General Manager, Kyle Davidson, said the Blackhawks had no plans of re-signing their Captain so Toews scoring a goal in his final game made his last game special to him and the sold out crowd. Who knows if they will ever see a dynasty like this again from the Blackhawks being played in their own backyard. Living in the Chicago area all my life, you can’t trust any of the sports teams building a dynasty. The Blackhawks would end up losing to the Flyers 5-4 in overtime. The Toews break away in overtime was unfortunately stopped by the Flyers goalie. A winning goal by the Captain would have brought down the Mad House on Madison. Toews could have skated off into the sunset on a goal like that. That did not stop the crowd from chanting Johnny and giving him a standing ovation after the game. The Blackhawks are quietly pushing the Captain off their boat so we do not know what the future is of Jonathan Toews. Will he retire and hang up the skates for good? Will he find another team and wear someone else’s hockey sweater and just not look the same like a Michael Jordan wearing a Washington Wizards jersey? We know Toews will have his number 19 retired by the organization & maybe they’ll throw in the usual Chicago statue. The NHL hockey hall of fame should be on the horizon for the Captain. The Blackhawks should have found a way to build around Toews and Patrick Kane. The organization failed as they traded Kane to the Rangers and could have gotten more if they would have dealt their superstar years ago. Toews would have gotten something back years ago. Trade clauses handcuffed the franchise as the Blackhawks were stupid to give them in the first place while not surrounding these guys with talent to start another playoff run. Kane is playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs as Toews scored his last goal on the last game of the regular season wearing the Blackhawks sweater. Kane did not get that send off. I understand you can’t bring back the Captain during a rebuild. Toews may come back as some sort of ambassador to the organization as the Blackhawks try to make up for something as they alienated their players at the end of their days in Chicago. Jonathan Toews will give us Blackhawks fans great memories of the three Stanley Cups he helped us win. In Chicago how these things end and how the organization does things, it just pisses you off from head to toes. You know dark days will return. You know when the team gets good again, however long that takes, they will do the same stupid things they did with this dynasty. It’s the Chicago way. Jonathan Toews will go down as one of the best Captains in Blackhawks history and he earned it.