Jonathan Toews - I'm just fighting for my health

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Sam Hutch
March 5, 2022 (8:18)

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This season has been a struggle for the Chicago Blackhawks as a whole. In a year defined by their off-ice controversies and their lacklustre product on the ice that sees them sit second-last in the central division, nothing seems to be going right for Chicago this year. That struggle knows no bounds.

Chicago captain Johnathan Toews, 33, missed the entirety of the 2020-21 National Hockey League season due to Chronic Immune Response Syndrome has struggled to find his footing since returning to the lineup this season. Chronic Immune Response Syndrome is a multi-symptom illness that affects "virtually every organ in the body." Toews sighted severe fatigue and sluggishness as the main reasons he sought a diagnosis.

Ben Pope, a Chicago beat reporter for the Sun-Times, says the ever-critical Blackhawks captain isn't using it as an excuse and is just trying to find his game.

In my heart, I feel like I haven't played my best hockey in my career.

[I'm] just fighting for my health and to find a way to get my body to cooperate and get back to that level I know I can play at. Trying to push that sort of thing off a little bit longer.

Toews has just 19 points (4 goals, 15 assists) in 44 games this season. Indeed, a far cry from his 60 point performance (18 goals, 42 assists) in 70 games played during the 2019-20 NHL.

Should the long-time Hawks captain begin to contemplate retirement?