Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews will travel with his teammates to Minnesota, but he won’t play Thursday against the Wild.
“[Traveling is] step one,” Toews said, as per CSNChicago.com. “It’s better than staying home and sitting around by myself. It’s not fun to be home watching on TV in my living room; guys go on the road and you miss out on a lot. I feel like I’m a little bit closer to being in the picture again and it’s better than nothing. Hopefully that means I’ll be playing soon.”
(Personally I like sitting at home watching TV, but my options are limited. Participating in the playoffs, which start in a week, isn’t one of them.)
Toews has missed 20 games with a concussion. And while it’s reportedly possible he could play Saturday against Detroit, he’s still feeling symptoms.
“There are always little things here and there that trigger it,” he told reporters. “It’s not a perfect thing that I know what to expect at every given part of the day. It always seems to be different. I’m just trying to make sure every part of my life is back to normal first.”
Curiously, Toews says he’s passed NHL concussion protocols – (you’d think one of those protocols would be not feeling like you had a concussion) – so presumably he could play if he really wanted.
But...
“There’s still signs of the concussion lingering and you know, when that’s completely gone I’ll be comfortable playing.”