“I just love playing the game,” he said. “I love improving and getting better and just feeling good, too. Even though you’re working hard, there’s always someone doing something, finding ways to get better that you can always learn from."

Jonathan Toews has spent enough time away from the game he loves to recognize what he missed the most.

“Just being around this group,” Toews said after a team-wide skate at the Hockey For All Centre recently. “That’s the No. 1 thing. I talk to some of my former teammates from Chicago who are retired now and that’s the No. 1 thing that they always mention to you — that they miss being around the guys.

“I guess that’s the one thing that’s super-exciting to me about getting a chance to play again is that I get to be back in that locker room.”

Toews previ

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