THREE THINGS: Toews makes emotional return to Chicago, Jets lose

Spencer Knight stopped all 32 shots he faced giving the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets at the United Center. The regulation loss saw the Jets point streak end at five games and it also marked the first time in ten games that the Jets failed to score the first goal of the game. Issac Phillips made his Jets debut on short notice as Elias Salomonsson came down with an illness. Winnipeg will return home to host the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night.

THE RETURN

A special day for Jonathan Toews as he returned to the rink where he had his greatest success over his career, the United Center. When the 37-year-old said goodbye in his final game as a Hawk in April of 2023, Toews was cheered when he was introduced in the starting lineup and anytime, he was shown on the scoreboard. In his first appearance in Chicago as a member of the Jets, it was no different:

Toews played 18:06 and had two shots on goal and after the game he said he was blown away by the reception. Toews also admitted he didn't have that hard of a time getting focused on the game afterwards.

"Honestly, surprisingly, I was just kind of excited that I could just play hockey after that," said Toews.

"And, felt like our line was creating tonight, we had our chances just, I think they did a good job of clearing second chance pucks around their net and didn't quite sustain enough in their zone to find a way. So got to give them credit for how they played defensively."

PLENTY OF CHANCES

During the Jets five game points streak, scoring goals was never a problem, in fact they scored 23 times over that stretch. Winnipeg generated plenty of offensive chances throughout the night with 56 shots attempts and had a huge edge in high danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, 13-4. However, in the third period with the Hawks holding onto their 1-0 lead, the home side locked things down and Winnipeg missed out on a chance to get inside and get some greasy goals like they had the previous five games. Logan Stanley gave some credit to Spencer Knight but felt the Jets missed out on a great chance to make a move in the standings.

"He played great in net. We got to bear down a little bit, find, find a way to score," said Stanley.

"You know, it was one goal games. We got to come away with two points."

RIGHT BACK AT IT

The Jets hectic schedule continues as they will play their third game in four nights hosting the Blues at Canada Life Centre. St. Louis is another team in the Western Conference that the Jets are looking to get in front of in their bid for a playoff spot. The Blues are two points in front of Winnipeg, and the Jets have a game in hand.

“Again, Central Division, we've got to get after them, we've got to come home, make sure we get a rest, get ourselves ready,” said Scott Arniel.

“Again, we're in these three-in-fours, like everybody's doing. We've got to make sure that mentally we're strong and then we've got to go out and get ourselves some points.”