Jonathan Toews has been team captain of the Chicago Blackhawks since 2008, still leading the team by example. But one time, back in 2011, Toews made a real fool of himself by (accidentally) laying out a child – yes, a little kid – with a huge open ice hit.
Toews was an instructor at the Canadian Tire Hockey School at the time, and as he was showing off some skills and skating alongside the children, he accidentally laid a poor kid out like it was a St. Louis Blues’ player.
Toews immediately stopped the play and begged the group not to take pictures of the kid laying on the ice. The video of the hit spread like wildfire back then, and Toews of course had to answer some questions about it.
“Oh, geez. … I thought it was funny. [I got] a million texts, more than anything else that my buddies had ever seen on the internet. They were like, ‘Wow, did you learn how to hit over the offseason or something?’”, he said.
“Nah, he’s OK. We were kind of playing a little game of keep away. A kid turned one way and I must have looked away or something and he cut back in. I absolutely had no time to get out of the way. I kind of ran him over. It was ugly.”
Fortunately the kid shook it off, and got a present from Toews for the trouble.
”A camp spokesperson tells us that after taking a brief break during the session, the kid was eventually able to return for the remainder of the practice and that Toews, feeling bad about delivering the accidental open-ice hit, gave the young man an autographed hockey stick when the session was completed”‚ wrote Adam Gretz of CBS Eye on Hockey.
The video was recently posted on Reddit, and the comment section is pure gold.
”Goonathan Toews ending careers before they begin”, one user wrote.
”Can’t believe none of his teammates dropped the gloves for him, bad locker room right there”, said another.
