Jonathan Toews' return NHL greeted with loud cheers during debut with hometown Winnipeg Jets

The spotlight was on Jonathan Toews when the Winnipeg Jets skated onto the ice for their season opener against Dallas on Thursday night.

The Winnipeg-born Toews received a loud, long cheer from the sold-out crowd when he was introduced.

"Just a lot of energy, a lot of excitement. I'm just trying to contain myself there," Toews said about the crowd's welcome.

The 37-year-old centre, playing his first NHL game since April 13, 2023, with the Chicago Blackhawks, logged 18:19 of ice time in his 1,068th career regular-season game.

He had one shot on goal in the Jets' 5-4 loss.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion and former Chicago captain missed the past two seasons for health reasons related to chronic inflammatory response syndrome and long COVID-19.

Toews said he felt "close" to being in game form.

He played on the second line with wingers Gustav Nyquist and Nikita Chibrikov.

"But a lot of room for improvement, a lot of little things I can do better," Toews said. "Definitely trying to start the play with the puck off the faceoffs. Didn't really get that going for my line out there.

"But other than that, there were some situations the three of us created and had some chances, even on the power play as well. I was pretty close to making things happen, getting us on the board, so I think there are some positives I'm excited about. [I'll] just keep trying to build on it."

Jets coach Scott Arniel said Toews was a lot like his teammates — it took a while for everyone to get going.

"I thought I saw changes in his game in that second period," Arniel said. "He started to have the puck a little bit more, had some looks, that line started to do some things.

"At the end of the day, that's a tough one, because our whole group wasn't