Jonathan Toews gets standing ovation in return to Chicago with the Winnipeg Jets

CHICAGO (AP) — Jonathan Toews exhaled and then laughed and shook his head in disbelief as the standing ovation continued for four-plus minutes. “All right, all right,” he said before taking another lap in front of the cheering crowd.

Toews returned to Chicago on Monday night with his hometown Winnipeg Jets, but it was clear that his first NHL city still counts him as one of its own.

Toews waved and patted his heart as he was showered with cheers and chants of “Jonny! Jonny!” during a timeout in the first period. It was his first game at the United Center since he signed with the Jets on July 1.

The 37-year-old center spent his first 15 seasons with the Blackhawks, winning three Stanley Cup titles.

“I tried to do my best to take it all in and really savor it. To really appreciate the love from the fans,” Toews said. "Obviously, I spent some special years here in Chicago and that’s what made playing for the Blackhawks so great. Winning championships and all of that stuff aside, just playing for a sports team in this city and calling this home for as long as I did was just incredible. I can’t thank them enough. It will always be home and has a special place in my heart.”

There was a noticeable buzz when Toews and the Jets took the ice for pregame warmups. There was a big cheer when he was introduced with the starting lineup and once again when he was shown on the videoboard during Canada's national anthem.

The Blackhawks showed a Toews highlight video during a break in the action with 12:23 left in the first. Dotted with No. 19 Toews jerseys and holding posters that read WELCOME BACK 19, the crowd of 19,894 stood and cheered throughout the tribute.

When the video ended, Toews jumped on the ice to acknowledge the ovation, and it just kept going as the rest of the Jets and the Blackhawks looked on.

“It felt like forever. I’m not sure what to do after a while in that situation," Toews said after Winnipeg's 2-0 loss. "The boys kept telling me to do another lap. Pretty special.”

Toews was selected by Chicago with the No. 3 pick in the 2006 draft, one of the first big moments in the team’s rise to the top of the NHL. He was just 20 years old when he became the 34th captain in team history in July 2008.

Toews was part of a core group that helped Chicago put together the best stretch in franchise history, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Blackhawks also made it to the Western Conference finals in 2014, losing to the Los Angeles Kings in an epic seven-game series.

“I definitely had a lot of will, a lot of energy coming into my career as a young kid here in Chicago, but it was just a perfect storm," Toews said. "We had so many great players that were finding themselves and finding their careers at the same time.”

The Blackhawks celebrated those Stanley Cup teams on Saturday night as part of the festivities surrounding the franchise's centennial season. Toews caught up with a handful of his former teammates on Sunday, and Kris Versteeg and Andrew Shaw sounded the horn before the opening faceoff on Monday night.

Once nicknamed “Captain Serious” — a reputation that faded away as he showed more of his personality over the years — Toews missed the 2020-21 season and part of the 2022-23 season with what he described as symptoms of long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome.

The Blackhawks announced before their 2023 season finale that it would be Toews' last game with the team, and he was showered with cheers throughout a 5-4 loss to Philadelphia.

“He’s the one teammate I’ve ever had where you go out with him in public and people won’t just say they’re a ‘big fan.’ They’ll almost give an emotional thank you to him,” Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy said. “They’ll literally say, ‘Thank you for making my life better.’ That’s what people will say to him.”

After taking a couple years off, Toews is adjusting to life with Winnipeg in his return to the NHL. He scored in four consecutive games before he was kept off the scoresheet during Saturday's 4-3 overtime loss to Toronto.

"I think as time went along I’ve been able to feel more comfortable and just find my game and settle in and find a role on this team,” he said.

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Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews waves to the crowd during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews greets to the crowd during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews waves to the crowd during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews waves to the crowd during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews warms up before an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews warms up before an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews warms up before an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Hockey fans hold a sign for Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews (19) as he warms up before an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets center Jonathan Toews warms up before an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Winnipeg Jets' Jonathan Toews (19) tries to tip the puck past Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Dennis Hildeby, right, during second-period NHL hockey game action in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — She says she was let down at every step. By a partner who abandoned her when she was pregnant. By a health service that denied her a legal abortion. And by a justice system that sent her to a maximum-security prison for illegally terminating her pregnancy on her own.

Violet Zulu, a house cleaner in Zambia earning $40 a month, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024 after representing herself in court with little understanding of the consequences of her actions. She didn't see her two children or other family members for nearly two years.

After word of her case reached international rights groups that helped her file an appeal, Zulu was freed last month. Activists say she represents many women in Africa who take desperate decisions when facing barriers to legal abortion services.

Her story has drawn little sympathy in her southern African nation, where parts of society view abortion harshly. Her own mother said she agreed with her daughter's prison sentence, but said it should have been shorter.

Zulu spoke with The Associated Press as she pieces her life together again at the age of 26.

She said she first attempted to access legal abortion services at a public clinic, which should have given her advice or services but turned her away. She then tried a private pharmacy, which requested 800 Zambian kwacha ($43) for abortion drugs, a month's salary for her.

She was already struggling to feed her two young sons, and she sometimes had to beg food from relatives.

She said her decision to drink an herbal concoction she prepared herself, one known for terminating pregnancies, was taken out of despair. She couldn't bear for her boys to have even less food if she had another child.

“I never wanted to abort my pregnancy, but it is the circumstances at home that forced me to do it," Zulu said in the interview at the two-room rented home with no running water that she shares with her children and parents.

“I was scared (when I took the concoction), but I didn’t really care what would happen to me," she added.

In her court testimony, she explained what happened next: She delivered the fetus in a toilet, placed it in a sack and dropped it in a nearby stream. She said she confided in a friend, but word got out and neighbors reported her to police.

Zulu, who left school in the eighth grade, was never offered free legal counsel despite the right to request it. She represented herself in court and pleaded guilty to the offense of procuring her own abortion. She said she didn’t understand the legality of abortion and thought she would receive a warning.

“This is a system that failed Violet,” said Rosemary Kirui, a legal adviser for Africa for the abortion rights group Center for Reproductive Rights, which campaigned for Zulu’s release and helped with her appeal. “It is not that she did not try. It is that she could not afford the services, yet she should be able to access them as a citizen of Zambia.”

Zulu should have been eligible for a free abortion under a provision that allows doctors in Zambia to consider risks to the well-being of her existing children, said Sharon Williams, country director for the Women and Law in Southern Africa advocacy group.

But Zulu was not aware of that, largely because of the secrecy, stigma and shame around abortion, which is not advertised by Zambia's public health system.

Zambia's health ministry did not respond to questions about her case.

Part of the problem, Williams said, is that Zambia has legalized abortion while also defining itself in its constitution as a strongly Christian country.

Abortions are still largely restricted in Africa, with few countries allowing them for reasons other than threats to the health of the mother or the fetus. Even in countries like Zambia, religious beliefs, conservative values rooted in local cultures or a lack of information make access to legal procedures difficult, according to health and rights groups.

Williams said Zulu’s case ought to lead to a national conversation over whether Zambian authorities should better educate communities over the legal right to abortion.

“I think now that we have this judgment, we’re ready for the conversation," she said.

Activists say desperate women turn to unsafe abortions. Africa and Latin America have the highest proportions of them, with approximately 75% of all abortions in Africa deemed unsafe, according to the World Health Organization.

The Guttmacher Institute health rights organization estimated in a 2019 report that over 6 million unsafe abortions a year occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. It noted that Zambia's abortion law “tended to be a ‘paper law’ rather than one that ensures widespread access.”

In South Africa, which claims to have the most progressive laws on the continent, abortion has been legal for nearly 30 years. It is allowed on request before 13 weeks of pregnancy and for several reasons before 21 weeks.

But studies estimate only 7% of public health facilities there offer abortion services.

In 2023, the case of a 14-year-old who was denied an abortion by South African health workers three times for reasons that were not valid prompted a national reality check. After an urgent court case, a judge ordered that the girl be allowed to have an abortion, which was performed on the last day eligible by law.

At the time, a representative of the social justice group that represented the girl said South Africa's abortion laws were being undermined by "the abuse of medical knowledge by health care professionals" in trying to prevent abortions.

In Zambia, Zulu said she still felt bad about what she did but must now provide for her sons. She was looking for work again, she said.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Violet Zulu, who was sent to a maximum-security prison after she was denied a legal abortion and ended her pregnancy on her own, poses for a photograph in Lusaka, Zambia, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Kille)

Violet Zulu, who was sent to a maximum-security prison after she was denied a legal abortion and ended her pregnancy on her own, poses for a photograph in Lusaka, Zambia, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Kille)