All dirty words.
Why, you ask? Because they won. A lot.
Well, that and the fact that my teams never won. That didn’t help either. Growing up in Central Illinois in the late 70’s-early 80’s was not a very prosperous time for the teams I rooted for religiously.
Every time I turned on the television the aforementioned teams were playing in a championship series, usually against the Dodgers, Steelers and Celtics. And I hated those teams too.
Ok, maybe I am embellishing a tad. But you cannot deny that all of those franchises have been tabbed as “dynasties” or perennial champions. All I ever wanted was for that to be MY team.
Finally, at 46 years old, it’s happened. The Chicago Blackhawks won their third Stanley Cup in six years earlier in the week. A team that I root for has been discussed as a dynasty…and it feels amazing.
I’m not here to debate the word dynasty. That’s for media members with bigger audiences to debate. For me, it’s about wearing the “black hat”. Everywhere I turn, whether on Twitter, Facebook or even talking directly to fans: if they are not a fan of the Blackhawks, then the fans consider them to be NHL’s evil empire; often using the word “hate” to describe their feeling towards my beloved Chicago hockey team.
Yes, that’s a strong word (and another topic for another day), however, the vitriol is present for non-Blackhawks fans. Why? Go back to the introduction of this post – they are winning, a lot. And on television all the time. And lauded by the media. And so on…
I get it. This is exactly why I “hated” the teams I mentioned earlier. But now the shoe’s on the other foot. And you know what? I LOVE IT. It is SO much fun to finally root for a team that is consistently good. I am reveling in this era of Blackhawks hockey.
The statistics don’t lie:
- 5 of the last 7 years in the Western Conference Finals
- 3 Stanley Cup appearances
- 3 Stanley Cup Final victories
- They are 26-25 in games 1-3 in the playoffs since 2010; in that same span they are 38-11 in games 4-7
- First team in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup when scoring 2 or less goals in the games they won
- And to be honest, they are one fluke overtime goal in 2013 from most likely having won three Stanley Cups in a row
- Dustin Byfuglien
- Ben Eager
- Brent Sopel
- Colin Fraser
- Kris Versteeg
- Andrew Ladd
- Antii Niemi (their goaltender)
- Dave Bolland
- Michael Frolik
- Viktor Stalberg
- Ray Emery
It’s Groundhog Day again this year, with Patrick Sharp, Brian Bickell, Kris Versteeg (again), and possibly Brad Richards the most likely candidates not to return to Chicago next year. However, what Stan Bowman has done is build around a core of players and then surround them with youngsters and veterans to build the winning teams. The core of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Marian Hossa, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Corey Crawford are the rock solid foundation of this team. Add in a Brandon Saad (most likely to be signed to a long term deal), Tuevo Teravainen and Trevor Van Riemsdyk and the future looks very bright for Chicago. Which also means the haters are going to continue to hate.
These said “haters” love to throw out the word “bandwagon” when I mention the Blackhawks. It gets me fired up. One reason? Fans of other teams claim that there are more Blackhawks fans now that they are winning. Well, duh. Look at my hometown – Indianapolis. When I moved here in 1990 it was a basketball city/state, without question. But over time the Colts got good, really good. Now this city is a football city. If the same thing happened in Detroit with the Lions, it would become a football town. It happens.
I grew up just outside of Peoria, IL, which isn’t a hotbed for hockey. However, being the rabid sports fan I am, even at an early age I was inclined to find any sports I could in the mid-70’s. Along came Peter Puck and the NBC Game of the Week.
These said “haters” love to throw out the word “bandwagon” when I mention the Blackhawks. It gets me fired up. One reason? Fans of other teams claim that there are more Blackhawks fans now that they are winning. Well, duh. Look at my hometown – Indianapolis. When I moved here in 1990 it was a basketball city/state, without question. But over time the Colts got good, really good. Now this city is a football city. If the same thing happened in Detroit with the Lions, it would become a football town. It happens.
I grew up just outside of Peoria, IL, which isn’t a hotbed for hockey. However, being the rabid sports fan I am, even at an early age I was inclined to find any sports I could in the mid-70’s. Along came Peter Puck and the NBC Game of the Week.
I was fascinated by this cartoon caricature and began to learn the game of hockey. NBC lost the rights not long after he appeared, but my inquisitiveness for hockey remained. Sadly, we didn’t live in a Chicago television market in order to watch the Blackhawks on a regular basis. Not that it mattered anyway, because Dollar Bill Wirtz owned the team and would not show them on television in fears that it would keep the fans from attending the games in person. I tried to keep up the best I could, but even now the sports shows (yes, I’m talking to you SportsCenter) don’t give the NHL the coverage it deserves., let alone back in the dark ages before cable television. Lucky for me, there was a local minor league team, the Peoria Rivermen, who came along in my high school years and won the International Hockey League title in 1984-85. This reinvigorated my fondness for hockey. Even though the Rivermen were an affiliate of the St. Louis Blues, I wasn’t going to sway from my love for the Blackhawks.
In college I finally was able to get cable television (we lived in the boonies growing up and cable didn’t “reach us”) and could watch some hockey. It was then that the Blackhawks began to cultivate some really good talent, like a Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer and Ed Belfour. They also acquired a hard-nosed, tough defenseman from the Montreal Canadiens named Chris Chelios. I was back in business!
After graduation, my best friend and I moved to Indianapolis, IN and made sure we installed cable television. Again, we couldn’t watch the Hawks on a regular basis because of Bill Wirtz, but were able to keep up with the team by watching ESPN highlights. In 1992 the Blackhawks made it to the Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sadly, the NHL didn’t have the best television deal at the time and the Final was being shown on SportsChannel America. We didn’t have that channel, so it was off to the bars to watch the games. Game One started marvelously as the Hawks jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the Pens. Unfortunately, Mario Lemieux led a furious comeback to cap off a 5-4 victory. It was all downhill from there as the Blackhawks got swept in four games.
Hope sprang eternal (I’m a Cubs fan, remember?) save for the fact that Bill Wirtz owned the team. A few guys stuck around for a while, but old Dollar Bill wasn’t going to break the bank for them. Roenick, Belfour and Chelios all found themselves heading out the door for greener pastures (I've still got my Chelios Blackhawks sweater though). Luckily, we lived in Indy which had the Blackhawks major farm team, the Indianapolis Ice. We were fortunate enough to see future Hawks like Brian Noonan, Ryan McGill, Jimmy Waite and this guy named. Dominik Hasek play in town. It kept the Hawks flame burning for me, which was important
The gist of this recap, so to speak, is to prove that I am not a bandwagon fan. Although I don’t know why that’s important, I just feel the need to do it. Sure, I could look it all up on the Internet and lie to you, but why would I waste my time with that?
All in all, people can say what they want about the Blackhawks. It’s a free country, right? Nonetheless, I would like to point out a few reasons why I love this team so much:
They’re great guys – It is wonderful, as a father, to have athletes on your team to point your kids to and say “do it that way”. That’s Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Marian Hossa. I would put Patrick Kane in the mix but he still seems to be a bit of a partier… :)
They do things the right way – this was actually a quote from the NHL Network pregame show before one of the Finals games. And they’re right:
Their work ethic – when Patrick Kane went down with the broken clavicle and it was reported that he would be on the sidelines for 10-12 weeks, panic ensued in Blackhawks nation. We can’t win the Cup without Kaner!! Interviews after the Cup victory told a story behind the scenes of Kane working his rear end off to get back earlier (his original prognosis was returning for the Conference Finals, IF they got that far). He retuned at the start of the playoffs and the rest is history. At the same time, an interview with Comcast Sports Net Chicago reporter Pat Boyle revealed that Kimmo Timonen had stated that in all his years in the NHL he’d never been around a team that had the level of commitment this Blackhawks team showed.
Finally, they’ll play any style necessary to win. A caller on 670 The Score made note that he felt like every team the Blackhawks faced in the playoffs thought, “this is the year we can beat them.” And then after they were eliminated thought, “how did we lose to these guys?” Let’s look at each series:
In college I finally was able to get cable television (we lived in the boonies growing up and cable didn’t “reach us”) and could watch some hockey. It was then that the Blackhawks began to cultivate some really good talent, like a Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer and Ed Belfour. They also acquired a hard-nosed, tough defenseman from the Montreal Canadiens named Chris Chelios. I was back in business!
After graduation, my best friend and I moved to Indianapolis, IN and made sure we installed cable television. Again, we couldn’t watch the Hawks on a regular basis because of Bill Wirtz, but were able to keep up with the team by watching ESPN highlights. In 1992 the Blackhawks made it to the Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sadly, the NHL didn’t have the best television deal at the time and the Final was being shown on SportsChannel America. We didn’t have that channel, so it was off to the bars to watch the games. Game One started marvelously as the Hawks jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the Pens. Unfortunately, Mario Lemieux led a furious comeback to cap off a 5-4 victory. It was all downhill from there as the Blackhawks got swept in four games.
Hope sprang eternal (I’m a Cubs fan, remember?) save for the fact that Bill Wirtz owned the team. A few guys stuck around for a while, but old Dollar Bill wasn’t going to break the bank for them. Roenick, Belfour and Chelios all found themselves heading out the door for greener pastures (I've still got my Chelios Blackhawks sweater though). Luckily, we lived in Indy which had the Blackhawks major farm team, the Indianapolis Ice. We were fortunate enough to see future Hawks like Brian Noonan, Ryan McGill, Jimmy Waite and this guy named. Dominik Hasek play in town. It kept the Hawks flame burning for me, which was important
The gist of this recap, so to speak, is to prove that I am not a bandwagon fan. Although I don’t know why that’s important, I just feel the need to do it. Sure, I could look it all up on the Internet and lie to you, but why would I waste my time with that?
All in all, people can say what they want about the Blackhawks. It’s a free country, right? Nonetheless, I would like to point out a few reasons why I love this team so much:
They’re great guys – It is wonderful, as a father, to have athletes on your team to point your kids to and say “do it that way”. That’s Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Marian Hossa. I would put Patrick Kane in the mix but he still seems to be a bit of a partier… :)
They do things the right way – this was actually a quote from the NHL Network pregame show before one of the Finals games. And they’re right:
- Rocky put the team on television.
- He hired John McDonough away from the Cubs, which is the greatest hiring decision in Chicago Sports History, in my humble opinion.
- The National Anthem – enough said.
- In each of their three Stanley Cup presentations, the first teammate to get it after the Captain received it for a certain reason. In 2010 it was Marian Hossa, who had lost out on the Cup the previous two years. In 2013 it was Jamal Mayers, a guy who at 38 had never won the Cup and didn’t even see the ice in the Final. And this year, Kimmo Timonen. Another aged veteran with one last shot at the Cup. He did see ice time in the Final, but not much. That didn’t matter to Toews, which speaks to his level of maturity and leadership abilities.
Their work ethic – when Patrick Kane went down with the broken clavicle and it was reported that he would be on the sidelines for 10-12 weeks, panic ensued in Blackhawks nation. We can’t win the Cup without Kaner!! Interviews after the Cup victory told a story behind the scenes of Kane working his rear end off to get back earlier (his original prognosis was returning for the Conference Finals, IF they got that far). He retuned at the start of the playoffs and the rest is history. At the same time, an interview with Comcast Sports Net Chicago reporter Pat Boyle revealed that Kimmo Timonen had stated that in all his years in the NHL he’d never been around a team that had the level of commitment this Blackhawks team showed.
Finally, they’ll play any style necessary to win. A caller on 670 The Score made note that he felt like every team the Blackhawks faced in the playoffs thought, “this is the year we can beat them.” And then after they were eliminated thought, “how did we lose to these guys?” Let’s look at each series:
- Nashville – thought they could outskate the Hawks. Game One looked grim early, but the Hawks prevailed.
- Minnesota – tried to get into a lot of scrums and out-grit the Hawks. The Wild also had the hottest goalie in the NHL at that time in Devan Dubnyk, but they also found themselves going home early.
- Anaheim – my favorite, because they foolishly believed they could punish the Hawks into submission. Ryan Kesler, noted jerk, said as much. He conveniently was unavailable for comment after losing Game 7 at home to the Hawks.
- Tampa Bay – literally a combination of all three previous teams. Unbelievable talent put together by Steve Yzerman. And yet, the Blackhawks found a way to win.
Until next time,
Shawn
1 comment:
Peter Puck. Awesome.
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