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Chicago Blackhawks SIP

The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks SIP

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011385/9367540-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-011232/9367533-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="836" height="1142"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JAMIE SABAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02871/9367526-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="835" height="780"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE PARALLELS between Black Hawks stars of yore and Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are almost eerie. (PHILLIP MACCALLUM/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>NOW that the Chicago Blackhawks have ended the NHL&rsquo;s longest Stanley Cup dry spell, they&rsquo;ve shed themselves of the festering albatross that had been hanging around their necks ever since the Detroit Red Wings won in 1997, halting a 42-year drought.What&rsquo;s interesting about Chicago&rsquo;s previous Cup victory in 1961 was that it was the first and only NHL triumph for two of the game&rsquo;s very best. I knew Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita were on that winning team, but what I didn&rsquo;t realize (or remember) until recently was that Hull was just 22 and Mikita was a month shy of his 21st birthday.They were just kids, really. But still go-to players, much like Chicago&rsquo;s current go-to players, 22-year-old Jonathan Toews and 21-year-old Patrick Kane. Hull and Mikita were wunderkinds in Chicago in the early 1960s. They helped put an end to the Black Hawks&rsquo; 23-year Cup drought and seemingly were about to go on a run of their own.Hull, who still laments his cavalier &ldquo;We will win again&rdquo; attitude in &rsquo;61, was second in scoring on the Hawks that season with 31 goals and 56 points in 67 games. Mikita was third with 19 goals and 53 points in 66 games.Kane led the current Hawks with 30 goals and 88 points in 82 games this season, while Toews was third with 25 goals and 68 points in 76 games.&ldquo;It was great being in the city and going around town,&rdquo; Mikita remembered. &ldquo;People came up to us and called us by our first name. &lsquo;Stan, how the hell are ya? My god, there&rsquo;s Bobby Hull.&rsquo; Everyone wanted to talk about the game the night before.&rdquo;Another parallel between the old Hawks and the new Hawks was the play of an unheralded defenseman.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011397/9367519-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="1754" height="1241"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Pierre Pilote was 29 and a couple years away from winning three consecutive Norris Trophies. He had just six goals and 35 points that Cup-winning season, but led the team with 15 points in 12 playoff games.&ldquo;Pierre was a good defenseman for a number of years, but in that playoffs he was exceptional,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;He was always heads-up, offensive-minded, but could also put the big hit on guys.&rdquo;This year&rsquo;s Hawks have Duncan Keith rising to greatness. He was second on the team with 14 goals and 69 points in 82 games and, at 26 years old, has improved his steady two-way play to the point he&rsquo;ll be a Norris Trophy contender for years to come.For his part, Hull had an inkling Chicago&rsquo;s drought would end at 49 years.&ldquo;When they attack, they are fabulous; no one can beat them,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;When that team attacks, attacks, attacks with all four lines, they can beat anybody. Yet when they fall back into their own zone and try to just defend a lead, they are terrible.&rdquo;Television viewers got glimpses of Hull, Mikita and former Hawk goaltending great Tony Esposito watching the games from the ambassadors&rsquo; box at the United Center. That&rsquo;s a sight that was unseen during playoff runs in the 1980s and &rsquo;90s.New Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz made that one of his priorities following the death of his father, long-time owner Bill Wirtz.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-021009/9367512-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="511" height="792"><figcaption class="caption-body">IN 11 SEASONS together after winning the 1961 Cup, Bobby Hull, top, and Stan Mikita were unable to bring Chicago another. (STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011312/9367505-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="1754" height="1489"><figcaption class="caption-body">AWAY FROM THE club for years, Hull and Mikita, are back (BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I never thought this would happen to me,&rdquo; a beaming Hull said. &ldquo;After all these years, 30 years being away from the Blackhawks, I thought I had burned all the bridges I could. But Rocky Wirtz knows more in one minute than his dad did all his life, about hockey. When he got a hold of the reins, he did everything right.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why the people came back in droves. The fans were there; they were just being as bull-headed as Bill Wirtz was. And they said they&rsquo;re not coming back until the Chicago Blackhawks do something for the fans. (Rocky) hired (team president) John McDonough, he put home games on TV, he hired Scotty Bowman, then delved into the past.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re not proud of the past, then you don&rsquo;t have much of a future. Now everyone is happy. It&rsquo;s a big happy family.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02922/9367498-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="835" height="1144"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith, is part of a new wave of young Chicago stars. (ANDRE RINGUETTE/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

GOOD TIMES

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012142/9367301-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE ELATION

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011438/9367467-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="982" height="1395"></div>DEBATE among yourselves which was worse: Chicago&rsquo;s 23-year dryspell, from 1938 to 1961 or the more recent 49-year wait between Cups. Bear in mind for the first drought, the Hawks were only competing against five, sometimes six, other teams for supremacy. By contrast, since 1967, the NHL has ballooned from six to 30 clubs, acutely diminishing the chances of glory. Either way, the 2010 Hawks join their forefathers in immortality, getting the time-honored privilege of having their names engraved on one of sports most cherished and storied prizes. Rosters of all four winners are listed on the facing page.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021062/9367460-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1027" height="2095"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>2009-10 &ndash; CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2>PATRICK KANE, ANDREW LADD, PATRICK SHARP, DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN, DUNCAN KEITH, JOHN MADDEN, KRIS VERSTEEG, TROY BROUWER, BRENT SEABROOK, NIKLAS HJALMARSSON, JONATHAN TOEWS, TOMAS KOPECKY, BRENT SOPEL, COLIN FRASER, BRIAN CAMPBELL, BEN EAGER, MARIAN HOSSA, CRISTOBAL HUET, JORDAN HENDRY, ANTTI NIEMI, DAVE BOLLAND, ADAM BURISH, BRYAN BICKELL, NICK BOYNTON, JOEL QUENNEVILLE (COACH), JOHN TORCHETTI (ASSISTANT COACH, MIKE HAVILAND (ASSISTANT COACH), STEPHANE WAITE (GOALTENDING COACH), PAUL GOODMAN (STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH), BRAD ALDRICH (VIDEO COACH), PAUL VINCENT (SKATING COACH), WADE FLAHERTY (DEVELOPMENTAL GOALTENDING COACH), W. ROCKWELL WIRTZ (CHAIRMAN), JOHN F. MCDONOUGH (PRESIDENT), JAY BLUNK (SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT, BUSINESS OPERATIONS), STAN BOWMAN (GM), KEVIN CHEVELDAYOFF (ASSISTANT GM), AL MACISAAC (SENIOR DIRECTOR HOCKEY ADMINISTRATION/ASST. TO THE PRESIDENT), SCOTTY BOWMAN (SENIOR ADVISOR, HOCKEY OPERATIONS), MIKE GAPSKI (HEAD ATHLETIC TRAINER), TROY PARCHMAN (EQUIPMENT MANAGER)<h2>1960-61 &ndash; CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>ED LITZENBERGER (CAPTAIN), AL ARBOUR, EARL BALFOUR, MURRAY BALFOUR, GLENN HALL, JACK EVANS, ROY EDWARDS, DENIS DEJORDY, BILL HAY, WAYNE HICKS, REGGIE FLEMING, WAYNE HILLMAN, BOBBY HULL, CHICO MAKI, AB MCDONALD, MOOSE VASKO, STAN MIKITA, RON MURPHY, ERIC NESTERENKO, PIERRE PILOTE, TOD SLOAN, DOLLARD ST-LAURENT, KENNY WHARRAM; ARTHUR WIRTZ (PRESIDENT), ARTHUR WIRTZ JR. (VICE-PRESIDENT), JAMES NORRIS (CHAIRMAN), TOMMY IVAN (GM), RUDY PILOUS (COACH), NICK GAREN, WALTER HUMENIUK (TRAINERS)<h2>1937-38 &ndash; CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>ART WIEBE, CARL VOSS, HAROLD JACKSON, MIKE KARAKAS, MUSH MARCH, JACK SHILL, EARL SEIBERT, CULLY DAHLSTROM, ALEX LEVINSKY, JOHNNY GOTTSELIG (CAPTAIN), LOU TRUDEL, PETE PALANGIO, BILL MACKENZIE, DOC ROMNES, PAUL THOMPSON, ROGER JENKINS, ALFIE MOORE, BERT CONNELLY, VIRGIL JOHNSON, PAUL GOODMAN; BILL STEWART (MANAGER/COACH), EDDIE FROELICH (TRAINER)<h2>1933-34 &ndash; CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>CLARENCE ABEL, ROSIE COUTURE, LOU TRUDEL, LIONEL CONACHER, PAUL THOMPSON, LEROY GOLDSWORTHY, ART COULTER, ROGER JENKINS, DON MCFADYEN, TOM COOK, DOC ROMNES, JOHNNY GOTTSELIG, MUSH MARCH, JOHNNY SHEPPARD, CHARLIE GARDINER (CAPTAIN), BILL KENDALL, JACK LESWICK; TOMMY GORMAN (MANAGER/COACH), EDDIE FROELICH (TRAINER) &#9632;

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ALL-TIME CHAMPS

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY ANDRE RINGUETTE/GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012166/9367270-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE INTENSITY

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-012110/9367098-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="333" height="290"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-012131/9367091-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="4117" height="2044"><figcaption class="caption-body">FORTY-NINE YEARS of longing came to an end when the Blackhawks bested Philadelphia in the 2010 Stanley Cup final. (COVER & CONTENTS: DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

<div class="byline">with Jason Kay</div><h2>The Reflection</h2>AS the Blackhawks charged to their first Stanley Cup since before The Beatles invaded North America, and reporters dug for the story behind the story, it became fashionable to proclaim the team&rsquo;s former GM Dale Tallon a genius in absentia.Tallon moved to the Florida Panthers in May, having been shunted aside in the summer of 2009 following a costly administrative blunder. But analysts widely credit him with building the juggernaut, putting all the right pieces in place to end the epic drought.The problem is, if you buy into that theory, don&rsquo;t you also have to recognize the late Bill Wirtz, the owner who was smart enough to bring Tallon on board? If you&rsquo;re a die-hard Hawks fan, how do you reconcile the two? How do you give posthumous kudos to someone who was viewed by the local fandom with contempt?The easy answer? Forgiveness.To take that step, do some revisionist history and inject objectivity.For starters, know that while you endured the pain that comes with chronic disappointment, you&rsquo;re not alone. Thirteen teams have never won the Stanley Cup and a couple others have suffered similarly long dry spells. Toronto hasn&rsquo;t had a sniff since 1967; they haven&rsquo;t even reached the final during that time. The St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings remain Cup-less since breaking into the NHL in &rsquo;67. Ditto for 1970 expansion cousins Vancouver and Buffalo. Boston&rsquo;s last sips of champagne came in 1972; Philadelphia&rsquo;s three years later. These story lines are mirrored in the other major sports.In addition, be aware Wirtz is admired by the vast majority of people who worked for him. They say he was loyal to a fault, he&rsquo;d go to the wall to help a friend or employee in need, that he never held them back from doing their jobs. Atlanta GM Rick Dudley, Tallon&rsquo;s assistant in Chicago from 2004 to 2009, can&rsquo;t recall an occasion when Wirtz said &ldquo;no&rdquo; to one of his transaction requests.&ldquo;And what&rsquo;s unfair, terribly unfair, is that everybody associates this big Chicago turnaround with Bill and Bob (Pulford) not being there,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;It had started long before that. The day they hired Dale Tallon is when that started, and Bob Pulford was still the president and Bill Wirtz was still the owner. They began the process.&rdquo;Did Wirtz pinch pennies at times? Most certainly. Did he make some bad decisions and have some regrettable battles with star players? Absolutely. Was he notoriously stubborn? You bet. His no-home TV policy ranks as one of the most curious business ideas of all-time, right up there with &lsquo;New Coke&rsquo; and the FoxTrax puck.But, in fairness, he did open the vault at times, paying outrageous fortunes to players such as Doug Gilmour ($18 million over three years) and Nikolai Khabibulin ($27 million over four). Anyone willing to part with that kind of mad money on the free agent market is clearly keen on winning.Would the Hawks have won it all had he still been alive? There&rsquo;s no way to know. We&rsquo;re also not sure, if there is indeed an afterlife, how he&rsquo;s feeling about the his club&rsquo;s joyous triumph. We&rsquo;re guessing he&rsquo;d be elated&hellip;unless, of course, there&rsquo;s no home TV in the hereafter. &#9632;

FORGIVENESS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-012109/9367177-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"></div>1 year&nbsp;of The Hockey News including the Yearbook and Future WatchDaily email newsletter FREEFull digital edition FREENHL&reg; team swivel key chain of your choice FREE<a href="http://THN.com">THN.com</a> in now available as a FREE download on mobile devicesDownload the application today at <a href="http://thn.mobi">thn.mobi</a>Visit <a href="http://TheHockeyNews.com">thehockeynews.com</a> to subscribe now! &#9632;

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Your Inside Edge

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY DAVE SANDFORD/HHOF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012251/9367208-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE SWEATERS

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012219/9367239-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE SALUTE

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011914/9367332-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE SWEETNESS

<div class="byline">&nbsp;BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011794/9367384-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="835" height="692"></div>PHILADELPHIA &ndash; As Jonathan Toews held the Stanley Cup high over his head, did anyone else get the sense he was carrying the hopes of the NHL, too?The Chicago Blackhawks captain just turned 22. It&rsquo;s debatable whether he or Sidney Crosby is more gracious or which has the worse playoff beard. This much we know &ndash; by the end of the playoffs, Toews looked more like an Amish dairy farmer than a hockey player.Each of the past two years, the Stanley Cup has been lifted by young, squeaky-clean and sublimely skilled players. In fact, Toews, along with Patrick Kane, did something many thought impossible in Chicago. They were the cornerstones of the resurrection of a franchise that was on life support, the victim of abuse by neglect under the stewardship of former owner Bill Wirtz.But as it turned out, people wanted to be Chicago Blackhawks fans. They simply needed a reason to take their sweaters out of the back of their closets. Actually, judging by the sea of Toews sweaters at the United Center, they dusted off their wallets and bought new ones.There was a time when Chicago was known as The Second City. It has since dropped to third in the United States after New York and Los Angeles.But when the NHL gets it right in an Original Six market and a city with a metropolitan population of almost seven million wins the Stanley Cup, it creates an enormous opportunity.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-021355/9367377-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="835" height="1077"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHICAGO&rsquo;S CUP WIN WASN&rsquo;T just good news for Marian Hossa, it represents a golden chance for the NHL to push the popularity of its sport. (ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>In large part because of the Blackhawks, hockey hasn&rsquo;t been this relevant since the New York Rangers won the Cup in 1994. The Blackhawks finally appeasing their fans after 49 years of wandering through hinterlands is not only good for Chicago, it&rsquo;s great for the game. When huge cities where hockey is actually relevant win titles, it gives the league a credibility and a feel that simply can&rsquo;t be achieved when a Sun Belt teams sneaks in and wins a championship one year, never to be heard from again.In stark contrast to places like Tampa Bay and Anaheim, Chicago was alive with Stanley Cup fever. Who would have ever thought they&rsquo;d see the day when a store devoted exclusively to the Blackhawks along the Magnificent Mile would be jam-packed on a Sunday afternoon? An enormous poster of Toews was draped down the wall at the Chicago Tribune building. On game nights one of the biggest buildings downtown configured its lighting to read &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go Hawks.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011603/9367370-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="1746" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE HAWKS ARE DOTTED WITH characters, whether they be quiet ones such as goalie Antti Niemi or the more unique sort like Duncan Keith.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021207/9367363-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="835" height="992"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>Every game in both Chicago and Philadelphia shattered attendance records, Chris Pronger kept things lively with his words and his stick through the entire final and the Hawks, perhaps too young and na&iuml;ve to know better, just wanted to talk and talk and talk.The league went through great pains to point out interest in the game had been more robust than it has been in almost a decade, modestly stating the playoffs, &ldquo;have been a success by every measure with landmark TV ratings nationally and locally, huge gains across all digital platforms and growth in non-traditional markets.&rdquo;So, what does the NHL do now to capitalize on this? Having two teams with such a rabid following in the final undoubtedly did nothing but good for the league coffers, which should please everyone involved, players included. Truth be told, the success of this year&rsquo;s playoffs doesn&rsquo;t do one iota of good for the many markets that find themselves in deep, deep trouble, but its benefit to the league and the sport can&rsquo;t be denied.The last time the NHL had it this good, it locked out its players for the first half of the next season and any momentum generated by the Rangers&rsquo; Stanley Cup win was lost. That can&rsquo;t happen this year, but the economics of the game dictate another labor confrontation is on the horizon two years from now.Will the league maximize its popularity in Chicago? Toews will soon be named the lead spokesman for Bauer Hockey, but it has to go beyond that. Kane grew a mullet for the playoffs, for goodness sakes. Duncan Keith lost seven teeth and kept playing. Dustin Byfuglien is a beacon of hope for young African-Americans who think they might want to play hockey.The NHL couldn&rsquo;t do it with the swashbuckling Oilers or the Mario Lemieux-led Penguins. But this is Chicago, not Edmonton or Pittsburgh. History does not provide a ton of encouragement, but the league needs to do all it can to raise the sport&rsquo;s profile now that one of the youngest and most dynamic teams ever has won the Cup.Toews and Kane and the rest of the Hawks have to do their part by continuing to contend and by keeping their noses clean and not getting into trouble. The league, meanwhile, has a chance to put them front and center.Here&rsquo;s hoping they all get it right. &#9632;

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HAWKEYTOWN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011548/9367429-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="833" height="653"></div><h2>1933-34</h2>WHEN the Chicago Black Hawks made it to the final in 1934, goaltender Charlie Gardiner effectively sacrificed his life to win it all.Ignoring a painful tonsil infection that spread through his body that spring, Gardiner led Chicago to a 2-1, double-over-time victory over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 1 of the best-of-five final and a 4-1 triumph in Game 2.The Wings bounced back for a 5-2 win in Game 3. Gardiner became ill during the night and had to be taken to hospital. He insisted on playing in Game 4 at Chicago Stadium. He and Detroit goalie Wilf Cude were unbeatable during 60 minutes of regulation time and it took 30 minutes of overtime before Chicago&rsquo;s Mush March scored the Cup winner in a 1-0 decision.Gardiner paid the ultimate price for playing in pain a few days later when he collapsed and was rushed to hospital. In a coma, he died June 13, 1934 at age 29 from a brain hemorrhage, originating from the tonsillar infection that he dismissed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021121/9367422-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="839" height="656"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BOTH: HHOF IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>1937-38</h2>AT first blush, there&rsquo;s not much to choose from between the 1937-38 Chicago Black Hawks and the version from a season earlier.Both Black Hawks squads had 14 wins, Paul Thompson led the team in scoring, Mike Karakas played every game in goal and Bill Stewart was the man behind the bench.But the &rsquo;37-38 team won the Stanley Cup, while the &lsquo;36-37 team failed to even make the playoffs.Squeaking by defending champion Detroit in the American Division standings, Chicago secured the final playoff spot in 1938 and made its way to the Cup final, knocking off Montreal and the New York Americans.In the best-of-five final, the Hawks took on the top-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs.Karakas broke his toe and missed the first two games, which the teams split. But the 1936 Calder Trophy winner returned for Game 3 wearing a cast and backstopped the Hawks to consecutive victories en route to the franchise&rsquo;s second NHL championship.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011256/9367415-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="1751" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">(HHOF IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>1960-61</h2>THE odds were stacked heavily against the Chicago Black Hawks when they faced one of hockey&rsquo;s greatest ever dynasties in the first round of the 1961 playoffs.The Montreal Canadiens were five-time defending Stanley Cup champions and had a roster littered with future Hall of Famers in their prime. Jean Beliveau had yet to turn 30, Boom Boom Geoffrion and Dickie Moore had just turned 30, Jacques Plante was 32 and Henri Richard was 25. The Canadiens had also just completed a 92-point regular season, the eighth-most in the history of the game at the time.The Black Hawks were huge underdogs. Their 23-year Cup drought was the NHL&rsquo;s longest at the time and &rsquo;60-61 marked Chicago&rsquo;s first winning season in 15 years. It was youth against experience. Chicago&rsquo;s four top producers were 25 or younger, including Bobby Hull (22), Stan Mikita (20), Bill Hay (25) and Murray Balfour (24).&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe how ready they were to be knocked off,&rdquo; Mikita recalled. &ldquo;We went into the series with gumption, but it wasn&rsquo;t until that triple-overtime win in Game 3 that it registered with us: This could be really big. We have a helluva chance to beat these guys.&rdquo;The OT win gave Chicago a 2-1 series lead, but after Montreal outshot the Hawks 60-21 and won 5-2 to even the series, it was Chicago&rsquo;s veterans who rose to the occasion. Goalie Glenn Hall shut out the Canadiens in back-to-back 3-0 games.&ldquo;The Canadiens were a team that never got shut out, going something like (88) straight games scoring at least a goal,&rdquo; Hull recalled. &ldquo;Well, Glenn shuts them out twice to win the series.&rdquo;Veteran defenseman Pierre Pilote led the Hawks with 15 points in 12 games and probably would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP &ndash; but it wasn&rsquo;t created until 1965. Pilote went on to win three consecutive Norris Trophies in the mid-1960s.Chicago needed six games to beat fourth-place Detroit in the final and win the 1961 Cup. What shocked Hawk players the most was more Cups didn&rsquo;t follow.&ldquo;I was too young to appreciate how very important it was going to be,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;This was going to be one of many that we were going to win. And I didn&rsquo;t even drink out of the Cup. That&rsquo;s how sure I was that this was going to be one of many.&rdquo; &#9632;

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TRIO GRANDE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011375/9367599-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">GLORY DAYS Netminder Glenn Hall was always there for the Hawks in the Original Six era. (1960S: FRANK PRAZAK/HHOF IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>1960s</h2>The &rsquo;60s were the Black Hawks&rsquo; glory years. A Cup win in 1961 and two trips to the final in &rsquo;62 and &rsquo;65 were led by superstar forwards Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, dependable blueliner Pierre Pilote and ironman Glenn Hall in goal. Those four won four Hart Trophies, six Art Ross Trophies, three Norris Trophies and two Vezinas during the decade.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02973/9367592-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="779" height="1095"><figcaption class="caption-body">LONELY PERCH Tony Esposito saw a lot of great teammates leave during his tenure in the Chicago net. (1970: STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>1970s</h2>The 1970s began well with trips to the final in &rsquo;71 and &rsquo;73, and the arrival in net of Tony Esposito, who won a Calder and three Vezina Trophies during the decade. But the &rsquo;70s also saw Bobby Hull defect to the World Hockey Association, a hobbled Bobby Orr limp around Chicago Stadium for 26 games during parts of two seasons and heart-and-soul Stan Mikita retire at decade&rsquo;s end after a string of early round playoff exits.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011218/9367585-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="1294" height="1091"><figcaption class="caption-body">SPIN ZONE Denis Savard put on an electric show for fans at the old Chicago Stadium. (1980: HHOF IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h2>1980s</h2>The &rsquo;80s began with the arrival of high-scoring center Denis Savard and his signature &lsquo;Savardian Spin-O-Rama.&rsquo; Savard, Steve Larmer and blue-liner Doug Wilson drove the attack, Keith Brown was steady on the back end, while Al Secord and Darryl Sutter provided ample grit as the Black Hawks won three Norris Division titles and played in four conference finals, changing the spelling of their nickname to one word (Blackhawks) along the way. But another decade with no Cup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02838/9367578-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="830" height="691"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE FACE Chicago fans loved Jeremy &lsquo;J.R.&rsquo; Roenick. (1990: CHRIS COVATTA/ALLSPORT)</figcaption></div><h2>1990s</h2>Three more division titles, a Presidents&rsquo; Trophy in &rsquo;91 and a trip to the final in &rsquo;92 went all for naught, as the Cup drought hit three decades. The brash, flashy Jeremy Roenick was the face of the franchise for most of the decade, along with Norris Trophy-winner Chris Chelios and speedster Tony Amonte. But the spring of &rsquo;98 began a run that saw the team miss the post-season in nine of 11 seasons. A string of failed draft picks and the demolition of the Chicago Stadium only compounded the misery.<h2>2000s</h2>The 2000s were the darkest decade in Hawks history. Longtime owner Bill Wirtz had been at the helm for decades and had borne the brunt of criticism for everything from the trading of Phil Esposito in 1967 to the loss of Jeremy Roenick 30 years later. In 2002, ESPN ranked &lsquo;Dollar Bill&rsquo; the third-greediest owner in sports; in 2004, they ranked the Hawks the worst franchise in pro sports. By the second-half of the decade, Wirtz&rsquo;s reputation and the club&rsquo;s chronic losing had pushed the Hawks entirely off the sports map in Chicago; the franchise was moribund. Wirtz passed away in 2007 and shortly thereafter the on-ice results improved. High draft picks &ndash; such as Jonathan Toews, third overall in 2006, and Patrick Kane, first overall in &rsquo;07 &ndash; had a little something to do with the reversal of fortune.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03601/9367571-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="376" height="590"><figcaption class="caption-body">(2000: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES FOR NHL)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

TOUGH TIMES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011385/9367679-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>IN the summer of 2009, the Blackhawks were coming off an appearance in the Western Conference final &ndash; their deepest playoff run in 14 years &ndash; but no member of the franchise was satisfied with that result.For that reason, nobody was assured of a spot in Chicago during the 2009-10 campaign &ndash; including the Hawks&rsquo; GM, leading scorer and longtime No. 1 goalie.That much was made clear when right winger Martin Havlat, who had a team-best 48 assists and 77 points in 2008-09, was essentially abandoned when he became an unrestricted free agent at the start of July.Instead, Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon signed star sniper Marian Hossa away from Detroit with a 12-year, $62.8-million contract. Meanwhile, veteran netminder Nikolai Khabibulin, also a UFA, was deemed expendable; the 36-year-old departed for Edmonton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011268/9367672-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="376" height="591"><figcaption class="caption-body">HAVLAT</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02850/9367665-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="376" height="591"><figcaption class="caption-body">KHABIBULIN</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03648/9367658-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="376" height="591"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAHLSSON</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04503/9367651-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="376" height="591"><figcaption class="caption-body">WALKER</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05400/9367644-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="836" height="991"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN MADDEN</figcaption></div>Havlat and Khabibulin weren&rsquo;t alone on the train out of Chicago. Defensive center Samuel Pahlsson, acquired at the March 2009 trade deadline, was not re-signed; neither was gritty blueliner Matt Walker.To plug his holes at forward, Tallon signed two players with playoff pedigrees: one was former Devil and Selke Trophy winner John Madden, the other was former Red Wing Tomas Kopecky.Then came perhaps the Hawks&rsquo; biggest change of all: the &ldquo;reassignment&rdquo; of Tallon to the position of senior advisor of hockey operations and the hiring of Stan Bowman as the ninth GM in franchise history.Bowman, Chicago&rsquo;s assistant GM since 2007, was familiar enough with the franchise &ndash; and the challenge of fitting all its talent under the salary cap &ndash; to look within the organization to replace Khabibulin.And so the team headed into training camp with Cristobal Huet (20-15-4 in 2009-10) penciled in as its starter and one of two relatively unproven stoppers, Corey Crawford or Antti Niemi, as the backup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06337/9367637-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="835" height="992"><figcaption class="caption-body">TOMAS KOPECKYTHE HAWKS made a huge move by landing the biggest free agent fish on the market, star forward Marian Hossa. (ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07280/9367630-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>IN</h2>MARIAN HOSSAJOHN MADDENTOMAS KOPECKY<h2>OUT</h2>MARTIN HAVLAT (MIN)NIKOLAI KHABIBULIN (EDM)SAMUEL PAHLSSON (CLB)MATT WALKER (TB) &#9632;

f0030-01

SUMMER 2009

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011357/9367752-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>HINDSIGHT being 20/20, it was serendipitous that Chicago&rsquo;s season began in Finland.As part of the NHL&rsquo;s initiative to grow the game, the Blackhawks played their first two regular season contests in Helsinki against the Florida Panthers. With Cristobal Huet starting Game 1, the Hawks dropped the opener in a shootout, 4-3. The next night, a new masked man stepped into the crease &ndash; Finland&rsquo;s own Antti Niemi.Playing in his homeland, Niemi stonewalled the Panthers, helping Chicago to a 4-0 shutout and salvaging a tie in the ultimate &ldquo;away&rdquo; series. It was a good harbinger of things to come.Back on American soil, Chicago got off to an impressive start in October, going 8-4-1 and sitting atop the Central Division. But fans knew the team was not yet complete. Prized off-season signing Marian Hossa was still recovering from shoulder surgery, meaning the scoring slack was there to be picked up. Patrick Kane led the charge with 12 points, while Patrick Sharp popped in 11. Captain Jonathan Toews was on nearly a point-per-game pace when one moment in a contest versus Vancouver threatened to derail the season.As a Chicago power play expired, Toews accepted a pass from Troy Brouwer near mid-ice. As he received the puck, he was blindsided by Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell, who had just exited the penalty box. Toews left the game with a concussion, but thankfully for the Hawks and their fans, he only missed six contests.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011211/9367745-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="835" height="992"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03655/9367738-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="1211" height="983"></div>Back on the ice, the Hawks were undaunted by the loss of their captain. After dropping the Toews game to Vancouver, the team won three of the next four to close out the month. Kane remained hot, while a cadre of Chicago players such as Sharp, Brouwer and David Bolland provided the offense. Huet held up his end of the bargain by playing all four of those final October games and giving up just five goals in the process.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02833/9367731-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="826" height="583"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE HAWKS HAD to do without Jonathan Toews for six games, but Cristobal Huet and company ensured the ship remained sturdy.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04530/9367724-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05446/9367717-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>OCT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06388/9367710-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="442" height="709"></div>OCTOBER RECORD 8-4-1OVERALL RECORD 8-4-1DIVISION 1STCONFERENCE 5TH<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. KANE 12 PTS (12 OVERALL)2. SHARP 11 PTS (11 OVERALL)3. VERSTEEG 9 PTS (9 OVERALL)4. KEITH 8 PTS (8 OVERALL)5. BYFUGLIEN 7 PTS (7 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0032-01

OCTOBER

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011374/9367832-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE Hawks opened and closed November with consecutive losses playing on back-to-back nights. In between, they didn&rsquo;t drop a game.Chicago won a season-high eight consecutive contests in the month, beginning with a 4-1 win at home over the Los Angeles Kings and concluding with a 7-2 road thrashing of the San Jose Sharks.Both the first and final games of the streak were significant for reasons beyond the positive result.The win over L.A. featured the return of captain Jonathan Toews after he&rsquo;d missed the first two games of the month recovering from a late-October concussion. The Hawks captain scored a goal in his first game back, which helped calm fears about the state of his health.The Sharks stomping marked the debut of Chicago&rsquo;s biggest acquisition of the summer, free agent signee Marian Hossa. Having fully recovered from off-season shoulder surgery, the big Slovak immediately endeared himself to his new team by scoring two goals in his first contest while skating alongside Toews and Patrick Kane on the top line.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011283/9367825-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="826" height="991"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02904/9367818-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="1220" height="692"></div>The Hawks averaged more than four goals per game during the positive stretch, which featured four wins apiece at home and on the road, and two victories over San Jose, the second one being the Sharks&rsquo; first regulation-time home loss of the season. Cristobal Huet won seven of the eight games, with Antti Niemi&rsquo;s sole victory being a 1-0 shutout over the Canucks.While the Blackhawks benefited from the return of Toews and Hossa, they also experienced a blessing in disguise when David Bolland underwent back surgery on Nov. 10. Losing Bolland for 41 games didn&rsquo;t help the team, but after fighting issues with his back for two years, finally going under the knife did Bolland a world of good and set him up to return better and stronger than ever late in the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03746/9367811-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="376" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">SPURRED BY THE return of Jonathan Toews and the debut of Marian Hossa, the Hawks gelled and won eight straight.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05516/9367804-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="309" height="450"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04608/9367797-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="376" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06466/9367790-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>NOV</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07404/9367783-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="432" height="661"></div>NOVEMBER RECORD 8-2-2OVERALL RECORD 16-6-3DIVISION 1STCONFERENCE 3RD<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. KEITH 14 PTS (22 OVERALL)2. KANE 13 PTS (25 OVERALL)3. TOEWS 10 PTS (15 OVERALL)4. SHARP 10 PTS (21 OVERALL)5. BROUWER 9 PTS (13 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0034-01

NOVEMBER

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011274/9367919-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JOHN RUSSELL/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE Blackhawks entered December hot and continued to sizzle, amassing 11 wins, their highest single-month total of the season.As impressive as that was, however, the month will best be remembered as the time the club locked up its core of young stars long-term.December began with a milestone when Joel Quenneville became the 14th coach in NHL history to earn 500 career wins Dec. 1. And we do mean earn, as the 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets was the sixth-longest shootout in NHL history, taking 11 rounds to decide. Defenseman Brent Seabrook netted the winner in the marathon tie-breaker.Two days later, the organization made headlines when it announced the signing of key components, center Jonathan Toews, right winger Patrick Kane and defenseman Duncan Keith to multi-year contract extensions. The then 21-year-old Toews, their captain, signed a five-year, $31.5-million deal; Kane, who had just turned 21, signed for the same amount and term as Toews; and Keith, 26 at the time, agreed to a 13-year, $72-million deal.And as the trio raked in the money off the ice, the Hawks raked in the victories on it, winning six of their next eight games while alternating between Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi in net.The goaltending platoon enjoyed stunning success during a six-game span in the middle of the month; Huet and Niemi had back-to-back shutouts (of the Tampa Bay Lightning and St. Louis Blues); Huet had another shutout in his next appearance; and two games later, Niemi posted his second shutout in three games.The Hawks reclaimed sole possession of first place in the Central Division after their 3-0 blanking of Detroit Dec. 20 and won three of their next four to finish December with an 11-4-0 record &ndash; and their sights trained straight at the peak of the NHL standings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011137/9367912-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="835" height="842"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04536/9367905-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="1220" height="892"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05483/9367898-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="835" height="829"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02789/9367891-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="376" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE HAWKS TOOK care of the future by signing their young stars and took care of business with a white-hot month.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06427/9367884-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="309" height="450"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03630/9367877-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="376" height="492"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07369/9367870-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>DEC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08285/9367863-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="442" height="819"></div>DECEMBER RECORD 11-4-0OVERALL RECORD 27-10-3DIVISION 1STCONFERENCE 2ND<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. KANE 20 PTS (45 OVERALL)2. TOEWS 18 PTS (33 OVERALL)3. KEITH 13 PTS (35 OVERALL)4. HOSSA 12 PTS (14 OVERALL)5. CAMPBELL 10 PTS (24 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0036-01

DECEMBER

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011231/9367999-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ANDRE RINGUETTE/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>COMING off a solid month of December, the Blackhawks were suddenly faced with a January that provided a few team-defining tests.In an effort to get his promising backup goaltender some more playing time, Joel Quenneville tapped Antti Niemi more often in January than he had all season. Appearing in 11 games from October through December, Niemi was used six times in January and was handed a chance to separate himself as the No. 1 man.Though the opportunity was there, Niemi lacked the consistency to grab the top job outright. Early on he wasn&rsquo;t tested much, earning a 19-save win against Boston and a nine-save loss to Anaheim, but he showed what he was capable of during a 4-3 shootout win against Detroit, in which he faced the most shots (38) the Hawks allowed all season and looked spectacular in the effort. After another one-goal against, 19-save win versus Calgary, Niemi blew up against Vancouver, allowing three goals on 12 first period shots, which led to him being pulled.The Hawks tackled their longest road trip of the season in January, playing eight games in 14 days that started in Columbus, swung out to Vancouver and San Jose, and finished back on the east coast in Carolina. They ended up winning five of those contests, earning 10 of a possible 16 points, but it was mostly thanks to the potent and exciting offense they had at their disposal.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011132/9367992-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="1754" height="491"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02739/9367985-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="836" height="742"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04481/9367978-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="1220" height="692"></div>Marian Hossa&rsquo;s 16 points was his best one-month total of the year, while Troy Brouwer also turned some heads with an unexpected 11. Patrick Kane notched 15 and Duncan Keith put up 14, while the Hawks, 10-4-1 on the month and, more impressively, 7-3-1 on the road, averaged 3.67 goals per game.Niemi and Huet continued to battle for the starter&rsquo;s role, but with save percentages of .895 and .880 respectively in January, neither made much headway as the Hawks allowed 2.93 goals per game on the month.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03576/9367971-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="301" height="392"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE NEW YEAR provided a chance for Antti Niemi to take the No. 1 job as Chicago faced a tough run of opponents.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05403/9367964-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06333/9367957-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>JAN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07294/9367950-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="442" height="823"></div>JANUARY RECORD 10-4-1OVERALL RECORD 37-14-4DIVISION 1STCONFERENCE 2ND<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. HOSSA 16 PTS (30 OVERALL)2. KANE 15 PTS (60 OVERALL)3. KEITH 14 PTS (49 OVERALL)4. SHARP 14 PTS (43 OVERALL)5. BROUWER 11 PTS (29 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0038-01

JANUARY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01827/9368079-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>THE Blackhawks ended January with a 37-14-4 record and a firm focus on solidifying a top spot in the Western Conference.Because of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the Hawks only had six games to play in February. But by the end of the month, their star players had greatly increased their impact on the hockey world &ndash; and goalie Antti Niemi had improved his case to become the team&rsquo;s clear-cut starter.Cristobal Huet tended net for Chicago&rsquo;s first two February games, but lost both and was on a three-game winless streak when coach Joel Quenneville went with Niemi for their Feb. 6 matchup against St. Louis.Niemi capitalized on the opportunity, stopping 34 of 35 shots in a 2-1 win &ndash; and followed that up with three more victories (all in the shootout) before the Olympic break kicked in Feb. 15.But the biggest Hawks story of February was the Olympic performance of their top talents.Six Chicago skaters &ndash; Canadians Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, American Patrick Kane and Slovakians Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky &ndash; represented their homelands in Vancouver.Kane had five points in six games for the upstart American team that won silver; and Hossa had nine points in seven games for the Slovaks, who finished fourth.But it was the Canadian contingent of the Hawks&rsquo; Olympic sextet that particularly stood out.Toews had a team-best eight points in Canada&rsquo;s gold medal-winning performance &ndash; including the opening goal in its 3-2 overtime win in the final showdown versus Kane and Team USA. For his efforts the Hawks captain was named the tournament&rsquo;s best forward.Meanwhile, Keith was a standout on the Canadian blueline, leading the team in time on ice, chipping in six assists and pairing with Kings star Drew Doughty to form a defensive unit no opponent was able to match.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01714/9368072-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="1754" height="942"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02452/9368065-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="835" height="942"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03368/9368058-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="835" height="692"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04320/9368051-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="301" height="542"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE TOP HAWKS performed very well on the grandest of stages &ndash; the Olympics &ndash; and rode the momentum into the year&rsquo;s final leg.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05288/9368044-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06251/9368037-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>FEB</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-07218/9368030-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="222" height="166"></div>FEBRUARY RECORD 4-1-1OVERALL RECORD 41-15-5DIVISION 1STCONFERENCE 2ND<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. SHARP 9 PTS (52 OVERALL)2. KANE 7 PTS (67 OVERALL)3. TOEWS 5 PTS (49 OVERALL)4. HOSSA 4 PTS (34 OVERALL)5. JOHNSSON 4 PTS (15 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0040-01

FEBRUARY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01751/9368152-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>MARCH should have begun on a high note for the Blackhawks. Canadians Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook returned from the Vancouver Olympics with gold medals &ndash; and all the experience that comes with one &ndash; draped around their necks, while Patrick Kane took solace in silver and a job well done with Team USA.With the cream-puff New York Islanders first up on the schedule following the Olympic break, it seemed like a nice, soft way to get back to the real business at hand: nabbing that Stanley Cup.But the Isles were no pushovers and smacked the Blackhawks 5-3 on the night, chasing Antti Niemi from Chicago&rsquo;s net in the process.That began a tumultuous month in which Cristobal Huet was pulled against Detroit in a 5-4 loss after being handed the reins, followed by a platoon that also featured Corey Crawford getting a start in an eventual loss to the Anaheim Ducks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01740/9368145-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="566" height="892"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02505/9368138-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="566" height="892"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03420/9368131-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="1220" height="742"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE HAWKS battled hard down the stretch, but missed out on nabbing the top seed in the Western Conference by a point.</figcaption></div>But the pivotal moment came when Niemi posted two shutouts amidst three consecutive starts late in the month. After the second goose egg, Huet was given the starter&rsquo;s duty against lowly Columbus. The Blue Jackets proceeded to light up the Frenchman to the tune of seven goals in an eventual 8-3 win. It was the worst loss of the season for Chicago.That was coach Joel Quenneville&rsquo;s cue to start Niemi the remaining 15 regular season contests. The first-year goalie strung together a six-game winning streak beginning March 31, before dropping Game 82 against archrival Detroit in overtime on the last day of the campaign.The single point Chicago missed out on by losing to the Red Wings in extra time denied the Hawks the Western Conference title &ndash; the San Jose Sharks finished with one more point, but fewer wins than Chicago &ndash; yet they were still set up nicely with the second seed in the West.The Hawks&rsquo; quest for the Cup was set to begin with a series against Nashville.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04321/9368124-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05277/9368117-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>MARCH APRIL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06228/9368110-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="442" height="1156"></div>MARCH/APRIL RECORD 11-7-3OVERALL RECORD 52-22-8DIVISION 1STCONFERENCE 2ND<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. KANE 21 PTS (88 OVERALL)2. TOEWS 19 PTS (68 OVERALL)3. HOSSA 17 PTS (51 OVERALL)4. KEITH 16 PTS (69 OVERALL)5. SHARP 14 PTS (66 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0042-01

MARCH/APRIL

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01642/9368232-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="986" height="1091"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>IT&rsquo;S a good thing the first game &ndash; or first goal against &ndash; of the playoffs wasn&rsquo;t a sign of things to come.Most of the anxiety about Chicago&rsquo;s post-season chances centered around the fact goalie Antti Niemi had absolutely zero experience with this kind of pressure.He did nothing to quell those fears when, after Patrick Kane opened the scoring halfway through Game 1 of the Hawks&rsquo; first round series with Nashville, the Predators&rsquo; J-P Dumont tied the contest with what seemed like a harmless flip of the puck toward Niemi just 1:31 into the final frame. The Blackhawks never put things back together, while the Preds scored three more times in the third period.In truth, all Game 1&rsquo;s 4-1 loss at home did for the Hawks was provide Niemi a chance to reveal his resiliency. He followed the Game 1 setback with a 2-0 shutout in Game 2 and did the same in Game 4, blanking the Predators 3-0 in that pivotal outing after Nashville had seized a 2-1 series lead with another 4-1 triumph in Game 3.With the series knotted 2-2, the teams turned in one of the playoffs&rsquo; craziest contests in Game 5 in Chicago. Nashville was clinging to a one-goal lead when Marian Hossa rammed defenseman Dan Hamhuis from behind with 1:03 left in the game, earning himself a five-minute boarding major. Now on the power play, Nashville just had to keep the wheel straight and guide the victory home, but Martin Erat&rsquo;s ill-advised centering pass in the offensive zone started a Chicago counter-attack that ended with Kane depositing a shorthanded goal to square the affair 4-4 with just 14 seconds left in regulation time.The Hawks still had to survive being shorthanded for the 3:57 of overtime, but 10 seconds after stepping out of the box, Hossa swatted home a rebound to give his team an improbable 5-4 win and a 3-2 series lead.Having snatched momentum away in such stunning fashion, the Blackhawks closed out Nashville on the road by a 5-3 score in Game 6, setting the stage for a meeting with archrival Vancouver for the second straight year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01548/9368225-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="836" height="1388"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02352/9368218-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="835" height="592"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03296/9368211-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="835" height="592"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-04264/9368204-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="836" height="1192"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHICAGO TRAILED twice in its series versus Nashville, but took control with an overtime win for the ages in Game 5.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-05236/9368197-1-eng-US/f0045-052.jpg" title="f0045-05" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-06205/9368190-1-eng-US/f0045-062.jpg" title="f0045-06" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>ROUND ONE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-07181/9368183-1-eng-US/f0045-072.jpg" title="f0045-07" width="442" height="328"></div>ROUND ONE RECORD 4-2OVERALL RECORD 4-2<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. TOEWS 8 PTS (8 OVERALL)2. KANE 7 PTS (7 OVERALL)3. SHARP 7 PTS (7 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0044-01

ROUND ONE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0046-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01546/9368305-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JEFF VINNICK/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>LIKE an unwanted house guest, the Blackhawks barged into Vancouver&rsquo;s home in the second round of the playoffs, hogged the remote, ate all the good food, soiled the linens then scampered out of town with a huge, satisfied grin.Facing a foe thirsty for revenge after being knocked out of the playoffs by the Hawks the year before, Chicago overcame a jittery start and an emotionally amped opponent by winning all three games at GM Place. For the victors, it was simply a case of overmatching their rival; the Hawks&rsquo; depth proved lethal.Of course, it didn&rsquo;t look that way after Game 1, a shocking 5-1 loss in which Antti Niemi allowed five goals on 25 shots. And jaws in the Windy City continued to drop in Game 2, when Vancouver bolted to a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the first period.That&rsquo;s when the Hawks found their resolve. They clawed back into the contest and won four of the next five to return to the conference final, doing so on the backs of, well, 20-something players. The triumph was the clich&eacute;d team effort, with different heroes emerging each night, sometimes each period.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01504/9368298-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="835" height="991"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02329/9368291-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="836" height="642"></div>In Game 2, Patrick Sharp scored a pivotal shorthanded goal, Kris Versteeg got the winner late in the third and Niemi rebounded from a shaky series opener.In Game 3, Dustin Byfuglien made GM Place a house of pain, creating havoc in Roberto Luongo&rsquo;s crease and putting three pucks behind the anxious Canucks stopper.Captain Jonathan Toews exploded for three goals and five points in Game 4, grabbing the playoff scoring lead and serving notice he&rsquo;d be a serious Conn Smythe Trophy candidate.After an emotionally empty Game 5 performance at United Center, Chicago put an exclamation point on the series with a convincing 5-1 victory in which David Bolland contributed a key second period shorthanded goal.All of which left one question: What tasty treats would San Jose have in its fridge?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03264/9368284-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="835" height="1192"><figcaption class="caption-body">JONATHAN TOEWS had a monster three-goal, five-point explosion in Game 4 to give his team a 3-1 hold on the series.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-04202/9368277-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-05152/9368270-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>ROUND TWO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-06123/9368263-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="442" height="328"></div>ROUND TWO RECORD 4-2OVERALL RECORD 8-4<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. TOEWS 12 PTS (20 OVERALL)2. KANE 8 PTS (15 OVERALL)3. SHARP 7 PTS (14 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0046-01

ROUND TWO

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0048-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01382/9368392-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>AFTER vanquishing Vancouver in Round 2, the Hawks moved on to the Western Conference final against the top-seeded San Jose Sharks.San Jose boasted eight 2010 Olympians, including four Canadian gold medallists and rising U.S. scoring star Joe Pavelski. The veteran Sharks held home ice advantage and were looking to redeem playoff letdowns past by making pulp of the young Hawks.Game 1 was a back-and-forth affair with the netminders proving the difference. San Jose outshot Chicago 45-40, but Dustin Byfuglien&rsquo;s fifth goal of the playoffs put the Hawks ahead for good 2-1 with fewer than seven minutes to play. A Sharks power play in the final minute made it interesting, but Antti Niemi stood tall in goal.Byfuglien and Niemi, in fact, became the stories of the series. Byfuglien recorded three game-winners in the four-game sweep and Niemi stopped 129 San Jose shots.Game 2, a 4-2 Hawks victory, was tighter on the ice, if not on the scoreboard. The contest featured just 45 shots total, as the teams settled in defensively. The win meant Chicago was heading back home to the Madhouse on Madison with a chance to sweep.The ice opened back up in Game 3; but despite 84 shots combined, David Bolland&rsquo;s goal 13 minutes into the third gave Chicago just a 2-1 lead before a controversial icing call with fewer than five minutes to play allowed Patrick Marleau to score his fourth goal in two games. But Byfuglien came through in the clutch again, ending the contest in overtime with a snap shot from the high slot for a 3-2 final.The desperate Sharks shot out of the gate in Game 4 and were rewarded with a 2-0 lead. But the Hawks&rsquo; resilience again shone through &ndash; the game was tied before the second period was out. Byfuglien&rsquo;s eighth of the spring proved the winner in a 4-2 humbling of San Jose.The sweep gave the Hawks a chance to end the NHL&rsquo;s longest Cup drought. To do so, they&rsquo;d have to best another hungry team, the upstart Philadelphia Flyers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01346/9368385-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="835" height="641"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02252/9368378-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="835" height="629"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03192/9368371-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="835" height="542"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04174/9368364-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="836" height="687"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-05134/9368357-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="835" height="1292"><figcaption class="caption-body">THE SWEEP MADE Chicago the Stanley Cup favorite heading into its showdown with Philadelphia, the East&rsquo;s No. 7 seed.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0677/9368350-1-eng-US/f0049-062.jpg" title="f0049-06" width="309" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">(ALL: GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0757/9368343-1-eng-US/f0049-072.jpg" title="f0049-07" width="208" height="199"></div><h2>ROUND THREE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0837/9368336-1-eng-US/f0049-082.jpg" title="f0049-08" width="442" height="213"></div>ROUND THREE RECORD 4-0OVERALL RECORD 12-4<h3>TOP SCORERS</h3>1. TOEWS 6 PTS (26 OVERALL)2. KANE 5 PTS (20 OVERALL)3. BYFUGLIEN 4 PTS (10 OVERALL) &#9632;

f0048-01

ROUND THREE

<div class="byline">PHOTO BY BILL SMITH/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0050-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01327/9368423-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0050-01

THE FINAL

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0053-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01268/9368454-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>CHICAGO &ndash; All in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty good day to be Troy Brouwer. The Chicago Blackhawks had just put a bow on the Central Division, thanks in large part to the big man grabbing a Brent Seabrook rebound and swooping it backhand past a sprawling Miikka Kiprusoff for his 22nd of the season. Things were looking pretty rosy for Don Brouwer, too. After all, how can you beat a morning on the golf course followed by an afternoon of watching your kid play in the NHL?When Brouwer&rsquo;s wife tracked him down right after the game and told him to call his mother, his perfect day and his perfect world were turned upside down. Hours later, Troy was holding vigil by his father&rsquo;s bed at the Surrey (B.C.) General Hospital waiting for him to wake up.He waited for five days while his father was in a drug-induced coma. It turned out that following his golf outing, Don Brouwer came home and collapsed after suffering an aneurism. He lay unconscious on the floor for several hours before being discovered by his wife and was rushed into emergency surgery.&ldquo;My dad was always a big influence in my life and you always see him as being an unbreakable man,&rdquo; Brouwer said. &ldquo;To see him in that state was really tough. It makes you realize what&rsquo;s important.&rdquo;When Don finally woke up, one of the first things he told Troy was that he had to take the puck to the net more. He also told his son to get back to Chicago and go about the business of winning a Stanley Cup.That&rsquo;s where the story is supposed to take a turn for the better. But the recovery has been slow for Don Brouwer and, for a time, it was the same for the son. Still concerned about his father, Troy found it almost impossible to play through the worry and during the second round, he found himself a healthy scratch for three games. So he went back to see his father.&ldquo;Before I would be coming out of the rink wanting to call my mom to see how my dad was doing and I wasn&rsquo;t focusing on hockey as much as I should have been,&rdquo; Troy said. &ldquo;To see the progression that he&rsquo;s made and how good he looks just makes it that much easier on me.&rdquo;When it comes to progression and how good he looks, Brouwer could just as easily be talking about himself. He had 22 goals this season and is developing into a second-tier power forward as an NHLer. He was one of the Hawks&rsquo; heroes in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, contributing two goals in a 6-5 victory.He&rsquo;s doing more than anyone expected, otherwise teams would not have had 478 chances to draft him prior to him being taking by the Hawks in 2004. After being passed up during his first year of eligibility in &rsquo;03, Brouwer went 214th overall as a 19-year-old.And his reward for that? Instead of signing him to a contract, the Blackhawks instead allowed him to go back to the Western League&rsquo;s Moose Jaw Warriors for a fifth season as an overage player. Good move, seeing as Brouwer blossomed as a scorer and led the league with 49 goals and 102 points. After two 30-plus goal seasons in the American League, Brouwer has made believers out of the Blackhawks and the NHL.&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t know what kind of player I was going to amount to, so they didn&rsquo;t want to have to commit to me,&rdquo; Brouwer said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s understandable.&rdquo;Brouwer&rsquo;s development makes him the rarest of players in the NHL &ndash; a guy who turned out to be a better pro than he was a junior. There are some around, almost all of them late bloomers. Playing on a line with Patrick Sharp at center and Kris Versteeg at right wing, Brouwer has found a place in the NHL and he has the size, skill and now, skating ability, to be so much more than just a third-line player.But nothing is guaranteed, either in hockey or in life. Don Brouwer watched the playoffs and phoned his son throughout, all the while continuing his rehab at a Vancouver facility. No one knows what Don&rsquo;s future holds.&ldquo;Things are looking good for him, but they won&rsquo;t give us any prognosis yet,&rdquo; Troy said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s come a long way and surprised some doctors, though.&rdquo;It turns out when it comes to the ability to surprise, the apple does not fall all that far from the tree.<h2>GAME ONE</h2>CHICAGO 6 PHILADELPHIA 5 MAY 29, 2010He shoots, scores. Again and again. The Hawks and Flyers fired 11 goals past some shaky goaltending in a match that saw four lead changes and five tying goals. Curiously, Chicago&rsquo;s top line was held off the scoreboard. Troy Brouwer connected twice, while unlikely hero Tomas Kopecky nailed the winner with 11:35 remaining. &#9632;

f0053-01

TROY BROUWER

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0055-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01242/9368485-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>CHICAGO &ndash; Near as anyone can tell, Antti Niemi has told one joke since he came to the Chicago Blackhawks and, by all accounts, he was put up to it by Kris Versteeg.It was late May and the Blackhawks were in San Jose for the Western Conference final when news broke that Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom had just signed a 10-year deal worth $67 million.&ldquo;Niemi looked at me and he said, &lsquo;Hey, Kaner,&rsquo; and everybody was like, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s Niemi going to say?&rsquo;&rdquo; teammate Patrick Kane recalled. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;How do you feel about Backstrom signing for more than you&rsquo;re going to make?&rsquo; If someone else had said it, it wouldn&rsquo;t have been funny, but it was Niemi.&rdquo;Niemi was dubbed during the Stanley Cup final as The Worst Interview in the NHL&trade; and it has almost nothing to do with the fact English is his second language. He understands and speaks English plenty well; it just turns out he doesn&rsquo;t have much to say.And that&rsquo;s too bad because his story is very, very rich. Five years ago, he was a First Division goalie in his home-town of Vantaa in Finland, hoping someday to maybe catch on in a pro league in Italy or France. To make ends meet, he also served as a rink janitor and Zamboni driver. Now he&rsquo;s the last line of defense for the Stanley Cup champs, playing a particularly pivotal role in Game 2 by stopping 32 Flyers shots. To say he has taken the circuitous route to stardom would be an understatement.Too bad he&rsquo;s not more forthcoming when he talks about it. Consider the following exchange:Q: &ldquo;Your agent, Bill Zito, told me to ask about your relationship with his dog, Matti.&rdquo;A: &ldquo;I love her.&rdquo;Q: &ldquo;He says it&rsquo;s a very unique relationship.&rdquo;A: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as deep as he thinks.&rdquo;Q: &ldquo;You got to drive the Zamboni. What a cool job. A lot of kids would love to have that job. What&rsquo;s it like?&rdquo;A: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun. It&rsquo;s not too bad. It&rsquo;s pretty cool.&rdquo;Not exactly Inside the Actors Studio. Oh well, Niemi&rsquo;s story is so good that in many ways it tells itself.This is a story of a young man who was driven and determined, but was buried in smalltown Finland during an era when the country was a goalie factory. His agent hooked up with Niemi when the father of one of his associates in Finland saw Niemi play in the First Division. For two years, Zito tried to get him a job in the SM-Liiga, which is the top league in Finland, but to no avail.Then his big break. The Lahti Pelicans were playing an exhibition game when goalie Markus Helanen suffered a career-ending concussion. With only days before the start of the season, the Pelicans reached out to Niemi and he was spectacular.Part of the reason for that was he was taken under his wing in a Karate Kid-Mr. Miyagi sort of way by former NHLer Pasi Nurminen, who was a part-owner of the team. Nurminen, one of the most intense goaltenders Finland has ever produced, stumbled on a prot&eacute;g&eacute; in Niemi and the young grasshopper learned his lessons well.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great guy, but he likes working hard,&rdquo; Niemi said. &ldquo;On the ice, he has good tips, but people who know him know he&rsquo;s a special guy mentally. I learned a lot.&rdquo;Niemi caught the eye of the Blackhawks and was signed ostensibly as a depth goaltender for the organization, but you know what happens to a lot of these guys. They end up proving everyone wrong and becoming stars.The Hawks liked his size, competitiveness and quickness &ndash; traits that are all coming to the fore in the NHL. It took some convincing to get Niemi to come to North America, but then-GM Dale Tallon finally succeeded.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty good at that,&rdquo; Tallon said. &ldquo;I got the big rubber boots on and started shoveling away.&rdquo;All the while, though, the Hawks were not convinced Niemi could be the No. 1, not even after he recorded a shutout in his first start of the season. Through the first two months of 2009-10, Niemi played just six games and his first run of three consecutive starts didn&rsquo;t come until February. That might have something to do with Cristobal Huet&rsquo;s big salary.That&rsquo;s all ancient history now. This summer, Niemi will get the big contract as a restricted free agent. All in all, it has been an impressive run for the man from Vantaa.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty lucky, I guess,&rdquo; Niemi said.<h2>GAME TWO</h2>CHICAGO 2 PHILADELPHIA 1MAY 31, 2010Antti Niemi was particularly clutch in the third period of Game 2, which was much tighter defensively than the series-opening shoot-em-up. Niemi stopped 32 of 33 shots in total, while goals from Marian Hossa and Ben Eager came 28 seconds apart in the second period to stake Chicago to a lead it would not relinquish. &#9632;

f0055-01

ANTTI NIEMI

<div class="byline">&nbsp;BY ADRIAN DATER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0057-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01198/9368516-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>CHICAGO &ndash; Nobody in the know believed Duncan Keith wouldn&rsquo;t be a good NHL player. But this good? Norris Trophy good? Anybody today who claims they knew that might be nervous if challenged to a polygraph.Keith was not a first round NHL draft pick. Chicago took him in the second round (54th overall) in 2002 and he spent two years in the American League.GMs will tell you privately that any player who spends more than a year in minor pro is probably only going to be an average NHLer at best.Keith came from U.S. college hockey, something that still makes some of the NHL&rsquo;s old guard leery. In his first year in the NHL, he had 21 points in 81 games and was minus-11. He posted 31 points in 82 games the next year and improved to an even rating.Respectable NHLer is what Keith appeared ticketed toward. But he&rsquo;s plus-84 in the three years since and posted 69 points in 82 games this season. In Game 3, he was easily Chicago&rsquo; best player, scoring a goal and playing more than 30 minutes. Many are saying he&rsquo;s the best defenseman in the league and a serious threat to win the Norris for years to come.&ldquo;He just works his butt off,&rdquo; Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. &ldquo;I think he just works harder than the next guy. But he&rsquo;s also got a lot of ability and it&rsquo;s just blossomed more. He&rsquo;s earned his success.&rdquo;Guys just don&rsquo;t normally transform from average NHLer (who had average numbers in his two AHL years with the Norfolk Admirals) to megastar, however.His work ethic is the main thing, but, the new rules after the lockout also helped; a more free-flowing game better matched Keith&rsquo;s skating abilities.Listed at six-foot, 190 pounds, Keith would have had a harder time in the clutch-and-grab, trap era that shackled quick skaters and overly rewarded plumber D-men. And playing on a team where he could make outlet passes to stars such as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp didn&rsquo;t hurt, either.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m just a guy playing on a team with great players,&rdquo; Keith said. &ldquo;I mean, it&rsquo;s not complicated. They make my job easier and make everyone look better when you play with them.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s the real Duncan Keith, his teammates say, a man uncomfortable with any kind of praise.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s definitely a low-key kind of guy who doesn&rsquo;t like to talk about himself much,&rdquo; Chicago winger Kris Versteeg said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d rather talk about anything other than himself really.&rdquo;Keith better get used to discussing his play, though.A year in which he won an Olympic gold medal, signed a mega-contract (13 years, $72 million) and won the Stanley Cup is going to draw reporters like Imelda Marcos to a shoe sale.Quenneville, a former defenseman himself, most appreciates how simple Keith makes things look.&ldquo;He has strong puck-possession,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t panic. He has that extra second of patience. He reads the play in front of him well and makes that good first pass. It comes down to the basics on &lsquo;D&rsquo;, but it&rsquo;s not an easy thing to do.&rdquo;Keith, who turns 27 July 16, is hockey tough, of course. He lost seven teeth in Game 4 of the Western Conference final against San Jose after taking a Patrick Marleau slapper right in the chops. It wasn&rsquo;t enough to knock him out of the game, though.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a fun thing to lose seven teeth,&rdquo; Keith said. &ldquo;But it happens in this game.&rdquo;Keith&rsquo;s hope before the Stanley Cup final was that the whole world would see just how terrible his mouth looked. That would mean he was smiling a lot, with Lord Stanley&rsquo;s silver punchbowl overhead.With the youth and skill on the Hawks already, this year isn&rsquo;t likely to be Keith&rsquo;s last chance at a Stanley Cup, either.&ldquo;This is going to be a very good team for a while,&rdquo; former Blackhawk and current broadcast analyst Troy Murray said. &ldquo;The thing you really like about them is they&rsquo;ve got a young blueliner like Duncan who plays so many minutes. It all starts in your own end and he&rsquo;s a guy who makes things so much easier for everyone by taking care of the puck and getting it out safely.&rdquo;<h2>GAME THREE</h2>PHILADELPHIA 4 CHICAGO 3 (OT)JUNE 2, 2010The Hawks held the lead for just 20 seconds, early in the third period, before the Flyers tied the score 3-3 and won it in overtime on a Claude Giroux tip-in. Duncan Keith scored one of Chicago&rsquo;s goals, led the team with more than 30 minutes of ice time, and proved, yet again, why he&rsquo;s considered among the best defensemen in the game. &#9632;

f0057-01

DUNCAN KEITH

<div class="byline">BY MATT CARLSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0059-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-01180/9368547-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(FREDERICK BREEDON/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>CHICAGO &ndash; A rat running around might unnerve just about anyone, even a confident, big-time NHL star. Now you understand how David Bolland made a name for himself in the 2010 playoffs and earned his nickname from his Chicago Blackhawks teammates.No player in the post-season was more irritating to opponents than Bolland, dubbed &lsquo;The Rat&rsquo; in 2008-09 for his disruptive checking.During the Blackhawks&rsquo; Cup run, the 24-year-old center not only knocked several high-scoring studs off their games, he sent a couple squealing to the penalty box.And Bolland seemed to get a kick out of it.&ldquo;I just go out there and play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If they get frustrated, they get frustrated. It&rsquo;s their fault. Just take it.&rdquo;Bolland&rsquo;s not flashy or flagrant. He dishes subtleties &ndash; lifting and hooking sticks, reading plays to cut off angles &ndash; and snarky comments not to be repeated after games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always in their face, always seems to be around the puck and in the piles. He just has a knack for doing it,&rdquo; said linemate Andrew Ladd. &ldquo;He just keeps going, digging and digging.&rdquo;Added Bolland: &ldquo;When I know I&rsquo;m in someone&rsquo;s head, that&rsquo;s good. I don&rsquo;t know what I do to get in his head, but it&rsquo;s fun. There&rsquo;s a bit of energy that comes to me when it does happen because it&rsquo;s a privilege to be out against&hellip; probably the top players in the world.&rdquo;Bolland rebounded to annoying form following lumbar spine surgery in November and a three-month recovery. He returned in early February and hit his stride in the post-season.The Rat spooked Vancouver&rsquo;s Daniel and Henrik Sedin as Chicago defeated the Canucks 4-2 in the Western Conference semifinal.Chicago coach Joel Quenneville matched Bolland, Kris Versteeg and Ladd against the twins and linemates &ndash; either Mikael Samuelsson or Alex Burrows &ndash; throughout the series. The tactic worked, especially in Game 3.Daniel Sedin blew a gasket late in the first period after getting hacked by Bolland during a false faceoff. Bolland got a roughing call, but Daniel flipped into a tizzy, tussled with the Hawks, also got a penalty and kept jawing from the penalty box.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what I did and I don&rsquo;t know what happened,&rdquo; Bolland deadpanned after. &ldquo;But he really snapped on me.&rdquo;The Sedins were held pointless in the game. In the series, they were limited to three goals and seven assists and were a combined minus-6. Bolland had two goals, three assists and ended up even in plus-minus.In the conference final, Bolland embraced a &lsquo;Jumbo&rsquo; challenge, burrowing under the skin of San Jose&rsquo;s 6-foot-4, 230-pound Joe Thornton. Flashpoint faceoff, again.Midway through the third period of Game 2 of the Blackhawks&rsquo; 4-0 sweep, Thornton and Bolland lined up in the Chicago zone. Rather than swiping at the puck, Thornton whacked Bolland&rsquo;s glove. With Chicago up 4-1, Thornton was sent off for slashing. Game over.For the series, Thornton had one assist and was minus-5. Bolland finished with three points and a plus-4.And Bolland&rsquo;s marks on the scoresheet were timely. He converted a breakaway in Game 3 to give Chicago a 2-1 lead, then set up Dustin Byfuglien&rsquo;s overtime game-winner. In Game 4, Bolland wrapped one in to tie the contest as Chicago rallied from a 2-0 deficit and won 4-2.In the final, Quenneville matched Bolland against the Flyers&rsquo; line of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and, usually, Simon Gagne. Though his team dropped Game 4, Bolland scored a goal and stood out as one of his team&rsquo;s best.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a smart player and when he&rsquo;s around the net he can score,&rdquo; said Dale Hunter, who coached Bolland for four junior seasons at London of the Ontario League. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll eventually score more goals in the NHL; he has the knack.&rdquo;Bolland capped his junior career in 2005-06 with 57 goals and 130 points in 59 games.&ldquo;But he would do anything we asked him to do and whatever you needed to win,&rdquo; Hunter said. &ldquo;We put him on a checking line in the Memorial Cup (in 2005) against Sid the Kid.&rdquo;In today&rsquo;s NHL, players can&rsquo;t be as combative as Dale Hunter was, but they can be annoying.Rat Hockey may never go out of style.<h2>GAME FOUR</h2>PHILADELPHIA 5 CHICAGO 3JUNE 4, 2010The Flyers got first period goals from Mike Richards, Matt Carle and Claude Giroux, then withstood a two-goal surge by the Hawks in the third period, to pull even in the series. Patrick Sharp, David Bolland and Brian Campbell scored for Chicago, which failed to get stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews out of their scoring funks. &#9632;

f0059-01

DAVID BOLLAND

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0061-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0061-01167/9368578-1-eng-US/f0061-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>CHICAGO &ndash; When the Chicago Blackhawks peer into the future of Dustin Byfuglien, they have one very important factor to consider. Is it possible for a player to regularly dominate a game the way Byfuglien does when he&rsquo;s at his best?That will be the $64-million question, which is about as much as Byfuglien could get on a long-term deal if he ever establishes a sense of consistency to his game.Perhaps that&rsquo;s too much to expect from any player. After all, Byfuglien himself has yet to find a way to do it game-in, game-out. If he ever does, he&rsquo;ll be worth substantially more than the $3 million the Blackhawks are paying him on a contract that runs out after next season.And the rest of the NHL would have reason to be afraid. Very, very afraid.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s challenging to always play that way,&rdquo; said Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville. &ldquo;It requires a lot of energy and pace to your game. With Buff, consistency is something we try to instill in him and try to reinforce that that&rsquo;s the level and standard we&rsquo;d like him to achieve.&rdquo;Byfuglien&rsquo;s regular season, by Quenneville&rsquo;s assessment, wasn&rsquo;t particularly outstanding. And during this year&rsquo;s playoffs, there were times when he alternated between brilliant and mediocre. But you can see what he&rsquo;s capable of when he is at the top of his game. It was on full display in Game 5 when he dusted himself off after four ineffective outings and was the most dominating, physical, intimidating and downright scary player on the ice.&ldquo;When a defenseman sees him coming down&hellip;I&rsquo;m pretty sure I wouldn&rsquo;t be very happy seeing him coming at me,&rdquo; said Blackhawks teammate David Bolland. &ldquo;It gets a little scary when a big guy like that gets his feet moving. With 250 pounds of weight hitting you &ndash; not that hard if he didn&rsquo;t want to &ndash; he&rsquo;d just break you some way. Even when he&rsquo;s just playing safe and making the right hits, he can hurt guys. I&rsquo;ve seen it done before. It opens the ice up for us. Guys get scared, they don&rsquo;t want to go back, they don&rsquo;t want to go near the puck.&rdquo;&ldquo;When he plays like that, he&rsquo;s a huge man on a mission,&rdquo; said teammate John Madden. &ldquo;It was nice to see him play that way. His effort has always been there, but (in Game 5) he was effective in everything he did and he forced his will on people.&rdquo;When he scored his first goal in that game, there wasn&rsquo;t much of a celebration out of a player whose post-goal theatrics are probably only surpassed by Alex Ovechkin. Often Byfuglien will skate toward the crowd, stick out his right hand and leg and point his stick out with his left while letting out a yell. Not this time, though.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a big thing to celebrate,&rdquo; Byfuglien said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a real big goal.&rdquo;That may have been a departure, but there is little about Byfuglien that wavers. Regardless of how well or how poorly he is playing, he is always a happy sort. And wouldn&rsquo;t you be if you went from living in a trailer in rural Minnesota to playing in the NHL? To a man, the Blackhawk players love having him around and while he can be a terror on the ice, you get the impression his teammates view him as a big, harmless teddy bear.Take his demeanor entering Game 5. The way he played in Games 1 through 4 and the way in which he had been questioned and picked apart, a guy might tend to get a little down on himself. But not Byfuglien, whose excitable personality rubs off on his teammates.&ldquo;He came in here and he was his normal self,&rdquo; Bolland said. &ldquo;Before the game he was jumping around and being an idiot. But when the game started, as Sharpie (Blackhawks center Patrick Sharp) said, there was a fire in his eyes and when he&rsquo;s like that, he can be scary.&rdquo;Byfuglien is 25 years old, right around the age where most elite players begin to figure things out. His road to NHL stardom has been a circuitous one and it was only after he became a pro that he began to realize what kind of conditioning level it would take to play in the NHL.&ldquo;I thought he made progress this year and improved from last year,&rdquo; Quenneville said, &ldquo;but in these playoffs he&rsquo;s taken it to a level we would like to see him at.&rdquo;For his part, Byfuglien knew Game 5 was special.&ldquo;I was focused, ready,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew what I had to do.&rdquo;If he gets that attitude consistently, the NHL is looking at its next superstar power forward.<h2>GAME FIVE</h2>CHICAGO 7 PHILADELPHIA 4JUNE 6, 2010Dustin Byfuglien had a pair of goals and four points &ndash; and a huge hit on Philadelphia defenseman Chris Pronger &ndash; as the Blackhawks dominated the Flyers, who pulled starting goalie Michael Leighton for the second time in the Cup final. Kris Versteeg added a goal and three points for Chicago, which had 11 players tally at least one point in the game. &#9632;

f0061-01

DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0063-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0063-01135/9368609-1-eng-US/f0063-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(DAVE SANDFORD/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div>PHILADELPHIA &ndash; In the rather unimaginative world of hockey nicknames, Jonathan Toews is known as &lsquo;Tazer.&rsquo; He also goes by the moniker &lsquo;Captain Serious&rsquo; and, boy, does he ever come by that one honestly.If, after watching this year&rsquo;s playoffs, you got the feeling that Toews would be the kind of guy to spend the night before cramming for a blood test, you wouldn&rsquo;t be far off.&ldquo;They call him Captain Serious for a good reason,&rdquo; said Toews&rsquo; mother, Andree Gilbert. &ldquo;He has been that way since he was four years old. Jonathan said when he was young, &lsquo;I will make the NHL and I will win the Stanley Cup,&rsquo; but I didn&rsquo;t expect it to happen so fast.&rdquo;Neither did many other people, but it seems to be the going trend these days. You know, star player wins the Stanley Cup before he can even grow a decent playoff beard. And if you&rsquo;re beginning to see what we&rsquo;re getting at, you&rsquo;re on the right track. Close your eyes the next time you hear Jonathan Toews talk and you might just see visions of Sidney Crosby.&ldquo;Very similar to Sidney,&rdquo; said Pat Brisson, agent for both players. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known both of them since they were 15. The focus, the confidence is the same and if they&rsquo;re not good at something, they work hard to get better at it. Very determined and they never feel like they&rsquo;re there. I guess you&rsquo;re born that way.&rdquo;Well, both of them are &lsquo;there&rsquo; now, if &lsquo;there&rsquo; is NHL stardom. In fact, perhaps everyone has it back-asswards. Since the lockout, the league and others (THN included) have been so consumed with the Crosby-Alex Ovechkin rivalry they&rsquo;ve missed another equally tantalizing one.Toews and Crosby couldn&rsquo;t be more alike, which makes things interesting. Crosby grew up in Nova Scotia and honed his skills by shooting pucks into the dryer in the basement. Toews grew up in suburban Winnipeg &ndash; where they have 10 months of winter and two months of bad skating &ndash; and perfected his game on his backyard rink. Both were stars as teenagers at the Shattuck-St. Mary&rsquo;s hockey factory in Faribault, Minn. Crosby recently agreed to the largest endorsement deal in NHL history and is the hockey face of Reebok; Toews will soon be named the lead pitchman for Bauer Hockey. They are the youngest captains in NHL history to win Stanley Cups.Toews has a few things that Crosby doesn&rsquo;t, however. Crosby has never won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP. In doing so himself, Toews became the first player in NHL history to win an Olympic gold medal, the Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup in the same season. Toews is also the newest member of the Triple Gold Club &ndash; winner of the Cup, a World Championship and Olympic gold.Toews might even be more uber-intense than Crosby.&ldquo;He has his fun moments like all the kids,&rdquo; Andree said. &ldquo;But when he&rsquo;s doing something, he&rsquo;s very serious. He&rsquo;s always on a mission&hellip;he&rsquo;s always on task.&rdquo;Top forward and a gold medal at the Olympics, world junior hero and Conn Smythe winner: not a bad resume for a player who celebrated his 22nd birthday in late April. But it&rsquo;s clear Toews has spent a lot of time thinking about the journey.&ldquo;You grow up with the culture that this is as good as it gets as a hockey player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You fall in love with the game&hellip;and this is what you&rsquo;re taught to go after.&ldquo;Once you get to the NHL, that is a dream in itself. Right now, I would have to stay this tops everything, for sure. We&rsquo;re brothers in that locker room. We fought for each other and that&rsquo;s what makes this so special.&rdquo;Yes, it appears Toews is well guarded against a swollen head, despite his accomplishments. Huge images of him are draped over buildings in Chicago and he has been likened to hockey icons such as Jean Beliveau and Joe Sakic. To be sure, he plays the kind of game at both ends of the ice that lends itself to those kinds of comparisons.The feats of this spring will almost certainly force Captain Serious to let his hair down this summer. When asked what his plans were after winning the Cup, Toews said, &ldquo;Oh my God. It&rsquo;s like that commercial. I&rsquo;m speechless.&rdquo; But earlier, Toews was mapping out what will be an eventful off-season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a long summer of celebrating, for sure,&rdquo; the young champion said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to get old until the puck drops next year.&rdquo;Who said Captain Serious can&rsquo;t have a little fun?<h2>GAME SIX</h2>CHICAGO 4 PHILADELPHIA 3 (OT)JUNE 9, 2010In another close affair, the Blackhawks pushed back every time the Flyers pushed to extend the series. And thanks to another well-balanced offensive attack &ndash; four Hawks scored and nine Hawks had at least one point &ndash; Chicago closed out the series. Patrick Kane had the game-winning goal and also chipped in two assists in the Cup-clinching win. &#9632;

f0063-01

JONATHAN TOEWS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0064-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-01141/9368703-1-eng-US/f0064-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-0288/9368696-1-eng-US/f0064-022.jpg" title="f0064-02" width="1185" height="1815"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-0345/9368689-1-eng-US/f0064-032.jpg" title="f0064-03" width="915" height="1429"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-0433/9368682-1-eng-US/f0064-042.jpg" title="f0064-04" width="1177" height="1300"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-0521/9368675-1-eng-US/f0064-052.jpg" title="f0064-05" width="1184" height="523"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-01151/9368668-1-eng-US/f0065-012.jpg" title="f0065-01" width="1144" height="1610"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0459/9368661-1-eng-US/f0065-042.jpg" title="f0065-04" width="1437" height="1615"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-02110/9368654-1-eng-US/f0065-022.jpg" title="f0065-02" width="1233" height="779"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0381/9368647-1-eng-US/f0065-032.jpg" title="f0065-03" width="1219" height="863"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0065-0538/9368640-1-eng-US/f0065-052.jpg" title="f0065-05" width="967" height="1615"></div> &#9632;

f0064-01

THE ACTION

f0066-04

PLAYER BIOS

IT was easy to tell the group that snapped Chicago&rsquo;s long Cup slump was dotted with youth; you just had to look at the peach-fuzz playoff beards. Another way to tell is by perusing the franchise&rsquo;s all-time scoring leaders. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith have been brilliant for the Hawks, but their names don&rsquo;t yet appear at the top of the charts when it comes to all-time goals, assists and points. We&rsquo;re guessing they don&rsquo;t mind &ndash; they&rsquo;ll settle for rings.<h2>2009-10 REGULAR SEASON</h2><h3>GOALS</h3>1. PATRICK KANE 302. JONATHAN TOEWS 253. PATRICK SHARP 254. MARIAN HOSSA 245. TROY BROUWER 226. KRIS VERSTEEG 207. DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN 178. ANDREW LADD 179. DUNCAN KEITH 1410. TOMAS KOPECKY 1011. JOHN MADDEN 1012. KIM JOHNSSON 713. BEN EAGER 714. BRIAN CAMPBELL 715. COLIN FRASER 716. DAVID BOLLAND 617. BRENT SEABROOK 418. BRYAN BICKELL 319. JORDAN HENDRY 220. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON 2<h3>ASSISTS</h3>1. PATRICK KANE 582. DUNCAN KEITH 553. JONATHAN TOEWS 434. PATRICK SHARP 415. BRIAN CAMPBELL 316. MARIAN HOSSA 277. BRENT SEABROOK 268. KRIS VERSTEEG 249. ANDREW LADD 2110. TROY BROUWER 1811. DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN 1712. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON 1513. JOHN MADDEN 1314. COLIN FRASER 1215. TOMAS KOPECKY 1116. DAVID BOLLAND 1017. KIM JOHNSSON 1018. BEN EAGER 919. NICK BOYNTON 720. BRENT SOPEL 7<h3>POINTS</h3>1. PATRICK KANE 882. DUNCAN KEITH 693. JONATHAN TOEWS 684. PATRICK SHARP 665. MARIAN HOSSA 516. KRIS VERSTEEG 447. TROY BROUWER 408. BRIAN CAMPBELL 389. ANDREW LADD 3810. DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN 3411. BRENT SEABROOK 3012. JOHN MADDEN 2313. TOMAS KOPECKY 2114. COLIN FRASER 1915. KIM JOHNSSON 1716. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON 1717. DAVID BOLLAND 1618. BEN EAGER 1619. JORDAN HENDRY 820. NICK BOYNTON 8<h2>2009-10 PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>GOALS</h3>1. DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN 112. PATRICK SHARP 113. PATRICK KANE 104. DAVID BOLLAND 85. JONATHAN TOEWS 76. KRIS VERSTEEG 67. TOMAS KOPECKY 48. TROY BROUWER 49. BRENT SEABROOK 410. ANDREW LADD 311. MARIAN HOSSA 312. DUNCAN KEITH 213. BEN EAGER 114. BRIAN CAMPBELL 115. BRENT SOPEL 116. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON 117. JOHN MADDEN 118. BRYAN BICKELL 019. ADAM BURISH 020. JORDAN HENDRY 0<h3>ASSISTS</h3>1. JONATHAN TOEWS 222. PATRICK KANE 183. DUNCAN KEITH 154. MARIAN HOSSA 125. PATRICK SHARP 116. KRIS VERSTEEG 87. DAVID BOLLAND 88. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON 79. BRENT SEABROOK 710. DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN 511. BRENT SOPEL 512. TROY BROUWER 413. BRIAN CAMPBELL 414. ANDREW LADD 315. TOMAS KOPECKY 216. BEN EAGER 217. BRYAN BICKELL 118. JOHN MADDEN 119. NICK BOYNTON 020. ADAM BURISH 0<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0079-0171/9369444-1-eng-US/f0079-012.jpg" title="f0079-01" width="835" height="1085"><figcaption class="caption-body">JONATHAN TOEWS tied Denis Savard&rsquo;s team record with 29 points in the post-season and won the Conn Smythe Trophy. (JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h3>POINTS</h3>1. JONATHAN TOEWS 292. PATRICK KANE 283. PATRICK SHARP 224. DUNCAN KEITH 175. DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN 166. DAVID BOLLAND 167. MARIAN HOSSA 158. KRIS VERSTEEG 149. BRENT SEABROOK 1110. TROY BROUWER 811. NIKLAS HJALMARSSON 812. TOMAS KOPECKY 613. ANDREW LADD 614. BRENT SOPEL 615. BRIAN CAMPBELL 516. BEN EAGER 317. JOHN MADDEN 218. BRYAN BICKELL 119. ADAM BURISH 020. JORDAN HENDRY 0<h2>ALL-TIME REGULAR SEASON</h2><h3>GOALS</h3>1. BOBBY HULL 6042. STAN MIKITA 5413. STEVE LARMER 4064. DENIS SAVARD 3775. DENNIS HULL 2986. TONY AMONTE 2687. JEREMY ROENICK 2678. BILL MOSIENKO 2589. KENNY WHARRAM 25210. PIT MARTIN 24311. ERIC DAZE 22612. DOUG WILSON 22513. DOUG BENTLEY 21714. JIM PAPPIN 21615. AL SECORD 21316. CLIFF KOROLL 20817. ERIC NESTERENKO 20718. TROY MURRAY 19719. JOHNNY GOTTSELIG 17620. DARRYL SUTTER 161<h3>ASSISTS</h3>1. STAN MIKITA 9262. DENIS SAVARD 7193. DOUG WILSON 5544. BOBBY HULL 5495. STEVE LARMER 5176. PIERRE PILOTE 4007. CHRIS CHELIOS 3958. PIT MARTIN 3849. BOB MURRAY 38210. DENNIS HULL 34211. JEREMY ROENICK 32912. DOUG BENTLEY 31413. CHICO MAKI 29314. TROY MURRAY 29115. ERIC NESTERENKO 28816. PAT STAPLETON 28617. ALEXEI ZHAMNOV 28418. BILL MOSIENKO 28219. KENNY WHARRAM 28120. TOM LYSIAK 275<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0080-0162/9369437-1-eng-US/f0080-012.jpg" title="f0080-01" width="826" height="1090"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY HULL scored goals at a rate like no other Hawk in history. His 604 helped him to No. 2 all-time on the team&rsquo;s points list. (DENIS BRODEUR/NHLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h3>POINTS</h3>1. STAN MIKITA 1,4672. BOBBY HULL 1,1533. DENIS SAVARD 1,0964. STEVE LARMER 9235. DOUG WILSON 7796. DENNIS HULL 6407. PIT MARTIN 6278. JEREMY ROENICK 5969. TONY AMONTE 54110. BILL MOSIENKO 54011. KENNY WHARRAM 53312. DOUG BENTLEY 53113. BOB MURRAY 51414. ERIC NESTERENKO 49515. TROY MURRAY 48816. CHRIS CHELIOS 48717. PIERRE PILOTE 47718. CLIFF KOROLL 46219. JIM PAPPIN 44420. CHICO MAKI 436<h2>ALL-TIME PLAYOFFS</h2><h3>GOALS</h3>1. BOBBY HULL 622. DENIS SAVARD 613. STAN MIKITA 594. STEVE LARMER 455. JEREMY ROENICK 356. DENNIS HULL 337. JIM PAPPIN 268. PIT MARTIN 269. DARRYL SUTTER 2410. TOM LYSIAK 2311. AL SECORD 2012. PATRICK KANE 1913. DOUG WILSON 1914. BOB MURRAY 1915. CLIFF KOROLL 1916. PATRICK SHARP 1817. CHICO MAKI 1718. WAYNE PRESLEY 1719. KENNY WHARRAM 1620. JOE MURPHY 16<h3>ASSISTS</h3>1. STAN MIKITA 912. DENIS SAVARD 843. BOBBY HULL 674. STEVE LARMER 665. DOUG WILSON 616. PIERRE PILOTE 527. JEREMY ROENICK 428. PAT STAPLETON 399. BOB MURRAY 3710. CHICO MAKI 3611. CHRIS CHELIOS 3612. DENNIS HULL 3413. TOM LYSIAK 3314. KEITH BROWN 3215. CLIFF KOROLL 2916. JONATHAN TOEWS 2817. AL SECORD 2718. KENNY WHARRAM 2719. JIM PAPPIN 2620. BILL WHITE 26<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0081-0178/9369430-1-eng-US/f0081-012.jpg" title="f0081-01" width="829" height="1090"><figcaption class="caption-body">OUTSPOKEN AND always entertaining, Jeremy Roenick was the face of Chicago&rsquo;s franchise for much of the 1990s. (BRIAN WINKLER/GETTY IMAGES)</figcaption></div><h3>POINTS</h3>1. STAN MIKITA 1502. DENIS SAVARD 1453. BOBBY HULL 1294. STEVE LARMER 1115. DOUG WILSON 806. JEREMY ROENICK 777. DENNIS HULL 678. PIERRE PILOTE 609. BOB MURRAY 5610. TOM LYSIAK 5611. CHICO MAKI 5312. JIM PAPPIN 5213. PIT MARTIN 5114. PAT STAPLETON 4915. CHRIS CHELIOS 4816. CLIFF KOROLL 4817. AL SECORD 4718. KENNY WHARRAM 4319. DARRYL SUTTER 43T-20. P. KANE/J. TOEWS 42 &#9632;

f0079-01

STATS

<div class="byline">&nbsp;BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0082-0159/9369475-1-eng-US/f0082-012.jpg" title="f0082-01" width="412" height="393"></div>AS a lifelong Chicago Blackhawks fan and a half-life member of the media, I&rsquo;ve always had to be cautious about mixing the two elements. It&rsquo;s been quite easy, really.I keep one passion constantly on the go amidst a pile of papers on my desk at work. I keep the other in the fridge at home next to the beer. Like the old Groucho Marx toast about wives and girlfriends, &lsquo;Cheers to a great job and a loyal hockey team. May they never meet.&rsquo;I got a good feeling about the Blackhawks&rsquo; outlook about a decade ago when they started compiling a bunch of draft picks and as a result began the long process of turning this steamship around.In seven NHL drafts between 2000 and 2006, the Hawks accumulated 26 additional picks &ndash; almost four bonus selections per year. While other teams had an average of 59 picks in those seven drafts, Chicago had 85, many in the early rounds. While other teams had 14 first- and second-rounders those seven years, the Hawks had 22.With that many additional picks, the odds improved that Chicago&rsquo;s development system would ramp up as well. The Blackhawks rose up the chart in Future Watch &ndash; which grades each team&rsquo;s caliber of prospects &ndash; from 26th in 2000, to 21st in 2001, to 15th in 2004, to 8th in 2006, to 2nd in 2008, to 1st in 2009.It was a classic example of building through the draft.Looking forward, the Blackhawks have system depth and will continue to be contenders for years. GM Stan Bowman must decide which Cup champions he has to trade in order for the Blackhawks to fit in under next year&rsquo;s estimated $58 million salary cap. It&rsquo;s a certainty Bowman will have to get rid of at least two players under contract and probably three. The most likely candidates are backup goalie Cristobal Huet ($5.6 million), defenseman Brent Sopel ($2.3 million) and forwards Patrick Sharp ($3.9 million), Kris Versteeg ($3.1 million) and Dustin Byfuglien ($3 million).In-system replacements with lower salaries are: goalie Corey Crawford (five years experience in the AHL), right winger Jack Skille (seventh overall in 2005 and the Hawks hope he will be a better NHLer than an AHLer), left winger Kyle Beach (2008 first-rounder who has skill and toughness to play on the top two lines), Swedish center Marcus Kruger (had breakout season in Sweden&rsquo;s top league) and defensemen Shawn Lalonde, Nick Leddy and Dylan Olsen, all quality picks in recent drafts.Chicago&rsquo;s ability to interchange some of these parts this summer will determine if the next Blackhawks Stanley Cup drought lasts just 12 months. &#9632;

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