12 Games (and 7 teeth) Down, 4 To Go

Another celebration would be quite welcome

Well that may not have been very easy, but it certainly was over quicker than most of us probably thought.  The Blackhawks swept the Sharks yesterday, winning Game 4 at the United Center 4-2, thereby earning a spot in the finals and a chance to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup, in my honest opinion the greatest trophy in sports.  The series certainly wasn't the whitewash a 4-0 game score would suggest; Games 1,3, and 4 were all tied going into the third period, and could have gone either way for the most part.  The Sharks definitely didn't play terribly; they forced us to earn the series victory by peppering goalie Antti Niemi with a large amount of rubber and making things difficult all series for the Hawks in the neutral zone.  But the men of the four feathers simply rose to the occasion with equal parts strength, skill, resilience, and pure guts, all perfectly on display in yesterday's clincher.


The Hawks fell behind 2-0 yesterday, and it looked like we might just have to travel out west again and attempt to put down the Sharks in a Game 5.  But at about the halfway point of the game, something clicked on the home bench.  The hitting picked up, passes were crisper, the whole team just seemed to kick it into gear.  Maybe some killer instinct surfaced in these players, who knows.  Whatever it was, the ice started to tilt in our favor.  We finally broke through, even though it took a video review to do so.  A mad scramble in front of the Sharks net ended up with the puck crossing the line by a good few inches, then being swept out almost immediately by a Sharks defenseman.  The play was whistled dead, but upon further review, Toronto determined that it was, in fact, a goal.  Chelsea Dagger blared out, the horn went off belatedly, and the crowd was back into the game.  


Several minutes later, Dave Bolland, or The Rat as he's come to be known in these last few weeks, got the better of the Sharks yet again.  He simply outhustled a defenseman to the puck behind Nabokov, spun around, wrapped around the far post and slipped a shot off somebody's arm and into the net to tie the game and send the UC up for grabs.  The guy's been a key cog in the success we've had so far, and it's pretty special considering he missed more than half the regular season recovering from back surgery.  


The third period was tense for twelve minutes or so, with chances being traded and the tension racheting up as the seconds ticked off.  You could sense the desperation emanating from the Sharks bench, as their lead in the game was completely gone and their foothold in the playoffs was becoming ever more precarious.  But as they've done so often this year, the Blackhawks answered the bell.  And who else would it be to win the game in this series, but Dustin Byfuglien? Taking a pretty feed from Patrick Kane, Buff punched the biscuit home and bedlam reigned on Madison Street.  This was his fifth game in a row with a goal, and his unheard-of third game-winning goal not of the entire playoffs, but of this series alone.  It even led to NHL.com producing a second "history will be made" commercial for Big Buff.  Truly incredible, and quite indicative of how this team has had role players step up to carry some of the load this spring.  


From there, it was full-out desperation mode for San Jose.  Nabokov was pulled with about 1:30 to go, but Versteeg put the Sharks down for good with an empty-netter, and the UC was in full celebratory mood.  Perhaps most encouraging about the sweep was the fact that the Hawks didn't have a letdown game like they'd had in the first two rounds; this points to an incredibly talented team peaking mentally and physically at precisely the right moment.  They advanced to their first Cup Finals since 1992, when yours truly was only three years old, and the Hawks (led by the likes of Chelios, Roenick, and Belfour) ran into and was swept by the great Lemeiux/Jagr Penguins team coached by the infamous Scotty Bowman.  Perhaps this year, whoever comes out of the East will suffer the same fate.


There've been so many intriguing storylines this year, it's almost hard to keep count.  There's the rise of Antti Niemi from zamboni driver to the backbone of a Stanley Cup contender, Byfuglien's switcheroo from defense to offense and his late-game heroics, Dave Bolland's tenacity, Toews announcing his arrival as a true member of the league's elite, and the franchise as a whole rising from the ashes of the Bill Wirtz era. [Side note: four or five years ago, ESPN The Magazine ranked all the major sports franchises in the country, and the Blackhawks came in absolute dead last across the four major sports.  That's about 120 teams right there, and looking at how far they've come in such a relatively short time is remarkable]  Or you could look at Duncan Keith, his seven missing teeth and possible Norris Trophy.  Or Marian Hossa, and his quest for a Cup a third year running.  Or Coach Q taking his first team to the Finals as a head coach.  The list goes on and on.  When I think about how far this team has come, I keep going back to the loss in the Conference Finals last spring to the Red Wings.  While the loss really stung at the time, it definitely is paying dividends right now.  That was a training ground for this moment; we learned a lot from the Wings, a great organization that knows exactly what it takes to win and keep playing into June.  The lessons learned last May were instrumental, I feel, in getting the Hawks into the prime position they're in to win their first Cup since 1961.


Now, there's only one chapter left to write.  While it was great to see the Campbell Trophy brought out onto the ice after the Hawks earned the title of Western Conference Champs, the subdued celebration in the locker room spoke volumes; this team understands it's a big accomplishment, but they're here for more.  Whoever comes out of the East, which could wrap up tonight with the Flyers holding a 3-1 series advantage, the Hawks will be the clear favorite.  


The time is now.