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It's with bleary eyes but still some adrenaline—and now a 16 oz. Lo-Carb Monster—surgng through my veins, that I write the blog I've waited 6 years to write.
Yes, The Chicago Blackhawks are the first NHL Dynasty of the post-cap era.
Some will dispute it, as fans of the Islanders and Oilers did on my comment thread yesterday. To them, 3 Cups in 6 years pales in comparison to the accomplishments of those teams and others before the advent of the NHL salary Cap ten years ago.
But if you ignore the cap, then you also have to ignore expansion as the two main reasons that an Old School defnintion of a Dynasty is no longer realistic in the NHL.
Setting aside 3 Cups in 6 years, a remarkable achievement in any era, consider that were it not for the salary cap, the Blackhawks circling the Unoted Center ice last night would have included Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Brian Campbell, and Troy Brouwer. And so the question has to be asked: how many more Cups might THAT team have won in the intervening years since 2010?
Regardless, what a ride it's been.
From seeds sown in futility, really starting after a first round sweep playoff loss to the Blues in 2002. The Blackhawks were a mediocre team that got worse over the next few seasons, but later that summer drafted a tiny sort of wing/defense hybrid out of Michigan State named Duncan Keith, late in in the second round. The following year, Brent Seabrook came on board. There were whiffs afterward. Two Russians taken high first round in 2004, memorable now only because one of them, Paval Vorobiev, looked an awful lot like Prehistoric SpongeBob.
Ha.
The following year, now fringe NHLer Jack Skille was taken high in round 1.
When would the futility end?
But meanwhile, then GM Dale Tallon was quietly hitting on numerous latter round picks: Bryan Bickell, Dave Bolland, and Brouwer in 2004 alone. Three rounds after Skille, Tallon unearthed the brilliant Niklas Hjalmarsson. Previous GM Mike Smith had found Byfuglien and Corey Crawford.
Then came 2006 and 2007, with the drafting of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, respectively. And you all know the story from there.
But it would be wrong to leave out the hiring of Joel Quenneville around that time from this story. It's Q, who, along with Toews and Kane and Seabrook and Keith and Marian Hossa sets the tone and drives this engine of winning.
And you have to credit the guy who took over for Tallon in 2009, Stan Bowman, and his father, legendary coach Scotty Bowman, for steering the ship since the first Cup. After that point, with the rise (some might say "plague") of blogs and sheer media attention on the Blackhawks, no one has his job critiqued more harshly than Bowman, Jr. has. Including right here.
Sure, he's had some missteps. But largely, he's helped replenish and reshape the complementary pieces of this team twice now, after 2010, and then again after 2013. Not just evaluating players, as GMs always have, but doing the delicate dancxe of cap management as well.
I'm not sure, if Bowman doesn't step up and spend a late 1st round pick and a decent prospect on Antoine Vermette, that the Hawks get past the Anaheim Ducks, much less the Tampa Bay Lightning. Vermette was that critical to a team that was too weak down the middle to get past the Kings in last year's Western Conference Final.
And about those Tampa Bay Lightning?
It's now clear that they are Candidates 1A to be the next post-cap Dynasty. Few Chicago fans and I doubt that many more hockey fans in general expected them to test the Blackhawks like they did. With great defense, goaltending, speed and coaching. How it should be done in the new NHL.
How the other team, the Chicago Blackhawks, has set the new standard.
Keith, Seabrook, Toews, Kane, Hossa, Hjalmarsson, Sharp. Now Saad and Teravainen. Some, most, maybe even all of those names will go to Toronto and remain with the Cup in perpetuity someday.
The celebraton will go on now for a couple of days in Chicago, then travel wiith the Cup to places in Canada like Prince Edward Island, Thunder Bay, Alberta, suburban Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Quebec. Then Sweden, Slovakia, Finland and the Czech Republic. Buffalo, NY, Middletown, NJ and Lemont, IL.
The draft and free agency fast approaches, where the Hawks will have to belly up and pay the tab for success. Contracts will be unloaded, and new names will show up for acclimation come Fall.
Toews, Kane, Hjalmarsson and even elder skatesmen Keith and Seabrook remain young men. Brandon Saad and Teuvo Teravainen are now arriving. Names like Stephen Johns, Philip Danault and Ryan Hartman loom.
It's way too early to say the Blackhawks are done—and some might not like hearing that.
But someday, the echoes of these three Cups (and any subsequent glories) will fade for this generation of Blackhawks and their fans.
I got a phone call last night around 11 Eastern from my nine year old son, who lives with his Mom, and is as big a Hawks fan as there is. I told him: "Myles, you will remember this phone call for the rest of your life."
That's what a Dynasty is all about.
What a great sport. What a great team. That's all I have this morning. But more to come.
Enjoy Hawks fans!!
CHELSEA DAGGER, BABY!
JJ