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| The party in Chicago continued tonight thanks to an unlikely hero in Dan Carcillo (Credits: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images North America) |
Woooo, we’re halfway theee-eeeere! Wooo-oo, livin’ on a prayer!!
Indeed, after winning in thrilling fashion last night, the Blackhawks are now halfway toward putting together the most incredible season in the history of sport. Through 24 games of this 48-game NHL season, the ‘hawks have yet to lose in regulation. They have picked up a point in every single game they’ve played, and collected 45 out of the possible 48 points on the table.
The Blackhawks aren’t so much livin’ on a prayer as they are on a deep set of forwards, a heady gang of defensemen, and a terrifyingly confident goalie tandem.
As with most accomplishments of this magnitude, The Streak is best appreciated when measured against some historical benchmark. How’s this: In the last lockout-shortened season (1994-’95), the 8th seeds in the playoffs, the Stars and the Rangers, qualified with 42 and 47 points, respectively. So when people throw their hands up and say Chicago is going to clinch a playoff spot soon, they’re actually right.
(Ever know a team to finish the year on a 24-game losing streak and still make the postseason? If the Blackhawks were so inclined, they could probably set this record too.)
But Joel Quenneville’s squad isn’t thinking about the playoffs. Not yet, at least. As captain Jonathan Toews said last night, the hottest team in the land is just taking it game by game, as the sports cliché goes. The Streak has not been driven by a desire to earn a point in 24 consecutive games, but to earn a point tonight, in this game. Before they knew it, 1 game had become 6 games had become 16 games had become 20 games, and last night, had become 24 games. Now they’re halfway through the season, and it doesn’t look any more likely that they’ll lose tomorrow as it does the next day.
We’re not saying the Blackhawks are going to last the entire season without losing in regulation. But we’re not saying they aren’t going to, either.
For each time the hockey world decides that, okay; this is the night The Streak finally ends, it doesn’t. Last week, Chicago ran the Central Division gauntlet, playing at St. Louis on Thursday, home against Columbus on Friday, before taking their show back on the road to Detroit on Sunday. With three games in four days against interdivision rivals, licking their chops like a pack of fiendish hyenas eyeing a meaty lion, the infallible Blackhawks seemed destined to fall.
But they handled the Blues with ease, eeked out an OT win over the Blue Jackets, then took a deep breath and tackled the Red Wings in a shootout. They were on their last legs on Sunday in Hockeytown, down 1-0 with less than three minutes to go. The hyenas had the lion pressed up against the wall, taking devilish runs at it and waiting for the beast to succumb.
But a late penalty against Detroit’s Jonathan Ericsson gave Chicago some life, and Patrick Kane, who flaunts a mane out of his helmet much like a lion’s, took care of the rest. The recommitted Kane tied the game with 2:02 remaining, and then won it with a dandy move in the shootout. I later watched the shootout with my Dad, a former netminder of the standup breed, who reacted to Kane’s cheeky goal the way any honest goaltender would: “That’s just not fair.”
I’ll take Kane against my Dad 100 times out of 99.
Lest anyone think the Blackhawks were tired after the taxing weekend, they turned around and promptly smoked the Wild 5-3 on Tuesday, in a game that really wasn’t that close. Last night though against Colorado, the heart of The Streak came to the fore.
Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Blackhawks did not deviate from their game plan, which, in Layman’s Terms, is to score. And sure, down by a goal they had little reason to, but down by a goal and a man, playing defense was defensible. And yet a minute into the penalty kill, off went Dave Bolland and Toews on a 2 v. 2 rush up ice, crisscrossing just inside the blue line, Bolland dropping the puck for Toews, Toews dipping his shoulder on that O’Reilly guy, and then swooping in front of the net and tucking the puck inside the far post.
Toews celebrated, the United Center roared, and the Blackhawks, never satisfied, insatiably hungry, went back to work. They continued pressing, flying up the ice, weaving as they went, one line after the other flooding the offensive zone. They surrendered their fair share of scoring chances as well, but in good conscience, knowing the unbeaten Emery stood between their pipes. It was exhilarating hockey to watch.
As the clock wound down, Quenneville could have reigned in his horses and pushed the game to overtime. Most coaches, even without the impulse of protecting a historic streak, would have done so. But Chicago hasn’t accomplished what its accomplished through conservative hockey. So Quenneville kept telling his team to push, to attack, to score, holding his foot to the pedal of the Mustang that is this Chicago offense.
Still, with under a minute to go and the Blackhawks’ 4th line on the ice, the game seemed destined for overtime. But the trio of Marcus Kruger, Viktor Stalberg and Dan Carcilo worked the puck in deep, and fed it to the front of the net before Carcillo whacked the puck home on the rebound. In the words of NBC’s ever-impressed Pierre McGuire: “the strength of Kruger on the fore-check, the quick stick of Stalberg, and then Carcilo, Johnny-on-the-spot!!”
And that’s the other crucial element to The Streak. The offense has not come exclusively from the likes of Toews, Kane, Marian Hossa, and Patrick Sharp, but has been supplemented by unheralded guys like Stalberg (13 points), Bran Bickell (12 points), Andrew Shaw (6 goals), and Bolland (5 goals). The team’s success is so sustainable because if one player slows down, there are countless others to pick him up.
Now, with their points-streak at 24 games (30 dating back to last season), the Blackhawks next stop is 35, the NHL record set by the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers. After that, its immortality.
With each game they win, their following grows larger, wider, more involved. They have just about the entire hockey world rooting for them now (even fans in Detroit and St. Louis at this point have to say, screw it, we’re not gonna catch them, let’s see how far they can go), and are attracting fans from other sports by the day. Last night LeBron James, his own team on a 16-game win streak of their own, tweeted: “Hey Chicago Blackhawks, u guys are AWESOME!! #streaking.”
As The Streak vaults the Blackhawks out of NHL orbit, it vaults the game of hockey into the public eye. For a sport that has always suffered a little-brother syndrome to the NFL, MLB, and NBA, The Streak has been like getting a punch in while Mom’s not watching. Or better yet, while everyone’s watching.
And what better team to garner national attention than one that pushes the pace, getting up and down the ice in a blur, pumping in goals with the frequency of a Midget-A team.
So from here at BDDC, we’re rooting for you too, Blackhawks. (Not that you read this, or anything.)
We won’t swear you’ll make it, like Bon Jovi would, but we swear you have a shot.
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