Chicagoist's "Top 10 of 2010:" #4 - Blackhawks Win Stanley Cup
By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 29, 2010 4:00PM
The Blackhawks Stanley Cup title wasn't like the '85 Bears winning Super Bowl XX, or the Jordan-era Bulls. The latter was more a sense of inevitability, while the former had the talent to win three straight titles but only won one. When the Blackhawks kicked off the 2009-10 season, they knew from owner Rocky Wirtz to the last man on the bench that the salary cap issues they would have to answer in the offseason meant that it was Stanley Cup or bust.
What the Blackhawks did have was the deepest and most skilled team, led by their 21-year-old captain, Jonathan Toews. Toews, the youngest team captain in the league, showed during the regular season and the Winter Olympics why he drew comparisons to the legendary Detroit captain Steve Yzerman. Toews delivered when it mattered most, earning MVP of the Stanley Cup Finals. Winger Patrick Kane, Goofus to Toews's Gallant, was a pest on the ice and saw passing lanes no one else did. The Hawks could skate with finesse, change lines with quickness and efficiency, had four quality lines and an budding Blue Line for the ages in Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.
Most important, they bought in to coach Joel Quenneville's puck possession game. Quenneville and his staff didn't hesitate to make line changes to spark the team, such as splitting up Kane and Toews in the Stanley Cup finals, or going with Annti Niemi for the duration of the playoff run.
It all resulted in a downtown parade for the ages to celebrate the Hawks' first Stanley Cup in 49 years. Almost as soon as the city cleaned up the ticker tape, the Blackhawks made the tough decisions, trading key contributors such as Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd and Niemi just as they were beginning to become household names.
The current Blackhawks team is solid and slowly getting better, but they aren't the Stanley Cup champs. When sports historians look back on this squad, they should mark the '09-'10 Blackhawks as one of the great snigle season teams in recent memory.