It wasn't that many years ago but the memory is still fresh. The Cubs, full of promise and youth and considered the best team in baseball was up by a game to the Florida Marlins. Two young and talented aces Greg Prior and Kerry Wood needed to win just a game between them and the Cubs would get to the World Series for the first time in forever. No way the upstart Marlins could pull this off. And the rest is another chapter in the sad history of the Chicago Cubs who never recovered and still search for the holy grail of baseball.
Cut to Sunday evening when a youthful and talented Chicago Blackhawk Hockey club - considered by experts to be the best team in the NHL take the ice with two young talented captains, Kane and Towes just two games short of hockey's prize just as they were Friday and just as they were Wednesday. The statistics speak for themselves. . . any team that opens the finals winning the first two games wins the Stanley Cup. It's happened a startling 31 of 33 times. An article on NHL.com paints the picture ... The Flyers would have to make history to wind up winning the Cup now. Of course that was written before Philadelphia outplayed, outwitted and outlasted (Sorry, Survivor) the Hawk in 2 games in their building. Like Prior and Wood, Kane and Towes have yet to make the impact their promise and skill indicated they would. Like the ill-fated Cubs, the Hawks look a bit desperate, a bit overwhelmed and a little tired as well. Just two games from further electrifying a city that is enjoying ice in June, the Hawks seem to be running only on fumes and very much in danger of extending the hideous sports legacy this city has come to almost expect save for a few memorable exceptions.
Tonight the Hawks can set themselves apart from the horror of a Cub-like collapse, incinerating a season of thrills and promise and relegating it to another disastrous memory. "Remember when the Hawks were just 2 games from the Cup and never won another game??" No one will talk about the achievements, just the bitter end.
Worse yet, a 7th seeded team with the villainous Chris Pronger and fans who are famously among the most boorish, crass, classless and ignorant stands to skate around the Stanley Cup Wednesday night around 10:15 Chicago time which was seen as impossible a week previous.
How do we avoid this latest possible humiliation? How do we keep this season of promise from going down in flames? How about displaying a sense of urgency right after the puck drop? How about shooting rubber at Flyer second string goalie Michael Leighton and shelving the pretty passing and finesse that has marked Hawk efforts against vanquished foes? More shots, more attack, more speed. It is difficult to play against a team who has one more player than has your squad. The Hawks are either stupidly taking penalties and falling into the Flyers trap or the refs have been watching Chicago with a bit more care. Sure everyone wants to slam Pronger and Curcillo but it would be so much more satisfying to see those two villains made to skate down the line and shake hands with every Hawk about to sip from the Stanley Cup. That, to Hawk fans counting on a rare Chicago championship, would be lasting and satisfying. A hit in the head to a bothersome Flyer would provide only a quick high 5 among Chicago fans who want and need so much more.
We intended to be in a bar tonight, desiring to be amongst our Hawk brethren when the magic moment came after 49 years. But the lack of firepower and indeed the lack of fire has sidetracked those plans and maybe for a long time.
Instead, we will gather in house to see if the Hawks can rebound. Indeed most experts had been predicting the Hawks in 6 and that could happen. But the momentum is wearing orange and if the Hawks don't come out showing the Flyers and everyone else they want this thing, then hey hey holy mackerel, no doubt about it, they are the Cubs. On ice.
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