THE NHL MAY
very well be firmly ensconced at No. 4 in the American sporting consciousness, but no other league can even come close to duplicating its enduring symbol of excellence. The Stanley Cup has an anthropomorphic quality about il that sets it apart. Its big, its beautiful and it looks really cool when you hold il over your head.

The trophies for the three other major professional sports are made at a place called Tiffany & Co., an outfit in New York where rich people buy their diamonds. Pfft. The Vince Lombardi Trophy weighs seven pounds. You could take somebodys friggin eye out with the World Series Trophy. Try taking a drink out of the Larry OBrien Trophy sometime and let us know how that works out.

Yes, there is something about Lord Stanleys silver bowl that draws people to the celebration. Il was a phenomenon the Chicago Black – hawks learned, and capitalized upon, this past summer. Of course it helps that people waited for it like a 300 – pound spinster pines for Mr. Right. When you go that long between championships, you want to share it with people.

T heres a joke around Chicago that theyre looking for the person who hasnt had his or her picture taken with the Stanley Gup yet.

It has been to bars, hospitals, bars, shopping malls, bars, Jimmy Buffet and Toby Keith concerts, bars, and a Notre Dame football game. Did we mention bars? For the first two weeks after they won the Cup, the Hawks did little more than parade the Cup through some of the finer drinking establishments in the north side of the city.

“Weve gone from cap management to Cup management,” quipped Blackhawks president John McDonough. “Seeing the charisma, the magnetism, the impact that the Stanley Cup has, its the strongest symbol of success Ive ever seen at any level in any sport, in any business, anywhere. It is the ultimate rock star and I think it has electrified the city”

But, alas, that was so two months ago. Since we last saw the Blackhawks skating around the ice in Philadelphia with the Cup over their heads, theyve lost more key players than Duncan Keilh has lost teeth. And were not talking lateral incisor baby chompers here. At the very least, they were canines.

A total of eight players who were in uniform for the Blackhawks for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final were either reluctantly traded or told not to let the door hit them on the backside on the way out. Depth players to be sure, but Cups are often won and lost with the quality of the depth players.

Which is one reason why a lot of hockey observers think the Blackhawks should make the most of the party while it lasts. The reality is, the odds would have been stacked enormously against the Blackhawks repeating their championship in a best – case scenario. You lose your two goalies and eight skaters and it makes being the first repeat winner since 1997 and 1998 almost impossible.
“I can see them still being a good team, but I dont know if theyre going to be a contender by any means,” said Kris Versteeg of the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of 10 players from last seasons team who are now playing elsewhere. “They still have enough core guys to get into the playoffs, but to be a contender, I think they lost too many pieces of the puzzle.”

Ouch. Those words could be Versteegs parting shot, but the truth is that a Stanley Cup winner has rarely come back with so many burning questions. If their star – studded core players improve and their youngsters fill the holes in the roster, the Hawks may very well be better than they were last year. Or, after evaporating the chemistry they had last season, they could be one – and – done.
And the league will be watching closely. Because how the Blackhawks do this season will indicate whether il is possible to win consistently in the NHL with a core of young star players complemented by interchangeable parts that are far less costly. It should be an intriguing exercise to say the least.

Even though the Hawks won, ending 49 years of misery, there is still much for them to prove on the ice, in the front office and on the business side of the game.
AS IT TURNS OUT, you cant simply erase 30 years of wanton neglect with a couple of great seasons. Particularly not in Chicago, where the competition for fans and sports dollars is fierce.
If you can believe it, the Blackhawks lost money last season. They wont say, but one source familiar with NHI. financials claims it was somewhere between $13 million and $ 14 million…and thats after taking in $26 million in playoff gate – receipts.

The Blackhawks have sold out 102 straight games. They have maxed – out on season tickets. The five highest – rated games in the history of Comcast Chicago, which also telecasts the Cubs, White Sox and Bulls, all belong to the Blackhawks. Concession and merchandising revenues have experienced triple – digit increases. When the Blackhawks held their first open practice of training camp, they sold out the United Center.

And somehow, they managed to lose money. And, remember, theres no chance this can be attributed to creative accounting. These are real losses that are audited and available to the players.
“Some of this is desperation,” McDonough said. “We were off the radar for 30 – some years, so we have a lot of ground to make up. Were making up for 30 – some years where the games werent televised and some relationships were fractured. Weve made up an enormous amount of real estate from where we were. And 1 would hope were trending in the right direction.”

One thing is certain, ticket prices are trending in an upward direction starting this season, an average of 20 percent. For the better part of the past decade, the Blackhawks have been in the lower third of the NHL in ticket prices, which makes sense because they were generally among the 10 worst teams in the league. But the Blackhawks did not raise their ticket prices after making the Western Conference final in 2009. Their television package isnt a great one and theyve struggled with corporate sponsorship and luxury prices.

Along with the ducat price hike, the Blackhawks this season will become the second team in the league – the New York Rangers are the first – to have those annoying NFL – type virtual ads on their TV broadcasts. Luxury boxes sales have been more brisk and the Hawks were set to announce that they will display advertising on their practice sweaters.

And things are coming around in Chicago, too. After years of being firmly cemented as No. 5 among the citys five pro sports teams, the Hawks are now fighting for No. 3 with the Bulls and White Sox, behind the Bears – who are clearly No. 1 – and the second – place Cubs.

“We sold a lot of papers because of the Hawks and our traffic was huge because of the Hawks,” said Chicago Tribune sports editor Tim Bannon. “They were definitely the fifth – ranked team for a long time. The fact that the Cubs and the Sox have had disappointing seasons helps.”

Even though hockey is not exactly indigenous to Chicago, it has always been a robust pocket of participation and has produced a number of NHLers. Illinois has experienced the highest growth of any state in US A Hockey, largely because of the Hawks success, but cost is a factor that shows up, both in terms of participation and the Hawks demographic.

“We have done studies on demographics for the five major teams in this town,” Bannon said. “This was two years ago, but we found Hawks fans were more suburban, more white and theyre richer. Not significantly, but it makes sense.”

McDonough notices a shift in the demo – graphics. The Blackhawks managed to get the older fans back – by welcoming Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito back into the fold – and their children and grandchildren by having an exciting, successful team full of affable players. It helps that they kept the momentum by being in the news almost every day during the off – season.

“Three years ago, this wasnt even on the sports entertainment menu,” McDonough said. “It wasnt an option. But now its something new and something fast. I would say that in the one area there has definitely been a strong, powerful growth area, it has been your 18 – and – under group. College age and under. The/re really engaged.”

THE BLACKHAWKS are not “victims” of the salary cap, nor have they “survived” it any more than other teams in the league. And like most of those, some of their cap problems are of their own making.
And the Blackhawks are also benefitting from an economic system that gives almost as much as it takes. Its a system, after all, that allowed Chicago to walk away from Antti Niemis arbitration award and wipe Europe – bound Cristobal Hucts cap hit off the books.

But the purge was coming and GM Stan Bowman knew it more than a year ago. In fact, he knew then there was a good chance the Blackhawks would go over the cap with performance bonuses. The choice was to either gut the roster mid – season last year or take the machete to the payroll during the summer.

“Believe me, it was not an easy job and it took weeks of wrangling to get all that stuff done, but we eventually landed where we did,” Bowman said. “I just didnt want to get into it during the season because its not something thats good for your fans or your team. We knew it was going to happen this way and because we had been thinking of it for so long, it wasnt as difficult for us as it probably was for the people who were caught off guard by it.”

On the surface, Bowmans moves this summer were masterful on a number of fronts. Whether that bears itself on the ice will be answered as the season goes on. First, he managed to shave payroll without taking anyones junk contracts back. By getting prospects and draft picks, he made the Blackhawks younger and faster and stocked their system. Third, he basically kept one of the leagues best defense corps intact. Of course it helped that he was forced to trade quality players in the first place.

“For me, I didnt want to change our mix on the back end because that exposes weaknesses more than up front,” Bowman said. “Thats why we matched on Niklas Hjalmarsson. I dont mind paying him the money because we were going to have to pay it a year from now, anyway. We were going to give him a nice raise off his contract. I told his agent, A year from now, well sign him to a multi – year deal at that money, but cap – wise, I just cant do it this summer. But I was forced to and thats why we had to do some other things.”

Namely walk away from Niemis arbitration award and replace him with veteran Marty Turco. Ihe Blackhawks have already proved their defense is so good they dont need a superstar in goal. 1 he two biggest losses were Versteeg and Dustin Byfuglien, but young players such as Jack Skille, Bryan Bickell and Jake Dowcll will have to serve as replacements. Fernando Pisani will replace John Madden as the top penalty killer and Kyle Beach could step in for the lost toughness of Ben Eager.

Jeremy Morin – a 47 – goal scorer in the Ontario League last year – and Igor Makarov were turning heads in camp, but chances are Morin, Brandon Pirri and Nick Leddy will all play for Ihe Blackhawks American League affiliate as 19 – year – olds. In a couple of years that will make them ready to step in to ease the salary cap logjam again.

“To trade a S3 million player and get a $2 million player in return, I might as well not trade the guy,” Bowman said. “When 1 was talking to GMs I said, Look, this is what Im doing and I need to get draft picks or prospects back. I cant take money back. So I had to focus on guys who were interested.”

Ihe Blackhawks were built by being so poor for so long that they drafted star players for their core. Iheir young talent matured and got more expensive, so it will be interesting to see if the Hawks can make it work with this building plan. If they can, watch for teams to be tripping over themselves to copy it.

Ihe keys for Chicago are the replacements being as good as the players who left and the young stars further stepping their games up.

“It might be hard to believe, but our main players are only going to be better,” Bowman said. “Patrick Kane is 22 years old and if you look at any player over the past 30 years who was a star player, they were better as a 23 – year – old than they were as a 22 – year – old. I dont think hes going to regress and the same thing goes for our other guys. These guys are going to be as good as they were and even belter. And we have a bunch of young players who maybe dont know how good they are.”

ONCE NICK LIDSTROKI got his hands on the Norris Trophy, he pretty much kept them there. Same for the likes of Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, Paul Goffey and Ray Bourque. But there were interlopers. Chris Pronger, Rob Blake, Scott Niedermayer, Zdeno Chara.

Just as there are those who question whether the Hawks have what it takes to repeat, were left to wonder whether Duncan Keith is an impostor or Norris hog.
The Blackhawks, who gave Keith a 13 – year contract extension last year, are certainly counting on the latter. Keith has the likes of Drew Doughty and Mike Green breathing down his neck, but he hasnt yet fully exploited his talents.

Which is a bit scary. Last season he took advantage of more power play time to record 25 more points than 2008-09, all the while keeping his overall game at an elevated level.
“I dont see why I cant be better,” Keith said. “Lets not kid ourselves, its not easy to do what I did every single year. Theres no chance of winning a gold medal, so I cant do what I did, anyway. Im not looking at it as I want to one – up or even replicate last season.”

Keith reckons that if he approaches the game the same way the results will take care of themselves. And if he does that, expect Keith to continue to display a high intelligence quotient in all three zones and play a game just physical enough, just defensive enough and just offensive enough to make the sum of their parts great. His shot has improved and hes bound to get more power play time from the start, so there is room to grow offensively.

“You can never be too good defensively because if I were too good defensively, Id never make a mistake,” Keith said. “On the offensive side, I thought my shot improved a lot and I was able to penetrate the puck from the blueline and that made a big difference. But everything comes from playing good defense.”

Its hard to believe that Keiths upward trajectory is a fluke. Most defensemen dont even hit their prime years until their early 30s and Keith just turned 27 over the summer. Hes bound to get some help from the fact Turco is one of the best puckhandling goalies ever and with the likes of Jack Skille and Viktor Stalberg, the Hawks are even faster this season than they were last.

And having Keith and the others back there is a huge help to the forwards. Chicago has talented forwards to be sure, but because of its defense corps, theres no need to run around chasing the puck in the defensive zone. And for a team that transitions as well as the Hawks, its important that the forwards get the puck on their sticks through the neutral zone.

So, what do we make of the Hawks after a couple of inlrasquad and pre – season games? We know theyll be hungry, theyll be fast, well coached and young. And boy, shouldnt they just have a bit of a chip on their shoulders?

“I dont think we scoff at the predictions because we know we lost a lot of players; those guys all made big contributions to our Cup,” Keith said. “You could argue they were the X Factor or whatever you want to call it…But I also dont think we should be going in thinking, Were going to be a pushover because we lost half our team.
“I definitely wouldnt underestimate us.

“For me, I didnt want to change our mix on the back end because that exposes weaknesses more than up front,” Bowman said. “Thats why we matched on Niklas Hjalmarsson. I dont mind paying him the money because we were going to have to pay it a year from now, anyway. We were going to give him a nice raise off his contract. I told his agent, A year from now, well sign him to a multi – year deal at that money, but cap – wise, I just cant do it this summer. But I was forced to and thats why we had to do some other things.”