To some extent, the Chicago Blackhawks’ resurgence was propelled by luck. Their rebuild was sparked by getting the right picks (Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, among others) at the right time while their modernization - like, say, televising home games -was made possible by Bill Wirtz’s passing.
That being said, Blackhawks management deserves credit for navigating the treacherous waters of the post-2010 Stanley Cup salary cap purge without losing too many crucial parts and for taking some clever measures to keep fans engaged. (This is an especially wise path to take since many of those fans are still pretty new to a team that was profoundly inept for quite some time.)
One of their best ideas is running an annual convention for fans to meet up with some of their favorite players. CSNChicago.com’s Tracey Myers captured the scene during the “Kids Only” press conference, when young Blackhawks fans asked Kane, Toews and Corey Crawford some amusing questions.The youngster approached the microphone at the Kids Only press conference on Saturday, his question for Patrick Kane.
“How did you really break your wrist?” the child said to roaring laughter.
“What do you mean by that?” said Kane.
Apparently you don’t have to be a grizzled fan or long-time follower of gossip sites to know that Kane has a rather ... controversial reputation in the sports world. Speaking of players with controversial reputations, some Blackhawks fans and writers were a bit perplexed by the addition of noted pest Daniel Carcillo.Chicago GM Stan Bowman gave a functional explanation for the signing while Toews’ answer seemed to focus (perhaps surprisingly) on Carcillo’s potential impact in the locker room.
“Carcillo is one of those guys who is very annoying to play against. But when he’s on your side he keeps the other team on edge,” Bowman said.
“He’s going to make sure they don’t take liberties with our star players. All you have to do is ask (Jonathan) Toews or Kane or (Patrick) Sharp about these kind of players when they’re on your team, and they like that because they like to do their thing and not always be looking over their shoulder at guys coming after them. It’s going to make teams think twice about targeting our stars.”
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“That’s what we like,” Toews said Friday. “I’ll never say anything bad about our locker room last year, but we wanted to add some of that charisma, personality. A noisy locker room is always better than the opposite.”It might be a bit surprising to see Toews praise the merits of known troublemaker Carcillo for his locker room habits, but maybe this group can keep him in line. Then again, maybe Carcillo will play nice simply because he’s on a one-year contract and needs to justify his existence as an NHL player.