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Why the Blackhawks are a modern-day NHL dynasty with more Stanley Cups in reach

Why the Blackhawks are a modern-day NHL dynasty with more Stanley Cups in reach

CHICAGO — To understand why the Chicago Blackhawks have become a modern-day dynasty, listen to what happened Monday night moments after they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-0, and won their third Stanley Cup in six years.

The Blackhawks had clinched a championship on home ice for the first time since 1938. The city was celebrating from living rooms to local bars to the United Center itself. The fans were roaring, the players embracing, and amid it all, general manager Stan Bowman found winger Brandon Saad.

The ’Hawks drafted Saad in the second round in 2011, a year after they won the first Cup of this run. He chipped in as they won the Cup in 2013, developed into a top-six forward last season and played a major role in this Cup. Now he’s 22 and a pending restricted free agent – a tempting target for an offer sheet from another team in the salary-cap system.

“I said, ‘This is the first of many. We’re going to win a lot together,’ ” Bowman said with a smile on his face and championship cap on his head. “He gave me a big hug and said, ‘Let’s go.’ He’s going to be here. I don’t think he would want to leave after this scene here.”

Modern-day dynasty: Members of the Blackhawks celebrate moments after defeating the Lightning. (AP)
Modern-day dynasty: Members of the Blackhawks celebrate moments after defeating the Lightning. (AP)

No one is supposed to do this in the salary-cap system, which is designed to erode the best teams and keep everyone as even as possible. Until this, no one had won three Cups since the cap was introduced in 2005-06. The last team to win three Cups in six years was the Detroit Red Wings in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

But the Blackhawks are always thinking ahead, and they are never satisfied.

They went from being one of the worst teams in the NHL to building a Cup team with a core of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and company. Thanks to the cap, they had to part with half the roster after the first Cup and rebuild the supporting cast, and they had to keep reshaping it year to year. But they did it, and these are the results – so far. Look at the young players on this roster: Saad, Marcus Kruger, Andrew Shaw, Teuvo Teravainen.

“It’s a challenge,” Bowman said. “Obviously it’s a system we all play under, so we’ve got to find a way to make it work. The only way you make it work in this system is if you can have young players that you not only draft but you develop, or you find them as free agents and then you develop them.”

It takes management and scouting and coaching.

“It was about getting that first one and getting the right people in the right places and creating a different attitude, creating a different culture,” said team president John McDonough. “They do a great job of planning. They know the importance of today, but they can really see the future.”

It takes leadership.

“I think we’ve got guys that just won’t quit, guys that have played in these situations before, guys that know what it takes to win,” said defenseman Brent Seabrook, a three-time champion. “We have a lot of guys here that have played in big games, big Stanley Cup games, Olympics, world championships, all sorts of stuff.”

Chicago captain Jonathan Toews hoists the Cup in front of the home fans at the United Center. (AP)
Chicago captain Jonathan Toews hoists the Cup in front of the home fans at the United Center. (AP)

Ultimately, it takes production.

“I know we’ve got a lot of players on our team that want the puck on their stick in big games,” said winger Patrick Sharp, another three-time champion. “Maybe that’s the difference. Who knows? But it’s a great team, top to bottom.”

Remember how tight the NHL was this season. Only 16 points separated the 16 teams who made the playoffs, the narrowest gap since 1964-65, when the league had six teams, four made the playoffs and Gary Bettman was just a kid, not yet the commissioner who fought for the salary cap.

The winners of three of the past four Cups – the Boston Bruins (2011) and Los Angeles Kings (2012 and 2014) – didn’t even make the playoffs. St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said he wouldn’t have been shocked if any of the 16 playoff teams won the Cup.

Yet the Blackhawks won again.

They beat the Nashville Predators in six games, even though goaltender Corey Crawford was so bad he was benched. They swept the Minnesota Wild. They lost defenseman Michal Rozsival in Game 4 of that series, thinning their already thin blue line. But it didn’t matter. They had the bionic Keith – the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player, only the fourth player to log more than 700 playoff minutes since 1998 – and they leaned on four defensemen the rest of the way.

They rallied from 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 series deficits to beat the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference final, and they rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Lightning in a crazy-close Cup final. For the second time in history and the first time since 1951, the first five games of a Cup final were decided by one goal. No one took a two-goal lead until Kane scored almost 355 minutes into the series, putting Chicago ahead, 2-0, late in the third period on Monday night.

Duncan Keith was a bionic man and deserving winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP. (AP)
Duncan Keith was a bionic man and deserving winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP. (AP)

The Lightning was the highest-scoring team in the regular season. But the Blackhawks allowed the second-fewest goals in the regular season, and they held the Bolts to only 10 goals over six games. They won with Toews and Kane combining for only two goals.

To be fair, the Bolts were beaten up by the end. Goaltender Ben Bishop played with a torn groin. Center Tyler Johnson, tied with Kane for the playoffs’ scoring lead, played with a broken wrist. Winger Nikita Kucherov, who finished one point behind them, missed most of Game 5 and played Game 6 with a shoulder injury.

Meanwhile, Steven Stamkos, who scored 43 goals in the regular season, couldn’t finish. He hit a crossbar Monday night. He couldn’t even score on a breakaway Monday night after he made a move and got Crawford to commit. He failed to lift the puck over Crawford’s left pad and into an open net. He didn’t score in the series.

“The well ran dry,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper.

But credit Crawford, who rebounded from that awful first round and played especially well in the final. Credit the rest of the Blackhawks – from the core to the supporting cast. And keep an eye on the future, because the Blackhawks sure will. Keith is 31. Toews is only 27. Kane is only 26 …

Scotty Bowman named his son Stan after the Stanley Cup. He won nine Cups as a coach, and now he has won five as an executive thanks to his role as a Blackhawks senior advisor, giving him 14 total.

“Stan’s got three,” he said, smiling amid yet another celebration. “He’s gonna catch up.”

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