For the third time in six years, the Chicago Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup. Their 2014-15 campaign is the first time the team has won the Cup on home ice since 1938, with their more recent championship celebrations taking place on the opposition’s turf.
As the players took to the ice to partake in the celebrations, Head Coach Joel Quenneville spoke with CBC’s Scott Oake and described what it took to win the Stanley Cup and why the Chicago Blackhawks have been able to do it three times in the last decade.
“Character. Leaders. Top players. Skill. Balance. Depth. Organization does a lot of great things.”
– Joel Quenneville
As the seconds winded down, we couldn’t help but reminisce about how the Blackhawks got to where they did. Now, we take a look at five reasons why the Chicago Blackhawks are sitting on top of the mountain yet again.
Five Reasons why the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup
1. Experience
Captain Jonathan Toews has played 117 post-season games in the last seven years. Patrick Kane has played in 116 games. Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith, a combined total of 228 games. They say one of the most important things to becoming a winning, successful team is to have been there before. The Blackhawks have a core that has stuck together, experienced winning and losing at the top level and have been battled tested for years. Pressure is no longer an issue, as they can control their emotions like none other.
2. Depth down the middle
Captain Toews, Brad Richards, Antoine Vermette and Marcus Kruger. That’s what the center depth looked like heading into game six. Richards could potentially be a top-line forward on quite a few teams and Vermette a top-six center. These two found themselves behind Toews and gave the Blackhawks one of the biggest edges in the National Hockey League. The experience of those three combined allows for the fourth-line centre to be a 25-year-old kid, playing in his third post-season, learning from the best and experiencing what it’s like to be a winner.
3. Corey Crawford stands tall
In the first two rounds, it was unknown who would be starting each game. Corey Crawford would play well but struggle the following game and Scott Darling would respond with a strong game of his own, followed be a weak showing. This left the team playing a guessing game and hoping one of the two could catch some magic in a bottle and back-stop them to another Cup. In the end, it was Crawford and his familiarity with being at the biggest stage, playing to the top of his game. In the final game of the playoffs, Crawford posted a shutout, proving he can indeed be a big game goaltender.
4. Coach Q for the big W
Among head coaches and all-time playoff wins, Quenneville finds himself sitting in third place with 107, behind Al Abour (123) and Scotty Bowman (223). The closest active coach to Quenneville is Los Angeles Kings Head Coach Daryl Sutter with 88. Often cool, calm and collected, Quenneville has a great team to send onto the ice but his management style of ice-time among players, which sometimes gets criticized quite heavily, has paid off greatly. When the tough gets going, Quenneville makes sure his team is prepared and ready to take on any challenge.
5. Duncan ‘MVP’ Keith
In the regular season, Duncan Keith averaged over 25 minutes of ice-time. That was nothing compared to the 28-31 minutes he saw in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. When it came to defensemen that Quenneville could lean on, Keith was the man, much like Drew Doughty was last year during the Los Angeles Kings run to the Cup. In the first game of this year’s post-season, Keith logged 55 shifts for 39:51 of ice-time and scored the game-winning goal. Due to overtime, Keith would play three games of 40 or more minutes, skating between 49 and 60 shifts. And if you believe in fate, Keith closed off the playoffs the same we he opened them – scoring the game-winning goal. There was no reason to doubt who would win the Conn Smythe this year. Duncan Keith was head and shoulders above the rest.
Before Jonathan Toews skated over to pick up the Stanley Cup, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman declared that after winning three Stanley Cups in six years, there was no doubt that the Chicago Blackhawks have truly become a dynasty in today’s NHL.
What do you think? Have the Chicago Blackhawks of today become a true dynasty in today’s hockey? Let us know in the comments below.
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