This off-season has been trying at times, and we’re only in the middle of July. The Chicago Blackhawks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2007-08 season and many were expecting there to be a significant amount of change to re-direct the organization back to contention. While why those types of decisions are or are not being made can be argued ad nauseam, and have been, the dragged out summer of the Blackhawks has become a bit depressing.
I am not immune to it either. Re-listening to the latest episode of the Rinkcast, I realized I was getting a bit too down on the Blackhawks for my own good so I wanted to do something to make myself and maybe some other Blackhawks fans happy, even for just a moment. A stroll down memory lane to relive the three moments that clinched the Blackhawks their three modern-era Stanley Cup championships.
Kane’s 2010 Overtime Winner Still Reigns As Blackhawks Fan-Favorite
Last week, I tweeted out a poll on Twitter to gauge the temperature of the Blackhawks community as to which game-winning goal was their favorite in a Stanley Cup clinching game:
I've been a bit negative about the #Blackhawks recently.
SO, let's do something positive and fun: Relive the past.
Which #StanleyCup Winning Goal is your personal favorite and why!
Comment below— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) July 5, 2018
The responses to the poll were awesome and gave me and I would hope others, a few moments of Blackhawks happiness in between the perceived doom and gloom of this Summer, so far. I posed the 2010, 2013, and 2015 Stanley Cup Game-Winning Goals against each other, Patrick Kane in 2010, Dave Bolland in 2013, and Duncan Keith in 2015. In what was nearly no surprise, the first Stanley Cup championship in 49 years for the Blackhawks back in 2010, clinched by Kane in overtime of Game Six against the Flyers, came out on top.
Third Place: Duncan Keith, 2nd Period, 1-0 Goal vs Tampa Bay – 2015
In what I thought would have had a better showing than just 9% of the vote, Duncan Keith’s opening goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Six of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final broke the tension in the United Center on a stormy night in Chicago late in the second period. Chicago and Tampa Bay had fought a tough battle of attrition through nearly 40-minutes of action, then Keith took a feed from Kane and finished a rebound chance on Ben Bishop.
Keith was an absolute machine during the 2015 Stanley Cup run for Chicago. Averaging a staggering 31:07 minute of ice-time per game over the course of a 23-game post-season, Keith finished with 21 points and was the first defenseman to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup playoffs MVP since Scott Niedermayer in 2007.
CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 15: Duncan Keith #2 of the Chicago Blackhawks scores a goal in the second period against Ben Bishop #30 of the Tampa Bay Lightning during Game Six of the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the United Center on June 15, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
A few responses in favor of Keith’s 2015 winner:
So worth it! $$, weathering the weather (monsoon rain & tornado) while waiting for the gates to open, insane tension and crazy heart rate. But counting down those last few seconds and the crazy eruption of emotion – seeing my team win the cup on home ice!?!?!! Worth it all.
— sem (@semiamagain) July 5, 2018
2015. Because it was also my birthday.
— 🐝 {B} 🐝 (@wonderBmarie) July 6, 2018
This goal was actually my own favorite of the three because of the situation of the game and its significance in solidifying the Blackhawks as a modern-era dynasty. Plus, Keith’s lion roar after scoring the goal still gives me goosebumps.
Second Place: Dave Bolland, 3rd Period, 3-2 Goal vs Bruins – 2013
Coming in a very competitive second-place, the second goal of one of the most memorable moments in all of Stanley Cup Final history, 17 seconds, Dave Bolland was able to cement himself in Blackhawks lore by scoring the game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins in the final minute of Game Six of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. In his last game as a Blackhawk, Bolland found space behind the Bruins net to set himself up for the perfect rebound chance on one of the most improbable sequences in NHL history. From the grips of a Game Seven scenario, Bolland gave the Blackhawks their second Stanley Cup in three seasons.
The goal would be the latest goal scored in a non-overtime game to win the Stanley Cup in NHL history at 19:01 of the 3rd period. Just 17 seconds prior, Bryan Bickell tied the game at 2-2 in a last-ditch effort by Chicago to try to avoid a potential Game Seven against Boston.
BOSTON, MA – JUNE 24: Dave Bolland #36 of the Chicago Blackhawks scores past Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins in the third period in Game Six of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 24, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
A few responses in favor of Bolland’s 2013 winner:
That 17 seconds was incredible!!! Also because it was Crow's first and he was crawsome throughout the entire Cup run!!!
— Les 🇨🇦 Sweetpea's Papa (@TheHawkeyGuy) July 6, 2018
2012/2013 17 seconds sequence was so awesome, even though Kanes goal was the first SCW-goal for 49 years.
— Cklimateer (@cklimateer) July 5, 2018
The goal would hold, obviously, and the Blackhawks would complete the wire-to-wire run in the strike-shortened 2013 season as the best team in the NHL. To date, the Blackhawks are the last team to win both the President’s Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same year, thanks to a heads up play by Bolland.
Winner: Patrick Kane, Overtime, 4-3 Goal vs Flyers – 2010
The most memorable moment of the Blackhawks modern-era is Patrick Kane’s overtime goal that gave Chicago its first Stanley Cup since 1961. Game Six against the Philadelphia Flyers, in overtime, and only Kane and Patrick Sharp seemed to see the puck go in. (Also, my Dad. Go ahead, ask him if he saw it first, he’ll be happy to tell you he did.) The 2010 Stanley Cup Final came down to one of the more confusing ends in NHL playoff history, but ultimately the puck was found under the padding of the net behind Michael Leighton and the Blackhawks were 2010 Stanley Cup Champions.
What chaos indeed, Doc.
Kane’s goal was the first of three Stanley Cups to be won by Chicago over a six-year span and was the defining moment of the changing of the guard for the organization after years and years of sub-par hockey, and sub-par fanfare. The rejuvenation of the organization through the core of Kane, Keith, Marian Hossa, Brent Seabrook, and Jonathan Toews, to name a few, had its signature moment.
PHILADELPHIA – JUNE 09: Patrick Kane #88 celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against Michael Leighton #49 of the Philadelphia Flyers
to defeat the Flyers 4-3 and win the Stanley Cup in Game Six of the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Final
at the Wachovia Center on June 9, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
A few responses in favor of Kane’s 2010 overtime winner:
Had to go with the Kaner goal, because it was the start of the great Hawks cup run and because he was rocking that sweet ass mullet.
— MarkOnTheTweet (@HawksFanAZ) July 5, 2018
2010, only because I’ve been a Hawks fan since ‘67 and I wasn’t sure if I would ever see them win the Cup. ‘13 was great. We were at ‘15!
— Keith Bliss (@keithisbliss) July 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/chynes22/status/1015014914576904192
With “One Goal” achieved in 2010, for some Blackhawks fans, it was enough. After “One Goal” was achieved again in 2013, it was magic. After “One Goal” was achieved a third time in 2015, it was gravy. Sweet, sweet gravy over a Stanley Cup full of poutine.
For all of Blackhawks fandom, the three Stanley Cups in a six-year span from 2010-2015 will be remembered forever as yet another “Golden-Age” of Blackhawks hockey.
Let’s all hope it can return to that again. Soon.