Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks first joined the NHL way back in 1926 as part of the league’s first attempt to expand into the United States. The name comes from the team’s first owner, Fred McLaughlin, who had fought as a machine gunner in the First World War in the Blackhawk Division (named after a famous Native American warrior from the Chicago region called Black Hawk). McLaughlin took an unusual approach to his team, focusing on recruiting American players, who were relatively uncommon as professionals at the time. The Hawks won their first Stanley Cup in 1934 followed by another in 1938, but were unable to win a third title during the Original Six era, which was dominated by the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, until when in 1961, led by the grit and talent of future Hall of Famers Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull, they ground down the Canadiens in a brutal six-game series before defeating the Detroit Red Wings to lift the Cup. Fans in Chicago watching the players drink from the trophy and parade it around the ice that day must have savored the moment, but probably could never have imagined the drought that was to come. Through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the Blackhawks were almost always one of the league’s best teams, frequently appearing in the Western Conference Finals and even the Stanley Cup Finals, losing four times to the Canadiens and once to Mario Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins, but always falling just short of claiming the big prize. In 2010, with superstars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in their ranks, the Blackhawks returned to the Finals for the first time since their showdown with the Penguins back in 1992. Fans were hopeful if not optimistic based on the half-century of disappointment they had been dealt by the team, but this time the Blackhawks got the job done, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in six games. The drought, which had lasted all of 49 long years, was over at last and, in the years that followed, the floodgates opened. Keeping the strong core of their Cup-winning team together, the Hawks went on to beat the Boston Bruins in 2013 and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2015 to add two more Stanley Cups to their trophy case. In just over five years, the team had doubled the franchise’s historic tally of titles. Recent years have seen the Blackhawks tail off somewhat, with the team failing to make the playoffs in any of the past three seasons. Hawks fans will be hoping that this is just a blip rather than a harbinger of a new drought and that they will soon see their team revvin’ for seven in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.