There haven’t been many happy days as a sports fan for me over the past 20 years, Wednesday night, however, was one of them.
Raised as a Chicago sports fan their have been far more tears than cheers in my lifetime — I still haven’t gotten over the 2003 Cubs collapse, four outs from their first World Series appearance since 1945.
While the Blackhawks win on Wednesday doesn’t quite make up for all of it — really the score on that one is about three to the good, 684 to the bad — It made me realize what it feels like to cheer for an actual winner for once.
For a city so used to losing it was only fitting that the Stanley Cup winning goal in overtime was a disjointed mess, as only Patrick Kane realized the puck was in the net and started his own celebration.
But none of that matters. The only thing Blackhawks fans care about is that for the first time in 49 years the Cup belongs to them.
It has Edmonton Oilers fans back dreaming of a similar short term rise to glory, with designs on following Chicago’s blueprint.
Oilers fans have visions of Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson and Taylor Hall/Tyler Seguin, forming a young nucleus to rival Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Kane. Not to mention they already have Ales Hemsky, Sam Gagner and Dustin Penner with the big club and a number of other young offensive prospects chomping at the bit for a shot in Alberta’s capital.
But the Oilers still have a long way to go to duplicate Chicago’s success.
No area in the Oilers’ organization is hurting like the blue-line.
While Ryan Whitney may in fact one day develop into an elite defenceman, with all due respect to Taylor Chorney, Theo Peckham, Jeff Petry and Alex Plante, I don’t see a Brent Seabrook or Brian Campbell among them.
There is also still a lot left to be desired in the crease as well. Antti Niemi out played three of the game’s top goalies — Pekka Rinne, Roberto Luongo and Evgeni Nabokov — to get to the cup final, before hanging on for dear life against Philadelphia.
While Jeff Drouin-Desluariers and Devan Dubnyk have a lot of potential, right now that is all they have going for them. Neither has proven that they can be counted on for an entire season. Also by the time this team is ready to contend Nikolai Khabibulin will likely be long gone, either in retirement or traded to another team.
The Oilers also have to prove they have the patience to stick with a plan.
This is at least their fourth big shift in direction since the lockout ended. First it was to spend big through free agency; then it was to rebuild in the wake of the Pronger fiasco; then their was a half hearted effort to dip back into free agency to short cut the rebuilding — and that all led to some poor decisions and finally a last place finish this season. It wasn’t all injuries. They swear they are now committed to a full rebuild and general manger Steve Tambellini kicked off the summer by cleaning house with the training and equipment staff. Time will tell if they are able to remain focused this time.
Fans also like to cite the success of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals through like rebuilds as reason for hope. But there are just as many cautionary tales out there from teams who have failed to do anything with multiple high end picks — the New York Islanders, Atlanta Thrashers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Florida Panthers come immediately to mind.
The draft is still a crap shoot.
There is no real way to predict how an 18-year-old will really develop, especially after the top couple of picks.
But Oilers fans enjoy the optimism that a first overall pick can bring.
However, just remember it takes a lot of pieces to fall into place to end your misery.
It took Chicago 49 years.
jaldrich@reddeeradvoate.com