There is a defining moment in every team’s quest for a championship. The 2010 Blackhawks would be no different. Little did we know, our test would come in the first round of the playoffs.
Nashville… hockey town? Hardly. At the time, a franchise that had been around only for 12 years. Ha! Nothing compared to the 84 years that one of the Original Six franchises the Blackhawks had endured. As the series kicked off, none of that matters. Might as well forget about the 112 points recorded by the Hawks during the regular season too; it’s the postseason now. It’s a series by series thing. The other team gets hot, their goalie stands on their head, watch out. Not a good idea to dig ourselves a hole either… yet that’s exactly what happened in Game 1 at home in the UC.
Interesting trivia question: who was the first Blackhawk to score a goal in the 2010 playoffs? If you know the person who scored the last goal, then you know the answer. Yes, 88 started off the scoring, giving the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead in the 2nd period; that would be our first and last goal of the game. JP Dumont? Yes, JP Dumont would score back to back goals in the 3rd period to give the Preds the lead. They would add 2 empty netters, and the Blackhawks took one on the chin, 4-1. Scared yet?
There is nothing guaranteed. If you don’t take a team seriously, you may very well be on the outside looking in for the next round of the playoffs. The Blackhawks behind a PP goal from Bolland, another goal from Kane, and 23 saves from Niemi, won 2-0 in Game 2 at the UC, evening up the series. The Preds would grab the series lead again winning Game 3 in Nashville 4-1, before seeing the Blackhawks knot things up again by taking Game 4, in shutout fashion again, 3-0. It was that type of back and forth series. With the series tied at 2, heading back to the UC, the Blackhawks would face their defining moment.
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Yes, plenty more work to be done, but winning this one… in a dogfight of a series, with all odds against us late, felt HUGE… it WAS huge. Game 6 started off with 7 goals in the first period, and a 4-3 Blackhawks lead. It would stay that way until John Madden, speaking of unsung heroes, would find the empty net, giving the Hawks the 5-3 win, and the series win. Yes, yes, YES!!!
The Blackhawks were moving on. I don’t know if I’d quite equate this to the Bulls finally beating the Pistons, and winning the NBA Finals being academic. Not sure if I’d go to the Cubs finally making the World Series, just knowing that they would win it since they finally got there. The Bears never did face a challenge back in 1985, so no comparison there. We can compare this to a Game 7 vs Detroit back in 2013 for this same team. But for the 2010 Blackhawks, this series, that game, feels like that hurdle that the Hawks had to overcome; if they could get past that, overcome those odds in that game, they could do anything, right? Next up, our favorites, the Canucks…
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