AP News
(2010-05-26 20:16:13)
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago Blackhawks will bid to end the NHL's longest championship drought and deny the Philadelphia Flyers their own fairytale ending when the Windy City meets the City of Brotherly Love in the Stanley Cup final.
It has been 49 years since the Blackhawks last sipped champagne from Lord Stanley's famous mug and their long-suffering fans are eager to get the party started at home in the Madhouse on Madison for Game One of the best-of-seven series on Saturday.
Flyers fans have endured nearly as much heart-break having gone 35 years without a Stanley Cup.
After watching their team scrape into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season they, too, believe their Cinderella story deserves a happy ending.
The Flyers will be up against a rapacious home crowd in Game One, with Chicago sports fans' new-found fervor for the Blackhawks in stark contrast to the complete disinterest the city showed the team just a few years ago.
"The city has been very supportive and they've embraced us in a lot of ways," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. "I think that it would be a great achievement (to win the Cup) for everybody. I think the city will go wild.
"It's been special, you can feel it, you sense it."
A few seasons ago, the Blackhawks played in front of half-empty arenas exuding an atmosphere nearly as dire as their play, and made the playoffs just once between 1996 and 2007.
A franchise that once boasted the NHL's best and brightest became one of the league's most troubled under owner Bill Wirtz, who earned the moniker "Dollar Bill" for his frugal ways.
The club has since enjoyed a renaissance under Rocky Wirtz, who assumed control following his father's death and restored the Original Six franchise to its former glory.
"Rocky has done an amazing thing here in Chicago. I can recall not too long ago coaching St. Louis where you come in here with 4,000 or 5,000 people in the building," said Quenneville. "It was a grim evening where almost you felt like they were supporting the visiting team.
"Things changed quickly. It's an amazing transformation."
The Blackhawks success on and off the ice can be traced to a slick, entertaining brand of hockey and a group of talented youngsters led by 22-year-old captain Jonathan Toews, who leads the playoffs in scoring.
Their defense is anchored by Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook -- two of Toews' gold medal-winning Canadian team mates from the Vancouver Olympics -- while Finnish rookie Antti Niemi has proved rock-solid in net.
The Flyers are unlikely to be pushovers, however, and although they may not be the Broad Street Bullies who won back-to-back Cups in 1974 and 1975, they are forged from the same blue collar mold.
That grit helped produce one of the most inspired playoff runs seen in North American sport.
If not for a shootout victory over the New York Rangers in the final game of the regular season, the Flyers would be at home working on their tans and golf swings.
Their achievement was all the more remarkable given they became just the third team to erase a 3-0 series deficit during their 4-3 series win over the Boston Bruins in the Eastern conference semi-final.
"It's sort of magical ... the way we got into the playoffs," said Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren. "It's something that I find hard to believe will ever happen again.
"We're excited about Saturday night. We can't wait to get going."
(Writing by Steve Keating in Indianapolis; editing by Ian Ransom)
