Here Come the Hawks!

The Hawks are back!

I went to my first Hawks game in three years on Sunday. They were a winner, beating the Flames 5-2 after losing two games to the Detroit Redwings.

My impressions? Things have changed a lot since three years ago. John McDonough, the President of the BH, has done a fantastic job to market this club to once again get fans - in this hockey town- excited, especially in four major ways. 1) Blackhawks games are now on TV. 2) Blackhawk Alumni such as Bobby Hull, Stan Makita, etc. are in attendance regularly to get 'old' fans to come to see the 'new generation Blackhawks.' (Even I a mere 20 year old girl, who knows nothing about these alumni and their past, but they have become a household, recognizable name to me, because they are constantly in the media). 3) The Winter Classic has been a success since its initiation in early July. (BH players such as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have sang the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley and the Hawks have been advertised in Wrigley in pretty much every one of the ten games I've went to... such as handing out schedules before the games).4) The BH now have a Fan Fest (like the Cubs Convention, Sox Fest).

...and obviously having a now winning club doesn't hurt.

Chicagoans are once again excited about hockey, because there is a great club on the ice, and you know what... we deserve it. We've had horrible few years of hockey with terrible management. J McD needed to do a lot to get back some of those fans that the past BH management lost. And honestly, I can say I am one of those "fans" that McDonough "brought in" and became interested in hockey.

When I was younger, hockey games were hardly on TV, because of the William Wirtz saga- blacking out the BH home games. Only a few away games were the only games on in my house, and generally I would never sit down and watch them with Ma and Pa, because I was not interested nor understood the game. My uncle would take me to one or two games a year or ever other year, and that was my one-two year fix...didn't watch any more games or wasn't really "begging for more."

Now with the new management, my brother and parents always have on the game, so I sit down and watch it with them as much as I can. I now understand what icing, offsides, slashing, etc. actually means. And as a soccer player for more than 15 years, all I can say is WOW... the formation, play set up, etc. portrays the same game as soccer, especially indoor soccer, except for obviously the ice and sticks. As a soccer player, and watching more of the Blackhawk games on TV, I've come to appreciate hockey a lot more and actually enjoy it more than ever.

Also, seeing the game on Sunday, I've come to appreciate the "sounds of the game." In all of the sporting events I've attended, no sport has cooler sounds than hockey- a skater's quick stop with the skate and seeing all the ice fly in the air, a puck hitting the stick or the board, a check into the board, etc. Even way above in section 309, 14 rows up could you hear those ever cool sounds.


The Winter Classic: For those of you who've read my first post ever on this blog, you can tell I'm a Cubs fan. So for me, watching the Winter Classic was exceptional. Although I know Soldier Field would have been a viable option for hosting the WC, because it sits about double the fans of Wrigley, but I think there is nothing like Wrigley for an event such as this: the rooftops, the neighborhood, the bars, the scoreboard, the bricks, the ivy. The WHOLE neighborhood was transformed into hockey-ville. Maybe its my Cubs bias, but there's nothing like Wrigley Field and it was the absolute best decision to hold the WC and showcase historic Wrigley Field's beauty and majesty with a outdoor hockey game in an icy cold, snowy January. I know many Sox fans didn't agree with the selection of the game at WF for two experiences I've had recently:

1) At my friend's house, her mom heckled me because I'm a Cubs fan (and because I always let it be known) but she screamed "the cubs suck and always will if they play in that hole...look at the BH, they can't even win there either."
2) A man sitting in front of me at the Hawks game was an obvious Sox fan. Between periods when the big screen showed clips/ pictures from the Classic, he would scream, "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET PLAYING AT THE WORLD'S LARGEST GAY BAR!" or "WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR" or "NO ONE CAN WIN IN THAT PLACE," chuckling, then subsequently high fiving his other mid forty-year-old-neck-bearded-fat-beer-belly-busting-friends.

Why can't we be friends? When leaving the United Center, a Sox fan started screaming "LET'S GO WHITE SOX" then a Cubs fan needs to show his place by fighting "LET'S GO CUBBIES." A third man, thank God (because I didn't want to hear this non-sense at a Blackhawks game, screamed "LETS GO BLACKHAWKS."

Man #3 is right. Go Hawks. Its hockey season. Unite Chicagoans. We actually have a winning club, and I'll be the first one to tell you... I'm jumpin' on this bandwagon while I can.