The Bears weren’t the only Chicago team to show dramatic and unexpected improvement this fall. The Blackhawks did also, even though they, like the Bears, made no major additions during the off-season. They had, however, hired a new coach, the businesslike (and English-speaking) Brian Sutter, and his more organized approach to the game produced instant results. Playing focused, purposeful hockey, the Hawks got off to an impressive 12-4-3 start before embarking on their annual early road trip to allow the circus to take up residence in the United Center. But although the Bears enjoyed a run of good fortune that built their confidence and carried them through a difficult part of their schedule, the Hawks had no such luck.
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After sitting out the Stanley Cup playoffs the last four years, back in training camp the Hawks would have considered just making the postseason–finishing in the top eight in the conference–a triumph. But the team’s fast start raised expectations among the Hawks’ dwindling fan base. Those were expectations that greatly needed to be raised: aside from a grudge match with the archrival Red Wings, the Hawks couldn’t draw 20,000 to the UC in the early going, and a couple of times attendance came dangerously close to slipping below 10,000. A large crowd would have welcomed the Hawks back from a strong road trip, but there were vast areas of empty seats at every level as their homecoming game began against the Vancouver Canucks; there was barely enough activity to disperse the lingering barnyard smell of the circus. Were the Hawks really improved, or had they simply taken advantage of typically sloppy early-season play under the influence of their disciplined new coach? The fans wondered.
The Hawks left the ice to don their helmets and clear the way for the pregame scoreboard presentation. I’m not sure why the Bulls’ similar show strikes me as so overblown while the Hawks’ feels mystical and ritualistic, but once again that was my reaction to the montage of the UC’s outdoor hockey statue and glimpses of stars like Hull, Stan Mikita, and Tony Esposito. Then the encircling stadium message boards played an eerie, evocative “Here…come…the…Hawks,” and organist Frank Pellico burst into the team’s theme song of that title as the players took the ice. The crowd of 11,773 gave an admirable roar during the national anthem, considering their relatively small numbers; with about half of them wearing Hawks jerseys of some sort, this was a coterie of the most devoted.
Thibault is often brilliant but always overworked, and during a break in play in the second period he turned his back to center ice, took off his mask, placed it on the top of the net, and rested his head in the crook of his arm like Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. At that point, he’d played in 25 of the team’s 26 games, and one couldn’t help thinking he was a part of the team’s early success that couldn’t possibly hold up over the whole season.
