tshilton

First off I have to thank Mark Gage and Kevin Lee for giving me the opportunity to be your STB Chicago Blackhawks blogger.

So why the Blackhawks? first off is their Jerseys, even before those amazing winter classic jerseys, as a kid I always thought the Blackhawks jersey to be the best; it turns out so does the The Hockey News who’s staff voted the team’s main logo to be the best in the NHL. Then there is the history, original six team, Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito plus that haunting pipe organ, other teams played music but it wasn’t the same, it’s as if the Blackhawks could give you a throwback feeling before anyone had thought of creating “throwback Jerseys”.

Then came Murray Bannerman, not the most romantic of favorite players but I played goalie in minor hockey and between the ages of 5-10 picking a favorite player based on their mask seemed as good a reason as any.



I actually had the chance to meet Murray at the height of my childhood appreciation for him, in Maple Leaf Gardens. I was sitting in the golds (I believe that to be the colour) like ten rows from the away team bench, when the security guard blocking the entrance to the bench left for a couple minutes I was able to sneak down at my Dad’s advice and ask Murray for his autograph. He respectfully declined as he was having equipment trouble and was missing preparation time working on his gear. As a young hockey crazed boy, with no mind for equipment problems at the time, I was crushed.

Last reason I fell in love with the Blackhawks NHL94, I schooled so many of my friends with that team, bring the puck off the boards with Jeremy Roenick then shoot, automatic goal. Jeremy recently did an interview about it saying “I get more people talking to me about my video game prowess than my regular NHL game prowess. I’ve had people who have come up to me and say, “Thank goodness for you. I got through college because I played Jeremy Roenick in the video games.” I think I’m like the fourth best ever athletes in video game history, so that is definitely a claim to fame that I will use, especially with my son.”

Of course years later just how good Jeremy was in that game was immortalized in the film Swingers by Chicago native Vince Vaughn “who promised we was going to make little Gretzky’s head bleed” and did, then quipped “It’s not so much me as it is Roenick. He’s that good,” after scoring a goal with Roenick.

I’ll be back tonight with my first real Chicago Blackhawks post, with a post game analysis of their road matchup against the Phoenix Coyotes

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