Chicago Blackhawks: Repeating Chicago Bulls history with Detroit
The Chicago Blackhawks had to overcome Detroit at some point, which is something their United Center roommates had to do as well.
The Chicago Blackhawks had a lot of success in the 2010s. They won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013, and 2015. They deserve a lot of credit for getting themselves over the hump. They did, however, have to slay the dragon that was the Detroit Red Wings at some point. They are not the only team that plays at the United Center that had to do that at some point either.
“The Last Dance” documentary on ESPN is something that made it clear how difficult it was for the Chicago Bulls to overcome the Detroit Pistons in the late ’80s and early ’90’s. The Bulls lost to Detroit in three straight playoff seasons and the Pistons won it all in the latter two. In order for Michael Jordan and the Bulls to do it, they needed to get through Detroit. In 1991, they finally beat them in the Eastern Conference Finals and ultimately beat the Los Angeles Lakers to win their first-ever NBA title.
Well, similar actions took place in the hockey world 20 years later. In 2009, the Red Wings were the defending Stanley Cup Champions heading into their Western Conference Finals series with a very young Chicago Blackhawks team. Detroit beat Chicago to go to their second straight Stanley Cup Final. They had players with similar skillsets to Chicago but the Hawks just needed to get over the hump.
Detroit was eliminated in 2010 before they got to Chicago who ended up winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years. It was amazing that Chicago won it all and is probably the best year in their franchise’s history. With that said, they didn’t have to go through their arch-rival to get there which would have been just a little more fun.
2013 was different for the two clubs. They both had fantastic regular seasons led by players like Pavel Datsyuk, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Henrik Zetterberg. They met in the second round of the playoffs and had one of the most epic series of the decade. Detroit went up 3 games to 1 over the President’s Trophy-winning Blackhawks. The Hawks came all the way back and won game seven in overtime. They would then go on to win their second Cup in four seasons about a month later.
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The Blackhawks getting over the Red Wings came in a little bit of a different way than the Bulls overcoming the Pistons but it needed to be done just the same in both sports. It is interesting that in order for Chicago to rise to the occasion both times, the Detroit team just happened to have the crown as the power of the conference. Both the Bulls and Blackhawks became dynasties in their sports and Chicago is lucky to have had them both in a relatively short amount of time.