It’s fitting that Patrick Kane (KANER!!!), the face of the Chicago Blackhawks franchise (and Team USA Hockey) was the man who scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal in overtime. And it was a goal that absolutely NO ONE watching on television was actually aware off.
Hell, most of the people on the ice didn’t even know it was an actual goal at the time. And this was huge for Kaner, who became a rock star last summer when he made headlines for getting drunk and then getting arrested for beating the crap out of a cabbie in his hometown of Buffalo.
That was his first hit single. But tonight was his masterwork supported by an orchestra.
By Paul M. Banks
His rock star status grew in midseason when he was pictured shirtless with below average looking women in a Vancouver limousine. This gave him another “hit single” from a media perspective, and conveyed that he’s working on a “platinum album.” And it was the type of thing that people like me enjoying writing about and sharing on the internet.
And June 9th, 2010: the overtime game-winner, this is Kane’s “grammy,” or “rock n roll hall of fame induction.” The overall #1 pick in 2007 put the finishing touches on what was a very special season for him, me, and my website. I have to thank Kane and his teammates for making this happen!
This is the first time I’ve covered a team regularly in all my journalistic career that won the WHOLE THING. I was at Stanley Cup Media Day, I had a credential for EVERY home playoff game in 2009.
In the three years this site has been in existence, this is the first of all our teams to WIN THE TITLE! The Sports Bank is based in Chicago, it’s first and foremost about the Chi. But it’s also a Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio sports site. And we came close in ’08, when three of the site’s four teams (White Sox, Cubs, Brewers) all made the playoffs in the same season. The site’s fourth and final team, the Twins, made it to game 163 that season. The Vikings and Packers have also come close recently.
Michigan State was in the Final Four this past spring, and the national title game the year before. So we’ve seen “good” here at TSB since it started on February 19th, 2008, but we haven’t seen “great.” Until tonight- Kane and company showed us that! It took one year shy of a half-century for The Chi to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup again, but it was well worth the wait.
One drought down, three to go.
1908- you’ve heard that year enough times to consider stabbing your ears in with a tree branch. 1949- Northwestern, it’s on you to get a bowl. And the NCAA Tournament. Hey Wildcats, the tourney is expanding, gotta get that first ever dance ticket now. Even Bud Bundy on “Married with Children” lost his virginity eventually.
The weekend before Memorial Day, I vacationed to Vancouver. When I told locals I was from Chicago, a few said that they did not like me very much. I texted this to my friend Chris “C-Murder” Hellinga who responded: “tell ’em you guys got the gold, we’ll get the Cup.” Hell yeah, we did!
Right now you may be wondering how a short one-off that started by discussing the Blackhawks’ magical season and the ups-and-downs of Patrick Kane’s 2009-2010 degenerated into a self-serving reflection on the development of the media production business I founded. But it all comes full circle.
Kane’s rookie year is the same as The Sports Bank.
And just recently, we here at TSB passed the half-million page views mark; a small soiree celebrating this is upcoming, A big party will be thrown for the million page views party next year.
I may have to get drunk and beat up a cab-driver for 20 cents. Or get shirtless in a rented limo with mediocre-at-best looking women. (Anyone who knows me there’s a one-in-a-zillion chance of those things happening) On this hot summer night, the Blackhawks HISTORICAL win has signified the official start of shirtless driving season.