Make no mistake- the 2010s Chicago Blackhawks are not the 1990s Chicago Bulls, but they’re getting there. They’ll probably dismiss the L.A. Kings in this series, like they did last year, and then we’ll see that happens in the Stanley Cup Final. A third title this half-decade would constitute a dynasty. What’s the big deal about one more? Three versus two?
Because “Three is a magic number,” like the Blind Melon song tells you. We all know the rule of three. Two is just “repeating” or coincidence. While three would be a very huge deal.
And that’s only HALF of what Michael Jordan and the Bulls achieved. But on a certain level, Patrick Kane and the Blackhawks are already in the same pantheon as MJ and the Bulls. From one point of view they’re already on par.
I’ll explain.
There’s nothing else left to be written or discussed about the Blackhawks. There are no more feature stories or analysis, or analysis of analysis left to be done. At least on a local level in Chicago. Maybe you national people haven’t heard it all before, but here in The Second City, every possible angle has already been exhausted. The final narrative of interest was the “Is Kaner as clutch as Jordan?” debate. Those stories have already been done en masse. I’m glad they were produced, but we certainly don’t need another one.
And I’m at a loss for as to what is still to left to analyzed that would be original and fresh.
The 1990s Bulls were exactly the same way. With Jordan, Pippen and company they won so much it got boring. You just expected it. Towards the end of the Bulls dynasty, you didn’t even pay attention at all during the regular season. And you didn’t really start paying attention until the conference finals or the NBA Finals.
At least Rodman was such a goofy-ass weirdo that he gave us something new to talk about. This Blackhawks team all have public personas that a corporation would love. They’re fun on the ice, but too vanilla off of it. Sadly, even Kaner is included in that group now. Hopefully, Corey Crawford drops some F-bombs or something again soon. Lebron James and the Miami Heat are getting there. This year’s NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs have been way more intriguing than this year’s NBA playoffs. And I don’t say that lightly because basketball is my favorite sport.
This will sound blasphemous to many sports fans, but winning gets boring after awhile. It can get just as boring as losing. Because both can become inherently predictable. You’ve heard the old adage, “for every gorgeous woman alive, there’s at least one man out there who is tired of sleeping with her.” You wouldn’t think so at first, but…Tiger Woods had Elin Nordegren at home, yet he……Hugh Grant had Liz Hurley at home and he……well, you get the idea. Yes, even Kate Upton. Someday it will even happen to her.
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With the Blackhawks this “routine” seemed to settle in much faster because it’s a completely different media era than 1998. With the internet and social media, the news cycle moves light years faster than it did in the 1990s. Everything gets hyped up, spreads around and then gets played out quicker than ever. This is no fault of the Blackhawks, they’re just doing their job.
And they’re story was initially more compelling than the Bulls, because their rise was from totalitarian in nature. They rose from complete obscurity to become the hottest ticket in town. The Blackhawks went from sad sacks to dynasty. Pretty much overnight, if you look at the long term view. Remember in 2008, no one cared and I mean NO ONE CARED about the Blackhawks, and by 2010 they were hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup.
In 2010, the Blackhawks title run was great for my business. Last year, it did nada. June was my lowest traffic month by far, and May was right down there next to it. This year? The Blackhawks deep playoff run is doing nothing for me as a business man and media personality. I enjoy it as a fan. I appreciate it as it my hometown team, but again everything’s already been said.
We really don’t need any more Blackhawks coverage, regardless of how this series or the next one turns out. It’s already covered.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks, a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, has been featured in numerous outlets including NFL.com, Forbes and the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)