Congratulations and Moving Forward

First I had to put this.


That's nice, isn't it?  Let's just savor that for a moment.

I've let it sink in for a day and it is really nice.  My eldest went to the store yesterday to buy blank tee shirts to make us all Blackhawk championship shirts.  She is actually very good at that sort of thing.

I promised myself after 2010 that if the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup again I would learn to in-line skate and how to play hockey.  I'm not sure when I'm going to start that, but it will probably be soon.  I just hope it's not too hard to learn.

I wanted to share another thing with you.  Now a-days they call them memes.  I think of them more as motivational images.  I had one years ago of a closeup of what looks like a Rugby ruck and the caption is Jack Dempsey's quote, "A champion is someone who gets up even when they can't."  I loaned it to my Father when he was battling cancer.  I was reminded of this sort of thing the other day so I put this together:

Way to go, you Hawks!

Here is my Stanley Cup story.  For Game 6 we were at home and put the game on fairly early in the first period.  The Bruins looked like they had fire in their eyes, a desperation that the Blackhawks were just not matching.  The Hawks looked hesitant, slow and not too interested in really getting into it physically or with speed.  Then Boston scored and I thought to myself, "This is going to Game 7."

I didn't want to see the Blackhawks wimp around so I went down to the basement to work on some stuff.  I could still hear my older two in the family room whenever something important happened.  When I had to I walked through the house.  Some of the things I had to do required me to move from the basement to the first floor and to the upstairs. 

Mrs. Prop was in our bedroom watching with our youngest.  She would change the channel when things got too tense and/or at commercials.

I did see the first Blackhawks goal, the Toews goal where he took it from the faceoff and pretty much single handedly drove down and stuffed it right between Rask's legs in the 5 hole.  He did it right in front of everybody.  They say the way to beat top line goalies is to not let them see it coming.  They can't stop what they can't see, but Rask saw that coming all the way and there was just something about the way Toews did it that he could not stop.

I had a sort of feeling that I didn't really recognize until yesterday.  At that point I realized that Jonathan Toews would not let this game end in regulation with a loss.  The Blackhawks were not going to lose in regulation that night.  He was going to win it or at least keep it tied into overtime.

It was still too much to take, too much to watch directly.  I had to keep watching from the fringes.

I was upstairs doing something and saw the Bruins' score their second goal.  My oldest screamed, "No!" for a minute, but I also saw how the Blackhawks were skating so much better, with a better sense of urgency and purpose.  I was worried that it would go to a Game 7, but I also thought that they would probably tie it up again.

Eventually it got to be time to get ready for bed.  I still had to get up at 3:00.  I went upstairs with about three and a half minutes left.

I talked to Mrs. Prop for a bit.  I mentioned that there was plenty of time to tie the game again, but not enough time to get the winning goal and then went into the bathroom to brush my teeth.  I closed the door.

You know how long it takes to brush your teeth?  It only takes about two minutes.  I heard my youngest make a little squeaking sound.  A few seconds later I heard Mrs. Prop say something like, "Holy shit!"

I figured that the Blackhawks had indeed tied the game again.  After all, how could they score two goals in that time?  If they had scored the winning goal wouldn't I have heard my very loud teens screaming and yelling?

I finished brushing and came out of the bathroom.  Mrs. Prop had already changed the channel to "Criminal Minds" or something.  I said, "What was the noise I heard; a scary movie?"  They said that it was.

I got into bed and they asked me to plug my ears and close my eyes.  I know now that they were checking to see if the third goal held.  Then she told me that they had won.

I said, "What, how, who?"  but the other two came charging up cheering.  I had to wait to watch them hand around the Cup for a while before they showed any replay and I found out what had happened.  In less time than it takes to brush your teeth the Chicago Blackhawks had gone from losing Game 6 to winning the Stanley Cup.

Which puts me in mind of this:

I have to hand it to the Boston Bruins.  They are a heck of a team.  If they hadn't been playing against my Chicago Blackhawks, I'd have been rooting for them.  I like smashmouth football.  I don't like the passing all the time, glamor, flash, all offense all the time football.

The Bruins play smashmouth hockey.  Their success is driven by tight team play delivered aggressively and hard.  I know the city of Boston was really looking forward to an emotional lift after the struggles and pain of the Marathon Bombings.

In the end the Blackhawks played just as tough as Boston did, but the Chicago Blackhawks played with toughness and skill, speed and flash.  Boston ended up having to resort to brutality.

The Blackhawks were the better team, the tougher team and they are my team.

Congratulations!