Blackhawks Make Cover Of Sports Illustrated, Which Is Actually A Very Big Deal Considering The Fact That SI Never Features Hockey Teams In Season

The Franchise That Brought Hockey Back: @nhlblackhawks are your national cover bit.ly/ZwVCFt twitter.com/SInow/status/3…

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 12, 2013

I know the haters will say this isn’t a big deal, well fuck that, this IS a big deal. Look at the past decade of SI covers. 15 total. 1 with MJ taking the whole cover, 1 commemorative for Yzerman, and 1 for when a fan died. So really only 12 genuine Hockey covers in  the past 11 years, and all of them were either previews or Stanley Cup Champion covers. If you look back on the entire NHL archive, this actually looks like the first time a team has been ever featured in season (not counting playoff previews or Lemieux’s Comeback etc). That’s wild.

So yeah. This is a big deal. Do you know how hard it is to get any major media outlet to acknowledge Hockey? ESPN trots out Barry Melrose for 2 minutes a night, and half the time he has to sit there and compare Hockey to some other sport because that’s the kind of pointless shit ESPN thinks is important. So for the Hawks to get a cover in the middle of March means something. They didn’t go with the Heat, or Lebron James, or any College basketball team. They chose the Blackhawks. Makes you think that anyone hating the streak probably is just a hater in general and doesn’t fully understand how impressive it was. Good to see these guys, and hockey in general, get the credit they deserve on a national stage.

PS
This quote from Kaner sums up the Heat vs Blackhawks argument in my opinion.

(Source) “The Miami Heat can win 15, 16 games in a row, but how many teams can really win an NBA Title? Three? Four? I mean, the Kings won the Cup as an eight seed last year. In our league, if the 30th team beats the first team one night, it’s not a big deal. No game is a gimme,” said Kane (PAGE 36)