Blackhawks End The Season With A Farewell To Sharpy
On the last night of a disappointing season we got to celebrate an incredible career. Patrick Sharp has meant so much to this franchise. It felt great to stand and applaud a guy who helped change the course of the franchise forever. His play and leadership were an essential part of three Stanley Cups. Taking a trip down memory lane allowed us end the season with a smile on our faces, because this has been an incredible era. It’s still great to be a Hawks fan, and that’s not something the generation before us could say.
Like most of you, I’ve been going to Blackhawks games for a long time. When things were bad in the late 90s and early 2000s, my dad and I still went to a bunch of games. But the motivation for buying tickets was different. It was “hey, Peter Forsberg is in town, let’s go see him” or “Lemieux is coming out of retirement, let’s go see him” or “Hawks-Wings, at least there should some fans there, let’s go watch those guys”. Then probably in 2006 it started to change just a little. It became “hey…let’s go see OUR guys”. Our guys were Sharp, Keith, and Seabrook. For the first time in years there was hope and reason to go see the Blackhawks instead of the team they were playing. I think most hockey fans in Chicago were hopeful that those three would bring the Hawks back to a playoff level. What has happened in the 10+ years since then has been beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. And Patrick Sharp was right at the center of it all.
Advertisement
Sharp and that group of guys changed the culture of the franchise. The Blackhawks at the time were ranked as the worst franchise in all of professional sports, but Sharp and company restored pride in that logo and in locker room. It meant something to be a Blackhawk again. To commit to the indian. The foundation was set and when Toews, Kane, Byfuglien, Ladd, Hossa, Hjalmarsson, and the cavalry came in it was off to the races. In 4 years the Blackhawks went from a laughing stock to lifting the Stanley Cup.
Speaking of Stanley Cups, I want to pull back the curtain just a little. Because Barstool, Big Cat’s friendship with some of the guys, and my friendship with Scott Darling, I got to party with the team and the Stanley Cup back in 2015. Honestly, one of the best nights of my life…but I couldn’t have been more nervous or felt more out of place at the beginning of the night. Kinda sat back at Tavern, took a few pictures, and was gonna leave. I think Sharp could maybe sense that I was a bit uncomfortable and so he told me that we were leaving and to go get the Cup which was behind the bar. So Seabs and I went and grabbed the Cup and walked it on the Bus and off we all went. That’s the kinda guy he is. He makes people feel apart of the group, even if they obviously aren’t.
Like any team or big group of people, small cliques are going to form. Shaw had his group with Saad. Keith and Seabrook were always around each other. Kane had his big group of buddies in town with him. The Finnish guys got their own table at every bar and never talked to anyone. Sharp was the only guy who seemed to be in every group. Obviously one of the more popular guys on the team and he felt good with everyone, even the Finnish guys. It was a dynamic I didn’t really expect, but made sense the more you got to know Sharp and the team. He was a guy who competed hard, but could also keep the locker room loose. Knew when to be serious and when to keep it light and seemed to know which buttons to press with each group of guys to keep things going. And that’s how you win Stanley Cups. Every team has talent. The Blackhawks won because they had a shit TON of talent, but they all played with bite and all pulled in the same direction. Not only did they win, but they did it in the most enjoyable way ever. Skill everywhere, toughness, resilience, relentless. THAT was the culture and it made being a Hawks fan the best thing in sports. You could tell how important Sharp was to the guys in the locker room when they did the tribute, and Kane told him to take a farewell lap around the UC for one last skate. Kane got a little emotional and so did the 22,000 in the rink
They say you can’t go home again, but…you gotta try. And that’s why I’ve never criticized Stan Bowman for bringing back former Stanley Cup Champions. Whether it was Ladd, Versteeg, Oduya, or Sharp…it’s so hard to find that winning formula. That chemistry is so fleeting. If you’re close, why not reach back one more time and try to recapture the magic you once had? Stan had to try with those guys because he, as much as anyone, knew how special they were and how rare it was. It was a Golden Age, and now with Sharp’s retirement the first core member has retired, time has passed, and door has closed. If the Blackhawks do win again, even with Kane and Toews, that’ll be a completely different era. So I’ll miss Sharpy. Great player, good dude, and the heart beat of the Dynasty.
PS: #10ToTheRafters
If you win three Stanley Cups, I think you’re number should be retired. 19, 88, 10, 2, 7, 4, and 81…hang those numbers up there so we can look up and remember how great we had it for a stretch of 10 years that has absolutely flown by.