c9777666
Registered User
- Aug 31, 2016
- 19,892
- 5,875
For any Blackhawk fans who remember the unexpected oasis/outlier that was 2001-02, I'm interested to get your thoughts on this team, the one positive breakthrough in that rough stretch between Roenick/Belfour and Kane/Toews. It's a team that I find intriguing in retrospect, a team we thought would break out but unlike the late 2000s could not capitalize.
During that dreadful stretch from 1997-98 to 2006-07 between the Roenick/Belfour and Toews/Kane eras, the Blackhawks managed to sneak into the playoffs during a time when the franchise was mostly in tatters save for one surprise season.
And it wasn’t one of those fluky types of ways to get into the postseason for a rare time amidst a stretch of less than amazing hockey (ie 2013 Maple Leafs in the lockout shortened season, 2011-12 Florida Panthers with their 18 OT/shootout loser point games).
They won 41 games and registered 96 points!
They did it with a roster that, in a way, had no business finishing with as gaudy a record as they did.
Eric Daze scored 38 goals, an impressive total considering this was the deadest of the dead puck era days. He also played in every game that season for the only time in his career, not to mention won an All Star Game MVP (albeit a highly controversial selection, but an ASG MVP nonetheless).
Alexei Zhamnov’s best season by far as a Blackhawk- career highs in points (67) and games played (77).
Phil Housley at age 37 scored 15 goals, the 2nd most goals he scored in a season outside of his Buffalo/Winnipeg years (After 1993, only did better outside this year with 16 goals in 1995-96 with Calgary prior to the New Jersey trade)
Tony Amonte had his fewest goals as a Blackhawk (27) outside of the 48 game 1995 season following a 6 year stretch where he scored no fewer than 31 goals in full seasons.
Steve Sullivan and Michael Nylander both registered 60 point seasons.
Even Kyle Calder chipped in 53 points. And Steve Thomas had 11 goals in 34 games.
Jocelyn Thibault for the only time in his career won 30+ games (33-23-9, 2.49 GAA, 6 shutouts), yet ironically made his only All Star Game the following year.
And they were coached by of all people Brian Sutter, an old Blues nemesis as a player (80s Norris Division) and a coach (1991 St. Patrick’s Day Massacre).
This was a very interesting collection of guys thrown together for that year.
Compared to other notable outlier teams, they didn’t have the offensive firepower of the 1989-90 Toronto Maple Leafs, they didn’t have a badass roster like the 1992-93 Quebec Nordiques, and they certainly weren’t a right place right time team ala the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes.
It was a roster that perhaps didn’t set the world ablaze on paper that somehow found a way to make it work.
At one point that January, they were right on the heels of the legendary 2002 Red Wings- only 6 points back in the Central Division.
At the All Star break, they had the 2nd best record in the Western Conference and the 3rd best record in the entire league!
They had a very impressive 28-7-6 home record at the United Center considering the building back then wasn’t quite as loud as it would be in future years.
These Blackhawks with that roster on paper drastically overachieved, especially compared with the 2002 Capitals (Jagr, Bondra, Oates, Gonchar) with a roster on paper that drastically underachieved.
And they did this in a stacked, tightly packed Western Conference where, outside of the 116-point Red Wings, the 2-8 seeds were separated by only 5 points (between 94-99 points) and there were two 90+ point teams that actually missed the playoffs (Edmonton and Dallas)
This Chicago team finished with only three fewer points than the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche team that was part of a legendary showdown in the Western Conference Finals, which is hard to believe considering the talent gap between those teams.
How Brian Sutter did not win the Jack Adams Award for dragging this roster to that Gaudy record..... no offense to Bob Francis (who won the award last year for what he did with a Phoenix team that lost Roenick AND Tkachuk), but what Sutter did with that team considering what the team had been and would be was sensational.
Unfortunately, this sensational story did not have a happy ending.
They stumbled badly after the Olympic break (8 wins in their final 22 games) and ended up not getting home ice advantage.
In the playoffs, they faced a stacked Blues team (Pronger, MacInnis, Tkachuk, Weight, Demitra). They won game 1 on the road.
And then?
Well, Brent Johnson of all people registered three straight shutouts.
Of course, this was the Dead Puck Era, he had a HHOF blueline in front of him, and Patrick Lalime was also doing the exact same thing to a stacked Flyers team that actually had the same record as the Blackhawks that year.).
And he went 206 minutes and 45 seconds without allowing a goal. Brent Johnson!
No home playoff goals at the United Center. 4 straight losses. 5 goals in 5 games.
And just like that, the magic was gone. And it turned out to be fleeting- Amonte left in free agency, they gambled and lost on Theo Fleury, they frittered away any momentum from 2002, and fell hard to the point where just two years later, they were ranked the worst franchise in sports.
But in 2002, for one surprising season, they somehow made it look like that things might get better before they got worse.
But still, quite a year.
I’m interested to see what you Blackhawks fans who remember this team have to say about this team considering it was a rare oasis during a time that is mostly not remembered too fondly by Chicagoans.
Or any hockey fans in general from that time who remember this insanely positive outlier during a mostly negative era of Wimdy City hockey.
During that dreadful stretch from 1997-98 to 2006-07 between the Roenick/Belfour and Toews/Kane eras, the Blackhawks managed to sneak into the playoffs during a time when the franchise was mostly in tatters save for one surprise season.
And it wasn’t one of those fluky types of ways to get into the postseason for a rare time amidst a stretch of less than amazing hockey (ie 2013 Maple Leafs in the lockout shortened season, 2011-12 Florida Panthers with their 18 OT/shootout loser point games).
They won 41 games and registered 96 points!
They did it with a roster that, in a way, had no business finishing with as gaudy a record as they did.
Eric Daze scored 38 goals, an impressive total considering this was the deadest of the dead puck era days. He also played in every game that season for the only time in his career, not to mention won an All Star Game MVP (albeit a highly controversial selection, but an ASG MVP nonetheless).
Alexei Zhamnov’s best season by far as a Blackhawk- career highs in points (67) and games played (77).
Phil Housley at age 37 scored 15 goals, the 2nd most goals he scored in a season outside of his Buffalo/Winnipeg years (After 1993, only did better outside this year with 16 goals in 1995-96 with Calgary prior to the New Jersey trade)
Tony Amonte had his fewest goals as a Blackhawk (27) outside of the 48 game 1995 season following a 6 year stretch where he scored no fewer than 31 goals in full seasons.
Steve Sullivan and Michael Nylander both registered 60 point seasons.
Even Kyle Calder chipped in 53 points. And Steve Thomas had 11 goals in 34 games.
Jocelyn Thibault for the only time in his career won 30+ games (33-23-9, 2.49 GAA, 6 shutouts), yet ironically made his only All Star Game the following year.
And they were coached by of all people Brian Sutter, an old Blues nemesis as a player (80s Norris Division) and a coach (1991 St. Patrick’s Day Massacre).
This was a very interesting collection of guys thrown together for that year.
Compared to other notable outlier teams, they didn’t have the offensive firepower of the 1989-90 Toronto Maple Leafs, they didn’t have a badass roster like the 1992-93 Quebec Nordiques, and they certainly weren’t a right place right time team ala the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes.
It was a roster that perhaps didn’t set the world ablaze on paper that somehow found a way to make it work.
At one point that January, they were right on the heels of the legendary 2002 Red Wings- only 6 points back in the Central Division.
At the All Star break, they had the 2nd best record in the Western Conference and the 3rd best record in the entire league!
They had a very impressive 28-7-6 home record at the United Center considering the building back then wasn’t quite as loud as it would be in future years.
These Blackhawks with that roster on paper drastically overachieved, especially compared with the 2002 Capitals (Jagr, Bondra, Oates, Gonchar) with a roster on paper that drastically underachieved.
And they did this in a stacked, tightly packed Western Conference where, outside of the 116-point Red Wings, the 2-8 seeds were separated by only 5 points (between 94-99 points) and there were two 90+ point teams that actually missed the playoffs (Edmonton and Dallas)
This Chicago team finished with only three fewer points than the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche team that was part of a legendary showdown in the Western Conference Finals, which is hard to believe considering the talent gap between those teams.
How Brian Sutter did not win the Jack Adams Award for dragging this roster to that Gaudy record..... no offense to Bob Francis (who won the award last year for what he did with a Phoenix team that lost Roenick AND Tkachuk), but what Sutter did with that team considering what the team had been and would be was sensational.
Unfortunately, this sensational story did not have a happy ending.
They stumbled badly after the Olympic break (8 wins in their final 22 games) and ended up not getting home ice advantage.
In the playoffs, they faced a stacked Blues team (Pronger, MacInnis, Tkachuk, Weight, Demitra). They won game 1 on the road.
And then?
Well, Brent Johnson of all people registered three straight shutouts.
Of course, this was the Dead Puck Era, he had a HHOF blueline in front of him, and Patrick Lalime was also doing the exact same thing to a stacked Flyers team that actually had the same record as the Blackhawks that year.).
And he went 206 minutes and 45 seconds without allowing a goal. Brent Johnson!
No home playoff goals at the United Center. 4 straight losses. 5 goals in 5 games.
And just like that, the magic was gone. And it turned out to be fleeting- Amonte left in free agency, they gambled and lost on Theo Fleury, they frittered away any momentum from 2002, and fell hard to the point where just two years later, they were ranked the worst franchise in sports.
But in 2002, for one surprising season, they somehow made it look like that things might get better before they got worse.
But still, quite a year.
I’m interested to see what you Blackhawks fans who remember this team have to say about this team considering it was a rare oasis during a time that is mostly not remembered too fondly by Chicagoans.
Or any hockey fans in general from that time who remember this insanely positive outlier during a mostly negative era of Wimdy City hockey.
