Sport-scan daily brief

Emery and Handzus both expressed desires to remain with the Hawks.

"I'd like to stay here but we'll see how that goes," said Emery, who likely will receive offers to start for other teams after serving as Corey Crawford's backup. "I like playing a lot but I like winning too. It's really exciting being on a championship team. If you can repeat a championship, that's something I'd take in any role."

Said Handzus: "I love it here. I would love to stay."

In the case of Mayers, Bowman might not have a hand in the decision as the veteran is contemplating retirement after 15 seasons in the NHL.

"I realize where I am in my career," Mayers said. "(A decision) will play itself out in the next couple of weeks. If I do walk away, I can walk away as a champion and not many people can say that."

Leddy is a prime candidate for an offer sheet from another team, but Bowman said, "He wants to stay here and I expect to get a contract done with him. … We're not letting Nick go."

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.28.2013

682670 Chicago Blackhawks

Quenneville's magnificent balancing act

David Haugh's In the Wake of the News

8:20 PM CDT, June 27, 2013

By the time Joel Quenneville finally boarded the Blackhawks team plane after their cathartic Stanley Cup celebration, the champagne on his suit had dried but adrenaline still coursed through his veins.

Even around 2 a.m. Tuesday, Quenneville still felt like chatting about his team achieving the hardest trophy in sports to win, the one he used to dream about hoisting as a kid learning the game in the Riverside Minor Hockey Association in Windsor, Ontario.

So the first call Quenneville made after winning his second Cup went to the person who would understand most what the championship meant to him. He knew the number by heart. Gloria Quenneville has lived on St. Mary's Boulevard since Joel grew his first mustache.

"My mum watched most of the playoff games by herself but on that night she had all the kids and their husbands and wives and said, 'It was unbelievable,''' said Quenneville, who has two brothers and two sisters. "I'm so happy they got to celebrate at the house. She said they all went crazy and were dancing.

"They later told me my mum had the best time of her life. At the end, my mum said, 'I think I might have had too much to drink.'''

Quenneville laughed heartily sharing the story of his 81-year-old mother getting tipsy toasting his success. A Stanley Cup hangover indeed.

How many people in Chicago can relate during days full of imbibing that turned into an impromptu Blackhawks Convention culminating with Friday's parade? Before it ends, raise a glass to the most level-headed legend a sports city could want, a hockey lifer who humbly acknowledged the history he made becoming only Chicago's fourth coach of a major pro sports team to win multiple titles.

Phil Jackson of the Bulls, George Halas of the Bears and Frank Chance of the Cubs are the others.

"I don't know about the rarity,'' Quenneville said. "This was one of those years so much fun you say, 'Wow, what a year.' So many special moments here — that's what I enjoy. I don't think about the other things.''

In a market like Chicago, others will. The way Quenneville embodies the image the city embraces — a rugged yet regular guy regarded as a winner — increases his Q rating. Yet asked Thursday whether he would try to supplement his income through endorsements a la Mike Ditka circa 1986, Quenneville practically answered in a whisper.

"I'm not worried about that stuff,'' Quenneville said. "I'm just happy here.''

Here where the Quennevilles feel a sense of belonging in a Hinsdale neighborhood full of friends forgiven for decorating his yard with toilet paper. Here where the Blackhawks shrewdly signed Quenneville as a pro scout in September 2008, beginning a five-year plan that would have sounded silly to say out loud. Here where Quenneville began the season within one bad losing streak of losing his job and ended it with an offseason contract extension a matter of when, not if.

"There's no one else I'd rather have coaching this group,'' general manager Stan Bowman reiterated Thursday.

Almost everybody in the Hawks dressing room would concur. Quenneville's appeal goes beyond his consistent preparation and uncanny knack for juggling lines at the right time. Players appreciate the way Quenneville strikes the balance between giving them space and attention. Patrick Sharp praised Quenneville during the Stanley Cup Final for helping him "not only on the ice but in my personal life." Playing 803 NHL games taught Quenneville where the line exists and when to cross it.

"I'm very respectful of the separation, where they're at and where I'm at,'' Quenneville said.

It helps that Quenneville communicates clear goals for each player in quarterly meetings. The first one establishes individual roles. The rest serve as hockey report cards. No Hall of Fame coach grades on the curve.

"Sometimes with older guys, you get good feedback that's healthy for the process,'' Quenneville said. "Or sometimes you might have other meetings when you need to get their attention.''

No such meeting happened when Quenneville benched Viktor Stalberg for parts of the playoffs. Sometimes, Quenneville the taskmaster still prefers strong actions over words.

"I approached him but we didn't talk,'' Stalberg said.

Since beating the Bruins in the most dramatic Cup Final-clinching game ever, Quenneville has been chattier than ever thanking people and deflecting praise. But the trademark mask of intensity behind the glass has been replaced by a relaxed, funny exterior his family recognized seeing Quenneville cavort with the Cup.

"My kids tell me I'm a goofball,'' Quenneville said. "They were showing me with the Cup, what I was doing. I was like, 'I did that?'''

Thanks to the resilient team Coach Q coaxed to another title, that wasn't the hardest thing to believe this week on the ice.

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.28.2013

682671 Chicago Blackhawks

Blackhawks faithful plot their pilgrImages

By Ellen Jean Hirst and Andy Grimm

11:06 PM CDT, June 27, 2013

The official Blackhawks victory parade starts on the Near West Side and winds up at a Grant Park rally, but for Cambridge, Mass., resident Jason Kedzuch, it begins nearly 900 miles east.

The Hoffman Estates native was set to roughly trace the route the Stanley Cup followed after the decisive Game 6 when he flew from Boston after work Thursday to Chicago for Friday's rally. Despite an 11 p.m. arrival Thursday, he intends to get up early to get a prime seat.

"It's part of the city's history, and I just want to be there," said Kedzuch, who moved to Massachusetts about a year ago and was at the Hawks' 2010 Stanley Cup rally.

The borders of Blackhawks Nation are vast, and Hawks fans from around the region — and the country — have planned their pilgrImages to see the Stanley Cup held aloft in Chicago. The Hawks' 2010 parade drew what officials estimated to be 2 million fans into downtown, more than any of the six similar rallies held in honor of each Bulls NBA title, or the 2005 White Sox World Series celebration. However, one former official this week estimated that the 2010 crowd was likely closer to a million people.

If this year's parade is anything like 2010's, it could attract swells of people who take off work — or, cough cough, call in sick — for a chance to celebrate, en masse, what some have called a miracle season.

Kedzuch watched Game 6 on Monday from a seat near the blue line in TD Garden, where the postgame mood was somber for all but the 1,000 or so Chicago fans in the Boston stadium after the Bruins' defeat. Kedzuch said he is looking forward to soaking up the afterglow among a few hundred thousand fanatics Friday.

"That last minute, 17 seconds (in Game 6) I can barely remember, just me jumping up and down so much I thought I was going to fall over the seats in front of me," said Kedzuch, 33.

"The Bruins fans were in such a state of shock they just kind of quietly shuffled out like zombies. … I'm really looking forward to being back in Chicago."

Jeff Fallon is eager to be back as well. He's hoping to nab a spot on the standby list for a 6:25 a.m. flight out of San Diego to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Friday morning. The flight would arrive at 11 a.m., about the time the rally is set to begin in Grant Park.

Fallon grew up playing hockey in the south suburbs and in leagues around the city until he moved to San Diego three years ago, about a month after the Hawks won the 2010 Cup. He watched almost every game of the Bruins series wearing a 2010 championship T-shirt at a San Diego bar that caters to Chicago expatriates.

"I've got to get back. I have to believe with the timing of this flight, that the grace of God will get me on the plane at 6:25," said Fallon, 42. If he misses that flight, he'll take another that arrives well after the rally starts.

"The flight at 9 gets in around 3 p.m., and I guess they might still be partying in Grant Park."

But most Hawks fans in the throngs along the parade route will have made far shorter journeys.

Mike Magers, 50, general manager of The Penalty Box Bar and Grill in Plainfield, plans to corral 150 Hawks fans onto three charter buses just after 7 a.m. Friday — wearing matching T-shirts provided by the bar — so they can ride in together from the southwest suburb.

"With the lockout this year and the season that they had, we've been packed from game one," Magers said. His buses were filled less than a day after he booked them. "This team is fan-oriented."

Cameron Herdt, 21, will take an Amtrak train from Milwaukee with his family and friends early Friday.

"I think this is when Chicago's at its best," Herdt said of the parade. "When everyone's there and celebrating their team."

Fans know that getting a good spot in Grant Park means arriving early.

Alexa Heinrich, 22, a Lincoln Park resident who has just a few miles to travel to the parade, said she's meeting about 20 of her Hawks-loving friends at the park before it even opens, about 6:30 a.m., with doughnuts and water in tow.

Heinrich and her friends watched the championship game at a bar before eventually making their way to O'Hare early Tuesday morning to welcome their Hawks home.

"If I get close enough to touch the Cup," Heinrich said, "that would make it for me."

Many fans long for an up-close gaze at Lord Stanley's chalice.

"Every hockey fans' dream is that their team will win the Stanley Cup," said Josh Holleb, 56, of Highland Park, "and then you get to see that holy grail. It's a neat trophy, each name is printed on there. ... There's a lot of hockey history there."

Holleb is taking the Metra into the city Friday morning with his 25-year-old son. They want to get into the rally — something they missed in 2010.

"I mean, I've been going to Blackhawks games since I was 4," Holleb said. "The reason I want to be able to see these guys up-close and personal (is) I really think this is a great group of kids who play on this team. … I want to be there to see what they have to say."

The chances of getting close to the players or the Cup are likely slim for most, but some fans say that isn't the point.

Sean Enos, 23, of Chicago, who organized a group on meetup.com for Blackhawks fans in the city, said Friday is all about mingling with a huge mass of fans who feel as passionately as he does.

"Even when I go to games, I know I'm not going to meet (any players) usually," Enos said. "The players get to know (at the rally) that there are more of us than could possibly fill any sports arena. They know that not only are there 22,000 people who come to every single Blackhawks game, but there's 2 million more who want to."

For Josh Ftacek, 34, who's driving from Bloomington with his older brother and two nephews, showing up to the parade is showing respect for the team.

"We want to say we appreciate you as much as you appreciate us," Ftacek said.

And as David Cheever, 43, of Lexington, said, no real Hawks fan would miss the parade because there's no guarantee when the next one will be.

"In 2010, it'd been 40-some years since the last championship," Cheever said. "We've been lucky to have lightening strike twice in four years, but you just don't know when it's going to come around again."

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.28.2013

682672 Chicago Blackhawks

Montador, Olesz to get buyouts from Hawks

By Chris Kuc

9:57 PM CDT, June 27, 2013

Steve Montador and Rostislav Olesz are about to depart the Blackhawks organization.

Hawks general manager Stan Bowman said Thursday the team will use its two compliance buyouts on the veteran players if they clear waivers as expected.

Following injuries, neither Montador nor Olesz played for the Hawks this year, instead suiting up for Rockford of the AHL. The buyouts — which were introduced with the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement, will save the Hawks some money under the salary cap. A buyout costs two-thirds of the remaining contract values and is charged against a team's salary cap as a percentage spread over twice the length of the remaining years.

Montador, 33, has two seasons remaining on a contract that carries a cap hit of $2.3 million next season and $1.8 million in '14-15. The 27-year-old Olesz has one year remaining on a deal that will pay him $4.25 million with a cap hit of $3.125 million. The players will become unrestricted free agents July 5 and the Hawks can't re-sign them.

"We've had young players emerge over the last couple of years so the decision is to move past those two players," Bowman said. "I wish them well. They certainly played well for us in Rockford and they're going to have a chance now to move on to continue their careers somewhere else."

Olesz's agent, Allan Walsh, said via e-mail that the winger who battled back from reconstructive knee surgery, "will be looking to resurrect his career with another NHL team. I was informed that several teams expressed interest in him at various times over the last two years and expect he will find a new NHL home."

Montador was a mainstay on the Hawks before suffering a concussion during the 2011-12 season and then suffered a relapse during an informal workout while the lockout continued.

Dazed: Dave Bolland said his game-winning goal in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Bruins that gave the Hawks their second title in four seasons still hasn't sunk in.

"I don't think it has yet," Bolland said. "I think it's still just roaming around in the air that I scored. I still look back at it and still can't believe it. It's a kid's dream to score that goal. And I did it. It's big and I'll ride with it right now."

As it did last year at this time, Bolland's name has popped up in trade rumors. The veteran center said he would like to stay with the Hawks but understands it's a business.

"I'd love to be back here next year," Bolland said. "It's the NHL and trades happen, but I'd love to be back here. I love Chicago. Things like this go around the league, that's the game, that's what happens."

Battered: Andrew Shaw was looking rather haggard during a media session Thursday at the United Center. The forward revealed he played with a broken rib during the postseason and is sporting two sets of stitches on his face and swelling under his right eye after getting hit with a puck during Game 6.

How many stitches did the scrappy Shaw take this season?

"A lot," Shaw said. "I was never good at math so I can't count that high but it was up there."

Under spotlight: The Hawks have been all over Chicago with the Cup celebrating with fans. Patrick Kane said he realizes he will be scrutinized during the parties and will be the subject of cameras pointed his way during the summer

"We'll have fun with the Cup for sure, especially in the city," Kane said. "But after that, you have to be careful, obviously. Especially this day and age with the social media and Twitter and everything like that. It's almost scary what can get out there. You see it even now, you'll be at a bar or restaurant lifting up the Cup and the only thing you're seeing is flashes and cameras going off. It's just the way it is."

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.28.2013

682673 Chicago Blackhawks

2013 Blackhawks rewind: A frantic finish

Tribune report

9:43 PM CDT, June 27, 2013

This forever will be the Stanley Cup Final known for overtimes, unpredictable swings, an in-depth analysis of Corey Crawford's glove-side tendencies and, of course, the "I love shin pads" moment.

Oh, yeah, and the Blackhawks hoisting a Stanley Cup above their heads at TD Garden, where they earned their second opportunity to do so in four seasons after a 3-2 victory against the Bruins in Game 6 wrapped up the series.

Each game brought its own subplots — and quite often an extended ending.

But not the one that mattered most. The Hawks quickly alleviated the tension of a 2-1 deficit as Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland scored 17 seconds apart in the final 1 minute, 16 seconds of regulation.

The Blackhawks were the most dominant team of the regular season, but the big, bad Bruins looked awfully imposing as a Stanley Cup Final opponent. They had just wiped out the NHL's highest-scoring playoff team in a four-game sweep by holding the Penguins to two goals.

Media previews warned about 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara and lockdown goaltender Tuukka Rask. How would the Hawks solve those two problems?

The Hawks did it with their speed.

Rask, who had two shutouts before facing the Hawks and allowed fewer than two goals per game to lead the NHL, gave up 21 goals, including a half-dozen in an exhaustive 6-5 Hawks victory in Game 4.

The priority for the Hawks after winning the Cup likely will be rest. Who could blame them?

The series included three overtime games and five overtime periods.

After a double-overtime victory against the Kings to clinch the Western Conference finals, the Hawks started the Stanley Cup Final in the same fashion. Their 4-3 Game 1 victory at the United Center stretched into triple overtime and didn't end until midnight, when Andrew Shaw deflected in a goal off his shin pad.

Wired for sound for the telecast, Shaw famously shouted his love for almost everything in sight. "I love shin pads!" he yelled during the celebration.

The Bruins didn't wait long to stamp out the euphoria. They captured Game 2 at the United Center to tie the series with a 2-1 overtime victory when they slowed the pace, negating the Hawks' biggest advantage.

Things looked even more dire in Boston, where the Bruins blanked the Hawks 2-0 in Game 3 behind Rask and an impenetrable defense.

But then six Hawks scored goals in the Game 4 overtime victory, none more thrilling than the winner by Brent Seabrook. It was his second OT goal in the playoffs, earning him the nickname "Mr. Overtime."

"I was just, I guess, the lucky one to have it going off my stick," Seabrook said. "You get a chance, you get a lane and you try and put it on net, and they've gone in. I don't think I have ice in my veins or anything like that. I'm just playing a game."

The Hawks continued to play their game in Game 5, controlling the pace and attacking the net from the start for a 3-1 victory at the United Center behind two goals from Kane for a 3-2 series lead.

The loss of Toews for the third period put a damper on the celebration. Toews, who had battled with Chara throughout the first two periods, was leveled by Johnny Boychuk in the second period and did not return for the third.

Fans speculated whether Toews would be available for a potential clincher in Boston. Remaining on the bench for the rest of the game — and smiling and celebrating with teammates afterward — indicated the injury was not serious. But then again, were the Hawks just playing mind games with the Bruins?

The Bruins also were without a star for most of Game 5 as Patrice Bergeron left the United Center in an ambulance with an undisclosed injury.

Both were back on the ice for Game 6 in Boston.

Toews delivered with a goal to tie the game 1-1 in the second period before the frantic finish.

A finish that brought the Stanley Cup back to Chicago.

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.28.2013

682674 Chicago Blackhawks

2010 Blackhawks: 'One for the ages'

Staff

9:42 PM CDT, June 27, 2013

Patrick Kane's shot from deep on the left side slid under Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton and crossed the goal line 4 minutes, 6 seconds into overtime to give the Hawks a 4-3 victory. But for a few seconds he alone was celebrating.

While fans watched in puzzled silence and wondered if the goal would be allowed, Kane was shouting to the heavens — to the rafters of the Wachovia Center, anyway — before the goal was posted on the scoreboard and league officials began pouring onto the ice to stage the Hawks' victory ceremony.

"I knew it right away," Kane said. "It was stuck behind the meshing there."

The win capped a dramatic turnaround for the organization that began with the drafting of Kane with the top overall selection in the 2007 draft, continued with the ascension of Rocky Wirtz to chairman following the death of his father, William, and the hiring of John McDonough as team president. Along the way, former general manager Dale Tallon was assembling much of the team that flew home with the Cup in tow after a spirited celebration.

The 2010 win exorcised many demons.

"Kane's goal won it for you and your neighbor hanging the Hawks flag and everybody who watched the game five-deep at a bar back home," Haugh continued. "This was for Keith Magnuson and Doug Wilson, Eddie O. and Cheli, and all the other proud former Blackhawks who dreamed of winning a Cup in Chicago.

"This was for all the fans who stuck behind the team when you couldn't find them on TV and you couldn't talk about them on sports-radio shows because hosts were ordered to discuss anything but the Blackhawks.

"This was one for the ages."

Chicago Tribune LOADED: 06.28.2013

682675 Chicago Blackhawks

1961 Black Hawks: Blizzard of goals and snow

Tribune report

9:41 PM CDT, June 27, 2013

Winning it all in 1961 wasn't even the biggest news story in Chicago. A late spring snowstorm, with drifts of up to 10 feet, dominated the news.

In the middle of the front page in the next day's Tribune was a three-line headline: "Hawks bring Stanley Cup to Chicago." A 5-1 victory over the Red Wings in Detroit on April 16 gave the Black Hawks their first Cup in 23 years. For the city, it was the first championship in any major sport since 1947, when the old Chicago Cardinals won the National Football League title.

The Hawks, who played their first season in 1926-27, raised Lord Stanley's chalice for the first time in 1934 and again in 1938. After a long sentence in hockey Siberia, the Hawks emerged in the 1960-61 season as an almost perfect blend of youth and experience, backstopped by peerless goalie Glenn Hall, the "quiet, calm, nerveless knight of the nets," as the Tribune described him.

Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull, the "Golden Jet," had yet to reach their prime but already were forces in the old six-team National Hockey League. Pierre Pilote, Ken Wharram and Eric Nesterenko were entering their glory years.