Day 169: Bars, Cups, and Blackhawks-Championship Week Day 1

     The date: June 9, 2010. The place: Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Patrick Kane has just done what no Chicago hockey player had done since before the birth of Barack Obama. The Stanley Cup was wheeled onto the ice, the league made its remarks, and then Jonathan Toews hoisted the cup and kicked off the wildest party in recent Chicago memory.  In the immediate aftermath, the biggest controversy proved to be a mystery as to the location of the puck that Kane drilled into the net in order to secure the OT victory.  While it was initially alleged that Chris Pronger(a player for the Flyers who can really pull off a dress) had grabbed it, it was apparently grabbed by one of the officials, who then did something with it.  Whatever happened, the puck is still missing to this day, even though there has been a bounty placed on it by the ownership of Harry Caray's restaurant(don't forget, they've always been one for a publicity stunt).

     Irrespective of the game-winning puck being completely out of possession of anyone, the onus was on to celebrate.  While the Hawks did not win the Cup on home ice, there were a small contingent of Blackhawks fans who had made the trip to Philly.  Not just that, but there were throngs of people back in Chicago watching and celebrating.  After some more on-ice celebrations in Philly, the Hawks took a red-eye flight back to Chicago and rolled into town at about 4 in the morning on Thursday the 10th.  Over the course of its existence, the Cup has had its share of crazy stories, from being drop-kicked into a lake, to being defecated in, even to being used as a pyre.  But it was in 2010 when Lord Stanley's Cup really learned how to party.  Once the Hawks touched down, they did what any group of hyped-up sleep-deprived twenty-somethings would do.  They went out and PARTIED.  Over the course of the next 24 hours, the Cup went on a Bar Crawl like no other, going from bar to bar, being posed with by various patrons and what not.

     But then came Friday, and the parade.  The team started out from the United Center in  buses and then wound their way downtown for the rally that took place not too far away from Pioneer Court(over by Jack Brickhouse, Tribune Tower, and the former home of Marilyn).  Meanwhile, up on the North Side, the Cubs were starting off a tilt with the White Sox in their first crosstown matchup since the contest was renamed the BP Cup(in yet another display of terrible timing) This was the scene of the city on that joyous day, and with any luck, we will soon be in the promised land again.