While last time the cup-winner came in an overtime period, this time the winning goal was somehow even more dramatic(as if that was even possible[oh wait, it was]) The Boston Bruins had gone up 2-1 on the Hawks in the final 2 minutes of Game 6, and everybody assembled was packing it in and expecting a Game 7 in Chicago on Wednesday night. Bryan Bickell took one look at that and said "nope". With 1:26 left in the game, he slid a shot in past Tuukka Rask and tied up the game at 2 apiece, seemingly setting up the game for yet another overtime period. Apparently Dave Bolland had plans after the game that couldn't be interrupted for another banal overtime period, because 17 seconds later, he slapped in the game-winner. What do you suppose happened after that? Well, I'll just let Jack Buck fill you in. Okay, back now? Great. After the game clock officially wound down, the Hawks went crazy, the city went crazy, and sometimes it damn near felt that the whole world went crazy that night(okay, not really).
One of the more interesting incidents that went down during the hometown celebration was on Clark Street, where the local population of liquored-up twentysomethings was out and about at several local establishments. Once the Cup was won, the fans crowded into the streets(in fact, the crowd reaction was about the same as this video, just with all Blackhawks gear instead of Cubs gear.) Long story short, the police moved in, pacified the crowd, and ended up arresting 23 people. And that was all before the Hawks made it back to the city. At 4 AM on June 25, the Chicago Blackhawks touched down at O'Hare Airport, greeted the fans who were assembled to greet them, and high-tailed it to the Harry Caray's location in Rosemont to begin their 2013 Cup Crawl. The next few days saw them going to such places as the Scout Bar, Rockit Bar, as well as other establishments throughout the city.
The party didn't stop that night, in fact it went all the way up until that Friday, the 28th, when the city turned out in force to honor the champions with a parade and rally(which I'm pretty sure attracted more than 2 Million people yet again, Ozzie Guillen can take a hike at his own convenience). The route was modified this year, whereas in 2010 the parade started out at the United Center and then went right down Michigan Avenue to end with a rally held at Michigan and Wacker, this time the parade wound right into the heart of Grant Park(and it wasn't nearly as much of a disaster as the Bears one was), past the Buckingham Fountain, and ended up in Hutchinson Field, which was able to hold 100,000 spectators. I went to the rally, and let me tell you I saw some pretty interesting things while I was waiting for more than 2 and a half hours for the team to show up. Initially, the place smelled of cigarettes and cheap beer(in other words, just like a frat party). After the 2 hour mark, the crowd started to get rather antsy(nothing approaching a riot or anything, but just what you naturally get when you put tens of thousands of liquored-up twentysomethings in a confined area for hours on end.) Finally, the team showed up and the rally commenced. To kick things off, some dignitaries gave some speeches(including one by Governor Pat Quinn that got a rousing response. Then it was on to some videos, and then the team actually spoke. The three highlights of that:
- Patrick Sharp's insinuation of a repeat.
- Patrick Kane's speech, that he was most likely intoxicated for,
- and of course, Corey Crawford's profanity-laden acceptance speech that could possibly even make Lee Elia blush(but it probably wouldn't).
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