Chicago Blackhawks Thesis Statement

The Chicago Blackhawks were founded in 1926 as one of the original six of the National Hockey League Teams (NHL). Over the decades the NHL has forced to compete with the growing popularity of basketball and football in the United States, but luckily for hockey fans everywhere the Chicago Blackhawks would save and bring the sport to the national spotlight.

My proposed topic, is how the Chicago Blackhawks saved the enterprise of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Chicago Blackhawks a NHL team, have had many successes together as a franchise, but over the past few seasons the fan base towards the sport of hockey has skyrocketed as many more people have joined the bandwagon. Before hockey was televised, there was a small base of fans compared to the millions

of people that watch the sport today. The sport became more gradually televised in 2008-2010. When people started to watch the ‘new’ sport a majority became instantly hooked to the sport they would never have guessed they would gravitate towards. The majority of hockey fans, are the followers of the Chicago Blackhawks. One would believe this to be a gigantic save towards the NHL, because as more and more people watching, (specifically the Blackhawks) the NHL was making more money on commercials, sponsors, and other sources than previous seasons before.

The questions I first started out with in the beginning of my project “How the Chicago Blackhawks saved the National Hockey League, are : What did the Chicago Blackhawks do that any other team in the NHL couldn’t ?
What lit the spark in the franchise that they were able to change the audience of Hockey?
I believe that the main point of my project is to prove that there is something special that makes the Blackhawks different than the rest. Not necessarily why they are more skilled ’ than other teams but what makes the team different compared to the others. What makes them stand out from the rest?

My topic, ‘How the Chicago Blackhawks saved the National Hockey League’ has much importance.

As stated in my thesis statement, the sport of hockey has been forced to compete with the growing mass popularity with other sports such as basketball and football. There once was a point in time where hockey had just as much popularity as those sports but because people are finding more interest in those sports, the National Hockey League found itself in a “drought” of unimportance with other sports. With not televising the sport as “commonly” as other sports.

Fortunately for the NHL, they had/ have the Chicago Blackhawks, the Franchise to bring hockey back. The Chicago Blackhawks started the 2012-2013 series with a 24 point streak, meaning that they went 24 games with at least 1 point gained in each game. As many people don’t pay attention until the season has hit 20 or so games, the Hawks, had come to break the lockout of that particular attention span causing more attention towards not only the NHL , but for the Blackhawks themselves. As fans joined the progressing bandwagon, the NHL was gratefully coming out of the “drought” with numourus sponsorships with companies, and gaining profit from their

patrons.

My topic relates to the NHD theme ‘Enchange, Encounter, and Exploration’ in history . More specifically the topic, encounter.
The Chicago Blackhawks did not know at anytime in the beginning of the season that they would be the ones to bring the National Hockey League its popularity back. The encounters that the Hawks made with other teams to hold the 24 point streak, was the main pulling point that caught the attention of many people, and after the team streak ended people still continued to watch the rest of the season. When eventually in early April the team began to battle for a spot in the Stanley Cup Final against the winner of the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins”. The Blackhawks then gained a bigger fanbase than previous seasons before which a big majority still follows them to this day in 2016. Which shows that the encounter the team put out, made an ever so drastic difference for the team.

An interview from Jonathan Toews the team’s Captain, as he speaks about the 2-1 victory in game five of the Stanley Cup final, as he speaks about how the people on the team are the biggest supporters of each other as he says
“If anything you don’t want to underachieve, you want to get the most out of each other and come together as a group, give yourself a chance to be here…. whether these guys have been around for a couple months since the deadline, or the ones that have been here for almost a decade. We understand how unique this group is, and how unique this chance is.”
As he talks about how the teamwork between the players makes them how they are today, and how Toews finished with “how unique this chance is” he refers to getting closer to winning the Stanley Cup. Him as a Captain shows the real meaning of hockey and how the bond the players share is what makes the gain so special, as it’s not always about who scores the goal, it’s about teamwork and strong effort brought by every player on the team. And when the players are happy, the fans are happy.