In a city that believes deeply in sporting curses, the Chicago Blackhawks have decided not to take any chances in their bid to put an end to the National Hockey League’s longest championship drought.
After sweeping past the San Jose Sharks 4-0 in the Western Conference final, Chicago will now open the Stanley Cup final on Saturday at its “Madhouse on Madison” against the upstart Philadelphia Flyers.
However, while the Blackhawks are the toast of the Windy City and favored by many to win the finals, nobody is planning a victory parade through downtown Chicago just yet.
It has been 49 years since the Blackhawks last hoisted the Stanley Cup, and while that may seem an eternity to some, it is a walk in the park compared to Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, who have not celebrated a World Series title since 1908 and are called the “Lovable Losers.”
The “Curse of the Billy Goat” has haunted the Cubs for 65 years, the team doomed to failure by an enduring hex placed on the club in 1945 by the owner of Billy Goat Tavern after his pet was not allowed in Wrigley Field for a World Series game.
While there are no such famous curses hanging over the Blackhawks, the team has lived under a dark cloud since it last won the Cup in 1961. They lost their next five trips to the finals, most recently in 1992.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews opted not to tempt fate and gave into a long-standing NHL superstition when he refused to touch the Clarence Campbell Bowl that is presented to the Western Conference champion.
Hockey lore says no good comes from lifting the conference trophy, though the Pittsburgh Penguins proved that theory wrong last year as they held the conference trophy and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
“Some teams are all on board with grabbing the trophy and saying, you know, the heck with it,” Toews told reporters. “But to me it’s not being superstitious. It’s just saying that we’re here for bigger and better things.”
If there are magical forces at work in these playoffs it could be found in the Eastern Conference, where Philadelphia defied the odds to advance to the finals despite entering the post-season as the second-lowest seed in the conference.
In contrast, the Blackhawks are exactly where many expected them to be after recording the third-best record in the regular season and then knocking off the Nashville Predators, Vancouver Canucks and Sharks in the playoffs.
The young Hawks are led by 22-year-old Toews, who is on a 13-game scoring streak, leads the playoffs with 26 points and is garnering plenty of Conn Smythe trophy talk as MVP of the post season.
His sidekick Patrick Kane is third in playoff scoring while Dustin Byfuglien has been a goaltender’s worst nightmare with eight goals, including three game winners against the Sharks.
The Chicago defense is anchored by Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook — two of Toews’s gold-medal winning Canadian teammates from the Vancouver Olympics — while Finnish rookie Antti Niemi has also provided sharp play in net.
“Sky’s the limit,” Toews said. “This is a great opportunity, a great chance. We’re going to go right after it. No reason we can’t go out there and get another four wins.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but