The Chicago Blackhawks’ promising 4-2 start to the 2006-07 campaign ended with yet another dull thud of losing and anonymity. Chicago once again perfected the art of never truly challenging for a playoff spot while not being bad enough to earn the top pick in the NHL entry draft. The net effect was more negativity, irrelevance, and hopelessness. And then a funny thing happened...The Blackhawks caught a break.

The day before the opening of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Blackhawks won the entry draft lottery, moving from the fifth pick to first overall. It was the first time in franchise history the team owned the top selection, which they used on 18-year-old Patrick Kane. The diminutive forward brought an arsenal of world-class skill to go along with questions about his size. Still, his obvious talent and stature as the number-one pick is a much-needed shot of adrenaline for the moribund franchise.

Nearly one month after winning the draft lottery, Chicago’s 2006 first-round pick, Jonathan Toews, was busy turning heads in Moscow helping Canada capture gold at the 2007 World Championships. Toews was a highlight of the tournament as the only non-professional player on Canada’s roster, yet he proved his worth playing alongside the likes of Phoenix’s Shane Doan and Columbus’s Rick Nash. This gold medal was his second in five months, as he was the leading scorer for Canada’s victorious World Junior Championship team. Toews became the first Canadian player to ever win gold at both tournaments in the same year. More importantly from the Blackhawks’ point of view, the World Championships gave Toews the confidence to turn pro. He was under contract with Chicago three days after the tournament ended.

High hopes accompanied Kane and Toews into training camp…and with good reason. However, the on-ice product was just one of the many organizational deficiencies that led to the team’s never-ending stumble into oblivion. Perhaps the single biggest problem came from the ivory tower - the tag-team duo of president Bill Wirtz and senior VP Bob Pulford.

Both men thought fondly of the past and effectively ran the organization as though it were stuck there. Fan-favorites were run out of town, home games were not televised, and a general malaise of misguided priorities cut deep through the organization and created a rift with its fans. Wirtz was the overseer of the organization since 1966 and led the team to a grand total of zero Stanley Cups; Pulford spent the past 30 years in various roles in the organization but always as Wirtz’s meddling right-hand man. Together, their futility drained most Chicago fans of whatever Blackhawks' fever may have lurked within them.

On September 26, a mere week before the opening of this season, Bill Wirtz passed away from a battle with cancer. As the organization mourned its owner, fans questioned if now would be the time for a change in the team’s culture. The answer came in the form of Wirtz’s son, Rocky.

Rocky Wirtz’s first move as chairman of the Chicago Blackhawks was moving Pulford from his role with the Blackhawks elsewhere within the Wirtz Corporation. This move was more symbolic than anything else, but it spoke volumes to the culture change so sorely needed. Within a month of Rocky taking over the team, Pulford was gone, select home games were going to be televised, Blackhawks management began appearing on local sports radio, and the then 18-year-old Kane won NHL rookie of the month.

A few weeks into November, more positive change came out of the offices at 1901 W. Madison. Wirtz announced that John McDonough, formerly working as president of the Chicago Cubs, would be moving to the United Center as president of the Chicago Blackhawks. McDonough was known for his creative marketing of the Cubs – he being a main reason Wrigley Field turned into a “place to be” for baseball games. The hope was he could do the same for the Blackhawks, something the old management team would have never even considered necessary.

As the positive off-ice changes kept mounting, so too did wins and exciting hockey on the ice. The Blackhawks were able to capitalize on the lackluster Chicago sports landscape – the Bears followed up last year’s Super Bowl run with missing the playoffs and the Bulls have gotten off to a poor start – culminating in three consecutive crowds of more than 20,000 fans.

Perhaps the most damning evidence of the culture change surrounding the organization came against Nashville on December 26th. The televised home game – something the elder Wirtz so adamantly refused because he feared fans would not purchase tickets – was a sellout. The Blackhawks won that game 5-2 with Kane and Toews each recording a goal and an assist.

Epilogue

It took the perfect storm of changes for this organization to rise out of the doldrums. Even still, much works remains with as many questions still lingering. Winning obviously is the best form of change for an organization that has made the playoffs once in the last decade. However, 2008 got off to a bad start when Toews had to leave the New Year’s game against the Kings due to a sprained knee. He will join seven other injured Blackhawks in the press box – a daunting task for any team to overcome, let alone one as young as Chicago. One thing is certain, though. The Chicago Blackhawks finally are on the way up with full support coming from management and its fans. That alone is cause for a foreign sensation in Blackhawkland: optimism.