The Chicago Blackhawks honored Hall of Fame goalie Tony Esposito this week at a special pre-game ceremony. For the Blackhawks and their fans, the ceremony was more than just one for "Tony 0," it was the latest step by new owner Rocky Wirtz to reclaim the soul of one of the league's Original Six franchises that has been lost in the wilderness for years now. Both on and off the ice, Chicago finally seems to be heading in the right direction.

The old cliché is that you can't know where you are going if you don't know where you've been. Young fans may not remember but Chicago used to be a great place to play hockey. Chicago Stadium, the former home of the Blackhawks (and NBA's Bulls), was one of those old arenas like the Boston Garden or the Forum in Montreal, that had a character all its own. Like Boston Garden and "the Aud" in Buffalo, Chicago Stadium's rink was shorter than the regulation 200 feet long. It used to change the way the game was played and helped make the Blackhawks a hard-working, blue-collar team just like the heart and soul of the city they represented and the people who filled the stands. The fans were boisterous and supportive and when the home team scored, the building literally vibrated and shook due to the large pipe organ that was sounded. Fans cheered on stars like Esposito, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and later Chris Chelios and Denis Savard.

In 1995, they tore down Chicago Stadium and the Hawks moved to the United Center. They even transported that huge old pipe organ to the team's new home but it just wasn't the same. Hawks ownership started alienating fans. Ticket prices went up and the team refused to pay many of its top players so stars like Chelios, Savard, Jeremy Roenick and Eddie Belfour found employment elsewhere. While every other team televised almost all of its games on cable television, Hawks owner Bill Wirtz still adhered to the mid-20th century owners claim that people won't come to see the games live if they could see them on TV (or listen to them on the radio--that's how old the theory is) for free.

The franchise also cut ties with the players who were the heart and soul of the franchise in its glory days: Esposito, Mikita and Bobby Hull being the biggest three. Ownership failed to realize that part of sports is passing on the love of the game and its lore from generation to generation. Having past stars appear at games and team functions helps that happen, it helps parents pass the game and their memories of it along to their kids and creates a new generation of fans.

Between the loss of contact with the team's past, its refusal to pay money to keep its top stars, and the poor product that was being put on the ice, the fan base became either indifferent or hostile (the lockout certainly didn't help either). People who wanted to see Blackhawks games on TV often couldn't find them, but the number of people who cared became fewer and fewer. Attendance was at its lowest level ever and the Hawks played in a half-empty building more often than not. One of the league's Original Six teams became almost invisible and irrelevant in their own home market (which also happens to be the #3 television market in the United States).

This year, however, that began to change. Longtime owner Bill Wirtz passed away and his son Rocky took over. Rocky began to televise some home games this season and he may add more next year. The team brought back Savard to coach last year and has built itself up with young, exciting talent. Mikita and Hull were invited back and hired as ambassadors for the team with Esposito right behind. It has been 47 years since the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup (the longest current drought in the league) but at least some of the players who accomplished that feat were in the building again. People could talk about Hull's 50 goals, Espo's 15 shutouts in 1969-70 and Stanley Cup Finals appearances in 1971, 1973 and 1992. The franchise reclaimed its heritage and its soul. There was something positive happening at Blackhawks games again. Slowly but hopefully surely, the team's reputation is being rebuilt.

The Blackhawks won't make the playoffs this season, but they are a team on the upswing and for the first time in recent memory, have given Chicago hockey fans something to cheer about and look forward to. Names like Kane, Sharp, Williams and Toews give fans reasons to care again. Attendance is up and the team seems to have found itself again. And now, thanks to the recent return of superstars past like Tony Esposito, Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull, they have reconnected with their past as they look to the future. If, as the old saying goes, you need to know where you came from to know where you are going to, the Chicago Blackhawks franchise took an important first step this season. One of the league's Original Six is on the road to mattering again, and that's good for hockey and for the NHL.