Here’s a popular story on the Chicago Blackhawks reader boards.
With the Ottawa Senators in Chicago to play the Hawks on Wednesday, it’s a good time to share it.
Seems the ‘Hawks players took it upon themselves to stay behind in Toronto after a game against the Maple Leafs on Nov. 22, despite the fact it would cost them a precious day off at home with their families.
The reason?
The players wanted to show respect to general manager Dale Tallon, by attending the funeral of Tallon’s father in Gravenhurst, Ontario, north of Orillia.
They rented a bus from Toronto for the two-hour drive north “into a sparsely inhabited Canada,” as the tale reads from a Chicago story teller.
The GM was surprised and emotional when he saw his players in Gravenhurst.
On the bus ride back to Toronto to catch a flight home, the Blackhawks rolled into the Golden Arches, like kids coming home from a peewee hockey tournament.
“We asked if we could go to McDonald’s,” Blackhawks superstar Patrick Kane told WGN radio. “We were all hungry; we didn’t really have time to get food throughout the day.
“All the players went to McDonald’s all the coaches went to Harvey’s.
“They were selling hockey cards (at McDonald’s). Mine was up there and Johnny’s (Toews), too. The guys on the team were saying we should sign the pictures before we walked out. People could come in; see our names signed and see us in McDonald’s. But we didn’t do it.”
Pretty good yarn about a good, young hockey team being respectful of their GM and behaving like ordinary people out in public.
Here’s the punch line from the fan who sent it around:
“It’s amazing that such a good story can be found nowhere on the internet, and not even mentioned in the Chicago papers. Had one of the Blackhawks got into a fight and punched some drunken loser in a Toronto bar it would be plastered all over papers and the television.
“This being said, it’s hard to imagine any professional football, basketball or baseball team doing this, but the members of the Blackhawks claim any "hockey" team would have done this. This is one reason I continue to be a big hockey fan, and another reason I am excited about this Chicago team. I thought I would share as this story appears to have gone unnoticed.”
