Hometown fans jam bars for Stanley’s pub-crawl
CHICAGO — The victorious Chicago Blackhawks brought the Stanley Cup home Tuesday and proceeded to take it on a pub crawl, with scores of ecstatic fans flocking to taverns and restaurants hoping to glimpse their beloved players and the sacred trophy awarded to the NHL champion.
Many fans, bleary eyed from staying up the night before to watch Game 6, looked to the skies for TV news helicopters that would alert them they were on the right track. Others sat at bars, hoping the rumours from friends or Twitter might turn out to be true.
“We’ve been packed since seven this morning,” said Brad Tice, general manager of The Pony on Chicago’s North Side. “In 2010 (the last time the Blackhawks won the Cup) it came here, and players hang out here and live in the neighbourhood, so everyone is hoping it will show up.”
In suburban Oak Brook, fans descended on a restaurant said to be a favourite spot of Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville. By mid-afternoon, the Cup hadn’t shown up at either spot.
The trophy that turns into a drinking buddy once it is awarded to the National Hockey League champions had already put in a pretty full day. Though it hadn’t made it to the runway of a strip club or the bottom of a swimming pool, it did get in an early-morning limousine ride.
After the plane trip from Boston following the Blackhawks’ 3-2 series-clinching win over the Bruins, the players were greeted at the O’Hare International Airport tarmac with a water cannon salute from about a dozen fire trucks and police cars — lights flashing.
Veteran forward Michal Handzus was the first player to emerge from the aircraft shortly after 4 a.m., hoisting the 35-pound cup above his head with both hands and shaking it several times. Guests, police officers and firefighters cheered at the bottom of the stairs. Players, coaches and team officials mingled with the crowd for about 10 minutes before heading to the city to continue a party that began in Chicago shortly after the team stunned Boston by scoring twice in a 17-second span in the final 1:16 of the game.
There was a stop at a Harry Caray’s restaurant in Rosemont — the same first stop the Blackhawks made after winning the championship in 2010. There were more than 1,000 fans waiting, and players took turns hoisting the cup over their heads to screams of excitement.
“I was in shock.... I jumped up so high that I stubbed my toe,” Frank Espinoza told WBBM radio at Harry Caray’s, recalling the late goals. “I didn’t realize it until the game was over; I felt a pain in my toe afterward.”
“I jumped up so high that I stubbed my toe.” FRANK ESPINOZA, BLACKHAWKS FAN
The Scout bar in the South Loop area of downtown was the next stop, as team members greeted cheering fans outside with high-fives before filing into the bar.
“My (five-year-old) son stayed up to watch the game, but I told him he could go over there if it was packed and we looked outside and it was packed so we went,” said Ekta Joshi after she and her son, Kabil, went over to cheer the players.
Because she and her husband know people who work there, she was one of the lucky few to be allowed inside, where they met some players and the coach. “He got a few autographs on his hat and I’m sure he’s showing it off at school now,” Joshi said.
After that stop, the cup made it out to the United Center. But after a couple of hours, Twitter heated up again with word that it was on the move again.