WATCH the Blackhawks Score Two Goals in 17 Seconds to Win the 2013 Stanley Cup

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Stef
April 25, 2023 (6:15 PM)

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We've all said it, before, and we'll all say it, again: There's nothing like playoff hockey. And when you get to the Stanley Cup Final, well, anything can happen.
Imagine you're the Boston Bruins, and it's a potential elimination for you/Cup Win for your opponent. Your teams are fairly evenly matched, the series is 3-2, them, and going into the third period, you're tied at 1. Your team scored first in the first, with their Captain scoring the tying goal in the 2nd. Over half the period goes by with no score, and then, your guy, Milan Lucic, gets one by Corey Crawford. Unfortunately, Chris Kelly gets 2 minutes for high sticking, two minutes later, so you've got the added stress of a PK. You take care of that, and there's just over a minute left in the game, and you're up 2-1. But remember, it takes less than a second to score a goal, so 2 in 17 seems quite do-able. With 1:16 left, and an extra attacker on the ice, Bryan Bickell takes a feed from Keith and Toews to tie the game at 2. Seventeen seconds later, Dave Bolland is at the net, just waiting for the puck to get from Johnny Oduya, to Michael Frolik, before he gets a piece of it, losing his stick and gloves in the process, but still managing the GWG with less than a minute to go.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now, if you've been a Blackhawks fan for a while, you know the names Bickell and Bolland just as well as Toews and Kane. But to the rest of the hockey world, they might not be as well known. That's what depth scoring does. It brings up people who aren't necessarily the «big names», but they will get the job done when needed.

Bryan Bickell was picked 41st overall in the second round of the 2004 draft by Chicago, but didn't join the team until the 2006-07 season. The left winger spent most of his career with the Blackhawks, winning 3 Cups with them, and finishing the last year of his career (2016-17) with Carolina. Overall, he had 136 points in 395 games in the NHL, scoring 66 goals (65 in Chicago) and making 70 assists (all in Chicago).

Centerman Dave Bolland was picked in the same round as Bickell, 32nd overall, and also joined the team for the 2006-07 season. After 7 years in Chicago, with 332 games, 70 goals, and 98 assists under his belt, he was traded to Toronto for a year, and then finished the last two years of his NHL career in Florida.

I think these types of players are what the Blackhawks are hoping to add during their rebuild. We have our superstars, but we don't have much depth. Getting Lafferty was a definite step in the right direction, but when you look at teams like Tampa Bay, or Pittsburgh, they've got scoring lines the whole way down. Chicago hasn't had that for a while. And as much as we'd all like to keep our stars, it all comes down to what's going to help the team in the long run, and get us back to where we were in 2013, and 2015.