It’s hard for the Blackhawks to look back on the most successful decade in franchise history and think ‘what if?’ but Bryan Bickell did just that on the latest Blackhawks Talk Podcast.
With the league on pause, Bickell has spent some of his free time watching old Blackhawks games replayed on television like many others. But one game in particular still haunts him.
“I saw the L.A. game, Game 7 against us,” Bickell said. “We lost in OT and I’m like ‘that could have been back-to-back-to-back wins we could have had’ because I know L.A. kind of went through the Rangers pretty easy in the Final and I’m just like ‘man, that could have been us’ and just by inches and seconds basically.”
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The Blackhawks lost Game 7 to the Kings in 2014 after an Alec Martinez shot from the point deflected in off Nick Leddy, sending the Kings to the Stanley Cup Final.
Bickell doesn’t have any regrets from his time with the Blackhawks, though. He won Stanley Cups in 2013 and 2015 and was part of the 2010 team, even thought his name isn’t on the Stanley Cup for that season.
“In ’13 obviously it was a special year for myself,” said Bickell. “But for the team, we went 24 games without a loss coming out of the lockout, going through some ups and downs in the playoffs and obviously getting the win in Boston. ’13, ’15, it’s crazy to think of the teams that we had and the players that you played with and it’s nice to see some old clips on TV that they’re replaying because you wouldn’t look it up or go through it. Those three teams were definitely special.”
But of the three Stanley Cup teams that he was on, is there one that stands out as best?
NHL
“Yeah, there is a better team. You look back at what it took to win with those three teams and then you look at the 2010 team, where the players are at that time to where they are now. At their peak of the level of hockey, that ’10 team was pretty much unstoppable. I know we didn’t steamroll through guys but we didn’t feel like we were much behind. That’s why they were so successful.”
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