Al Secord Days Until The Blackhawks Season Opener

We had so much fun doing our Countdown to Faceoff series last season that we decided to do it again. The calendar has turned into September ,we look at jersey numbers from past and present as we count down the days until October 9th and opening night against the Dallas Stars.

We land on #20 a number worn currently by Brandon Saad. After last years playoff series against the LA Kings playing along side Patrick Kane, expectations are sky high for Saad and the 2013-2014 season. Saad has a lot of Marian Hossa in him especially with owning the puck and puck possession and his youth, size and skill were a perfect match with Kane last spring. The question is will be adding Brad Richards to the line and taking Andrew Shaw out make the combination better or worse!

The #20 that is my favorite all-time is Al Secord. Secord was just larger than life when I was a kid watching the Hawks play. I know fighting isn’t the in thing but in the 80’s is was part of the culture and one of the reasons you watched the games. Seeing Secord score than get in a fight was a perfect night of hockey. Secord is only one of three Blackhawks to ever score 50 goals in a season which is hard to imagine with all the goals and talent on the team in the video game 80’s era.

There have been a lot of #20’s worn in Blackhawks history here is a quick look at the rest!

1. Lee Fogolin-1951 Fogolin also wore #3 during his Hawks career. He played in 427 NHL games scoring 10 goals and 48 assists.

2. Max Quackenbush-1952 Quackenbush played 14 games wearing #20. He had 1 assist during his brief Hawks career.

3. Sid Abel-1953 Abel played his first 12 years of his career with the Detroit Red Wings while finished his NHL Career with one year in Chicago. He played 42 games wearing #20 in Chicago scoring 4 goals and 5 assists.

4. Murray Costello-1954 Costello scored 3 goals and 2 assists in his 40 game Blackhawks career before moving on to the Boston Bruins.

5. Dick Gamble-1955 Gamble dressed in 14 games for the Hawks scoring 2 goals in the process.

6. Hank Ciesla-1956-1957 Ciesla played 140 games with the Blackhawks scoring 18 goals and 31 assists.

7. Earl Balfour-1958-1960 Balfour played the last 218 games of his 288 game career in Chicago wearing #20. Balfour scored 30 goals and 22 assists during his playing days.

8. Wayne Hillman-Hillman played in different seasons for the Hawks scoring 5 goals and 16 assists.

9. Cliff Koroll-1970-1980 Koroll played his entire 814 NHL game career with the Blackhawks. Koroll scored 204 goals and 254 assists with a +rating of +109