Throwback Thursday: On This Day In Chicago Blackhawks History

Patrick Kane lines up next to former teammate Ben Eager preparing for the drop of the puck.

I have decided to add a little twist to this week’s installment of Throwback Thursday. Instead of focusing on a player or coach, I will be taking a look back on a specific game that was played on this same date during a previous year. This week we look at a game played on November 6, 2010 vs. the Atlanta Thrashers at Phillips Arena. This was a game in which the Chicago Blackhawks battled some old friends of the 2010 Stanley Cup team.

The significance of this game revolved around the offseason trade that took place between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Atlanta Thrashers. The Chicago Blackhawks were fresh off of their first Stanley Cup Championship in 49 years and had to make some critical moves to keep under the league mandated salary cap. In order to do so the Blackhawks had to make some tough decisions on who to keep and who to shed in order to try and save money. It came in the form of a blockbuster trade that sent Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and a prospect to Atlanta for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, forwards Marty Reasoner and Joey Crabb and prospect Jeremy Morin.

This game marked the first time that Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Brent Sopel played their old team following the celebration of their Stanley Cup victory with the Blackhawks over the summer. There were a lot of Chicago Blackhawk fans who were sad to see Dustin Byfuglien being sent off after all that he did for our team. Switching from a defensive role into an offensive threat, Byfuglien was able to score 3 game winning goals during the Western Conference Finals vs San Jose.

The game was nothing shy of a thriller and had to be decided in extra frames of a shootout. The first goal of the game was scored by Nik Antropov of the Atlanta Thrashers 3:14 into the 1^st period while on the man advantage. A little more than halfway through the 1^st period Captain Toews answered with his own power-play goal tying the game at 1-1. At 16:03 in the 1^st the Blackhawks were once again on the power-play and Patrick Kane made the Thrashers pay on a rebound he threw back in.

It’s hard to believe but the 2^nd period had more highlights than the 1^st. Evander Kane was able to tie the score up at 2 even only 3:02 into the 2^nd on another power-play goal. The shot initially went off a goalpost shot which ricocheted back off of Marty Turco and then into the net. Things got a little uneasy for the Blackhawks defense after another goal was given up only 55 seconds later to Alexander Burmistrov. Coach Quenneville abruptly called a timeout to give the team an earful which must have gotten some type of point across. It was less than a minute after the timeout that Jonathan Toews took off on a breakaway and scored the game tying goal, his second of the night. The game tilted back into the Thrashers hands with another power-play opportunity and goal by Rich Peverley a little over halfway through the period. Patrick Kane got even however scoring his second of the night tying the score at 4.

During the 3^rd period both teams buckled down on defense and neither of the teams could produce a game winning goal. It was the same story during the OT period and things had to be decided in the shootout. Jonathan Toews made the first shot for the Blackhawks and Andrew Ladd made his for the Thrashers. Dustin Byfuglien was robbed on his attempt by Marty Turco when he reached in and poked the puck away before Byfuglien could shoot. It was the very next shot when Victor Stallberg notched the game winning shootout goal for the Blackhawks and they were able to lay this one to rest.

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