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Chicago Blackhawks: Dave Bolland Days Until Banner Raising

By Keith Schultz

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We had so much fun doing our Countdown to Faceoff series last season that we decided to do it again.  In case you’re new to the series, we’ll do a roster preview as we count down the days until the Chicago Blackhawks raise their 6th Stanley Cup Banner on October 7th season opener against the New York Rangers.

We are finally into the month of September, and our countdown is at 36 which makes today feel kind of good with the summer days dwindling down.  At 36 we find a player that was a fan favorite, and the first player to every win two Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks and then face them in a regular season game later in his career.

Bolland had all the intangibles anybody would want from a hockey player. He could score, but it was his little bit of nastiness that went a long way with the Chicago Blackhawks faithful.  The other thing that nagged Dave Bolland was that he was injury prone.  In what could possibly the biggest series of his career, he missed the first three games (all loses) to the Vancouver Canucks in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round, only to see the team win the next three and push the Canucks to overtime of Game #7 in their building.

Bolland made two huge plays that I will never forget in the 2013 Stanley Cup playoff run.  The first one he didn’t even get on the scoresheet but it was his hit that opened up the ice for

Brent Seabrook

to score the game winner in Game #7 against the Detroit Red Wings.

Of course the memory almost every Chicago Blackhawks fans will have of Bolland was his last play, scoring the 2nd goal in the 17 seconds of greatness on the ice in Boston to secure the Chicago Blackhawks 2nd Cup in 4 seasons.

Bolland was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in what seemed like minutes after winning the Cup, and now he plays for the Florida Panthers.  Bolland has only scored 14 goals since leaving Chicago so fans of the Panthers will be looking for a lot more production this upcoming NHL Season.

More from All Time Blackhawks

Here is a quick look at the other 36’s in Chicago Blackhawks history.

1. Mike Rucinski-1989 Rucinski played 1 game with the Blackhawks and in the NHL without recording a point.
2. Jimmy Waite-1991 Waite played for the Blackhawks with different numbers but the first was #36. Waite had a record of 22-36-8 for the Hawks before moving to the Phoenix Coyotes. Waite was the choice for a backup behind Ed Belfour instead of Dominik Hasek. Waite is now a Stanley Cup champion coach for the Chicago Blackhawks.

3. Alex Zhamnov-1998 Zhamnov also wore #26 and #13 with the Hawks during his tenure which lasted from 1996-2004,  and while I never liked him because he was in the trade for Jeremy Roenick he also was traded for the eventual rights to 2013 playoff hero Bryan Bickell in 2004, so the 6 degrees of Zhamnov finished well in the end for the Blackhawks if you’re not a Bickell hater.

4. Chris Herperger-2001 Herperger played 70 games for the Blackhawks scoring 10 goals and 15 assists before signing as a free agent with the Ottawa Senators

5. Mikhail Yakubov-2004 Yakubov played in 40 contests for the Blackhawks picking up 2 goals and 9 assists. Yakubov played 13 more NHL games with the Florida Panthers.

6. Matthew Barnaby-2005-2006 Barnaby signed as a free agent and played one 82 game season with the Blackhawks scoring 5 goals and 20 assists.  Barnaby played 834 career games in the NHL scoring 113 goals and 187 assists

7. Dave Bolland-2007-2013

Games-332

Goals-70

Assists-98

+33

Playoffs

Games-63

Goals-17

Assists-26

Stanley Cups-2

There you have it! 36 days left until the 6th Banner goes to the United Center Rafters!

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