Chicago Blackhawks: Antoine Vermette Days Until Banner Raising

By Keith Schultz | Jul 19, 2015

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.

As we take a look back to the beginning of March, and the Antoine Vermette trade which many thought was the deal that would seal another Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Championship, it didn’t start off like that when Vermette didn’t pick up a single goal during his 19 games of regular season play in a Chicago Blackhawks uniform.

Vermette struggled, to say it nicely, in first first month and a half as a Chicago Blackhawks which critics will say wouldn’t have happened if Patrick Kane didn’t break his clavicle which forced him to miss the rest of the regular season but opened up some salary cap relief to squeeze in the Arizona Coyotes center.

Vermette had one game winning shootout goal, but he never could crack the scoresheet, but one thing most Chicago fans remembered in 2012 is that Vermette is a playoff gamer that never shrinks in the biggest moments.

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The biggest shocker from Joel Quenneville‘s chemistry experiment that is his roster was when he sat Vermette and Teuvo Teravainen in Game #3 of the Western Conference Finals in favor of Joakim Nordstrom and Kris Versteeg and as it was well documented the “fresh legs” lost 2-1 and Vermette and Teuvo would not be missing from the gameday roster the rest of the way to the Stanley Cup.

Of course, Coach Q looked like a genius for sitting

Antoine Vermette

in Game #4 when he put his name up there with all of the recent Chicago Blackhawks overtime heros with this Game winning goal to even the series at 2.

As we all know the Game winning goals wouldn’t stop there, but he would pick up two more Game winners when Vermette scored late in Game #1

and Game #5

for big road wins in Tampa Bay.

Antoine Vermette of course was the 2nd Chicago Blackhawks to hoist the Cup after Jonathan Toews gave it to Kimmo Timonen, and then just a few days later Vermette was no longer a Chicago Blackhawk after he signed a free agent contract to rejoin his former team the Arizona Coyotes.

Was it worth the first round pick and Klas Dahlbeck for Vermette? Absolutely! Even if it was only for 19 regular season games and 23 postseason games? Absolutely! Will he go down in Chicago Blackhawks lore! Maybe a footnote but it will be a very big footnote!

What is your favorite memory of Vermette short stay? Only 80 days until the Chicago Blackhawks 6th Stanley Cup banner is raised to the United Center Rafters!

Next: The Next Blackhawks Cap Casualty

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