Of all the trivia to be gleaned from Scott Darling’s career, one gem that stands out is that he was the first player with Chicago-area roots to win a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks.
For an Original Six franchise in the NHL, that accomplishment is nothing to sneeze at, and the goaltender has a firm grasp on its magnitude.
“It was super cool for me. I call Lemont my home. I always have,” said Darling, who helped the Hawks hoist the Cup in 2015. “I lived there from second grade all the way up until college. It was pretty cool just to go back. … You’re living out so many people’s dreams. Anybody from here who’s a hockey fan or played hockey, we all wanted to play for the Blackhawks. To be the one to do it and win the Cup with the team, it’s a huge honor. The fans here are so great and so supportive of the Hawks and of me.”
Although he’s still alone in that distinction—the Hawks did not repeat as champs last season—that might not be the case much longer. Two of his current teammates who also grew up in the Chicago suburbs, Vinnie Hinostroza and Ryan Hartman, are now roster fixtures with the Hawks. With their help, the team again is near the top of the Western Conference standings.
“Seeing Vinnie and Hartsy and the guys coming up, I feel like they’re the first wave that’s a direct result of [Patrick] Kane and [Jonathan] Toews coming in and the franchise turning around,” said Darling, 28. “[Hinostroza and Hartman] were kids when [Kane and Toews helped revive the franchise]. They got to grow up more with the Hawks being the biggest team in town and doing great things. And watching youth hockey boom here, new teams, new rinks, more opportunities for kids to play, I think they’re the first of many that are a direct result of what [Chairman] Rocky [Wirtz] and [president] John McDonough, [general manager] Stan Bowman, and Kaner and Toews had a big impact on.”
According to hockeyreference.com, there have been 61 players in NHL history who were born in Illinois. That list doesn’t even include Darling or Hartman, who were born out of state but spent significant portions of their formative years in the suburbs. Darling was born in Virginia and Hartman in South Carolina; Hinostroza was born in Chicago and raised in Bartlett.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous name on that list right now is Eddie Olczyk. Long before he was analyzing Hawks games on CSN Chicago and other NBC-owned broadcasts, he was the first Chicago native the Blackhawks drafted in the first round (in 1984). He has no doubt the city’s crop of players will only get larger.
“With the more kids that are playing, we’ll have more Chicago kids make it,” said Olczyk, whose name adorns an award created to assist youth hockey players of limited means. “We do have a very good minor hockey system, but it’s not easy [to reach the NHL]. The top of the pyramid gets pretty snug when you talk about guys that play college hockey and guys that make it to the show. You need some luck. You gotta have the want, you have to have great discipline in your life both on and off the ice and you gotta get an opportunity. … In particular with Illinois kids playing a high brand of hockey and having success at all levels, it’s great for the game. I think it’s great for the Hawks.”
GROWING UP HOCKEY
Darling, Hartman and Hinostroza all have fond memories of playing youth hockey as well as being a fan of all levels of the sport in the Chicago area. The latter two even combined forces for a while on the Chicago Mission when they were about 15 years old. They also all remember a time when rinks weren’t as abundant as they are now—not that that stopped them or their families from helping them pursue their dream.
In Hartman’s case, the actual landscape seemed to change almost overnight.
“My middle school growing up [in West Dundee] was surrounded by cornfields, and now there’s a hockey rink next to it,” said Hartman, 22. “The growth of hockey and the kids that have come up out of Chicago as of late, you relate it a lot to the Hawks. [The Hawks are] winning, and kids [are] taking up hockey because of the Hawks, and then they grow up and become NHL players.”
“There was a lot of times going through elementary school, sometimes even middle school, [when] hockey wasn’t a huge sport in Chicago. A lot of kids said, ‘You play hockey? Where do you play hockey?’ … Things started changing when [the Hawks] won in 2010. After that, all those years of winning, you couldn’t really go anywhere without seeing a jersey.”
And even Millennials like these players remember the infamous TV blackout, when Blackhawks ownership was loathe to air home games.
“We were watching the Wolves more than the Hawks [growing up],” the 22-year-old Hinostroza said. “That’s a weird thing if you think about it, especially how it is now in Chicago. About middle school or high school, that’s when they started airing on TV. Kane, Toews, those guys started to come in, so it was more exciting, and a lot of kids in school were starting to wear jerseys in school every day, just buzz about it. Then all of the sudden there’s a Cup, and then there’s three, and now hockey’s such a big thing in Chicago.”
Players such as Hinostroza and Hartman also don’t have to look that far into the past to find a Chicago example to follow.
“I met [Darling] a few summers ago before I signed with the Hawks,” Hinostroza said. “So him signing with the Hawks and seeing all his success has been great, and he’s been doing great. I think if you look at how hard he works and how positive-minded he is, he’s an all-around pro and it’s nice to have guys like him in the locker room.”
NOW THEY’RE HERE
Olczyk was just 18 years old when he first suited up for the Hawks. The three current Hawks were in their 20s when they first put on the famed sweater, though nerves were present in all their debuts.
Olczyk’s debut: Oct. 11, 1984, vs. Detroit
“So many things were going through my mind that night, playing against the Detroit Red Wings that opening night, all the people that helped me along the way, just dreaming, and here I am out there playing with Tommy Lysiak and Darryl Sutter and Denny Savard and Troy Murray,” Olczyk said. “Now I’m out here all of the sudden after watching them the year before get knocked out in the playoffs. … It was a dream come true, then being able to score a goal in my first game obviously capped it all off. It was one of those experiences that no matter what you say, you can never really do it justice because it just was breathtaking to represent your hometown and the team you lived and died with as a kid for 15, 16 years.”
Darling’s debut: Oct. 26, 2014, vs. Ottawa
“I got called up a few days before, sat on the bench for a few games,” Darling said. “I was walking on the plane coming back from St. Louis and Coach [Joel Quenneville] told me I was going to play. The wave of emotions that came over me were I was terrified but also super excited. The day leading up to the game I was pretty stressed out, but the guys on the team were great, making me feel comfortable and keeping it light for me. Once they dropped the puck I’m like, ‘Well that’s it, I’m in the books now. I’ve made it and so now I can just relax and play.’ Luckily the game went my way and we pulled out a win, 2-1. It was a great day.”
Hartman’s debut: Feb. 13, 2015, vs. New Jersey
“I was at my house in Rockford with Stephen Johns, who’s down in Texas now [playing for Dallas],” Hartman said. “We were golfing in my attic on my golf simulator and was about to finish up 18 [holes] when I got a call from Mark Bernard, who was the GM in Rockford. He called me, and I had taken a couple of penalties in the game before that. He called me talking about the penalties, and he finished it off by saying, ‘When you’re playing in the United Center tomorrow night, you can’t be taking penalties like that.’ I said, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right,’ and it didn’t really hit me right away. … It was pretty cool, that feeling, then I talked to Stan [Bowman]. They needed some energy and they wanted some guys to come in and stir things up a little bit and play the way I play. I immediately called my parents and family right after.”
“I grew up dreaming of this and it happened,” Hartman told the Tribune after the game. “It has sunk in finally and it’s pretty crazy.”
Hinostroza’s debut: Oct. 17, 2015, vs. Columbus
“I was really nervous, being a young guy,” Hinostroza said. “I don’t remember who it was against, but it was really fun and exciting and really loud and everything I ever dreamed of.”
‘NOT TOO FLASHY’
When you get right down to it, what qualities do all Chicago-bred players share?
“Definitely hard-working,” Hinostroza said. “Nothing’s really given to you as a young kid around here. Just hard work and dedication and being motivated is what’s going to get you to the next level always.”
Darling took it a step further, attributing such traits to a larger region.
“It’s not just a Chicago thing but a Midwest thing; [they’re] blue-collar, hard-working [players],” he said. “You look at the way Vinnie and Hartsy play, they’re 100 percent all the time, going into the corners, they’re gritty players. I think it’s kind of the persona of the Midwest. Not too flashy. We get the job done and work hard.”
Olczyk, meanwhile, said players from the area understand the bigger picture and that he and the players who came after him never would have made it on their own.
“[Chicago players] know how important the fabric of the game is in our community,” he said. “I think guys take a lot of pride in representing not only the teams and cities that they play for, but they’re Chicago guys and they always will be. Whether it’s talking about this rink or that rink or the scoreboard or the locker room, the stories are all the same and guys can all relate to everything that’s taken place. [They’re] proud of where they’re from and not forgetting the people and the teams and the coaches and the opportunities that were allowed for them to get where they are today.”
THE DIGITS
Scott Darling, Ryan Hartman and Vinnie Hinostroza understand they’re living proof that Blackhawks can get their start in Chicago.
“It’s great for the community to see there are real-life stories of kids that have grown up playing in the area [that] are not only playing in the NHL but for their hometown team,” said Annie Camins, director of youth hockey for the Blackhawks. “[Darling, Hartman and Hinostroza are] good young players that set a good example for getting out in the community and assisting us at youth hockey camps or different events at our rink partners in the area.”
4: Number of states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin) in which the Blackhawks partner with rinks to help introduce more children to hockey. There are total of 72 partner rinks.
22,222: Youth hockey players, boys and girls, registered with Amateur Hockey Association Illinois as of the 2007-08 season. The Hawks, of course, drafted Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in 2006 and 2007, respectively, and won the first of three Stanley Cups this decade in 2010.
31,558: Youth players registered with AHAI in the 2015-16 season, a 42 percent increase from 2007-08.
Sources: Chicago Blackhawks, USA Hockey
@redeyesportschi | chsosa@redeyechicago.com
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