It's all bright lights now

The scene in the Blackhawks' locker room told quite a story late Sunday afternoon.

No, nobody sprayed champagne after the Hawks finished sweeping the Sharks in the Western Conference finals.

The Hawks were relatively subdued after the 4-2 victory. Maybe businesslike is the appropriate word considering business remains, as in the Stanley Cup Finals.

It was more like somebody popped the cork on a bottle of journalists and sprayed them around the room.

A group surrounded Dustin Byfuglien, who scored the winning goal. Another surrounded Patrick Kane, another Jonathan Toews, another Antti Niemi, my goodness, another Brent Sopel.

There were enough reporters to go around. Actually there might have been more in the room than there were fans in the United Center stands three seasons ago.

Back then players might have been able to count the United Center house. Coaches might have been able to hear conversations up in the 300 section.

Not now. Sunday's raucous crowd numbered 22,224. Fans are back because the Blackhawks are so back that it's hard to remember, as Patrick Sharp referred to them, "the dark days."

Three years ago nobody would have referred to the Hawks as a model franchise; a model mess maybe, but certainly not a model franchise.

Yet just a few shifts later, or so it seems, San Jose coach Todd McLellan hopes the Sharks can go from conference finalist to Stanley Cup finalist in a year the way the Hawks did.

"We can look at the Blackhawks last year and how they grew through losing," McLellan said. "Jonathan Toews has been there, done it. Their team has been there, done it. I like to think we can do it."

Well, yes, the Sharks can if they find a Toews, one of the NHL's best young players and leaders.

The Sharks can if they also acquire a Byfuglien. Coaches and players were asked whether they can recall "the exact moment he became the league's best power forward."

Of course, the Sharks might also want to come up with a goalie who plays like Niemi has during these playoffs, and with a creator like Kane, and with a defensive tandem like Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

This is quite a team playing at a quite a level right now. The Hawks gave the Sharks 46 shots in Game 3, 18 shots in Game 4 and won both.

"It's just the way it happens," Kane said. "Every game we can play any style. We can run and gun or we can stay back."

It wasn't long ago that the Hawks could lose playing any style. The turnaround has been as stunning as a Denis Savard spin-o-rama was back in the 1980s.

Now whereas former owner Bill Wirtz was reviled, his heir Rocky Wirtz's image on the big videoboard is cheered.

Fans cheered club legends Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull and Tony Esposito up in a suite. They cheered Kane playing to their attention down on the ice. Finally they roared as the conference championship trophy was awarded to Toews.

"Unbelievable," Sharp said. "The crowd was great, and we fed off the energy."

Folks, in such a short time "the dark days" clearly have evolved into the bright lights of the Stanley Cup Finals.