McDonough in Schaumburg: Hawks won't have hangover from Cup

All the seemingly endless updates on the travels and travails of the Stanley Cup.

News that the Blackhawks organization will be handing out dazzling Stanley Cup rings to everyone from ambassadors such as Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita all the way down to the full-time interns on staff last season.

Two million fans in downtown Chicago, thousands more lining the streets from small-town Canada to the bright lights of Paris.

Yes, it has been one heck of a long and enjoyable celebration for both the Blackhawks and their fans, with more to come when the championship banner is raised at the United Center on Oct. 9.

But if you're worried there might be a bit of a hangover effect this season for the Blackhawks after their historic championship run, don't be, according to team president John McDonough.

"Nobody within the organization is caught up in Blackhawks Stanley Cup-itis," McDonough told a packed house at the Schaumburg Business Association's monthly gathering in Chandler's at Schaumburg Golf Club on Tuesday morning. "That was very rewarding, but we move on.

"Change has really defined this franchise."

And it didn't take long for the changes to begin this summer. Working under the restrictions of the salary cap, nearly half the Hawks' Stanley Cup roster has been moved out, including the departure of key players such as Antti Niemi, Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien.

It has made many Hawks fans uneasy, and McDonough says he feels your pain.

"In a perfect world you'd like to keep all the guys together, they would never age, they'd all wear the same number, we'd win the Stanley Cup again - which is still our goal again," said McDonough. "But that's not reality.

"I definitely understand the attachment the fans have to the players - you don't want to see them go."

While McDonough acknowledged many of the challenges ahead to defending the Cup and strengthening the franchise, his address wasn't entirely gloomy or narrowly focused on the target ahead. He received plenty of laughs Tuesday when he recounted what it was like to see his team win the Cup in Philadelphia.

"I didn't expect the game to end with one of our players (Patrick Kane) skating down the ice, disrobing as he's skating with no goal light going on and the referee not signaling a goal," McDonough said. "I thought this would be some magical moment; that light would go on. People would pile on.

"But if you look at that celebration, I certainly didn't envision our players piling on Antti Niemi and Patrick Kane and, as they were hugging them, looking back to see if the goal was good. Until this day, I haven't seen that red light go on."

While it has been a "fun journey," McDonough gives himself a personal grade of "incomplete" after nearly three years on the job, and says it's all about the upcoming season, wanting more, and never being satisfied.

"They're going to allow us to play next season, so we have to be prepared for that," he said. "We've had our time. It's back to work - it's a different journey."