Fans, high expectations greet old, new Hawks at convention

Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith were cheered like rock stars during opening ceremonies at the second annual Blackhawks convention Friday at the Hilton Chicago.

While the Hawks' most popular players were feeling the love from the crowd, team president John McDonough drew plenty of boos when introduced from those fans obviously unhappy with Tuesday's demotion of general manager Dale Tallon to senior advisor.

The love fest between the fans and players picked up right where it left off in May after the Hawks' magical season that culminated with a loss to Detroit in the Western Conference finals.

"We know we have the best fans in the league, and with your help we want to be the best team in the league," Toews said.

The Hawks are well on their way to achieving that goal, especially after an off-season where they believe they have upgraded their team dramatically with the additions of free agents Marian Hossa, John Madden and Tomas Kopecky.

Hossa, a 40-goal scorer last season with the Red Wings, was welcomed with open arms by his new teammates.

"It's going to be nice to see him flying around the ice for us," Adam Burish said.

"He's a good guy and a heck of a player," Toews said. "You've seen what he has accomplished throughout his career. He's definitely one of those players we could use."

Hossa was overwhelmed by what he saw at the convention.

"I said I wanted to go play in a hockey town, and this is a hockey town," Hossa said.

Chasing down the Red Wings is what the Hawks will have on their minds when the 2009-10 season begins in October. Detroit has won the last eight Central Division titles.

"We would like to win our division; that's our goal going into the season," coach Joel Quenneville said.

There are going to be huge expectations on the Hawks to not only contend for their first division title since 1992-93 but to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

"I think we answered a lot of those types of questions with our playoff push and playoff drive, playing some tough series against some experienced teams and finding ways to win when it looked like we were in tough spots," Quenneville said.

"I think we gained a lot of experience and it can help us, but going into the year we can't expect that it can just happen. We should be motivated to be better and use what we accomplished to our advantage right from the get-go because teams will be hungry against us and gunning."

Many of the players were seeing each other for the first time since packing their bags following the Detroit series.

"I think this year we can all take our game to another level," Toews said. "A lot of guys were in the gym today, excited to be back at it. Just being here right now you almost wish it was training camp already.

"We're ready and real excited about the opportunity we're going to have."

Hawks senior advisor Scotty Bowman attended Friday's opening ceremonies and made his first public comments since his son was named GM on Tuesday.

Bowman said he was unaware that the Hawks were making a change in GMs until his son called him.

"I never got involved in the process," Bowman said. "I was happy that John never called me on that. I knew someday (Stan) might get a chance somewhere, but he wasn't impatient or anything."

Bowman, who said he always considered himself a coach rather than a manager, although he did both, believes a key for his son will be how he uses his staff.

"I think the most important thing now is your staff," Bowman said. "If you look around the teams that are successful, they have a lot of people in a lot of areas.

"I'm more part time. I can give him a good opinion on players more than anything because I watch a lot of NHL games, but I would probably give my opinions to Marc Bergevin because he's going to be handling the player personnel."

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