The Hawks' will to win a rare and special quality

Hard to believe it's been a week already.

Seems like only yesterday that I landed at O'Hare International Airport after a wildly hysterical and supremely historical night in Philadelphia.

Waiting for me was a message on my voice mail.

It was from one of the old gang with whom I sat in the first row of the second balcony when we had season tickets in the old barn.

He was laughing while telling me there were 3,000 people waiting in line at a sporting goods store on that Thursday morning - so they could be first to get their Blackhawks championship memorabilia.

"How funny is that?" he said.

He didn't have to say why he was laughing. I knew he was thinking there were a lot of games we attended when it didn't look like there were 3,000 people in the joint.

And now look at hockey in Chicago.

It seems like every day there's another event, and every day there's another party.

It might go on all summer, as everyone wants to embrace this team and that silver bowl.

It's easy to understand the draw of the team, too, being as it was - nearly top to bottom - a genuine "team."

With an exception or two, the guys really gave of themselves for the one goal of winning it all.

There's also the layered melancholy and underlying knowledge that some of these guys won't be back.

Due to their cap troubles, the Hawks might be unable to afford an unrestricted free agent such as John Madden - not that he was expensive at $2.75 million - because every penny will count this summer.

Madden was a serious character guy and a true pro, often one of the few players standing in the room and waiting for the media on nights when many hid from the lights after a losing effort.

And you think of men like Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd, either of whom might not be back.

Sharp, a candidate to go only because of his $4.2 million salary the next two years, played some of the best - maybe the best - hockey of his life this postseason, and was impressive in so many ways.

Not only was he fifth among all playoff scorers with 22 points, but he was also a stunning plus-10 in 22 games.

A true leader, he made one of the most important plays of the last 49 years when he outworked Philly defenseman Matt Carle late in the second period of Game 6, picked his pocket in the corner, and poked a puck free to Patrick Kane.

The hard work already done, Kane walked up the boards and then sent a pass over to Niklas Hjalmarsson, who fired it at the net.

Cruising through the slot was Ladd, he of the busted shoulder, who tipped it past Mike Leighton for a 3-2 Hawks lead.

No point for Sharp on the play, no goal for the Hawks without Sharp making the play.

"Nobody on this team cares about being on the score sheet," Sharp said that night on the ice while the Hawks celebrated. "All we care about is the final score. That's what's so great about this group of players."

Of course, that goal allowed the Hawks to win in overtime, and it's hard to imagine the Hawks without players such as Ladd and Sharp after what will be an eventful and very short off-season.

"All the guys sacrifice for each other," Ladd said. "That's what makes this team so special. You can't win if you don't have that feeling for each other. You can't win without that character."

It is an absolute truth in hockey that those 16 victories don't happen without special people, like Ladd, Sharp and Madden, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

"We may lose some big character guys," Toews said that night in Philly. "If that happens, other guys will have to grow up a bit and fill those roles."

They sure have it in a guy like Keith, who played great through the misery of a busted face. People think it's a cute story that he played through the pain and blood of a mouth full of broken teeth.

It's not cute. Take my word for it. It's a year of absolute agony and several surgeries.

But guys like Keith showed their will to win, with which some are born, and others discover by watching teammates. Some are embarrassed into it, others find it through confidence instilled by a great coach.

But it's no accident that the Hawks were 6-1 in 1-goal games in the postseason, and 5-1 in 2-goal games.

The will to win in hockey, the ability to sacrifice for one another, to completely give of yourself for a teammate, is the hardest quality to find in sports.

It's what makes the Hawks so special, what makes them so endearing, what makes 3,000 people line up at 4 a.m. to buy a T-shirt.

It's what makes fans want to hold onto to this team and remember it forever.

It's what makes a team the Stanley Cup champions.

brozner@dailyherald.com