'Cup' reporting will be a thrill as well as the games

Chicago Blackhawks fans aren't in for a demonstration just of great hockey over the next two weeks, They're also in for a demonstration of great hockey writing.

The Daily Herald's Blackhawks reporter since 1988, Tim Sassone is the acknowledged dean of hockey writers in the Chicago area. He's a hardworking, tenacious lover of the game, whose incisive reporting has brought him numerous awards, including honors as a finalist for the Hockey Hall of Fame's Elmer Ferguson Award.

Outside of the team itself, there may be no one in Chicago who wants more than Tim to see the Hawks win the Stanley Cup, and there is certainly no one who will describe their quest more urgently, thoroughly or insightfully.

Consider just the playoffs this season. Since the first game against Nashville a month and a half ago, the Hawks have played 16 games. In that same time, Sassone has written at least 111 stories and columns. And that's just for print. He's also added scores of entries for his "Between the Circles" blog at dailyherald.com, and he sends out regular notes on Twitter at @timsassone.

The mark of a great newspaper writer - whether for sports or any subject - isn't made just through volume, though. It also comes from an ability to meet incredibly tight deadlines and still write things that people, especially people who know the subject really well, will want to read.

For instance, when Dustin Byfuglien scored the Western Conference Finals Game 3-winning goal in overtime as the Daily Herald's publication deadline loomed, Sassone produced a final story, complete with analysis of the winning goal from several players' points of view, then added a "game tracker" on game highlights and up-to-date notes - and still interacted with readers on his blog. In a preface to Sunday's Game 4, he provided a column about the unique collection of Blackhawks players able to step up precisely when they're needed as well as a feature reviewing how the team saw itself as it made its way toward the Stanley Cup Finals.

Think for a moment about the challenge of that. Within the space of a couple hours on Friday night, he interviewed several players and coaches and fit their responses into a cohesive description of what had occurred moments before, plus he added interesting notes about the game. Then, by the late afternoon Saturday, he provided two more insightful stories, replete with historical perspective, specific game and play references and still more interviews.

Of course, Sassone's not the only Daily Herald writer - not even the only Daily Herald sports writer - capable of such prodigious and insightful work. For the same pre-Game 4 Sunday, Mike Spellman provided three stories on the Hawks and San Jose Sharks, and the night of the Game 3 OT win, columnist Barry Rozner also quickly turned around reflections in time for Saturday publication. Throughout the playoffs, Mike Imrem provides a perspective that only a Chicagoan who was around in both 1961 and 1992 can offer, and writer Lindsey Willhite has helped with coverage since the playoffs began. So, our hockey coverage is far from a one-man show.

But the one man at the center certainly is a "show" worth following. Whether you're coming fresh to the Hawks because of their new success or you've followed them for years, you should know that the team leading you through the Stanley Cup Finals is one of the best there is, led by one of the best there is. So sit back and prepare to enjoy not just the games of the Stanley Cup Finals, but the reporting on the games as well.