Darren Pang: Blackhawks Are A Dynasty If They Beat Lightning
(CBS) What constitutes a hockey dynasty in today's NHL?
It's an interesting debate, with multiple layers to it thanks in part to a hard salary cap that makes it difficult to keep teams together that feature budding young stars who demand more money.
With their third Stanley Cup Final appearance in six years on tap when the championship series starts Wednesday evening against the Lightning, the Blackhawks are the franchise with the best case to having a dynasty during the 2000s. Chicago won titles in 2010 and 2013 and has also been to five of the past seven Western Conference Final series.
In the eyes of NHL television analyst Darren Pang, the Blackhawks should be considered a dynasty if they defeat the Lightning in this Stanley Cup.
"This is something you don't take for granted when you're a childhood fan or if you're 50 years old, it doesn't matter," Pang said in an interview on the Mully and Hanley Show on Monday morning. "It's something to remember. If they win the Stanley Cup this year -- and we had this conversation and it was a long one on Hockey Night in Canada -- what now in the salary cap era is a dynasty? Is this a new era dynasty? Is this just simply a dynasty if they were to win the Stanley Cup? Is it a dynasty right now … being in the Stanley Cup Final and conference finals this amount of times in the last seven years?
"It's something to be reckoned with. If they win the Stanley Cup this year, I put them in the dynasty mode because of how difficult it is to keep your core together, how difficult it is to get back year after year. The L.A. Kings are figuring this out. It's feast or famine, and they're a phenomenal franchise, and L.A. could win it again next year.
"But right now, for my money watching game in and game out, you watch the NHL because of the way the Blackhawks play the game and the spirit they have when their backs are against the wall."
Listen to Pang's full interview below. He also talks matchups in the Chicago-Tampa Bay showdown.