Blackhawks-Red Wings: You're Welcome, Commissioner

The National Hockey League is a disaster right now.

There, I said it. Gary Bettman is driving arguably the best professional sport in North America down the drain and is too short-sighted to see what's wrong. There's a team in Phoenix that's bankrupt, there hasn't been a relevant Canadian team in a decade, and the league is on the verge of begging for bailout money from Congress.

All over the NHL, there are nice stories happening that are being drowned in mediocre media deals and poor marketing. Whether it's because the major markets lack a significant name or the requisite success for fans to care, the money's simply not coming in.

The recession doesn't help, either. Every major sport is feeling a pinch in the box office, so hockey isn't unique in that regard.

But there is one bright spot in the entire league, one bandwagon that, if Bettman were smart, he would jump on yesterday. They're a model for how the entire league could turn around, and an inspiration to the worst teams in every sport that there is hope, and it doesn't have to be too far away.

That hope is the Chicago Blackhawks.

No more than just two years ago, the Blackhawks were an annual winner of Forbes' Worst Run Sports Franchise in North America. An Original Six team that, because of a stubborn, cheap owner and an awful general manager, looked more and more like they were decades from relevance.

They were worse than the Clippers.

I don't mean to make light of the passing of an owner, but it is really that simple. "Dollar Bill" Wirtz died just before the 2007-08 season, and passed the keys to the United Center to his son Rocky.

Rocky Wirtz then made a handful of brilliant personnel moves that have altered the next decade of the franchise's future. He gave GM Dale Tallon, who had started to do a great job drafting and acquiring quality free agents, a vote of confidence. He assured the young core of players that he was going to try to win. And then he hired John McDonough.

McDonough was the marketing guru that helped build the Chicago Cubs into a daily sellout. He is largely credited with Wrigley Field being full to bursting no matter if the sun comes out or the temperature hits 40 degrees; he knows how to sell sports.

The marriage of a committed owner, a marketing genius, and a good young team almost made the playoffs in 2008. In a number of subsequent moves in the summer last year, coupled with a ton of money poured into advertising and an early season coaching change, bam! You've got a team challenging for a championship one year later.

In less than 30 months, the worst-run team in professional sports is within smelling distance of the Stanley Cup.

Part of McDonough's master marketing scheme was getting Bettman to buy into the young team at the beginning of this season. He took the commissioner to a game at Wrigley Field, with a packed house of which he was partly responsible, and sold the man on the idea of the same screaming masses on New Year's Day.

And what better than to pair one Original Six franchise with another, and a hated rival: the Detroit Red Wings.

Bettman bought the sales pitch, and on January 1, everything McDonough had promised was blown away. I was at the game, and it was incredible. Every overpriced seat was filled, the streets of Wrigleyville were packed with hung-over bandwagon attendees of a hockey party outdoors in Chicago.

It was freezing, and it was beautiful.

Bettman wasn't the only person thrilled by the product. NBC broadcasted a well-played game with a lot of hitting and scoring and fast-paced action that actually made a dent in the New Year's college football viewership.

Hockey was on fire, and the youngest team in the league was making a statement that they were a sellable item.

From that icy January afternoon until the end of April, though, it was up to the Hawks to back up the New Year's Day sales pitch to Bettman and the nation that they were for real. To sell 40,000 tickets to a one-in-a-lifetime event at one of sports' sanctuaries is one thing; to disappear into obscurity would have destroyed the good will from that one great day.

Fast forward to the middle of May. The Blackhawks have continued to not only show up and impress, but they have destroyed most of the pundits' ceiling for their season. They're the youngest team in the league, and they're for real.

Most importantly, in the middle of a recession, in a league where teams are borrowing money to cover payroll and gas money for road games, the franchise that's barely two years past that infamous list in Forbes' hasn't had an empty seat all season.

Circle back to New Year's Day. McDonough sold a great young team and the defending Stanley Cup Champions as prime-time television on the league and the media, and it lived up to its billing. The hated rivalry served as a wonderful foundation for an excellent game and the national coming out party for the young Chicagoans.

The magic of Chicago versus Detroit as a rivalry was reborn.

On Sunday afternoon, the rivalry returns to the national spotlight. In the wake of the Sidney Crosby-led Penguins defeating Alexander Ovechkin's Capitals in a great seven-game series that most of the nation couldn't watch, a rivalry with 80 years of bite comes back.

In direct contrast to the hope and promise for future matchups between Crosby and Ovechkin, fans can now draw on decades of rivalry for context for a series that has a conference championship hanging in the balance.

Bettman is trying to convince investors to keep hockey in Arizona, and trying to keep teams financially viable. But right in front of his nose, for the next couple weeks, will be all the drama he needs to get hockey back into the sports conscience of the US. Two great teams with incredible fan bases fighting tooth and nail for a chance at the Cup.

On Sunday, the nation will see the first game of what should become a great series on national television. and next weekend, when the series returns to Chicago, I can personally guarantee that the crown will be over-the-top. McDonough isn't needed to get people interested in this any more.

Local sports radio reported that Game Six between the Blackhawks and Canucks drew a consistent rating of nearly half a million households throughout the game. In the 10:30 time slot, for the third period, the number elevated to an unheard-of number approaching 2 million.

If Detroit is Hockey Town, Chicago is Hockey Crazy.

So, to commissioner Bettman, as a season-ticket holder of the Blackhawks, I extend a firm, "You're welcome."

I don't think even you could screw this one up, and I can't wait to be a witness to history.