I keep coming back to all the goodwill that Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz engendered when he brought the franchise in from the cold in 2007. It didn’t take much to begin the thaw of his father’s 24-year deep freeze, but he did it. That’s the point. To fans who had been beaten down by the old man’s mulishness and stinginess, it was as if someone had offered them a beach, a daiquiri and a pair of sunglasses.
Rocky Wirtz ended the blackouts that had kept Hawks fans from watching most home games on TV. He brought back popular broadcaster Pat Foley. He made some of the stars of the past part of the family again after years of acrimony. Obvious stuff, but nice stuff.
