On April 10, the Chicago Blackhawks held their inaugural Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
Before the season started, the Blackhawks announced they would have a ‘Blackhawks Hall of Fame’ as part of the Centennial season. Each season, fans vote two alumni into the Hall of Fame: one modern and one heritage player, and players whose jerseys are retired receive automatic induction.
The ceremony honored the first two inductees: Duncan Keith (Modern Era) and Steve Larmer (Heritage Era), as well as the late beloved alumni and broadcaster Troy Murray (Builder Inductee).
The hour-long ceremony celebrated the unwavering “standard” of Blackhawks hockey, and the one striving to return to it.
Keith, Larmer, and Murray’s son, Blake, gave speeches. While Marian Hossa introduced Keith, Denis Savard introduced Larmer. Pat Foley, who emceed the event, introduced Blake Murray.
“Everything You Want A Blackhawk To Be”
“He was everything you want a Blackhawk to be,” were Foley’s beautiful words to describe Murray, and that set the tone for the event. Because, as Foley described, Murray carried himself with the three C’s: Class, Character, and Commitment.
A defining legacy and example.
When it came to Keith, Hossa echoed similar words about him being everything you want in a Blackhawk.
And those words are easily applied to Larmer, too, as Keith described him as the most consistent and hardworking Blackhawk to wear the jersey. Even though all three were different players, they were special in their own ways as leaders on and off the ice, and championships followed.
The current Blackhawks were in attendance for the ceremony, and a cool moment was Larmer giving the players advice: enjoy it and don’t be afraid to laugh at themselves. Furthermore, they got to hear the pride all three players had in wearing the Blackhawks jersey.
Photo Credit: Brooke LoFurno / The Hockey Writers
It was something that stuck with them.
Head coach Jeff Blashill said before the St. Louis Blues matchup on April 11 about the ceremony,
“I thought it was awesome. Very, very well done. I think those are just great opportunities. A reminder of what a storied franchise that we coach and play and work for, and I also think it’s a reminder for our players and us as coaches to savor every day in the NHL. And I’ve said this a lot, you know, I think that perspective is important… You can go through great times in the NHL, bad times in the NHL, they’re all great days, you know. And when you get an opportunity to do what we do for a living, they’re all great days. And so I thought that was awesome. So just, you know, really good time.”
The game against the Blues gave the fans a chance to celebrate Keith, Larmer, and Murray. Keith got a big ovation from the crowd during the first period of the game. The Murray family got a huge ovation during the second period. Keith, Larmer, and Blake Murray sounded the horn before the game, too.
Blackhawks Growing In The Standard
When it comes to the current Blackhawks, the inductees all see the makeup and potential and understand the process of getting to the top.
Larmer said in a post-ceremony press conference about the Blackhawks, “Well, I think they got a really good young core, and you need to keep building on that and keep playing and keep getting better. I mean, all teams go through it. We went through that in the early 80’s also. So you just, you know, you show up at the rink every day, and you work hard, and you get better. And you know, you have a bad game, you forget about it. Wake up the next morning, put your boots on, and go to work.”
Keith also said in his presser, in part, “They got a great young group of defensemen. You look at the size of some of those guys, and the way they can skate, and how young they are. (Artyom) Levshunov is what? 20 years old. You got (Sam) Rinzel and Wyatt Kaiser- the way he’s moving back there. They’re so young. It’s going to take a few years to get that experience. And you know that internal competition to push one another for ice time makes each other better. And I see a lot of similarities with our young group that we had when I started out this team, you know, especially with the defense…”
It shows that it doesn’t matter what era of hockey you come from; all teams have to go through it and learn. The Blackhawks are going through it now during their tough final games of the season.
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However, as the Blackhawks have been pushing all season, the team has been focused on getting better each day with the future in mind- a shared perspective with Larmer. The championship standard they heard, especially from Keith’s speech, resonated and will continue to do so moving forward.
“There’s no doubt. But I think our players knew that already. You know… they know the history here. They know the type of standard that we’re trying to get to. We’ve talked about standard. That’s one of the probably two things I wanted to do this year, more than anything else, is create a standard and create a culture within that. And I think our guys are reaching towards that.
“That doesn’t always result in wins. Wins and losses come based on a lot of things, including, you know, where your talent level’s at, and where the maturity of that group’s at, where they’re at in their prime compared to not prime. But as we climb towards guys getting into their primes, I think our guys understand the standard. We’ve talked about championship standard from day one, and I think they’ve done a great job of working towards that, but it’s always a good reminder to hear from somebody like Duncan…”
