If there are passages in the life of a man they seem to have bypassed Chris Chelios. The Blackhawks’ defenseman, who once said he never wants to grow up, apparently will never grow old, either.
He reached another milestone Thursday night, his 34th birthday, and in a game that is supposed to belong to the young he proved that it still belongs to him.
It was Chelios’ second-period goal on a power play that gave the Hawks a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in the United Center before a crowd of 18,602 that was palpably bored and restless and audibly unhappy with a basically listless Hawks performance.
So that after he had measured his shot from the left faceoffcircle like a pool shooter calling, “Eight-ball in the side pocket,” Chelios waited an instant before dramatically thrusting his arms overhead more in disgust than triumph.
“That was for my buddies in the third balcony,” he said. “It was for everything. We had played poorly. We finally did it, and I wanted to give them a reason to cheer.”
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Chelios also started the Hawks’ first scoring play, which Bernie Nicholls finished just 23 seconds into the game, and the two points gave him the team lead with 47. He is the only defenseman in the league who is leading his team in scoring.
“We were trying to blow them out early,” said Nicholls, “and sometimes that works in the opposite way. We thought we could get a lot of goals on this team, but they stayed with us the whole game. Games like that scare you.”
By the 4-minute mark of the opening period the Sharks had tied it on a deflection by Kevin Miller, the only goal that Jeff Hackett would allow.
But no one knew that at the time and “this game,” said coach Craig Hartsburg, “was like one of those downhill curving putts where you’ve got body English on it and you’re trying to hope it into the hole. We rimmed the cup a couple of times, and it finally dropped for us.”
But not until the Hawks enjoyed a two-man power-play advantage, and even then “we didn’t start out very well,” Hartsburg said. “We won the draw and then let the puck out of the zone, but we regrouped.”
That’s when the boos began in earnest until Chelios silenced them with what would prove to be the game-winner.
“I don’t think I’ve ever scored a winning goal on my birthday before,” Chelios said. “That was kind of nice.”
It also was nice for Hackett, whose 13th victory of the season set a career high. Hackett is 12-2-1 in his last 15 starts. “Chris Chelios is the best player I’ve ever played with,” Hackett said.
“Cheli does the same thing every year,” Jeremy Roenick said, “whether you think this is his best season or last year was his best. That’s why he’s the best there is.”
At everything he does in a hockey rink. Besides being the team’s leader on the ice, he has been the designated pie-thrower for two recent birthdays–Roenick’s and Cam Russell’s–but Thursday night as he was skating off the ice, Joe Murphy gave Chelios a faceful of whipped cream.
“They got me,” Chelios said. “But not as good as I got them.”