Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

PHILADELPHIA - It wasn't the first time this season a player walked out of the left corner, and from a nearly impossible angle, brought millions to their feet.

For Team Canada in Vancouver, the golden goal was scored by the leader of the next generation of Canadian hockey players, Sid Crosby.

For Chicago, Wednesday night in Philadelphia, it was every bit as symbolic that the highest draft choice in franchise history, Patrick Kane, slid a puck through Mike Leighton's wind-burned legs for the goal that ended a franchise's journey from total obscurity to utter ecstasy.

The 4-3 win also ends the longest Stanley Cup drought in the National Hockey League - over to you, Toronto - as for the first time since 1961, the Chicago Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champions. Many of us haven't been able to say that for our entire time on this earth.

"My Dad (Bill), and my grandfather (Bill Sr.) who was involved back in 1961, they're up there in heaven looking down," said owner/heir Rocky Wirtz, the first in the lineage to see the light, quit pinching pennies and actually take a run at winning something in Chicago.

Talk about payback.

"I remember when we were (playing at United Center) and there was only 3,000 fans in the building," said Dave Bolland, the skilful but deliciously dirty third-line checking centre who gave Chicago that little edge over every team it met this spring. "Now we're packing the place and it's crazy. To do it now, and to have everyone here who was doing it, is great."

Alas, that is the epilogue of a Chicago team that GM Stan Bowman will have to strategically strip down in order to stay under the league salary cap.

But that is talk for another day. For now, let these Blackhawks bask.

It's been a long time since Stan Mikita rode down Michigan Ave. in a convertible.

"I shot it, I saw it go right through (Leighton's) legs. It stuck right under the pad in the net," said Kane, the only one in the building who was certain he had ended this game at 4:06 of overtime on a puck that should have been stopped by Leighton.

Everything came home to roost in Game 6 for the Flyers, who finally ran out of lives against a better team from a better Conference, steeled by better playoff opponents along the way.

Leighton, as it turned out, was indeed just good enough to get you beat. And the Blackhawks, who outshot Philadelphia 41-24 and outplayed them terribly in this game, left no doubt which was the better team.

"They're as fast defensively as they are offensively," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "It was challenging."

Said Flyers captain Mike Richards: "It hurts a lot."

Scott Hartnell's incredibly-skilled tying goal with 3:59 to play was emblematic of the force he was Wednesday, easily checking in as the best Flyer in Game 6. Chris Pronger logged another 29:43 in Game 6, but in the end, he was likely the second-best defenceman in this series.

Duncan Keith, a shoe-in for the Norris Trophy in a couple of weeks time, was simply magnificent on the Blackhawks blue-line, slowly usurping Pronger in this Cup final. Keith is hockey's next Scott Niedermayer, an amazing skater and deft distributor - equal parts Baryshnikov and Barilko.

And he did it while missing a mouthful of teeth, lost along the way this spring. "Everybody on our team sacrificed," he said.

For Kane it was silver in Vancouver, and more silver in Philly. For captain Jonathan Toews, he now has won Olympic gold, a Stanley Cup and a Conn Smythe Trophy, the first player ever to turn that hat trick in the same season.

Toews' stats in this final were meagre - no goals, three assists - but the Winnipegger played with the heart of a lion, taking on Pronger each and every night. He took that bullet so players like Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg could roam free.

"What a journey," said Marian Hossa, the first to take the Cup from Toews. "I am so happy being part of Chicago. I was believing with the guys that we could do it, and we did it."

Let the record show: Hossa was an absolute horse through these playoffs, even if his points totals (3-12-15) may not be quite commensurate to his $7.9-million salary.

Hossa seldom lost a battle, was near perfect defensively, and the very fact that Chicago had that level of player playing on its second line most nights is the reason why the Blackhawks are champions today. Ditto Brian Campbell on defence.

"I don't have to dream anymore. My dream has become a reality," Campbell said. "Wow - what a feeling."

The Philadelphia story had a nice run through three rounds. But let's be serious - Chicago's tale goes far, far beyond one heartfelt playoff run.

This is an Original Six franchise that had fallen off the map in its own city; a franchise in the heart of America that lost its soul under the stewardship of Bill Wirtz. The Hawks had been stripped off of WGN television long enough for that old Indian head on their jerseys to become a stranger to two generations of Chicagoans.

Five seasons after they remade the game and its economics during the lockout of 2004-05, Chicago now represents the template for how teams are supposed to built in the new game - and the way they should play the game as well.

Chicago drafted Toews, Kane, Keith, Brent Seabrook, Bolland, Troy Brouwer, Dustin Byfuglien, Nik Hjalmarsson and Adam Burish. The work was done by deposed general manager Dale Tallon, the new Florida GM who should get a ring for this, surely, in a ceremony held when the Panthers next visit Chicago.

Today the Chicago Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champions.

And that old Indian? No wonder he's smiling again.

He has more friends now than he ever dreamed of.