A non-Blackhawks fan celebrates

I am not a Blackhawks fan. However, my close friend Peter is. Peter introduced me to hockey, and I was lucky to get to watch Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals with him last night. The Hawks won in overtime on an absurd Patrick Kane goal, and it was honestly one of the coolest moments ever for me as a sports fan.

I see a lot of me in Peter's Hawks fandom. Hockey is his favorite sport, baseball is mine. He's been a Blackhawks fan basically from birth, much like I am with the Mets. Before tonight, neither of us had ever seen our favorite team win a championship; however, we'd both seen our second teams win (the Lightning for Peter, the Red Sox for me). And we'd both recently been close: the Hawks lost in the Western Conference Finals last year, and in 2006 the Mets lost the National League Championship Series.

When Kane scored, Peter jumped in my arms (me being the closest person available) and we all screamed and cheered and so on. And in that moment, I could see a possible future. David Wright hitting a walk-off home run to win the World Series. And I could see myself acting exactly the same way. I'm so glad that Peter got to experience that. Now I hope that I will someday as well.

In celebration, here is Blackhawk Dustin Byfuglien getting creeped on by Pierre McGuire. He's not the first, but this is probably the funniest.