The NHL's Central Division was formed in 1993 as part of the Western Conference in a league realignment, the predecessor of which was the Norris Division.
Chicago Blackhawks:
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They have won three Stanley Cup Championships and thirteen division titles since their foundation in 1926. The Blackhawks are one of the Original Six NHL teams along with the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, and Detroit Red Wings. Since 1994, the Blackhawks have played in the United Center in Chicago.
Beginnings:
The Chicago Black Hawks joined the NHL in 1926 as part of the league's successful foray into United States-based teams. They were founded by coffee tycoon Frederic McLaughlin. Most of the Hawks' original players came from the Portland Rosebuds of the Western Canada Hockey League, which had folded the previous season.
McLaughlin had been a commander with the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion of the 86th Infantry Division during World War I. This Division was nicknamed the "Blackhawk Division", after a Native American of the Sauk nation, Chief Black Hawk, who was a prominent figure in the history of Illinois. McLaughlin evidently named the hockey team in honour of the military unit, making it one of many sports team names using Native Americans as icons. McLaughlin's wife, Irene Castle, designed the original version of the team's logo, which survived, with only minor changes, until 1955.
The 21st century:
The millennium has largely been a disappointing time for the Hawks thus far. Eric Daze, Alexei Zhamnov, and Tony Amonte emerged as some of the team's leading stars by this time. However, Chicago missed the playoffs for four straight years until they took a quick first-round exit in 2002. Amonte left for the Phoenix Coyotes in the summer of 2002, and the Blackhawks missed the playoffs again in 2003 and 2004.
A somber note was struck in February of 2004, when ESPN named the Blackhawks the worst franchise in professional sports. Indeed, the Blackhawks are now viewed with much indifference by Chicagoans, who feel that management is deliberately trying to alienate the fan base. Owner Bill Wirtz has raised ticket prices to an average of $50, and does not allow home games to be televised locally in the Chicago area. Many hockey fans in Chicago prefer the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves to the Hawks, who have advertised themselves by saying "We Play Hockey the Old-Fashioned Way: We Actually Win". The club under Wirtz was then subject of a highly critical book, Career Misconduct, sold outside games until Wirtz arrested its author and publisher.
Columbus Blue Jackets:
The Columbus Blue Jackets are a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio, United States. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL).
The name "Blue Jackets" was chosen to celebrate "patriotism, pride and the rich Civil War history in the state of Ohio and city of Columbus."
The team logo is a stylized version of the Ohio Flag. Previously used as an alternate logo, it became the primary as part of a Reebok-sponsored redesign for the 2007-2008 season. The team's sweaters feature an alternate logo, a Civil War cap with crossed hockey sticks, on the shoulders.
Detroit Red Wings:
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club is one of the Original Six teams of the NHL. The Red Wings are one of the most popular sports franchises in North America, so much that Detroit is nicknamed "Hockeytown." The Red Wings have won the most Stanley Cup championships (10) of any NHL franchise based in the United States, and are third overall in total championships behind the Montreal Canadiens (24) and Toronto Maple Leafs (13). They currently play in Joe Louis Arena after having spent over 40 years in Olympia Stadium.
The Octopus:
The "Legend of the Octopus" is a sports tradition during Detroit Red Wings home playoff games, in which an octopus is thrown onto the ice surface for good luck. During the playoffs, Joe Louis Arena is generally adorned with a giant octopus with red eyes, nicknamed "Al" after Joe Louis Arena head ice manager Al Sobotka.
The 1952 playoffs featured the start of the tradition—the octopus throw. The owner of a local fish market, Peter Cusimano, threw one from the stands and onto the ice. The eight legs were purportedly symbolic of the eight wins it took to win the Stanley Cup at the time. The Red Wings went on to sweep both of their opponents that year en route to a Stanley Cup championship. The NHL has, at various times, tried to eliminate this tradition but it continues to this day.
Nashville Predators:
The Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). It was widely speculated that the Predators would be relocating after the 2007-2008 season, but on August 1, 2007 a group that wanted to keep the team in Nashville provided a letter of intent to current owner Craig Leipold, temporarily giving them exclusive negotiating rights to buy the team.
Fanbase:
Catfish throwing:
Fans of the Nashville Predators have modified a tradition of the Detroit Red Wings to show their support: on occasion, a fan will throw a catfish onto the ice. The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville cites the first instance of this on October 30, 2003. At least four catfish were thrown onto the ice after the first Nashville goal on November 13, 2003.
St. Louis Blues (hockey):
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "St. Louis Blues".
The Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and California Seals when the league doubled in size from its Original Six. They are, along with the Los Angeles Kings, one of the two teams from the 1967 Expansion not to have won a Stanley Cup; the Philadelphia Flyers won it in 1974 and 1975, the Pittsburgh Penguins won it in 1991 and 1992 and the North Stars (who merged with the Cleveland Barons, successors of the Seals, in 1978) won it in 1999 as the Dallas Stars.
St. Louis was the last of the expansion teams to officially get into the league, chosen over Baltimore at the insistence of the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were owned at that time by the influential Wirtz family of Chicago, who also owned, and sought to unload, the then-decrepit St. Louis Arena. The team's first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr., his son, Sid Salomon III, and Robert L. Wolfson, who were granted the franchise in 1966. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. Salomon then spent several million dollars on renovations for the 38-year-old Arena, which increased the number of seats from 12,000 to 15,000 and provided its first significant maintenance since the 1940s.
Click Here To Play Online Sports Book
