Chicago Blackhawks players and fans on Friday trickled their way to the USG Arena, the new home of USHL’s Chicago Steel. The event on the Near West Side was more prestigious than a junior hockey league game.
It was a special evening full of tear-jerking speeches, lengthy applause and a trip down memory lane of 100 years of Hawks hockey. Sitting in the front row were legendary players and their families, soaking in a long list of historic moments.
Retired Hall of Fame broadcaster Pat Foley kicked things off the only way he could — thanking the players for their contributions to the centennial franchise. Their names already etched in Hawks history, they now can say it officially.
Duncan Keith, Steve Larmer and the late Troy Murray were inducted into the inaugural class of the Hawks Hall of Fame on Friday evening. The trio joined the “automatic inductees” who already have their sweaters hanging in the United Center rafters.
“It’s an incredible honor,” said Larmer, the former right wing. “To be part of this, to have played 11 years here, (I) come in as a young kid and left as a man. It was a lot of fun playing in the old Chicago Stadium.”
After giving some love to the retired sweaters, Foley turned his attention to Murray, the benevolent and beloved Hawks great who died of cancer last month at age 63.
Before a video of Murray highlights aired, Foley closed his introduction: “He was everything you want a Blackhawk to be.”
The Hawks drafted Murray in the third round (No. 57) of the 1980 draft. He played 12 of his 15 NHL seasons with the Hawks, winning the Selke Trophy in 1985-86 after a career-best 45 goals and 99 points.
He scored 20-plus goals in five straight seasons (1984-85 to 1988-89) and finished his two Hawks tenures with 488 points (197 goals, 291 assists). Overall, he finished his career with 584 points (230 goals, 354 assists) in 915 games with the Hawks, Winnipeg Jets, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche — with whom he won a Stanley Cup in his final season in 1996.
His time with the Hawks wouldn’t end there — he spent 27 years as a radio analyst alongside John Wiedeman. The pair was named the best sports play-by-play team from the Illinois Broadcasters Association.
Murray’s son, Blake, accepted the Hall of Fame honor on his father’s behalf and read a multipage speech as the crowd gazed upon him. One thing Blake noted about his dad: He saw hockey as his life.
“Thank you for what you did for the beautiful game of hockey,” Murray said before embracing Foley and being flooded with applause.
Larmer, Murray’s former teammate, was introduced by another Hawks legend in Denis Savard, a visual of how much history was in the building. Fans of different generations showed their appreciation for the two.
“Denis was a great teammate, we played together for eight years and we had a lot of success together with Al (Secord),” Larmer, 64, said. “He’s been a great friend, one of the few guys I stay in touch with from that era. It’s great, he was a fun guy to play with.”
The Hawks drafted Larmer in the sixth round (No. 120) in 1980, and he became a model of consistency for the franchise. He appeared in 884 straight regular-season games from 1982-83 — when he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie — through 1992-93, totaling 70-plus points in each of those 11 seasons. He played his final two seasons with the New York Rangers, winning a Stanley Cup in 1994, and finished his career with 1,012 points (441 goals, 571 assists).
Murray and Larmer played their first full seasons with the Hawks together. Now their names sit in the same Hall of Fame class forever.
“It’s an Original Six team, it’s been around for 100 years and there were a lot of great players who came and played,” Larmer said. “It’s nice to play for a franchise that has as much history.”
Among those on hand Friday were current Hawks players, a roster that’s the youngest in the NHL. Larmer sees similarities to his early teams.
“You need to keep building on that and keep playing and keep getting better, all teams go through it — we went through that in the early 1980s,” Larmer said. “You have a bad game, you forget about it, wake up the next morning, put your boots on and go to work.”
Perhaps the young Hawks most connected with Keith, the night’s third honoree. The former defenseman, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, helped the Hawks win Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015.