It's been a long 2,547 days.

Yes, local hockey fans, it's been that long since you've watched your beloved Chicago Blackhawks compete in an NHL Stanley Cup playoff game.

That's, oh, roughly 220 million seconds.  Three million minutes.  Sixty-thousand hours.  Better savor every moment of this year's run.  You just never know.

Seriously, on April 25, 2002, the host St. Louis Blues defeated the Blackhawks 5-3, taking the conference quarterfinal series 4-1 and sending Chicago hockey fans into an excruciating drought.

But, today, Thursday, April 16, 2009 - the Hawks return to the ice to compete for Lord Stanley's Cup.

Number of players on the Hawks' 2002 roster?

As one might expect - since the team is exceedingly young - zero.

The 2002 squad was led by the likes of Andrei Nikolishin, Alexei Zhamnov, Lyle Odelein, Chris Simon, Jocelyn Thibault - those were the days.  But it was a healthy mix between veterans and youngsters.

This year - that's one area other teams plan to beat the Hawks in - experience.

Having Joel Quenneville behind the bench is a plus, he won a Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche and knows what it takes.

But as the young Pittsburgh Penguins learned last year, winning 16 games to capture one of the most coveted trophies in all of sports is no easy task.  They suffered through growing pains.  This year, they should be better for it, and indicated that with a convincing 4-1 first-round win over Philadelphia last night.

Now it's the Hawks' time, and they can prove the critics wrong.  I'm talking to you, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Martin Havlat, Brian Campbell, and Brent Seabrook.

And oh, by the way, having both Nikolai Khabibulin and Cristobal Huet doesn't seem like such a bad idea anymore, does it? (Not at all, the goaltending cushion is their greatest strength.)

The Hawks finished the season in playoff form, rattling off a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games.  In the Western Conference, only the St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks are walking into the playoffs on such a hot streak.

They'll need to pounce on Calgary, and pounce early.  Score the first goal, get the crowd involved, and win game one.  From there, the rest should come naturally.

Chicago's already beaten the Flames four times this season.  The playoffs are a different animal, but the home ice advantage and offensive firepower tilts the ice in the Hawks' favor.

But even if they get past the first round against a team that in fairness did finish with the same amount of wins (46), the playoffs is a long, grueling stretch, filled with twists and turns, injuries, and surprises.

Don't miss a second of the action.  You might just have to wait another 220 million.  In the NHL, especially with the parity today, you just never know.

My prediction: Chicago in 5.

Thanks to Timeanddate.com for the fascinating numbers.

And the game article for the Hawks' last playoff game can still be found here:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/cup02/games/2002-04-25-stl-chi.htm

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Craig Kanalley
Craig is a native of Buffalo, N.Y., home of the chicken wing, frigid winters, the Sabres and the Bills. He is a major league sports fan and most closely follows hockey. More