Dirk Graham recognized the moment called for him to speak. The Chicago Blackhawks were trailing three games to none to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1992 Stanley Cup Final. Something needed to be said to help rejuvenate the team, and he was the captain, after all.
Graham believed the Blackhawks could still rally. They had won 11 consecutive playoff games entering the series. They certainly had the players — Chris Chelios, Steve Larmer, Jeremy Roenick, and Ed Belfour among them — to do it. Plus, they had been in every game with the Penguins. Two of the three had come down to one goal, including a 1-0 result at the Chicago Stadium in the prior game.
Advertisement
Graham didn’t deliver heartfelt speeches regularly. He was one of those lead-by-example captains. His play inspired others. He was a true two-way player and skilled enough to score 20 goals seven times in his career, but he also won the Selke Trophy in 1991 and wasn’t afraid to mix it up with opponents. He did whatever the Blackhawks needed.
“He was a great captain,” his former Blackhawks teammate Brian Noonan said. “He played the game right. He played hard. He played honest. He’d score a big goal for you. He’d fight for you. He didn’t say much. A lot like Mark Messier, Chris Chelios; they don’t say a whole lot. They speak when the time’s right and they lead by example. And that’s what he did. He let his actions do the talking for him.”
Chelios described Graham as “just hard-nosed, tough, blue-collar, showing up every game, that was his thing.”
Graham, emotional on the ice but more reserved off it, still embraced the occasions that called for him to speak up. And because he didn’t speak before every game, the times he did, his teammates listened. That was especially true on May 31, 1992, the night before Game 4, when the team assembled.
What Graham said in the meeting had its purpose to motivate his teammates, but it’s what he did the following day that made that speech even more powerful. This is a forgotten story in Stanley Cup Final history, easily overlooked because it had little significance, even to Graham, in the end, because the Penguins beat the Blackhawks in Game 4 and won the series in a sweep. But 30 years later, it’s worth revisiting. If the result had been different, Graham’s speech and his first-period performance in Game 4 would have likely gone down in NHL folklore.
“I remember (the speech) vividly,” Roenick said, “because it was one of those leader moments that if you ever want to follow a leader or learn how to lead by example or how to motivate somebody or motivate a team in the locker room, it’s probably the best story that I’ve ever seen or ever heard.”
Graham’s goal was to reignite some belief and hope within the group. He felt anything was possible if he could get the Blackhawks thinking positively again.
Advertisement
Chicago had been through a lot together that season, which created a unique bond, too. Graham looks back on that team now as one of the closest he ever experienced. Nothing seemed to come easy for the Blackhawks that season. They were 18-18-9 at one point and only began putting wins together late in the season. Even in the playoffs, they fell behind 2-1 in the opening-round series to the St. Louis Blues.
“If you remember in that first series, we play St. Louis and each team I think sort of underachieved during the season,” said play-by-play broadcaster Pat Foley, who called all the Blackhawks’ playoff games that season. “It’s Mike Keenan and Brian Sutter (as coaches). And (color commentator) Dale (Tallon) and I look at it, somebody’s going to get fired at that end of that first series.”
Sutter was fired, just days after the Blackhawks won three consecutive games and took the series. Chicago carried that momentum into the next round and swept the Detroit Red Wings. Three of those four games were determined by one goal. The Blackhawks were even better in the next round and outscored the Edmonton Oilers 21-8 in a four-game sweep.
The Blackhawks were rolling and looked as if they might even continue to do so in the Stanley Cup Final against the Penguins, who were stacked with future Hall of Famers. The Blackhawks built a 4-1 lead in the second period of Game 1. The final 35 minutes were all Penguins, though, and they scored four unanswered goals to pull out a 5-4 victory. Everything seemed to unravel from there. Chicago lost 3-1 in Game 2. Mario Lemieux had two goals in each of the first two games. In Game 3, an unlucky goal was what solely decided the outcome.
Kevin Stevens slips past the Blackhawks’ Rod Buskas in the first period of Game 4. (Fred Jewell / Associated Press)On the brink of being swept, the Blackhawks held a team meeting at their hotel in downtown Chicago the night before Game 4. Graham addressed his teammates. Of everyone who was interviewed for this story, including Graham, Roenick had the best memory of what Graham actually said.
Advertisement
“He stood up in front of everybody and said, ‘Boys, you know, this is our win or go home, and I don’t know about you guys, but I ain’t ready to go home yet. I’ve had too much fun this year. It’s too good of a team. We’re this close to the ultimate goal,’” Roenick said. “He goes, ‘I’m just telling you guys right now as your teammate, not as your captain, but as your teammate and your friend that I’m going to play the best game you’ve ever seen me play and I’m gonna play the best game I’ve ever played since I started lacing them up.
“And he goes, ‘How many of you guys are gonna come with me? How many of you guys are going to not say it, but go out there and have your best game? Because I’m going to do it, and if everybody else does it with me, we’re gonna win this game and we’re gonna push it to Game 5.’ And he goes, ‘I love you guys.’ He said, ‘I’m pumped.’ And he goes, ‘Let’s go beat these fuckers.’”
Graham spoke of the speech more generally, but his account aligned with what Roenick recalled.
“I don’t know how much of a speech it was or whatever, but we were just at a point where we’re down three-nothing, against a very good team, and I always felt my role as a captain was to lead by example, in how I played, how I asserted myself and how hard I worked and stuff like that,” Graham said. “I also felt like I needed to inspire players as well.
“It was just basically a thing to say to the guys, let’s all just lay it on the line and see what happens. Anything can happen in a series. We’re down 3-0 and it doesn’t happen very often, but you never lose that hope, especially with a group as tight as ours. You could get it done. Who knows what happens? It was more that type of message from me. Basically, I’m gonna play my best game, let’s all play our best games and give this thing a shot and stuff.”
Graham couldn’t have imagined what actions would follow those words.
Game 4 started badly for the Blackhawks. The Penguins went up 1-0 less than two minutes into the game when Jaromir Jagr placed the puck perfectly from the right circle over Belfour’s right shoulder and into the net.
Advertisement
The game would be far from ending 1-0 this time, though, and Graham made sure of that. Almost five minutes after the Penguins’ opening score, Roenick broke up a Pittsburgh offensive zone entry attempt and knocked the puck to Chelios along the left boards in the neutral zone. Chelios sent it up the boards to Stéphane Matteau just before the blue line. As multiple defenders converged on Matteau, he found Graham streaking through the middle of the ice with a clear path to the net.
Graham controlled the passed puck off his skate onto his stick. He then shot a sweeping backhander at goalie Tom Barrasso, who was so far out of his net to begin the sequence that he had to backpedal to just get back to the blue paint. Barrasso made an initial save, but the rebound ended up on Graham’s stick, and he knocked the puck into the net from his forehand.
Graham raised his arms in celebration and his teammates skated into the corner to embrace him. The Blackhawks crowd exploded in celebration as the goal horn sounded multiple times.
Graham remained on the ice after scoring and was still on the ice when the Penguins went back ahead 12 seconds later. Kevin Stevens sent a one-handed backhanded shot at Belfour while driving to the net from the right side. Belfour was standing up and the puck traveled between his legs. The Penguins had two goals on four shots, and Keenan had seen enough. He pulled Belfour and brought in Dominik Hašek.
Graham stayed on the ice again for the next faceoff. Soon after, the Blackhawks dumped the puck into the offensive zone, and their forecheck forced the Penguins into a weak clearing attempt. Chelios intercepted the puck along the right boards near the blue line. Just like the first goal, Graham again found a hole in the Penguins’ defense. He had been forechecking in the right corner, skated quickly behind the net and stopped to the left of the net. Chelios saw him, passed the puck diagonally, and Graham one-timed it past Barrasso. Graham scored just as he absorbed a hit that sent him to the ground.
Three goals were scored in 30 seconds, and Graham was on the ice for all of them. His shift finally ended after the third one, and he returned to the bench for the ensuing faceoff.
Lemieux would break the 2-2 tie at 10:13 of the first period off a power-play goal. It was his 16th goal of the playoffs.
Advertisement
Down 3-2, the Blackhawks needed someone to emerge again, and again, it was Graham. The play began with the Blackhawks creating some chaos off their forecheck again. Moments after Barrasso made a quality save on Jocelyn Lemieux, Noonan retrieved the puck in the right corner and found no one around him. The Penguins had three defenders low in the zone, and all of them had their eyes set on Noonan. Graham snuck to the back post again, and Noonan located him. Noonan passed the puck through three defenders’ sticks, and Graham jammed it in to beat Barrasso.
Graham had himself a first-period hat trick.
He threw both hands up into the air, did a small leap off the ice and ran on his skates to the corner. He threw an enthusiastic windmill punch into the air, raised both arms again, turned and his teammates swarmed him. The goal horn sounded repeatedly, and hats began to land on the ice from all levels of the Chicago Stadium and didn’t stop until minutes later.
“It’d be one thing to score a hat trick in the game, but for him to say he’s gonna play the best game that he’s ever played and do it in the first period and, literally, put his money where his mouth is right from the start,” Roenick said. “There wasn’t even a question at the 10-minute mark of the first period that he had already lived up to his promise and to his commitment and to his statement.
Graham tried not to get too caught up with what just happened. Yes, he had just scored a hat trick over the game’s first 16 minutes and 18 seconds, but that had only ensured a 3-3 tie after one period. Graham understood the Blackhawks had more work ahead if they were to win Game 4.
“I guess it’s a combination of things because it’s so electric, because it’s so loud and the fans are so unbelievable, so there’s that part of it,” Graham said. “And then there’s a part of, of staying locked in and focused on what you’re trying to accomplish — was getting a win.”
The win wouldn’t come. The two teams traded goals in the second period, then the Penguins went ahead for good with two more goals in the third period. Roenick scored his second of the game to cut the lead to one with 8:42 remaining in the third period, but the Penguins would hang on for a 6-5 win and would celebrate on the Blackhawks’ home ice. Mario Lemieux won his second consecutive Conn Smythe Trophy.
Advertisement
Ultimately, the Penguins were too good and the odds were too stacked against the Blackhawks after losing the first three games.
“Sometimes you give credit where credit’s deserved,” Chelios said. “When you look back, (Ron) Francis, Lemieux, Jagr, (Larry) Murphy. At the time, you’re not thinking that, but they had some great players. It’s not like we deserved to win. That first game we really let get away. That’s why you take nothing for granted and every game is so bad. By letting that first game get away, we gave them life. … The games were close, that’s for sure. If I look back at my career, it’s that half-glass full, half-glass empty. I was fortunate enough to win three Cups over the course of my career, but my only regret is not winning a Cup in my hometown. That would have been a perfect career. I still, to this day, think about that.”
Thirty years later, Graham still has mixed feelings about his individual feat.
It’s not like Graham scored many hat tricks in his career — he had just one other — and it’s not as if hat tricks, especially in the first period, are all that common in the Stanley Cup Final. Hat tricks have become a rarity in the last 25 years of the final. Between 1980 and 1996, 10 hat tricks were recorded. There have been only two since Graham did it, the most recent from Peter Forsberg in 1996. So far, the drought has continued in this year’s final.
On the other hand, the Blackhawks lost the series, and Graham never got another crack at winning the Stanley Cup. His greatest chance was that season. He was also the first player since Pit Martin, who also happened to play for the Blackhawks, to record a hat trick in a Stanley Cup Final loss. Martin scored his in a 6-4 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in 1973. The Blackhawks lost that series.
“People have asked me over the years about (the hat trick) and (said), ‘That was really cool,’” Graham said. “Yeah, well, really cool, except for that’s kind of the objective is to win.”
Mario Lemieux carries the Stanley Cup following the Penguins’ 6-5 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on June 1, 1992. Lemieux was named Stanley Cup MVP as the Penguins won their second consecutive Stanley Cup. (John Swart / Associated Press)Graham went back and watched the goals on YouTube some years ago to show his daughters after they expressed some interest. Even then, he still had those same feelings.
Advertisement
He did come to appreciate one thing more: the passes that set up his goals.
“Those plays, those passes that were made were really special passes when you go back and look at them,” Graham said. “Like the outlet pass from Stephane and that pass from Cheli and Noons, like backdoor through crowds, just the vision to see me backdoor. They’re great players. They’re just great players.”
He also was able to see his individual feat from a different perspective.
“When you’re in that situation, you’re tunnel-visioned,” Graham said. “You don’t realize the enormity of kind of what you’ve done or anything like that. But when you watch it from a step back years later, it’s kind of, ‘Oh, well, wow, that’s kind of cool.’ Because at that point, when I’m watching it with my daughters, there’s nothing on the line. It’s already decided. And at the time that was happening, things weren’t decided as far as the win and the loss.”
Graham may not be remembered for that hat trick or for bringing a Stanley Cup to Chicago, but he left an imprint on the organization and everyone who got to know him. Larmer couldn’t remember much about Graham’s speech or that game, but he simply agreed to be interviewed because he wanted to talk about Graham, the person.
“First and foremost, he’s a wonderful person,” Larmer said. “And he was a great leader, a great captain of our team. … He was that type of player. In the biggest games that we played, he was the guy that stepped up and did it, and that’s a testament to who he is and how he played and who he is as a person.”
Foley, who calls Graham a close friend, had a similar response.
“The shame of it is we lost the game in the end and so that incredible personal accomplishment sort of gets bypassed or overlooked,” Foley said. “But it defines who he was as a hockey player and the way he’s always been as a man.”
Advertisement
Others overlooking the hat trick hasn’t stopped Roenick from telling Graham’s story over the years. He told it at the Blackhawks fans convention a few years ago. Graham’s speech and performance will always hold a special place in Roenick’s memory.
“It’s what’s missing I think in the game today are two things,” Roenick said. “That leadership where you say something, you talk and you go out and walk the walk. But also the courage, the courage to say something and not be afraid of the failure of it. To stick your neck out and not have that fear of not doing what you said you were going to do. Now, it’s not for lack of work, but it takes a lot of courage. Guys are gonna be looking at you. They’re gonna be watching you. They’re going to be evaluating you. And there’s a lot of people, a lot of kids these days that don’t want that pressure and to be a leader and to be the guy that drags other people into the fight. Dirk Graham was one of the best ones and was the best one at that moment that I’ve ever seen.”
As for any mementos from that game, Graham has none. He still has the puck from his first career NHL hat trick, but it never crossed his mind to make sure the one from the Stanley Cup Final was collected for him.
“You’re locked into that, and then it’s such a disappointment when we lost,” said Graham, who now lives in a Chicago western suburb and is a scout for the San Jose Sharks. “I explain to people, it’s like a two-and-a-half-month marathon that you go through, and all of a sudden, it just ends like really fast. You don’t think about anything else except for the disappointment. So I, honestly, until you just said that, I never even thought about (the puck). Which is weird, I never even thought about it. So, yeah, I think they just kept playing with the same puck.”
(Top photo: Charles Bennett / Associated Press)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kmxubGpjZ3xzfJFrZmluX2d%2BcLDInKJmn6KWtaK5jKGYrWWkp7akt4ybo5qbm52uuLfSaA%3D%3D