Last season will live in the hearts and minds of Blackhawks fans forever. The team broke a 49 year Stanley Cup drought and rejuvenated a long suffering fan base. No one knows this more than team Chairman Rocky Wirtz. “2010 was a hell of a year,” Wirtz said on the Danny Mac Show, reiterating a sentiment felt by all Blackhawks fans.

But Wirtz, along with the rest of the organization, know that resting on what the team has achieved so far would be not only a disappointment, but a waste of potential. Wirtz emphasized that the goal of the organization was “to be consistently good over a period of time” and “not to be a one hit wonder.”

Rocky Wirtz On The Danny Mac Show

With today’s salary cap restrictions it is becoming harder and harder for teams to stay title contenders for long stretches. The key is to make the team an attractive enough destination so that free agents will be willing to take pay cuts to be part of something special. In the past the Blackhawks were able to offer free agents more money than anyone else, Brian Campbell and Marian Hossa for example. Now, in the words of Wirtz they must “make this the best place for players to play.”

If Wirtz, Stan Bowman and John McDonough are able to make Chicago that kind of destination, then the seasons to follow could be filled with as much Champagne as 2010 was. And like Wirtz told the Mac and Spiegel, “once you taste that Champagne, water is never the same.”