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Record Start Has Hawks Fans Excited

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Blackhawks made NHL history against the San Jose Sharks on Friday night with their 2-1 victory at the United Center, becoming the first team to open the season with a point in each of its first 17 games.

Hawks fans are beginning to feel like it's 2010 all over again, when the Hawks won the Stanley Cup.

And Hawks fans also have an impressive streak going themselves. Friday's win over the Sharks was the 197th straight home sellout for the Hawks, the longest active streak in the NHL.

Record Start Has Hawks Fans Excited

Hawks fan Bob Devrees has been coming to games since 1971. He was at the United Center for Friday's game and was standing out in the cold, along with many others, before the doors even opened.

He tells Newsradio the team's current popularity is quite a change from just a few years ago.

"It's amazing. I actually was at work down in Columbus the last few weeks so I caught a couple of Blue Jackets games and there were like 8,000 people in the arena and I mentioned to someone 'this is what it was like at the United Center in the mid-2000s,'" said Devrees.

Bob Shaw was also at Friday's historic game with several family members including his grandson. This Hawks team reminds him of the "good old days."

"Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita were starting out and I watched them in their heyday and all the old stars at the old Chicago Stadium," said Shaw.

Next summer's Blackhawks convention sold out in hours on Friday. And when asked about Chicago's baseball teams this coming summer, most fans outside the United Center on Friday chose to keep talking about hockey.

But some Hawks fans hoped the Blackhawks' magic will rub off on their fellow United Center tenants, the Bulls.

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