Blackhawks, Flyers both trying to end long title droughts

The NHL had six teams the last time the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, in 1961. The Philadelphia Flyers joined the league in 1967 and became the first expansion team to win the Cup, in 1974. They repeated in 1975 at the height of their Broad Street Bullies days but haven’t won since.

Both teams have lost in the finals five times since their most recent title. The Blackhawks last got this far in 1992; the Flyers last played for the Cup in 1997.

A look at the upcoming finals:

Front-line battle

You will see a lot of Dustin Byfuglien. The brawny forward’s last name is pronounced “BUFF-lin,” and it has been heard a lot this postseason. He has eight goals for Chicago in the playoffs, including one in each game of the Blackhawks’ sweep of the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference finals. The 6-foot-4, 257-pound winger will get up close and personal with 6-6, 220-pound Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger. Their battles in front of the Flyers’ net will influence the outcome of the series.

Chris Pronger has been called many names, but rarely has he been called a good-luck charm. This is the third time in five seasons he has led a team to the finals in his first season with that team. He did it in 2006 with Edmonton, with the Ducks in 2007 and now has done it with the Flyers.

No-name goalies

Who needs superstar goaltenders?

Not the Flyers or Blackhawks. Michael Leighton is a Chicago castoff who has played for nine professional teams and been traded twice and claimed on waivers four times, most recently by Philadelphia from Carolina on Dec. 15. He hadn’t played for two months when the Flyers, desperate after Brian Boucher was injured, threw him in for Game 5 of their second-round series against Boston. The rest was history, as the Flyers became only the third NHL team to overcome a 3-0 deficit and win a best-of-seven series. He leads playoff goalies with both a 1.45 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage — though in only eight games.

Unable to find a dominant goalie, the Blackhawks cried uncle and chose Antti Niemi as their starter over Cristobal Huet. Undrafted by an NHL team, Niemi signed with the Blackhawks as a free agent in 2008. He made his NHL debut last season and played 39 games this season. He has been steady during the playoffs, with a 2.33 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.

Young guns

Youth isn’t wasted on the team captains, Chicago’s Jonathan Toews and Philadelphia’s Mike Richards.

Toews, 22, could become the second-youngest captain to lead a team to the Cup. He is a year older than Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby was last spring. Toews, a marvelous two-way player, used Canada’s Olympic triumph as a springboard for a remarkable season.

Richards, 25, has faced questions about his leadership, but he excelled for Canada in the Vancouver Olympics and was exceptional in the Flyers’ Eastern Conference finals victory over Montreal. Toews leads postseason scorers with seven goals and 26 points and has scored a point in a club-record 13 straight games. Richards is second in scoring, with six goals and 21 points. Not since 1975 have the finalists’ captains been so young; that season, Philadelphia’s Bobby Clarke was 25 and Buffalo’s Jim Schoenfeld was 22.

Behind the bench

Both coaches are former NHL players, but neither won the Cup in uniform. Each won a title in a suit and tie, Chicago’s Joel Quenneville as an assistant with Colorado in 1996 and Philadelphia’s Peter Laviolette as coach of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

Laviolette is the eighth coach to reach the finals after taking over during the season. He installed an up-tempo, aggressive system that didn’t succeed immediately — the Flyers were 2-7-1 in his first 10 games — but players began to buy into it. Quenneville took over as the Blackhawks’ coach five games into the 2008-09 season and led them to the West finals. He emphasized fundamentals, increased the intensity of their practices and displayed a knack for putting players in the right roles.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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