Currently on an impressive 16-game win-streak of his own, Miami Heat superstar LeBron James decided to give the only team in sports with a longer streak credit: the Chicago Blackhawks.
James paid tribute to the Blackhawks late last night, who extended their consecutive points streak to start the season to 24 an NHL record (and 30 overall dating back to last season). The longest consecutive point streak in NHL history is 35 games held by the 1979-’80 Philadelphia Flyers.
The kind words did not go unnoticed as several Blackhawks players responded to James.
Blackhawks star Patrick Kane also responded to James when he tweeted, “”Back at you LeBron. Keep rolling,” but has since been deleted from his Twitter feed.
While both streaks are impressive (and record setting), there has been some controversy of whether the Blackhawks streak is as legitimate as Miami’s. Miami has won 16 games in a row outright. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
While the Blackhawks consecutive point streak has been as impressive as it has been exciting — the Blackhawks continuously seem to pull out come-from-behind 3rd period victories and are playing five nights a week — it should not be confused with a win streak. The Blackhawks have lost three games in overtime, but in hockey math, that’s good enough for a point – you get a point for just going to overtime.
The argument to which streak is better is another story. Miami’s 16-game win-streak isn’t even half as long as the NBA record (1971-’72 Lakers, 33 games) whereas the Blackhawks point streak of 24 (to start the season) is an NHL record.
But that’s the beauty of sports: it’s all open for interpretation.
Ben Baroff is a sports journalist and marketing professional who blogs and writes columns for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.