Tonight when the Chicago Blackhawks meet the Boston Bruins, you might want to take a quick second to think about one of the greatest "what-if" moments in Hawks history...What if the Hawks had never traded Phil Esposito?

For starters, Brent Seabrook would have a different number on the back of his sweater, and #7 would be in the rafters.

But think about this...there was a period for part of one season and the next three, when the Hawks had Espo along with Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. In fact, Espo was centering for Hull and Chico Maki.

It all went south after the 1966-67 season, the last year of the Original Six. It was then that Espo, probably limbered up after a cocktail or two, walked up to Hawks' coach Billy Reay and GM Tommy Ivan and told them that, basically, they had a damn good team (in fact, that season they finished with 94 points in 70 games, best in the NHL by 17 points), but they would never win anything because Reay and Ivan would continue to screw it up.

Before Memorial Day, Espo was gone. He, along with Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield, went to Boston in exchange for Pit Martin and Gilles Marotte. The fact that Marotte was a pretty solid player, and Martin was a damn fine one was the only reason this hasn't gone down in history as hockey's version of Brock-for-Broglio. Hell, it wasn't even the biggest fleecing the Bruins pulled off back then, as they just stole Rick Middleton from the Rangers in the 70s, but I digress.

Espo, a big lug from The Soo, was a perfect fit for the team that would become known as the Big Bad Bruins. He had decent numbers in Chicago (view his stats here), but he and Hodge skated with Wayne Cashman to form the "Espo Line", which was explosive. Espo had one run himself where he had over 125 points for 6 out of 7 years, including his 76 goal season in 70-71 that stood until Gretzky shattered it.

When people talk about how Dustin Byfuglien should park in front of the net for screens, redirects and tap-ins off deflections, they're saying he needs to play a game like Phil Esposito...in fact, as breathtaking as his teammate Bobby Orr was to watch on an end-to-end rush, you had time to take a leak and get a bite to eat if Espo was carrying the puck up the ice.

But, yeah, when you talk about Bruins tradition, just remember...Phil Esposito was one of ours before he was one of theirs.

Also remember...be careful what you say to your bosses.