capitalization
In general, confine capitalization to formal titles used directly before an individual's name. Exception: When writing bios for use in the media guide, Blackhawks Magazine or press releases, capitalize all titles.

• Chairman Danny Wirtz
• Danny Wirtz, chairman of the Blackhawks
• Head Coach Luke Richardson
• Blackhawks Ambassador Chris Chelios
• Chris Chelios, a Blackhawks ambassador
• Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews lifted the Stanley Cup.

colon
Capitalize the first word after a colon if the words that follow are a complete sentence.

• The Chicago Blackhawks were one thing: champions.
• It had all led up to that moment: If the Blackhawks could hold off the Predators for 2 more minutes, they'd advance to the conference finals.  

commas
Follow all AP style rules. Most commonly used is the rule about a comma in a series or list. Avoid using the serial comma except in cases where it's needed to achieve clarity or avoid confusion. Do not use commas to surround scores, shots on goal, etc.

• Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith were all signed to contract extensions. (no serial comma before "and" in a series)
• YES: The Blackhawks beat the Sharks 4-3 on Tuesday night.
• NO: The Blackhawks beat the Sharks, 4-3, on Tuesday night.

quotation marks
Do not use quotation marks at the end of a paragraph if it is followed by another quote from the same person.

• "We wanted to build an organization," McDonough said. "We were woefully short in many areas, from the way we treated our players, past and present, to how we traveled to our practice facilities.

  "We had to make it known that business would be done differently in Chicago. Fortunately I found that word travels fast around the NHL."

quotes in a paragraph
Quotes should be a separate paragraph in a story. 

voice
Write in the active voice. A does B, not B is done by A.

• YES: The Blackhawks play Nashville on Jan 6.
• NO: The Blackhawks will be playing Nashville on Jan. 6.

alternate captain
This is the correct term for a player who wears the 'A' on his sweater, not assistant.

Blackhawk Alumni Association
Note that Blackhawk is singular.

Blackhawks Members
Always capital ‘M’ when referring to Blackhawks Members. Can refer as Members or Member on second reference.

Chicago Blackhawks Foundation
No longer referred to as Chicago Blackhawks Charities (as of December 2017). Can refer to as CBF on second reference.

Commissioner
Commissioner Gary Bettman. The commissioner is OK on second reference. Note: Bettman is the NHL's first commissioner; his predecessors had the title of NHL president.

day to day
Hyphenate when used to modify a noun.

• His condition is day to day.
• His day-to-day routine is grueling. 

department names
Capitalize all department names that include the word department.

• Please contact the Media Relations Department for more information.
• McDonough spoke about the collaboration between hockey operations and business operations.

ECHL
No longer the East Coast Hockey League; always refer to as ECHL.

Father-Son Road Trip  
Always capitalize.

Fifth Third Ice Arena
Refers to the Blackhawks' practice facility. Never the MB Ice Arena, except in very specific adjectival uses. (Ex: "Please check the MB Ice Arena calendar.")

games in a series
Clearly indicate that it's a series score, not an individual game score, and simply write x-x. This is the preferred Blackhawks style. However, you may also write x games to x without hyphens.

• YES: The Blackhawks lead the series 4-2 over the Canucks. (Correct but not preferred: four games to two)
• NO: 4-games-to-2

general manager
May be abbreviated as GM on second reference.

JuniorHawks
Never Junior Hawks or Jr. Hawks. JuniorHawks refers to the program where youth hockey teams play before every home game; those teams are not the Junior Blackhawks.

Level/Section
Capitalize Level and Section only when referring to a specific part of the stadium. Hyphenate only when used as an adjective.

• The season ticketholders in Section 314 are a very spirited group. 
• That section can hold only 100 fans.
• They went to the 300 Level to get hot dogs.
• 300-Level ticket pricing

Madhouse on Madison
Do not use this nickname for the United Center (outdated).

MinorHawks
Never Minor Hawks. Refers to the program that provides free equipment and inexpensive lessons to children ages 4-8.

Mother-Son Road Trip
Always capitalize.

national anthem
Lowercase national anthem, or if using the name of the song, "The Star-Spangled Banner" in quotation marks.

National Hockey League
Spell out as National Hockey League on first reference to the league. NHL is acceptable on second reference (same with other well-known hockey leagues -- AHL, OHL, etc.). May also use the league on second reference.

NHL Draft
Never NHL Entry Draft (outdated). Always include the year. The draft is acceptable on second reference or when speaking generally.

• The 2017 NHL Draft was held in Chicago.
• Jonathan Toews was the Blackhawks' third-overall draft pick in 2006.

playoffs  
When writing about playoff games in a series, capitalize the word Game and use the numeral of the game, not the word. Capitalize Playoffs when using the whole name (Stanley Cup Playoffs). Use playoffs (lowercase) on second reference or when used generically. When discussing series without their full name, the lowercase is used, and the series is plural.

• Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final
• Stanley Cup Final (there is only one final)
• Western Conference Final (there is only one final in each conference)
• Western Conference Semifinals (there's more than one semifinal)
• The team went to the conference finals.

Presidents' Trophy
Not President's Trophy.

Prospect Camp
Never plural and capitalized on all references. Lowercase if referred to as just camp on second reference.

sold out
Hyphenate only when used as a modifying adjective in front of a noun.

• The event is sold out.
• Tickets to the Blackhawks Convention sold out quickly.
• The sold-out concert will be held at the United Center.

Star of the Game
Always capitalize. To indicate which star they are, use First, Second and Third Star of the Game.

(NHL) Stars of the month
Capitalize X Star but use the actual month rather than the word "month."

• Corey Crawford was named the NHL's First Star for the month of February.

Street Team
Always two words, and capitalized on all references.

StreetHawks
Never Street Hawks. Part of the NHL street hockey program.

team names
Generally, always spell out the full name of the team. Can be shortened to just the city or just the team nickname on second reference. However, the NHL team abbreviations (listed below) are acceptable in some contexts, i.e. media guide, calendars, charts, etc.

ANA Anaheim Ducks
ARI Arizona Coyotes
BOS Boston Bruins
BUF Buffalo Sabres
CGY Calgary Flames
CAR Carolina Hurricanes
CHI Chicago Blackhawks
COL Colorado Avalanche
CBJ Columbus Blue Jackets
DAL Dallas Stars
DET Detroit Red Wings
EDM Edmonton Oilers
FLA Florida Panthers
LAK Los Angeles Kings
MIN Minnesota Wild
MTL Montreal Canadiens
NSH Nashville Predators
NJD New Jersey Devils
NYI New York Islanders
NYR New York Rangers
OTT Ottawa Senators
PHI Philadelphia Flyers
PIT Pittsburgh Penguins
SEA Seattle Kraken
SJS San Jose Sharks
STL St. Louis Blues
TBL Tampa Bay Lightning
TOR Toronto Maple Leafs
VAN Vancouver Canucks
VGK Vegas Golden Knights
WSH Washington Capitals
WPG Winnipeg Jets

Tommy Hawk
The official Blackhawks mascot.

United Center
May be written as the UC on second reference. Precede with "the" to eliminate confusion.

Versus
According to the NHL, abbreviate to vs. in all usage.

• The Western Conference Semifinals featured the Blackhawks vs. the Canucks and the Red Wings vs. the Sharks. 

Warm up, warmup
One word when used as an adjective or noun; two words with no hyphen if used as a verb.

• The Blackhawks wore one-of-a-kind warmup jerseys for Hockey Fights Cancer Night.
• Some players don't wear helmets during warmups.
• It's important for hockey players to warm up before they play a game.

Watch Party
Capitalized on all references.

Zamboni
Always capitalized. Trademarked name for a machine that resurfaces the ice between periods. Before using, make sure that the arena in question actually uses a Zamboni; otherwise, use a generic term such as ice resurfacing machine.

• All-Star (adj., n.), All-Star Team/Game (n.)
• back up (v.), backup (adj., n.)
• Black Ace (n.)
• blue line (n.), blue-line (adj.),
• blueliner
• bobblehead
• call up (v.), call-up (n.)
• career high (n.), career-high (adj.)
• crease
• d-man (use only on second reference)
• double-overtime (adj., n.)
• face off (v.), faceoff (adj., n.)
• forecheck 
• game plan
• game-tying (adj.)
• game-winner (n.), game-winning (adj.)
• gameday (adj., n.)
• goal line
• goalmouth (adj., n.)
• Hall of Famer (n.)
• hat trick (n.)
• head-on (adj.)
• high-sticking (adj.)
• home ice (n.), home-ice (adj.)
• homestand (n.)
• ice level (n.), ice-level (adj.)
• Indian Head (only in reference to the logo)
• linemate
• locker room
• lower body (n.), lower-body (adj.)
• man advantage
• netminder
• offseason
• offside
• Original Six
• part time (n.), part-time (adj.)
• penalty box
• penalty kill, penalty-killer(s)
• play off (v.), playoff (adj., n.)
• plus/minus rating
• pregame (adj., n.)
• preseason
• point-blank (adj.)
• point streak (n.)
• postgame (adj., n.)
• postseason (adj., n.)
• power play (n.), power-play (adj.)
• preseason (adj., n.)
• red line (n.), red-line (adj.)
• regular season (n.), regular-season (adj.)
• scoreline (n.)
• shootout
• shorthanded
• shut out (v.), shutout (adj., n.)
• single-handed
• single game ticket
• slap shot
• Stanley Cup championship, Stanley Cup champions
• stickhandle (v.), stickhandling (n.)
• teammate
• timeout
• try out (v.), tryout (n.)
• upper body (n.), upper-body (adj.)
• visitors bench
• warmup (adj., n.), warmups (n.), warm up (v.)

When referring to the Chicago hockey team, it is always referred to as the plural, Blackhawks, and typically does not need to be possessive:

• Blackhawks hockey 
• Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard
• Blackhawks game
• NO: Blackhawks' game, Blackhawks' bench, Blackhawks' locker room

The only time Blackhawk (singular) is used is with the Blackhawk Alumni Association or when identifying one player, but please avoid except where absolutely necessary.

Never shorten to Hawks; this is an outdated stylization that does not meet the organization's current branding guidelines.

Most player nicknames must be in quotations:

• Bobby Hull: "The Golden Jet"
• Wayne Gretzky: "The Great One"

The correct spelling of frequently used Blackhawks nicknames:

• Tony Esposito: "Tony O"
• Glenn Hall: "Mr. Goalie"
• Denis Savard: "Savy"
• Eddie Olczyk: "Edzo"
• Patrick Sharp: "Sharpy"
• Brandon Saad: "Man-Child"
• Jonathan Toews: "Tazer"

Commonly used nicknames may take the place of given names without punctuation:

• Pit Martin
• Babe Ruth

Very obvious nicknames do not need to be in quotes but should only be used on second reference:

• SAP Center: Shark Tank

All nicknames on second reference do not need to be in quotation marks.

awards   
Preface with the year the player or team received the award. Specific awards and trophies should stand alone with proper capitalization. Awards given in a category should be written in quotes with proper capitalization.

• 2008 Calder Trophy, 1991 Presidents' Trophy, 2010 Conn Smythe Trophy
• Most Valuable Player, Executive of the Year
• Blackhawks TV won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement for Sports Programs."

dates    
Write as a numeral without any ending. When writing a full date, set off the day of the week and year with commas.

• YES: Jan. 1
• NO: Jan. 1st
• The Blackhawks won Game 6 on Wednesday, June 9, 2010, in Philadelphia.

day of the week   
Capitalize in all uses. Do not abbreviate.

months   
Spell out when using alone or with just a year. When a month is used with a day and year, abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.

• January
• January 2010
• Jan. 4, 2010

seasons   
All competitive seasons shall be referred to as their two-year names with a hyphen.

• the 2010-11 season
• Exception: 1999-2000 season
• NO: the 2003 season

time   
Use numerals except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes unless it's on the hour. The correct way to abbreviate time is a.m. and p.m. Avoid redundancies.

• 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m.
• YES: The game was at 7:30 at night.
• NO: The game was at 7:30 p.m. at night.
• YES: The game was at 7:30 p.m.  
• NO: The game was at 7:30 PM.

years   
Do not abbreviate a year when it stands alone. Use an 's' with a single apostrophe to abbreviate spans of decades, but no apostrophe is needed for full spans of decades.

Years are the lone exception to the rule that a numeral cannot be used to start a sentence.

• YES: 1993; the 1950s, the '50s
• NO: '93; the 1950's.
• 1976 was a very good year.

abbreviated cities   
Spell out names of cities unless in direct quotes. Abbreviations can be used on second reference.

• He lived in Los Angeles.
• "We're heading to L.A.," he said.

addresses   
Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd., St., N., S., E. and W. only with a numbered address. Spell out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number. Lowercase and spell out when used with more than one street name. Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names.

• 1901 W. Madison St.
• The car is parked on Michigan Avenue.
• The parking lot is on the corner of Madison and Wood streets.
• The Penguins play at PPG Paints Arena, located at 1001 Fifth Ave.

Canadian cities/provinces   
Except for cities with NHL teams and Quebec City, Canadian cities should be followed by the full name of the province, offset by commas when used in a sentence.

• Vancouver
• Patrick Sharp was born in Winnipeg but considers Thunder Bay, Ontario, his hometown.

states   

Spell out the names of the states when they stand alone in text. Abbreviate with their AP style abbreviations (listed below) when used with a city or county. Place one comma between the city and the state name and another comma after the state name. Always spell out Canadian provinces. 

The lone exception to these rules is if you are writing a mailing address. Then the state's two-letter mailing abbreviation (listed below) should be used instead of the AP abbreviation.

• Illinois
• Bloomington, Ill.
• He was traveling from Burlington, Vt., to Duluth, Minn., to see a prospect. 
• Red Deer, Alberta
• Troy, MI 48084

U.S. cities    
All cities with NHL teams can stand alone except for Sunrise, Fla. (Panthers), St. Paul, Minn. (Wild), Newark, N.J. (Devils), and Glendale, Ariz. (Coyotes). In addition, there are 30 "magic" U.S. cities that do not need to be followed by their state name:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

State Abbreviations

AP

STATE

MAILING

Ala.

Alabama

AL

Alaska

Alaska

AK

Ariz.

Arizona

AZ

Ark.

Arkansas

AR

Calif.

California

CA

Colo.

Colorado

CO

Conn.

Connecticut

CT

Del.

Delaware

DE

Fla.

Florida

FL

Ga.

Georgia

GA

Hawaii

Hawaii

HI

Idaho

Idaho

ID

Ill.

Illinois

IL

Iowa

Iowa

IA

Ind.

Indiana

IN

Kan.

Kansas

KS

Ky.

Kentucky

KY

La.

Louisiana

LA

Maine

Maine

ME

Md.

Maryland

MD

Mass.

Massachusetts

MA

Mich.

Michigan

MI

Minn.

Minnesota

MN

Miss.

Mississippi

MS

Mo.

Missouri

MO

Mont.

Montana

MT

Neb.

Nebraska

NE

Nev.

Nevada

NV

N.H.

New Hampshire

NH

N.J.

New Jersey

NJ

N.M.

New Mexico

NM

N.Y.

New York

NY

N.C.

North Carolina

NC

N.D.

North Dakota

ND

Ohio

Ohio

OH

Okla.

Oklahoma

OK

Ore.

Oregon

OR

Pa.

Pennsylvania

PA

R.I.

Rhode Island

RI

S.C.

South Carolina

SC

S.D.

South Dakota

SD

Tenn.

Tennessee

TN

Texas

Texas

TX

Utah

Utah

UT

Vt.

Vermont

VT

Va.

Virginia

VA

Wash.

Washington

WA

W. Va.

West Virginia

WV

Wis.

Wisconsin

WI

Wyo.

Wyoming

WY

@NHLBlackhawks   
The official Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat handle of the Chicago Blackhawks. 

Blackhawks TV   
Don't spell out television. It is acceptable to use BHTV on second reference.

cell phone   
Two words, never capitalized.

Blackhawks.com   
The official website of the Blackhawks. The first 'B' is always capitalized, as well as each word after the slash (i.e. Blackhawks.com/TommyHawk ). Avoid starting a sentence with the URL. If you include the address to a specific section of the site, for example Tommy Hawk's page, do not include www. at the beginning (i.e. Blackhawks.com/TommyHawk).

Composition titles    
For book titles, computer game titles, movie titles, album and song titles and radio and television program titles, capitalize the principal words and put quotation marks around the names. Exception: Do not put quotes around the Bible or reference books. (See Periodicals entry for newspaper, magazines and blogs.)

• "Sports Central"
• "The Da Vinci Code"
• Encyclopedia Britannica

email   
Acceptable in all references to electronic mail. 

internet   
Never capitalize. 

NBC Sports Chicago
Acceptable to use the abbreviation NBCSCH on second reference or in abbreviated contexts.

periodicals   
Do not italicize names of newspapers, magazines or blogs. Only capitalize The if it is part of the official name.

• The New York Times
• the Chicago Tribune

phone numbers   
Write phone numbers and fax numbers using area codes with parentheses, not hyphens. 

• YES: (312) 455-7000
• NO: 312-455-7000

website   
Always one word and lowercased.