There isn’t another team in all of hockey like the USHL’s Chicago Steel.

When the pandemic brought their season to a halt, they’d just won 13 straight, vaulting themselves to a 15-point advantage over the second-place teams in the USHL, with a plus-136 goal-differential.

It’s hard to imagine many USHL playoff scenarios that didn’t end with a second Clark Cup banner as the league’s champions hoisted to the rafters at the Steel’s Fox Valley Ice Arena.

If last year’s team was good enough to make the dance, then this one was ready to take the trophy home.

That level of sustained success isn’t common in junior hockey. The year-over-year roster churn usually doesn’t allow for it.

Next year’s version of the Steel might have ten returning players from this season’s record-breaking group. Even that