I am happy and sad tonight. Happy that I not only predicted the Ducks to win it all at the beginning of the playoffs but that before the series started I said they would win in 5. Love the group photos.Sad for a few reasons. One that Vancouver didn't win the Cup again. Two, that 3 Canadian teams made the finals in the last 3 years but NONE of them brought back Lord Stanley to the place it belongs. Will Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver be next?
On my other post I was saying that I was cheering for Ottawa but thought Anaheim would win. I found myself cheering for the Ducks the whole series. This has baffled me. I think I was cheering for Anaheim for a few key reasons:
1. I think I wanted to be right. I think everyone really wants to be right but few of us are not only in sports but in life.
2. I am really happy for Brian Burke. Why did Vancouver let him go? He changed the face of Canuck hockey to be exciting again. I like Nonis for pulling the best Canuck trade in our history (Bert for Luongo). Burke signed FA's Selanne and S.Niedermayer. Pulled the trigger to get Pronger for Lupul/Smid/picks and Beauchemin/Wright for Fedorov. His 1st yr they went to the Western Final and his 2nd yr he won the Cup.
3. I wanted Selanne to win a cup. Why would Winnipeg trade a guy who scored 76 goals in his rookie season? I think he's going to retire so I was hoping he would win it. Teemu's career stats are 506 goals, 595 assists, and 1135 total pts. A future hall of famer for sure. By the way he was 3rd in the league in scoring this yr.
4. Really wanted those young guns to win a Cup. Love Perry, MacDonald and Penner. Getlaf and Kunitz rock too.
5. I wanted Giguere to win it this time around. He's an elite goalie (right Red Wing fans - beat you twice to go far in the playoffs).
For all you people out there who think I am not a true Canadian because I wasn't cheering for the Senators, think about this > most of the key Duck guys are Canadian:Giguere, MacDonald, Getlaf, Perry, Penner, Moen, Kunitz, Beauchemin, Scott & Rob Niedermayer, Pronger, and Brad May. So Canadian team is relative.
This picture of the Niedermayer brothers is an awesome one. Good choice picking Scott as the Conn Smythe winner. Think about this Canuck fans, I think the real reason Scott went to Anaheim instead of Vancouver was he wanted to play with his brother Rob. We would have paid him similar $ and Van had an up and coming team.
Congrats to the Anaheim Ducks showing us some great hockey. You showed the world you are the best this season. I wonder who is leaving for more $ instead of trying to repeat as Cup champs? If Teemu retires I don't think they will have a hard time finding a suitable Free Agent for the same price ($3.7 mil).
1 comment:
10-5 and I beat the Monkey on the picking of the Stanley Cup winner (so beat it by 2!).
I stopped believing in just "Canadian teams" when LA Kings and Montreal Canadiens went head to head (and to be honest I expected LA to win it that year). How can we not be happy for the Ducks. More Canadian cities for the cup to visit, a chance for lesser market cities to build a name for the best game on the planet, and of course a challenge to how we build our teams in Canada - it can't be JUST about defense.
Passion wins cups - not systems; not individual players; not one position. A team of players striving for perfection with good hits and good blocks, defence and offence, goaltending AND faceoff winners, and tenacity to not give up.
If the NHL keeps to these themes we won't have to make changes to overtime, ban fighting, change goalie pads sizes, or change goal sizes because then the focus is on the game. The love of the game and very thing that made this NHL final memorable. Sure we can point fingers at players for why one team did better or worse, but as a whole both teams tried to remember the hockey we were watching ang they were playing.
Can't wait for the draft and I'll have some comments on the trades that WILL happen there!
Ozmang
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