Lord Stanley Awaits

Tomorrow begins the last stretch of the NHL Playoffs, the Stanley Cup Finals. Although the NY Rangers have been out of the picture from what seems like an eternity already, I'm looking forward to embracing the final hockey games of the season, regardless of who's in it. The Carolina Hurricanes could be considered the favorite, if you go purely by who had the better regular season record, but to anyone who's been watching the playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers have been on a tear, surprisingly blowing first past the number one seed Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference in 6 games (I'm still amazed that 'Hockeytown' is still standing and not burned to ashes, looted, and declared a city under martial law after that series ended), followed by a California cleanup, taking out the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Mighty Ducks in quick fashion. It's been 13 years since Anaheim joined the NHL, and I still get douche chills every time I'm forced to call them 'the Mighty Ducks'.

After taking out the Canadiens in the first round, Carolina was thought to have their hands full against the New Jersey Devils, who up to that point were seemingly unstoppable since the last few weeks of the regular season, continuing their 15 game winning streak by sweeping the Rangers in the first round. I was hoping the Devils would go far at that point, just to be able to say that New Jersey were simply too good and the Rangers had no shot anyways, but that all changed when Carolina knocked out Brodeur and company easily in five games. It was only until meeting Buffalo where Carolina's Cup fate was in question. The just barely eked out a series win in the final minutes of the seventh game over the Sabers, a first sign of wear and tear possibly starting to show.

I'll be rooting for Edmonton, since it may be their last shot at the Cup before their team gets relocated to a U.S. city (we'll take the hockey team, you keep the terrorists 'eh?). Hopefully winning Lord Stanley it will prevent that move from happening, but the way the business is going, it may be just a matter of time before we are calling them the Texas Oilers.

As for Carolina, it's hard for me to root for a team that used to have a green whale as their mascot, during those days in Connecticut as the Hartford Whalers. Come on, can you blame me?