Although I wanted Edmonton to win, I knew Carolina was going to take game seven, the series and the Stanley Cup. You do not lose 4-0 in game six and come to the next game playing the same way you did; you step it up and boy, did the Hurricanes ever step it up.
So congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes for winning the Stanley Cup. Not bad for a team who moved from Hartford nine years ago to a place where, you would never expect to find an NHL club. Not bad for a team that could barley attract fans in their first two seasons. Remember those games with 2000 - 4000 fans? That was ugly. Not bad for a team whose previous Stanley Cup Finals appearance was a 4 games to 1 defeat at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings. Not bad for a team who took a chance in the first round against Montreal and decided to put their rookie back-up goalie in after going down 2-0 in the series. Cam Ward has gone from back-up to playoff MVP and will no doubt, draw comparisons to Partrick Roy's performance in 1986.
Somewhere out there, Pat Verbeek is watching all this and smiling; at least I hope he is. Meanwhile, my buddy Andrew is probably still partying.
The Hek
2 comments:
Canada still won boyo. 12 of the hurricanes players are Canadian. 5 of em are from ALberta and 1 is from Ottawa while another is from Gloucester.
I don't know how many Russians, Swedes and coldhearted, efficient Germans Carolina had, but I'm guessing that they have at least one each.
Americans did not win our cup. Canadians did, in service of an American franchise.
Well said, Billy!
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