Still Mighty

8 June 2007



Anaheim Ducks Win First Stanley Cup

Ice hockey isn’t meant to be played in places where ice thick enough to skate on doesn’t form naturally. Great hockey players wear heavy coats to practice, not shorts. By common sense, the NHL should have a lot more teams in Canada than in the American Sunbelt. However, the world is odd enough that Anaheim, California’s Ducks beat Ottawa, Ontario’s Senators in the latest edition of the Stanley Cup. Geographical biases aside, the Ducks proved they deserved the trophy.

The team formed as “The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim” (in honor of a Disney film starring Emilio Estevez) some 13 seasons ago dropped the adjective last June. It was almost a signal that the franchise was getting serious about its mission – winning. The acquisition of Chris Pronger, a glorious defenseman, shortly thereafter seemed to seal the deal. The Ducks were not going to be another sunshine state team going through the motions just to generate revenue for the owner. Their record by December was an NHL best at 27-4-6.

At that point, injuries threatened to derail the project, but the Ducks found a way to hang together until they could return to full strength. They were impressive in the seeming endless play-offs (although, the NBA still has a series to start before its champion is determined). The Ducks never needed a seventh game to take out Minnesota, Vancouver, Detroit and, finally, Ottawa.

Ottawa, first called “The Town that Fun Forgot” by Canadian journalist Allan Fotheringham and since then by many others, put together what many believe to be a better team. Although they didn’t win their division (Buffalo did), they took out Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Buffalo on their way to the finals. The Ottawa Senators were making their first Stanley Cup appearance in 80 years (and the first since they rejoined the NHL as an expansion team in 1992).

In the end, the Ducks needed just 5 games to take it all, and the last was a 6-2 rout before a crowd of 17,372. No Canadian team has won the Cup since the Montreal Canadiens won it 1993. The last three Cups have seen Canadian clubs lose to Sunbelt teams. But before Canadian hockey fans (is that redundant?) get too upset with a loss that hurts, to be sure, they might reflect on one impressive fact -- of the 28 players who dressed for the Ducks in the 2007 playoffs, 19 were raised in Canada. Maybe growing up with all that ice has something to do with it after all.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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