Topic: General
I was hoping to be able to write something like 'Stanley Comes Home!' today. But once again Stanley didn't come home. He hasn't come home for 18 years now. During that 18 years, five times Canadian-based teams have made it to the Stanley Cup Final (Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Vancouver twice), and five times Canada has come up empty. I was pulling for the Vancouver Canucks to break that drought and win their first ever Cup, but it was not to be. Instead, the Boston Bruins won their first Cup since 1972 (the Bobby Orr era) in a final series that went the full seven games. Now, as a Montreal Canadiens fan, I can just imagine how insufferable the Bruins will be for the next year!
But congrats to the Bruins and their fans; well done. From my own point of view, regardless of which team won the Cup, there would be something in it to enjoy for me. I would have loved to see the Cup make its way back to Canada, but if the Bruins won, it would mean my favourite player, Mark Recchi, would win his third Stanley Cup. The latter is what happened, with the Kamloops, BC-born Recchi winning the Cup in his home province. Rex became my favourite player when he played for Montreal for five seasons from 1994-99. During the post-game on-ice celebration and interviews last night, he announced his retirement.
In his second full NHL season, Recchi won a Stanley Cup wearing black and gold with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991. Last night, in his final season, he won a Stanley Cup wearing black and gold with the Boston Bruins in 2011. Nice (near) bookends to a career. In between, he won a Cup (albeit wearing red and black, not black and gold) with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.
In the NHL, there's a tradition that there's some significance in the team captain's choice of which teammate he will pass the Stanley Cup off to first, after he's accepted it. So it's always a guessing game as to who it's going to be. Tim Thomas, who played outstanding in goal for the B's and won the Conn Smythe trophy (for playoff MVP), would have seemed an obvious and worthy candidate. But captain Zdeno Chara chose to honour the retiring vet and handed the Cup off to the 'Wrecking Ball', whose 1,500+ career points make him a good Hall of Fame candidate.
So this is how Recchi went out:
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Posted by planet/zerofret
at 7:59 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:18 AM EDT
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Updated: Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:18 AM EDT
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