The Stanley Cup Finals begin on Wednesday, the championship series in American hockey. Meeting in the finals are two teams I have a specific interest in: the first is the team I grew up rooting for, the New York Rangers.
Like so many of my favorite sporting teams, my hockey team followed from that of my New York-born father; Yankees, G-Men, Knicks, etc... When the Rangers won the Cup in 1994 I was a kid rooting, for the first time I could truly remember, intently, chilling on the couch in the hot dusk early June Sacramento.
The Rangers will be playing the Los Angeles Kings, winners of the Cup just the season before last. I went to the championship parade the day before I broke my femur. The Kings were part of the original major NHL expansion back in 1967 (the year the number of teams doubled), played for their first year in Long Beach, and sucked pretty much until Gretzky was traded by Edmonton. They were relevant for a few seasons, made the finals but lost, and pretty much were mired in mediocrity until winning the Cup in June of '12. I have developed a soft spot for these lovable hardscrabble underdogs.
The Rangers traded their captain away a few months ago--not always a good sign for a team heading to the promised land. The return on their captain was a player once thought to be in the twilight of his career, only to have played in integral role in their recent trek to the finals.
Since my attention on sports has seriously waned as of late, I'm not sure for whom to root. If the Kings win, sweet! We'll have another champion in the County. If the Rangers win, sweet! Nothing's better than winning in New York, and King Henrik, Mr. Lundqvist, the Swedish superstar goalie for the Rangers, will rightly earn his spot as hockey-god du jour.
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