Ducks win the Stanley Cup
Last night, I was (of course) at the last game of this year's Stanley Cup Finals. I expected it would be the last game and was prepared for the Ducks to win the Stanley Cup. I looked on the bright side - although the Penguins won the Cup twice, they won both away. Therefore, I'd never seen the Stanley Cup awarded live. Also, Teemu Selanne is a really classy guy, so he definitely deserves to have the Cup before he retires (which many say will be this year).

Surprisingly, though I clearly wasn't happy by the fact that the Ducks won the Cup last night, I wasn't really that bummed. It definitely sucks as a Kings fan to have the Ducks win the Cup in 14 years when the Kings haven't won it in 40 - especially since they're the Kings' biggest rival, but it might help the NHL in California some.

The really sad thing about the Ducks winning the Cup is that there were barely signs of the finals even coming to Anaheim. We drove around Anaheim a bit more last night than we had going to the games before and there are banners about the playoffs only at the arena. Outside of that, there are Disney and Angels banners, but nothing indicating that the Stanley Cup was just won by the Ducks (or even could be won by them). They had no party outside prior to the game, no band, ... not even face painting for the kids. The Ducks do more on their typical Sunday games than they did for the Stanley Cup Finals and that's sad. If the Kings had been in the finals, there would have been more fan fare. The Kings shot off streamers after every playoff win. The Ducks shot them off only when they won the Western Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals - not even for the other finals wins.

Now, the hockey talk in Anaheim will turn to whether Selanne is really going to retire and where Giguere will end up, since he's an unrestricted free agent this year. If the Ducks don't sign Giguere by the end of the month, he could end up anywhere. It should be interesting to see.

We should get to see the new Kings' jerseys (and everyone else's) at the NHL draft on the 22nd. I'm really interested in how they've designed the new style of jersey. We know what the style looks like from the All Star game, but every time the jersey gets re-designed, it's an opportunity for the team to do something different and I can't wait to see what they do! I definitely want a new Kopitar jersey, so I'm hoping the new jerseys are well done.

Labels: hockey, NHL, playoffs

Posted by Kat @ 9:04 PM | 0 meows