Lord Stanley's Cup, 2011

The Boston Bruins have won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Vancouver Canucks in seven games to hoist the oldest trophy in sports. As expected, the Vancouver fans did not take it well. The ensuing riots resulted in several cars overturned and set on fire, but only a relative minimum of looting and stabbings. It would be nice for a Canadian city to take defeat with class and dignity, but Vancouver's playoff run including remarkable degrees of diving, flopping, and even BITING in the face of the opposition, so what can you do. And the rioting would have been vastly worse following any of a championship loss by any of the Montreal Canadians, the Toronto Maple Leafs, or the Dallas Cowboys.

Personally, I'm glad Boston won. I am a Bruins fan, and have been since my early hockey memories of getting psyched up for games by playing NHL 94 on the Sega Genesis. BEST GAME EVER. EVER!!! Since we (like pretty much everybody) played in the no-line-changes mode, Boston was a great team to use in that game, since your lineup was Adam Oates centering Cam Neely and Joe Juneau, with Ray Bourque and Glen Wesley on defense. Detroit could field a pretty good team as well, if you moved Sergei Fedorov from the second line up to LW, but their D and goaltending were not great. Besides, the best breakthrough part about that game was the option of one-time shooting, and the Boston team was just so good at the short passing game that nobody could shut them down consistently.

Besides childhood video game memories, I like Boston as a city as well, especially since I don't have to suffer through the winters there. I will always remember the smells of that town: fried onions and unhealthy meat products. Mmmm. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

And while the Bruins took their fare share of penalties and cheap-shots through the series, it would have been painful to watch the Canucks win. Seriously, check out some of the youtube videos of the dives taken by their players, trying to draw penalty calls. Maxin Lapierre embarrassed himself and his team with his conduct, and he wasn't even the guy who BIT an opposing player. As for Alex Burrow's biting, non-hockey fans might be swayed towards sympathy, since Patrice Bergeron did in fact have his hand in Burrow's face at the time. Unfortunately, those people don't know what they're talking about. Those sort of hand-in-the face incidents happen all the time, to the point that hockey culture has a name specifically for it (it's a 'face-wash'). If you watch a full game, especially a playoff game, you'll see at least one person getting a face-wash any time there's a scrum or a tangle, either before or after the whistle. Again, that shit happens ALL THE TIME, and the guy getting the face-wash almost always manages to NOT bite the hand being put in his face.

I thought it was funny that even career NHL guys providing commentary for the games thought it was disgusting that Burrow's didn't get suspended for the biting. I hope the league eventually explains the reasoning of the decision, and want to hear what they say. Because honestly, I think the conspiracy theorists might be right in pointing out that Burrows is a Canadian, playing for a Canadian team, against the Boston Bruins, in a league controlled from Canada by Canadians. Those conspiracy theorists might easily (and correctly) point out that the Bruins are BY FAR the most hated American hockey franchise, and also point out that no Canadian team has won the Cup since Montreal in 1993, and they really, REALLY want to bring the Cup 'home.'

But they really didn't deserve it this year. Seriously, if you want the 2011 Stanley Cup Final memorialized in a brief clip, do a youtube seach for "Thomas checks Sedin." In summary: Henrik Sedin (Vancouver's consensus best player) corrals a bouncing puck, and is pretty much all alone right in front of Bruin's goaltender, Tim Thomas. Thomas ignores the puck, and puts Henrik ON HIS ASS with a beautiful hit. It was awesome, and a good metaphor for how Thomas treated the Canucks throughout the series. But the best part is Henrik's reaction to the hit. Head down, cleaned out BY THE GOALIE, and put on his ass, what does he do? He embellishes the fall, throwing his legs up in the air, and staring at the ref hoping for a penalty call. Well played, Sedin. Well played.

So I love the fact that Boston won, and I love the fact that the Canucks lost. Better luck next year, Canada. I'm starting the think the curse of 'Le Trade' might be a national phenomenon, and not just about Montreal. Which I don't think is injustice, now that I think about it.