Two old school, North American style playing hockey teams meet to begin the Stanley Cup Finals tonight. But their paths couldnt have been more different.
The Blac hawks have been Cup contenders all year, after their breakout a year ago and conference finals appearance. They excelled all season long throwing up a guady 112 points. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa give them star power and explosive scoring. Kris Versteeg, Dave Bolland and Andrew Ladd give them a a third line that’s dominating defensively after stoning the Sharks. Duncan Keith and Dustin Byfuglien give them a great blue line pair. They’re deep, can score, beat you up and take you down in any style of game you want to play. Antii Niemi has come through for them in their playoffs and their regular season dominance has carried over this spring. They’re heavy favorites to take the series at -240.
In addition to the burden of chalk, their also carrying the weight of one of the longest remaining championship droughts. We mocked the Rangers and Red Wings in the 1990s until they snapped their 54 and 42 year Cup winning droughts. Why arent we LOLing louder as the Hawks approach 50 years since their last win in 1961? Maybe its because the franchise has been so bad in recent years. The Hawks added more than a decade to their drought toiling in irrelevance going years between playoff berths until last year’s arrival as a force. Hockey is a tradition in Chicago, and the town is geeked up to see one its grandest franchises finally play for it all. Most of this franchise’s classic highlights occurred in the black and white film era. This is a chance to rebrand the franchise as a champion.
Of course, the Flyers have become every bit of a traditional and passionate franchise in their near half century in the league. And they have not won the Cup in 35 years. So there’s some long suffering going on for the Broad Street Bully crowd. The last time Philadelphia reached this stage was in 1997 when they were swept and played stooge for another Original 6 team, Detroit, as they finally sipped from the Cup. They’re practically in the same role over the next two weeks. They pay out +200 should they skate to a different fate this go around.
Their run to this year’s Finals is about as improbable as we’ve seen. With less than 10 minutes to go, in their final game, on the last day of the regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers were out of the playoffs. They were in an elimination gme with the Rangers, needed two points, but trailed by a goal as time ticked below seven minutes. They scored to force OT, then won in a shootout to get into the tournament and actually play out of the 7th seed. They dominated the favored Devils in Round One, only to fall into a 0-3 hole to the Bruins. They battled back to force a seventh game, but dug themselves a 0-3 hole in the decider. They dominated the final two periods en route to a 5-3 win. The breezed by the Canadiens in 5 in the last round. They were minutes away from being eliminated before the playoffs began. Now they’re conference champs and four winning skates away from the Stanley Cup. What a ride. Chris Pronger has been dominant on the blue line and in front of the net. Yet another team has ridden his defensive dominance into June hockey. They’re getting balanced scoring. Four skaters have at least 6 goals, three others have at least four and three players have double digit assists. Everybody is chipping in. Oh, yeah, and goalie Michael Leighton has a 1.45 goals against average since replacing incumbent Brian Boucher midway through the Boston series.
So who wins? Series history says the underdog Flyers. They’re 13-2 in their last 15 games with the Hawks and have won five of their last seven games at the United Center. Given that the Hawks have looked their worst this spring in the opening game of a series–losses in the first two rounds and a 1-goal nailbiter in another–its not hard seeing the Flyers get up early and steal the home ice advantage. But you know what? I say bullchips to all that history. The Hawks are top to bottom the better team. Niemi is playing just as well as Leighton in net. It feels like their time. This series could go the distance, but the Blackhawks have to much fire power and end it before we get to a penultimate skate. Chicago in six games. Book it.
