As originally aired on the Rochester Press Box
In the grand scheme of things, no one really minds that the Jacksonville Jaguars are a better football team than the Chicago Bears. Except in Chicago. Similarly, it doesn’t matter to basketball fans in general that San Antonio has won more titles than the New York Knicks. Or that Tampa Bay has an immeasurably better baseball team than the New York Yankees. Results trump tradition.
In hockey however, we don’t treat all teams equally. The final four in the Stanley Cup Playoffs hail from North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Nevada. Places where ice is a foreign substance. The Hurricanes, Panthers, Stars and Golden Knights have stolen the game. And we all let it happen.
To many of a certain age, the National Hockey League is still an exclusive six-team club. The Original Six. A picture of stability for twenty-five years. The Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Bruins, Black Hawks, Red Wings and Rangers. Every other team out there is either an interloper or a thief. And are force-feeding hockey to a population which doesn’t understand or appreciate it. Four warm weather cities should not be fighting for the Stanley Cup.
And then I looked into it a little closer and found some things I didn’t expect. The Carolina Hurricanes were second in NHL attendance. The Golden Knights played to 103 percent of rink capacity. Three of the four remaining teams played to 99 percent capacity this year. As did Tampa, Nashville, Denver and St. Louis. Something the Buffalo Sabres and sixteen other teams failed to do. Hockey, despite the best efforts of the Phoenix Coyotes to drag the rest of the league down to their level, is alive and well.
So even as a person of a certain age who still remembers the Original Six, I have to concede that while I might not like the teams left playing for the Cup, I have to respect their credentials to do so. And the passion from the fans in those cities that helped get them there.
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