The Stanley Cup
Created | Updated Jun 22, 2003
The pain and joy of a sports fan.
One Week Ago
Tonight the Colorado Avalanche will be playing the New Jersey Devils for the right to hoist the Stanley Cup in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. This marks the first time in over a decade that the two top seeded teams in the playoffs have made it to the Finals against each other. Last year the St. Louis Blues fell in the first round to a team they outclassed by leaps and bounds. The year before the Devils bought it in the third round where they might have faced the #1 Stars from Dallas. This year my favorite team, the Avalance have posted the best record of the regular season and are now in the finals.
This is a series with a lot of stories to be told. Peter Forsberg was hospitalized with a burst spleen after the last game of the third round. He has had emergency surgery and is recovering. He so badly wants to help his team that he tried skating today. He is a warrior who is not happy looking at the battle from afar.
Ray Borque is in his 22nd season and third Finals appearance and he wants the cup before he retires. He is 40, the third oldest player in the league and arguably the best all time defenseman ever to play the game. Ray asked to be traded from the only team he ever played for, the Boston Bruins, to be sent as a contender for the cup1. Last year he made it to the Conference finals only to narrowly miss a shot that would have sent them to the finals.
Joe Sakic is possibly in his last year as captain of the Avalanche as he reaches unrestricted free agency this year and is the favoured player for the MVP honours. He is also a possible candidate for the Conn Smythe trophy as MVP of the playoffs. The Avalanche will have to make a very large offer to keep the captain.
Patrick Roy2 is also a free agent next season, and is possibly the best all time goaltender. Roy is likely to stay with the Avalanche next season but many teams will be trying to sign him.
Rob Blake is another player to be traded to the Av's to make a post season run to the Cup, coming from his only team the L.A. Kings. Having to play the Kings was a shock to Blake, but he was able to put the series past him and score against his team. He also had to deal with the LA fans booing him every time he touched the puck. Blake is also going to be a free agent and is likely to accept an offer anywhere that can pay him the salary that a great defenseman, which he is, deserves.
I have been sweating bullets for the last month or so watching the games when possible, listening to them online and keeping abreast of all the games to see where it would lead. The result of this journey is possibly the most evenly matched Final to be played in decades. The top two teams in the League are facing off against each other to fight for the Cup. It will be an amazing series and I will be watching and listening with care.
I have made an incredible emotional investment in following my team all season. I am a fan and I know the pain and joy of being a fan. I wish the best to all of the Avalanche. Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Chris Drury, Ray Borque, Milan Hejduk, Eric Messier, Chris Dingman, Rob Blake, Shjon Podien, Ville Nieminen, Stephan Yelle, and the rest. I salute you and I want you guys to have fun!
A clash of Titans...
5 Days Ago
Tonight the New Jersey Devils hosted the Avalanche for the first of two games in NJ. The opening series in Colorado went 5-0 to the Colorado Avalanche, the first game, a fluke by any stretch of the imagination, then 2-1 to the Devils, a suprise upset. In the best of seven series for the Stanley Cup the teams play two games at the home of the team with the best record, this year that being the Colorado Team, then two away. The rest of the series is played one at Colorado one at New Jersey then the last game at Colorado if needed. At the moment the Avalanche hold a 2-1 series lead with another game in NJ this weekend.
Having the home advantage has not meant much this year as the record so far is 41 home games won, 41 lost. No one expects this series to go less than six games, but I hope they win on Saturday and again on Monday back in Colorado. Winning the Cup on home ice would be the greatest thing to happen to Ray Borque, traded to Colorado at the trading deadline last season.
Borque has gone to most career games without ever having won the Stanley Cup. Both Borque and defenseman Rob Blake are fighting for that elusive goal, the Stanley Cup. Blake also has been traded from the only team he ever played with to have a chance at the Cup. With luck and skill, two of the greatest defensemen ever to lace on a pair of skates can take home the Cup for a day of sheer joy.
A tradition of the Stanley Cup is that the members of the winning team can have the trophy for a day or so sometime during the year after they win. The Cup has the names of every player to have played for a winning team etched onto it. This makes it one of the most coveted sports trophies in the world. When you read the cup you see the names of all the greatest players to ever play the game save one... Ray Borque, a future hall of famer has yet to hoist the Cup to drink from it's bowl and to taste that sweetest victory. Ray has never won his last game... That is one goal he has personally that everyone wants to see. One of the oldest players in the league and the oldest ever to score in the finals, Borque is still as strong a playmaker as there is on the defensive line of any hockey club.
Respected and befriended by almost every player in the league, Ray is truly one of the best ever players of all time. The fans in Boston where he spent two decades as a leader on the ice and as a offensive defenseman, Ray is what all defensive players in the league aspire to be.
Let me not forget the great play by Borques partner on the ice, Rob Blake. Blake is one of the hardest shots in the league. He can score a goal from the blue line that the netminder never sees. Traded to a contending team this year Blake met his former team in the second round of the playoffs. The Los Angeles Kings upset the mighty Detriot Redwings to meet the number one seeded team in the league of the Colorado Avalanche. After playing one of the toughest playoffs ever, the Kings took the Av's to seven games in a series that no one expected them to be in. Alas the fans in LA would boo whenever their old favorite Rob Blake touched the puck. Let us hope that they will now watch his competitive play in the Finals and that they will cheer for him.
Now there are only a few more games left of this season. The goal is the race to sixteen wins... I hope Colorado makes it.
More next week!
