Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Stanley Cup Western Conference Finals


It’s the Detroit Red Wings vs. the Anaheim Ducks. Let’s explore the matchup, shall we?

History

  • Detroit: Original Six team, founded in 1926, originally named the Detroit Cougars. They have won 10 Stanley Cups, second in the NHL only to the Montreal Canadiens.
  • Anaheim: Founded in 1993 as a marketing arm of the Walt Disney Corporation. Originally going to be named The Little Mermaids 2 of Anaheim until that project fell through forcing Michael Eisner to settle on The Mighty Ducks. They have won zero Stanley Cups in their 14 years of existence.
Notable Players and Coaches
  • Detroit: Gordie Howe, Sid Abel, Terry Sawchuk, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Mickey Redmond, Nicklas Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek, Steve Yzerman - the longest serving captain of any team in NHL history. Scottie Bowman, the winningest coach in NHL history, won nine Stanley Cups in his famed career as a head coach. He retired after leading Detroit to its three most recent Stanley Cups, but still serves in an advisory capacity to the team.
  • Anaheim: Kenan Thompson, Joshua Jackson. Emilio Estevez, head coach.
Connections Between the Teams
  • Sergei Federov, an all-star center on the Red Wings, decided that he’d had too much winning after claiming his third Stanley Cup, moved to Anaheim and has since become a shell of his former self, never scoring more than 65 points in a season. He now plays defense on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Team/City Relationship
  • Detroit: Nicknamed Hockeytown because of the long history of the Red Wings, the love and knowledge of, and devotion to the game by its residents and fans. Joe Louis Arena has sold out every game since 1996, and when on the road, Red Wings fans often outnumber the home team fans, selling out arenas wherever they go.
  • Anaheim: A suburb among a maze of suburbs, there being no real city to be found, the Ducks are the sixth most popular team in Los Angeles behind the Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers, Angels, and Kings. There will no doubt be johnny-come-lately celebrity fans in attendance at the Ducks games, but only because the Kobe Bryants Lakers were eliminated from the postseason in embarrassing fashion.
City Landmarks
  • Detroit: Archetypal art deco structures such as the Fisher Building, the Penobscot Building, and the Fox Theater meet the future with the Renaissance Center and Comerica Tower. The Joe Louis Memorial. The Spirit of Detroit. Greektown.
  • Anaheim: Disneyland.
Symbolism
  • Detroit: A tradition in Hockeytown is to hurl an octopus onto the ice after a goal or victory. This tradition dates back to the Original Six days when it required only eight victories, represented by the eight legs of the octopus, to win the Stanley Cup. While it is technically against the rules to bring any dead animals into Joe Louis Arena, let alone tossing objects onto the playing surface, arena officials tend to look the other way.
  • Anaheim: An Emilio Estevez movie. Didn’t we already go over this?
I am not necessarily predicting a Red Wings victory in this series. I am only questioning how any self-respecting hockey fan could be the least bit interested in these Mighty Ducks, and pointing out the absurdity of the legendary Red Wings having to play these clowns.

Let’s Go Wings!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the words of your 3 year old niece,"who's afraid of ducks?".
Go Wings!!!

Anonymous said...

I was going to add players' names to your list, but there are just too many. This team is loaded with stars!

Anonymous said...

Ducks, indeed! Have you noticed how many team names these days seem to have been chosen by 4-year-olds? Next it will be the Puppies.

Anonymous said...

Go Wings! The way I see it, everyone who cares about hockey should be with us. How can anyone like a California team, let alone one named after a crap Disney film? Of course, being from Michigan, I may be rather biased. :)