Hockey Falls Gazette
Stanley Cup Finals Edition

“Go Sens! Win It For Elgin!”

Call me a traditionalist, or old-fashioned or whatever you will, but the thought of seeing a celebration of the Stanley Cup being paraded about the streets of the OC, beneath the palm trees and beautiful people is simply not appealing. For the first time in over a decade, the Cup Finals are being contested with a Canadian team and hopefully the Cup will be hoisted in front of Parliament before a throng of joyous Canadians.

On paper, Anaheim has a slight edge; they are talented in every phase of the game. Not to be undone, Senators have caught fire down the stretch and through the Playoffs. Your clueless correspondent wrote them off in the opening round and they have been nothing short of amazing over the last two months. Ray Emery has been an immovable object in goal and will need to keep up the play as Conn Smythe Winner Jean-Sebastian Giguere will holding things up at the other end of the rink.

These two teams are pretty much evenly matched, perhaps with a slight edge to Anaheim, because their core group has gone to Game 7 of the Cup Finals a few seasons ago. As for predicting a winner; who knows? The team that plays best in its own end of the rink will win.

As far as a rooting interest, that’s an easy one. Southern California is the capitol of manufactured hokey, cloying sentiment, while in Canada the Senators are inspired by an honest-to-goodness three-year old who refused to quit. The Senators will be carrying the memory of their youngest fan into the Final. Elgin’s story touched hearts throughout North America as he lost his brave fight to a rare form of cancer. The Senators took him into their hearts and accepted him as one of their own. He lived long enough to see his beloved team get to the Finals, and the team (without in any way looking to exploit his passing) will most assuredly keep this child’s memory alive in their play. In a world full of pretentious BS artists and phony heroes, by all accounts this boy was the genuine article. I hope he smiles good fortune on the team he so loved.