Apparently there was a hockey game tonight. (I even watched the third period; I likely would have watched the other two but my stepdaughter had a birthday party tonight and it would have been pretty antisocial given that most of the attendees were adults.)
As an Oilers fan, I suppose I should be frothing that "FCP", "CFP", whatever - Chris Pronger - won the Cup. I don't actually care, really; in fact, Comrie badmouthed both the city and team on his way out, which in my mind makes him worse than Pronger. Not that I really care much once a guy's been gone for a year. Once you get used to Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, and yes, even Lowe and Anderson leaving, even a player of Pronger's stature is almost ho-hum. So yeah, last summer I felt betrayed, now I don't even care. Hell, I'm even happy for the guy - two Finals appearances in a row, he won the Cup, and he's not in an intense media spotlight to boot, just what he wanted. And they beat the Wings, and Chris Chelios that smirking bastard I've hated for a *long* time. Pronger's a great player, even if he is allegedly a jerk and obviously somewhat domineered by his wife, and he did some fucking *outstanding* things last year, all the while battling whatever home problems he was having. Last year should have been his, not this one. There's not a single pair of players on the Oilers roster that I wouldn't trade to get him back, although I wouldn't part with both of Horcoff and Hemsky. Throw in any one of the blueliners and you've got a deal, Mr. Burke.
Niedermayer the better won the Conn Smythe - well, not surprised, he's the captain and didn't play badly, plus he's an old dude and won't be in the running for too many more, so he gets the sympathy vote. Pronger better get the Norris though.
I don't have much to say about the game itself, or previous ones - I watched the last two in a haze of bacterial-induced fever - save that Anaheim was the better team nearly full-time, and the third period tonight they simply dominated the Sens.
Was Ottawa Canada's team? I don't think so, and I don't mean just cos a lot of Leafs fans who were Oilers bandwagoners last year were conflicted this year and so chose not to choose. That Cup is going to be spending more time in Canada now this summer than if Ottawa had won. That's Canadian enough for me, thanks. I don't care if most Americans don't care about my favourite sport - the less the better, in fact. The fact the schedule was shifted to suit NBC's wishes and they couldn't even bother to run over for OT speaks volumes, as did the viewership in the Finals this year and last. Sorry Wade, but you'd have better hockey options now than I did as an Oilers fan in Nova Scotia in the mid-1980s, that's for sure, where if it was the playoffs or the Leafs, their games just didn't get shown. No intertubes to keep up either.
So yeah, I'm glad it's over, because now all eyes are on the draft, and it's shaping up to be an exciting one (at least in the fabled Chinese sense) for the Oilers. It's been quite the ride the last few years, and I hope it continues.