the lukewarm blog: June 2007

As originally seen on TLB Prime...

THE DUCKS WON THE CUP!
THE CUP'S GONE TO THE DUCK!
Whichever way one puts it,
this is a rather odd day
for the storied sport
that is ice hockey!

No - not this team of quacks

This one!

Party hardy now
Donald, Daffy, Darkwing,
Wild Wing - you who were elated when
your team defeated the Red Wings -
This victory is for the departed ducks as well;
Paul Kariya, Howard, Count Duckula
And those who stuck with the team
through thick and thin
through heartwrenching losses
and the most decisive and sweetest wins!

Still, having said... er... typed all that,
It is still the Ducks...
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
have won the Stanley Cup
(over those silly Senators!)

Surely it is another sign
of the end of the world.

Hence, rejoice, duckies
ugly ducklings
and other quacks of the world!

For the end might be TRULY near now...!

Above collage 100% originally recycled imagery
courtesy of Luminous Luciano!

If the Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings had played their cards right, they would have been the first California-based team to have won the Stanley Cup - not the Mighty Ducks in 2007!

During his years there, Gretzky (the so-called "Great One") didn't do squat for the Kings franchise (much like a Thornton did for Boston and San Jose - not to mention Davos in the Swiss League! And Gretzky himself wherever else he stopped by - St-Louis, NY Rangers... A team with "leaders" like these needs a whole line-up full of leaders and plumbers who do the dirty work, whether the "great one" who gets all the fame and hogs the spotlight all for himself DOES or really DOES NOT act as a motivator to the team...)

In 1993, even though the doors flung themselves wide open for the Kings and allowed them to reach the Finals without having to meet there any one of the top three contenders from the East (in order: Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) the Kings still tripped all-over themselves and allowed the lowly Canadiens to steal from them crucial wins (in overtime) as they had stolen from everyone else throughout those 1993 playoffs...

And that was the only time Gretzky led the Kings onto the "promised land"...!

Never again would he lead ANYBODY into the Finals (and, as a coach, he is a dismal motivator - with the Phoenix Coyotes... No surprise there. Like Joe Thornton, he is only good at accumulating personal honors - and there are none to be accumulated on the coach's bench!)

The California Golden Seals sure as hell could not have been the first team from over there to win the cup either...

So, it befell Anaheim to do it!

The team that some had named, before its birth, the "Anaheim Aces" (because an ace trumps a king in poker! Lots of poking going on in hockey too, it's true...) was originally owned by a certain Michael Eisner of Walt Disney Company fame... M.E. was much like Gretzky and Joe T - as in "it was all about M.E. - M.E. - M.E.!" and he had no respect for the tradition of ice hockey and the NHL heritage...

To see the team that he founded - originally named after a mediocre series of Disney films, the moronic Mighty Ducks coached by Emilio Estevez (still, a better coach than Gretzky, somehow...!) - win the highest honors now (albeit under new ownership and after having dropped the ridiculous monicker "Mighty" - they did keep their Disney mascot, Wild Wing, though!)

Well... It is all a bitter pill to swallow for traditionalists who'd prefer to see any one of the original six teams (BASED IN THE USA) win it all instead...

But it was written that, this year, a young turk... uh... a young duck named Getzlaf would get the last laugh indeed...!

Hmm... Where was that written again?

At least TWO PLACES indeed... ;)

In the Book of Fate, I guess - as well as
in the Luminous Blog!
(Or any other blog part of the TLB PRIME NETWORK -
boils down to the same darn thing,
I tell you, infidel unbeliever! *lol*)

I admit, it is nice to see two brothers win the cup together though -
and the Niedermayer brothers finally did it.

The last brother tandem to do it had been the Sutter brothers (2 out of the lot of 5 or 6 of them...!) that were part of the NY Islanders dynasty...

The worthy brothers that were to be found on the Boston Bruins roster,
in recent years, did not get to be so fortunate:
the Crowder brothers, the Wesley brothers, the Sweeney... uh... triplets?
Well, maybe the Sigalet brothers will have better luck?
(Better luck than the Sedin twins -and Cam Neely- did in Vancouver...!
But those are other stories...!)

Nice, also, to see players who had been hopeful of winning this thing for so many years - finally do it now; Teemu Selanne, Todd Marchant and Jean-Sébastien Giguère certainly - but not Brad May, hell no! May is reminiscent of a John Kordic clod - only lucky to be at the right place, at the right time... But I digress...

I am also glad, of course, to see two former Boston Bruins win this, side-by-side as they are on the roster: #'s 21 and 26, Sean O'Donnell and Samuel Pahlsson.

I would be remiss though if I did not mention with glee that the Thornton who proves to be superior and a champion is not Joe
(and much less his San Jose cuz, Scott)
but the Ducks' Shawn Thornton!
And San Jose coach (for not much longer at all) Ron Wilson will spend the summer thinking about the fact that his name is not
(and never will be) inscribed upon the cup -
while Clay Wilson's now is!

Priceless, really! ;)

Looking forward to seeing rubber duckies emblazoned with the cup
(here's hoping that such a cloisonné pin on the feathers of a duck
is NOT animal cruelty in any shape or form for PETA, IFAW & co.)

They will give those away on some Ducks home game next season
And the fans will litter the rink with them
when Teemu scores a hat trick or Pronger clobbers someone!
*lol*

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