By MIKE HERNDON
Being a Detroit Red Wings fan used to mean you always had a team to pull for in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
For 25 years, from 1990-91 to 2015-16, the Wings made the playoffs every year. They hoisted the Cup four times during that run, which was the longest active postseason streak in North American professional sports at the time.
But the Wings have now missed the playoffs for the last eight years in a row, leaving this hockey fan without much of a rooting interest in the postseason.
Oh, I have a few other teams that I like that kept me interested for a while. The Predators, who aren’t too far away in Nashville. The Penguins, since I like just about everything from Pittsburgh. The Blues, where an old friend works in the front office.
But the Pens and Blues didn’t make it this year, either, and the Preds were an early out. So that left only one option for this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
Schadenfreude. And lo and behold, it’s undefeated.
One by one, the NHL teams I can’t stand this season went down in flames:
— The Capitals, who took the final playoff spot in the East on a tiebreaker after finishing the regular season tied with the Wings.
— The Maple Leafs, for whom my hatred has waned since Mike Babcock’s departure, but who are still a longtime Wings rival.
— The Golden Knights, who were handed a golden ticket with the NHL’s overly rewarding expansion draft rules, waltzing right into a Finals appearance in their first year while rebuilding teams like the Wings could only watch.
— The Bruins, who are captained by a man with the most punchable face in hockey – Brad Marchand.
— The Avalanche, the Wings’ most-hated rival in the 1990s, who similarly fell on hard times but rebuilt far more quickly.
— And finally, the Rangers, captained by the current biggest punk and cheap-shot artist in the league — Jacob Trouba.
Rooting against those teams has kept me interested in this year’s playoffs, particularly as each of them got eliminated. If you can’t root for your own team, you can at least pull against those you can’t stand.
But now here we are in the Finals, which features two teams about whom I am completely ambivalent – the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers. Is it worse to have a team you hate in the Finals or two teams that you don’t care much about either way?
I’ll take the latter. Even though I don’t particularly care who wins, I’d rather watch Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov and crew try to slow down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl than to see Jacob Trouba or anyone from Colorado with any shot of hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Maybe I’ll pull for the Oilers. I love Draisaitl’s game. McDavid’s fun to watch, of course. And it’s probably time for a Canadian team to finally win another Cup. It’s only been 30 years.
But I don’t think they’ll win it. I’m expecting a good series, with the team that’s been there before (just last year) to get it done this time. Experience matters. Yeah, I heard what Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said about the Buffalo Bills and the Super Bowl. But his team isn’t the Cowboys either.
Panthers in 7.
Next year, the Wings get back to the postseason.
Categories: NHL
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