Or not a preview (I'm afraid to make predictions, and I leave the previews to the experts. Oh, and I've got till Saturday anyway) so much as a quick reaction to the Philadelphia Flyers winning the Eastern Conference Finals tonight, in Philly. I was rooting more for Montreal to make it--partly for an Original Six SCF matchup (the last was Canadiens-Rangers in 1979), partly for the Blackhawks to avenge some SCF losses of the past, partly because I thought the Habs were easier to beat. But their Cinderella run finally ended, and now we've got the Flyers in the finals for the first time since 1997. And both teams have a large percentage of fans who weren't alive the last time their team won the Cup.
And of course the horror we should never, ever forget--THE FLYERS ARE ONLY IN THE PLAYOFFS AT ALL BECAUSE OF A SHOOTOUT ON THE LAST DAY OF THE REGULAR SEASON. AND NOW THEY'RE IN THE STANLEY CUP FINALS. That's reason enough for any non-partisan hockey fan to root for the Blackhawks,
By the way--posting from Flickr again (I knew I had an obnoxiously orange Philly photo somewhere!) rather than signing into Blogger because I need to take care of some computer stuff before I risk my computer freezing and losing things again. Also, wish I hadn't written such a negative piece yesterday, although it still hurts that I couldn't get to that game, and I can't quite get past it unless I get to a Stanley Cup game. Maybe. I did wake up feeling great about the Blackhawks but still lousy personally--won't dwell on that here. A few more thoughts:
As someone with nowhere to be tomorrow morning, I was REALLY hoping for tonight's game to go to, I don't, know, quadruple overtime? But Flyers had to have a 3-2 lead and score an empty-netter at the end...just like Chicago.
It was sad to realize that this is the last game of the NHL season where I didn't really care who won. From now on, every game will be too stressful to truly enjoy. (As with some things I said yesterday...yeah, 28 other fanbases wish they had this "problem.")
Seriously, STFU about the Hossa "curse," people! If you need something else to throw at Chicago fans, how about that Chicago sold Stanley Cup finals tickets before even the second round was over...and tonight it looked like Philadelphia SCF tickets weren't even for sale yet. Hubris! That's as bad as showing up to Game 4 against the Sharks with brooms...oh, wait.
Next year, I'm rooting for the SCF to be my team versus whichever team has the most apathetic fanbase, and is located on a Megabus/Greyhound route. (Go Atlanta!) Because yeah, it's probably cheaper to travel to another city than to try to buy tickets in Chicago (or Boston).
Yes, I desperately want to go to Game 1 (or any, but especially Game 1), if there's any possible way to get into the building for under $200. Because I hate that I saw two terrible playoff games, and missed Sunday's. And that I've put so much effort into this blog all year, and...But I think longtime fans deserve to see these games MUCH more than a relative newcomer like me does. Unfortunately it's not about who's deserving, it's who has the ridiculous amount of money for tickets. Those longtime fans would need to have been putting away money since the last Cup win...
Honestly, 99% of my anger and resentment will be going towards Chicago fans who can get into games. Any left over goes towards the Flyers and their fans.
I think we're going to have a good Chicago-Philadelphia mayoral food-bet-thing (better than Vancouver's, anyway). A Flyers fan asked what Chicago's equivalent to Tastykakes is, and I'm still pondering that (not just any Chicago food, but something "sweet" and/or "packaged")...
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