Stanley Cup belongs in Montreal

For a day or two earlier this week, the Boston Bruins’ rise from perennial also-ran to inspired underdog proved riveting even to the most casual or indifferent sports fan in these parts.

For once coach Claude Julien thought to put Phil Kessel on the ice for good midway through the series, the Bruins rediscovered how to score, and erupted for five goals in both Game 5 and 6 of their first-round National Hockey League playoff series against the Montreal Canadians after scoring just five goals in the first four games combined.

Yet after rallying all the way back from a 3-1 deficit, the team reverted to its anemic offensive self in Game 7, and as a result of that 5-0 loss the B’s will start the 2008-09 season still in search of its first playoff series win since 1999.

Nothing against the Bruins, but deep down I’m only somewhat disappointed they lost, and for nothing they did or didn’t do.

I understand it’s blasphemous to many to root for the Canadians against the Bruins in these parts, given that both are among the National Hockey League’s original six teams and represent one of the deepest rivalries in any professional sport.

For me that’s superseded by the belief that a Canadian team should win the Stanley Cup every year, and Montreal is that nation’s last hope this season.

I come to this conclusion because I’ve long believed that ever since the mighty U.S. economic juggernaut has swallowed up Canada’s national sport, the game at the professional level has been diminished in both countries.

Just 20 percent of the 30 teams in today’s NHL come from north of the border: Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary, which made this year’s playoffs; and Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver, which did not.

And as the proportion of Canadian teams has decreased over the years, the number of American teams has increased but not with a significant increase in overall popularity.

If anything, it’s gone in the opposite direction.

What once was considered one of the Big 4 sports with baseball, basketball and football clearly has dipped to second-tier status with the likes of NASCAR and golf – at least when Tiger Woods is playing.

The hockey heads among us will always crave the sport, whether it’s played by the local high school team, the University of Maine Black Bears or the pro team of choice.

For we live in one of our nation’s hockey hotbeds, which generally are confined to the more northern climates that naturally are conducive to the sport.

But the passion for pro hockey throughout the United States is dwarfed by the emotional attachment between Canadian sports fans and their sport – even though they trashed police cars in downtown Montreal after the Canadians held off the Bruins were a bit much.

A Canadian city hasn’t tasted the beverage of its collective choice out of Lord Stanley’s Cup in 15 years, since the Canadians held it aloft in 1993.

Since then four other Canadian teams have reached the final – including three in the last three years the playoffs haven’t been erased by a strike.

But instead of a setting up a national celebration north of the border, the last three Stanley Cups have resided in relative serenity in Anaheim, Calif., Raleigh, N.C., and Tampa Bay.

This year, for the good of the game, it’s time for a change.

Go Canadians. It’s your Cup, go win it.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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