No matter who wins, the Stanley Cup Playoffs 2018 will end with a brand new champion
The Stanley Cup Finals start now. After what seems like an eternity after the Washington Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Eastern Conference, the Stanley Cup Playoffs 2018 reaches its ultimatum. The Vegas Golden Knights certainly put on a pre-show to end all pre-shows for Games 1 in Las Vegas.
Game 2 will surely be more of the same pageantry. Once the series heads to DC, the Capitals and their fans will be rocking the red. At some point in the next week or so, a Stanley Cup Champion will be crowned. No matter who wins, it will be a new champion.
Time for A New Champion
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No matter the actual winner of the series, 2018 will indeed see a new team’s name engraved onto Lord Stanley’s prized Cup. The Capitals have not ever won the Stanley Cup, and have been to the Finals only once, losing to the Detroit Red Wings in 1998.
While having won two President’s Trophies, superstar Alexander Ovechkin has never won the top prize in all of hockey. Tonight, Ovechkin will have his chance. His Capitals exorcised the demons of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the second round curse.
The Vegas Golden Knights are the Cinderella story to top all Cinderella stories. A new franchise, in their inaugural season, has made history with every game they play. They have had a strong fan base forum day one, and that fan has helped to heal a city that was rocked by a tragic mass shooting shortly before the Knights played their first game.
The Stanley Cup Finals 2018
I make no mystery of the fact that I am a Flyers fan, and that I do not ever root for any team but the boys in Orange and Black. If the Flyers are not playing, I will root against other teams; teams that I hold some ill will for, chief among them the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
In this Stanley Cup Final, I hold no Sicilian Grudge against either team. The Knights are a new team that features two former Flyers that I was rather fond of, Luca Sbisa and Pierre Edward Bellemare. It is difficult to not feel for Alex Ovechkin, having had such a storied career in the NHL yet never having raised the Cup.
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This year, I will watch the Stanley Cup Finals merely for the love of the game of hockey, knowing that a fan base that has never witnessed a Stanley Cup Parade will know that joy. For the first time in forever, I don’t have a team to root against. The magic of this postseason has me mesmerized….which Fairy Tale will end with the Stanley Cup?
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