102 Years Ago

That Sound You Hear? » Everything's All Right by Jude
Most Recent Stanley Cup Champion » Tampa Bay Lightning
Big News » President Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch of the season for the new Washington Nationals today. You know what he didn't do? Drop the puck in the ceremonial first faceoff of the season for the Washington Capitals. I miss hockey.

Now, today's story...

I was going to use this as my "Big News" story, but I just wanted to write about hockey tonight. Because I miss it. But apparently there's an amateur hockey league in Canada that wants to award the Stanley Cup to its champion this season, what with the NHL being in lockout and all.

First of all, let me just say that I am appalled that anyone could attempt to take the Cup away from my Lightning quite so easily. It may be true that when Lord Stanley first offered the Cup as a championship trophy, it was for an amateur league. But that was a hundred years ago! Literally. Actually, it was more than a hundred years ago. It was 102.

And while the four Canadians who have visited my blog may find my views to be insulting, and well, possibly blasphemous, you should know that I love my Bolts. And who was it that we beat to carry that 30 pounds of sterling silver around our arena? Oh yes, that would be the canadian cowboys.

No offense to Flames fans, but your team just couldn't cut it against a far more superior hockey team from Florida! We really do rock. When I said no offense, I really did mean it. You had a great team, but you won the Cup 20 years ago. For us, it was the first time. Ever.

And for hockey in Tampa, that championship would have been so much bigger this year had it not been for the lockout. Could you imagine the turnout at the games? I don't mind bandwagon fans, as long as they admit to it. What bugs me are the people who went to one game in 1992 when hockey in Florida was a novelty, and haven't been since, then claimed they've been fans since the beginning.

I think I've gotten off track a little. Though I'm not sure I really had anything to focus on in the first place. The point is, if anybody takes our defense of the Stanley Cup away, it better be another NHL team we've been able to play against. None of this I'm-not-good-enough-for-the-pros-but-I-still-think-I-deserve-the-cup crap. None of it.

That said, I look forward to the day in October when we can raise the 2004 Stanley Cup banner to the rafters. I'm sure these guys will resolve everything by then. Oh, and if you think you're getting a comment out of me, you're mistaken. I can see both sides, so I'd rather not say who should have their way. Compromise, boys.

Updates: The second chapter of my version of the apocalypse was posted today if you're interested. My fiction blog is called The Chosen. I've also been updating my third blog on a daily basis. It's called Worth Repeating and it just has funny quotes from a variety of TV shows. I do a random episode from a random show each day.