Last night, the Carolina hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 to win the Stanley Cup, 4 Games to 2. My household was in a very happy place after the final. I have been a Hurricanes fan from way back, when they were another franchise the Hartford Whalers. My son inherited that fandom from me. The only fandom that he took from me. Anyways, it was a beautiful sight to see the team hoist the championship trophy.
I am going to steal a quote from the host of Hot Garbage Sports on YouTube. I would recommend watching his viedos. He breaks down how things happened on the ice and what went right or wrong. Anyways, he called Carolina the Monster that was under your bed. You heard them every once in a while, you are scared if you ever see them, and hope that their attention isn’t on you.
Carolina left their hideout from under the bed this year. You could tell that this year was different with the First-Round series with Ottawa. You remember, the very chic prediction by pundits that the Senators would knock off the Hurricanes. After Jordan Staal beat down Brady Tkachuk aty the opening faceoff, you could tell that something was different. The goaltending by Frederick Anderson was stellar and the Second line of Black-Stankoven-Hall was on fire, and the Hurricanes won that series in a sweep and never fell behind in that series.
Round two with the Flyers was another sweep, but the Flyers did take leads in the games. Still, the defense was playing well, Anderson was still hot in net and the offense sputtered along but at the end of the game had done just enough to win. But with Carolina being a favorite, the Hurricanes did what they were supposed to do.
Round Three came a week and a half later after their last game with Philadelphia. Carolina was going to be exposed as frauds by some of the pundits again. They were winners of the sub-par Metropolitan division, and the Montreal Canadiens came out of the best division to most people, the Atlantic. Game one only made those voices louder. Carolina played their worse game of the playoffs and were down by four goals quickly. Final looked like Montreal was going to blow the doors off the frauds that people were saying Carolina was. Games two through five showed which team was better prepared and had the better system to play. After skating the Canadiens out of the rink, the Hurricanes skated to the Finals where they were going to face a team that would show them just how the big boys play in the pl;ayoffs.
Finally, we got the Finals. Vegas versus Carolina. Two totally different philosophies and outlooks. Glitz and Glamour filled with stars that symbolizes Vegas perfectly. Carolina has home-grown talent, no superstars, a team approach. And the first three games were wild. Blown leads, swings of momentum and goalies not making the saves at the opportune times. Game four swung the momentum to Carolina and from there, the Hurricanes proved that at this time, they were a better team.
The nay-sayers have changed their tune. Everyone is praising the Hurricanes, the team that they dismissed and ridiculed years prior. Watching the mainstream media change their tune and opinions that they share makes me sick. But today, it is the second time that I have seen my hockey team with the Stanley Cup. To those people that changed their tune and make excuses for the Hurricanes winning, please go away. I am tired of you and your negativity about teams that decide that they need to do something different than the common wisdom would say to do. Because last night, the Monster that you had never seen, came out of hiding and grabbed the Stanley Cup.