Stories From The Rink
1950’s
1960’s
1970’s
1980’s
Calgary Flames
1989 Stanley Cup Finals Submitted by: R Boyd
Title: I'm OK with it
The most spoiled fans on this earth are Montreal Canadien fans. Do I really have to go into detail? I've been one since 1967 See greatest NHL teams ever! Oui!
Well here we were again with about the most solid team you could think of . Certainly , the Cup would be hard fought, but would be ours! Nah!
We lost the series on our home turf 4-2.
Yeah, that hurt Yeah it was close Yeah we beat them in 86 for the Cup but not this time It was close but the goalie Mike Vernon had our number
What I remember most was in the deciding game, a crusty old 16 year veteran of all the work and none of the glory, finally got rewarded. I was still hoping to win, but Lanny Mc Donald, the guy with the red walrus mustache and beard went top shelf on Roy for the back breaking goal
How could any hockey fan on this earth begrudge Lanny McDonald a Stanley Cup game winner!? As much as we hated losing that year I think every Canadien fan tipped their hat to Lanny McDonald that day. Well deserved. I'm OK with it
1990’s
2000’s
2010’s
Los Angeles Kings
2014. It was game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against Chicago in LA. I was lucky enough to get tickets to the game for my whole family who are also die hard Kings' fans. It was easily the loudest hockey game I have ever been to. I think the conventional wisdom was that the winner of this series was going to be taking home Lord Stanley's Cup. I remember seeing a couple of BlackHawks fans sitting in front of us. The Kings ended up with a 4-0 lead near the end of the 2nd period. We were dominating them so much that those Chicago fans left after the second period. I remember coming out of that game stunned on how lopsided the game was.
Washington Capitals
It’s Monday, June 4, 2018 and we’re at the Capitol One Arena in Washington DC, the home of the Washington Capitals. It’s between periods one and two. Devante Smith-Pelly, just one of the guys who had an outsized role in the Caps run to the Stanley has just scored to make it 3-0. There is a palatable feeling in building. On my, it’s really, really going to happen. This team is going to win the Stanley Cup! After all the heartbreak, after losing to the Penguins two years straight in seasons where they were the Presidents trophy winners, this time it’s really going to happen.
Detailing the story of the heartbreak of the Washington Capitals would take pages and pages. Suffice to say that beating Columbus after going down 2-0 didn’t convince the fans. Beating the Penguins in round two went a long way, but still left doubt. We’ve been down this road before. After taking a 2-0 lead against the top seed in the east, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Caps dropped the next three, trailing 3-2. That was the last time Tampa scored that season. The Caps won game six 3-0 and game seven 4-0 for their first trip to the finals since 1998. After losing game one 6-4, Braden Holtby made one of the greatest saves in Stanley Cup finals history to preserve a 3-2 win in game two. Back in DC, the Caps would not be denied. A 3-1 win in game three was followed by a 6-2 win in game four. Devante Smith-Pelly tied game five and Lars Eller scored the Cup winning goal to beat Vegas 4-3. Alexander Ovechkin took home the Conn Smyth trophy, Evgeny Kuznetsov lead the playoffs in points. Barry Trotz left after the season was over. The Caps are tough team to follow, but they are in my blood. Here’s hoping for another Cup run, but as they say, “We’ll always have 2018”.