NHL 2006/2007

I was just curious for those of you who are from Canada and hockey fans from the United States and Newfoundland.

Which team are you cheering for and who do you think will win the Stanley Cup?

So hows that 40 year anniversary of the last time the leafs won the cup party coming along?

GO HABS GO!

Leafs are the worst NHL franchise are perennial losers for forty years and another forty years to come.

They SUCK big time!!!

Hey maggiemygosh,, at least the post before you had the NERVE to pick a team. Any reason for that??

Like maybe your a Canuck ?????

I agree with donkey233b

LEAFS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!

How can anyone even bother trying to predict the Cup winner before the season starts? Injuries, trades, and changes of management could affect every teams chances. Nobody in their right mind would have predicted Edmonton to come within one period of winning the Stanly Cup last season. Parity is a bitch and it usually comes down to team chemistry, trades and a little bit of luck as to who wins the Holy Grail.

I don't really care about US teams so I'm not even going to bother with them, although simple numbers (and the way the divisions are set up) predicate that at least one will be in the finals. Having said all that, I'll add my two cents and give what I feel is an unbiased breakdown of the Canadian teams.

My predictions;

Perennial favourites Ottawa finds a way to lose every season, and sadly, I see no reason why that will change this year (I really want them to prove me wrong). They have a real chance if everyone stays healthy.

Toronto continually boasts about being 'Canada's team' then blows it in the 1st/2nd round, which makes 99.999999% of Western Canadians happy to no end! Toronto's getting younger, but they still have too many old warhorses to go far next spring.

Montreal has a great hockey tradition but hasn't had a great hockey team in a long time. Will Huet be the next 'Roy' and catapult them into champions? Probably not, but I'd like to see it anyways.

Vancouver looks like Calgary last year, solid goaltending with little scoring, so they probably don't have much of a chance. Losing Carter and Bertuzzi will hurt them in close games. Losing Jovanovski might actually make them better. :wink:

Calgary has added scoring and it might just be enough this year, then again, it might not. Hopefully Tanguay can add enough extra punch they need to win crucial games.

Edmonton has enough depth at forward to have two teams in the league this year, too bad they have only 3 NHL quality defencemen. While Edmonton does look a lot like Carolina last season (3 solid forward lines and mostly no-names on D), even still, for them to go far next spring, they need to make a trade for one (preferably two) D-men.

I'm cheering for the Canucks if they may not succeed I just cheer for the Canadian teams. I think it would nice for them to win they never have won the cup and every other Canadian team has.

Leafs fans bleed blue
Why winning a Cup this year just might make a grown man cry
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Toronto Sun

A couple of years ago I was sitting with a colleague from another Toronto newspaper at a Raptors game somewhere in the midwest when the PA guy asked everyone to stand for the American anthem.

The atmosphere inside the arena suddenly became unusually solemn as our American friends clutched their chests and belted out the Star Spangled Banner.

Partway through, as I looked around the arena for odd looking people (a hobby of mine at basketball games, at least until the fourth quarter when I have to start paying attention), I noticed a couple of gentlemen actually shedding tears.

Not being a huge fan of men blubbering, I muttered to my colleague something alone the lines of, "what a bunch of wimps."

To my surprise, she turned to me and asked: "What, you never cry?"

"Not that I can remember," I replied, feeling like a big man.

"Yeah, well what would happen if the Leafs won the Stanley Cup?" she demanded.

Damn, I had nothing.

"You'd cry, wouldn't you?"

This is professional suicide for a guy in my position, but I admit, here and now, on the eve of tomorrow's NHL season opening, that I am one of those pathetic, blue-blood-bleeding, lifelong Leaf fans.

How could I not be a Leafs fan? I am a born-and-bred Toronto boy, who grew up playing both classic forms of hockey, ice and road, with a little bit of floor thrown in for good measure.

I was very much alive and kicking the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup. The year was 1967 and I watched the final game on TV with my older brother Mike.

Most of my friends and I grew up adoring the Leafs. Our love for the blue and white had nothing to do with winning Stanley Cups. For sure, the Leafs never have won another Cup, and as the Harold Ballard years took hold, they stunk.

But we didn't care. Unlike Canadiens fans, we didn't need our team winning championships every few years.

I remember there were a certain number of Habs fans in my school, all smug and self-assured. We hated them. Good-time Charlies. Frontrunners.

My favourite player, pre-high school, was Davey Keon. Like me, he wasn't a big guy, and he played both sides of the ice incredibly well. As I got older, however, I developed an huge admiration for Borge Salming.

To us, the Swede could do no wrong. I realize now that if old Borje used his body a little more, taking his man out along the boards the odd time instead of flopping around in front of the the net and trying to poke-check everyone, he would have been a much sounder defenceman. But he was just so flashy and so brave. Yes, this "chicken Swede" was the bravest guy on the ice.

KEPT ON GOING

I don't remember what playoff series it was, but I remember the time when Philadelphia forward Mel Bridgeman beat the crap out of poor Borje. Almost killed him, but Borje kept on going.

Borje was a perennial all-star, but he never won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenceman. More times than not, it went to Montreal's Larry Robinson. To my friends and me, that an annual miscarriage of justice.

Montreal won Stanley Cups. We had Jimmy Jones and Pat Boutette and an owner who watched colour TV and ate steaks in the penitentiary.

But we kept the faith, baby. And we still do.
-----------------------------------------------------
I wasn't around when the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup and I didn't grow up in Toronto(London) but the rest of this story rings true. And yes, I'd cry if the Leafs won the Cup....