All sports fans and commentators who said that this year's Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames would be boring were dead wrong.
What they meant to say was that none of the favored teams made it. Sorry fellas, there's no Red Wings, no Flyers, no Avalanche and no New Jersey Devils. And we're all better off for it.
The two grittiest teams made it to the finals, and some people couldn't handle it at first. But Calgary's Jarome Iginla and Tampa Bay's Vincent LeCalvier led their teams of warriors by example, turning the ice into a battlefield during this stellar seven-game series.
There was no boring New Jersey system of trap defense to bore us to death like last year's finals. Instead, there were two young, fast and incredibly determined teams that were willing to check, grind along the boards, drop the gloves and do whatever it takes to help their teams win.
While most hockey fans moped at a series without Joe Sakic, Brett Hull or any other big-name star, the die-hard hockey lovers quickly saw the game's latest generation of stars emerge from these two teams.
You had to love the 100 -mph slap shot of Tampa Bay's Frederick Modin, the toughness of Calgary's Chris Simon and the awe-inspiring goaltending of Nikolai Khabibulin and Miikka Kiprusoff.
The Lightning's young center, Vincent LeCalvier, has grown into a fierce opponent to play against. Earlier in his career LeCalvier looked like a goal-scoring primadonna. Now, he's dedicated to defense and using his size and strength to steal pucks and crash the net.
Iginla is now the best power forward in the game. His battling with the massive defenders of Tampa prompted ESPN's Barry Melrose to compare him to the legendary Mark Messier, and receiving accolades from Melrose is the hockey equivalent of earning the Medal of Honor.
This year's finals may not have had your favorite team, but that was no reason to ignore them. The hockey was just too good. The hockey gods must be pleased to see the game played with so much fire.
Reach the reporter at Christian.palmer@asu.edu.
