I never really started watching hockey until I moved from Toronto to a town where 80% of its population watched the sport religiously (ironic, ain't it?).
It was that run by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2002 to the Conference Finals against the Carolina Hurricanes that made me really become the hockey fan that I am today.
Two years later, the 6th seed in the West, the Calgary Flames, made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Probably about 99% of the country was cheering for the Flames to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning for one simple reason:
To "bring the cup back home to Canada".
That was the first time I'd ever heard that, and still don't understand it to this day.
I'm a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and unfortunately, that year they were eliminated for the second year in a row by the Philadelphia Flyers.
I had no one left to cheer for because my team was out.
Every one else for the reason I mentioned earlier "adopted" the Calgary Flames.
I remember sitting in a basement, watching Game 7 with a few friends, who couldn't understand how or why I wasn't cheering for their all of a sudden, beloved Calgary Flames.
Simple. My team was out.
The Lightning ended up winning that series in seven games and wasn't upset like my friends were.
I was glad that Dave Andreychuk, after 22 seasons, finally got to hoist the Stanley Cup.
The same thing happened two years later, when the Edmonton Oilers faced the Carolina Hurricanes in the Finals. Carolina won, and I was glad to see Rod Brind'Amour raise the cup.
My team didn't even make the playoffs that year. I had no one to cheer for.
As of today, there are two Canadian teams left in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Vancouver Canucks and the Montreal Canadiens.
Vancouver is 4412 kilometers away, I don't care for the Canucks.
The greatest and most bitter rivalry in hockey is between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.
Yeah not cheering for those guys either.
So I thought about it...maybe the whole "bringing the cup home" thing has to do with the nationality of the players on each team?
Well if that's the case, then cheer for the Penguins, who have 17 Canadian players (one of those being Sidney Crosby [see 2010 Winter Olympics Men's Ice Hockey Gold Medal Game]) on their team compared to Montreal's 15.
Chicago has 20 and so does Vancouver so I guess that's a push. Even though Chicago's captain is Winnipeg's own Jonathan Toews.
So I guess what I'm getting at, is that I don't get the whole "getting behind a Canadian team in the playoffs that you don't regularly cheer for" thing. Makes no sense to me.
And it probably never will.
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