Best Stanley Cup ever?

If the 2013 Stanley Cup was not the best Cup series ever, it was pretty close.  The only things that could have made it better was if the Penguins were winning it or if the series went to game seven. After three different overtime games, the players must have felt it was just like seven games. 

What made this series so great was not just the Finals but the path to get there.  For whatever reason, the last four team to have won the Cup where in the Final Four.  Pittsburgh had won it in 2009, followed by Chicago in 2010, the Boston Bruins in 2011, and last year, the Los Angeles Kings took the Cup home to that hotbed of hockey, Southern California.

LA came close to repeating but fell in the Western finals and I am not even sure Pittsburgh was there, getting swept in four but the Boston-Chicago series made up for it.  Not only was it an Original Six match up, it was a good physical series with no let up.

Until Boston let two Blackhawk goals slide by in seventeen seconds.  The Boston crowd watched a seemingly safe 2-1 lead and game seven trip to Chicago turn into a Blackhawks Cup celebration on their ice.

One of the greatest sports traditions in the world is the Cup presentation and the players lining up to shake hands.  I always wonder what the losing team is thinking but that seems obvious enough--next year, WE will win this thing.

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost to Detroit in 2008 on their home ice but came back to beat those same RedWings in seven in 2009 in Detroit.

Yes, it can happen.

Will it?

That, my friend, is why they play the game.