Hockey Fans Should Root For Red Wings, Bruins

Things have gotten heated in the Wings-Ducks series.  (Photo Courtesy Detroit Free Press)

By Stanley

Tomorrow night, NHL fans will be treated to a pair of Game 7's, as the Boston Bruins take on the Carolina Hurricanes and the Detroit Red Wings battle the Anaheim "At One Point They Were Called Mighty" Ducks.  It's Christmas in May for hockey fans.  

So who should the casual fan root for?  Many tend to pull for the underdog, or the new team on the block.  Well, don't.  Please.  Not that it matters who you root for or anything, but every nuetral hockey fan (meaning not from the home areas of the teams in action) should be rooting for the favorites: the Red Wings and the Bruins.  

Why should you root for these teams?  We want to see the best series possible.  Let's start out in the Western Conference.  If the Red Wings win, we get to see a classic battle between two rivals, the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks.  The Blackhawks are the young team on the rise, while the Red Wings are the team full of experienced veterans, not to mention the defending champions.  

If Anaheim were to win tomorrow night, then we would be treated to a sluggish series with lame California hockey fans.  The Ducks are a good team, but they aren't elite like the Wings.  Give me the best possible matchup.  I want either the young Blackhawks or the defending champions to represent the West in the Stanley Cup Finals, not the Ducks.  

In the Eastern Conference, Boston looks to come back from a 3-1 deficit in their series against the Carolina Hurricanes.  The Hurricanes are no garbage team; in fact, they have been to two Stanley Cup Finals since 2002 and have won one championship.  However, the Bruins are a far more exciting and better team this year.  The Hurricanes probably would not even give the Penguins a series.  Boston was arguably the best all around team in the league this year, and hockey fans should root for them to move on to play Pittsburgh.  

So if the favorites win, we know that the Stanley Cup is going to be a good series.  We will have either a rematch of a really solid 2008 series (Pens-Wings), a young exciting team thrown in there like the Blackhawks, or a really solid overall squad in the Bruins.  This is what hockey needs.  The NHL does not need a Hurricanes-Ducks final.  So NHL fans, do your best to somehow will the Red Wings and the Bruins to their respective conference championships tomorrow night.  For the good of the game.