I am excited that the Oilers-Ducks series is going a full 7 games. After the Game 5 Oilers meltdown, I admit to not being optimistic that Edmonton could pull it off. Looks like they have redeemed themselves. If any Canadian city goes to the Cup Final I hope it will be Edmonton.
Oy. I can't stand the Ducks but I can't forget what the Team That Shall Not Be Named did to our Jets year after year in the 1980's....
m.
I hate to disappoint...
But nope! Joyously, wonderfully, FINALLY--NOPE! GHOSTS OF GAME 7'S PAST AVENGED!
Apologies to the anti-Anaheim brigade (it IS sad but understandable to me that Jets fans hate us now...I pull for you guys...I wish they didn't hate us, but damn if that series a couple years ago didn't make us villains to you, I suppose, alas
) but NO!
And come on, Winnipeggers rooting for Edmonton was just wrong anyway...that's like me pulling for the Braves, Nats, Phillies, or Yankees as a lifelong Mets fan!
That was a great series, though.
Calgary I was glad to see go (can't stand that team, and their taking out two of our defensemen didn't help) but the league's better when Edmonton's good and it's great to see the Oil back in business. ...It's just even better for ME to finally see a Boudreau-less Anaheim team shake off 4 straight Game 7 losses at home to win one!
Giving up the first one wasn't a worrying start, but they battled back...and who on Earth had
Nick Ritchie of all people with the game and series-winning goal?
And on a personal note, I caught the game while in my last-ever graduate class and grabbing drinks with my professor and a few colleagues after...startled a couple clapping my hands and cheering as the final seconds ticked off
but still, eight years on and I wrap up my final Master's class the same night Anaheim FINALLY shakes off the Curse of Game 7!
So a good night all around.
Anyway, the Jets'll make it back to the playoffs soon, I'm sure (in place of Calgary would be even better!
), the Oilers are set for years, and Anaheim deserved this win after years of Game 7 heartbreak and clawing their way back into this series again and again...where the Boudreau teams used to curl up and wither away, with Carlyle back on the bench the Ducks just keep on fighting!
And for anyone who saw it--especially a West Coast fan--that Game 5 2OT victory is a hockey memory for sure: three goals in 3:01, including two in 35 seconds on consecutive shots and the final one on a mad scramble to become the first team in Stanley Cup history, ALL WITH AN EMPTY NET, to win a game down three goals with four minutes remaining with Perry's goal in 2OT. It has all the ingredients of a new classic--an historic late comeback and great heroics on both sides (Talbot's 60 saves, that 3:01 for the Ducks) controversy (Talbot's pad on the third goal? Whatever do you mean?
) and the well-worn tandem of Getzlaf-to-Perry doing it one more time before the home crowd in 2OT. If you stayed up to watch, you watched a CLASSIC in a pretty good series end to end.
And now it's on to the admittedly-terrifying Pekka Rinne and the bruising Nashville Predators for the Western Conference crown...though Nashville's about as "Western" as I am Swahili.
But I remember those years where the Saints and Falcons were in the NFC "West" with my 49ers.
Anyway, good series Edmonton, one more "feh!" to the Flames, hopefully Winnipeg can come back strong next year--and this Friday, once more unto the breach, dear friends,
Let's Go Ducks!!! 
But nope! Joyously, wonderfully, FINALLY--NOPE! GHOSTS OF GAME 7'S PAST AVENGED! 
) but NO! 
Calgary I was glad to see go (can't stand that team, and their taking out two of our defensemen didn't help) but the league's better when Edmonton's good and it's great to see the Oil back in business. ...It's just even better for ME to finally see a Boudreau-less Anaheim team shake off 4 straight Game 7 losses at home to win one! 