Well, it was such a great moment, at the end, to see Teemu Selanne with tears streaming down his face, and for young guys such as Chris Kunitz, Francois Beauchemin, and even Joe Motzko and Ryan Carter lift up the Cup with joy. Hey, why listen to my description? I'm posting a ton of videos about it. Anaheim won 6-2 by the way. After the videos, I will post some of my thoughts on the winning game.
This is a video of the post game celebration, although since someone got this from their TV, their sound is delayed until the announcer starts talking again. Still, you can feel the excitement. I love the handshake line. Every guy, even the ones blamed for being classless (Alfredsson, Neil, Pronger) are shaking hands with the guys who blamed them (except for McAmmond, who was concussed).
Wanna know how the fans felt? Listen to the screaming fans who were actually at the game live when the final buzzer sounded.
The actual presentation of the Cup, and Scott Neidermayer, Rob Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, and Teemu Selanne skating with it. Great moment.
Well, I actually couldn't find many highlight videos of the game itself so, you'll have to go the www.nhl.com to watch the highlights there.
Goodbye Selanne?- Teemu gave no firm reply that he would not retire after this win, and even told a few sources that he would like to go out a champion, which would be nice for him. The happiness seen in him when he lifted the Cup made me smile, even though I was leaning towards Ottawa rather than Anaheim.
I thought they were checking players- Samuel Pahlsson, Travis Moen, and Rob Niedermayer were all key offensive players throughout the final series. In Game 5, Niedermayer scored an awesome backhander, and Moen had two goals. Pahlsson scored the only goal in game two, and had plenty of defensive plays as well. By the way, who knew that Todd Marchant played goalie? Mid-game, Marchant prevented an Ottawa goal from going in, and gave Anaheim even more confidence.
Good timing- Andy McDonald, normally a playmaker, picked a good time to let his goal-scoring skills explode. He led the Ducks with 10 goals, including 5 in the Finals.
No nastiness- Maybe it was a premonition thing, but nobody on either team truly showed any nastiness. Not even Brad May or Chris Neil. Christoph Schubert took a useless elbowing penalty on Beauchemin, but it didn't appear to be an attempt to injure. There were still the usual big hits, but not as many.
Bad Day for shot blockers- Ottawa's best defensive defensemen, Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov each had a rough game. Phillips accidentally slipped the puck between Ray Emery's skates, which knocked it into their own net, and Volchenkov was either beat or deflected off of on several goals.
THE FOLLOWING PLAYERS, LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, WILL GET THEIR NAME ENGRAVED ON THE STANLEY CUP, BECAUSE THEY EITHER PLAYED 40+ REGULAR SEASON GAMES, OR PLAYED A GAME IN THE FINALS.
Francois Beauchemin, D
Joe DiPenta, D
Ryan Getzlaf, C
Jean-Sebastien Giguere, G
Kent Huskins, D
Ric Jackman, D
Chris Kunitz, LW
Todd Marchant, C
Brad May, LW
Andy McDonald, C
Travis Moen, LW
Scott Niedermayer, D, Conn Smythe Winner
Rob Niedermayer, C
Sean O'Donnell, D
Samuel Pahlsson, C
Dustin Penner, LW
Corey Perry, RW
Chris Pronger, D
Teemu Selanne, RW
Ryan Shannon, RW
Shawn Thornton, LW
All of those players and possibly more will also recieve a Stanley Cup ring. Teams can petition the NHL to put other names on the Cup as well. I expect that Anaheim will request Ilya Bryzgalov, the back-up goalie, and George Parros, and enforcer who played 34 games and 5 playoffs games not in the finals, to go on the Cup as well.
In other, very irrelevant news, the New York Islanders have bought out the final 4 years of Alexei Yashin's 10 year contract.
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