June 15, 2006
The Coveted Cup
I’ve been a lifelong hockey fan. My favorite team as a kid was the Toronto Maple Leafs and I idolized players like Dave Keon, Eddie Shack, Tim Horton (yes, the coffee franchise king), Ron Ellis and Frank Mahovlich, who wound up living 3 doors down from us on Gladstone Avenue in Windsor when he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings. One of my brightest childhood memories was going for walks with one of my hereos, “the Big M”, Frank Mahovlich, one time accompanied by his also-famous NHLer brother, Pete.
I guess my love of the game began when I accompanied my dad to some Red Wing games when he took the mother of his friend, New York Ranger defenseman Johnny Wilson, to the old Olympia Arena to watch those two ‘original six’ teams battle it out. I vividly recall being afraid of the too-steep steps in that old barn. A few years later, Johnny was coaching his rival Motor City team.
Road hockey was the game of choice in my neighborhood and the black-and-white Hockey Night in Canada telecasts were a fixture in our home on Saturday nights. Although broadcast now in high-definition, it still remains one in my home today. Now, of course, the National Hockey League has expanded to 30 teams with only a handful remaining in it’s birthplace of Canada, and includes players from all over the world. They compete each year, 80 some bone-crunching regular season games in all, for the coveted Lord Stanley Cup.
The last 2 games of the season remain to be played. The final round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers, who beat out my now favorite, and top-seeded Red Wings team this year in the first round, against the more talent-rich Carolina Hurricanes. Last night the Oils faced elimination, down three games to one in the best-of-seven series. Of the 27 times a team has been down 3-1 in the history of the playoff finals, only one team has ever come back to win the cup. With those odds entrenched in each players mind, they played their passionate best and came out the victors early in the first overtime period! Not a smidgeon of doubt in any of their minds that they can’t win the next 2 games - and the cup!
This is the stuff of true grit. And determination. And belief. And all out, nothing-held-back effort. How we should all live our lives.
I’m rooting for the Oilers (afterall, I’m a Canuck and now live in the birthplace of the most famous Oiler of all, Wayne Gretzsky:-) but whoever wins the Coveted Cup the players on both teams are, without reservation, true Winners!
With that thought in mind I’d like to share a powerful quotation on the subject of Winning from speaker, author and motivator Les Brown:
“There are winners, there are losers and there are people who have not yet learned how to win.”
Go Oilers!
Rick
Filed under: General Ramblings, Notable and Quotable
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