Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Why I will not be rooting for any team in the West

Cheering for an eastern conference team, leaves you with a lack of knowledge about what is going on out in the western conference. However come playoff time you have to pick a few teams to root from on the other side of the country.

After watching his team get eliminated in seven games after earning three shutouts in the series, I got over the whole no-goal thing, and started rooting for Marty Turco and the Dallas Stars. Given how much they rely on their goaltending they had a decent postseason this year. And then this offseason they sign free agent Sean Avery. It's already hard enough to root for a hockey team in Texas, and with Avery now in the equation I don't think I can do it.

So out west I then have to turn my attention to the Calgary Flames. The Flames have Jerome Iginla as a captain, who is probably the best and most classy player in the league. Given that Kiprusoff and Phaneuf are both likable enough, and being in Canada, the city has no below the frost line reasons to dislike it. Then what does my beloved western conference team do? They sign Todd Bertuzzi. I'll still have a problem rooting against Iginla, but this isn't going to have me rooting for the Flames this season. Even without the whole Moore incident there are plenty of reasons to not like Bertuzzi. It's sad to see a class organization like Calgary go down like this.

Next thing you know the Chicago Blackhawks will be trading hard working Buffalo boy Kevyn Adams to Ottawa in exchange for Chris Neil. Then I really would have no use for any team not in the East.

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