"Oh, come on, now," you're saying now. "It means no such thing and you know it."
OK, so it doesn't. What it means is, the Edmonton Oilers took Game 1 of the Final in overtime on the Oilers' home ice. And that's pretty much all it means.
After all, it'll take three more Ws for the Oilers to bring the Cup back to Canada for the first time in 32 years, and anyone who knows the difference between icing and icing on a birthday cake knows what a hill that is to climb in the Final. And no one is a better example of that than these very same Oilers.
Remember last year?
You should, because it was Edmonton vs. Florida just like this year, and the Panthers won in seven games. Like the Oilers last night, they also won Game 1 on their home ice. They also won Games 2 and 3. And then ...
Well. And then, one measly win away from Stanley, they couldn't close the deal.
Edmonton won Game 4 in Edmonton to stave off elimination. Then they went down to Florida and won Game 5. Then they came back to Edmonton and won Game 6.
By then, the Stanley Cup had earned more frequent flyer miles than George Clooney's rootless company hatchet man from "Up In The Air." Its handlers had flown it from Miami to Edmonton, then back to Miami, then back to Edmonton. And then they had to load it onto the plane after Game 6 to fly it back to Miami again.
That's a lot of free beverage service for one hallowed sports trophy.
It was also a lot of paging back through the history book to see if a team had ever gone down 3-0 in a Stanley Cup Final and came back to win. The answer was yes, but you had to go all the way back to 1942 to find it. The '42 Toronto Maple Leafs were the answer, beating the Detroit Red Wings in seven games after losing the first three.
They were the the only team in history ever to do that, and they're still the only team in history ever to do that. Because of course the Oilers lost Game 7 in Miami and the Panthers finally claimed the Cup.
That won't happen again now, unless the Oilers go up 3-0. Which they could, but probably won't. Unlike last year they have home-ice advantage this time around, but just like last year Florida still is the favorite. And if the Panthers win again, it will once again violate the sensibilities of hockey codgers like the Blob -- who think the Cup should never stray south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and when it does Lord Stanley and Eddie Shore and the rest of the celestial crowd become apoplectic.
So, please, Oilers. Get those three more wins, hard as it will be. Save Stanley from South Beach not just for Canada's sake, but for all our sakes.
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