Stanley Cup Finals: One Team's Drought Will End

The Hockey News has a chance to get it right after all. Prior to the start of the 2009-10 season, they predicted the Flyers would win the Stanley Cup. That seemed absurd for most of this season, and even when the Flyers squeaked into the playoffs at the last possible moment, it still seemed far-fetched. When they fell behind Boston 3-0 in their series, forced a 7th game and fell behind 3-0 in that game, it again seemed impossible, until the historic comeback was completed.

Now, after taking out the Montreal Canadiens in 5 games to win the Eastern Conference championship, the Flyers will take on the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals starting Saturday night in Chicago. The Blackhawks went 52-22-8 during the regular season, one point behind San Jose for best record in the West. They swept the Sharks in the Western finals after previously beating Nashville and Vancouver in 6 games each. For what it's worth, the Flyers beat the Blackhawks 3-2 on March 13 in the teams' only meeting this year.

The Blackhawks are obviously a dangerous team, and will undoubtedly be the favorites to win the Cup. Whether they feel that pressure remains to be seen. While the Flyers' last finals appearance was in 1997 and their last Cup was won in 1975, the Blackhawks haven't gotten this far since 1992 and haven't won the Cup since 1961 -- so long ago that even I wasn't born yet. So one city's hockey fans are going to finally celebrate.

Hopefully, whichever team wins, the Comcast Sportsnet affiliate will be more careful with its live coverage than CSN Philly was tonight. No, I take that back. I love when this stuff happens.