The NHL season is over with a bit of a collective sigh, since for the third straight season an American team from a traditionally non-hockey market has hoisted the Cup over a Canadian opponent. Given that I cheered for the Lightning and the Hurricanes over the Flames and Oilers respectively, I hardly maintain the hard line stance of wanting the Stanley Cup to go “where it belongs,” but this year some of my more strident reasons for choosing teams swung away from the American city, even if they didn’t necessarily swing toward the Canadian city. First, like Calgary and Edmonton before them, Anaheim defeated my Detroit Red Wings on the strength of spectacular goaltending and timely scoring. I’ve rarely been able to cheer for the team that downs the Wings, but this year in particular was rough. I genuinely believe that if the Wings had Schneider and Kronwall manning the blue line, they would have won the series. The Ducks had only one injury to speak of—Chris Kunitz’s bum hand—and received an astonishing amount of lucky bounces during the series (game four had two key trickle-in goals for the Ducks). Sour grapes? Sure, but the Ducks were dominated in several of their wins.

Second, if I don’t have any particular affinity for the teams involved, I usually go to which players I like the most. In 2004, the Lightning were led by Martin St.-Louis, one of my favorite players since back in his days at Vermont. In 2006, I enjoyed Erik Cole’s comeback from his frightening back injury. It also didn’t hurt that each of the opposing teams had one of my least favorite players: the Flames had spear-happy pest Ville Nieminen and the Oilers had mammoth cheater/crybaby Chris Pronger. Lo and behold, Pronger leaves Edmonton under a cloud of suspicion during the off-season to end up with the Ducks. While I don’t have much against many of the other Ducks players (except for goaltender-magnet Corey Perry, who got away with interference infractions that would have sent Tomas Holmstrom to a secret prison for a decade), the thought of Pronger pumping the Stanley Cup over his head was enough to make me vaguely side with the Ottawa Senators. My Canadian friends either followed Ottawa or banded together in national pride, which is usually something I’d enjoy cheering against, but pugilistic netminder Ray Emery is a more palatable evil than Pronger. Yet I could never find myself cheering for the Sens, only hoping they’d prevent a Ducks victory.

My overall malaise about the finals—hoping for a tight, entertaining series rather than cheering for one particular team—was certainly mirrored in how I watched the games. I caught parts of the first two games and game four on muted bar televisions, missing some key moments as they happened live but getting the overall tenor of the games. I saw all of game three and all but the final few minutes of game five, though. It shocked me how lifeless Ottawa could be in the first period of game five. Heatley and Spezza were completely absent and Emery proved that he’s not on the same level as most of the other playoff goalies, but the team as a whole seemed unfocused. If they had won the Cup with this level of effort, it would have been a damn shame.

I hand it to the Ducks—there’s no debate about who deserved to win the series—but it’s a bummer that the series is over with such consensus. Whereas the Flames could have easily won if the goal judge had been a bit more lenient and the Oilers could have won if Roloson hadn’t been hurt, the Senators were simply outclassed. I have to hope that next year provides my Sabres–Wings final.