Cup Crazy

Pre-emptive warning: if you are not a hockey fan, there is no particular reason for you to read any of this. Except, obviously, the preceding sentence. And that one.

As I start writing this, we are 90 minutes away from the start of the Memorial Cup.

The three best teams in junior hockey - the Kitchener Rangers, Spokane Chiefs, and Gatineau Olympiques - are converging on Kitchener for the next week, to determine the true champion of ice hockey (only players 20 or under, not counting any in the NHL or Europe). The Belleville Bulls are also along to make it an even number.

I'm not even going to try predicting the outcome of the tournament. I am a Kitchener fan, and while they are my pick to win, I have no idea how much of that is because of blind loyalty. Moreover, I have zero familiarity with Spokane and Gatineau, so it's really comparing apples to oranges.

However, I will say this: the atmosphere will be electric. From what I've seen on TV, the Rangers have one of the most vocal fanbases in the league, and that will be ratcheted up a few thousand times with the stakes this high. I think this has something to do with us being the perfect small town/big city blend - our arena holds over six thousand fans, but as anyone who has ever been to a game can verify, everybody in attendance knows at least a dozen other people scattered throughout the arena.

The big question on the minds of the national media - and being pretty much ignored, as it should be, by the local media - is the status of Rangers coach Peter DeBoer, and whether he'll be jumping to the NHL after this season. DeBoer's answer is that he won't talk about it until after the Cup, which is exactly the answer he should be giving under any circumstances. The way I see it, the only way he'll stay in Kitchener is if he's guaranteed to be coaching the World Juniors team next year. Otherwise, he'll be heading to the NHL - probably Atlanta.

I'll be watching tonight's Kitchener/Gatineau game on TV, and I'll be at tomorrow's game between Belleville and Spokane (the only one I'm going to). After that, it's a crapshoot, but I'm hopefully going to be able to watch every Kitchener game.

As I finish writing this, we are 60 minutes away from the start of the Memorial Cup.

--Ryan