When Gordon Bombay's Career Ended Thanks to Wolf Stansson, the NHL Really Went Up In Flames...Sorry Gary Roberts

Last night, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Detroit Red Wings to advance to play the Ottawa Senators in the Stanley Cup Finals. Detroit, arguably the most historic franchise in NHL history was seemingly over-matched by a team with Teemu Selanne, Chris Pronger and the rest...mainly guys I've never heard of.

In 1992, Walt Disney Corporation, present owners of ESPN, put out a movie about a former great pee-wee hockey player turned lawyer, turned community service hour-needing hockey coach and the team he inspired to win a championship. Of course, we all know this movie as "The Mighty Ducks." The commercial success of the, if you grew up at the right time classic movie was universal launching the career of Dawson Creek's very own Joshua Jackson (what's he doing these days since "The Skulls") and bring Emilio Estevez back onto the scene which was dominated by his brother thanks to "Hot Shots." When D2: The Mighty Ducks came out, there were plans to bring a new NHL expansion team, the Might Ducks of Anaheim to play in the Arrowhead Pond which can be seen in D2. Since then, it's been all downhill for hockey.

In 1994 the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup lead by Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Brian Leetch, and Mike Richter. These guys, we associate with the Rangers, one of the oldest teams in hockey, alongside the Bruins, Blackhawks, Canadians, etc. In the past few years, champions from Carolina, Tampa Bay, along with solid play from teams from Florida, and Nashville have hindered the classic teams from making their engravings on Lord Stanley's Cup. And this year we have the Anaheim Ducks playing for their second run at the title.

This leads me to believe that the Ducks have brought forth the downfall of the NHL. Hockey is a blue-collar game and anyone who plays it will be the first to tell you that. These non-hockey market teams who are trying to commercialize the sport onto people who really don't care if it isn't golf, are taking away from a game that is played more on passion than any other game. The other problem that I see is a lack of a franchise player. Those two Ducks I previously mentioned will always be players of the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues to me, and to most everyone else as well. This we can blame on Wayne Gretzky leaving Edmonton for...LA but we won't go there.

Unfortunately, it's going to be tough for hockey to be saved. It's really sad too...but there is nothing we can do about. The days of classic hockey between the Flyers and Bruins matter not by today's standards. And you want to talk about players changing teams and how it effects them? You think the Ducks would have beaten the Hawks without Adam Banks? I don't think so.

You don't want to faceoff against Jessie Hall