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George Lucas' "Howard the Duck," the one Chrissie Hynde sang about, floundered miserably. In fact, it was the worst Jar-Jar-less movie of his career. The old "Mighty Ducks" had one great year, but generally floundered pretty miserably themselves. This year, no longer "mighty" in name, the Ducks proved to be mightiest of all, by fending off the advances of the Senators like homophobic Pages to win the Stanley Cup.
The Ducks are now owned by UCLA Grad (and Bruin Professor) Henry Samueli, the founder of Broadcom. Samueli's first move was to remove the cartoonish "Mighty" from the team's name, and that's all it took. The Ducks took the Series 4-1, icing it with a convincing 6-2 Game 5 triumph. Goaltender J.S. Giguere, who won the Finals MVP Award in 2003, was phenomenal in the four victories this year, but he didn't need to do that much in the deciding game, as the Ducks controlled the action throughout.
This year's MVP was Scott Niedermayer, who won his 4th Title. Hockey's not for sissies, but some macho hockey fans were teary-eyed after the game when Niedermayer handed off the revered Stanley Cup to his teammate, and brother, Rob Niedermayer, who had never before won a Cup.
Also winning for the first time was Chris Pronger, who survived two suspensions in the last two Series to get his name inscribed on the legendary hockey hardware.
It was also the first Grand Salami for Teemu Selanne, who led the team in scoring during the season. Selanne was in tears as the Ducks celebrated their first Title in their 14-year existence.
Over three-quarters of a Century ago, some old team in the far West of Canada won, but the Ducks are the first NHL Champions from California, or anywhere on the U.S. West Coast. Speaking of Canada, it's now been 14 years since a team from Canada has captured the Cup. It must kill the Montreal faithful to have seen Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Anaheim win the last three Cups. There are probably a few Los Angeles Kings fans who aren't too thrilled about the Anaheim Title either -- The Kings have been around almost four times longer, without yet getting to savor the prestigious silver statue.
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