Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks, who won the Stanley Cup with an 4-3 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers last night.

I was pulling for the Flyers, of course, but I could see the writing on the wall in Game 4, when Chicago coach Joe Quenneville shuffled his lines and the Hawks scored twice in the 3rd period to make a blowout uncomfortably close.  Despite their gritty play, Philadelphia was clearly outmatched in Games 5 and 6. 

And congratulations to the Flyers as well.  They made the playoffs only in the final game of the season (and on a shootout, no less) but went on to defeat New Jersey and Boston (both to my great delight) before putting down Montreal to go to the finals.

This is Chicago’s first Cup since 1961.  Now the longest wait for a Cup belongs to Toronto (since 1967), Los Angeles and St. Louis (none since joining the league in 1967), Buffalo and Vancouver (none since joining in 1970) and Boston (since 1972).