Old Stanley Cup prefers warm sunny South

Who can blame it? Born in 1883 as a trinket of Queen Victoria's Canadian plenipotentiary, it has the scars and hard living that 130 years have given it. The NHL playoffs begin this week and the purists will tell you that the Cup belongs in Canada or Chicago or Detroit. But after last year's upset by the LA Kings you have to believe it's happy elsewhere. There was a snarky diatribe in the NY Times this weekend that the NHL Southeast division had the worst winning percentage in the four major North American pro sports leagues. But in this 6 column diatribe there is a single sentence that says, 'the Southeast did win two Stanley Cups—Tampa Bay in 2004 and Carolina in 2006. And how many do the Canucks have, Buffalo, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minnesota, anyone? Anyone? I think I've made my point. As for the NY Rangers what do they have...one Cup in 74 years...the Islanders won 4 in a row but that was decades ago. Meanwhile you have Anaheim, Dallas, LA, Tampa and Carolina hoisting the Cup. By the way my wife's name is engraved on it from 2006 (you can look it up) P.LaViolette (Peggy LaViolette using her maiden name). The Cup is a hefty 35 lbs. It stays in shape by removing the oldest band of the barrel and attaching the latest. You won't see the Seattle Metropolitans, the first US team to win it or the Victoria Cougars or the Vancouver Millionaires (although the Canucks did wear the Millionaires uniform this year to see if some luck would rub off.) Sipping champagne from the Cup is an annual tradition for the winners. But of late there have been Margaritas to imbibe and heaven forbid, even Mint Juleps!