One way or another, an entire generation of loyal hockey fans is going to experience its first Stanley Cup victory this spring.
If Chicago wins, it'll be a celebration for the TWO generations of Blackhawks fans who've grown up since the Hawks last hoisted hockey's sacred chalice in 1961.
That was the same year the Berlin Wall was BUILT, and two years before anyone besides their friends and families had ever heard of the Beatles.
The last time Philadelphia won the Cup was in 1975, when bellbottoms were fashionable, people actually wrote longhand and mailed letters to each other, and the few mobile phones that were in use were the size of milk cartons.
As the Original Six team with the longest championship drought, the Blackhawks are strong sentimental favorites.
No one with any sense of fair play wants to see a storied franchise and its supporters suffer unduly, unless it's the Leafs, but they just bring it on themselves with the help of an insufferable fan base and the Toronto-centric national media.
Can't begrudge Philadelphia
There's no love lost for the Flyers at the local level after their beatdown of the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference final, and Philadelphia fans are even more obnoxious than Leaf Nation.
You don't have to cheer for Philly, but considering that the Canadiens have won SIX Stanley Cups since the last time the Flyers tasted champagne, it would take a level of malice I'm incapable of mustering to begrudge them their first victory parade in 35 years.
If you still haven't grasped the enormity of the gap between championships for the two teams in this year's Stanley Cup final, let me put it to you this way: I was in diapers the last time Chicago won, and in Grade 10 for the Flyers' most recent championship.
Coincidentally, I was also in Grade 10 the following year when the Canadiens won the Cup.
Fortunately, I was no longer in diapers.
