SoCal just quackers over Ducks victory?

Of course, congratulations to the Anaheim Ducks for wiping out the juggernaut that was the Ottawa Senators with an inspired 6-2 victory last night in Game 5 of the Finals in Anaheim.

I picked the Ducks to win the series, but didn't anticipate on Ottawa's end how undisciplined they'd play, or how passionless they'd skate at times when facing a deficit, or how dead the Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley line would be. That's not to denigrate the winners, who got all the little and big contributions from all the right players throughout the playoffs and this brief Stanley Cup series, but the fact that it ended in five games instead of going longer is more of an indictment of the Sens' play and state of mind than Anaheim's ability to stop the onslaught.

After watching the game and writing it for work last night, though, it didn't seem to me that Anaheim was really celebrating as loud and as long as other relatively new cities whose teams have won the Cup. The Ducks, Mighty or not, have played 13 seasons in the NHL, but have only seen five playoff years. Even Carolina, with its populace rooted deeply in basketball, baseball and NASCAR, blew its collective top when the Canes won last year only eight seasons removed from Hartford.

You'd think, even with the California cool and its proximity to Hollywood, that there'd at least be some high-profile people in the seats and cheering passionately. You'd think, with a city blessed to have seen a young Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne in his prime then reborn, a Conn Smythe winner on a losing team now a Cup winner, and some grizzled old vets who helped the Ducks to the Finals in 2003, that the place would go nuts.

Instead, Cuba Gooding, Jr. is the only star power carried by the club. Heck, the fans didn't even boo Commissioner Gary Bettman loud enough to be picked up on TV, something which has happened at every Stanley Cup presentation since 1994.

Even with the glitz and glamour painted on top of hazy Los Angeles, there was a buzz and more of a hockey tradition in the city since it was awarded a team in 1967, saw Gretzky come in 1988, then made the Finals in 1993. If you've ever been to Southern California, people will tell you there is a radical difference in attitude between LA and Orange
County - like having season or playoff tickets to a sporting event is an indicator of social status. There are supposedly nearly 2 million Canadian expatriates in the LA basin, and I guess most of them must root for the Kings.
It does make you wonder why Disney sold the team to the Samuelis when they did.

The best possible outcome for the Ducks' sudden success after the cancelled season, is that they continue to be a top-tiered club in the West for at least three or four more seasons. Butts in the seats are still the main indicator and bottom line of a franchise's imprint in its own community. Sure, the goal every year is to win the Cup, but with the financial structure and competitiveness of the NHL what it is, it's a lock the Ducks won't win next year, and maybe not the following season. I hope the fans of Orange County don't lose interest and stop showing up when it's either unfashionable to do so, or the Ducks happen to not make it to the Conference Finals like they have the past two years.