Better luck next year
I’m cheering for the Devils and I don’t even like them
Autumn McDowell
Contributor
What the Puck?
If someone had told me three months ago that the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils would be facing off in the Stanley Cup final I would have punched them in the face and told them that they know absolutely nothing about hockey.
Fast forward three months, and that disgusting matchup between two sub-par teams is actually happening. To make matters worse, as a result of this highly unlikely final, I have also lost four straight bets and am on my way to losing a fifth.
This may be obvious by looking at my current betting record, but the playoffs went absolutely nothing like I had planned. My beloved Pittsburgh Penguins lost out in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers in a series that could only be described as incredible – minus the ending.
With my number one squad left in the dust I still had a few solid teams to fall back on. However, LA was nowhere near the final slot in my playoff bracket. I mean, who could have predicted that LA would go 16-2 in their first 18 playoff games and would knock off the top two teams with ease? I sure as hell didn’t.
It doesn’t matter to me so much that LA is in the final, or that I lost numerous bets and now subsequently owe several people various things from money to performing embarrassing acts – that stuff I can deal with. What I cannot, and refuse to, deal with is the uncanny amount of individuals who have jumped on the LA bandwagon and now claim that they have been hardcore fans for years. That’s just a lie.
These are the same people who still have the tags hanging off of their newly purchased Jonathan Quick jerseys and still think that Ryan Smyth is their captain.
With all of the commotion surrounding the LA momentum swing, it’s almost as if people have already handed them Lord Stanley and have completely discounted their opponents, the New Jersey Devils.
“I can’t deal with is the uncanny amount of individuals who have jumped on the LA bandwagon.”
This may be because many people have been blinded by the excitement of LA’s underdog story; however, the most likely reason of all is that, plain and simple, no one likes the Devils. People may be partial to Zach Parise or Ilya Kovalchuk or even Martin Brodeur –though personally I can’t stand him – but very rarely do you hear someone say that they love the Devils.
My most recent bet has forced me to cheer for and indeed love the Devils purely because my counterpart called dibs on LA before I could.
The fact that I have to cheer for the Devils during this time of the year really makes me sick inside. If New Jersey somehow ended up winning I wouldn’t even be happy, I wouldn’t revel in my success of finally winning a bet, I would be disgusted at the fact that the words “Stanley Cup champions” and “New Jersey Devils” would be used in the same sentence for one entire, hellish year.
Thankfully, the Devils currently trail in the final series and look to be on their way to losing the cup, in fact I think I just heard someone yell, “start the bus.” This is one bet I will be happy to lose.
