Congratulations, Spokane Chiefs

...and condolences to the Kitchener Rangers, who put forth a valiant effort today but lost the Memorial Cup championship game, 4-1.
The score is not indicative of the play. But for a couple of costly defensive breakdowns in the second period--and a Spokane brick wall by the name of Dustin Tokarski--Kitchener could, and arguably should, have won the game. Tokarski stopped 53 of 54 shots, and many of them were close-in chances.
I hadn't paid any attention to the Rangers since I got here in 1990. Even when they won the Memorial Cup in 2003, I barely batted an eye. Kids, I thought. Not NHL-calibre hockey. Not even AHL calibre. Who gives a flying puck?
Some of my colleagues at work have season tickets, and have been raving about the Rangers all year. One of them in particular, who lives and breathes hockey at all levels, has been cajoling me to get out to a game or at least watch one on TV. "You'll be surprised," he said.
Well, we tried to get tickets. In January we tried. They had one game available in March, standing room only. Holy crap, I thought. I knew this city was something of a hockey hotbed, but that's ridiculous. As for watching the team on television, that's easier said than done. I've got a satellite dish and thus can't even haul in the local CTV affiliate, much less the local cable channel that airs all the Rangers games. A few of them are on Rogers Sportsnet, which I do have, but invariably I end up having to work those nights.
So, as it turned out, the first time I ever got to see my local OHL team play was this past Friday night, when they shellacked the Belleville Bulls 9-0. Watching 'your team' steamroller another is supposed to be fun--and it was--but it's not conducive to a critical analysis of their skill level. Are they really this good, or is Belleville that bad? Even so, I saw some goals scored that NHLers would be proud of, and some set plays that impressed the hell out of me. The top line of Justin Azevedo, Matt Halischuk and Nick Spaling accounted for 15 points between them, buzzing all over the ice.
From what I'd heard, today's game would be a different bucket of pucks entirely.
And it was. In many ways, I thought the Memorial Cup championship combatants were a mirror of this year's Stanley Cup finalists in terms of style of play. Kitchener plays Pittsburgh's all offense, all the time style. Spokane, it was clear early, plays Detroit's smothering defensive/lightning transition game, backed by a phenomenal goalie. Both teams are expertly coached and the players have all 'bought in' to their respective systems.
Many of the players on the ice today will be suiting up for an NHL team in the not-too-distant future; indeed, there's a good chance Mikael Boeddker of the Rangers could be drafted in the seven-spot next month and end up a Maple Leaf. They'll join a stellar lineup of ex-Rangers who went on to stardom in the pros, including such luminaries as Paul Coffey, Larry Robinson, Scott Stevens, Bill Barber, and Al McInnis.

It shames me that I haven't been paying attention to this team. It's a function, I think, of my gotta-change attitude to ignore or put down anything local.
It's not that I hate this city, not at all. Waterloo, especially, is a great place to live. We're in Canada's Tech Triangle, and we were voted the world's most intelligent community last year. Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry and Canada's most prosperous company, has its headquarters about an eight minute walk from my house.
That said, this place is occasionally (okay, more than occasionally) a little full of itself. The local paper is unrelentingly local: if it happened outside the immediate region, no matter what "it" was, it probably won't make the top of the front page. (God help me, I once saw "Potbelly Pigs Make Perfect Pets" on page A1, above the fold. This is a city, by the way, of over half a million people.)
Well, actually, there are three cities here, but if you didn't live here and you took down the signs, you'd only spot one. Despite that, we have three city councils (plus a regional council), three separate library systems, three fire departments, three of this and three of that and how "intelligent" is that, exactly?

Well, it's where I live and you think by now I'd be used to it.

Anyway, I will start paying more attention to the Rangers, and hopefully get to a game next season.