Congratulations Edmonton Oilers

Last night the Oilers clinched the Western Conference championship to secure their first appearnce in the Stanley Cup since 1990 (also the last one they won ending their era of dominance). Pretty amazing hockey from a team going into the playoffs as the #8 seed in the West and defeating the #1 Detroit Red Wings, #5 San José Sharks and finally the #6 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. 
 
As awesome as their victories were, they were by no means miraculous thanks to the salary cap. For years Edmonton had been bled for talent because it was one of the NHL’s smallest markets. Sure the fans have packed the rink since 1979 when The Great One arrived but the Canadian dollar has never had parity to the US dollar and all players are paid in US currency. Before the lock out, it didn’t matter if they sold out all 41 home games, great talent such as Doug Weight, Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie became unaffordable. Off they were shipped to teams with deeper pockets while the Oilers faded off into the fringes of the Northwest Division. Now with the new CBA, the financial playing field was levelled so the Oilers acquired Chris Pronger, Michael Peca and Sergei Samsonov; all great, struggling players wasting away on teams with more money than will to win. 
 
The only negative side to the Oilers’ success is the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman. He’ll blather on and take credit for his adamant stance on bringing in the salary cap in the current CBA; now that all 30 teams have the same ceiling, they have to spread out the talent, with the talent spread out evenly, it’ll be more exciting as this season and playoff series demonstrated. My fellow hockey fans and myself never doubted that. His unreasonable stance with former NHLPA leader Bob Goodenow destroying the 2004-05 season is where I take issue with him. The players were actually willing to accept pay cuts and a salary cap (with the ceiling being a few million dollars more). Yet this jackass wouldn’t budge since he was in lockstep with eight inept, greedy owners who treat their teams as tax write-offs. At least the NHLPA members “fired” Goodenow for his failure. Bettman should’ve suffered the same fate to regain the fans’ trust. 
 
Too late now and I don’t want to sour the Oilers’ somewhat surprising victory. In honor of their title and to show who I’m rooting for in the Cup, June’s colors for Picayune will be the Oilers’ uniform colors but the 1979-1995 scheme. Maybe when Chris Pronger hoists the cup, he can clock Bettman with it in his smug jaw.