By STEVE KRAUSE
Idle chatter while dreading the prospect of teams about whom I do not necessarily care making the Stanley Cup final.
— I’ve had a long-established tradition of rooting for the oldest team in the NHL playoffs. In recent years, we’ve had the great fortune of an Original Six renaissance, with dominance by both the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. This year we had three — Detroit, Chicago and the New York Rangers — and none of them were factors.
To me, this is a little bit like the understudies taking the stage for the most crucial show of the season. There has to be some experience up there to keep everybody else in line.
Absent any of the Original Six (which also includes the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and the Bruins), the six expansion teams of 1967 will do. Of the four teams left, two of them were established when the league doubled in size to take advantage of the Bobby Orr phenomenon.
Of the two, the St. Louis Blues have never won the Stanley Cup, while the Pittsburgh Penguins have won three.
I sympathize with teams like the Blues, probably because the Red Sox didn’t win their first World Series until I was 51 years old, and the Bruins went 39 years between Stanley Cups. So it doesn’t thrill me that the San Jose Sharks lead that series. As for the Penguins, all I can say is it’s a shame Phil Kessel cannot play, at least if Claude Julien is to be believed.
I mean, he only has seven goals and 16 points in 14 games. But nah, he can’t play.
— It’ll sure be fun watching Steph Curry and Kevin Durant beat each others brains in for the next week or so. That series should go at least six games, with the Warriors surviving.
The only problem is that then the Warriors will have to face the Cleveland Cavaliers and a very motivated LeBron James. King James is obviously unimpressed with Curry’s unanimous MVP. And he undoubtedly hasn’t forgotten that last year he beat the Warriors all by himself twice before they woke up and won the NBA Finals.
Curry’s a nice player. And he may be the best shooter the game has ever seen. But LeBron is still a better player, and he’ll prove it next month when the Cavs win the NBA title and finally bring some relief to the beleaguered city of Cleveland.
— And speaking of which, ESPN’s 30-on-30 installment, “Believeland” is another in a long line of absolutely brilliant documentaries the network has produced. It chronicles all the heartbreak the city of Cleveland has endured since 1964, when Jim Brown and the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship. It talks about “The Drive,” when John Elway led the Broncos 98 yards downfield in a game the Browns had all-but won. Denver tied the game to force overtime, and won on a field goal. The following year, the Browns were going in for tying score when Ernest Byner fumbled.
It dredges up tales of woe such as the Browns getting into a dispute with the city and pulling out, and LeBron’s South Beach announcement. You come away from it thinking that as frustrating as the Red Sox were all these years, we definitely had our fun in Boston, especially when you compare it to Cleveland.
It makes you sad, though, that when it’s not airing these marvelously original and nuanced documentaries, it’s allowing rodeo clowns like Stephen A. Smith an unlimited forum.
— Put me down as skeptical about the Red Sox. Hitting comes and goes. And when it goes, you’d better have pitching. Right now, that’s an iffy situation, even with guys like Steven Wright and Rick Porcello performing above and beyond expectations. That’s because of Clay Buchholz, who brings that staff down like a swimmer who’s just eaten a dozen doughnuts.
— Has anyone, especially Roger Goodell, ever given thought to the fact that the Patriots knew exactly what they had to do, within legal parameters, to ensure that the footballs they used met Tom Brady’s finicky preferences? Could the Patriots possibly have been ahead of the NFL on the whole science of it? Did they calculate the Ideal Gas Law down to the closest PSI decimal point and inflate the footballs in such a way as to guarantee they’d lose air pressure the minute they hit cold weather? Could this whole thing possibly have been even more Byzantine than anyone suspects, but done in a way that broke no rules?
I’m beginning to think that’s more than a little plausible. And this is coming from someone who was convinced they were as guilty as sin 18 months ago. It just doesn’t seem possible that Brady, if he was even a little guilty, would be sticking to his guns the way he is.