Stanley Cup finals 2010 Sharp faces former team
No matter what happens in the Stanley Cup finals this year a big hockey market looking to end a long championship drought will end up winning it all.
The Chicago Blackhawks carry the burden of the NHL’s longest championship drought and if they fail again this year it will be half a century since their last Stanley Cup. The Philadelphia Flyers too haven’t got the best record, failing to win since they won the Cup back-to-back in 1974 and 1975 - just the 35 years then for Philadelphia.
The great thing about a Blackhawks-Flyers final? Two quality teams with no championships in the last 35 years in crazy sports towns. It should be a wild ride.
Chicago will be favourites considering they are a powerhouse stacked with talent, but Philadelphia aren’t exactly a bad team - they were many peoples’ favourites to take the east in pre-season. So it should be an even series and it might just come down to whose keeper plays the best.
But consider this - if you think the Flyers are underdogs, after being 3-0 down to the Bruins in the semi-finals they’ve gone on to win eight out of nine games and that has to at least cause the Blackhawks some concern.
Just to spice things up Patrick Sharp, once of the Philadelphia Flyers, will be playing against his old team where he won a championship in the AHL with the Philadelphia Phantoms.
"There is enough incentive to win the series with the Cup on the line, but playing the Flyers brings up a whole different set of emotions," Sharp said on Wednesday after practice.
"I started there, and I have a lot of friends in that organisation and they treated me well. It's exciting playing against my former team, and hopefully we can beat them,” he added.
If that wasn’t enough Sharp won that championship playing alongside Flyers captain Mike Richards and forward Jeff Carter.
"It's about five years ago we won that championship, and I came here shortly after, and they started their careers in Philadelphia.
"It's kind of neat to see we've gotten to the same point now. They're two great players that are a huge part of the team over there. We'll have to do a great job in shutting them down, and hopefully we can win the big Cup," Sharp said
Sharp has 107 goals in the last four years and has 16 points in the play-offs this season and he might just make the difference in the series.
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