The 2017 Stanley Cup Final may not feature teams that Dallas Stars fan necessarily want to win, but it has two players that Stars fans would likely love to see hoist the Cup.
Last night was the perfect night for hockey fans because it featured everything that hockey fans could ever want.
Game 7. The Conference Finals. A trip to the Stanley Cup on the line. A team on a surprise run (Ottawa Senators) facing off with the defending champs (Pittsburgh Penguins). That was a great enough storyline to follow leading up to the game, but the game itself was a whole new animal.
It was a back and forth affair. The Penguins scored first, only to be matched by the Senators 20 seconds later. The Pens tacked on one more late in the third, but the Sens jumped right back with a goal of their own. Then came the cherry on top that made the night perfect: overtime. And not just one session of it.
It wasn’t until 5:09 into the second overtime that Chris Kunitz finally ended it, sending Ottawa’s Stanley Cup dreams down the river and giving Pittsburgh a chance to spoil Nashville’s Cinderella story run while on their way to a second consecutive championship.
Pucks and Pitchforks
That probably didn’t settle well with a lot of Dallas Stars fans. It’s no secret that a majority of the NHL doesn’t like the Penguins, and there’s been a variety of stated reasons why. It basically boils down to that if you aren’t a Penguins fan, then you don’t like the Penguins. Stars fans are no different.
Most of the Stars’ Twittersphere was on the Ottawa bandwagon, either because they wanted to see what promised to be an enticing Sens-Preds Stanley Cup Final or they just wanted to see the Pens lose. But that didn’t happen, and here we are with a Nashville Predators-Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Final scheduled to start on Monday night in Pennsylvania.
Maybe that doesn’t settle well with you. Maybe you have a severe dislike of the Penguins but cannot bring yourself to cheering for the Predators due to their Central Division rivalry with the Stars.
You even might want both teams to magically find a way to lose. And that’s okay. This happens every once in a while (just be happy that the Final isn’t Chicago vs. Detroit).
But there is a reason to cheer during this year’s Final instead of simply being a monotone fan with no clear preference. If you find yourself struggling to root for either of the final two teams, have no fear; there’s one specific player on each side that you are probably inclined to holler for.
For the Predators, it’s forward Vernon Fiddler. For the Penguins, it’s defenseman Trevor Daley.
Both are long-time members of the Dallas Stars who just recently moved on to new beginnings over the past two seasons. Daley was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in a blockbuster deal that brought Patrick Sharp to Dallas in July 2015. Fiddler decided not to re-sign with the Stars last offseason and agreed to terms with the New Jersey Devils.
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Both have hopped around since departing from Dallas and now reside with their respective teams, a mere four wins from the Cup.
Fiddler played 366 games with the Stars, more than he has played with any other team, spanning from 2011-2016. The 37-year-old was a fan favorite and a dynamic member of the team. While skating primarily on the fourth line during his tenure in Dallas, he provided valuable depth scoring, putting 43 goals and 112 points up.
He was a solid penalty killer, a capable leader, and a gritty center. His energy and spark brought him a lot of fans in Dallas. When the Stars’ season ended in game seven of the Western Conference semifinals last year, it was clear that Fiddler, who was a pending UFA at the time, might never skate another game in Victory Green. At the end of the day, that might have stung more than anything.
But now he’s found his home in Nashville for the second time in his career and will have a chance to play for the first Stanley Cup of his career. Considering the kind of player he was in Dallas and the lasting impact he had on the franchise, it will be kind of difficult not to cheer for ole Fidds.
That is, unless, you want to cheer for Trevor Daley (though there’s no rule that you can’t cheer for both). Daley is a naturally grown Star. He was drafted by the team in 2002 and spent 11 years with the team, scoring 67 goals and tallying 231 points in 756 games. He was a tremendous leader on the blue line and was one of the Stars’ most consistent defenders over the later days of his career in Dallas.
Daley was on the Penguins last year when they won the Cup, but he did not play in the Final. That’s because he suffered an injury in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This year, however, he will finally get a chance to actually play in a Stanley Cup game.
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So maybe you can’t push yourself to realistically and openly cheer for either of the final two teams left standing in the NHL. That’s okay, because there are two former Dallas Stars who now have a chance to win the Cup. The best part is that one of them will for sure come away with it.