Free Stanley

Over at FreeStanley.com they are very big on turning the Stanley Cup back into a challenge cup. The premise is basically that the cup should be awarded no matter what, even if there is no NHL season. I have several problems with this idea, first of which is that wankers like me, the plumber down the street, and the investment banker around the corner don't deserve the Stanley Cup. To have a group of average joes win the cup ruins the wonder of The Cup. My second problem with this whole 'free stanley' campaign is that it strikes me as a tad hypocritical. The Stanley Cup has not been a challenge cup (meaning anyone could compete for it) since 1926 and to suddenly now say we should respect Lord Stanley's original design after almost 80 years seems, as I mentioned, hypocritical. As a note, it was only a challenge cup for 33 years...

Govenor General

The Honourable Adrian Clarkson has now decided that she will enter her two cents into the fight over the Stanley Cup. Does anyone else think this is a little opportunistic, or just coincidence perhaps? The Governor General is in the news for kicking a student out of Rideau Hall for asking a stupid question that didn't even make sense, now she makes a rather large proclmation about the Stanley Cup. .. trying to extend her 15 minutes?? Clarkson thinks that the professional woman's league should be awarded the Stanley Cup. Now without coming off as a GIANT sexist, how do I phrase this... it's a stupid idea. Assuming I accept the original premise that The Cup should be awarded (which I don't) why would I then limit it to a small group of women (a small group in general), why not award it to the New Brunswick AAA Midget Boys teams. Thankfully the president of the women's league said no thanks, but would love for Clarkson to lend her name to the cup they already have. THIS is a perfect idea that Clarkson better jump all over, if she really wants the spirit of Lord Stanley to live on, how better to do that then start a new cup for women in his image.

The Final Solution

The only way I personally would accept the cup being awarded to someone outside the grasp of the NHL
would be if it was all handled by Hockey Canada. And the best way for Hockey Canada to handle
it would be as a provincial cup. Every province gets a team, hopefully drawing on a large amount of NHL players. Gord and I threw together some rosters:

External Version

	Ontario	Quebec	The Plains	Alberta	British Columbia	Maritimes / Territories
Coach
1	Pat Quinn	Jacques Demere	Wayne Flemming	Ken Hitchcock
Goalies
1	Marty Turco	Martin Brodeur	Ed Belfour	Chris Osgood	Jason LaBarbera	Pokey Wade Reddick
2	Andrew Raycoft	Roberto Luongo	Trevor Kidd	Alex Auld	Wade Dubielewicz	Shawn Kenneth MacKenzie
3	Manny Legace	Jose Theodore	Corey Schwab	Jamie McLennan	Matt Underhill	Wendell Young
Forwards
1	Joe Thornton	Vincent LeCavalier	Theo Fleury	Daymond Langkow	Joe Sakic	Brad Richards (PEI)
2	Joe Nieuwendyk	Daniel Briere	Patrick Marleau	Ryan Smyth (RW)	Brendan Morrison	Jason King (NF)
3	Kris Draper	Patrice Bergeron	Jarret Stoll	Ray Whitney (LW)	Steve Yzerman	Geoff Sanderson (NWT) (LW)
4	Keith Primeau	Alex Tanguay	Brendan Morrow (LW)	Jarome Iginla (RW)	Shawn Horcoff	Daniel Cleary (NF) (LW/RW)
5	Todd Bertuzzi (RW)	Martin St. Louis (RW)	Mike LeClerc	Shane Doan (RW)	Rob Niedermayer	Michael Ryder (NF) (Any)
6	Kirk Maltby (LW/RW)	Mario Lemieux ©	Jeff Friesen	Dany Heatley (RW)	Paul Kariya (LW)	Glen Murray (NS) (RW)
7	Rick Nash (LW)	Vincent Damphousse	Scott Hartnall	Kyle Calder	Mark Recchi (RW)	Sydney Crosby
8	Brendan Shanahan (LW/RW)	Simon Gagne	Chris Kunitz	Darcy Tucker	Garrett Burnett	Craig MacDonald
9	Marc Savard	Yanic Perreault	J.P. Vigier	Dean McAmmond	Brad Larsen	Eric Boulton
10	Jonathon Cheechoo	Scott Mellanby	Curtis Brown	Trent Hunter	Chuck Kobasew	Jordan Tootoo
11	Steve Rucchin	Luc Robitaille	Darcy Hordichuk	Mike Comrie	Darren McCarty	Steve Ott
12	Michael Peca	J.P. Dumont	Peter Schaefer	Mark Messier	Jamie Lundmark	Darren Langdon
13	Jason Allison	Mike Ribeiro	Owen Fussey	Joffrey Lupal	Turner Stevenson	Harold Druken
14	Gary Roberts	Martin Lapointe	Arron Asham	Steven Reinprecht	Ray Ferraro	David Ling
15	Alyn McCauley	Matthew Lombardi	Jim McKenzie	Stu Barnes	Dallas Drake	Don MacLean
16	Matt Cooke	Eric Daze	Reed Low	Jared Aulin	Adam Deadmarsh	Jason MacDonald
Defence
1	Chris Pronger	Patrice Brisebois	Wade Redden	Scott Niedermayer	Eric Brewer	Brad Brown
2	Bryan McCabe	Marc-Andre Bergeron	Kyle McLaren	Brent Sopel	Scott Hannan	Don Sweeney
3	Rob Blake	Phillipe Boucher	Robyn Regehr	Brad Stuart	Barret Jackman	Colin White
4	Adrian Aucoin	Denis Gauthier	Corey Sarich	Sheldon Souray	Steve Montador	Al McInnis
5	Dan Boyle	Mathieu Dandenault	Rhett Warrener	Derek Morris	Jason Marshall	Randy Jones
6	Sean O'Donnel	Mathieu Biron	Wade Belak	Chris Phillips	Shaone Morrisonn	Derrick Walser
7	Adam Foote	Eric Dejardine	James Patrick	Daryl Sydor	Brad Lukowich	Dennis Kevin Bonvie
8	Ed Jovanovski	Karl Dykhuis	Brendan Witt	Jay Bouwmeester	Willie Mitchell	Aaron Johnson