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June 10, 2004 When the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001, hockey fans in Boston went nuts. That’s because defenseman Raymond Bourque, a longtime Bruin recently feted with selection to the Hockey Hall of Fame, finally got to hoist one of the holiest grails in all of sport. And to show his thanks to Beantown, he brought the Cup with him for an enthusiastic victory celebration. Dave Andreychuk better get moving. He’s got a lot of ground to cover between now and October. Unlike Bourque, who spent the better part of his twenty-two seasons in Boston and left in his last year to chase the Cup, Andreychuk made several stops during his equally lengthy career. Ten full seasons in Buffalo, before heading to Toronto during his eleventh; three seasons in Maple Leaf blue before heading back to the States for over three seasons with New Jersey; a brief stopover with Bourque and the Bruins in Boston before heading out to Colorado during 1999-2000; a second tour of duty with the Sabres in 2000-01; and now three with Tampa Bay. Andreychuk played 1,759 games before being able to take his turn with Lord Stanley’s cup. It took twenty-two seasons of near-misses, injuries, trades, coaching changes, before he realized a dream that so many youngsters set out to accomplish. It’s all the more amazing considering that the team he won with is an expansion team based on Florida’s Gulf Coast, where ice only occurs when man makes it and is a long way from the frigid hockey hotbed that is Ontario. With a championship firmly in hand, it will only be a matter of time before Dave Andreychuk takes his place beside the other greats enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But before that happens, he needs to stop in on the good people in each town he played in, as a simple matter of thanks for all the years of support. And if he goes nowhere else, he definitely needs to make the trip to Buffalo. Between the Stars stealing a Stanley Cup from the Bruins in 1999 and the Bills losing four straight Super Bowls in the 90s, Buffalonians can finally embrace a champion, even if he does play way down south. ------------ About the author: An avid hockey fan, Claxton Graham hung his head yet again with his beloved Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He pays for the cable bringing hockey into his home by working as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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