Chicago Blackhawks: There is an easy team to root for in Stanley Cup

It is officially that time. The Stanley Cup Final will get underway tonight between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. It is a unique Final this year as two Eastern Conference teams are playing for Lord Stanley’s Cup due to the division realignment cause by COVID-19 protocol. The Chicago Blackhawks have been watching from home so you have to wonder who the fanbase should be rooting for.

It is certainly going to be fun to watch these two teams duke it out to end the 2020-21 season. The Tampa Bay Lightning played the regular season without Nikita Kucherov. They had him back for the playoffs which have really helped them get this far. They have used situations like that to manipulate the salary cap to their advantage. They are almost 20 million dollars over the cap in the playoffs where the cap goes away.

A lot of people in the hockey world are upset at the Lightning for being cap geniuses. However, nobody cared when the Hawks did the exact same thing in 2015 when they brought back Patrick Kane for the playoffs after being busy at the trade deadline in his absence. If teams don’t like it, they should collectively bargain a new rule next time the agreement is up.

The Chicago Blackhawks fans might have a rooting interest in the Stanley Cup Final.

With that said, it feels like a good idea for Blackhawks fans to root for the Montreal Canadiens. They haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993 and the Lightning won it in 2020. If they repeat, they could go on to win more and outdo the dynasty that the Hawks put together from 2010-2015.

The Habs are also just a really cool story right now. They backed into the playoffs because of some injuries and then they got healthy right in time. They also came back from being down 3-1 in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. It has been a fantastic story for them up to this point.

Montreal also has a player that the Hawks should be rooting for in this series. Stan Bowman traded away Phillip Danault to the Canadiens a few years ago in a very bad deal for his team. Now, Danault is one of the best two-way forwards in the league. If he continues to play well, it makes Bowman look worse which is good news for Blackhawks fans. As a fan of good hockey, it is nice to see him play this well.

Of course, everyone is entitled to root for whoever they want but there are some reasons to point to Montreal as the easy team to root for. The “underdog” feel combined with the dynasty stuff makes it feel right to root for them.