First off, they weren’t the team I was pulling for but congrats anyway to the Anaheim Ducks and their Stanley Cup win which was watched last night by a total of 37 people. This year’s Cup Finals had such low ratings, that it lost out to “Build A Better Burger” on the Food Network. Great job Gary Bettman.

I’d also like to express my deep gratitude in the decision before the season to change the team name from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to the Anaheim Ducks. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim just did not belong anywhere on Lord Stanley’s Cup. That’s a fact. Anaheim Ducks I can live with.

But with the Ducks’ win last night, an interesting pattern has emerged, allowing me right here and now to declare that the winner of the 2007-08 Stanley Cup will in fact be….

Not quite yet, first you actually have to read the boring stuff about how I came up with my theory. See, I took a look at the winners and runners up of the Stanley Cup in the 2000’s as well as their head coaches. 3 of the last 4 Stanley Cups have been won by the runners up of the 00-01, 01-02, and 02-03 cups. Not only that, they’ve done it with different head coaches from their previous finals appearance as the bridesmaid.

If the pattern follows, then the Calgary Flames will win the 2007-08 Stanley Cup under the direction of coach Jim Playfair, who is not the coach who guided them to their second-place finish in 2003-04 (that was Darryl Suter).

Looks good enough for me to go ahead and make my prediction a full year ahead of time: Flames in ‘08!