There is Joy in Mudville...

...and I'm watching from home. At this point the game is over, I'm just watching the joy. I'm not sure why the kind of "joy" that ensues after somebody wins a sports championship usually involves a car that will never move under its own power again.

I could have gone. I had my jersey, I had the camera. All I had to do was be the first one to tell the person with the left over ticket "I'd like to go", but for some reason I just couldn't do it. I wasn't sure why - I thought it might be too "tense". So a co-worker I'll just call "Matt" (because that's his name and I'm not protecting the innocent) took the ticket. "Matt" is such a good guy he re-offered me the ticket if I wanted to go, but I wouldn't have done that. He's a good guy to ask though. I gave him my camera, so maybe tomorrow I'll have pictures of actual hockey players instead of my nine-month-old. But this picture was necessary, I'll get to that in a minute.

So I watched the game at home, with my wife and three-year-old (who I will call my wife and three-year-old because I'm not sure I want to publish their real names and I'm too tired to come up with good rhymes), who absolutely would not go to sleep. Thankfully, the adorable guy pictured above did. Anyway, with about four minutes left in the game, it dawned on us that this was something the three-year-old should see. So he came out on the couch with us, watched the end of the game, and they won. As a Cubs fan, I wasn't sure I'd ever pull for a champion, so this was a big deal for me. My first thought, "I'm glad I didn't go, it might have been tense". But I didn't really feel bad for watching it on TV. I remembered my folks letting me stay up when the Cubs won the National League East Division in 1984 (by the next time the Cubs won a division, I was old enough to be drafted and could pretty much stay up if I wanted).

We had explained to three-year-old that if the "red guys" won, they got a big cup. They brought it out, skated it around, just like every other year (except last year), but this year my team won. Very exciting. Lots of high fives sitting on my couch. I threw in a video tape to get the post game hoopla - I didn't dare get one ready ahead of time.

I got three-year-old to bed, and couldn't wait to write this. I was excited to use my line about "Joy in Mudville" (read the description on the left, it says right there I'm a hack).

Somewhere around there it dawned on me, I watched the game exactly where I wanted to watch it, with exactly who I wanted to watch it with, I was just too stupid to realize it until half an hour after it was over. And there's a lesson in there, I'll try not to forget it.

So, the fat lady sang. And she sang "Carolina In My Mind". Or maybe it was "Tobacco Road". Or maybe that "C'mon C'mon C'mon, Let's Go Canes!" song.

Now - on to the funny stuff - theories why the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in seven games:

• See the picture above. This adorable, innocent, little guy wore this outfit all day without having to have it changed due to some sort of biological incident. What could be better?
• My friend who I will call "Barry" (because that rhymes with his real name) did not find himself face-to-face with a scary looking black cat while he urinated in the woods (well, I don't think he did, I honestly haven't talked to him)
• The Hurricanes "Played their game"
• The Hurricanes "Put the puck in the net"
• It had to go seven games so I could watch it at home with my family
• That empty net goal at the end pretty much sealed it
• I didn't put a tape in the VCR until the game was over
• Cam Ward stopped pretty much everything that came his way
• Erik Cole came back from a fractured vertebrae (this is a nice way of saying broken neck)
• My friend who I'll call "Dennis", because that is his name and I can't come up with anything that rhymes with it, grilled the good hot Italian sausage while tailgating. The hot Italian sausage is now 2-0 when it is game 7
• Peter Laviolette is some sort of hockey genius
• The home team has won game 7 the last 19 times there has been a game 7
• Glen Wesley - A guy who is so willing to lay down in front of a [fast] moving puck deserves to win eventually.
• We sang "O Canada" at the arena in Raleigh - this one probably isn't why the 'Canes won, they sang The Star Spangled Banner in Edmonton. But it is nice to see.

The Carolina Hurricanes are the 2006 Stanley Cup Champions!!!

As always, for actual intelligent hockey coverage, I recommend Ron Francis' Blog.