MONDAY MUSINGS

• The Kings are challenging businesses and homes in Powell River to show their King fever. The team wants you to decorate your business or home in green & gold. More info on the team website here.
• Games 1 & 2 will have a tailgate party before hand. The festivities will be outside of the main entrance. Details haven't been finalized but stay tuned for more information. As it stands the tailgate BBQ will go at 6:30pm.
• If that isn't enough for you, there will be a beverage garden in the Arbutus room for both games one & two. The Wolf Brewery will have an area set up that will include a projector screen to show HNIC on Saturday. The garden will open up at 6pm and will be open between periods and will host the post-game show on 95-7 SUN FM. Join me as I will broadcast live to talk about the sixty minutes of hockey.
• Here's a great story on King alumnus Reid Campbell, who just won the NCAA Div-3 National Championship with the Green Knights of St. Norbert College. St. Norbert defeated Adrian College 4-3 in the the championship game. Full story
• Speaking of college hockey, they're down to the Frozen Four which goes April 7th-9th in St. Paul, Minnesota. 43 BCHL grads represented the 16 teams in the championship tournament, including four Kings. Adam Presizniuk, Daniel Carr and Kyle & Matt Bodie all suited up for the Union College Dutchmen. Unfortunately they lost their first round contest to Minnesota-Duluth 2-0, who are now in the Frozen Four, along with Michigan, Notre Dame and North Dakota. My money is on the Fighting Sioux taking the big prize.
• Can you tell me any other time in sports where two teams have met three consecutive years in a league final?

NHL:  Montreal won five consecutive Stanley Cups from 1956-1960 but not against the same opponent. They beat Detroit, Toronto (2) and Boston (2). The Habs from 1976-1979 won four straight Stanley Cups over Philadelphia, Boston (2) and the New York Rangers.

Islanders from 1980-83 beat four different teams for four consecutive Stanley Cups and most recently, Detroit & Pittsburgh split Stanley Cups between each other in '08 & '09.

NBA: The then Minnesota Lakers won three titles from 1952-54 and defeated three New York State teams. in '52 & '53 the Lakers beat the Knicks and in '54 they downed the Syracuse Nationals.

The Boston Celtics made a staggering nine straight NBA Finals from 1958-1966, only losing once in 1958 to the St.Louis Hawks. They never played a team more than two Finals in a row over that span. Even the Johnson-Bird rivalry only met two years in a row in a NBA Final. Same too for the Michael Jordan lead Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz. They met in back-to-back finals in '97 & '98.

MLB: It might be hard to believe but no two teams have met three consecutive years in the World Series. There are over a half dozen cases of teams meeting in back-to-back fall classics.

NFL: No team has ever won three straight Superbowl titles since the championship game was played starting in 1966. Like baseball, there are numerous cases of "dynasties" winning back-to-back Vince Lombardi trophies.

• Want to know something even more staggering? This isn't the first time two teams will be meeting for the third time in a  BC Junior "A" Final.

1. Between 1962-1964 the Kamloops Blazers beat the Kelowna Buckaroos for the Memorial Cup. That was the in the short lived Okanagan Mainland Junior "A" Hockey League.
2. The Nanaimo Clippers bested the Penticton Vees from 1976-1978 in the Centennial Cup. That run of three straight was during the days of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League. In 1990, the league would change it's name and logo (and again in 2000) to the current BCHL.

• The final four is starting to shape up in the race for the Doyle Cup. The Spruce Grove Saints will be defending their AJHL Enerflex Cup against either the Okotoks Oilers or Camrose Kodiaks. Spruce Grove swept Fort McMurray in the North Division final and game seven between the Oilers and Kodiaks goes tomorrow in Okotoks. Camrose has battled back from a 3-1 deficit to force game seven.