Canada Loses?

Sure, Canada loses all the time. At the Olympics, we lost every 4 years for 50 years. But did we lose last night?

I don't think so.

As a Canadian, should I be sad that Jean-Sebastien Giguire and Scott Niedermayer won the Stanley Cup instead of Daniel Alfredsson? That Anaheim's collection of Canadian, Americans and Europeans beat Ottawa's set of Europeans, Americans and Canadians? Hardly. Because no matter what the Canadian media and the Ottawa management wanted us to believe, Ottawa isn't and never was 'Canada's Team.' Canada's team plays at the Olympics, the World Juniors, the World Championships. And they don't have a cheap-shot Swedish guy as their captain and spiritual leader.

Just before the series, a cartoon appeared in a California newspaper. An Anaheim player stood facing a Senator. The Senator was backed by a huge, raucous Canadian crowd. The Anaheim guy was accompanied only by a small duck. The little duck offered his player this sage advice: "Just worry about the one in skates."

That's one wise little duck.