What team are you rooting for, or who do you think wil win the 2012 NHL stanley cup playoffs? ESRI has developed an online map to help build team spirit and see how fan support is spread across the country. So why not vote for your favorite teams and share the map with your friends.

Round 2: Rangers vs Capitals – Kings vs Blues – Coyotes vs Predators – Flyers vs Devils

http://www.esri.com/news/maps/2012/fanmaps/stanley-cup-team-map/index.html

The Boston Bruins Road to the Stanley Cup Finals shown here in a tribute video montage …

Congrats to all Bruins players, team and fans!

We all know that the most successful hockey team in the NationalHockey League is the Montreal Canadiens with twenty four Stanley Cup Championship wins. Infarct the Canadiens are also the second most successful sports franchise in the world next to only the New YorkYankees who have more Pro Championship wins. The interesting thing about Montreal compared to other teams who have won championships before, is that they are not always the best team during the season. More often then none the Canadiens will be a pretty good team but will never have the best record over all.

Last season Montreal was the eighth seeded team in the Eastern Conference yet they still managed to beat out two other teams and make it to the ConferenceFinals. Montreal’s NHL odds this season to return back to the Eastern Conference Stanley Cup finals are pretty high. Their odds of winning the Eastern Conference are about +1600 and their odds to bring home the Stanley Cup are about +3000.

This season we look forward to watching star goalie Carey Price who set a franchise record with most games played in a season by a Montreal Goal tender to carry the team all the way to the finals. He was over shadowed by Alack who was very hot but dealt to St.Louis at the end of the season. One also must remember that there is much more to winning a championship and players like Scott Gomez, P. K. Subban and Brian Giota will be expected to play strong and do there parts to.As far as first components are concerned fans from all around and happy to watch the Canadiens play one of their big rivals the Boston Bruins in the first round. What a better way to get the playoffs going, by meeting and beating a team like Boston. DoubleDeke thinks that the Canadiens will be the under dog team to watch out for so lookout for a few upsets this spring caused by the hands of the HABS.

Update: Currently Montreal is leading the first round series over the Boston Bruins 2 games to 1.

[Source: Odds from BetUS]

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The Muldoon Curse was believed to have prevented the Chicago Blackhawks from ever finishing in first place of the NHL standings.

The Blackhawks first season in the NHL (1926-27) was considered a moderate success for their first season. Blackhawks forwards Mickey MacKay, Dick Irvin and Babe Dye (had one of the hardest slap shots of his time) all finished near the top of the scoring race. The Hawks even made it into the playoffs but they ended up losing in the first round to the Boston Bruins.

After the series was owner, Frederic McLaughlin (team owner) decided to make a statement and he fired the head coach (Pete Muldoon). Muldoon responded to Frederic McLaughlin, “Fire me, and you’ll never finish first. I’ll put a curse on this team that will hoodoo it until the end of time.”

The alleged curse that seemed to work as Blackhawks would not capture first place until the 1966-67 season ( even though the team did win the Stanley Cup in 1934 & 1961). During that era of the NHL, finishing first place was often considered to be a similar achievement to that of winning the Cup.

Here is a scanned new spaper article about the ending of the Curse of Muldoon

After breaking the Muldoon curse, the Blackhawks seemed to have developed a new one that has made Chicago the longest Stanley Cup winning drought of any current team.  Since then they have made five appearances in the Stanley Cup finals but no luck.

However the Chicago Blackhawks finally ended their 49 year Cup drought in 2010 by capturing their first Stanley Cup since 1961 and the fourth in Blackhawks franchise history when Patrick Kane scored the dramatic Over Time winning goal in a game six win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

[Source: Wikipedia.org]