The Stanley Cup final comes down to one last game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins, to be played in Vancouver, B.C. I'm rooting for Vancouver to win. Does that make me un-American, considering that I'm rooting for the Canada-based team to beat the U.S.-based team?
To be clear, during the 2010 Winter Olympics gold match hockey game between the U.S. and Canada, I fulfilled my jingoistic duty and rooted for the American team. But that match-up that was defined by national identity. The players on each team came from those home countries.
In this case, the teams are city-based; it just happens that some of them are based in Canada. The players come from all over, and I think I heard that the Bruins actually have more Canadian players than the Canucks do. (Go figure.)
More to the point, I feel much more kinship with Vancouver than I do with Boston. Portland probably has more in common with Vancouver than it does with Boston, from the climate and topography to the environmental/green culture (I've seen "no idling" signs in parking lots in both places!). I haven't spent significant time in Boston in 20+ years, but I'm pretty sure that I'd feel more at home in Vancouver -- awesome Chinese food, near plurality population of Asians, breathtaking scenery.
Plus, Boston teams have been winning too much lately -- 2 World Series wins by the Red Sox in the last decade, one by the Celtics, and three by the Patriots. Geez, stop hogging all the limelight!
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