Which state has been the NHL ’s best of the salary cap era? There are four states with multiple NHL teams, but two stand out above the others for our purposes today. New York has three teams but no championships to show for the cap era and is, to put it mildly, going through it right now . And while Pennsylvania has three titles to go with plenty of big stars and memorable moments, virtually all of those have come from the Pittsburgh Penguins , which would make for a one-sided combination.
Advertisement That leaves us with two contenders, at least for today: Florida and California, the only two states that can boast multiple cap-era Stanley Cup winners. And with the Tampa Bay Lightning arriving in California for a three-game road swing that starts on Thursday, this feels like as good a time as any to have the debate. We’ll divide the question into categories, and then make the case for each side.
Eric Stephens will represent California because he pulls double-duty covering the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings and knows the state’s NHL situation better than anyone. And Sean McIndoe will take Florida because he’s an Eastern-based writer and has therefore never watched a West Coast team play in his life. (That was, of course, a harmless little joke.
Sean has indeed watched a California team play. Once. It did not go well .
) It’s California vs. Florida , and Eric vs. Sean.
Ring the bell and let’s see where this goes. Championships won It’s all about the Stanley C.
