Hockey's Roots in SoCal Run Deep

Here's some good Saturday morning reading from Terry Frei over at ESPN.com.

In the wake of the Anaheim Ducks' triumphant raising of the Stanley Cup, and even Stanley's latest television guest-starring role on "The Tonight Show" on Thursday night, some of the talk about the sport's niche in Southern California is aggravating.

Much of it has been naive, overstated, misleading -- or just flat-out wrong.

First off (and this one always gets to me), just because nobody was turning cars over on Anaheim's Harbor Boulevard on Wednesday night, and the infamous "Orange Crush" interchange of Interstate 5 at California highways 22 and 57 wasn't at a standstill because of revelers, that doesn't mean "nobody" cares or is passionate about hockey in Southern California.

Take that, all you hockey haters. Read the whole thing here.