Congratulations to all the Detroit Red Wings fans! Detroit is the new home of the (checking notes here)… Stanley Cup! Yeah, that’s it, the Stanley Cup. For the past fortnight, hockey fans have been prodding me, encouraging me to mention the NHL final series between the Pittsburgh Penquins and the Detroit Red Wings. I haven’t resisted exactly, it’s just that I don’t know much about hockey, to put it mildly.

It isn’t that we don’t have hockey in the southern tier. In fact, a few years ago, no town below the Mason-Dixon line could call itself a city without a minor-league hockey franchise. It was quite the fad. Or, they tried to make it quite the fad. I don’t know if most of those teams still are around or not. With the regular football season and the playoffs and the bowls and news of recruiting and spring training and a little baseball in between, there’s just no time for hockey.

But congratulations to the Red Wings! I’m happy for you. Detroit is an A&J town, by the way, where it appears in The Free Press.