TEHRAN - After years of Stanley Cup Finals in the Sun Belt, the NHL championship is finally returning to the Ice Belt.

Ice hockey is a sport played in icy locales, so it is somewhat surreal to see it played in the Sun Belt of the United States in places like Atlanta, Carolina, Dallas, the balmy climes of Florida, and the desert of Arizona.
Ice hockey in the desert of Arizona?
In the 1980s, almost all NHL teams were based in traditional ice hockey towns.
Back then, if you would have said people would be playing ice hockey in the desert one day, everyone would have thought you were crazy.
Nowadays, ice hockey aficionados will think you are crazy if you don’t know that ice hockey is being played in the desert of Arizona, which has its very own NHL franchise, the Phoenix Coyotes.
Sadly, at the same time the NHL began moving into the Sun Belt, Quebec and Winnipeg, two traditional ice hockey towns in the Ice Belt of Canada, lost their NHL franchises because there was not enough money being generated in those markets.
Kids grow up playing ice hockey in Canada. Kids do not grow up playing ice hockey in the Sun Belt, so it makes one wonder how those teams build up a fan base.
The Stanley Cup has been in the possession of a Sun Belt team since 2004. The past three champions, the Anaheim Ducks (2007), the Carolina Hurricanes (2006), and the Tampa Bay Lightning (2004) are all based in the Sun Belt. There was no 2005 Stanley Cup Final because the season was canceled due to a labor dispute.
In 2002 and 2003, the Stanley Cup was won by teams in northern cities, the Detroit Red Wings and the New Jersey Devils, but the losing teams were based in southern cities, so some of the games of the Stanley Cup Finals were still played in the Sun Belt in those years.
The 2001 NHL championship, in which the Colorado Avalanche defeated the New Jersey Devils, was the last Stanley Cup Finals played entirely outside the Sun Belt.
But the Detroit Red Wings victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday in the sixth and deciding game of the NHL Western Conference Finals ensured that there will be no Sun Belt Stanley Cup Finals this year.
The Red Wings will be facing off against the Eastern Conference champion Pittsburg Penguins in the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, which begin on Saturday.
So, whichever team wins, the Stanley Cup will be returning to a traditional ice hockey town in the Ice Belt.
Unfortunately, the long–suffering Canadian fans of their national sport will have to wait another year to end their Stanley Cup drought since no Canadian team made the finals this year, but at least they won’t have to experience the added indignity of seeing a team stolen from Canada or a Sun Belt team win the cup.
All might not be right with the world, but at least the Stanley Cup Finals is back in its natural home in the Ice Belt.