CHICAGO — Hey, L.A., don't tread on us.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel took to Facebook to jab at the Los Angeles Kings and the city's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, betting him a king's ransom of Chicago goodies - if the Blackhawks should falter.
As the Hawks prepare to take on the reigning Stanley Cup champion Kings in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Saturday, Emanuel wrote a lengthy screed on Facebook, an iced-up version of the Declaration of Independence, telling the Kings that a new champion will rise up.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that while all men and women are created equal, all hockey teams are not," the Chicago patriot wrote. "In every stage of these Playoffs our Blackhawks have advanced in the most humble fashion: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury by your Kings. Kings, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, are unfit to be the champion of the NHL, and should be relegated to 'Ye Olde Sin Bin.'"
The Hawks took the season series, winning two of the three games the teams played, including a memorable 5-2 win to kick off the season. Both teams took seven games to dispatch their last opponents, with the Hawks toppling the Detroit Red Wings and the Kings deep-sixing the San Jose Sharks. The Kings won the Cup last year, two seasons after the Hawks lifted it in 2010. The puck drops at the United Center at 4 p.m.
But about that bet.
"If your Kings find a way to defeat our Blackhawks," the mayor wrote, he'll offer the following bounty:
- 25 Italian beef sandwiches from Al's Italian Beef;
- Three cases of Goose Island's 312 beer;
- One case of Robinson's Ribs Barbecue Sauce;
- 25 slices of Eli's Cheesecake - a "hat trick" of Original, Strawberry and Chocolate Chip flavors;
- One copy of "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration," by Isabel Wilkerson, a gift for the L.A. mayor to enjoy in his retirement.
For now, Chicago waits for an answer.
