yep.

So this here is a sorta live-blog about Game 2. Well it is live and it's sort of a blog. I'm watching the game and playing bejewled blitz on facebook. LOL I am stupidly addicted to that game. :)

Some thoughts on the game so far..

-Will the announcers PLEASE get off of Carcillo's jock? I swear you'd think Sidney Crosby was playing they way they keep talking about him. The dude is a punk (go figure, he's a Flyer) and woo.. he's playing. Get. Over. It.

-Chris Pronger is nasty. (go figure, he's a Flyer)

-Patrick Sharp has a sexy playoff beard. (duh)

-It's LOUD in Chicago. I was there for a regular season game.. and it was loud then, I can only imagine how wild it is there tonight. :)

-I love John Madden. At least if he couldn't be a Devil anymore, he went to a good team. :)

*not hockey but* That Inception movie looks insane.

-I know he's a nasty Flyer, but I always enjoyed Ian Laperriere- he's a feisty, fun kind of player to watch.

-Diggin the "Pronger Sucks" chant. Haha.

-Sorry, fell off the wagon there a bit. 2-0 Blackhawks after 2. I like it!

-When they showed the Stanley Cup during a commercial lead-in, OF COURSE they'd have to focus on the 1996 Avalanche names. EWWWWWWWW. (and yes, only I would notice that..)

-Thank you, Adam Burrish for your awesome trash talking skillz. Much amusement. Even though it's 2-1 'Hawks now.

-Where are Kane and Toews?

-C'mon Chicago.. Philly has really been on in the middle of the period here.

-Oy vey what is the obsession with Claude Giroux? I mean really, guys. He's good, he's versatile, WE. GET. IT.

-Whaa... Sharpie hit the post on the empty-net attempt? Or did it just go wide? I couldn't tell and I'm on the bad tv with no dvr-rewind option..

-C;mon Blackhawks- 20 secs left.. y'all got this. :)

And there it is. Hawks go up 2-0 in the series. Sweetnesssssss. :)

I don't know about you

And I may have already griped about this.. but why does Pittsburgh get to play in ANOTHER Winter Classic? That's RUDE. There are 22 teams (if you count the Heritage Classic game back in 2003) that HAVE not had a chance to play in one.. and the League gives it to one that already has? Bad form, NHL, bad form. The game will attract an audience all on its own, it does not need the CROSBY-OVECHKIN storyline too. Cros already had his turn, let someone else play.

lame!

Is is Finals yet?

perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

Wow so maybe I should comment on the coming Stanley Cup Finals. If you recall back before the playoffs started, I made my predictions. I had Buffalo (hahahahaahahaaa) and CHICAGO playing for Lord Stanley. At least I got one right. I was terribly off on my picks, only getting one team right past the first round in the East, and 2 in the West. Yet somehow I picked the right team to come out on top in the West.

And really, I don't even want to talk about the East because the Flyers are repulsive. They are just GROSS. If they win I might throw up. Besides, I already liked the Blackhawks so it's easy to cheer for them.

So without further ado- GO BLACKHAWKS! :)

Fill 'er Up!

The Cincinnati Cyclones won the Kelly Cup last night. I know their coach and their Captain. The Coach- Chuck Weber (who is from Lockport, btw), was the Assistant Coach in SLC when I was there. He's a really great guy and a very smart coach. This is his 2nd championship with the Cyclones. He also won with the Orlando Solar Bears of the old IHL back in the late 90s..

And their Captain- Barret Ehgoetz, played at Niagara University for 4 years before going pro with the Grizzlies in 2005-06. I knew who he was at NU, from announcing, and then actually got to know him a bit in SLC. He went to Cincinnati with Chuck and was part of their Kelly Cup winning team in 2008 as well.

Congrats to the Cyclones! :)

le Rocket

No comments on my last entry, eh? hmm..

I just finished a really cool book. It's called "The Rocket: A Cultural History of Maurice Richard" by Benoit Melancon. I have read lots of books about hockey. I try to read books about players from before my time so I can have a better understanding of what they were like. It is good in that it gives me a sense of the history of hockey, but bad in the sense that it makes me wish I had been alive to see them play.

Actually, I had a really interesting sequence of things happen around Christmas. I got a movie and a book for Christmas- the book was Ken Dryden's "The Game" and the movie was "The Rocket"- produced by Charles Biname, starring Roy Dupuis, and released in 2005. I also was reading "Searching for Bobby Orr". The 3 combined to present me with a great picture of hockey from 1942-1979. I'd highly recommend both of the books and the movie to anyone.

But back to the topic at hand. In this book I just read, Melancon breaks down the appearance of Richard as a cultural icon, a man, a myth, a legend. He uses many examples from all over the spectrum and it is just fascinating. I loved the movie "The Rocket" because it really showed a lot of what was going on in Quebec and for Maurice personally. This book delves even deeper into all of it.

It's a good read. A bit technical at times, but mostly just an interesting look at the creating of a national legend who became so not because of his hockey prowess (he did score MANY MANY goal) but because of his sheer tenacity and utter determination to SCORE goals, no matter what. He did not give up on playing hockey (even when told he was too fragile), he did not give up on scoring goals (as his 626 will attest-- and the many overtime goals in there), he did not give up on being a decent human being (as far as we know.. there have been no sordid tales of Maurice after his death or during his life) even though he lived much of his life in a very public (and often unwanted and uncomfortable) spotlight.

It's been nearly 10 years since his death. (May 27, 2000) We will never have heroes as pure as they used to be or as untainted as Maurice was. I just wish I had seen him play. Guess I'll have to stick with my books and movies. And now I have a fountain of information for finding out more about Maurice. And you know I shall. :)

dude..

So I got an e-mail from The Hockey News inviting me to re-subscribe. I have had a subscription on and off for at least 10 years now. I really do enjoy reading it, but let the subscription lapse when I realized that I had a 2-foot stack of UNread issues in my room. But I kinda want to have it around again. I do enjoy print media, even with the glut of internet-ness out there *much of it very good*, sometimes it's nice to have something to HOLD in your hand. I very much feel this way about books. I think the idea of e-books is great, but I still prefer bound paper and probably always will.

Anyway the point of all this is to tell you about a bizarre picture I found on the site. It was a photo teaser about the magazine, as well as the Draft Preview and Future Watch, 2 special issues of THN that you receive with your subscription. It also included a picture.. of either the season in review magazine or the Preview, I'm not sure which. I remember getting it but don't recall which one it was. It features everyone's favorite player, Sidney Crosby, holding The Cup. Fair enough, it was the Penguins who won last year. My issue is not with Sid, but the picture, and the photo editing..

Observe:



So.. either Sid has a random 3rd hand no one knows about.. or someone miffed a photo editing job. Hmm.. I wish I still had the magazine around so I could check if it made it to the print copy..

so ya see..

I haven't been watching nearly as much hockey as I should lately.. I am busy with another play. I guess it's actually okay that the Sabres aren't in the playoffs anymore, because I would have to miss a lot of games and that would make me sad.

So yeah. I'm sad that the Wings are out, but I wasn't expecting them to get past the first round anyway. Yay for Montreal beating Pittsburgh and what is up with Philly? Oh well I don't like Boston or Philadelphia so I want Montreal to win the East at this point. Whoa, scary though, eh?

In the West, though I enjoy the Canucks, I must say that I like the Blackhawks more. I only saw part of one game in the series cuz I'm a slacker like that but yay for Chicago winning! :)

And since it's Wednesday and I actually have one- suggested by my dear sister Brett, here is a Hockey SAB for you:



-Actor Aaron Eckhart- seen recently as Harvey Dent in "The Dark Knight"

AND



-Former player/Current Asst Coach of the Habs, Kirk Muller

Separated at Birth? YOU be the judge. I think it's a pretty good one, but again, I can't claim it- my sis sent it to my attention. She's got a good eye, non?

I hope to see some more of the Conference Finals but not guarantees- the next 2 weeks are gonna be BUSY!

YIKES!

I have a few comments about the San Jose/ Detroit series:

*It feels like 1994 again. 'Sup rookie Red Wing goalie?

*PUT OSGOOD IN NET! You know that Ossie has had a crappy regular season but he (and the rest of the old man Wings) knows how to turn it on for the playoffs.

*I hate San Jose. Especially Joe Thornton. YICK.

something new and different

Hi everyone.

I'm still a bit sad about the Sabres and have been too busy to follow any of the 2nd round yet but I found this little gem and wanted to share it. Some of y'all may have already seen this article but I thought it was really neat. In my wanderings of the Caps website (I visit there from time to time and read their "insider" blog to keep up with my boy T-Sloan), I have seen quite a bit about Brooks Laich. Besides being a pretty good hockey player, he seems like a swell guy. (and he's quite funny, from the video clips)

Well, apparently, he's also a Good Samaritan". Click to read the article, but the gist of it is this- after the Caps lost game 7, he stopped on his way home to help a lady change the tire on her car. Awww.

I may eventually get around to writing a post about the Sabres and what I think they should change/keep but I haven't really come up with anything worth sharing lately. I'm just tired of hearing about Derek Roy should go. I'd much rather part with Connolly and Stafford any day of the week. I may delve further into that whole argument, because it seems to be going around.. but I'm not quite ready to make my case. It's close though.