The only thing comparable to the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup is the Bears winning the Super Bowl in ‘86…no wait, THIS is BETTER!!!
Congratulations to the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks! (who beat the Philadelphia Flyers in game 6 in overtime, 4-3.) And just as sweet, congratulations to Jonathan Toews for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoffs MVP!!!
Thank you to whoever posted this on YouTube. You are my new best friend. This is the incident I was talking about in a prior post where in the June 6, 2010 game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Blackhawks’ Dustin Byfuglien takes out Flyers’ d-man Kimmo Timonen and dreaded anti-Hawks referee Dan O’Halloran. Couldn’t happen to two nicer guys…not!
Dustin Byfuglien says hello to Chris Pronger…rings his bell.
As I said in yesterday’s post, referee Dan O’Halloran killed the Hawks in games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. He called so many penalties on the Hawks while ignoring so many others from the Flyers that it would be safe to argue that O’Halloran alone cost the Hawks games 3 and 4.
In tonight’s game 5, it looked like Dustin Byfuglien agreed when during a check of Flyers’ d-man Kimmo Timonen at about the 10 or 11 minute mark of the 3rd period, he took out Dan O’Halloran as well. Two goons with one stone. It was a thing of beauty! O’Halloran seemed to know that hit was meant for him too by the look on his face. Karma can be tricky Danny boy, so you just better watch out. The hockey gods don’t seem to like your intentional missed calls on the Flyers.
Finally, just to add insult to injury, Hawks’ Dustin Byfuglien scored the last goal of the 7-4 victory over the Flyers with an empty-netter in the last minute-and-a-half of the game with Dan O’Halloran having to rule it a good goal. So sweet. Go Hawks! Get that cup!
P.S. Hats off to Q for taking Big Buff and Kaner off the first line and moving Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky up with Toews. It totally threw off the Flyers. They couldn’t put the bullseye on any one player and with Buff checking up and down like a mad man, it was discombobulating to the Flyers. Hopefully Niklas Hjalmarsson can figure his game out by game 6 though, because we need him blocking shots. Don’t know what’s up with him, but he has that deer-in-headlights look about him.
Thanks to Comcast’s re-runs (thank you Comcast!) and no thanks to Versus, which I still hate, I have been able to watch the Blackhawks crash and burn in games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Oh my gosh, I thought commentators were exaggerating when they were saying the refs in these last two games were missing calls left and right, or at least missing calls on the Flyers left and right. Maybe they weren’t so much missing the calls as just not calling them. That will happen when your zebras are bought off, and like the title of this post suggests, I bet it’s surprisingly cheap, all things considered, to buy off an NHL ref. How else do you explain really bad calls on our guys like Hawks’ Patrick Sharp who was called for slashing as the Flyers’ opponent took an obvious dive, while the Flyers got away with hooking, slashing, tripping, and most conspicuously multiple cross-checks? Read the rest of this entry »
I like how NBC’s guest commentator Jeremy Roenick described tonight’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Blackhawks and the Flyers as “smash mouth hockey.” Yep. Old school. That’s what fans, new and old, have been waiting to see. Less pansying up the game of hockey, more just letting the boys go. Those zebras sure did miss some calls on the Flyers though!
Tonight it was “May the best men win,” and they did as the Hawks won 2-1 against the Flyers to take the second game (after the Hawks took the Flyers 6-5 in the opener). Bang on boys!
The Hawks have swept the San Jose Sharks and are headed to the Stanley Cup Finals! Woohoo! Someone please get Duncan Keith some teeth. (He lost seven in this game.)
So I’m watching game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday, and Eddie Olczyk and Mike “Doc” Emrick keep talking about Flyers’ players having to go to the dressing room because they keep getting “bad wheels.” Bad wheels, as I learned, happen when the blades on a player’s skates get dulled for whatever reason. Well, the reason so many of the Flyers’ skates were being dulled apparently was because there was sand or gravel outside the Flyers’ dressing room. At one point, the Flyers trainers had to put towels down so the players could get from the dressing room to the ice. Since the Flyers were the visiting team, undoubtedly viewers like myself, and I guess Eddie and Doc too, were wondering if it was sabotage.
Hmm…will the NHL investigate? Well, I for one would like to believe it was a mistake. I mean, if you have to cheat, you’re not really winning anyway. Don’t players and the organization know this? And it’s not like they’re not going to be found out. Duh. And even if the Habs were trying to cheat this way, it didn’t much seem to matter since the Habs were totally shut out (again!), 3-0, by the Flyers regardless. With these shut-outs, it does make you wonder though if we aren’t seeing a bit of goon karma.
Once again, Hawks fans find themselves knee-deep in channel wars. If I want to watch the Hawks v. the Sharks in five out of seven games then my options are to pay what like $60-$70 a month for a “premium” channel like Versus, go to a sports bar/restaurant and spend money I don’t have on food and drinks just so I can watch the game, listen to the game on the radio (No thank you!), or go without. What a horrible thing to do to hockey fans, who are traditionally blue collar, in an economic downturn.
This year, in utter disgust and protest, I am simply not watching, listening to, or even receiving updates on the games if they are on Versus. I’m tired of the monopoly.
Congrats to the Hawks for hammering the final nail into the Vancouver Canucks. The boys are looking a little tired out there, and understandably so. As I noted in a prior post about Matt Walker, seems the Hawks are missing some of the grit from last season most notably seen in players like Matt Walker. But when push came to shove with the Canucks, some of the bigger, burlier players like Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Eager pushed back. And that made all the difference, as did outstanding goal tending on Antti Niemi’s part.
On to San Jose! Good luck boys!