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.

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.

Do these “missed” calls amount to lost games?  Um, yeah!  Isn’t it obvious?  When we get back to the United Center, hopefully the officiating returns to being more equal, and less, let’s say subjective.  Because really, do the Flyers want to win this way?  It’s cheating.  Do Philly fans want to win this way?  I know I wouldn’t want the Hawks to win by cheating.  Ironically, it was me, in this blog post, that sided with the Flyers when even the commentators were theorizing that the Canadiens, or one of their rabid fans, had laid gravel or sand down between the Flyers’ dressing room and the ice (causing bad wheels) in Montreal during game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.  So, suffice it to say, I don’t like to see cheating no matter who is playing.

Like I told the NHL, there needs to be some crack downs on some of the dirty stuff that goes on in the league.  The NHL needs to stop allowing Versus to have a freakin’ monopoly on some of the games in the Stanley Cup playoffs every year for instance, and they need to start doing quality checks on some of these refs.  There’s no excuse for what has happened in games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and if you need a name, start with Dan O’Halloran, unlucky #13, who has shown time and again that he doesn’t like the Blackhawks.

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!

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.

On to San Jose! Good luck boys!

This is the kind of grit we’re missing this season.