Update: Vancouver fans rioted in the streets after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup and were shut out in Game 7!

Congrats to the Boston Bruins for winning the Stanley Cup in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals after a shut-out of Vancouver, proving that sportsmanship trumps goonery every time! (And shame on Vancouver fans for booing during the presenting of the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy.  You all are such poor losers.  As ever, real classy Vancouver.  Your behavior has convinced me to never visit your city.)

A special congrats to Tim Thomas too for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for his stellar performance during the playoffs.  Outstanding!

I just came across this site on the net:

http://doesalexburrowsbiteandpullhair.com/

By the way, the unequivocal answer is

YES!!!!

Related:

Alex Burrows’ Number Called by Refs

Man Up Burrows!

Stay Classy Vancouver!

Alex Burrows Pulls Duncan Keith’s Hair Like a Little Girl!!!

In last night’s Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, once again Canucks Alex Burrows provoked Bruins Milan Lucic.  Burrows feigned tripping over Lucic’s stick during a neutral zone face-off and Lucic about burst a blood vessel trying to point out Burrows’ embellishment to the zebras.  Yet inexplicably, Lucic was called for “tripping” instead of just Burrows being called for unsportsmanlike conduct (i.e. “diving”).  (more…)

While I love Canada, Canadians, and of course hockey (and Strange Brew, which is the funniest movie ever), I have to send this one out to Vancouver.  This is what you get for having that fossil you call a singer butcher the American national anthem every year. So disrespectful!

Related:

Stay Classy Vancouver!

It’s amazing that I have had to keep shouting the same thing — “Stay in the net!” — over and over at the TV during this hockey season when even veteran goalies like Roberto Luongo, Ryan Miller, and Chris Osgood have been drawn off and out beyond the crease.  Inevitably once they’re drawn out they are scored on moments later as they realize their error too late.

This seems like the kind of mistake a rookie goalie might make, and yet in tonight’s game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Bruins and Canucks, the game was lost when Bruins’ veteran goaltender, 37-year old Tim Thomas, was drawn to one side of the net, and then out well beyond the crease, and was scored on to end the game mere seconds into sudden-death overtime.  Ouch, you know that one had to hurt.  Not to add salt to the wound by playing Monday-morning quarterback, but I am scratching my head at how in the world a vet like Thomas could have made such a rookie mistake…???….

I can’t believe the NHL didn’t suspend Canucks’ Alex Burrows for biting, that’s BITING, Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron in game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals!  Alex Burrows has a reputation for goon hockey.  Need I remind Blackhawks fans about Alex Burrows’ hair-pulling incident during a scrap with Duncan Keith in 2009?  It’s bad enough being that goony, but Burrows has a history of slap-happy girl fights and so it is baffling why the NHL would look the other way when Burrows again not only did something dirty, but then lied about it.  It just lowers the bar for the sport and depicts hockey as a sport engaged in and watched by uneducated dullards.

We hear all the time about how hockey players are supposed to be the gentlemen of the sports world.  Well, with goons like Burrows and the NHL looking the other way, not so much.  I’m all for old school, smash-mouth hockey, but keep the gloves up; no hitting below the belt.  And yes, biting someone (or pulling their hair) is the equivalent of hitting below the belt.

Geez Burrows, when are you going to man up already??? Even when I was a little girl I didn’t fight as girly as you do!

As Chicagoans have been saying for days, 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 hit.  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.  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.