Five Things About Game Six

by J. Scott Moore

I’ve never played this “5 Things” game here on the blog.  Seems like a great way to get the writing juices flowing and since I’ve been struggling to finish up Tapeleg’s challenge, I need all the help I can get.  And now that there will be a game seven, I will be blogging at least an extra day.  And…hit it!

1. Elimination game in Boston against a Canadian team and the house is playing Rush?

2. If Luongo wins the Cup, how does he even look himself in the mirror?  Seriously?  Can he look in the mirror and say to himself that he played at the top of his game?  There are all kinds of examples of guys playing well enough and winning it all.  Playing not to lose.  Manage the game as they say in football.  Not possible as the goalie on a hockey team.  Luongo gets all the blame if they lose the Cup.  Little or no credit if they win it.  I think that’s fair.  (This is a hilarious photo zipping around Twitter)

3. Early in the game a Canuck was hurt, down on the ice for quite a while and I was somewhat disturbed that the Boston crowd didn't even seem to care that a player was hurt. They were too busy chanting and didn't even give him applause off the ice.  I know this series has become brutal on and off the ice.  But that surprised me.

4. Unfortunately, these early blow out games are boring during the wrap up.  But I don’t really how we get there, as long as we get to game seven.

5. Late in the game the NBC crew was discussing whether or not Luongo should be allowed to face the press, post-game.  They agreed no.  Really?  What about the fact that Luongo has already shown that he couldn’t handle the pucks coming at him.  But he can’t handle questions either?  That just makes him look worse in my opinion.  He’s supposed to be a veteran, a leader, former captain…and they need to shelter him?  I’m writing this as the game is still on so I won’t change my opinion regardless, just that it is being discussed is amazing to me.

This isn’t specific to this game, just specific to Tim Thomas’ beard.  I think any minute he is going to go wading out into the middle of an icy cold stream, grab a jumping salmon and have a pre-game meal.  Nom nom nom.

     

Parroting the NHL

by J. Scott Moore

Myths, half truths and things people repeat without thinking

Real hockey towns don’t have Ice Girls? Boston, Chicago, Caps, Devils, Flames, Ottawa, Vancouver, Islanders, Pittsburgh…who else?

The Original Six are “real” hockey towns. Oh, so all those empty seats in the Joe and Chicago’s arena were just smart fans staying away from a bad product? And there’s absolutely NO bandwagoning going on in Chicago these days…right….!

The shoot out is a skills contest-this is a team sport. The OT should go from 4-4 to 3-3 to 2-2, etc. Wait, I thought you said this is a team sport!

Players that are suspended for injuring another player should have to sit out as long as it takes the injured player to return. Actually, the player’s association might want to look at negotiating this one into the next CBA because this will undoubtedly increase the number of men that get a shot at the NHL by at least a 1,000 players. There will be so many players sitting on their duff at home waiting for such-and-so to get healthy that the minor leagues will be exhausted of players. Of course never mind that all the players sitting on said duff will need to be paid…so watch those ticket prices go thru the roof! Great idea.

Southern Hockey doesn’t work. How long have the Blues been operating? Wasn’t it Buffalo and Washington that went bankrupt long before Phoenix?

+/- is the most worthless stat in the NHL – that is until it supports that argument you are making about such and so player. Then all of a sudden it’s ok to add it to the argument, though often with a CYA caveat / cliché, “Even though +/- is the most worthless stat in all of hockey…blah blah blah”

What are your hockey pet peeves?

   

Smell the Glove

by J. Scott Moore

The Boston Bruins have turned the volume up to eleven.

They are taking Alex Burrows' dirty game to higher ground.  No?  Think they are being childish?  I can see that.  But I frankly think it's hilarious.  While most after-the-play scrums involve stupid hugs and lots of shoving, sticking a couple fingers in a guys face and watching him squirm uncomfortably is rather bizarre.  It gives me that awkward feeling the first couple times I watched The Office.  It's such a little thing physically but so in your face mentally.  It's bothering the Nucks as much as an actual bite, and that's the brilliant part of it.  The Bruins are so hot coming off that game that I'm afraid someone is going to spontaneously combust!

   

Stanley Cup Finals Blog Challenge

by J. Scott Moore

That Tapeleg guy is a rascal. Yesterday morning I innocently clicked on a link to his latest blog post and next thing you know I’m calling him names on Twitter.

He starts this shit about languishing bloggers and I start looking over my shoulder, guiltily.
Crap.
I challenge you to write everyday till the middle of June, he says.
Crap. That’s a lot.
He says: that might seem like a lot.
Whoa.

What a bastard. Like I don’t have other things to do. One thing I know I can always count on is Tapeleg tweeting about something motivational, completely sensible and irresistibly important. Jerk.

There’s no getting around it. I’ll be working on this challenge for the next 15 days. It’s just the kick in the pants I needed. Thanks you bastard Tapeleg!!

Well this is certainly a good time to predict my Stanley Cup finals winner. Boston in six. Has to be six so they are at home. Sure, sure, seven games with double OT would be exciting but I really want the Bruins to win at home. So it won’t be seven games and I’m not so greedy as to predict a sweep by the Bruins. Although it would be sweet like cherry pie!

This is purely based on fandom of the lowest kind: rooting against the other team, no stats, no analysis. I hate the Canucks. The only way I would root for them is if they were playing the Red Wings, which isn’t currently possible. And this isn’t just about the past. It’s about the fact that Roberto Luongo is a douche-bucket. The Sedin twins are creepy, times två. By the way, what’s with Yahoo listing one as 6-1 and the other as 6-2? There’s a conspiracy for ya Vancouver!! And I’ve never been one to blindly root for a team just because they are in my team’s division.

In addition, I simply want to see Tim Thomas win the Cup
 

Five for Fighting Monday - The Gordie Howe Hat Trick

I love the Gordie Howe hat trick. So today Five for Fighting Monday features a hat trick of the first three GH hat tricks of the season.

Note that so far the teams with a player getting a Howe are 3 - 0 on the season.

First Howe of the season is Pavel Datsyuk.

It cracks me up that people actually voted Datsyuk the winner of the fight on Hockey Fights. Perry's no idiot, he wasn't going to pound that guy, he knew the price would be too high, both on and off the ice. You can tell he is sand-bagging. But the best part is how excited the Wings announcers are during the whole fight, like Datsyuk is their new tough guy.

Up next is Kris Versteeg...

This fight was a lot like me and that girl Wendy dancing at our first jr high school dance; awkward, ugly and ultimately uninteresting.

So moving along.

Milan Lucic...

Five for Fighting Monday's run when I feel like running them, usually on Monday but you never know!  Keep you're head on a swivel.

-From the Point

Flyers VS Bruins

         VS        

Frenchy
Here we have a classic match. The Flyers beat out the Devils, a team I was worried would actually get to the Stanley Cup finals, to get here. I just didn’t think the goalie match up was a fair one but Brian Boucher played great and pulled out the win. As for the Bruins, I predicted that they would beat the Sabres, didn’t really have reason for that, guess I got lucky.


These teams split their meetings this season at two a piece. They are pretty even if you look at their regular season numbers but a lot has changed for both over the course of the season and in the first round of the playoffs.

The Bruins lost Marc Savard, their best forward, on March 7th and they’re getting him back for game one. Glad to see the team pick up the slack while he was gone but having him back is huge. They have guys like Recchi, Satan and Bergeron to help out up front. Let’s not forgot the big Chara in the back. Try getting around that guy, I bet he can poke check a puck that’s 7 feet in front of him. And last of all, I’ve been really impressed with how well Rask has played and kept his composure. Being a rookie and playing that well, this guy looks like the real deal. The Bruins did allow the least goals against during the season and he’s a big reason why. But, even if he does fall apart, the Bruins would have to go to their back up, a guy called Thomas, the Vezina winner last year. That’s quite the back up.

The Flyers played really well against the Devils, beating them in 6. Pretty darn good! Only problem now is they lost three really good forwards. They lost Carter for the season, Gagne is out for 3 weeks so we probably won’t see him again and it looks like Lappy is out for the rest of the season. Let’s all bow to Lappy, the guy is one tuff SOB. To go down and take a puck to the face like that for the second time this season, wow! The only real scorer they have left is Richards and the guy can’t do everything himself. The Flyers do have Pronger in the back but I’ve never believed he was ever that good. Looks kind of slow to me and I’ve seen him make mistakes; don’t see that changing at this point. And, the Flyers have had problems with the goaltending situation all season long. Boucher played amazing in the first round but I don’t see him playing that well for a second straight series.

I’ve got no choice here to go with the Bruins, not really based on how well they played during the season or in the playoffs, but because they get Savard back and the Flyers are just to beat up at this point.

Bruins in 6

From the Point
In the first round I didn’t pick either of these teams. Frankly not too many people did. But I give Frenchy credit for picking Boston in the first round.


As I’ve said before I think the goalie can make all the difference in a series and Boucher is making that difference right now. But look how cold Halak went in game one of the second round. So is Boucher going to let his team down in round two?

Boucher is sporting a 1.59 GAA and a 0.940 SV%.

Rask has a 2.18 GAA and a 0.927 SV%.

Boucher is tops amongst all goalies in this playoff season so far. But stats don’t always tell the whole story. This will be a battle of two hot goalies. Rask is the untested rookie and Boucher is a guy that has never played a whole season anywhere. This season is no different, he wasn’t brought in as the starter and yet here he is leading this team through the playoffs. Which one will maintain this pace and which one will crumble?

This is likely to be a bloody battle. A battle of the giants on the blue line. I think it’s pretty clear that the league will let star players get away with just about anything in these playoffs so if things get ugly don’t be surprised to see Pronger and Chara get a little chippy early. Both will try to set a tone for their teams.

This series is a bit of a toss up but I’ll give the edge to the Bruins for the same reasons that Frenchy does. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing this one go all the way, seven games with these two teams are bound to be big entertainment!

Bruins in six

What did he say???

Goosey was watching the top 10 goals of the week and #4 sure sounds to her like the announcer says "he scores low on the stick side of her ass!" What? Play it, she's right.

I have what I call Rock-n-Roll ears. In other words I've been to a lot of very loud concerts and my hearing has been affected. This 'condition' often manifests itself in the form of hearing things wrong. Very wrong. At least that my excuse and I'm sticking to it! I think it's rubbing off on her! Haha. Turns out the goalie is Tuukka RASK! Hmmm, still sounds like 'her ass' to me!

-From the Point