A Few Thoughts On Bruins/Canucks

 

New Puck Daddy: Canucks give up 17 goals in Boston, and we’re all gonna solely beat on Luongo? What happened to the best d-corps EVAR?

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There seems to be a common misconception among hockey fans that flawed teams don’t win Stanley Cups.

Of course they do.

The Pittsburgh Penguins relied heavily on Crosby and Malkin, the Blackhawks didn’t have a top (well, this will cause controversy, but….) 10 goalie, and the list goes on and on. No team is without their issues to overcome, and winning the Stanley Cup validates those players struggles to overcome their team’s deficiencies.  It’s a nice metaphor for individuals in life, actually – we all have problems, you just have to fight through them.

The Canucks and Bruins are no different. They are awesome, messed up teams trying to win despite their weak spots.

Roberto Luongo is a one-man chaos magnet. Like Lebron James, he’s defensive, wants to be loved, and hasn’t yet won the big one (I feel like the second either of them do, they’ll become infinitely more affable. No need to explain themselves cause hey….”I’ve won before, that doesn’t bother me”). And hey – the Sedins are super-soft too, or whatever, right?

Boston’s top point getters racked up 62 points in the regular season (and one of them isn’t playing). SIXTY-TWO. I need a stat-geek….hold on while I tweet this question: has any team ever won a Stanley Cup with a top point getter lower than that? And their d-corps isn’t exactly the NHL’s best, correct?

{Update from twitter: Holik in ’03 (57), Dave Keon in ’67 (52), Bill Hay in ’61 (59). So three times thus far, and if the Bruins win, all four of those guys will have played in front of multiple Vezina-winning goalies – Thomas, Brodeur, Sawchuk/Bower, and Hall.}

While neither of those things are insurmountable, they’re facts that make winning more difficult.

That’s what makes winning the Stanley Cup so cool – it’s not that you necessarily rooted for the best pieces of a team, it’s that you rooted for guys who fought through difficulties to reach the summit of our sport. This series going seven games is perfect.

Neither team is without problems, but goddamn if one of them isn’t about to be validated. It can come down to any stupid bounce in a game like this, the teams are that close. The loser isn’t going to be exposed as a fraud, or overrated. They’ve both proven enough by getting to this point.

Game seven is going to decide who lives on in history, but in hockey, this year, next, and beyond, both teams deserve credit for giving their fans the very best they could hope for this season.

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By the way, this series is weird.

I usually gamble like mad (I failed in maintaining my gambling updates, as I stopped better for no other reason than I forgot to), and take any stupid bet.  I have none on game seven.

While fans of both sides are sure their team is going to win……they’re both wrong.

This one is a coin toss – but I can’t wait to see who comes out on top. See you tomorrow night for a Puck Daddy chat!

Column: Canucks Can’t Keep Playing Bruins Game

 

New Puck Daddy: Canucks Can’t Keep Playing Bruins Game (because, y’know….they’ll lose). Thanks for reading guys, I appreciate the support so much.

The Canucks Don’t Look Scared, They Look Tired

 

New Puck Daddy: It’s not that the Canucks are playing sans-cajones – their best players are tired

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Sidebar before I explain my column: my Dad’s in town this weekend which should be fun - the fact that there are a couple finals games to watch while he’s here makes it even better. Unfortunately, it may also keep with my trend of not having a ton of time to post on here during the finals, so sorry about that. Obviously it’s my busy season.

My take on the last night’s game is fully laid out in the column above.

I sat down this morning to write a totally different game story, though. I was going to explain the many different ways a guy can play without fear, and how it translates into effective play because that’s what I thought I saw out of the Bruins that I wasn’t seeing from Vancouver. But first, as I always do, I re-watched all the game highlights on NHL.com, and it just sort of hit me.

I suddenly didn’t think the Canucks played scared, or intimidated hockey….I thought they look tired. I went back and watch parts of the game on DVR, and became more certain of it.

And really, it makes sense – just check out the column. The top three forwards in minutes played in this series are three Canuck forwards that they need to be at their best.

And that’s not to take anything away from the Bruins, who’ve played near-perfect team hockey in front of very-near-perfect Tim Thomas over the past couple games. It’s been something to watch, and B’s fans are starting to sense hope.

It’s just been a lot of games with a lot of minutes with a lot of pressure, and while both teams are enduring that, the top forwards on Boston aren’t logging the same minutes as the guys on Vancouver. ….Nor are they facing Zdeno Chara, even if he hasn’t been quite himself either.

…..But I’m still callin’ Canucks in six.

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I’ll be tweeting my upcoming radio hits throughout the day, so stay with me on there as I blather on about whatever is asked of me. Off to tidy and hit the grocery store before Dad’s plane lands!

Column: Why The Extracurricular Activities Are Over

 

New Hockey Primetime: Things will get tidied up between the whistles

No More Horton or Rome in the Cup Final

 

 

New Puck Daddy: After a shellacking, it’s a lot easier to “flush it” than it is after losing a tight one

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So this kind of sucks: we’re in the middle of a great series between Vancouver and Boston.  After two skin-of-their-teeth wins by Vancouver, Boston came out and made a statement – they dropped an 8-1 beatdown on Chinatown (that’s Vancouver, for those of you not up on your population demographics/casual racism), with Luongo staying in the net for every goal.

But the game has been overshadowed by the Aaron Rome hit that left Nathan Horton with a severe concussion, knocking him out for the rest of playoffs.  Rome is gone too, as I’m sure you’ve heard – he got suspeded for four games – but that’s of little consequence to the Canucks who’ve already used and won with nine different defencemen in playoffs thus far.

And now, writing about that is more important than writing about the games played so far (not that there’s anything to analyze from last night), because it affects the series. My little reminder for everyone (that I tweeted) is this: between the bite and the fingers being offered up for biting and this hit, don’t lose track that of the hockey. Hits happen (legal or otherwise) in playoffs, people get hurt, and teams have to perservere. Part of winning the Cup is survival.  All the best to Nathan Horton and everything, but it’s certainly doesn’t need to be every storyline.

So here we go (don’t watch, Mom):

The hit, as I saw it, was flawlessly executed at the perfect spot on the ice…..but just way, way too late, which makes it interference and dangerous. Rome stopped backing up and planted the second Horton moved the puck, but the guy still had time to get into a third stride before getting pounded. Part of the reason I think it was so late was that Rome was backing up (as opposed to charging forward) and planting, so he has to wait for Horton to get to him. Whatever the reason, it was very late.

From experience, I (and my broken nose) can tell you that no hit is more of a shock to the system than the one where you’re gathering speed (he was crossing over) and unaware it’s coming.  Happened to me in Bridgeport, and I was fortunate to avoid the concussion; Horton wasn’t so lucky.  Had it been Rome hitting me, I probably would’ve been in the same situation, which is part of the reason I have genuine sympathy for the guy today.

That said, I think the suspension might be a little long for a late north/south hit (that’s a lotta strides to not look up once), but given the severity of the injury and what a big part of Boston’s team Horton is, I guess it sort of makes sense. If we want more serious suspensions (and we do), it has to start somewhere. You would just think they’d wait for the start of the new season to begin doing that.

{Part of it feels like a PR-safe move for the league – if Rome got back into a game while Horton is still suffering, it doesn’t look good on their ruling.}

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As for the actual game last night…..there’s almost no point in evaluating that one. If there were a checklist with “Canucks need to improve their…” on it, I’d be clicking “select all.” Feel free to weigh in on the Horton hit for today, but after that, I’m going to try to stick to the action as much as possible.

Game Two Live Chat

 

Wanna talk puck?? Join in, friends.

Column: Fixing The Bruins Powerplay For Them, Cause I’m A Good Guy

 

New Puck Daddy: Fixing the Bruins powerplay by tailoring it to their personnel

Game One, Winnipeg/Atlanta, Campbell/Shannahan

New Puck Daddy: The Bruins can’t win if their bottom six forwards don’t own Vancouvers

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Good day, hockey fans!  Lotttts to talk about today, and I’m in a writin’ mood.  Coming up: Game one of the Stanley Cup Final, Winnipeg/Atlanta, and Brendan Shannahan taking over for Colin Campbell as the NHL’s disciplinarian for the 2011-2012 season. 

Sigh….that’s so far away and this season’s almost over.

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Game one, Vancouver vs. Boston

This was one of those fantastic low-scoring games that are so infrequent.  When I think about game one, I think about some of the spectacular individual performances.  My top five (yes, five) stars of the game, in order:

#1 – Tim Thomas – had you put the league’s most average goalie in net for Boston in that game, just your generic Craig Anderson or whoever, the final score is 5-0, minimum.  He made huge stops early (and late, and in the middle) that kept his team in the game, and I thought his save on the Jannik Hansen breakaway hasn’t gotten nearly enough credit.  That save was soccer goalie-esque, in that he literally would’ve had to have guessed a bit to be able to snap his pads together that quickly while sliding backwards.

#2 – Jannik Hansen – This guy was everywhere.  In a game where you know the other team is going to be focusing on the other two lines, you always have the opportunity to make them pay for that, and boy did he ever.  It’s like walking a batter to get another guy, in this case Hansen and his linemates, then having that guy belt a homerun to centerfield.  He was all-around terrific, and capped it off with a sick set-up on the game winner.

#3 – Roberto Luongo – Just your average, run-of-the-mill 37 save shutout where he’s so positionally sound and ahead of the action that it looks like it’s easy.  Thomas probably makes those 37 saves if he’s in Van’s net too, only four of them become highlight-reel saves because of his chaotic style.

#4 – Raffi Torres - Scored the game-winner with 18.5 seconds left in game one of the Stanley Cup Final, after playing probably his best game of playoffs.  He created chances and played physical, which is more than he’s asked to do for the Nucks

#5A – Ryan Kesler – Makes a great play on the game-winner (including the toe-drag to stay onside) and just played his usual, horse-like Kesler game.  He looks unstoppable at times.

#5B – Zdeno Chara – Almost 30 minutes of ice and kept the Sedins to zero points.  Solid captain work there.

Read today’s column if you’re interested to hear what I think needs to happen for the B’s to win some games in this series.  The score was close, but I didn’t think the game was.

And for an update on the “Bourne proved he knows nothing about hockey” Seguin article (that was an actual comment), he’s now gone six straight games without so much as a point, and saw his ice time cut in half to six minutes.  I wouldn’t be shocked if he didn’t dress next game.  Not that I think he’s bad or anything, of course….he’s not.  That’s not why I keep dropping the updates.  I just didn’t feel like I deserved the shots I took from the PD commentariat (not here) after that piece.

Game two on Saturday, and I continue to be unable to see a way the Bruins can win, even after that close game (sorry Char).  They played the exact game they needed to yesterday and still couldn’t quite close.  We’ll see I guess!

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Winnipeg/Atlanta

So it’s official – the Atlanta Thrashers are taking their talents to Winterpeg.

First, as I’ve said before, I have muchos sympathy for Thrashers fans.  I know what it’s like to live in a city where hockey isn’t part of the collective identity, and other fans really crap on hockey fans who support the team despite that (it should be the opposite – you should get more credit if you’re a supporter from a non-hockey city).

There are far too many folks who’ve never been to a game in the city that they’re making fun of, let alone to the cities themselves, yet they torch away without thinking.  On those nights when there’s only nine thousand fans at a game, consider how much those fans must love the team.  In Atlanta, think of the fans that go despite knowing the building won’t be packed.  They know their team isn’t star-laden.  They’ve never seen a single playoff game.

Yet there they are, on a Tuesday night, wearing their jersey to support their team.  But it’s HILARIOUS to refer to them as the Thrashers fan and leave off the “s” because there’s only one!HAHAHAHA!!!1!!

But enough of a rant.  With that said: 

SINCERE CONGRATULATIONS to Winnipeg!  While it’s wrong to imply any one fan there will love the team more than the multi-year season ticket holder from Atlanta who writes a blog about the team, rest assured that MORE (way, way more) people will love the team there.

Hockey is a part of what makes us Canadian, like it or not, and this team was unfairly ripped out of that city’s hands fifteen years ago.  It feels right to have it back, so I’m happy for those good people from Manitoba.  You may not like their city, but you’ll damn sure like the people.

Here’s to hoping they call ‘em the Winnipeg Phoenix. The team has risen from the ashes once again!

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Brendan Shanahan, NHL Disciplinarian

Beginning in the 2011-2012, Brendan Shanahan is going to take over for Colin Campbell as league disciplinarian.  This is, as a general statement, awesome.

Before I explain why I think so, I just gotta say: that job has to be done by a committee (I know, I’ve said this before) of one ex-player, one ex-referee, and one ex-coach/GM/front-office guy.  It’d be like scoring a boxing match, only you know you’re getting people from different walks of the same world, meaning you’d probably reach some fairly appropriate consequence.  I have no idea why Gary Bettman is so opposed to that obvious strategy.

But if you’re going to pick one guy, they couldn’t have picked a better one to do it.  Shanahan, throughout his playing days, was a widely respected player.  On top of that, he was a nice mix of physical player and goal-scorer so I think he’ll have a better understanding than anyone about what’s across the line and what isn’t.  And, it’s great that he’s recently left the game, so he understands the “new” NHL better than someone else would.

The bottom line is, the game is evolving - speed and size are increasing while our awareness of safety is too, so it’s not an easy job.  It’s good that Shanahan is going into the job as a respected man, because hopefully that will help people respect his decisions more.  It’s a sad reality, but this job could (will?) hurt his reputation, as overly bias fans cry bias at him, until every fan base feels wronged at some point.

And that’s the bad part of him having recently played – now every suspension or fine he does or doesn’t give is going to come attached with “OF COURSE he didn’t suspend the guy that plays for his old team.” “OF COURSE he didn’t suspend his old teammate.” OF COURSE he suspended the guy on the team he always hated.” “OH SHOCKER, no suspension for the guy on Tampa because he’s friends with Yzerman.”

Shanahan won’t let those biases affect his rulings – he knows he’s under the spotlight, and more importantly, he’ll want to do a right and honest job to keep the game safe, but that won’t stop folks from lighting him up.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.  I’m thinking they got the perfect man for the job.

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Okay, that’s a lot of words for one day!  Thanks for stopping by.

A Terrific Hockey Video, Quick Rant on NCAA Rules

 

New Hockey Primetime: On defending star players, and adjusting to their style of play

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So, earlier today Rob Pizzo tweeted a video that Greg Wyshynski had sent him, and he passed in along to his followers.  I had to do the same, because holy shit is it funny.  That’s probably all the prelude it needs.

Ahhh, that’s some great stuff isn’t it? (Well, for one of the two fanbases, anyway.)

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The Glambourne Project, part five!

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Also, if you’d like to hear myself and co-host of Hockey Unfiltered Todd Lewis prattle on about the Stanley Cup finals, you can do so here.

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I wanna weigh in on something different today:

I’m sure most people have heard about the Ohio State football players that were suspended for trading merchandise and signatures for tattoos?  I’d like to go on record as saying I’d have done that in a heartbeat in college (though not for tattoos).  The rules on student-athletes are stupid.

You’re broke in college.  Some players are having their education paid for which is awesome.  But during those four years as an NCAA athlete, you don’t have time to work a job on top of taking 15 credits a semester and training and practicing and travelling and playing games.  My stipend from the school, after paying rent/utilities left me with like, a couple hundred bucks per four month semester.  Go crazy, son. 

I happened to have parents who recieved my phone call “hey I need ______” and they would generally put money in my account.  I was blessed.  But if I were, as an ex-Ohio State player said today, a broke kid who wasn’t nearly so lucky as to have parents with the opportunity to do that, I’m not sure what I would’ve done besides eat at booster families houses (after filing the correct paperwork!), get a meal card from the school, and never do anything fun.

On top of that, those guys KNEW their school was making money hand-over-fist on them (where mine certainly wasn’t).  It couldn’t have felt very fair.

Knowing that in my situation that I would’ve, say, brought in a hockey stick for a free tab at the bar one night or something, there’s no doubt in my mind I would’ve done the same thing those players did at “The” Ohio State University.

I’m only the ten billionth person to weigh in on this, I just thought I’d take a second to say it’s ridiculous that a player can’t capitalize on their success in any way financially in college.  It shouldn’t be a big deal for a guy to swap a little ink on paper for ink on arm.

(Note: once you’re getting into like, cars ‘n’ stuff, it’s a touch ridiculous.  But getting some perks off your name shouldn’t be a big deal.)

….Oh, and by the way? Game one of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight, Atlanta moved to Winnipeg and Colin Campbell is no longer the league’s disciplinarian. But that’s all for tomorrow’s presumably lengthy blog. Tune in next time!

7 Questions For….Well, Me, About The Stanley Cup Final

 

New Puck Daddy: How travel affects players differently, what effect it could have on the Stanley Cup Final (Puck Daddy)

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I generally don’t write stuff for other hockey sites, but I thought this would be a fun way to generate a post for today.  Russian hockey blogger Nikolay Dudaev asked if I’d answer a few questions for his hockey blog (which you can find here, and is very much in Russian), and I obliged.

I left the questions as he wrote them, because I love how you can hear his accent in them, in some strange way.

Let’s talk Stanley Cup Final!

1. When it became clear that Boston and Vancouver are in the Final what have you felt then?

I felt pumped, because it was the exact the matchup I wanted for both entertainment value, and because I predicted it so it helps me look like I know what I’m talking about.  Hockey predictions are essentially just taking a stab in the dark (I hope that translates weird in Russian) and hoping you get lucky, and I’ve been exactly that in playoffs this year.

Here are the storylines I’m excited about: How will the Sedins perform, how will Luongo perform, will Lucic be a big factor while playing in his hometown VanCity, will Malhotra come back, can Thomas keep it up and….um…….can Kesler clinch the Conn Smythe?  (Also: the potential for the Cup to go back to Canada is cool.)

2. What are your feelings and intuition about the final?

You can check out my explanation of why I think this on Puck Daddy today or tomorrow (not sure when the staff predictions piece runs), but I have the Canucks winning in FIVE.

3. Please name 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of each team?

Ha, this feels homework-y now.

BRUINS STRENGTHS

1. Depth at forward – From top to bottom, this team doesn’t have a bad line.

2. Goaltending – Tim Thomas is likely going to win his second Vezina, and he’s currently having the 12th best statistical playoff run of any goaltender in NHL history (save percentage wise).

3. 5-on-5 play – the Bruins owned this stat in the regular season, and are leading the playoffs in goal differential while even strength.

 BRUINS WEAKNESS

First off, you don’t get to the Stanley Cup Finals if you have three glaring weaknesses, so I’m gonna reach here for the sake of the exercise.

1. Power play - this one clearly had to go first. It’s operating at 8.2% after having a GOOD series. Lack of pure snipers means they rely on shots, screens and rebounds, AKA a lotta luck (meaning it’ll get hot and cold). Also, when you’re relying on the things I just listed and you trade for a PP QB who HATES shooting (Kaberle), taint a good thing.

2. Penalty kill – hey, I had to stretch “special teams” into two points. 79.4% won’t cut it against the Canucks big dogs.

2. Depth at D – Obviously Zdeno Chara is amazing, and Seidenberg’s been awesome, but their bottom few guys get just a “meh” (as is the case with almost every team).

CANUCKS STRENGTHS

1. Top-end scoring – there’s no bigger reason to fear the Canucks than the Sedin brothers.  They’re effing amazing.

2. Goaltending – Luongo is the hardest-done-by goaltender I’ve ever seen in my life as a hockey fan.  That list I linked to, showing Tim Thomas’ amazing post-season? Luongo’s on it twice, once for this season.

3. Depth at defence – the Canucks have used eight capable defenders in playoffs so far. I can’t remeber ever seeing a group of six as solid from top to bottom as this team has.

CANUCKS WEAKNESSES

1. Stats – the Bruins have scored more goals and given up fewer in playoffs so far. They also have a lower 5-on-5 goal differential than the B’s. It’s not that the ‘Nucks numbers have been bad, but “weakness” is relative.  They’re “weaker” than the B’s in those areas so far.

2. Depth at forward – again, I’m reaching here, this is all relative to the B’s. Granted, Samuelsson and Malhotra have been out for Vancouver, but in playoffs so far it’s safe to say the Bruins 4th line (who is it, Kelly, Campbell and Paille or Peverly?) is superior to names like Oreskovich, Hodson, Tambellini or whoever it is the Canucks are going with. ….like I said, I’m reaching.

3. Um…They’re stupid – I dunno, this team is really f***king good.

4. What do you think will be the most interesting opposition? Between what players?

I think a Kesler/Lucic battle, if they do play each other, would be must-watch stuff.  Mostly because Kesler can physically dominate most of his opponents, but wouldn’t be able to with Lucic.  So we’d get to find out if he really is all snarl, or only when he’s the tough guy in the scenario.

5. What do you think will be the determinant factor for winning the series?

Sadly, injuries.  It’d be awesome if both teams were at their best, but this time of year, that’s pretty unlikely.  You just hope none of the key players get hurt.

6. What is your prediction for the series?

Hmm, I think I misunderstood a question above (where I said Canucks in five).  So to belatedly answer the above question, I’ll say my feelings about the series are “excited, eager, and hopeful” – I would quite like to see the Cup in British Columbia.

7. What do you think how many more grey hair will appear on your head?:)

97, which would bring me to a total of 97.

Thanks to Nickolay for including me in the group of writers he’s polled for his site.

Agree or disagree with anything, friends?

Column: Bruins A Tough Team For Canucks To Prepare For

 

New USA Today: Bruins are a tough team for the Canucks (or anyone) to prepare for (USA Today - up this afternoon)

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Happy Memorial Day!

Vancouver’s Pride, 5 Compelling Storylines Heading Into Tonight

 

New Puck Daddy: Five things that make tonight’s Bruins/Lightning game compelling, must-watch stuff

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I’ve been meaning to put this up for like…. I dunno, a few days now.  My boy Jeremy Brown (who’s great on twitter, by the way, follow him here) is the gent who directed this Tupelo Honey video (he also looks like the bearded fella in the video).  If you like it as I do, feel free to let the guy know.  If you don’t, well, just keep that to yourself.

 

 Good stuff.

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Speaking of Vancouver (wait, I wasn’t?), if you haven’t seen the two videos of Yaletown when Kesler tipped in the goal to tie the game (and when Bieksa scored), than that’s a must too, I got chills.  Here’s the link to the Puck Daddy story, and here are the videos.

Kesler’s goal:

And Bieksa’s:

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I got a great phone call from my Boston-born-and-raised brother in law this morning, already in a near-panic over tonight’s Bruins game – turns out Bruins fans aren’t huge fans of Kaberle so far?  …..Yeah that was an understatement.

Man – how can an NHL all-star underachieve so badly (I guess it’s someone like me who’s supposed to have an answer to that, but I don’t)?  His play has been a little better over the past game or two, but overall, it really hasn’t been great. 

The only thing I’d disagree with most people on: it hasn’t been particularly awful either (aside from one egregious turnover).

The thing is, when he doesn’t put up the points it’s easy to think he’s been worse than he has – he’s never been a shooter, so when the pressure mounts and he passes up open looks it’s easy to think he’s doing that because he’s timid, when really he’s always done that.  And actually, his corsi is one of the higher on the teams (corsi is basically plus/minus but for generating shots instead of actual goals).

So he can still redeem himself.  Maybe tonight will be his night.

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Join me and the crew over at Puck Daddy for some game seven chat tonight.  Should be a doozy!

Nathan Horton, Lightning Fans, Are Idiots

 

New Puck Daddy: The Bruins need to stop chewing valium before games (they’ve given up a goal in the first 70 seconds three times in the past five games)

New Hockey Primetime: My running diary of last night’s Bruins/Bolts game. Sometimes I think I’m funny.

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I feel like I shouldn’t even be writing about what I’m about to write, because it’ll only make it a bigger deal, but….

Nathan Horton sprayed a fan with a waterbottle after last night’s loss to Tampa, then threw it at him.  That link there will take you to the Puck Daddy post on it.

The problem here is two-fold: one, is that there’s a precedent for this kind of stuff.  You just can’t do it anymore.  Players and coaches have started getting suspended for it, and the NHL even added a rule to make that stuff an extra no-no this year.

Two, is that I don’t blame Horton one bit, I only wish it had hit that stupid fan in the forehead and split him for stitches.

Really, we’re throwing plastic drum thingy’s at players, some of whom don’t wear visors?  Real fucking bright.

Someone, by the grace of Satan, just happened to be filming the Bruins coming off the ice, and now we’ve got a real pickle on our hands.  This was something that should’ve just happened in the aftermath of a tough, passionate playoff loss, never been seen, and ended there.  But now it can’t.  And now by writing this, I’m only further making a deal out of it, so the rumblings start, and eventually the fan-clamouring makes it so the NHL has to act (unless they use common sense).

And then we end up with a tainted game seven, because the Bruins are without their biggest off-season free agent acquisition in the biggest game of the year because of something that happened OFF the ice.

I would like to take a second to note that Nathan Horton just can’t stoop to that level there (especially given the potential consequences), but you go through the most disappointing day at work ever (literally ever – this is his first kick at playoffs), and have someone throw stuff at you.  I always expected the taunts; that’s part of being an athlete.  But most athletes are aggressive people by nature, and when something you don’t expect like this happens, it’s tough to stay composed.  He’s a fiery guy.

So now the ball’s in the League’s court.  Let me ask you this, Tampa fans:  Do you REALLY want to see one of the other team’s best players get suspended for game seven for something completely unrelated to the anything that happened in a game? 

My guess is you don’t.  I want to see the two most evenly matched teams I think I’ve ever seen play a playoff series (both teams have exact records of 46-25-11 in the regular season, and 11-6 in the playoffs) both skate into their one hundredth game of the season (yes, the records just so happen to be dead even after 99 games – thanks to Katie Baker for tweeting that today) at full strength.

It’s too great a game seven scenario to mess up. 

If he did get sat down, it doesn’t mean Boston won’t win, it doesn’t mean Tampa’s a lock, it just means we don’t get to see the two teams play with the best rosters they can field.  And we, as fans, deserve that.

Man I hope he doesn’t get suspended.

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Thanks to those of you who joined in on the live chat last night!  Was a lot of fun.

If you’re intersted, here’s a horrifically curse-filled rant on why Drew Magary is allowed to wear shorts if he goddamn wants to.

Bruins/Lightning Game Six Live Chat!

Post Taken Down – Apologies

 

Hockey Primetime: No column today as I’m going to be live blogging tonight’s game for HPT.  Come back at 8PM EST and join me here on Bourne’s Blog or over on their site - BYOB!

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My apologies on having to take down today’s guest post – I had planned on running that today (it was terrific, as the hundreds of you who read it in the first couple hours can attest), so I’m a little behind the eight ball now.

I guess there was some disagreement within the family about whether it should have been posted or not, and in the end, I think it’s just easiest to leave it at that.

If I learned anything from it that I can pass on: the pituitary gland plays a huge part in Post-Concussion Syndrome, and our writer contests that it should be checked in all cases where PCS extends beyond 30 days. 

 Anyway, sorry again about that.  Here’s an interesting link to help you pass the time:

New York Times - Can conjoined twins share one mind?

And here are three pictures, the first of which is a picture of a picture.  

The story: at a charity golf tournament last week, we basically drank beer on the course all day, then came in for the dinner and raffle.  You could buy these sheets with a bunch of little perforated-edged numbers on them, and one big one.  You put the little numbers in the bucket in front of what you wanted, and kept the big one.  I referenced the beer, because I skipped the trips and hotel stays and massages to win…. THIS:

Now that’s a badass kitty pic.  Bri hates me.

Next, my new carrrrr (still needs tint, as I mentioned):

And last, a pretty picture of a golf course in San Tan Valley (Queen Creek), AZ – Encanterra.

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