June 3, 2010
Now For The Hockey Part

Huge win for the Flyers last night.  A couple of points on last nights game.

The first being that Every game has been decided by one goal.  This series is shaping up to be one of the best Stanley Cup Finals in many years.  For me, and many other Detroit fans the series features a clear bad guy, Chicago and therefore we pull with all our might for Philly.  I don’t particularly like the Flyers but over the past three games they have grown on me immensely to the point where I screamed like a wild man when Claude Giroux scored the game winner last night five minutes into the overtime session.  Chicago is still the favorite but the dynamic of this series has given me a team to cheer for, a team of destiny if you will.  With the star power of Carter, Gagne and Briere to the grinding play of Hartnell and Carcillo combined with the play of Michael Leighton the Flyers have given me interest in this series I never thought possible.

Second point, Chris Pronger is the man!  No wonder my dad hates him so much.  He is the kind of guy you despise until he is wearing your teams jersey.  The man has a blistering point shot, can get into anyones head and quite frankly doesn’t make defensive mistakes.  I went into this series conflicted because I couldn’t stand the idea of Chris Pronger lifting the Stanley Cup again.  Now it is clear that he deserves it.  As far as he stands with the Wings, he is 2-4 in playoff series against Detroit, and Nick Lindstrom literally made his heart stop in 1998 when he shot a puck into Pronger’s chest, causing the Blues captain to enter cardiac arrest.  Detroit’s caused him enough grief so I can live with him winning another cup.

The third and final point brings us to last nights Scapegoat of the Game.  Last night’s scapegoat honors goes to Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Kieth.  Statistically, Kieth had a good game.  He scored a goal, was even in the plus/minus and took four shots.  However, he did just sign a 13 year contract worth a bagillion dollars.  He is supposed to be the shutdown defender that never makes a mistake.  He made several costly turnovers in his own end and did not play like a future Norris trophy winner should.  

There is another game in Philadelphia and I just found out today that I will be in Philly June 11th, the same day of game 7 if necessary.  If it gets that far the city will be electric!  

Thats all for now… GO FLYERS!

11:22am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKydMeXb
Filed under: 2010 Stanely Cup Playoffs Philadelphia Flyers chicago blackhawks Chris Pronger Duncan Kieth NHL 
June 3, 2010
The Hockey Gods Shine Through But…

Philadelphia did get a big win last night in the Wachovia Center but there was much bigger news that made the city of Detroit cry out in pain and caught the eyes and tugged on the heartstrings of millions throughout the country.

Armando Galarraga was one out away from throwing the 21st perfect game in MLB history.  He had already sent 26 in a row down, receiving spectacular defensive support from the likes of Brandon Inge and Austin Jackson.  However, all that was lost when umpire Jim Joyce without a doubt blew the call that would have been the 27th out.  Miguel Cabrera made the throw to Galarraga who was covering first base and Galarraga had the ball, foot on the bag at least a half a step before Indians shortstop Jason Donald reached first.  Regardless, Joyce called him safe and the entire city of Detroit held their heads in their hands and cursed the man who had just made that horrific call.  

The only person who remained silent was the man of the hour, Armando Galarraga.  While all 17,000 umpires who paid to watch the game booed and the players on the Detroit bench protested, walked back to the mound and prepared to face the next batter.  

Now Galarraga will go down as the first pitcher to retire 28 batters in a 9 inning game.  

Despite blowing the call, Jim Joyce displayed nothing but class in his post game interviews.  He thought he had the call right and he owned up to the monumental mistake he had made.  He had the gumption to walk into the Detroit clubhouse and apologize to Galarraga immediately after he saw the replay.  

Jim Joyce now has the unfortunate task of calling todays 1pm start from behind the plate, needless to say he will be hearing plenty of boos from those in attendance, but if he goes out and favors Detroit it will be a shame.  He is a great umpire and should not let this get in the way of his umpiring.  

So many mixed feelings came out of this ordeal and all I can say is, best of luck to Jim Joyce and GO TIGERS!

10:33am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKydMClg
Filed under: Detroit Tigers Jim Joyce Armando Galarraga MLB Perfect game blown 
June 1, 2010
Cheesesteak Is Way Better than Deep Dish Pizza

I just got done flipping through my high school year book and all I can think about is how I should never do that again. 

Chicago took a two game series lead over Philadelphia tonight and I wanted to quick comment on my past predictions.  I still hold that it will be a six game Chicago win.  The Hawks won’t hold their insane road record, mainly because Philly is too proud.   The games have been super tight and they will remain that way for the rest of the series.  So far I’m doing good.  However, the whole “low scoring” thing was not so accurate.  In game one both teams jumped over the bar I set at four goals a game with the final score being 6-5.  This of course brings us to the Scapegoat of the Game for Game 1.  Without doubt, Michael Leighton was the scapegoat, getting pulled after allowing his fifth goal of the night.  He looked wobbly in net and could not find a handle on the puck, giving up several juicy rebounds.  Philly had the game in hand throughout most of the first and part of the second period, but Leighton found a way to give Chicago momentum and eventually caused them the game.

No scapegoat for Game two yet, it was a hard fought game and it seemed like both sides put in a honest effort with out any severe bonehead moves.  As Philly fans prep to see their first Stanley Cup finals game since 1997, the team is still looking for their first Stanley Cup finals victory since May 28th 1987, when they defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in game six, only to lose game seven 3-1 three days later.   The Flyers have had one other apperance in the cup finals since ‘87 but were swept by the Detroit Red Wings. 

12:54am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKycu4NK
(Notes: 1)
  
May 29, 2010
Here We Go Now!

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals!  The boys are coming over to watch on the 57 inch flat screen and it should be a blast.  I really hope Philly shuts Chicago down and makes every fan in the United Center cry… not likely to happen tho.

Chicago has been a team of destiny from the start of these playoffs.  Only losing one road game all playoffs so far, Jonathan Toews has been stellar and Antti Niemi is playing lights out.  Philly has obviously made an incredible run, but as Captain Mike Richards showed at the end of the Eastern Conferece Finals by grabbing the Prince of Whales trophy and bringing it to his teammates, the Flyers are just happy to be in the cup finals.  Chicago has been a top dog all year round and Barry Melrose has been riding their collective cock since day 1, and god knows Barry Melrose could never be wrong!

Anyways, I look forward to a physical series and a tightly contested matchup with the Blackhawks taking it in six games.  Four of the games will be decided by one goal and no game will have one team score more than four goals in it.  Theres going to be a lot of chippy play and it should be fun to watch. Nonetheless, the Blackhawks will walk away with their first Stanley Cup since the year Nineteen hundred and sixtey one.

7:48pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKycSb0Q
May 25, 2010
What Does Gary Betman Do With This Mess?

If Gary Bettman hasn’t already blown his brains out, he might as well now.  When Montreal went down last night in flames to the Philadelphia Flyers, the entire country of Canada lost interest in the NHL playoffs.  America had already lost interest, with the early exits of Pittsburgh, Washington and Detroit.  You can forget about the ratings, the only people that care are Philly fans, Chicago fans and people like me who hate Chicago so much that we will watch just to see them lose. Not a likely case though.

Despite the utter disappointment that was the Eastern and Western Conference finals, we must move on!  To do so we must look for a truly interesting story line, something that has not occurred in many years.  A good place to start would be the fact that the Flyers came out of a 3-0 series hole to beat the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Semi Finals. 

Further analysis will show that the Flyers had to win a shootout on the last game of the regular season, just to get into the playoffs.  Then they went on to smush Marty the Great and the Devils in 5 games.  This happened without Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and Ian Lapperiere.  They did the unthinkable in beating Boston four straight, after loosing three straight.  Halfway through the series they regained Gagne but lost starting goalie Brian Boucher.  In the conference finals, Carter and Lapperiere came back and the Flyers rolled over the Montreal Canadiens, who had disposed of top seed Washington and defending champs Pittsburgh. 

What a run the Flyers have had to the Cup finals.  I saw a great sign last night that read “From Shootout to the Stanley Cup Finals”.  What an amazing feat for the Flyers and the city of Philadelphia should pay there respects to their team. 

That being said, I still would have liked to see the Habs put up more of a fight.  I have to place a huge scapegoat tag on P.K. Subban.  The rookie defender reached Brad Stuart status in games 4 and 5, turning everything he touched into a disaster. 

Nevertheless, we move towards a Blackhawks v. Flyers final and I say…

Go Flyers? 

3:22pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKybgsDq
Filed under: NHL 2010 Stanely Cup Playoffs Philadelphia Flyers P.K. Subban chicago blackhawks boston bruins montreal canadiens 
May 21, 2010
DA DaDa Da dada Da dadadadada

Thats my best typed impression of Chicago’s celebration song after every goal scored at a home game.  

Habs win big behind solid goaltending from Jaroslav Halak and excellent play from Mike Cammalleri, who registered his league leading 13th goal last night.  I feel like every time I talk about Montreal it always comes back to either Halak or Cammalleri.  Halak has had the kind of performance in these playoffs that will earn him the Conn Smythe trophy regardless of whether the Habs win the cup or not.  

And of course no contest would be complete with out the Scapegoat of the Game.  Last night’s scapegoat came in the form of Flyers defenseman Matt Carle.  Carle was a abysmal -3 last night and made several errors throughout the course of play.  He interfered with his own netminder, who was trying to follow the puck as it when around the end boards, leading to Mike Cammalleri’s goal and also misplayed a puck with his hand, which led to Brian Gionta’s makeshift breakaway goal. 

I would loved to have named Chris Pronger as last nights scapegoat, seeing that he turned over the puck in his end, which led to a goal, and also was a -3, but Carle played worse.  Michael Leighton didn’t help his own cause either.

There is now life in Montreal for the first time in nearly a week.  The opening ceremony was breathtaking and the fans energized the Habs skaters to a huge win.  As always, GO HABS GO!!

Tonight, expect to hear that Chicago theme song a lot… they will be scoring plenty.

Much Love, 

Bagel

10:52am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKyawcRK
(Notes: 1)
  
May 19, 2010
This Can’t Happen

If the Blackhawks and the Flyers play each other in the Stanley Cup finals I will not watch.  Unfortunately a Blackhawks v. Flyers Final is becoming more realistic as the games continue.  Both teams took a commanding 2-0 lead as both series switch locations.  Philly held serve as the Canadiens lick their wounds on their way back to Montreal, trying to figure out how to beat backup goalie Michael Leighton.  The Habs have yet to put one past him this series

For the Scapegoat of the Game (or day in this case), no doubt it goes to Evgeni Nabokov.  Dude played horrible, not covering the bottom of the net on Dustin Byufglien’s deflection goal, getting beat glove side by Andrew Ladd, who has a mediocre shot at best, and three of Chicago’s four goals came from shots just inside the blueline.  

Nabokov better get ready for some serious heckling once he steps inside the United Center.

What Chicago has been able to do on the road during these playoffs is simply amazing.  They have won their last seven road games, with their only loss coming to Nashville in their first road game of these playoffs.  They have been significantly worse at home, which is fine by me.  The more unhappy fans leaving the United Center the better.  

As always much love all around.  

Oh yah, does anyone know anything about Amway Global.  I’m thinking about opening a business through them.

Bagel

2:37pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKyabI4_
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: 2010 Stanely Cup Playoffs NHL san jose sharks Evgeni Nabokov Philadelphia Flyers montreal canadiens chicago blackhawks 
May 18, 2010
Disapointment

Now let me clear my throat.  A couple of days ago I witnessed a mind boggling performance from the San Jose Sharks.  Despite spending 10 minutes on the powerplay, opposed to the Blackhawks 0 minutes on the powerplay, and the 44 shots against Blackhawks goalie Antti Niemi, they only mustard one goal in Game one.  

This looked all to similar to the way the Detroit Red Wings played against these Sharks.  This is an unfortunate loss for the Sharks, Chicago comes in and steals home ice, the offense looked stagnant and failed to capitalize on Chicago turnovers in the offensive zone.  Granted, Niemi played lights out, but with the likes of Marleau, Thorton, Heatley and Pavalski, there should never be a lack of scoring.  

To Niemi’s credit, San Jose was relentless, generating several scoring opportunities throughout the game.  Never have I seen more shots get through traffic and not go in the net.  A bit of bad luck for San Jose? Sure.  But they also failed to slam the puck home several times.  They need to get more mustard behind their one-timed shots.

On to Philly, where the Flyers rolled.  The Flyers scored dirty goals, and may have found a chink in the great Halak’s armor.  There was constantly a Flyer standing in front of the crease, screening the goaltender.  Whether it was Scott Hartnell, Dan Carcillo or any other man wearing Orange and Black.  Halak was out of sorts when he couldn’t see around the screen and led to rebound goals, goals Halak never saw and eventually it got to him, causing him to get run midway through the second period.  

There will be no scapegoat for these two games.  Unless I wanted to target the entire Sharks team, and there is no such thing as a scapegoat in a 6-0 blowout.  The most frustrating aspect of these two games was that I am cheering for the Sharks and Canadiens.  Both games were very hard to watch.  San Jose played well enough to win but was robbed by excellent goalie play and a stroke of bad luck, while the Habs got whooped from start to finish.  Tonight can’t get any worse.

Much Love,

Bagel

11:28am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKyaO64v
Filed under: NHL 2010 Stanely Cup Playoffs chicago blackhawks san jose sharks Philadelphia Flyers montreal canadiens antti niemi 
May 15, 2010
Watch Me While I Eat My Words

A couple of weeks ago I made the statement that both Eastern Conference Semifinals matchups would be boring.  Well I am here to say that I know NOTHING!!

Not only did I say both series would be boring, but I picked the wrong team in both occasions.  The Flyers finished off a historical comeback, winning game seven 4-3.  The game winning goal went to Simon Gagne.  The fact that his presence produced four straight wins for the Flyers shows what he means to this team.  Despite the absence of Jeff Carter and the most recent knee injury to Brian Boucher, Philly was able to come all the way back.

This of course was with the help of bad luck and bad defense by tonight’s Scapegoat of the Game.  Tonight’s award goes to the defensive duo of Andrew Ference and Matt Hunwick.  Both players logged barely over 13 minutes of ice time and still managed to have two defensive breakdowns leading to goals.  Philly’s second goal came on a bad angle rebound attempt by Scott Hartnell.  Ference stood there like a house on the side of the road as Hartnell ripped the puck over Tukka Rask’s right shoulder.  The game tying goal, scored by Danny Briere, saw Ference looking like a fool as Briere blew by him in front of the net and wrap around without any resistance from Ference.  From there, Briere threw the puck towards the net, it bounced of Hunwick’s stick and into the net.  The tandem was on the ice for Boston’s third goal but had no impact on the Lucic snipe goal.

Back to the part about me eating my words.  Pittsburgh lost, didn’t see that happening.  The great Sidney Crosby disappeared for a five game stretched and let Montreal hang around.  This is why you never want to go into a one game series up against a hot goalie.  Halak shut the Penguins down and Cammalleri did what he does best, score, a lot.  The same thing happened to Detroit last year against Pittsburgh in the Finals.  So serves you right Pens, you should have finished them when you had the chance, but instead you’re scheduling your next tee time.

Philadelphia made history tonight.  It is an incredibly challenging feat to win four games in a row against a playoff caliber team, especially when you’ve got one foot out the door.  Simon Gagne’s name should be thrown into Conn Smythe consideration if the Flyers can move on to the Cup finals.  

A couple scary parting thoughts.  The seventh seeded Flyers have home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference finals.  Also, former Red Wing Ville Leino is still playing hockey, along with Chris Pronger, the most hated man in hockey.  Good for those guys for going to the Flyers and now their good play is paying off and they have a chance to play for a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Series previews to come,

Much Love,

Bagel

12:28am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKyZmRPw
May 13, 2010
I Hate Moving

I am currently in the process of moving out of my college dorm room and back home to Michigan.  What an inopportune time to do so with all the great hockey that is being played.  

I am soooo pumped that the Habs won.  I love that Philly brought it all the way back to game seven, even tho I still like Boston to win.  I am incredibly dissapointed in the Canucks play.  They are a better team than they showed and they deserved to give their fans a better effort at home.  

One thing to think about before I take off…  In the Eastern Conference finals, the eight seed looks to play the seven or six seed, meaning the winner of tomorrow nights games between the Flyers and Bruins will get home ice against Montreal in the East.  In the west it’s 1 v. 2.  Who do you think is goin to be the heavy favorite going into the Cup finals?

Just a thought,

Bagel

12:33pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZqAJKyZVyvS
Filed under: NHL 2010 Stanely Cup Playoffs Boston Bruins Philadelphia Flyers vancouver canucks montreal canadiens 
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