We Have Our Final Matchup

Well…that’s that I suppose.

I could get all angry and critical at this point. I could yell and curse about our lack of energy. I could complain to the referees (the penalty on Kronwall was already ridiculous enough though). I could yell at Huet for a ridiculous game four. I could shout about the stupid, pointless penalties we took. I could criticize the defense for not knocking that pesky Holmstrom out of the way. Or I could, plain and simple, scream at the entire team that we, straight up, did not show up. But, I’m not going to do any of those things. I will though commend Detroit on their skill and general dominance throughout the entire series.

But, Lord, I am hoping the Pens take it to them. So I’ll be putting on my Pittsburgh hat and jumping on the bandwagon once again this year. Who’s ready for a rematch?

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The Battle of NPI: Win the Cup, Lose a Co-Blogger?

(Mostly x-posted to No Pun Intended)

The Cup Finals are finally here and as luck would have it, it's come down to my Detroit Red Wings and Elly's Pittsburgh Penguins. As luck would further have it, the two of us will be hanging around in hockey hotbed Toronto this weekend trying to sway Sherry's unfavorable opinions of our teams. (Hey, it's only fair, last season we had to listen to 1,001 reasons to pick the Ottawa Senators all weekend.)

Regardless of the outcome, we at NPI think the highlight of this series is that it is going to have to be some amazing hockey. The two best teams in the league facing each other head on, the likes of which each other has never seen - not since preseason. Whichever team takes this series is going to have to be nearly perfect to do it. I fully admit to not knowing as much about the Pittsburgh Penguins as I maybe should, but in matching up the teams it's astonishing just how even these Cup Finals look like they may be.

Offensively, everyone is talking about the one-two punches of Sid the Kid and Evgeni Malkin vs. the Eurotwins and Selke finalists, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. There's basically no arguing these are the two most exciting, skilled combinations in hockey. Both duos have 40 point between them (20 goals and 20 assists for Pav and Hank, 13 and 37 for Sid and Geno), and both have proven themselves absolutely deadly. Perhaps because neither of the Eurotwins singlehandedly saved hockey (I kid), they don't seem to get the league-wide attention Crosby and Malkin do - but perhaps this will be the season that ends that. The Penguins pair is glamorous and offensively gifted, but the Red Wings duo excels at both ends of the ice, as obvious by their twin Selke nominations, and may be the more well-rounded. Either way, neither can be taken lightly.

Of course these aren't the only weapons for either team - Pittsburgh is finally getting their money's worth out of 20-point Marian Hossa, and the Wings, until he was sidelined with concussion symptoms, had a 12 goals in 11 games scorer in the Mule, Johan Franzen, as well as Tomas Holmstrom being a pest in front of the net. And of course something must be mentioned of the WWGRD phenomenon creating Gary Roberts - just not sure what that something should be (I'm a fan of the bracelets, for the record - but I'm going to have to boycott them through this series). Each team has established secondary scoring and substantial depth.

Both teams look strong on the defensive front. The Penguins who were originally thought to have a suspect blueline going into the playoffs added Hal Gill to compliment Sergei Gonchar among others. The Wings, however have the unflappable Nicklas Lidstrom (if they take the Cup this year it will be his fourth with the team, an honor he shares with the Grind Line and Holmstrom) and his new partner Brian Rafalski who combined are at least among, if not, the best defensive pairs in hockey. And then there's Niklas Kronwall and new addition Brad Stuart - don't call the Wings a soft team. These two will hunt you down. They will find you. And they will smear you across the boards. This defense has been a huge part of the Red Wings' success - they've seriously limited their opponents shots on goal, and if you can't get the puck on the net, you can't put it in, either.

And finally, the goaltending. Veteran Chris Osgood, a cup winner but often criticized as being the winning goaltender on a team that could have taken the cup with a pylon in net, fighting to prove his goaltending worth against relative newcomer, though not without any credibility to his name, Marc-Andre Fleury. Osgood (10-2, 1.60 GAA, .931 SV%) stole the start from Dominik Hasek and has been stellar ever since, but surely the Wings defense has played a huge part in that. Fleury (12-2, 1.70 GAA, .938 SV%) has been the Pens go-to goalie from the beginning and likely the stronger overall between the two, not to mention he's managed an admirable 3 shutouts so far, but he's also got inexperience working against him. Osgood should be on a mission - if he takes the Cup this year will it redeem him against all the trash talk he's heard since his last victory? The worst goalie to win a Cup is one thing, but I'm not sure you can argue the worst goalie to win two cups.

When it comes down to it, either team could have the advantage. Which will wind up on top, the youthful Penguins or the renewed Red Wing dynasty? Will Elly and I stay friends? Will the series be everything that's being predicted of it? We can only hope.

If you don't hear from either of us ever again following this weekend, I'm sure Sherry will have news on our hair-pulling, trash-talking, beer-consuming weekend exploits and the violent deaths they ended in - cheer for the Wings in my memory, will you?

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Stars Take Down Sharks

This is so awesome. I love the fact that I get to write this right now. I don't think anyone expected the Stars to pull off even a first round victory, after the March they had. Instead, the Stars dispatched of the Ducks in six games. And then they drew the Sharks, another Pacific division rival, and almost swept them. Sure, it may have taken a pretty monumental four overtime game to do it, but man, playoff OT hockey is SO AWESOME. More behind the jump...

It's often said that the Pacific is the toughest division in hockey. I would tend to agree, if only for the presence of the Stars, Ducks, and Sharks (no offense to the Coyotes - you know I love Bryz; or the Kings - CKim knows that I've got a fondness for Anze Kopitar that can't be explained). The Stars, Ducks, and Sharks lately have constantly battled for top dog in the Pacific, and the fact that the Stars came out of this one is pretty awesome.

Marty Turco and Brenden Morrow, STARS of round two. Marty Turco continues to make amazing saves and stand on his head to keep his team in it, and Brenden is always there to make that play when you need it. He's truly an inspirational captain, I must say. I mean, I don't know what's said in the locker room. Everything I've heard tells me that Brenden is the kind of captain that leads by example, which makes sense, as he is the guy who gives 3147801347089513% every night. Even Dave Tippett said, "And then I think about Brenden Morrow and I go 'Wow, I'm going to ask for 5 or 10-percent more from this guy? That's a lot!'"

Next up, the Detroit Red Wings. Although I'm quite nervous about this series, I'm also extremely excited. The Red Wings are an incredibly skilled team, and the Stars have always seemed to have a little bit of trouble at Joe Louis Arena. Will they be able to pull of the same thing they did in the first two rounds with two consecutive victories away from home? The Red Wings are facing a different Stars team than they were earlier in the season. This Stars team is brimming with confidence, skill, talent, inspiration, everything.

The Stars ask me to believe. I will.

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Weekly Topic 1: Let's Go...???

It's just so difficult, isn't it? There's so much at play here, and it's hard for me to decipher all of my feelings.

First of all, I have been programed at birth to hate the Islanders and the Devils. Being that the Islanders didn't make the playoffs and that the Rangers played the Devils in the first round, it was quite hard to put any team immediately on my "I hope you lose and lose bad" list. I also hate the Flyers, but I'll get to that later.

There are certain characteristics of teams I like. Original Six is an important one. Props to Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings for making the playoffs. But the Canadiens and the Red Wings happen to be the 1st seed in their divisions, and no one really like a front runner. The other problems with Original Six teams are that rivalries are in full swing. How can a self-respecting Rangers fan like myself root for the Boston Bruins?


And then the complications of the playoffs hit. If I root for the Bruins, and they win, the Rangers will likely play the Caps or Philly. If I root for the Habs, the Rangers will face more challenging opponents such as the Pens or the Canadiens. So I rooting for the Bruins so that the Rangers have a better chance of moving on.

And then there are gut feelings. Why am I rooting for the Avalanche over the Wild, while I hate how Colorado is trying to get an "old glory days" feel and I'm not a personal fan of broken-foot Forsberg over there? I couldn't tell you. I have gut feelings against the Penguins, too, although that stems from my gut feeling that they have been handed success just for being a franchise that is bad at life. Yet I still like Crosby better than Ovechkin. (I want a Sidney Crosby winter classic jersey for my birthday sooo soooo bad!)

Speaking of Ovechkin, I hate the Caps Cinderella story- and I'll be completely honest, I'm not sure why. They're playing the Flyers, who I also hate with passion, being from the Atlantic Division and just basically being violent and mean. Toss up here.

So now that I have eliminated cheering for any Eastern Conference team, I look towards the West. Not only do I know little to nothing about each of these teams, I just look at them and draw big question marks and "who cares" feelings beginning to arise. Plus, I do have some Eastern Conference pride. I'd like to say that I care if the Stars or San Jose go on... but I don't, not to mention both teams hurt my "no hockey south of the Mason-Dixon line" sensibilities.

Does California REALLY need three teams? Come on! And don't get me started on Floria.

Anyway. The point of this post?

Let's go Red Wings!... Original Six, all around talented team, and they want to be in the Eastern Conference anyway. They'll choke though. Don't they always?

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Dear Red Wings,

I love you. Change nothing.

(Except whatever it was you decided to eat before the game tonight. And uh, you're aware that 80s night doesn't mean you're supposed to play like you did in the 80s, too, right?)

PS is this my fault for gloating yesterday that we had only 8 less than double the Kings' point total?

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Head 2 Head Challenge - Tracy vs. Steph

The battle lines have been drawn, the faces have been painted and the jerseys have be donned. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves here, ladies and germs, this battle of epic proportions has only begun. There's still plenty of time for eyes to be gouged and hair to be pulled. What war has begun, you say? Only the most devastating war to ever have been fought in any arena from here to world's end (no, not the Johnny Depp movie). The battle of Wings vs. Yotes, and trust me, my dears, it's a bloody and dangerous battle.


We fought valiantly, we even thought we had it for a full period. The Wings wouldn't have any of it, though. Losing to the lowest life form was just unacceptable to them so after allowing the Yotes to get their hopes up; just toying with us, I'm sure; they smashed us back down to Earth with surprising speed and without us really even realizing that we were being schooled. I would be impressed if I weren't so pissed off. My dear Coyotes have a terrible knack for allowing me to think that we're going to win, only to pull the rug out from under me. It's quite frustrating.



Either way, the battle was fought and there was neither enough battle (on my side) nor enough blood (definitely on the Wings side) and so it was difficult to sit through. Between pissing off the Wings fans sitting around me to having text-message battle with Ms. Steph, herself (in between her blasphemy of switching to the Sox game of course) I got enough happiness to get me past the fact that my team was (once again) murderlized by the Wings.

I think I'm actually good with it, though. I knew going into this year that my team was going to stink like last weeks garbage and god knows that I've gotten way too used to getting spanked by the Wings for it to really bother me. Good game, Steph, even though you kept ditching your team for the Sox... we'll try again next time. :)

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So I'm no wings expert but,

How rad does Henrik Zetterberg's new shop look?

Free posters for the first 200 customers with "Red Hot" as the slogan, what more could a little Wings fanboi want?

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Sickening

Helene Elliott, the LA Times sports columnist, made a sports prediction during the Western Conference finals: The Ducks would beat the Wings.

Seems reasonable to me. I mean, isn't that what we read sport columns for? To get the writer's opinion on our team, or a hot series taking place, on the playoffs, etc? We might not always agree with what the writer is saying (in fact, I usually vehemently disagree) but its another forum to talk about our respective, beloved sports teams. And its entertainment.

Well, Helene's prediction garnered a vehement response all right, but a sexist, vulgar one as well. Here is just a sampling of the emails she got in response to her "prediction column", and she wrote about the response in today's LA Times:

"If Detroit wins, your gonna be gettiing a [ton] more emails from me you [prostitute]. Why don't you report on your own teams from now on. Like the Kings, where are they? Or the Lakers? Women should stick to writing articles about cooking and homemaking and NOT sports, cuz its obvious you have no idea what....you are talking about, [Don Imus word]."

"You have no idea what your baby ducks are in for! A woman writing about hockey in southern California! Leave the hockey to us sweetheart!"

"You are one cocky writer. I am going to remember that damn story and if the wings win the series, I'm gonna laugh in your face via e-mail. If there's one kind of writer I have no respect for, it's a writer exactly like you who writes worthless … like that.

"I'm surprised your man let you out of the kitchen long enough to write this article. You don't know much about sports, so you should stick to cleaning the house."

"Of course what do women know about hockey anyway. Go back to the kitchen and make me something to eat."

A good friend of mine is a hardcore UCLA Bruins fan, and when a Washington Post columnist neglected to put UCLA in a top rankings list for March Madness, she wrote him a email pointing out his mistake. Never in that email did she feel the need to address anything of a personal nature with him. Why would she? It had nothing to do with his writing.

I'd like to think these types of personal attacks on female writers (especially sports writers) will stop soon, but I just don't know that they will. However, I do think sites like HLOG are leading the way for this dumb, idiotic abuse to end. Women are just as legitimate sports writers as men, and if we go bake a quiche after we are done writing, its because we want to. And we can.

Thanks to Christy for the heads up.

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Choose Your Own Media Subplot Adventure!

The Ottawa Senators will have a minimum of 9 days off before the Stanley Cup Finals start. In the meantime, they await patiently at home, practicing their dance moves so as to stay sharp for whomever their dance partner will be. Will it be the Red Wings? Older, more experienced, so much wisdom to impart but may have to be home before Golden Girls reruns start? Or will it be the Ducks; young, energetic, full of youthful enthusiasm but let's face it, could probably beat you up if you looked at them the wrong way.

Whomever the Senators draw, it should be an interesting battle. Frankly, most people had doubts that the Red Wins' geriatric legs could get them past the Flames, let alone the high-flying [swimming?] Sharks. Now they're giving the Ducks a run for their money, and many believe that the Ducks have not been playing up to the level that their capable of. We can all sit here and run the numbers, and handicap the series player-by-player, position-by-position, as I am often prone to do. But what about the other side of the series? As we all know, hockey is a tough sell due to the general political correctness and the Melba Toast blandness of the characters involved. Therefore, every insignificant back-story and subplot must be taken into consideration when deciding which team would make for a more compelling final.

I have the displeasure of choosing between two teams that I dislike greatly. Were it up to me, I would have preferred the building spontaneously combust due to having to stuff the collective egos of Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek and Chris Pronger all into one building. Frankly, I'm surprised the gates of Purgatory haven't opened up and swallowed them already due to the amount of evil that is present at the same time.

In any case one will arrive at the dance, and one piece of tantalizing tabloid fodder must be selected:

Detroit Red Wings
Hasek was signed by the Ottawa Senators in 2004 to a one-year deal and played exceptionally well before the paper clips and paper mache that was holding his groin together gave in while playing at the Winter Olympics. Rumours swirled during the conclusion of the season that Hasek would be out for the rest of the year, a story denied by both the Senators front office and by Hasek himself. While the Senators were down 3-1 to the Buffalo Sabres in Round 2 of the 2006 playoffs, the team had a meeting with Hasek to ask him to play. In typical Hasek fashion, he pulled the chute on the team and was let go in the off-season by John Muckler.

Now, armed with a deal with some sort of dark force and a new groin made out of Adamantium alloy, he has helped Detroit make it to the Western Conference Finals. That must have been a very nice off-season for him.

Anaheim Ducks
Back when the Ducks were still of the "Mighty" variety, Bryan Murray lead the Ducks to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003. In 2004, he elected to step down to his current position as the head coach of the Ottawa Senators in order to be closer to his mother and father, who had been in poor health.

As far as I know, the split was pretty amicable. Were it not for Murray's decision to step down, Brian Burke would never have become the Ducks' GM, and we would never be able to have the privilege to see that happy-go-lucky smile that he always has on.

Andy McDonald will help you choose, while making sure your Thanksgiving meals are without any form of life-threatening disease:

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Easy Question…Just not for me

Fellow HLOG’ers, I need some clarification. I pose a question that I think is fairly easy for the majority of you to answer. The reason I ask this question, in anticipation of discussions in the comments, is because I just don’t understand. Someone (or everyone except Steph) please tell me why there’s so much hatred for the Detroit Red Wings.

When I was in 7th or 8th grade, during the playoffs I became a Red Wings fan. One of my friends gave me a hard time because he said that I should be cheering for the team closest to us, which I said was utter BS. By the time the finals rolled around and the Cup was being contended for by Detroit and New Jersey, he put aside his own rule and rooted for Jersey. That story is probably completely irrelevant, but nevertheless, that’s when I remember first becoming a supporter of Detroit. Sure, it was easy to support a team that was so damn good, but I liked them for reasons other than their winning record. (And to set the record straight, I am no bandwagoner! I hated the Oilers during their Stanley Cup glory years and I have never liked the Avalanche, most likely due to my ill feelings toward Roy.) With Lidstrom, Yzerman, and a slew of Russians, including Konstantinov (I still get teary-eyed when the broadcasts show him at the games), Kozlov, and Federov, how could you not like that group of guys? Even Vernon and Osgood, an unlikely winning pair, were easy to like. So I wonder, has Detroit ever been a team supported by non-Detroiters? Or has it only been during recent years that they have gathered a strong group of opponents?

There are a couple reasons why I think a lot of hockey fans don’t like Detroit: (a) they always seem to win and/or (b) Hasek. Are either of these reasons correct?

I’ll be honest, I can’t stand Hasek! I’ve never liked him and even though I’m rooting for the Red Wings (mostly because I can’t bare to imagine another California team making it to the Finals), I cringe every time Hasek touches the puck, shake my head at every bonehead mistake he makes, and ask myself how he has become a number one goalie. Every time he flops around and the puck just happens to glance off his leg pad I want to scream, “Have fun with Satan!”
With the exception of Hasek, I can’t understand why people hate today’s Red Wings. Please HLOG’ers and other hockey fans, enlighten me, why the hate for Detroit?

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