Tag: NHL

The Difference Between Hockey and All Other Sports

Have you seen that commercial where a hockey player goes to the trainer and says he has a splinter.  The trainer reaches for a pair of tweezers and then looks up and sees the player has a hockey stick stabbed clean through his arm.  The player says something like hurry up, I’ve got to get back on the ice?  Have you seen that?

Watch this:

The injured player, Gregory Campbell, is out for the rest of the season. I believe I heard that he broke his leg while blocking the shot. His team was on a penalty kill in a playoff game. What did Campbell with his broken leg do? He got up and played his position, covered his man, broke up a pass, continued to kill off a penalty against the best offense in the NHL.

Holy Crap!

Now compare that to most other pro sports where hang nails keep players out for days, or a nasty case of turf toe (rug burn?) can derail a season, or where players flop around like they’ve been shot at the slightest contact (ok, looking at you Montreal Canadians as well as every soccer player and basketball player I’ve watched over the last few years).

Greg Campbell… on a broken leg… Damn!

Double Overtime Hangover

I gotta tell ya… I have the worse case of the double overtime hangover.  I feel like I haven’t slept for days.

But what a game, eh?

You can watch the highlights here.

I was in the car when Krejci scored the first goal.  I saw the Penguins goal on TV.  There was still more than half a game to go at that point.  Before the third period ended I was listening to the radio.  I’d had enough of Pierre McGuire, and everyone in the house was asleep so I kept it quiet.  It seemed like four months went by waiting for one more goal.  The Penguins owned the third period.  The Bruins owned most of the overtime.  This was not a push over win like game two, this was playoff hockey at it’s most stressful.  Each time the puck came into our end I was panicked.  Each time it was in their end I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see who would be the hero.

The Penguins brought it for real last night.  The Bruins were not up to their level of play they showed in the first two games.  Still, the heavily favored Penguins could not find a way to beat the Bruins, and now Boston is up three games to none.  Game four is Friday.  Again, I ask, please please please please please put them away on Friday.  Memories of 2010 are still fresh.  You lost game four to the Rangers after winning the first three and there was pain and suffering in Bruins Nation.  Spare us more of that pain with a win on Friday.

Go Bruins!

Overtime

The Bruins scored in the first period.
The Penguins scored in the second period.
No one scored I the third period.

Off to overtime we go!

Did I mention that I HATE overtime?

The Penguins have been 1000 times better tonight, but Tuukka Rask has been HUGE in net for Boston.

Next goal wins.

Go Bruins!

Bruins vs Penguins Game Three Tonight

Last night the LA Kings beat the Chicago Blackhawks to close the gap in the Western Conference Finals.  The ‘Hawks now lead two games to one.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen in the East, right?

Game three between the heroic Boston Bruins and the loathsome Pittsburgh Penguins (yes, I am a homer.  Wanna make something of it?) is tonight at 8:00pm.  The Bruins hold a two games to none lead after shocking the crap out of the hockey pundits by winning the first two games of the series on the road.  The big question around these here parts was who would play goal for the Pens.  Apparently, Tomas Vokoun has said publicly that he’ll be playing tonight.  Is that true?  Is it a clever ruse?  Who knows.  The real question is, does it matter?  Will the Bruins that gutted out a game one win and then slaughtered the more talented Penguins going to keep their foot on the gas and take game three at home?

Let’s hope so!

Go Bruins!

Game Two Glory for the Boston Bruins

How on Earth did this happen?  Says Bruins nation gleefully.
How on Earth did this happen?  Says Penguin nation miserably.  Is there a Penguin nation?

The Bruins took game two of the Eastern Conference Finals last night in a score that looks very much like what most people thought a Penguins victory would look like.  6-1.  That’s Six goals for the defense first Bruins to One goal for the offensive juggernaut Penguins.  But… How?… What?… Who?…

The Bruins have a two games to none lead in the series.  They are two wins away from going back to the Stanley Cup Finals!  (They are also four measly losses away from going home for the summer.  I’m not going to be the overly optimistic guy who jinxes things for Bruins fans everywhere.  Nope, not me.  Nothing but cautious optimism from this guy)  Brad Marchand scored 28 seconds into the game and it was all downhill from there for Pittsburgh.  They pulled Vokoun after three goals and then saw Fleury give up three more.  There was exactly one downside to this game from a Boston standpoint.  That chump Tuukka Rask let in a goal.  Useless!  Trade his ass!  (that is sarcasm.  One goal in two games against this Penguins lineup?  I’d be more apt to put him in the hall of fame than trade him)

But… but… but… the Penguins were supposed to destroy us.  It was supposed to be ugly for Bruins fans.  Instead it’s been nothing but glory and tales to tell the grandchildren.

In other words, it’s been wicked fun!

Now we come home for games three and four.

Go Bruins!  Keep it up!  Beat the Penguins!  Do it quick because our collective stomachs can’t handle a swing in momentum!

GO BRUINS!

I Dreamed the Bruins Won Game One

I had a really nice happy dream last night. I dreamed that the Bruins took game one of the Eastern Conference Finals from the Penguins by a score of 3-0. Krejci scored twice, Horton scored once, and Tuukka Rask was out of his skull awesome in the shutout. It was a nice happy little dream.

What?

You’re saying that it wasn’t a dream?

The Bruins really did take game one last night?

Really?

Woohoo! Go Bruins!

PS: Does that mean the Red Sox really beat the Yankees 11-1 with Napoli hitting a grand slam? Sweet!

2013 NHL Conference Finals Predictions

Before I start, a warning. There might be a certain feeling of smugness emanating from this post. Just letting you know ahead of time.

As always, let me start by recapping the previous round.

In the second round I picked:

The Penguins over the Senators. The Penguins won. I was right.
The Bruins over the Rangers. The Bruins won. I was right.
The Blackhawks over the Red Wings. The Blackhawks won. I was right.
The Kings over the Sharks. The Kings won. I was right.

Does anyone else see a pattern here? A thread that consistently runs through the four picks I made prior to the second round? Oh, I see it now. I picked them all correctly. Yes, I got them all. Wow. Usually the second round is the one that kills me, but this year I was four for four. Let’s also gaze back at my first round predictions. Well, what do you know. I picked seven out of eight first round winners. That makes me 11 out of 12 for the playoffs so far. Golly gee, I almost look like some one who knows what he’s talking about, eh?

That probably ends now, because I think I am going to pick both underdogs. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Now for my third round predictions!

The Penguins vs The Bruins.  Oh crap.  I was afraid of this.  I really didn’t think the Bruins could beat the Rangers and wouldn’t you know it they won pretty easily.  Is there any chance we could be that lucky again?  The Rangers were a good team.  The Penguins are a friggin’ insanely awesome team.  No one in their right mind is going to seriously predict that the Bruins can win this series.  That means I’m out of my mind because that’s just what I’m doing.  Granted I’m a homer and no one reads these posts anyway so it’s not like some high roller in Vegas is bouncing around in his chair waiting for me to hit Publish so he can see what that fat red head in Massachusetts thinks about anything (even though I am 11 out of 12 this year).

The Bruins have a clear edge on defense, and in toughness, and maybe in goaltending too.  Unfortunately that’s not going to cut it against the all-star team known as the Penguins.  Still, I’m banking on Bergeron and Chara and Tuukka and Torey Freakin’ Krug to carry us to the Stanley Cup Finals.  Jaromir Jagr will, when faced with his old team, find his scoring mojo and that will inspire Tyler Seguin to not suck anymore and Milan Lucic will be so sick of seeing Pierre McGuire’s face between the benches that he will start pounding all Pittsburgh players into the ice and Matt Cooke will make a move to stand up to the mighty Looch only to catch sight of Marc Savard in the stands pointing at him with the most evil smile ever seen on his face which will distract him just long enough for Shawn Thornton to hit him so hard that his mother ends up in the hospital and the destruction of Cooke will scare the Penguins so completely that they will roll over and play dead just like the Rangers did.

Hey… it could happen.

The Blackhawks vs The Kings.  Great.  Now what do I do.  The two teams I was rooting for in the West are both in the Conference Finals.  So who do I pick?  The Blackhawks have been the favorite since this awful abortion of a lock out shortened almost season began.  The Kings though… they were my team last year when the Bruins went out in the first round.  Part of me wants to pick Chicago simply due to the possibility of a Boston/Chicago original six match up in the finals.  Still… the Kings were my team last year, and Quick looks pretty much unstoppable right now.  There, Jonathan Quick decides it for me.  I’m picking the Kings.

The four teams that are left in the playoffs right now are also the last four teams to win the Stanley Cup.  I am predicting that the trend will continue and the two teams that advance to the Stanley Cup Finals will be the two most recent Cup winners.

Go Bruins

Go Kings

Go Bruins more

The Bruins Win!

Oh happy day!  The Bruins beat the Rangers tonight to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three years I don’t believe it I don’t believe it I don’t believe it!!!

The Rangers lead 1-0 after one period and then the Bruins went nuts.  They only scored twice during their monster second period, but that’s due more to Lundqvist being an animal in goal than to the Bruins lack of chances.  In the third Tuukka Rask made the save of the season on a breakaway.  It was a thing of beauty.

The Bruins now win face the Penguins in round three and they will be underdogs in a major way.  Pittsburgh is playing like titans right now.  They sure look unbeatable.  The Bruins will have their work cut out for them, but then again I thought they were going to get slaughtered by the Rangers, so what the hell do I know.

Go Bruins!

The Bruins Lost Game ? PANIC!

Oh no…

Not again.

The Bruins lost game four last night.  They now lead the Rangers three games to one.  Remember the last time this happened?  I do.  I’ll never forget.  2010, the nightmare that keeps on giving.

The Bruins played more than well enough to win last night, partly because for most of the game the Rangers played with the intensity of a minor league intra-squad scrimmage game.  The turning point was a bad goal off of Tuukka.  I haven’t seen a replay yet.  I listened on the radio last night so I was spared the horror.  Tuukka fell on his ass and the puck trickled into the goal in slow motion.  After that, the Rangers were better.

Game five is tomorrow evening.  It’s a 5:30pm start, I think.  Hopefully we’ll be back home from seeing Star Trek Into Darkness by then so I can torture the whole family by making them watch.

Muahahahaha!

Go Bruins.  Please don’t choke again.