Tag Archive | Stanley Cup

Hannukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa in October!

Oct6

October 6, 2010.  The date the Yankees begin the 11 game trek to accomplish Mission 28, i.e. winning world series title 28 in the team’s history.  It is also just hours away from the start of the NHL season.  Or better, the campaign for the defense of the Stanley Cup by the Blackhawks.  As a baseball addict and huge lover of the Chicago Blackhawks, this is such an exciting time.  I don’t necessarily care who wins the World Series — well as long as it is not the Minnesota Twins, but post season baseball is the bomb.  The eight teams that make the post season have a fresh start and anything can happen.  Particularly when in the first round when it is a best of 5 series.  You get a team that is firing at all cylinders and they can be dangerous.  Add a top flight pitching staff with potential aces as your 1-3 game starters and it could be amazing.

Even though my team is out of the playoffs this year I still will find someone and something to root for.  Whether it is the Texas Rangers getting to the playoffs and the amazing story of Josh Hamilton, Dusty Baker leading the Cincinnati Reds to the playoffs and being only the 2nd manager to lead 3 different teams to the playoffs, the Yankees going for it again, etc., there is always something fun to see.  I am hoping to see some amazingly pitched games as well as stellar defense to back up the pitching.  A few magnificent runs would be great as well.  Whatever happens, it will be fun guaranteed.

As for hockey season beginning, it is going to be fun.  Even though the Blackhawks lost a lot of key players due to salary cap issues after winning the Cup in June, I still like the way the team looks. There is still depth there and the core is still there.  It is going to be an exciting season to watch.  It will be a little sad seeing some of the former Blackhawk players on other teams, but such is the business of sports where you can’t keep everyone you would like to.  That can be for a number of reasons, but generally they can all be summed up as due to the almighty dollar.

My guess is that I won’t be fully engaged in the hockey season until the baseball post season is over, but that is ok.  I wasn’t fully engaged in baseball until the Stanley Cup had been decided.  Here is to an exciting post season coming up as well as a phenomenal start to the hockey season for the Blackhawks.

Thank You

Sep25

Pre-season hockey has begun and the Blackhawks roster has a bit of a different look to it.  The team won the 2010 Stanley Cup Championship and immediately after the celebrating began, the team had to be dismantled.  Now before anyone gets crazy and thinks this is a situation like the Florida Marlins went through in 2003 where the owner purposely dismantled his championship team.  This was a situation where this dirty little thing called a Salary Cap required that ownership shed salary, which meant a lot of players were going to have to leave the team.  Some of the notable names gone from the roster include Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, and Brent Sopel.  These guys were traded.  Also leaving were Adam Burish through free agency and the beloved Antii Niemi.

For many Blackhawks fans, the leaving of Antii Niemi was especially painful because it seemed to take forever to solidify the goalie position, which is the most important position and oh, HE WON A STANLEY CUP!  The main reason Niemi ended up leaving was because the San Jose Sharks made an offer sheet to Niklas Hjalmarsson.  This was huge because The Hammer, as Nik is known is a really good young defenseman that the Blackhawks couldn’t really afford to lose.  Because there was the offer sheet, the Hawks either had to match or let The Hammer walk.  Once that happened, and Niemi was going to arbitration for a higher salary, it was pretty much a situation where he might be all but gone because of the salary cap crunch.  This was more a problem because of the amount of money that was awarded to Halak in arbitration and he didn’t even get to the Stanley Cup finals.   Well, the arbitrator made an award to Niemi of roughly $2.5M and given that number the Blackhawks decided to just walk away.  This was ok for them becuase of following the Detroit Red Wings model of having an adequate goalie with really good defense in front to not have your goalie be a liability.

In some ways, I think that Niemi and his agent miscalculated his worth by going to arbitration now and in all honestly, Niemi was good, but in my opinion, not so great that he deserved what he was looking for in terms of salary.  Ironically, San Jose did sign Niemi because they let their goalie, Evgenie Nabokov go (he is now back in Russia) and Niemi is once again in a battle for the starting goalie job.

So far, I am feeling ok about the reconstituted Blackhawks.  We have Marty Turco in goal, who is someone that people wanted to trade for at the deadline last season and the core of the team (Kaner! Keith, Toewes, Seabrook) is still here.

But most importantly, THANK YOU 2009 – 2010 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS for bringing the Stanley Cup back to Chicago.  It will be weird seeing some of the guys who helped do this on other teams this season, but I am looking forward to the 2010 – 2011 season.  Go Blackhawks.

Victory

Jun10

The Blackhawks win Lord Stanley’s Cup!!!!! The Blackhawks win Lord Stanley’s Cup!!!! On June 9, 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup finals by a score of 4 – 3 in OT. Crazy goal by Patrick Kane that no one was really sure went in initially, let alone could find. The game was amazing with both teams coming out ready to play and play with some desperation as if life depended on it. For the Philadelphia Flyers, it literally did because they were down 3-2 in the best of 7 series. If the Flyers didn’t win, their season would officially be over.

Watching the game, was incredibly intense. The back and forth scoring that occurred (not rapid fire like in earlier games, but still not fun when it would get tied), the missed calls, the insane penalties (both those you could see as stupid and the ones just completely missed). It was enough to make a person chew your nails off or possibly gain about 20 pounds from stress eating. I think the only reason I didn’t do either was 1) i’ve never been a nail biter and 2) while i had food (nachos) it was the worst ever so i wasn’t inclined to eat it. Additionally, while at a bar to watch (i yell too much to watch at home; my elderly neighbors might want to call the police on me for making so much noise yelling at the near goals), I just was too nervous to want to drink.

Of course, the OT goal was the most insane. It was such a crazy play in that the camera lost sight of the puck, both the NBC and CBC broadcasters lot sight of the puck and had a delayed reaction. It seemed the only person who knew a goal was scored was Patrick Kane (KANER!). Watch the last couple of minutes leading up to the win here.

Overall, this was a great series to watch. Unexpected players stepped up while the top line of Toews, Kane and Byfuglien were mostly absent. Congratulations to the Flyers for making it a series, but the best team won this one. CONGRATULATIONS to the Chicago Blackhawks!!!! They were spectacular and it felt like destiny for them to go the distance. The way the guys on the team thanked their fathers after was amazing. They achieved their ONE GOAL. I can’t wait until the 2010 -2011 hockey season to begin. now to find the guy to hang out at the games with me. . .