bark, bugs, leaves, & lizards

Stanley Cup @ Gay Pride Parade

It’s heartening to see that the Blackhawks have accepted an invitation to attend this weekend’s Gay Pride Parade in Chicago. Could be the professional sports world is catching up to the rest of society …

Stanley Cup To Chicago

I didn’t run out into the streets like I did after the Saints won the Superbowl because it would’ve just been me all alone screaming in the streets.  The Blackhawks victory parade is the one out-of-town parade I’d like to attend.  It’s only a 15-17 hour drive …

Here’s what hockey looked like the last time the Blackhawks won (note the absence of goalie masks):

And here’s a goofy-but-kind-of-catchy-fan song:

Puck Intrigue [Updated x2]

My sports fandom boils down to two teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Blackhawks.  For whatever reasons, those are the only two professional sports teams I follow.  That means I only have about two months off as a sports fan, three months if my teams suck, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.  But if the Chicago Blackhawks win two more games in this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, that’ll mean both of “my” teams will have won (“world”) championships within five months of each other.

The irrationality of sports has always appealed to me.  Lesser teams can win.  Weird shit always happens.  And very well documented weird shit from multiple camera angles in slow motion.

The last time the Blackhawks were in this position, in the Finals, up two games to none, it was 1971 and they lost the series in seven games.  I don’t think that’ll happen this time–but I’m a totally unreliable narrator.

Anyway, here’s an interesting little tidbit.  Chris Pronger, the much hated veteran defenseman for the Philadelphia Flyers, stole the puck after his team’s last two defeats in Chicago.  He claims to have thrown the pucks away.  I’m guessing, but I think the custom is to allow the winning team to designate which player gets the puck to do with as he pleases.  Here’s video of Pronger’s capers:

Update:  Here’s a good description of hockey puck protocol:

The winning team usually likes to grab the puck for either their goaltender or to mark their progress in the playoffs.  The Pittsburgh Penguins, for example, have a rack in their dressing room with their 16 pucks — representing how many wins needed to win the Stanley Cup — and put a puck from each win in the rack.

Update 2: I should note my status as a non-practicing Cubs fan.  I watched hundreds of Cubs games on WGN as a kid, I’ve gone to a bunch of Cubs games, I love Wrigley Field, I even find the languid pace of the game charming, but the season is too damn long.  And contemplating why the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908 only conjures magical thinking about curses and goats and all the rest and who needs that?

Do I Hear Locusts?

The Chicago Blackhawks swept the San Jose Sharks and will now play for the Stanley Cup, which they haven’t won since 1961.  Before that it was 1938.  The Chicago Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1908, so it could be worse.  But I digress.  A key point in this afternoon’s game had to be when Chicago defenseman, Duncan Keith, a candidate for the Norris Trophy given annually to the league’s best defenseman, took a puck to the mouth, knocking out seven teeth–four downstairs and three up.  Adding to the indignity, as Keith fell to the ice, his teammates probably stunned by what had just happened, the Sharks skated up the ice and scored a goal, taking a 2-0 lead.  Things looked grim.  But five minutes later the Blackhawks scored–I’m pretty sure Keith was still in the dressing room at that point.  Another five minutes later the Hawks tied it, and by then I’m certain Keith was back on the ice because he got an assist on the goal.  The Hawks took over in the third period and that was that.

But back to Keith.  Here’s what he had to say about taking a puck in the mouth:

“I took one breath and it felt like my whole mouth was missing so I knew there were some teeth gone,” Keith said. “I saw a couple fall out and I had one in the back of my throat. I could feel it and coughed it out. A bunch of them disintegrated it felt like.

“That sort of thing happens. I’m not the only guy who’s ever lost bunch of teeth or been hit in the mouth with a puck or stick and I’m sure I won’t be the last guy.”

The kicker: Keith played more than any other player (not counting the goalies), 29 minutes 2 seconds of ice time.

Canadian Discovery

SLAM! Sports:

New Brunswick scientists have confirmed that the oldest known hockey stick, which hung in a Nova Scotia barbershop for decades, was carved at least 170 years ago.

Colin Laroque, a tree scientist with Mount Allison University’s dendrochronology lab in Sackville, N.B., says the stick, made from sugar maple wood, was carved between 1835 and 1838.

“It was more or less a small, curved tree that they reshaped into a hockey stick,” Laroque said. Because of this, scientists at Laroque’s lab were able to examine the ring patterns of the stick to determine its age, to a small window of three years.

On To San Jose [Updated]

Last night the Blackhawks knocked the Canucks out of the playoffs.  The Hawks dominated the game 5-1–they were faster, harder working, and just plain better.  Very satisfying bonus: A year earlier, to the day, the same thing happened, the Hawks beat the Canucks in game 6 of the Western Conference semi-finals (7-1).

I feel something approaching sympathy for Canucks fans. This will scar them.  I still hold a grudge against the Canucks from 1982, and the beatdown the Canucks have received these past 2 years at the hands of the Hawks is far worse than anything that happened in 1982.  Their team is good (and tough) but just not good enough to get past the Blackhawks.  Their team captain and all-world goalie Roberto Luongo  looks very average against the Hawks.  Reminds me of the 1980s when the Blackhawks time and again couldn’t get past the Edmonton Oilers in the playoffs.

I hadn’t noticed before, but there’s a couple Canucks fans who wear these green bodysuits, covering even their heads, and they apparently have season tickets right next to the penalty box so they can taunt (or entertain) opposing players while they serve their penalties (they appear at about the 8 second mark):

I would’ve liked to have seen a shot of these guys last night glumly filing out of GM Place.

Update: The fans, at least the ones who write for newspapers, are turning on the Canucks.  One guy wants to strip Roberto Luongo of his captaincy:

That C on his mask?

It doesn’t stand for captain. It means chaos and capitulation.

Hawks

Nice:

Sensing blood, the Blackhawks were now fully ready to kick their game into high gear and took advantage of another Canucks meltdown.

Whiningest Team

I’ve haven’t liked hated the Vancouver Canucks since the 1982 “towel” game against the Blackhawks in Chicago. I was there.  That was the game when Roger Neilson, coach of the Canucks (an innovative coach and a good guy who passed away a few years ago, but let’s leave all that aside so we don’t muddy the waters of sports fan hate), became disgusted with the officiating and placed a towel at the end of a hockey stick and waved it, signifying “mock surrender,” as Wikipedia puts it.  The Blackhawks won that game but when the series went to Vancouver the Canuck fans all brought white towels to wave and inspired their team to victory in the series.  The Canucks, however, proceeded to be swept by the dynastic New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Anyway, to complete my full disclosure, let me acknowledge that during the “towel” game I joyfully engaged in the following seductive chant:  “Fuck.  The.  Canucks.”  And let me tell you, that was a very satisfying experience in the old Chicago Stadium.

This season the Canucks have been a formidable team, ranking third in the Western Conference (behind the San Jose Sharks and the Blackhawks).  The Canucks have a high scoring offense (2nd best in the NHL) that features the season’s top scorer, Henrik Sedin (his twin brother and linemate Daniel is #12 points leader) and sure enough, the Blackhawks are meeting them once again in the playoffs.  Saturday is game 1 of the Western Conference semi-finals in Chicago.   The Blackhawks beat them last year, leaving the Canucks star goalie, Robert Luongo, in tears after giving up 7 goals in Game 6 of last year’s Conference semi-finals.

But I’ve noticed a tendency with these Canucks reminiscent of Neilson’s mock surrender dramatics of 1982.  These Canucks are a bunch of whiners:

• After losing to Nashville January 11, Vancouver forward Alex Burrows complained that a referee was out to get him.  (Bonus: In the playoffs last year, Burrows got into a fight with Duncan Keith of the Blackhawks and pulled–and held onto–a lock of Keith’s hair).
• Unhappy with how the CBC portrayed Burrows’ whining about the referee, the Canucks’ General Manager imposed a boycott and wouldn’t let any Canuck players speak to the network during a  nationally televised regular season game (in Canada) against the Blackhawks.
• When Canuck winger Mikael Samuelsson found out he didn’t make the Swedish Olympic team, he said, “I pretty much have one comment and maybe I’ll regret it.  But they can go fuck themselves. That’s what I really think.”

So I don’t like these guys much from the get-go.  Throw into the mix, as sports fans are apt to say, especially hockey fans, these teams don’t like each other, and I’m hoping the Blackhawks can mete out some humiliation to these Canucks.  Here’s a good  summary of the mutual animosity:

It began last season with the brawl at the United Center during which Burrows pulled Keith’s hair.

There was Andrew Ladd’s crushing hit on Kesler in the playoffs that broke the nose of the Canucks center. The two fought this season with Ladd ending the brief bout with one punch, after which Kesler called the Hawks winger a coward.

And last October it was Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell laying out Jonathan Toews with a blindside hit at the UC that knocked the Hawks captain out of the lineup for six games with a concussion.

Mitchell, ironically, likely will miss the series with a concussion of his own.

The violence isn’t what attracts me to hockey, but I do  like that it gets personal.  It’s not the sort of thing I want to replicate in my personal life, but maybe that’s part of the attraction.  When teams get all chippy and chirpy like the Canucks and Blackhawks do against each other, it only adds to the intensity of an already intense series between two very skilled teams.  For all the talk of physicality, these are speed teams.  They’re skaters, not brawlers.  There’s no room on either of these teams for one dimensional brutes.

But just because the Blackhawks don’t have a heavyweight like those of yore like Bob Probert or Al Secord, they can still get into the other team’s collective hive mind:

Win-Win

The USA-Canada gold medal game was good hockey yesterday. Fast, brilliant skating, end to end action, tight.  Sure, despite my uneasiness with nationalism in all its forms (except Who Dat Nation, I suppose), I wanted the Americans to win.  But I was way okay when the Canadians won, which is probably similar to football fans across the country being happy the Saints won the Superbowl, if only to see New Orleanians so happy.  So I’m happy to see the Canadians happy.  They deserved to win.

But since I’m a Chicago Blackhawks fan, yesterday’s game was a win-win.  Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane assisted on both American goals, while Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews scored the Canadians’ first goal and led all skaters in the Olympic tournament in assists and +/- rating.  Blackhawks defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook played keys roles for the Canadians.  So my team within the teams kicked ass.

[Photo credit: Scolirk]

Error Message

I guess Vancouver Canuck Mikael Samuelsson badly wanted to be on the Swedish Olympic hockey team. When he found out he didn’t make the team, he said:

Probably going to get in trouble for this, but they can go (expletive deleted) themselves.