In a continuing series on the trials and tribulations of Canucks goalie, Roberto Luongo, we have one of the strangest goals in recent memory. Former Boston Bruin (our hero’s nemesis team), and current San José Shark (our hero’s most recent nemesis) Joe Thornton shoots one into the Canuck’s zone and the rest is history.
Is this guy snake-bit or what.
I was watching (as Canadians do) an NHL game from Chicago between the Blackhawks and the Winnipeg Jets. During the game, something happened that I had never seen before. No, not the hit, or the glass popping out or the beer being thrown at the opposition player. Believe it or not, a fairly inebriated fan reached in and ripped the helmet off Adam Pardy‘s head (I’ve also seen fans grab equipment before) and, this is the crazy part, put the helmet on. As the announcer says, if you’re going to steal something, don’t wear it. A classic NHL moment that will play on sport shows for years.
A lot of you don’t know hockey, but we Canadians do. Over the past few years there has been a lot of talk about Vancouver Canucks goalie, Roberto Luongo. Personally (even though I love to tweak my my Canuck fan friends about him), I think he is a marvellous, highly skilled goaltender, one that has led Canada to Olympic gold, and will again this winter. Having said that, he appears to be completely snake bit. To set this up, Hockey Night in Canada (61 seasons on CBC TV) to a nation wide audience, playing the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal is short-handed as they have a penalty. they move the puck into Vancouver’s zone and the entire group head for the bench for a change, then……
As I understand, the rest of the world does not celebrate ice hockey as we Canadians do, so I figured a quick primer for the rest of the world would be required. This primer is specifically geared to the teams that made the playoffs and focuses on the Canadian based teams that qualified. Vancouver fans may not like this very much so avert our eyes and move on. Please ask your questions in the comments and I will do my best to enlighten you.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils will meet in the Stanley Cup Final, beginning on Wednesday night. Both teams won the Western and Eastern Conference titles respectively in overtime.
The Los Angeles Kings won the Clarence Campbell Bowl for their efforts. The New Jersey Devils captured the Prince Of Wales trophy for their accomplishment. Both teams carried the tradition of NOT touching the trophy afterwards. The reason given is that they are not playing for those trophies. The only one that matters is the Stanley Cup and that touching the other trophies is considered bad luck. What a bunch of horse manure!
For the record, here’s where this “tradition” started. Back in 1996, the Florida Panthers shocked the hockey world, by upsetting Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Final. The Panthers celebrated by hoisting the Prince…
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Today marks the end of the regular season in the NHL, meaning you will see a lot of hockey here for the next couple of months. Just warning you. If you happen to be a Vancouver Canuck fan, you may want to stop following me for this period, as I will likely have a few negative rants about this over rated group of crappy hockey players. Suck it up cause you suck. Oh…and GO BRUINS.
To celebrate the time of year please enjoy Hawksley Workman and “Hockey (The Greatest Game)”. There is a drum solo for the first minute and a half, followed by the song. The lyrics are on the wall behind the band, and you will understand Canadians love for their game more as the song goes on.
Man, Smokin’ Joe is gone. Those were the days. Boxing was something that we watched with awe, much like UFC today. The heavyweight division in the time of Joe Frazier was unreal. Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton. George Foreman, George Chuvalo, Jimmy Ellis, Jerry Quarry, and the great Smokin’ Joe Frazier. He was one of the greatest ever, overlooked as he boxed under the shadow of Ali. Make no mistake, he was good, very good. Makes me very sad to see him gone. He has been out of the spotlight for many years and this has brought back many memories. I have two videos, one a highlight reel of his career, the other, an appearance on “This Is Your Life”, in this Muhammad Ali’s life, very funny.
Don’t touch on sports to much anymore, but it has been an interesting few weeks. First off, the Rugby World Cup 2011was completed last week,
and I can’t believe this but I am now hooked on rugby. Great game and nothing beats the challenge (Haka) by the All Blacks of New Zealand at the beginning of each game. The All Blacks won it all, beating France in the final. On the way they schooled a game Canadian team by a score of 79-15.
Second up is the CFL. My beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders have crapped out. I
cannot wholeheartedly cheer for any other team so I will make an objective prediction. Prior to last week I would have said the BC Lions in a cakewalk, then in true CFL fashion, they had their butts handed to them by the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Having said that, I will still go with BC, likely meeting up with Winnipeg in the Grey Cup.
Third up is the Vancouver Canucks. As I expected, they are playing as well as a non-playoff team and are already in panic mode. Roberto Luongo
is a spent force in Vancouver and I am sure that the Canucks will make an effort to ditch him. He can’t stop anything right now. In addition they traded Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm to the Florida Panthers for David Booth and Steve Reinprecht. Reinprecht heads straight for the AHL, so essentially they dumped 2 for 1. Booth, although having potential, is just another fast skater with no toughness and questionable defensive skills. He was a minus 31 in Florida last year, with 23 goals, 17 assists and 26 penalty minutes. Not the player they were needing. Even Samuelsson had more points and penalty minutes than that. All the Canucks gain is youth.
The Winnipeg Jets are rocking, doing as expected and giving the fans some hope for the future. Last night’s 9-8 victory in Philadelphia against the Flyers was both ugly and beautiful all at the same time. The Jets have an excuse to be on the bubble for the season, maybe the Canucks can learn something from the Jets.
Fourth, the World Series. Baseball is a wonderful game to watch when everything is on the line. In no other sport do you have such drama, literally hanging on every pitch. Last night was no exception. David Freese is now a legend, whose heroics will be remembered for eternity in baseball lore as will the St Louis Cardinals comeback. The Texas Rangers will have to shake this one-off if they want to win. Regardless the Series has been a true Fall Classic, and Game 7 could be one for the ages.
Need I say or write more?? Great video on YouTube of the 15 minutes prior to the game. I watched the first Winnipeg Jets game in a sports bar in
Montreal where there was a lot of cheering going on, but for the wrong reasons, but the beer was good and we had good seats. The place had a lineup and I spotted a couple of seats and asked the hostess if she could get us there as we were Winnipeggers and just had to see this game. Unfortunately, a 5-1 loss put a small damper on the festivities for me, but the fans there didn’t seem to care very much. How many teams have a full house at the end of a brutal loss giving them a standing ovation. It will get better. For posterity, Nik Antropov’s goal is here as well, it is historic after all.
A cultural icon, Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders of the NFL passed away on October 8th. A straight shooter and rebel, who coined the phrase “Just Win Baby”, lived his life, and ran his team, in the way he wanted to, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. His teams were always stressing the vertical passing game and usually consisted of misfits and “characters” that did not fit well on other teams. He let them be themselves as long as they won and the strategy usually paid off in victories. RIP Al Davis.
Is It Possible To See It All 