Here is the list of hockey and hockey-related songs, as suggested by folks from twitter. :D If a song is starred, it means I couldn't find it on the ITunes store or Limewire, and would love an upload link, please.
Also, there's got to be more songs than this. :D Feel free to comment with more!
Pansy Division - Hockey Hair
The Vandals - Change the World With My Hockey Stick
Dropkick Murphys - Time to Go
Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up to Boston
The Zambonis - Hockey Monkey
The Zambonis - I Wanna Drive the Zamboni
Tom Cochrae - Big League
Gear Daddies - The Zamboni Song
Jughead - The Hockey Song **** (I want this really badly. Haha)
Eminem - 'Til I Collapse
Stompin Tom Connors - Good Ol Hockey Game
Blur - Song 2
Jewel - Til We Run Out of Road
Kernkraft 400 - Zombie Nation
ACDC - Back in Black
ACDC - Thunderstruck
Belvedere – Two Minutes for Looking so Good
Foo Fighters - Pretender
Saliva - Ladies and Gentlemen
Rev Theory - Hell Yeah
Dave Matthews Band - Two Step (an NCAA Hockey East special!)
Europe - The Final Countdown
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
RamBam - Black Betty
Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
Tragically Hip - The Lonely End of the Rink
Tragically Hip - Fireworks (bonus points for Bobby Orr reference!)
Tragically Hip - 50 Mission Cap
The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Van Halen - Right Now
The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
All Time Low - Count It
E. S. Posthumus - Unstoppable
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Development camp and Free Agency thoughts
Development camp, day 1: a rousing success all around! ...well, mostly.
After observing all the young'ins doing their thing for about an hour, here are the thoughts I have on my first class of Bruins prospects ever, done peanut-gallery style a-la my shenanigans at the draft.
Elsewhere in the NHL....there are way too many shenanigans for me to think coherently about. So, a list!
After observing all the young'ins doing their thing for about an hour, here are the thoughts I have on my first class of Bruins prospects ever, done peanut-gallery style a-la my shenanigans at the draft.
- Joe Colborne is a giant on skates, height-wise. While only three inches shy of Chara height, he is effectively the same exact size and shape as Blake Wheeler, except for one key difference: Wheels is four years OLDER than Junior Jumbo Joe. (Triple-J, for short.) J3, however, was about 15 pounds lighter at last year's training camp, which he attested to staying in school and putting the college hockey schedule to good use. Stick with it, J3, I'd love to see you come out of school even stronger than Wheels did!
- Conversely, Jason Lawrence (J-Lo!) is the wee-est rookie that ever rookied. Stick him on a line with J3 and hilarity will ensue! (THIS HAPPENED TODAY, I LAUGHED FOREVER; the line was J-Lo-Jeff LoVecchio-J3. THE TRIPLE-J LINE, to make things more confusing!) Poor J-Lo, at 5'9, is the shortest kid by two inches. Also one of the oldest, and also MY FAVORITE by default. GO BU! (unrelatedly, I wore my BU shirt today and got frowned at by some BC fans. Whatever, whatever.)
- I may be vaguely in love with Max Sauve. He is ACTUAL French (not pretend-French like those silly Quebecois) from Tours, France. Tours is 626 km (388.97 miles for we Americans) from Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France - the home of the only other French hockey player I care about: Cristobal Huet. It is also the home of some quite lovely architecture, and the birthplace of Sauve, who hit a puck RIGHT AT MY FACE. He's a speedy little bugger, good with the puck. Watched him do some fancypants Ned Lukacevic-style puck handling in the corner while waiting for drills. Good stuff, although he's on the small side.
- Interesting fact: The average height/weight of the Dev Camp Dudes is 6'1", 192lbs. Look out, smurf line.
- On the goalie front: As the world's biggest (unofficial) fan of Tim Thomas and His Epic Ragey Finn Protégé, I have to say...I'm happier now that we've signed Dany Sabourin. Prior to his signing, behind Tuukka, the depth ran as such:
Kevin Regan
Adam Courchaine/Kevin Nastiuk/Michael Hutchinson/Matt Dalton = cluster.
Regan's a fair goalie, but I absolutely do not believe he's NHL ready, considering how much action he saw last year even at the AHL level (not much). Courchaine, Hutchinson, and Dalton looked like what they were, today - rookie goalies ready to start at the bottom and work their way up. Hopefully Sabourin will do better in Providence; maybe he'll split time with Regan and Regan will improve; whatever. I feel a lot better about stealing the starter from the Baby B's, now. (If only we had a Michal Neuvirth -type goaltender to have backed Ragey Finn up, last year! Oh well. If wishes were fishes...)
- Injuredpants McGee, otherwise known as Yannick Riendeau the new free agent from Quebec, did some skating on the goalie side of things after the zamboni cleaned the ice around 10:45; he looked good, took some shots, and stared intently into our eyes (or, cameras, rather.)
Pretty good!
From Dev camp day 1
He had a good attitude outside, after; when asked how his shoulder was feeling (it was back in a sling) he just smiled and shook his head. "It's getting there."
- I do not begrudge any of the others their chance to be a Bruin after watching some of those drills today, including hopping across the ice using only one skate, regular skating across the ice - on only one skate, and miscellaneous other cardio-style skating drills. And this was before the off-ice portion even started...barf.
- Milan Lucic and David Krejci were in attendance. Krejci totally snuck through the crowd, then turned around and gave us all a nice smirk while we all did a complete, cartoony double-take upon realizing who he was. AWESOME. My team, man. So great.
Elsewhere in the NHL....there are way too many shenanigans for me to think coherently about. So, a list!
- Getting Habs fans to enjoy Milan Lucic beating up on newly-made Toronto Leaf Mike Komisarek will be fuuuuun. :D
- Martin Havlat to the Wild = fail.
- Saku Koivu to the Ducks = also fail. Where is the Montreal team that I know and hate? Oh wait, the Kostitsyns are still around, as well as O'PurseStealer. We're good, we're all good here.
- AK27 to the Sens? Meh. I never really cared much about him or the Sens. That'll probably remain on par for the course.
- Avs drafted Keiran Millan. So, in three years they'll have a good goalie! *facedesk* With that, C.Cohen, and Brandon Yip, I'm at least somewhat happy to see Colorado becoming BU West.
- Khabibulin to Edmonton makes me sad.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
MONTREAL DRAFT TWEETUP!
Expect an epic blog post tomorrow when I get home from the fabulous city of Montreal - so far the draft has gone swimmingly for all my teams (I'm pretty excited about this Caron kid!), I've played ball hockey with a bunch of my fellow tweeps, and the Montreal 2009 Draft NHLTweetup is about to begin.
Good times all around - photos and full story tomorrow!
Monday, June 1, 2009
My Life the Tragic Comedy, part 3,599
Okay. So generally the tragic comedy of my life is limited to losing necessary objects, breaking pieces of technology and the fact that my cat has no learning curve ("KITTEN GET OUT OF THE SINK!" has been probably the most-used sentence in my household for a year, followed by a quick blast from a squirt gun) but today it has reached a high point.
We're going to call this yet another case of Sarah's ID Problems regarding the City of Montreal. This will be the third time I've had ID issues getting to-from-around that city, and hey - this time it isn't my fault!
It used to be that you could drive to Canada without a passport; a birth certificate and a driver's license was sufficient. The first time, I left my wallet on a bus going to the fine city. Upon realizing this, 20 minutes after leaving the bus, I turned and quite literally SPRINTED back to the bus station, reached the bus moments before it was about to re-depart for Boston, and recovered my wallet, which had my license and all forms of photo ID. The second time, I left my wallet at a hotel where I'd partied late into the night but hadn't stayed over; that involved more shenanigans of not remembering the room I'd stayed in, and only finding my way back there because I could hear the outrageous accents of our fellow partiers through the door of the room we were all in. Yep, those two were definitely my fault.
As of today, June 1, 2009, you officially need a passport or at the very least, a passport card to drive over the border. Long gone are the days when my mother used to boat across the St. Lawrence River to get an ice cream cone in the little town of Prescott, Ont. from her home in Ogdensburg, NY; nope, no more of that. How did I learn of this? An article in my own newspaper, the Boston Herald, as of...two days ago. Awesome.
In light of my hopeful impending journey to the NHL draft, this was of particular importance; so today, off I went to the post office in the hopes of getting an expedited passport card, allowing me to drive to Canada or Mexico, or travel to either by boat. (Because everyone wants to boat to Canada, don't I know it!). 45 minutes later, I want to cry. Or kill things. I leave the place with no passport, two hideous photos of myself, and three thoughts:
1) Someone at the Boston Department of Vital Records is going to deal with a very displeased me on Wednesday;
2) I'm pretty sure this is entirely the fault of the City of Montreal;
3) God I must really love hockey to put myself through this.
So here's what happened. When I went to MTL in August, I kept my birth certificate in a seperate wallet than my other credit cards and whatnot, so as not to lose it. A week after I got home, I put that wallet away in my desk. Two days later, my house was broken into and that wallet stolen. I went to the DVR (ahaha, great abbrev., Sarah..) to get a new copy. Whoever the doofus was that copied my certificate managed to do so AND NOT PHOTOCOPY MY YEAR OF BIRTH ONTO THE DARN THING. How I got into Canada to go to Montreal for the jailbird jerseys game on February 1 with that poorly copied piece of crap, I have no idea.
So the long and the short of it is - the scouting combine made me pine for the draft so hard, I will probably end up selling a kidney to get an expedited passport. Evander Kane looks great. Some kid from Philips Academy beat Brayden Schenn at medicine ball throwing (I doubt this means anything in the long run, but hey - local kid beating a dude I hate! I am ALL ABOUT THIS). Awesome. Kids - take note of this - passport cards don't get expedited, so if you want one, plan ahead, and don't be a big failure like your Aunty Sarah. The end.
Oh, and....go Wings!
We're going to call this yet another case of Sarah's ID Problems regarding the City of Montreal. This will be the third time I've had ID issues getting to-from-around that city, and hey - this time it isn't my fault!
It used to be that you could drive to Canada without a passport; a birth certificate and a driver's license was sufficient. The first time, I left my wallet on a bus going to the fine city. Upon realizing this, 20 minutes after leaving the bus, I turned and quite literally SPRINTED back to the bus station, reached the bus moments before it was about to re-depart for Boston, and recovered my wallet, which had my license and all forms of photo ID. The second time, I left my wallet at a hotel where I'd partied late into the night but hadn't stayed over; that involved more shenanigans of not remembering the room I'd stayed in, and only finding my way back there because I could hear the outrageous accents of our fellow partiers through the door of the room we were all in. Yep, those two were definitely my fault.
As of today, June 1, 2009, you officially need a passport or at the very least, a passport card to drive over the border. Long gone are the days when my mother used to boat across the St. Lawrence River to get an ice cream cone in the little town of Prescott, Ont. from her home in Ogdensburg, NY; nope, no more of that. How did I learn of this? An article in my own newspaper, the Boston Herald, as of...two days ago. Awesome.
In light of my hopeful impending journey to the NHL draft, this was of particular importance; so today, off I went to the post office in the hopes of getting an expedited passport card, allowing me to drive to Canada or Mexico, or travel to either by boat. (Because everyone wants to boat to Canada, don't I know it!). 45 minutes later, I want to cry. Or kill things. I leave the place with no passport, two hideous photos of myself, and three thoughts:
1) Someone at the Boston Department of Vital Records is going to deal with a very displeased me on Wednesday;
2) I'm pretty sure this is entirely the fault of the City of Montreal;
3) God I must really love hockey to put myself through this.
So here's what happened. When I went to MTL in August, I kept my birth certificate in a seperate wallet than my other credit cards and whatnot, so as not to lose it. A week after I got home, I put that wallet away in my desk. Two days later, my house was broken into and that wallet stolen. I went to the DVR (ahaha, great abbrev., Sarah..) to get a new copy. Whoever the doofus was that copied my certificate managed to do so AND NOT PHOTOCOPY MY YEAR OF BIRTH ONTO THE DARN THING. How I got into Canada to go to Montreal for the jailbird jerseys game on February 1 with that poorly copied piece of crap, I have no idea.
So the long and the short of it is - the scouting combine made me pine for the draft so hard, I will probably end up selling a kidney to get an expedited passport. Evander Kane looks great. Some kid from Philips Academy beat Brayden Schenn at medicine ball throwing (I doubt this means anything in the long run, but hey - local kid beating a dude I hate! I am ALL ABOUT THIS). Awesome. Kids - take note of this - passport cards don't get expedited, so if you want one, plan ahead, and don't be a big failure like your Aunty Sarah. The end.
Oh, and....go Wings!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
One week down, 16 or so to go
It's one week into the Bruins' offseason and I have to say, I may be done grieving for the B's abrupt end to the 2008-2009 season, but that doesn't mean I'm not bored out of my skull waiting for 2009-2010 to start. The new season can't come fast enough.
In my down time, I've taken to scouring the internet for links, along with stalking Bish's Blog, the Globe Bruins Blog (KPD is a huge hack, but I love Fluto's writing, so I suffer through it) along with whatever I can glean from Capitals Insider and the number of other teams' blogs I regularly read.
But wait, wait a second. There's actually still some hockey going on! In lieu of the big Bruins, there is Providence Bruins' hockey to watch - specifically, some players that should be up and ready for the big club next year. These are young players with relatively affordable contracts (with the exception of Tuukka Rask), who definitely bear watching. Vladimir Sobotka, Johnny Boychuk, Martin St. Pierre, and even Mikko Lehtonen and Brad Marchand could all be ready for breakout seasons next year in the vein of what Byron Bitz and Matt Hunwick did last year. The P-Bruins' opponents in this round are the Washington Capitals' AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears; a lot of their players are in the same situation (Jay Beagle, Semyon Varlamov, Karl Alzner). Many of the Bears' players logged at least some time with their big club this year, which may give them the slight advantage over the P-Bruins, whose major player to log time with both clubs who could have been a boon to the P-Bruins' Calder Cup run is injured (Byron Bitz, possible broken ribs).
Not to say the P-Bruins can't do it themselves - they've already won one of the two games in the series so far, handing the Bears their first home playoff loss this year. Game three is tomorrow in Providence. Both teams have goalies who have logged significant time in the majors, making this an incredibly interesting playoff series.
Bits of news and fun things, to take the edge off the offseason:
Short interview with Semyon Varlamov. (from Capitals insider). Varly talks about the nickname "Varly," how no one can pronounce his first name, and the potential of playing for the Caps' big club next year.
Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have the most epic bromance in the NHL. (From the Chicago Tribune) Really, the only thing that beats this puff piece from the Blackhawks' media bench is the piece on Patrick Kane and his sisters, from whence came this picture. Oh, Kaner - are you twelve? Seriously.
Updated Bruins' salary breakdown, from the Globe Bruins Blog. Very useful for speculating on whether the B's will be able to sign new kids, which RFCs they'll be able to re-sign, etc.
And, best for last - Phil Kessel's shoulder surgery a success. I have to admit, I woke up to this text message today, and I was the happiest I've been about hockey since a week ago today. Now, to fix David Krejci!
Is it time for development camp yet?
In my down time, I've taken to scouring the internet for links, along with stalking Bish's Blog, the Globe Bruins Blog (KPD is a huge hack, but I love Fluto's writing, so I suffer through it) along with whatever I can glean from Capitals Insider and the number of other teams' blogs I regularly read.
But wait, wait a second. There's actually still some hockey going on! In lieu of the big Bruins, there is Providence Bruins' hockey to watch - specifically, some players that should be up and ready for the big club next year. These are young players with relatively affordable contracts (with the exception of Tuukka Rask), who definitely bear watching. Vladimir Sobotka, Johnny Boychuk, Martin St. Pierre, and even Mikko Lehtonen and Brad Marchand could all be ready for breakout seasons next year in the vein of what Byron Bitz and Matt Hunwick did last year. The P-Bruins' opponents in this round are the Washington Capitals' AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears; a lot of their players are in the same situation (Jay Beagle, Semyon Varlamov, Karl Alzner). Many of the Bears' players logged at least some time with their big club this year, which may give them the slight advantage over the P-Bruins, whose major player to log time with both clubs who could have been a boon to the P-Bruins' Calder Cup run is injured (Byron Bitz, possible broken ribs).
Not to say the P-Bruins can't do it themselves - they've already won one of the two games in the series so far, handing the Bears their first home playoff loss this year. Game three is tomorrow in Providence. Both teams have goalies who have logged significant time in the majors, making this an incredibly interesting playoff series.
Bits of news and fun things, to take the edge off the offseason:
Short interview with Semyon Varlamov. (from Capitals insider). Varly talks about the nickname "Varly," how no one can pronounce his first name, and the potential of playing for the Caps' big club next year.
Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have the most epic bromance in the NHL. (From the Chicago Tribune) Really, the only thing that beats this puff piece from the Blackhawks' media bench is the piece on Patrick Kane and his sisters, from whence came this picture. Oh, Kaner - are you twelve? Seriously.
Updated Bruins' salary breakdown, from the Globe Bruins Blog. Very useful for speculating on whether the B's will be able to sign new kids, which RFCs they'll be able to re-sign, etc.
And, best for last - Phil Kessel's shoulder surgery a success. I have to admit, I woke up to this text message today, and I was the happiest I've been about hockey since a week ago today. Now, to fix David Krejci!
Is it time for development camp yet?
Friday, May 15, 2009
So Long, Farewell
In the past 30 hours, my heart was dropped off a cliff (Caps game), put itself back together, gleeful (hanging out with hockey fans at Boston Beer Works), hopeful, exuberant (Bitz's goal) nervous (two 'Canes goals), exuberant again (thanks, Looch).
Then, all of a sudden, it felt similar to being run over by eleven eighteen-wheelers. Through broken glass. And possibly some lava.
An overtime loss, and all of a sudden, that was that. Goodnight, Bruins.
Your immediate response in that situation is shock, giving way to a brief flash-of-hatred of one's own team, which dissipates, leaving boiling anger at the opponents, the Hurricanes; all this gives way to a dull sadness, exhaustion, as the adrenaline rush from cheering your team on in sudden-death slowly leaves your system. Heartbreak, disappointment.
Slowly, from that, you recover. You begin to re-recognize all that you loves about your team; Timmy Thomas stood on his head for the Bruins all year; Zee had his stumbles but is the greatest captain one could ask for; Patrice Bergeron came back from what could have been a career-ending injury. Bitzycat, the rookie kid from Cornell, stepped it up HUGELY in the postseason; so did Montador, finally potting his first goal as a Bruin at a perfectly clutch moment. The DEPTH, oh god the DEPTH of our team this year (Barring our slight defenseman almost-problems in the postseason) is unbelievable.
The 2008-2009 Bruins season, as a newbie, was magical; a longer season than any other sport made it feel like it'd never end. In fact, I wanted it to go on forever; instead, it all came to a crashing halt, thanks to one Scott Walker. But I can't hate. We got an entire MONTH more hockey than 24 teams; almost three weeks more than 8 more teams, and a few days more than the Canucks. (Sorry, Canucks!)
And the amazing thing is this - the Bruins, although with a solid core of veterans, are mostly comprised of rookies, sophomores, and guys who are on the younger side. Few have seen their way this far into the playoffs before. We went into this series a little too confident, and had our asses handed to us by a playoff-hardened team. But to have made it this far - I'm proud to call the B's my team.
Things that were MORE awesome - Mark Recchi played game 7 the day after having a kidney stone removed. This is truth - the Recching Ball is a BEAST.
Also - I dare the city of Boston to try to ignore the Bruins after this year and last. While it's ridiculously frustrating to try to get tickets in and around the bazillions of bandwagoners, I'm still happy the support is there. Please let it stay. I want Boston to be a hockey town again in my absence.
So now my Tim Thomas jersey is snugly packed away, along with all the posters, the two signs I made, my rally towels and paraphernalia, all ready to adorn my new apartment at end of summer. I don't know when I will see the inside of the TD Banknorth Garden again - and yeah, I'll miss the rushes of cold air from over the glass, the smells of burnt popcorn and hockey equipment, the epic goal song and WOOOO! from the announcer. Life moves on, though. All you B's fans out there - say hi for me next season when you go to games. Cheer until your throats are ragged. Respect your team; never boo them. Don't throw crap onto the ice when things don't go your way. Stay classy; this team works its butt off for you. Love it. Respect it.
Go B's Go. Bring on 2009-2010!
To everyone who texted me/sent me messages after last night's game? Thank you. Each concurrent one lifted me up a little more, and I appreciate it tremendously. :)
Then, all of a sudden, it felt similar to being run over by eleven eighteen-wheelers. Through broken glass. And possibly some lava.
An overtime loss, and all of a sudden, that was that. Goodnight, Bruins.
Your immediate response in that situation is shock, giving way to a brief flash-of-hatred of one's own team, which dissipates, leaving boiling anger at the opponents, the Hurricanes; all this gives way to a dull sadness, exhaustion, as the adrenaline rush from cheering your team on in sudden-death slowly leaves your system. Heartbreak, disappointment.
Slowly, from that, you recover. You begin to re-recognize all that you loves about your team; Timmy Thomas stood on his head for the Bruins all year; Zee had his stumbles but is the greatest captain one could ask for; Patrice Bergeron came back from what could have been a career-ending injury. Bitzycat, the rookie kid from Cornell, stepped it up HUGELY in the postseason; so did Montador, finally potting his first goal as a Bruin at a perfectly clutch moment. The DEPTH, oh god the DEPTH of our team this year (Barring our slight defenseman almost-problems in the postseason) is unbelievable.
The 2008-2009 Bruins season, as a newbie, was magical; a longer season than any other sport made it feel like it'd never end. In fact, I wanted it to go on forever; instead, it all came to a crashing halt, thanks to one Scott Walker. But I can't hate. We got an entire MONTH more hockey than 24 teams; almost three weeks more than 8 more teams, and a few days more than the Canucks. (Sorry, Canucks!)
And the amazing thing is this - the Bruins, although with a solid core of veterans, are mostly comprised of rookies, sophomores, and guys who are on the younger side. Few have seen their way this far into the playoffs before. We went into this series a little too confident, and had our asses handed to us by a playoff-hardened team. But to have made it this far - I'm proud to call the B's my team.
Things that were MORE awesome - Mark Recchi played game 7 the day after having a kidney stone removed. This is truth - the Recching Ball is a BEAST.
Also - I dare the city of Boston to try to ignore the Bruins after this year and last. While it's ridiculously frustrating to try to get tickets in and around the bazillions of bandwagoners, I'm still happy the support is there. Please let it stay. I want Boston to be a hockey town again in my absence.
So now my Tim Thomas jersey is snugly packed away, along with all the posters, the two signs I made, my rally towels and paraphernalia, all ready to adorn my new apartment at end of summer. I don't know when I will see the inside of the TD Banknorth Garden again - and yeah, I'll miss the rushes of cold air from over the glass, the smells of burnt popcorn and hockey equipment, the epic goal song and WOOOO! from the announcer. Life moves on, though. All you B's fans out there - say hi for me next season when you go to games. Cheer until your throats are ragged. Respect your team; never boo them. Don't throw crap onto the ice when things don't go your way. Stay classy; this team works its butt off for you. Love it. Respect it.
Go B's Go. Bring on 2009-2010!
To everyone who texted me/sent me messages after last night's game? Thank you. Each concurrent one lifted me up a little more, and I appreciate it tremendously. :)
Monday, May 11, 2009
28 hours of hockey euphoria
1. Bruins 4, Hurricanes 0
I really...this game was a great experience, especially after being at game 2. Timmy and the B's really turned it around and gave a great show.
We got to the glass for warmups - found everyone, sorted out tickets, no problems there - I grabbed my anti-Canes-mojo poster and split off from the group to go sit by Canes warmups, poster pressed firmly against the glass, shit-eating grin on my face.
Moment of the night that seriously set my heart racing and ready for the Bruins to beat the pants off the Whalercanes? Tim Conboy looked at my poster, grinned, and shook his head a little. BUT THEN, two minutes later, Eric Staal himself came over and was stretching right beside my poster; he took a few more laps, then, on his way off the ice to head back into the locker room, ERIC STAAL PUNCHED THE GLASS IN FRONT OF ME, with the most petulant, crabby look on his face, ever! I'm pretty sure I ruined his mojo. Yep, three quick hard raps on the glass with the outside of his fist, a quick scowl, then back in, buzzer sounded, and up we headed to our seats in the nosebleeds.
Other highlights - Milan Lucic was a beast; he put some sweet hits on some of the Canes early on, got things going early, and even potted a goal, thank goodness. Phil Kessel snagged two, and Chara was a +3 on the night. Making up for lost ground in game 2. Good man.
It was like someone flipped a switch in their brains, or replaced their legs with bionic robot ones, or amped them up in some way that didn't seem humanly possible - the drastic change in energy level between games 4 and 5 was absolutely unbelievable. I don't want to think that it's only because of the home energy from the crowd, but I think that was part of it. Another part is that the Bruins had no reason to get ANGRY at the WhalerCanes; they were just sort of...that team, you know, that we're playing against. There were no Komisareks, no Laraques on this team, until last night.
The Bruins were a sleepy bear until last night, until they had their backs to the wall - not only did the Hurricanes back them into a corner, but then they decided to poke the cornered bear. NOT A GOOD IDEA. Now, Walker might as well have a bullseye painted on his back; the Zdeno Chara debacle didn't hurt, and in the third, the Bruins came out swinging. The defense rotated like a well-oiled machine; at one point even the least physical forwards were spotting playing two-way hockey, specifically David Krejci and Marc Savard. The two of them made some nice little checks, and even did some mucking in front of Tim Thomas, the few times the puck made it to the defensive zone.
My favorite stat of the night: The Bruins had 40 SOG to the Whalercanes' 19. These numbers were essentially reversed for games 2 through 4, which is promising.
Game 6 tomorrow - here's hoping the Bruins pack a little bit of Red Sox mojo, circa 2004. My mood: cautiously optimistic. It's true, Carolina is a tough building to play in, but they KNOW now what the atmosphere will be like, and there's a wee bit of momentum. Keep rolling, boys. Keep rolling.
2. Capitals 5, Penguins 4
I missed this game. I am both happy and sad about this; while it sounds like a game in which there were many heart attacks, sometimes those are my favorite kind of games. Your heart races, adrenaline floods your body; a doctor checking your body's reaction would almost think YOU were involved in these games. Alas, though, we're just the plebes watching the struggles of others, living vicariously through their efforts.
And lo did the Caps bring the pain to Pittsburgh tonight. Dave Steckel is apparently a beast, Alexander Semin finally woke up from his 5-game nap, Ovechkin didn't account for ANY goals tonight - before the game, I thought to myself, is Ovie going to try to carry this team through the playoffs? Because if so, they're not going anywhere. Tonight, Viktor Kozlov, Tomas Fleischmann, Alex Semin, and Dave Steckel proved otherwise - and well done! Varlamov let in four goals which still makes me question the quality of the defense, but other than that - well played!
3. Blackhawks 7, Canucks 5
Man, were Khabibulin and Luongo a pair of sieves tonight, or what? Okay, maybe not, but close. The Blackhawks scored a touchdown on the Canucks; Patrick Kane grabbed the first Blackhawks post-season hat trick since 1994, and the Blackhawks took down the last Canadian team in six games to make their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 1995.
IT WAS A GOOD NIGHT AT THE UNITED CENTER TONIGHT.
Glad to see Toews and Burish snag goals as well. Really, other than that, I've got nothing, except: this gif sums up my feelings since yesterday night.
I'll soak in this feeling for about 30 more minutes, and then it's back to watching my team fight for its life. Two more, Bruins. One more, Caps.
DO IT.
I really...this game was a great experience, especially after being at game 2. Timmy and the B's really turned it around and gave a great show.
We got to the glass for warmups - found everyone, sorted out tickets, no problems there - I grabbed my anti-Canes-mojo poster and split off from the group to go sit by Canes warmups, poster pressed firmly against the glass, shit-eating grin on my face.
Moment of the night that seriously set my heart racing and ready for the Bruins to beat the pants off the Whalercanes? Tim Conboy looked at my poster, grinned, and shook his head a little. BUT THEN, two minutes later, Eric Staal himself came over and was stretching right beside my poster; he took a few more laps, then, on his way off the ice to head back into the locker room, ERIC STAAL PUNCHED THE GLASS IN FRONT OF ME, with the most petulant, crabby look on his face, ever! I'm pretty sure I ruined his mojo. Yep, three quick hard raps on the glass with the outside of his fist, a quick scowl, then back in, buzzer sounded, and up we headed to our seats in the nosebleeds.
Other highlights - Milan Lucic was a beast; he put some sweet hits on some of the Canes early on, got things going early, and even potted a goal, thank goodness. Phil Kessel snagged two, and Chara was a +3 on the night. Making up for lost ground in game 2. Good man.
It was like someone flipped a switch in their brains, or replaced their legs with bionic robot ones, or amped them up in some way that didn't seem humanly possible - the drastic change in energy level between games 4 and 5 was absolutely unbelievable. I don't want to think that it's only because of the home energy from the crowd, but I think that was part of it. Another part is that the Bruins had no reason to get ANGRY at the WhalerCanes; they were just sort of...that team, you know, that we're playing against. There were no Komisareks, no Laraques on this team, until last night.
The Bruins were a sleepy bear until last night, until they had their backs to the wall - not only did the Hurricanes back them into a corner, but then they decided to poke the cornered bear. NOT A GOOD IDEA. Now, Walker might as well have a bullseye painted on his back; the Zdeno Chara debacle didn't hurt, and in the third, the Bruins came out swinging. The defense rotated like a well-oiled machine; at one point even the least physical forwards were spotting playing two-way hockey, specifically David Krejci and Marc Savard. The two of them made some nice little checks, and even did some mucking in front of Tim Thomas, the few times the puck made it to the defensive zone.
My favorite stat of the night: The Bruins had 40 SOG to the Whalercanes' 19. These numbers were essentially reversed for games 2 through 4, which is promising.
Game 6 tomorrow - here's hoping the Bruins pack a little bit of Red Sox mojo, circa 2004. My mood: cautiously optimistic. It's true, Carolina is a tough building to play in, but they KNOW now what the atmosphere will be like, and there's a wee bit of momentum. Keep rolling, boys. Keep rolling.
2. Capitals 5, Penguins 4
I missed this game. I am both happy and sad about this; while it sounds like a game in which there were many heart attacks, sometimes those are my favorite kind of games. Your heart races, adrenaline floods your body; a doctor checking your body's reaction would almost think YOU were involved in these games. Alas, though, we're just the plebes watching the struggles of others, living vicariously through their efforts.
And lo did the Caps bring the pain to Pittsburgh tonight. Dave Steckel is apparently a beast, Alexander Semin finally woke up from his 5-game nap, Ovechkin didn't account for ANY goals tonight - before the game, I thought to myself, is Ovie going to try to carry this team through the playoffs? Because if so, they're not going anywhere. Tonight, Viktor Kozlov, Tomas Fleischmann, Alex Semin, and Dave Steckel proved otherwise - and well done! Varlamov let in four goals which still makes me question the quality of the defense, but other than that - well played!
3. Blackhawks 7, Canucks 5
Man, were Khabibulin and Luongo a pair of sieves tonight, or what? Okay, maybe not, but close. The Blackhawks scored a touchdown on the Canucks; Patrick Kane grabbed the first Blackhawks post-season hat trick since 1994, and the Blackhawks took down the last Canadian team in six games to make their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 1995.
IT WAS A GOOD NIGHT AT THE UNITED CENTER TONIGHT.
Glad to see Toews and Burish snag goals as well. Really, other than that, I've got nothing, except: this gif sums up my feelings since yesterday night.
I'll soak in this feeling for about 30 more minutes, and then it's back to watching my team fight for its life. Two more, Bruins. One more, Caps.
DO IT.
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