Tomorrow, someone is going to raise the Stanley Cup. It’s been a wild Finals so far and every game in Vancouver has been decided by one goal. Continuing with our award-winning hockey coverage, I will be conducting the first ever Rainman Suite live running diary for Game 7. Check back at 8 Wednesday night. I promise it will be one of the best Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 live running journals you will ever read.
The Stanley Cup will be handed out either this week or the next. Originally purchased as a punch bowl in 1893 for $48.67 by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Stanley Cup has undergone several redesigns since then. That brings us to our Question of the Week. If you get it right, you get five minutes in the penalty box with Dani. The answser is after the jump.
When was the current version of the Stanley Cup first awarded? (and a hint: it is not 1940)
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals was pretty epic. I love low-scoring games. The tension is unbearable. The Canucks and Bruins were scoreless for over 59 and a half minutes until Jannik Hansen made a pretty feed to Raffi Hansen for the game-winner. The fans in Vancouver were delirious, but perhaps none more than these guys, who drove 15 hours to watch the Canucks play in San Jose in the Western Conference Finals and ended up drinking with the owner of the team, making a hospital visit, and scoring comps for the next game. It’s a good read.
The Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins have each gone almost 40 years without hoisting the Stanley Cup. In Vancouver’s case, the franchise has never won it. Both teams have passionate fans and recent playoff disappointment despite regular season success, and have finally managed to get over the hump to reach the Finals. Unfortunately, only one team will walk away with the Ultimate Prize and all the tail and debauchery you can imagine while the other gets a summer of heartbreak and despair.
The Canucks rode high all season. The Presidents’ Trophy winners have the reigning MVP in Henrik Sedin and a finalist for this year’s award in his twin brother Daniel. These guys have ESP like Bill Cosby in Ghost Dad. How the Bruins defense, led by Zdeno Chara, handles them will play a large role in the outcome of the series. The Canucks also have Ryan Kesler playing at a high level and Roberto Luongo mixes brilliance with incompetence in net. It will be interesting to see how the team handles itself if things don’t go well, considering the magnitude of the games for the city of Vancouver and Canada in general.
Although the Bruins won the Northeast Division, they were overlooked as contenders until recently. Goalie Tim Thomas has played great all year and has the ability to win games by himself. If the Bruins’ power play stays dormant, he may have to. The B’s have overcome adversity all season, recovering from their collapse in last year’s playoffs and winning two Game 7’s. They will not be scared of the Canucks and the most explosive offense in hockey. That does not mean the Bruins can stop them. Tim Thomas is going to have to play like a motherfucker.
Canucks in 5
Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals is tonight. I have three words for you.
Most sports intro videos are the same. A couple of action shots along with some animation and it’s time for starting lineups. The students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks decided to change all of that for their hockey team. Here’s their pregame video that features a polar bear not only destroying a cruise ship, but the entire planet. I also didn’t realize that UAF played their hockey games at the end of a wormhole on the other side of the universe. I don’t know what they’re smoking up in Alaska but I want some of it. Must be what Sarah Palin is on.
It’s a little known fact that Jason Voorhees was a huge fan of the California Golden Seals and goaltender Gilles Meloche. When the team left Oakland for the greener pastures of Cleveland without ever advancing past the first round of the playoffs, Jason, inspired by Meloche’s badass dragon mask, started wearing his own and butchering camp counselors. My predictions are doing just about as well as those camp counselors. I’m 4-7 so far after going 2-2 in the Semis but I’m going to nail these picks if it’s the last thing I do. Like I said before, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are the hardest to predict.
In the East, the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning have taken similar roads to get the Conference Finals. Both had solid seasons but neither was expected to reach this far. After sweeping favored teams in the previous round, the B’s and Bolts are rested and hot. Tim Thomas and Dwayne Roloson have been fabulous in goal, respectively. However, the Lightning have a trio of big-time scorers in veterans Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier and young gun Steven Stamkos, who was second in the league in goals during the regular season with 45. The Bruins, on the other hand, are without one of their leading contributors in Patrice Bergeron, who is still dealing with a concussion suffered against the Flyers. Don’t forget: St. Louis and Lecavalier led the Lightning to the Cup only seven years ago. If Thomas gets hot, it’s going to be tough, but Tampa Bay knows what it takes to get to the next level. Lightning in 6
Out West, the two best regular-season teams meet in the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks. Regular-season is the operative word because both are known for their past failures in the playoffs. Luckily, one will finally get over the hump and make the Finals while the other will have a long summer. These teams have strong offenses, with the magical Sedin twins leading the Canucks against the Sharks’ Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. They should have plenty of opportunities to score against a couple of goaltenders that have struggled a bit so far in the playoffs. Antti Niemi is an upgrade over the skittish Evgeni Nabokov for the Sharks and won the Cup last year in Chicago. The Canucks’ maddening Roberto Luongo has mixed brilliance with putridness throughout his career and is always good for a free goal. Hopefully, it won’t be an important one. The Canucks won the Presidents’ Trophy for a reason, while the Sharks always seem to go down in flames. I just don’t want to see another riot in Vancouver like in 1994. Canucks in 7
Sean Avery’s recent PSA for marriage equality has raised quite a stir. First, it drew criticism from Todd Reynolds, an NHL agent, who tweeted, “Very sad to read Sean Avery’s misguided support of same-gender ‘marriage.’ Legal or not, it will always be wrong.” Rogers SportsNet broadcaster Damian Goddard then added, “I completely and whole-heartedly support Todd Reynolds and his support for the traditional and TRUE meaning of marriage” for his his 500-or-so followers. A few hours later he was fired.
It shocks me that people would publicly comment so negatively about Avery’s PSA. Right or wrong, it’s a pretty innocuous 30 seconds. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but what kind of idiot involved with a mainstream entity like the NHL puts it online like that? What did this assclown expect? As for Reynolds, I’m sure anti-gay comments are really going to be great for his business. He represents Mike Fisher, who’s married to Carrie Underwood. She’s really going to want to be associated with him. Look guys, if gay dudes and ladies want to get married, is it really going to ruin your life? The only thing that will ruin your life is posting stupid, ignorant comments on Twitter. Mind your own fucking business.
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Capitals over Lightning in 6
Bruins over Flyers in 7
Canucks over Predators in 7
Red Wings over Sharks in 7
Rainman Suite 