We Are The Champions

First off, apologies for the lateness of this post; the Blackhawks, as you may have heard, won their first Stanley Cup since 1961 nearly two weeks ago.  Even though it looked as if the Flyers may force a Game 7 after tying the game late in the third, Patrick Kane gained sports immortality in Chicago by flicking home the Cup-winning goal several minutes into OT.  Shortly thereafter, his fellow legend-in-the-making Jonathan Toews was awarded the Conn Smythe, and then was handed the silver chalice by Gary Bettman, setting off a wild on-ice celebration.  There really isn't much more that can be said at this point...we've all heard about the all-night celebration, the 4:30am landing at O'Hare, and the parading of the Cup around certain downtown establishments the next day.  It was just a sweet, sweet couple of days as the realization that this franchise actually won a Stanley Cup set in.  In some ways, I don't think it really quite did until the victory parade that Friday, which was truly something to see.  An estimated 2 million people lined the Michigan Avenue, and I wasn't really prepared for the awe-inspiring display that went on.  Perhaps it was because MJ's Bulls never had parades in the 90s, just rallies in Grant Park, but the ticker-tape reception for the Hawks on their double-decker buses was simply stunning.  Surreal, really.  


It's quite remarkable to think about the turnaround this organization just completed, which really started in late 2007 when Rocky Wirtz took over the franchise after his father's death.  John McDonough was brought in as team president soon after, and those two men deserve all the praise they're getting for turning the team's financial fortunes around.  


But the man who isn't getting enough credit, in my mind, is the man who actually put the entire team, to a man, together, Dale Tallon.  The current GM of the Florida Panthers, Tallon had a hand in drafting, signing, or trading for every single member of the new champions of the NHL.  He was unceremoniously dumped after the qualifying offer snafu of last summer, and Stan Bowman was promoted to GM.  As good as it may be having the Bowmans in your organization (Scotty has 13 rings as a coach/front office man), this was Tallon's team all the way, and while I'm sure the organization will recognize him with a ring, it'd be a crime for his name not to be engraved on the Cup along with all of his players.  Best of luck to him in Florida. 


But even though Tallon built a champion here in Chicago, he did so by handing out some very large contracts that are proving to be a burden on the salary cap.    If you look at the core of the team, 14 players or so count for almost 50 million against a 58 million cap (or thereabouts).  Therefore, Stan Bowman (a professed numbers guy) has his work cut out for him.  While the top two lines will probably remain mostly the same, some faces will be different from those in the on-ice photo with the Cup.  Probably one or two of Sharp, Byfuglien, and Versteeg will be gone; if it were up to me, I'd lose Versteeg, because he's a third-line winger on this team making upwards of 3 million, a position that can be easily replaced with Skille or Beach in the years to come.  Much as we love Steeger, he's just a luxury that this team can no longer afford.  Another thread to watch will be Niemi's contract negotiations; he's obviously due a large raise, but how large? He's still restricted in his free agency this year, but he's a UFA next year, so do they lock him up long-term or lowball him? We shall see.  But let's just bask in the fact that the Hawks took advantage of their ridiculous depth this year and captured hockey's greatest prize.  


Something to look forward to: October 9, when the Hawks have their home opener, raise the banner for their 2010 championship, then take on the hated Red Wings.  Can't wait.

Oh and Toews is the new cover boy for EA Sports' NHL '11, following in Kaner's footsteps.  Two Hawks in a row...nice.

And finally, we might wonder what if history wasn't made?  Thankfully, it was, and may it be remembered forever.




Since coming down off that wonderful, wonderful high of one of my teams winning a championship, I've found myself completely and totally apathetic towards the 2010 edition of the Chicago Cubs.  I can't even really bring myself to want to go to a game.  Pretty much the entirety of the organization is rubbing me the wrong way.  The team on the field just sucks.  Can't hit (except for you, Marlon Byrd, and you, Tyler Colvin - you guys have had good years thus far).  Can't field.  Can't pitch.  Can't do anything right for an extended period of time.  I've come to the conclusion that this team, with the Piniella/Lee/Soriano/Ramirez/Zambrano core, had its best shot in 2008.  That was the window.  That was their shot.  It was kismet.  It was fate.  The 100-year anniversary of their last title.  Best record in the league.  And then a stunning, horrifying three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers in which they...couldn't pitch, field, or hit.  So that's bad enough; changes are most certainly gonna be made this offseason, and it's possible that in addition to a new manager (Lou is most certainly in his last months), a full-blown youth movement will be in effect.  Which is fine by me; the current iteration doesn't have what it takes, plain and simple.  


So as I said, that's bad enough; but then, we have the new owners, the Ricketts family, who talked a big game about keeping with traditions, doing exactly the opposite.  First, it was the damn Toyota sign, which is nothing but an eyesore rising above the bleachers.  Is the couple hundred thousand dollars that it brings in really worth it for this blight on an otherwise beautiful ballpark and baseball atmosphere?  It just looks plain terrible; Wrigley is not Fenway Park, with its hundreds of ads all over the outfield and Green Monster.  It works fine in Fenway, but Wrigley's different; it's supposed to be a pristine place where baseball can be viewed in its purest form, and Tom Ricketts, who's been a fan for decades, pledged to uphold that tradition.  This Toyota sign, and the noodle outside, and the elimination of the player intros on the organ (don't even get me started on how much it sucks to have Theriot being introduced with Enter Sandman) all have me souring on this new direction, this "Year One." More like Year One of More of The Same.  It's kinda sad, really.  Seeing the Blackhawks parade made me think of the celebration that would welcome a Cubs World Series win to the city, and I couldn't even fathom how great a day that would be.  But the play of the team and the direction the organization and the Ricketts's seem to be heading in doesn't thrill me at all, and sadly makes me think that that day is still a long, long way off.


On a brighter note, 9 days til NBA free agency and the commencement of the LeBron Watch.  

One Game For The One Goal

We're so close.  So very, very close.  The Chicago Blackhawks are one single game away from ending the NHL's longest Stanley Cup drought at 49 years, winning Game 5 of the 2010 Final to take a 3-2 lead going into tomorrow night's all-important Game 6.  After two disappointing losses in Philadelphia, the Hawks came out and did nothing special except play their best period of hockey in the playoffs, and maybe the entire year.  Just pure and total domination.  The Hawks with their reshuffled lines were simply flying, and Philly had no answer.  We jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one, and it could have been much worse if not for a couple admirable saves by Michael Leighton, who eventually was pulled in favor of Brian Boucher.  Seabrook, Versteeg, Sharp, Kane, and Byfuglien (who had two) all scored for the Hawks, who just blew the Flyers out of the water with seven goals, upping their home total to 15 in three games.  This was the first time in the series the Hawks played their game, and the Flyers just couldn't stay with them.  

ONE MORE

• Hey! Chris Pronger got called for a penalty! It's amazing how much he can get away with time after time, no matter how many times the NBC crew makes a point of showing all the illegal shit he gets away with.  By the way, I'm sure you've heard, but Pronger was a -5, definitely one of the worst games of his career.  He was on the ice for 6 of the Hawks' goals, and was sitting in the sin bin for the seventh.  
• Fittingly, the man who scored that goal while Pronger was sitting in the box was Dustin Byfuglien, who had no less than a monster night.  He had two goals and two assists, and some monstrous hits, including the biggest one on Pronger that many NHL experts had ever seen.  
• Amazingly, this was the second 11 goal game in this Final.  Just astounding offensive numbers being put up, perhaps aided by the mediocre at best goaltending on both sides.
• The powerplay really, really looked a lot better. The Hawks capitalized twice, but the Byfuglien one was a true thing of beauty.  Every single Hawk on the ice other than Niemi touched the puck, and the tic-tac-toe from Sharp to Toews to Big Buff was sublime.  
• Niemi, speaking of which, did what was needed to get the W.  He wasn't at his best, and hasn't played all that well in this series.  But all that means he's due for a great performance, as we've seen him bounce back from subpar efforts time and time again this spring.
• The shuffled lines really payed dividends.  Splitting up Kane and Toews was coming no matter what, but I loved Q splitting those two and Buff totally, putting one on three different lines.  By doing this, he forces Laviolette's and Pronger's hands: who do you match #20 up against? Is it the pairing of Toews and Hossa on the first line, which is just kinda unfair? Against Buff on the third line with Bolland and Versteeg? Or against the dynamic Sharp/Kane/Ladd combo? He picked Toews most of the time, and that line was held to only a single point, an assist by the Captain.  But the other lines prospered, with Buff having a monster night and Kane playing his best game of the series by a longshot.  These lines will stay the same, and for that reason, I think the Hawks will have a better chance tomorrow at the Wachovia Center than in either Game 3 or 4.
• Coverage in the defensive zone still needs to get better, as the Flyers stayed within shouting distance thanks to some shoddy clearing attempts by Hawks D-men.  Fix this.

Tomorrow night is going to be the toughest game of the year for the Blackhawks.  Philly's gonna come ready to play, make no mistake about it.  Lord Stanley will be in the building for the first time all series, but the Hawks cannot let their minds wander.  A big key will be scoring first - after Game 5, the Hawks are now 10-1 when leading after two periods, so grabbing a lead, silencing the crowd, and taking the momentum will be huge in this pivotal game.  The Flyers, as they've demonstrated on multiple occasions this spring, just will not die, so it's gonna be up to the Hawks to apply the killing blow.  We've learned a lot about the makeup and leadership of this team in the past two months or so, and it's going to be tested at least one more time.  We've already closed out Nashville and Vancouver this spring in road Game 6's, but this will be the toughest test yet.  By far.  As Sam Jackson says in Jurassic Park, "Hold onto your butts."

What Were You Thinking, Jim Joyce?

This is a couple days old, but it's perhaps the biggest WWYT since the Beantown Buzz came up with the idea last winter.  If you're reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  On Wednesday night, the Tigers' Armando Gallaraga was one freakin' out away from the third perfect game in under a month, and fourth in under a year.  That's certifiably insane, seeing as there had only been 18 ever in baseball history coming into the year.  Alongside seeing a guy hit four homers in a game, it's one of the rarest things to happen in the great game of baseball.  27 up, 27 down.  Perfection.  And this poor guy had one more batter to get through. He induced a grounder to the first baseman Miguel Cabrera, and he and Gallaraga made the play that is practiced league-wide on the first day of Spring Training every February.  The play was made, the runner was out, and stunningly, perfection happened again.

See? The guy's out.  Like, clearly.  By a good half-step or so.  Not by a few strides, but pretty clear-cut.  

But not to Jim Joyce.  

Apparently, he's a well-respected umpire, well-liked and good enough at the job to have worked several World Series and an All-Star game or two.  Well, he won't be getting those assignments anymore.  

This is perhaps the worst call I've ever seen in any sport, ever.  To me, if a guy's pitched that well, and it's clear he's having a special night, and it's the last out of the goddamn game, you give him the benefit of the doubt and call the guy out.  You're almost obligated to, in my opinion.  Joyce had to have know - had to have - that perfection was on the line, and I honestly believe him when he tearfully said afterward that he truly thought the guy was safe - but he was the only one in the stadium, and the country, who thought so.  Human error is part of the game, for better and for worse, but this was just egregious.  

Ironically, Gallaraga will probably be remembered more in posterity for his near-perfecto and the controversy it stirred up than Dallas Braden or Roy Halladay will be for pitching their perfect games.  

Big-time what were you thinking goes out to Jim Joyce tonight

Well, Then

Give all the credit in the world to the Flyers, they really came out strong in the two games played in Philly this past week. Just as in their series against Boston, an overtime win at home seems to be the impetus for a stunning resurgence.  The Hawks lost that tight Game Three, and tonight's Game 4, a 5-3 game that wasn't all that close until the Hawks made it interesting with two goals scored with less than ten to go in the game.  They had some good chances to tie it up with Niemi on the bench, but it was too little, too late.  By all rights, the Hawks should have owned this game.  They had a good deal more faceoff wins than the Flyers, and they outshot them by a decent margin too, all good signs of improvement from the Game Three loss.  But Philly simply did all the little things right, and was greatly aided by two inexcusable, unforgivable defensive lapses by the normally solid Nicklas Hjalmersson (who's had a great postseason, it must be said), which led directly to two unassisted Philly goals in the first period, igniting the sellout crowd and sending the Flyers well on their way to tying the series.  Then, just as in the third period of Game Three, we scored a seemingly huge goal to quell the momentum, but the Flyers scored less than thirty seconds later to retake their two-goal advantage.  This cannot - cannot - continue.  We basically gave Philly two goals tonight, and another came when an errant shot hit Versteeg's ass and floated over Niemi's right shoulder while he was looking for the shot above his left.  Really the best thing to take away from this was the Hawks' shuffled lines being much more productive in the third period - if that continues, and we get the crowd going with an early goal or two on Sunday just like Philly did tonight, I think we'll be OK.  When it comes down to it, the Flyers held serve on home ice.  Is it disappointing, maybe even a little disheartening to come back tied in the series 2-2? It sure as hell is.  Now, maybe we were a little intoxicated with the Blackhawks' recent road success against Vancouver and San Jose, but I still thought they'd grab at least one.  They didn't, and now this series is a verifiable dogfight.  The Hawks are gonna have to toughen up significantly, and start winning some board battles.  Also, the passing needs to be crisper - I can't count how many times errant passes kicked off skates, or led the receiver just a little too much, sometimes leading to odd-man rushes for the opponent.  In the two road games, the Hawks just looked a little out of sync, a little out of sorts.  Perhaps a little home cooking is just what the doctor ordered...


It's come down to this: a best-of-three to decide the victor of the Stanley Cup Final, with two games at the UC.  A win Sunday would go a looooong way towards bringing that Cup to Chicago.  It's the biggest game for this franchise in many, many years, I have no doubt that we'll see an inspired Hawks effort.  Bring it, gentleman

Halfway Home

There's really not a whole lot more to say about these Blackhawks.  No matter what's thrown at them, they just keep on winning.  Last night's was their sixth in a row dating back to the clincher in the Vancouver series, and they've now won four in a row at home and will put their seven game road streak on the line tomorrow night.  They haven't played their best hockey yet in this Stanley Cup Final, but still, somehow, some way, have earned a 2-0 advantage over a very solid Flyers team.  A vastly different game from the opener, the two teams were scoreless until late in the second when the Hawks erupted for two goals in 28 seconds, getting tallies from Marian Hossa (remember him?) and former first-rounder Ben Eager.  Hossa's was a scrappy goal, gained from fighting for a rebound in front of Michael Leighton, who performed admirably in defeat.  Eager's, however, was not; he blasted a laser beam of a wrister just over Leighton's glove, popping the water bottle in the process and sending a partisan crowd (who'd just finished celebrating Hossa's) into delirium.  The Flyers mounted a furious rally in the third, tallying on a power play with about fourteen minutes to go; they'd pepper Niemi with shots the rest of the way, but our Finnish netminder stood tall, and denied the Flyers' bid to wrest home ice away from Chicago.  It's possible that the United Center may have seen its last hockey of the 2009-2010 season, but time will tell.  Personally, if the Hawks were to win, I'd love for it to be on home ice.  But they have a lot of work still to do; this Flyers team has already shown this postseason that they are never willing to say die.

• Love that we've won two games with nary a point from either Toews, Kane, or Byfuglien.  That line has been totally shut out, although they played much better yesterday than in Game 1. The fact that we have seven goals in the series from eight different guys from the 2nd/3rd/4th lines is simply remarkable, and a true testament to the depth of this team that unfortunately may not be there after the cap situation plays itself out this summer.  But at least we're taking advantage of it now.
• I don't think I've ever seen a goal celebration quite as cathartic as Marian Hossa's in the second period.  He's been playing some great, great hockey, but hasn't quite been able to put the puck in the net.  I'm sure he feels like the monkey is finally off his back.  He's been the best forward in the series thus far by a longshot; he clearly does not want to be a three-time loser.  He almost had a second goal a few minutes later, if not for an active stick by a Philly defenseman.  He has 3 points in the two games, and if he keeps playing at the high level he's at right now, he'll pile up a few more before it's all said and done.  
• Ben Eager showed why he was a first round pick a few years ago.  While he's settled nicely into his role as an enforcer, he clearly hasn't forgotten how to score.  It was a nice little Ovechkin-type move, pulling the puck in before shooting it so as to use the defenseman as a screen - it clearly fooled Leighton
• Antti freakin' Niemi.  How good was this guy yesterday? He made at least five or six above-average to outstanding stops that saved this game for the Hawks.  Again, he showed his uncanny ability to bounce back from subpar games to play a great one.  Just think, a little over a month ago, we were all worried about how the Hawks' goaltending might hinder their run for the Cup.  How long ago that seems.  And all the talk inbetween Games 1 and 2 about who the Flyers goalie would be served to highlight what wasn't being talked about in Hawks camp - never was it talked about on radio, in the news, in the paper, online, whatever, about who would start in goal for Chicago.  It was always Niemi, without a doubt.  What a legend he's forging for himself.  He's 14-4 in the playoffs, a new record for wins for a Hawks goalie in the postseason.  If you'd told me that in October, I might have laughed in your face.  Kudos to the front office and talent evaluators for snagging this guy, he's been more than invaluable this spring.  In fact, I'll go as far as saying we're not as far as we are without him.  Period.
• The power play needs to get better.  It just never looked comfortable at all in the three opportunities they got, and they're gonna need to cash in on the road this week.  I think it will be, because for whatever reason, they just seem to shoot more on the road.  In fact, their whole game plan is just simplified on the road, which has directly led to the seven-game streak.  I fully expect a split at least over the next few days
• It'll be interesting to see the fire drills that are the road line changes for the Hawks as Joel and Co. try to get their matchups.  He's done a masterful job in the past two series of outwitting his counterparts, and hopefully that continues at the Wachovia Center tomorrow night.  

It's been a helluva fun ride this spring, and the Hawks are closer than they've been in decades to the glory that comes along with being crowned Stanley Cup Champions.  Only two more stinkin' games to go.  Two (2).  That's it.  That's all. That's the magic number.  This Flyers team has showed a lot of heart, and has also outplayed the Hawks for long stretches of each game. But these players know how to win, and know what it takes to do it the hard way.  They can win playing their game, and they can win playing Philly's game.  It's gonna be fun to watch over the next few days.  History could be made.