How fitting is it that a 21 year old with a mullet scores the game winning goal in overtime to clinch the Stanley Cup? A guy who the Flyers could have had, when we were the worst team in hockey and ended up with the 2nd pick in the draft rather than the 1st. Anyway, congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks on becoming the 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Champions. Congrats to the city of Chicago, for having their 49 year drought end. And of course, congrats to Jeff Bartl from BlackhawkUp for winning a few cheesesteaks.
So another summer begins with the Flyers not holding the trophy. If your reading this, you already know that they were eliminated in Game 6 last night, on a goal by Patrick Kane in overtime. An ugly goal, that Leighton should have never given up. And the Flyers had their own chances, but were unable to capitalize and send the series back to Chicago. Giroux, Carter, Richards, and Gagne all had golden opportunities to win it. Chicago dominated most of the game, but there was always hope. The score was close, and you never know what can happen. It’s a bit too hard to recap it all, so here’s a few thoughts:
- Leino continued to be a beast. He set up the 2nd and 3rd Flyer goals, and was the Flyers best player throughout the entire Finals.
- Hartnell was clutch too, after a lackluster regular season and first three rounds. He stood in front of the net, took the cross checks, and still put the puck in the net. 5 goals in 6 Finals games: not too shabby Hartsy, not too shabby.
- Carter should have buried the empty netter. He got the puck on his stick, had Niemi down on his gut, and fired too low. You gotta roof that one Carts.
- Richards was pretty much completely shut down. At least we’ll always have the image of him destroying Kopecky. Sometimes hits that look brutal really don’t hurt players because they know how to brace themselves. You know Kopecky felt this one.
- Jeremy Roenick got emotional after the game, crying because he couldn’t bring Chicago the Cup and because he was happy for them. Of course, he’d played for the Flyers and we were a bit mad at him. We’d embraced him, loved him, cheered for him, and he’d given the love right back. But, like a man, he called into 610 WIP this morning, and defended his emotions. He said that if the Flyers had won, he would have had the same reaction. He claims that he was unbiased, and I’ll believe him. He’s always stated how he felt about us, and I agree that it’s unfair to criticize him for this. And if he had been biased, and really had cheered for the ‘Hawks, then so what? He played there more than anywhere else, had his greatest personal success and team success there. He may have love and affinity with Phoenix, Philadelphia, and San Jose, but in his heart, he’s really a Blackhawk.
- I’m wearing all black to work today, to mourn the death of the season.
- Leighton really played like shit in the Finals, and especially this game. After the Flyers took a 2-1 lead, Sharp scored an easy one. Soft shot, right through the wickets, as usual. I received a text after the game which said, “Only person with a bigger five hole than Leightonis Snookie.” Of course, the OT goal deserves it’s own paragraph:
The Stanley Cup winning play was very, very strange. First, when Kane got the pass from Campbell, Timonen had him lined up perfectly. But Kane head-faked, and manged to step past Kimmo rather easily. Then he fires the puck at a sharp angle, and it completely disappears. Nobody but Kane knows it’s even in the net. The announcers think Leighton has it, I think it bounced off the ice into the crowd, then the camera pans to the right and it seems the Flyers might be skating down the ice with it. But no, it’s in the net. There’s no place to fire it, and Leighton should just be hugging the post. Instead, he decided to twist himself, lifting his stick and positioning his legs awkwardly, leaving a ton of space for the puck to slide under him. His explanation: he saw someone crashing the net, expected a pass, and started to cheat that way. I know goalies are supposed to anticipate, but you can’t do it too early. He did, and paid the ultimate price.
No buzzer, no goal lights,. Very anti-climactic goal. So now this team goes down in history, as the best losers in 2009-2010. Moving forward, there’s a lot of good, and a lot of bad. I’ll get more into that over the summer.
Last order of business for today: As you’ve seen in commercials lately, Domino’s has changed up their pizza. New sauce, new crust, new cheese. They contacted us and wanted to sponsor a viewing party so we could try the new stuff. What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that I invited a bunch of friends over to watch the game, and this team the pizza was free. Here’s a few pics of our party. We’re still smiling, because these were taken during the first intermission. You know, before we had our dream shattered, hopes destroyed, and hearts broken.
Quick review of the pies: the sauce is a bit more tangy, and I don’t really remember the old cheese. But the seasoning on the crust was something that everyone took note of. It’s really, really good.
Oh man, there’s so much more I want to say about the game, and yet, I’d rather just forget about it all. I’ll just end this blog with a bit of rambling about a few things. Here goes…. Either Byfuglien is a lot faster than I thought, or Timonen and Coburn are really freaking slow. There were a few places when he raced one of those two, where they were closer to the puck, and he gained on them quickly. Coburn is known for his skating ability, do we soon find out that he was playing injured? On the goal where NBC highlighted Richardsleaving his defensive assignment, and leaving a defenseman wide open, I don’t blame him too much. He’s a center, who was playing wing. Very unfamiliar territory for him. I’m pretty sure that someone who normally plays wing doesn’t lose his coverage like that. I started to believe Leighton too much. I blame him for the goal. Thanks Michael, now hit the road. I think it will be a mistake if he’s the starting goalie next year.
Lastly, if anyone saw the Coburn interview last night with Steve Coates, knows how I feel. He was on the verge of tears, and couldn’t really answer any questions. Coates tried to get Coburn to look back on all the positive of this season, but Coby just wasn’t having it. I feel ya Coburn, I know how ya feel.
Thanks for reading!
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