Themeless Randoms

Well the selection committee either finally woke up, or had no better choices when it came to the 2008 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, and their selection of Glenn Anderson. Anderson had been overlooked for years, but finally got his ticket to the hall today when selected along with Igor Larionov, linesman Ray Scapinello and builder Ed Chynoweth.

Critics had said Anderson was never going to be allowed into the hall due to his off ice antics, but I guess reality finally set in, and 1099 points could not deny the Oilers #9.

Now that he has made his entry to the hall I guess I can tell the story about his days in Edmonton in the 80s. Anderson walks into an unnamed downtown bar, orders three bottles of beer, slugs them all down without even breathing, throws some cash on the bar, and leaves without talking to anyone. Wow to be an Oiler in the 80s…

Well that was a shit show! I figured that since we didn’t get any practice time, and weren’t an actual ‘team’ that played together every weekend, we may be in a little bit of trouble during the odd balls slo-pitch tournament out in Stony Plain. Needless to say we used game one, a 17-0 loss, to get the kinks out. Game two was closer with a 20-15 loss, and game three was a mystery as the ump forfeited the game for us since we were down by more than 11 runs in the 5th inning.

Since we went 0-3 during day one, we were tossed into the looser pool for day too. I figured we may have a shot as we were playing other teams that were 0-3 or 1-2, but a similar rout ensued and we were cut short in the 5th inning again. Regardless, it was a fun weekend and I can’t wait for my league to start up on July 8th… hopefully its not quite as much of a show!

As I mentioned earlier, I started up GeoHunt Canada and things have progressed a little bit since launch. So far the Edmonton geocache has been found 4 times, and moved once. I actually thought it was going to take months for someone to get up the energy to go out and find Terry the Traveling Triceratops, but surprisingly it looks like it may catch on.

Anyway, its time to get more little Terrys hidden across Canada. So far I have found someone near Toronto that will plant one, and also one in Halifax. Those ones should be in the mail tomorrow, and they will hopefully be live on the site within the next few weeks.

If you are interested in helping hide a little triceratops somewhere in your city, head over to GeoHunt Canada and give me a shout in the geocaching forum.

I know I’m a little late to the party, but I still want to congratulate the Detroit Red Wings on their Stanley Cup win. At the start of the series I was kind of pulling for the Penguins as I wanted to see the youth emerge, but it quickly became obvious that Detroit was the better team by a long shot, and that they were going to pound the little birds. Still it was an exciting series, and I hope that the Penguins can keep most of their team together and take another run at it next year! Also congrats to Zetterberg for winning the Conn Smyth as playoff MVP!

Congratulations to Russia for winning the 2008 World Hockey Championship! I knew that the Russia/Canada final would be a beauty, and it didn’t disappoint the true hockey fan. Of course I’m chapped that Canada was unable hold on to a 4-2 lead, and blow it in the 3rd period and then overtime, but still they played well and it was a good tournament overall for them. I guess Ovechkin wasn’t quite ready to hoist the Stanley Cup this year, but a taste of the world championship for his country will probably add even more fuel to the fire for the young star. Look out next year!

Man this made me laugh. Similar to the text at the start of Family Guy’s Blue Harvest, but oh-so-timely with the conference finals about to begin.

With round 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in the books its time for a preview of what to expect looking forward. I’ll start off with the western conference.

Detroit Red Wings vs. Colorado Avalanche

As their round one series with the Nashville Predators went on I was starting to wonder if they would once again fall victim to their inability to close out a series. Turns out they turned things around and managed to take out the Preds with a 4-2 series win. Colorado also won their series with the Minnesota Wild 4-2, and were successful in removing the most boring team from the playoffs. The Wings / Avalanche match up will be a good test for Colorado, though I predict the Wings to take this one 4-1.

San Jose Sharks vs. Dallas Stars

Oh man is this going to be a good series. Both teams are coming from tough first round match ups, and are eager to get things started against fresh teams. Neither team can really be considered fresh though as they both came from the same division, and are both probably licking their wounds from the Sharks’ 7 game series with the Calgary Flames, and the Stars’ 6 game series with the defending champion Anaheim Ducks. I’m going to give the edge to the Sharks in this one as they played far better than their three first round losses would suggest. The Stars do not have the goaltending that the Flames did, but I still think they will be able to keep things interesting. Once again a 7 game series for the Sharks with them taking it 4-3.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. New York Rangers

The Penguins were accused of some trickery at the end of the regular season by “deliberately” loosing their last game so that they would get the Senators in the first round. If it was deliberate it definitely paid off as the Pens destroyed the Sens 4-0 and cruised into the second round. The Rangers faced the New Jersey Devils in the first round and continued their dominance of them by taking the series 4-1. There was speculation that the Rangers weren’t good enough to do anything in the post season, but critics have been silenced as they proved they have both scoring and goaltending that can take things to the next level in the playoffs. Keeping Sid the Kid and his buddies down will be the toughest challenge in round 2, but I see the Rangers taking this one 4-3.

Montreal Canadiens vs. Philadelphia Flyers

The Canadians struggled a little with Boston in their first round match up, taking it all the way to game 7 before moving on, but things will change in the second round. The Flyers just squeked by the Captials in their first round series, but have no chance against the Habs in the second round. The Canadiens were 4-0 against the Flyers in the regular season, and things aren’t about to change. Canadiens take it 4-1.

Why is it that Canadian cities keep trying to outdo eachother when it comes to playoff celebrations? From the red mile in Calgary and the Blue Mile in Edmonton, to the “Red and Blue” Mile in Montreal, things are getting way out of hand.

I don’t know if it was the Montreal police being unprepared, or if last nights police car burnings and riots were simply a result of too much Molson Canadian being served at the Bell Centre, but whatever it is, things have to change.

If we look back at the most recent hockey celebrations that took place north of the border we can learn a few things. Edmonton Police took a soft approach at first, but when they realized that the crowds were getting out of control, they went heavy handed and in turn eliminated any of the fires and general destruction that was present in earlier rounds.

There were complaints that the police were doing too much, but once people started to realize that the blue mile was once again a safe place for true hockey fans to celebrate.

People can say that Montrealers or Montrealites, whatever they are, may be the truest of hockey fans, but from the demonstrations in Edmonton a few years back, its safe to say that 90% of the trouble makers were not hockey fans at all. They were just caught up in the mob mentality and used the playoffs as an excuse to wreak havoc. Hopefully fans and police in Montreal take note, and we see peaceful celebrations from here on.

PS: Here is a youtube video of some of the mayhem from last night:

Congratulations to George St. Pierre for his crushing victory over Matt Serra last night in Montreal at UFC 83!

Months in the waiting, this welterweight championship bought was nothing less than spectacular. I have to admit that I’m a big St. Pierre fan, but even if I was a Serra fan I’d have to say that the demonstration that was put on in the octagon by the Montreal born St. Pierre was nothing less than outstanding.

When the fight was called at the end of the second round my initial impression was that of shock that the ref cut this beautiful display short, but then after watching the replays of the relentless knees that a defenseless Serra was taking to the ribs, I agreed that the fight had to be stopped, and cheered as GSP grabbed a hold of the belt.

In a post fight interview GSP stated that he knew it would have been tough for Serra to come into Montreal, so he stated that he would return the favor and have a rematch in New York if Serra and the rest of the UFC league desired. All class… what a beauty!