I snapped this quick picture with my cell phone yesterday of Port Alberni Mayor Ken McRae, my teammate on Tim Hortons Camp Day. Ken and I laid down a Balloon-selling funds-raising gauntlet just inside the doors of the store where we offered customers a chance to pick up a Balloon by making a donation to the Tim Horton Children's Foundation.
We ended up raising a bunch of money selling the balloons and key chains during our volunteering shift, so a big THANKS to the community with a heart and all of the tourists making their way through town stopping for a coffee as well, because they opened their change purses too.
A final thanks to Tim and Stefanie and the rest of the staff from Tim Hortons for having us "regular joes" there getting in their way on such a busy day. All for a good cause!!
_________________________________
So, the Detroit RedWings are Stanley Cup Champs....Just let me say....
BOOOOOOOOO!
I am happy for Dallas Drake though, always a battler and a tough competitor and a classy guy in my mind. 16 years in the league without a cup as well. And a Rossland, BC boy to boot!!
I guess I'm also happy for the people of Detroit and the Wings fans too. I have just never been a Red Wings fan
Oh man do I ever feel for Marc Andre Fleury. First, he loses the biggest game of his life by scoring on HIMSELF off of his OWN PLAYER late in the Gold Medal Game of the 2004 World Junior Championship in Finland.
For those that managed to burn it from your memory- Sorry. For those that don't remember- view below at your own risk.
THEN he loses the STANLEY CUP scoring on HIMSELF off his OWN REAR END.
I'm not sure I blame Fleury so much with the goal last night. I would need to hear a replay with AUDIO, but I don't remember hearing any communication from the referee. IE- yelling LOOSE or something like that. I still vividly remember the noise the crowd made. I knew from hearing them that the puck was behind Fleury and not covered. I guess Fleury and the Penguins defense didn't clue in though. The official obviously made the right call not blowing the whistle and he obviously knew it was loose still as he didn't whistle it. I'm not sure if it's the officials job to communicate that the puck is loose or not either. They certainly do it during puck battles on the wall though.
So......Fleury opens the finals by falling flat on his face, and he ends it by scoring the game winner by falling flat on his ass. OUCH.
Like I said in the title, I feel for Fleury. There was no Game 6 if not for his heroics in Game 5. He appears to have grown as a goalie and appears to be ready to be a long-time NHL'er. That had to hurt last night though. I don't know about the rest of you, but I actually didn't think he played well last night or looked good last night. Nothing compared to Game 5 at least. Which brings me to my next point........
CHRIS Os-Bad. Not Osgood. I was kinda on the "Chris Osgood doesn't get the respect he deserves" bandwagon going into the finals. I actually believed that since there was a "no respsect" bandwagon, he was actually getting respect. Not sure if that makes sense to you.
Anyway, I thought he looked like an absolute mess any time the puck came near him during the finals. A disaster waiting to happen. Maybe he was hurt, who knows. After the end of the playoffs last night and thinking about his play over the 5 or so games I watched of the series my opinion is that Osgood might now be getting more respect than he deserves.
Answer me this- Could the Penguins have even won a GAME with Osgood in THEIR net? I think that one is an emphatic NO.
His success was thanks to the incredible play of the team in front of him. So many times in the playoffs the Cup is won by a team thanks to the incredible play by the GOALIE BEHIND them. This was the total opposite, wasn't it?
Hey, I'm a former goalie and I understand and respect how tough the position is. I'll never be able to understand the pressure of playing at that level under those circumstances. I can still see when a goalie handles the puck like a hand grenade.
__________________________________
To say "the better team won" goes without saying. Maybe without Osgood, the Pens don't win a game...What really blew me away was the Pens lack of ability to GET THE PUCK DEEP. Even down to the last 30 seconds of the game, desperation time, CUP ON THE LINE I saw the SAME PLAY I saw 100 times in the series. The Pens slowlllly make their way to centre....then slowlllly flip the puck into the zone, into the outstretched glove of the Wings defensemen who just calmly flips it back out.
I also didn't think the Pens MOVED the Puck well. Anywhere. Bouncing flipping rolling pucks. Maybe that's the ice. I didn't notice it so much for Detroit though.
One more thing- The Penguins DID NOT SKATE nearly enough. You could count on one hand the amount of times the Penguins gained the Wings blue line with any sort of speed with the puck. Or even travelled through the blue lines in this fashion. On the other hand, Detroit appeared to do this AT WILL all series.
Maybe it's what the Pens were doing, or what the Wings were doing, or a combo of both.
Maybe it was due to something strategical. Maybe it was just simply Pittsburgh not playing at a high enough tempo, not pushing the pace and focusing on a simple but ever-so-important facet and fundamental of the game. SKATING.
Just all my 2 cents and my opinions!
What are yours?
Hammer
No comments:
Post a Comment