Game 7 Aftermath

The great thing about this being a blog I choose to do, as opposed to being paid to do, is that I can ignore facts I don't want to address. Such as the fact that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. Wait, just did acknowledge it and that's about all I will say about them winning it. The Stanley Cup winners in my mind will read as follows: '08-Detroit, '09- Pittsburgh, '10-Chicago, '11-vacant in my brain, '12- TBD. Their '11 cup win is in good company though with the RedSox World Series and the Patriots Superbowls. (I know the Celtics won the big one recently also but I don't pay attention to the NBA as a rule so this doesn't register on my radar). Take it or leave it. I never thought Colin Campbell should have been able to discipline any player since every decision would indirectly affect his son and his team (aka the Bruins). I also wondered where the refs were and why Luongo forgot to stand on his head when one of the twins and Kesler were rumored to be playing with major injuries. Questions that will never be answered.

I am choosing to believe that Nathan Horton tainted the Canucks chances with his pouring of Boston water on the clean Canadian ice. Also were was Marc Savard? Horton and his "severe" concussion were able to travel across the country but Savard who was also labeled severe hasn't been seen in public to my knowledge. Did the Bruins play up Horton's status to get Rome suspended? All I know is Crosby and Savard were hidden in the bat cave for months because of lights, noise and general life bothering them, but Horton traveled on the team plane and remembered to bring the water. I've got nothing.

In the aftermath of this game 7 meltdown, the fans of Vancouver also decided to act as responsible as possible and start rioting. And I thought my filing of this in the black hole was bad. Unreal. This is the place that put on an amazing Olympics and rallied behind the Canucks for this Cup, yet they couldn't just walk out understandably upset and a cue from me and file this under the cup that never happened. Nope. Riot time. Just wow.

In other news.....

The Capitals and Arturs Irbe parted ways not long ago and today announced a tag team of coaches to deal with a 3 man goalie rotation. A tag team of coaches sounds like their second best off season idea, right after not firing F-Bomb Boudreau. 3 goalies and 1 goalie coach didn't work last season, so naturally adding in another coach to the equation will fix this mess. I can't wait to watch the Capitals continue to spiral all of this talent out of control. Wonder if anyone has pointed out to them that this was a playoff season handed to them on golden platter since they didn't have to go through Pittsburgh en route to a Cup. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

GM George McPhee is going to have his hands full with trying to figure out how to make this cap work for him. He has more talented players than most teams and they all have proven their worth, but there's just not enough money to go around. Other teams have figured out how to make the cap work to their advantage but the Capitals seem to be struggling. They need a number crunching genius, not a brooding GM in a trench coat. Ted Leonis is never going to have the Stanley Cup he thinks he deserves without making some major changes. The on ice product isn't matching up to the talent on paper and something needs to change and it needs to happen quickly.

We are a week away from seeing players not named Ovi or Crosby take home some awards from Vegas. This probably saved Sid some dough on renting to the U-Haul he was poised to need as of December to get all his would-be loot home. Don't worry though, he still set an NHL record for most points in the fewest games by a teams top point getter- even while hiding in his bat cave for half the season concussed. He had a whopping 66 points in 41 games, which was 16 better than Kris Letang who played the entire season. To think what could have been.....

We are also just under 2 weeks away from UFA's deadline date before they can flirt with other teams. Since this is a weak off season for blockbuster trades (see Kovalchuk, Ilya cira summer 2010) someone, somewhere is going to be generously over paid. This does seem to be the summer of the goalie though and Philly already made a big splash with acquiring Ilya Bryzgalov from the Coyotes, because like the Capitals they can't figure out which of the young guns is going to be "the man". Hint: none of these guys will ever gain any confidence if they don't get to start more than 2 games in a row and then ride the bench for the next week. Leonis will not be hanging with the Cup next summer of he keeps a cast of goalies. Tim Thomas was a one man show for the Bruins and he deserved the Conn Smythe but there's no way you win the Cup without being able to say who your goalie is.

Even when the Penguins went through the early season MAF drama, they never planted a seed of doubt in him that he wasn't their franchise goalie and number one on the depth chart. Johnson did get more starts than usual in this period, but he supported MAF though it by playing solid, and never once did Blysma say "I don't know who my number 1 is". Sports are just as much mental as they are physical. It's hard to hear your not the starting man but eventually a decision needs to be made before its too late.

Can't wait for #isitoctoberyet to start trending on twitter hardcore. Welcome to summer everyone. Back to baseball for the time being I suppose since there's little else. No wonder baseball lasts forever, it needs to fill the random voids of other sports till the playoffs when I actually care again (for the 3rd time in the season. Beginning, middle and end of course). And WHERE IS FOOTBALL???? I might start to actually go through withdrawal soon.