I meant to get this out prior to the very first puck drop of the season, in tonight's opening Habs versus Leafs game. Alas, sometimes life interferes.
So I'm about an hour late. Anyway, here is the extremely abbreviated version of what would have been an awesome (and long) article about the upcoming 2011-12 NHL season's eventual final standings. Enjoy.
And don't forget to come back next Spring to marvel at my powers (or more likely mock my complete ineptitude).
Top 8 in the East (in ALPHABETICAL order):
Boston Buffalo Carolina New York Rangers Philadelphia Pittsburgh Tampa Bay Washington
Top 8 in the West (in ALPHABETICAL order):
Anaheim Chicago Columbus Detroit Los Angeles San Jose St. Louis Vancouver
Eastern Conference Final: Buffalo over Washington Western Conference Final: Vancouver over Los Angeles
She just read this great story on the STP Blog - (STP - the worldwide leader in sports blogs .... well at least sports blogs co-authored by the Hockey Guru).
The Chicago Gay Hockey Association (the Blackwolves) on a whim sent an invitation to the Chicago Blackhawks requesting the Stanley Cup to be available to march in the Gay Pride Parade in Chicago on Sunday June 27.
With the NHL draft on the 26th - the Stanley Cup will be in Los Angeles - which alone provided the perfect "excuse" to decline the request.
However, the Hawks are making sure the Cup is flown back to Chicago in time to be part of the celebration. Not only will the Cup be present - Brent Sopel volunteered to represent the team and participate in the parade.
Perhaps like the Guru, your reaction was - wow, Brent Sopel has some balls to come out and march in the parade. Well he has balls and he will be marching in the parade - but he's not gay. His story is pretty remarkable - he and his wife adopted 4 children 3 years ago - after those children lost both parents within a 6-month span.
In addition to bringing down barriers and allowing eveyone in the City and community to share in the joy of the Stnaley Cup - Sopel is marching in honor of Brendan Burke, the son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. Just in case a reminder is necessary - Brendan was killed in a car accident last fall - two months after coming out late last year.
"When Brendan came out, Brian stood by him, and his whole family stood by him, like every family should," said Sopel. "We teach our kids about accepting everybody. Tolerate everybody, to understand where everyone is coming from."
Just a great story and one that the Hockey Guru wanted included in the history of STP Blogs.
Great job by Chicago, Brent Sopel and hockey in general. Once again proving that hockey is the greatest sport in the world.
Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bullock and Taylor Swift all fully support this effort.
I think Jerry Reed said it best, back in 1971, with:
The Guru's forecasting this weekend was outstanding!
But have no fear, through the magic of the internet, the method for performing the self-congratulatory action without injury has been found and these daily updates should continue uninterrupted through the awarding of the Lord Stanley's Cup.
The Eastern Conference Finals could be determined Monday night, if Boston and Pittsburgh can close out their series.
Will it happen?
The NHL's marketing theme in this year's playoffs is that History Will Be Made. That theme has worked itself into the Guru's subconscious, as you will see in this installment of Carnac the Guru.
And what could be more historic than a comeback from a 3-0 series deficit?
In reality, there have been over 220 times in the NHL, NBA and MLB combined where teams took the first three games of the series. Statistically, if every series were actually a coin-flip (or 50-50 chance for each team in every game) - the odds of a comeback and winning four in a row would show that the statistical probability of that comeback would be: 6.25% and with over 200 opportunities - there should be about 12 of these "historic" comebacks.
There aren't. In addition to the greatest comeback ever in 2004 - the other two times both happened in the NHL. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs came back against Detroit and the 1975 Islanders performed the feat against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
If the Flyers were to comeback against the Bruins this year and make history, their comeback wouldn't be as impressive as the Islanders' 1975 comeback - but it would be pretty similar.
The NHL has assured us that this will be the year that history will be made. The Flyers are gaining momentum and the Bruins "luck" appears to be running out. The Bruins have been perfect on home ice winning all five games - if only by a total of 5 goals (2 in OT). The run at home ends tonight. The Flyers will take Game 5 with a 3-2 victory.
Tonight the fans of hockey get screwed by the Boston-Montreal rivalry - as neither team was willing to change their start time to either 7:30 or 8:00 to allow for staggered viewing or at least an extra hour of hockey.
This is a night for DVR hockey - which means to DVR both games and alternate watching about 5 minutes of hockey from Boston then 5 minutes from Montreal. If more experienced, try about 2 minutes at a time to avoid unwanted updates. Alternatively, the dual television approach can work also.
Pittsburgh has the formula for beating Montreal - DON'T OUTSHOOT THEM - and don't get to 35 shots on net. Firing the pucks on Halak from everywhere is like getting a Mogwai wet or feeding a gremlin after midnight - you're asking for trouble!
The Penguins will play a defensive and opportunistic game forcing Montreal to carry the play and take advantage of the inevitable mistakes that will come. As expected by many - the underestimation of the Canadiens is happening again and the Guru predicts that the Penguins open up a close low-scoring game in the third period to finish with a 4-1 victory.
Upon diving into this list, I quickly realized that there is a severe shortage of pure hockey films - movies where hockey is the story, and the characters are hockey players, and the overall message of the film has something to say about hockey and life. Soooo, I had to stretch the criteria a bit, and the results are as follows:
Slap Shot (1977)Starring Paul Newman, Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse – An obvious candidate for the No.1 spot. I mean, the Hanson Brothers .... the Charlestown Chiefs .... There is little need to say more.
Youngblood (1986)Starring Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves - Then-active NHL players, Steve Thomas and Peter Zezel, both have small non-speaking roles as Youngblood's teammates on the Mustangs. The film also starred former NHLer Eric Nesterenko, who played the father of Lowe's Dean Youngblood. The filming of Youngblood took place in the east end of Toronto. Ted Reeve Arena was used as the setting for the interior of the Hamilton Mustangs home rink while Scarborough Gardens Arena was used for the setting of the arena's exterior.
Wayne’s World (1992)Starring Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Brian Doyle-Murray, Lara Flynn Boyle - Myers is an admitted hockey fan, and this movie and its main characters offer too many hockey references to ignore. There’s Wayne and Garth's hangout, Stan Mikita's Donuts, named after the former Blackhawks player. This is a reference to Tim Horton's, a doughnut shop chain named for and started by Tim Horton, a player from the Toronto Maple Leafs (Mike Myers' favorite team). There were also numerous hockey references in the Saturday Night Live skits, including a one-on-one hockey game featuring Wayne Campbell vs. Wayne Gretzky. Game on.
Sudden Death (1995)Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme – Tagline: “Action Goes into Overtime”. Qualifies on the basis that it is set during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Pittsburgh. It has a typically unrealistic plot for a Van Damme movie. But still, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It’s in!
Happy Gilmore (1996)Starring Adam Sandler – Yes, another Sandler film. How is it that he keeps creeping into these lists? More a golf movie, so it will make that yet-to-be-compiled Top Ten List as well, but it qualifies for the hockey list based on the fact he is an aspiring hockey player with a killer slap shot but little skating ability. The fistfight with Bob Barker is also the stuff of legend.
Chasing Amy (1997)Starring Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, Matt Damon, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith - Obviously not a hockey movie, but rarely if ever has a hockey scene in a non-hockey movie so accurately reflected the emotional shattering of two characters and laid out a pathway for the rest of the story to travel. (Please be aware the unedited and uncensored clip linked below has adult themes and lots of foul and explicit language, so it is obviously NSFW). The first 4:40 of the scene is most important, but the remaining 4:10 has some emotionally wrenching dialogue that, depending on how deeply you want to analyze this, may or may not provide some additional insight into the hockey game they just left, or the whole sport of hockey itself. Also contains a few good rips on the officials which I will be using in the future.
Mystery, Alaska (1999)Starring Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Mary McCormack, Burt Reynolds, Colm Meaney, Lolita Davidovich – Think about it. Crowe gets to police mostly minor crime in a small Alaskan town. All the while, he gets to think about hockey, talk about hockey with others, play hockey in the “Saturday Game”, welcome the New York Rangers to town for an exhibition, and to top it off he has McCormack waiting for him back home. I’ll take that deal.
Bruce Almighty (2003) – Starring Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston - Again, not a hockey movie. But I am obligated to include it here because it may very well be the only time I hear the phrase “The Buffalo Sabres have just won the Stanley Cup!” As a native Buffalonian now living in the Midwest, I remain a lifelong and long suffering Sabres fan hoping that the Blue and Gold can someday hoist Lord Stanley’s glorious Cup. Thank you, Jim Carrey, for giving hope to that dream.
Miracle (2004)Starring Kurt Russell – Herb Brooks is a local hero in these parts, besides being a national treasure. R.I.P Herb.
Ice Kings (2006)Starring Jim Lampley, Bill Macatee - Film critic, Jay Seaver, who probably looks like this, reviewed the documentary when it screened at the Boston Film Festival four years ago, and had this to say: "I'm not much of a hockey fan - baseball and basketball have tended to rule in Seaver households - so a lot of the hockey-specific details may have flown right past me. It's a nifty story, though, even for non-fans, and I expect hockey fans may appreciate it even more."
