ORANGE C.R.USHER

Hershey Bears win the Calder Cup!!!

I wanted the Ads to win, but I suppose this way the Cup stays in Pennsylvania .... bitter, though. I'm not fond of the Bears. Interestingly, Boyd Kane was captain for the Phantoms last year when they won, and this year captain for the Bears ... two cups for Kane in two years. My most enduring memory of Boyd Kane this year (and I saw him play twice) was in January, when he completely lost his composure during the super Phantoms comeback, from a 1-4 deficit to win 5-4 in a shootout, and threw his stick with the referee breathing down his neck. Sure enough, into the box he went. Hello? Way to set an example, Mr. Captain.

Ok, Flyers stuff: preseason schedule was listed in the Inquirer today: (bold = home)

Sept. 20 Pittsburgh
Sept. 21 New Jersey
Sept. 23 Ottawa
Sept. 24 Pittsburgh
Sept. 26 Washington
Sept. 28 New Jersey
Sept. 29 Washington

September is, what, three months away? That's not so long, is it??

Frantic game last night, what? Not even twenty seconds in and Edmonton scored; bookended the period by scoring goal #3 with not even twenty seconds left. Carolina equalized is 3-3 in the second, and the third was fast and furious. I was on the telephone during the overtime, with the sound off, and when Edmonton scored off Pisani's sweet little steal, I interrupted my friend with, "Oh, eff, Edmonton just won!"* But I don't know why I said that the way I did. Now there will be another brilliant game to watch!

This morning at my bus stop there was a guy wearing Edmonton's third jersey, the one with the zooming, industrial-looking oil drop and the gears. I said, "Nice win last night, huh?" and started a conversation about hockey that I think surprised him a little. I don't figure we must have too many Oilers fans around here [though probably equally as many as any other random team. Mostly I have run into Blackhawks fans (Chicago not too far away, after all); though I have met a Blues fan. At Iowa Stars games, you will see people wearing jerseys from a wide array of NHL teams. One of the beautiful things about being from Iowa, where until last season we didn't have any kind of professional hockey, is that you can pretty much pull for any team and no one will harass you and mean it in a mean way (like might happen, say, if you live in Philadelphia and stupidly let it out that you have been a Leafs fan.), and I suppose I don't look like I would know too much about The Hockey. He said he is an Alberta boy, his parents living near Pisani's -- apparently there was madness, madness! after that game-winning, life-saving goal.

Some news bits: the other day the Flyers named Phantoms' head coach John Stevens to their coaching staff, and yesterday one of the Phantoms' assistant coaches was promoted to head coach (Craig Berube). I think the move of Stevens to the Flyers is a good one; a lot of the younger players worked for him in recent seasons and so will already be familiar with each other. Damn, but I already can't wait for next season, and this one isn't even totally over with yet.

*This was the non-hockey-, non-sports-fan friend I was talking to, and he sounded understandably somewhat irritated to find out that my attention had been completely divided (and not necessarily favorably in his direction, I might add. ... that's what you get when you try to talk to me when a Stanley Cup final game is on and in overtime, the fact that I called him during intermission notwithstanding). "You should get a boyfriend who likes sports as much as you," he said, "so he knows when to say 'Woooo!' when the ... puck, I don't know, hits someone in the face."

I told him about the Flyers/Penguins game late in the season when Joni Pitkänen was merely trying to wrap the puck around the boards behind the net, of course with full strength, and it slammed into Andy Hilbert's face, leading him to leave the ice spitting blood and bits of teeth. ... He did not seem to relish it the same way I did. Come on, it was Joni. On TV.

I've digressed, and so I will leave off now.

More high scoring in the AHL last night, which, given the history of the series, must mean a Hershey win. Oh, look, it did. Hershey up 6-4, going back to Milwaukee for Game 6 (Thursday), now leading the series 3-2. The Bears scored at TWENTY SECONDS into the game, then again less than four minutes later; the Bears had it 4-0 by the middle of the second period (!) before the Ads' Jordan Tootoo (#22, how cute, no? When he played for the Preds in 2004 he was #55, oh look, 2s upside down*) scored at 13:03; this goal started the Admirals' comeback, scoring three in a row. But the Bears scored again and then again (the last an empty-netter, with a Milwaukee goal in between) to put the game out of Milwaukee's reach.

The Admirals now have to win both of the final games, in Milwaukee. This is not a long shot, but remember that Hershey/Milwaukee split the first two games in Milwaukee.

Today I am wearing red in honor of the 'Canes. Ok, that's not true. It's actually just coincidence. I put on the red shirt and then later thought, "Oh, hey. The Hurricanes play again tonight, and I have on red." All that matters is that I will get to watch hockey on TV tonight. It may be the last game for a few months. So I won't miss it.

*#14 this last season for the Preds. Huh. Not cute. We disliked him as an Admiral, watching him play against the Iowa Stars last season. What a pest.

Saturday I watched the Stanley Cup finals game 3, and shook my head at the Carolina team that played. Also, I scratched my head at the Edmonton team that played. Neither of them looked like the teams I had listened to earlier in the week. All the same, the hockey was good, but I thought the winning goal for the Oilers was a lame one. I want to see games won on pretty goals, not oops-bounced-a-little-off-a-leg-and-over-the-line stuff. If I were an Oilers fan I'm sure I wouldn't care and would take whatever goal comes my way, but I'm not. I wouldn't have approved even if it had been Carolina taking the oopsy goal.

Last night I watched game 4, and it was great. (NBC apparently comes in just fine on my TV, though the antenna has to be just so.) All the goals were lovely, and the hits and the force and the speed and the shots -- whee. Goaltending was remarkable on both ends; everyone kind of expects that out of Mr. Cam Ward, but Jussi Markkanen was making some of the most eyepopping saves in the face of total barrages. I was pretty sleepy by the end and was hoping that Edmonton wouldn't tie it, not so much so that they wouldn't win but so that the game would end in regulation. I got my wish and Carolina have a 3-1 series lead going back to Raleigh for tomorrow's game.

I'm going to make a prediction. (!) 2-1 'Canes, ending the Cup finals. I'd rather Edmonton won, and dragged it out another game, so that I could have another game to watch, and the season continue just a wee bit longer.

This weekend the AHL continued its Calder Cup series. Saturday it looked like the Admirals were taking it all back, winning 2-0 (another Finnish goalie doing some great stuff), only to fall flat Sunday and lose to the Bears 7-2. It seems as though when they lose, they really flame out and lose (e.g. the game I was at, lost 6-3). The Bears have scored 13 goals in their two wins vs. Milwaukee's 4. This series is tied at 2 games apiece and continues tonight in Hershey.

Last year, June 10 was the final game of the Calder Cup championships. I was there. The series will come back to Milwaukee for games 6, and if necessary game 7. Game 6 is on a Thursday; no way I could be there for that. Game 7 is scheduled for Saturday; my attendance is doubtful, though it would be pretty exciting in spite of me not being an Admirals (or Bears) fan.

Speaking of AHL stuff, I got a call this morning from a ticketing representative at the Iowa Stars front office, wanting some feedback about the games that I went to. The phone call went a little like this:

Stars dude: "How many games did you go to?"
Me: "I guess I went to five or six."
Stars dude: "That's great. Where are you now?"
Me: "Iowa City."
Stars dude: "Wow, so you drove all the way from Iowa City, that's great!"
Me: "Yep."
Stars dude: "Do you have friends or family in Des Moines?"
Me: "Uh, no ... just wanted to see the Stars."
Stars dude: "Wow, you must be a real big hockey fan then."
Me: [looking at bulletin board backing my desk, covered in pictures of Joni Pitkänen and Antero Niittymäki, eyeing four hockey pucks used as paperweights; I am even wearing a Flyers t-shirt today] "Li'l bit."

He sounded really Canadian, especially the way he said the "you must be a real big hockey fan then" and it was almost as though "eh" were implicit at the end of every sentence. But as it turns out, this person is a Des Moines native. So I have no explanation for the way he sounded; maybe he is surrounded by Canadians and picked it up?

Anyway, I get a BROCHURE! for my trouble.

I'm going to Philadelphia in a couple weeks to see some friends and do some mountainbiking and stuff. I was asked last night if I was going to be seeing any hockey, and when I said, "Uh, no," I was asked, "Are you going to be ok with that?" as though I had any choice. Note: the friend is not a hockey fan. (He is not a sports fan, period.) I cannot expect him to realize that the season(s) will be over by then.* All the same, I will snicker a little.


*[sob!]

I listened to the Hurricanes/Oilers match two nights ago, and while I want Carolina to win the Cup (one must choose a side, after all, though either way I am ok), I found myself pitying the Oilers and wishing they would get a grip and not make it so easy for the 'Canes. I felt bad for their replacement goalie, Jussi Markkanen, who allowed 5 goals thanks to the team in front of him, who played just about worthlessly most of the time, taking the stupidest of stupid penalties at the stupidest times. Poor Oilers.

Maybe tomorrow's game will be less lopsided and Edmonton will pull it together. It will be more interesting to watch, at least (I won't be forced to only listen to it, because it will be on NBC). A scoring-fest is fun when it's the Flyers. Otherwise I'd rather see a good and tightly-contested hockey game.

Saturday night, Game 2 of the Calder Cup Finals.

We realized, as we waited in the Will Call line, that I have a Pennsylvania driver's license, and that it would appear, when I picked up the tickets, that we were Bears fans. Oops.

There were a lot of Bears fans around us, and they were annoying. Occasionally, at Phantoms games, fans would start screaming "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!" (why? would you cheer the football team at a hockey game?), and I think it's a lame chant. Lamer was the similar Bears chant: B-E-A-R-S BEARS BEARS BEARS WOOO!

Geez, knock it off.

We got rally towels upon entry, and I bought a couple playoff pucks to commemorate my adventure. Free with the pucks were packets of those silicone wrist bands, maroon, blue, and maroon-blue-white (Admirals' colors), which otherwise would have cost $7 and for what? A colored wrist band that had a TINY imprint of the Admirals logo? Sheesh. Well, we wore them, though, since we were in Admiral land.

Our seats were fantastic. Center ice almost dead on, about six rows up from the penalty boxes in front of us. Great views of the action, and it was a good game, not too many penalties so the pace flowed evenly. Unfortunately, the Admirals, who had won the previous night 2-1, did not continue their dominance of the Bears, and went down easily by three goals. They came back to score three goals, but the Bears ended up winning 6-3. I once saw the Bears lose after being up 4-1 (that Phantoms game earlier this year) and thought perhaps Milwaukee would pull off a similar feat, but when the Bears went up 5-3 I didn't think it was going to happen after all -- and then they went up 6-3 with only a couple minutes left and that was that. Pekka Rinne, the Admirals' goalie, was nowhere near as outstanding as he was touted to be -- apparently he had been nonstop brilliant the night before with something like 36 saves -- but it could also have been that the Admirals' defense wasn't that stellar, either.

It was interesting, though, to watch a game (in person) between two teams I have no positive emotional investment in, and could view it all a little more objectively (that is, when the refs made a bad call, I tsked, but did not fly into a rage or laugh with all kinds of schadenfreude). Interesting to note fan traditions with certain music, to note what music was used, and so on. Too bad I have to drive so far to see AHL hockey -- 2 hours to Des Moines, 4 hours to Milwaukee, etc.

All right, Hurricanes!

P.S. I don't want to hear Lindy Ruff complain one more WORD about the injuries to his team. Has he seen the list of Flyers undergoing surgery this summer?