What happened to CBC's 7-second delay?

I thought CBC instituted a 7-second delay after Don Cherry went off on French-Canadian visor-wearers. Thanks to 'Nucks and Pucks reader pete for reminding me in the comments of a previous post that the 7-second rule was not in effect during the Penguins post-game celebrations after capturing the Cup (Warning: some PG-13 language):



Aside from the obvious "Marc-Andre Fleury said WHAT?!?" moment, there are a few things that strike me as amusing from this clip:

• Scott Oake's response to Fleury's slip-up was "Fair enough." What, no "Marc-Andre, we're on live..." à la Shaquille O'Neal?

• Is it me, or is someone cackling madly in the background at Fleury's cussing?

• And finally, what the hell was the deal with Scott Oake's cheesy "Who do you share this Cup with?" question? He asked it to every freakin' Penguin on the ice or in the locker room. Yeesh, how cornball. Wonder if he went up to Lidstrom or Osgood afterward and asked them with whom they share this devastating, heartbreaking loss.

Thanks to pete for inspiring this post!

Revisiting my postseason predictions: Part II

Here is Part II of my postmortem on my playoff predictions (Part I can be found here), covering my Round 3 and Stanley Cup Final picks. Again, I know this happened a long time ago, but many things prevented me from prioritizing the revisitation of my playoff picks.

As per my regular season prediction evaluations, I will use the following scale to evaluate my selections:

A - Nailed the pick exactly right
B - In the ballpark but not right on
C - A pretty misguided pick, but you can kind of understand why I made it
F - Epic fail

Round 3 - Eastern Conference

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6)
Predicted: Penguins in 7
Actual: Penguins in 4
Grade: C-
Yeah I picked the team right, but I thought this would be a WAY closer series than it was. This series marked the playoff coming-out party for Evgeni Malkin, who had 6 goals and 3 assists in the four games, including this hat-trick effort in Game 2:



And because that third goal was so amazing, let's watch it one more time:



Round 3 - Western Conference

Detroit Red Wings (2) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (4)
Predicted: Red Wings in 6
Actual: Red Wings in 5
Grade: B
Having learned my lesson about underestimating the Blackhawks, I thought they would give Detroit a tougher time than they did. In the end the Wings were too good and too experienced to make the mistakes that cost the Canucks their Round 2 series against the 'Hawks.

Stanley Cup Final

Detroit Red Wings vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
Predicted: Penguins in 7
Actual: Penguins in 7
Grade: A+
I picked this before the series began, but was unable to post due to some computer issues while I was traveling. I stuck with my pick despite the Red Wings winning the first two games and appearing to have a pretty strong lock on their second straight Cup. So I give myself a little extra credit for having the option of bailing on my pick, but sticking with it and in the end getting it right on. And here is the conclusion to what was a fantastic 2009 NHL Playoffs*:



* Watching this again makes me remember how ridiculously dramatic Game 7 was! What a great playoffs all round.

Apologies for the radio silence

I haven't been able to post in some time, due to a combination of schoolwork, travel and the wedding celebrations of a very good friend. I am currently in one of the NHL cities that has not won a cup since 1967,* before returning home to another next week. I'm not sure how much time I will have to post while I'm away, but keep checking back throughout the dog days of summer. For those of you wondering what is coming up on the blog, here is a preview of coming attractions:

- Continuing to revisit my frequently-terrible predictions for the 08-09 NHL season

- A couple creative ideas for the NHL to increase local fan interest

- A look at some of the biggest hockey upsets of all time

- And, of course, the long-awaited Mid-Year Reader Comment Awards

Hope you are enjoying the summer, and thanks for reading!

* The complete list is: Atlanta, Buffalo, Chicago, Columbus, Los Angeles, Miama (Florida), Minneapolis-St.Paul (Minnesota), Nashville, Ottawa, Phoenix, San Jose, St. Louis, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington

Penguins dance with Lord Stanley

The title of this post is a reference to the commentary of the Penguins legendary, high-octane announcer Mike Lange:



Lange has given us some gems over the years, from "Get in the fast-lane grandma, the bingo game's ready to roll!" to "He smoked him like a bad cigar!" to, on the occasion of the Pens' first Cup victory, "Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, get me the brandy!" And he had reason to celebrate again last night, as the Penguins atoned for last year's loss to the Red Wings by taking an exciting Game 7 2-1.

It is a great story for these young Penguins (who, by the way, the announcers did not constantly refer to as "too young to know any better" - hopefully that moniker is never heard again in NHL broadcasting unless, for some reason, a Timbits Hockey team takes on the Leafs, Senators, Lightning or any other team they may have a chance against).

First of all, there is the NHL's wonderboy Sidney Crosby becoming the youngest captain to lift the Stanley Cup. And he was the main reason that the Penguins even survived the first and second rounds, carrying the team on his shoulders against the Flyers and Capitals. He led the playoffs with 15 goals and finished second to teammate Evgeni Malkin with 31 points.

Malkin emerged as a playoff force, leading the playoffs with 36 points and becoming the first Russian to capture the Conn Smythe Trophy - which, incidentally, he can place on his mantle next to the Art Ross Trophy he earns this year for leading the league in scoring in the regular season.

Malkin turns 23 this year, and Crosby will be 22 by the time the 2009-10 season starts. These guys haven't even hit their prime yet, and seem poised for many years of greatness with the Penguins.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was excellent in Game 7, and shook the label of not being able to win the big game (hmm, I wish another French-Canadian goalie would do the same thing). Grinder Max Talbot emerged as the Stanley Cup hero, scoring both goals for the Penguins. And the Pens played a solid team game to defeat the very talented Wings.

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins, your 2009 Stanley Cup Champions.

And congratulations to the NHL's marketing department for producing this commercial, which captures some of the heartbreak of the Penguins to the Red Wings in last year's Final and somehow makes this year's victory seem all the sweeter for them:



Here's hoping they'll pull off something similar with the Canucks and Roberto Luongo this coming October, and the Canucks will proceed to knock off the Blackhawks in the Conference Final.

Some belated predictions for the 08-09 season

I realize that I never made some of the preseason predictions that I had intended to make. Therefore, please find my somewhat belated predictions for the 2008/09 season:

Stanley Cup Winner: Vancouver Canucks
President's Trophy: Vancouver Canucks
Art Ross Trophy: Daniel Sedin
Hart Trophy: Roberto Luongo
Vezina Trophy: Roberto Luongo
Norris Trophy: Mattias Ohlund
Lady Byng Trophy: Henrik Sedin
Selke Trophy: Ryan Kesler
Calder Trophy: Jannik Hansen

What's that? This list is horribly biased and unrealistic? Next you're going to tell me that the Blue Jays aren't going to win the World Series this year and that my stocks in Lehman Brothers aren't going to allow me to retire by 26 years old. But if you insist, I will aim for a Fox News-esque "fair and balanced" approach for this series of predictions for the current season:

Stanley Cup Finals: Dallas Stars defeat Montreal Canadiens in 6 games

Western Conference Finals: Dallas defeats Detroit Red Wings in 7 games
Eastern Conference Finals: Montreal beats Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games

President's Trophy: Detroit Red Wings

Art Ross Trophy: Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Hart Trophy: Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Vezina Trophy: Marty Turco, Dallas Stars
Norris Trophy: Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
Lady Byng Trophy: Kyle Wellwood, Vancouver Canucks (just joking, despite his ridiculous dearth of PIM - but how do you predict this trophy anyway?)
Selke Trophy: Ryan Kesler, Vancouver Canucks (I'm sticking with this one!)
Calder Trophy: Fabian Brunnstrom, Dallas Stars
Jack Adams Trophy: I was going to say Denis Savard... so, um, how about Wayne Gretzky of the Phoenix Coyotes? It's not like he's won enough major hardware already.

First All-Star Team:
C - Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
LW - Alex Ovechkin. Washington Capitals
RW - Marian Hossa, Detroit Red Wings
D - Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
D - Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins
G - Marty Turco, Dallas Stars