Game 7 Ramblings...

Admittedly, I don't watch a ton of hockey. But when the local team is in a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, I make an exception. Here are a few thoughts picked up along the way...

-Having never played anything more than floor hockey in my life I have obviously never attended a hockey practice, but after watching the last few games I really wonder what they do there. I mean, every goal appears to be completely by accident; coming off a deflection or rebound instead of a set play. I'm not saying there isn't some game-planning involved, but I just wonder if they simply skate around and give the goalies a workout. I just can't imagine it's like a football or basketball practice where you run the same play 15 times until the coach is happy, then run it 5 more just to make sure.

-Following the loss, some Vancouver residents took to the streets to riot, flipping cars, breaking windows and setting things on fire. Some people are going to say this shows just what happens when people are too passionate about sports, but I don't think that is the case at all because I don't think those are actual hockey fans. I think those are assholes, simply looking for any excuse to be an asshole, as it always happens when a team wins a championship. They were planning to riot no matter what the outcome was.

-Speaking of assholes, I understand that it is tradition to boo the Commissioner when he comes out to present the championship trophy. (This isn't just a hockey thing, either. Every sport does this.) However, I thought the Vancouver fans were exceptionally hard on Gary Bettman. There is a line where "playful booing of 'the man'" crosses into, "this is flat-out mean" and the Canuck fans crossed that line in a hurry. I don't understand it. I mean, it's not like they were in Winnipeg or Quebec, both of which lost their teams under Bettman's watch. (Even though Winnipeg is finally getting a new team, I could still understand them being upset at him.) Why is he so reviled in Canada?

-It's not like Boston doesn't have its own idiots, though. Following the game the local news went out to interview "fans" who were celebrating at local bars. One guy in his mid-20s tried to prove his street cred by looking into the camera and saying, "I know my history. The Bruins haven't won a Cup since 1972." Oh, really? You know the stat which has been bludgeoned into everyone's head for the past two weeks? That is a little like saying you know what Anthony Weiner's Twitter handle is. If you want to prove to everyone that you're a hockey-lifer you are going to have to work a little harder than simply memorizing a number which was shown roughly 50 times last night.

-Canucks forward Daniel Sedin took a little heat before the game because he said Vancouver was going to win Game 7. Personally, I didn't see the big deal. I mean, that is how you expect athletes to feel. To me the more disturbing issue was when he backed off the comments before the game, saying he didn't quite phrase it like that. I thought that was a really bad sign for Vancouver. C'mon, man, show some backbone. Even if you didn't quite say it like that, make people think you did. If you don't believe you're going to win then why should anyone else?

-I tweeted this last night, but I just want to say a second time how great I thought it was that Vancouver's stadium played "Dirty Water" for the Bruins as they skated with the Cup. They showed a tremendous amount of class in defeat. Much like the St. Louis Cardinals allowing Red Sox fans who were outside the stadium to enter Game 4 when it became clear the Sox were about to win, this is only going to raise my already-high opinion of the people of Vancouver. I can only hope that if the situations were reversed Boston would handle it the same way.