2008 Stanley Cup Finals
 

Since my BIL is a HUGE Wing Nut...I too will bite the bullet and say Go Wings!


Next year Blue Jackets...next year...

So what if I'm the only one who cares! We should be bringing Lord Stanley's Cup home to HOCKEYTOWN tonight!!!!!!!

GO WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I care! I am still learning about the octopus thing though...odd...

Dee, I have no choice but to care, as the Boy (who took the afternoon off from work) and I are glued to the TV. I'm not allowed to make a peep unless Detroit scores.

You Michigan people, I swear. ;) :p

I saw the octopus fly! Third period right after the offsides call after the Red Wings score. Left side of the TV screen..hahahaha. Sweet.

The most I can sincerely say that I like hockey is while watching the movie Slap Shot. That said, and I doubt that it will happen, Let's Go Pens!

Are you watching? Oh please, please, Pens...make them have to pack that cup back up and put it back in it's box. Please.

I'm going to die of a heart attack.. I don't know if I can survive double overtime.

BuckeyeTriDelta: Do you know WHY the octopus?

I'm watching. I may have to talk a tranquilizer soon, though!

Did ya'll hear that on the time out, they change underwear?? I don't think I want to know about that!

I think most of us watching have had to change underwear at least once too... ;)

OMG this is BRUTAL. I need to go to bed!!!! Someone score already, for the love of god!


ETA: but what a great effing game!!! ticketholders DEFINITELY got their money's worth with this one!!!

Yeah.. for $5000 a pair (what they were going for two hours after the games sold out).. this has to go into more than 3 OTs for them to *truly* get their money's worth!

I think I've had 4 heart attacks. I have to get up for work at 5 am. Ugh.

Need.... sleep...

Holy freakin'.....

What honey said!!!!!!! The thrill of knowing that The Cup was ready to hit the ice with 35 seconds to go and in the end it had to be packed back up just makes me giddy with joy!!!!!!

DH was in Mellon on Saturday and was offered $1k per ticket. He'll know this morning if he has tickets for tomorrow night. Fingers crossed that he gets them!

I am so flippin tired :(

I knew that awful move by Kronwall in the third period, that resulted in the Pens second goal, was going to come back to bite us. :(
Oh well, I guess we have to win in Pittsburg and make the Pens regret having to lose face in their own arena. :D

Well, I don't think my heart can take a game 7, so we're going to have to take it PA, as sad as it will be to watch them skating around the ice with that big ole cup and few fans to cheer them on :(

I'm not a Wings fan, but I am moreso NOT a Pens fan. I would like to have seen this thing come to a close in Hockeytown rather than watch Mellon Arena erupt again. The only thing that will be sweeter will be if the Pens lose on their home ice... sorry, to all the Penguins fans out there, but my deep, deep dislike for that team goes back a couple decades......

I know, I know!
 

It used to take only eight wins to win the Stanley Cup, so that is where the octopus is significant.

What a great game! I have no stake in either team, except to say I hate Detroit and not a huge fan of Pittsburgh either. However, I love me some great hockey! What fun to watch!

I am so glad right now that I only had to work a short morning today! I am SO FREAKING TIRED right now!

Thanks for the octopus heads up, I didn't get that at all.

Since you aren't really rooting for other team, I'll ask you: did you think NBC's coverage leaned pro-Detroit and anti-Pittsburgh? I'm just curious as to what an innocent bystander (lol) has to say.

One night I feel like it is pro-Detroit, another pro-Pittsburgh. All in all, I think the NHL is making too big of a deal of a very young Sidney Crosby. Is he a good player, yes. Is he along the same lines NOW as Gretzky or Lemiuex, NO! He has some time he needs to put in before I will compare him to those two greats.

I saw him play against Ovechkin in March. While the Mr. and I were surprised at how quick the two of them were, Ovechkin really puts 110% on the ice. He is checking along with the rest of them. Sidney on the other hand tends to flop and complain. If he spent more time concentrating on playing his rold as leader and forward on the team, I think I would be more impressed. Right now, I just have a taste of too big for his britches syndrome. Thinks he should get special treatment because he is Crosby.

Now, I realize that this is not the general opinion of most, especially Penguins fans.

Here is what I found about the octopus on Wiki:

We already had/have one of those here and it's called Ben Roethlisberger. I think the city just doesn't believe it will happen twice. :p Then again, we build sports people up crazy amounts here and then tear them down just as much. It's like we're English!

Yes actually I do! I was schooled by my BIL. It goes back to when 8 wins were needed to win the Cup. Octopus= 8 legs. Two brothers who owned a fish market in Detriot just threw one on the ice one night back in to 1950s to symbolize just that. The Wings one the Cup that year (I forget the exact year) and from then on it is considered a good luck charm. I think it's name became Al for the arena manager. Al is now purple and lives in the rafters of Joe Louis.

Crap I just now saw that someone beat me to this! :p Oh well. That was a looooong game. My BIL didn't even make it to work because he was so tired.

AGREED!!! Sorry, but he's nothing special and doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Gretzky, Lemiuex, or Yzerman. I can't wait until the Wings win the cup and I don't have to hear about Sidney friggin' Crosby anymore (at least until next season :rolleyes:).

Sorry, didn't meant to beat you to the punch. :D

Looks like last night's game was a good one in terms of ratings! According to a story at TVguide.com, it was the highest rated game ever for NBC since they started broadcasting the NHL.

LINK

Very good research on the octopus. I was going to educate if folks didn't know. There are few traditions that last as many decades as that one has and we are proud of it. The NHL hates that Al swings one around at the beginning of the games.

Everyone was walking around totally bleary eyed all day. Thankfully, my son's baseball game tonight was called due to rain so I can get some sleep early. We have to rest up for tomorrow night's hockey game!

The biggest Red Wings group on Facebook is really ripping on the NBC announcers. I personally get to watch Don Cherry on Windsor's CBC channel 9. He's far more entertaining.

I heard on XM - NHL Live that Dn Cherry said he had no problem with Crosby, but I don't know in what context this happened. I like the announcers in Canada. They don't obviously support one team (that I could see).

About time someone made a thread about this. I didn't bother because I figured no one was into hockey. No one in Maryland gives a crap about hockey and I have Stanley Cup fever to the max and I didn't want to sound annoying by starting a thread.

Some comments:

1. http://cdn.nhl.com/photos/mugs/8470594.jpg=AMAZING. Marry me?

2. Being a Red Wings fan is like being a Yankees fan.

3. To all the Crosby haters, please, show me a video or quotations from an interview where you get the vibe that SID has the "too big for his brtiches" syndrome and not the MEDIA wanting to "build him up to tear him down" a la Ben Roethlisberger. He is incredibly talented (though he has more to prove to be compared to the likes of Lemieux and Gretzky) and handles his fame with maturity. Can he help it that his own teammates think highly of his leadership ability and talent that they chose him to be captain? Can he help that the NHL thinks he is the most marketable player in the league?

4. ETA: I understand the throwing and swinging of dead octopi is tradition, but damn, what a gross tradition. Octopus goo being flung on you. That can't be hygenic.

5. ETA: BuckeyeTriDelta. An Ohio State alumna cheering for a team from Michigan. Tsk tsk. (Admittedly, Pittsburgh is probably no better in the eyes of Ohioans)

6. ETA: nittanyalum. Flyers?

LET'S GO PENS!!!!

It truly is amazing how much we are into our hockey here. The night of the game, the entire neighborhood was silent. No kids out playing, etc. I ran out to the convenience store during the first intermission and it was packed. The cashier said nobody had been there during the whole first period but at intermission, everybody ran out to get stuff...lol.

Ready for tonight's game! I might miss the beginning of it because I'm going to my daughter's 8th grade recognition banquet! And, that's the only thing more important than hockey :)

I'm sure someone will keep people at the banquet posted! :)

Not only do I dislike Sidney Crosby because the media has built him up and shoved him down our throats, but he just seems to have this smug attitude that I can't stand. One of the things that I like about hockey is that most players are not as full of themselves as in other sports like football and basketball, where the players are always saying how great they are and how much the other team/players suck.

I don't feel like searching for video clips, but here's a recent example...After the Wings won Game 4, all the announcers were talking about how Zetterberg saved the game by tying up Crosby and his stick at the side of the net during the 5-on-3. Zetterberg and Lidstrom were at the media desk taking questions and they both kept talking about the overall team effort and not congratulating themselves. They both talked about how the Pens are a strong team and played a good game, too. Later, they showed Crosby at the media desk taking questions and all the reporters wanted him to talk about the 5-on-3 and Zetterberg's play. Crosby repeatedly said that he didn't think Zetterberg did anything special, that the play was ordinary, and that anyone could have done it. Sorry, but that's the talk of a crybaby teenager who can't give anyone else credit, not the way a captain should be representing himself. If he couldn't suck it up and say something appropriate like, "I guess it was a good play," then he should have just said, "I'll have to watch the footage later," and moved on. Jerk.

I'm going to JoeVision tonight. Should be a good time! Altho you know the Wings are going to lose on purpose so they can win it at home and give the Illitchs and city more money.

Dee, that's one thing I really like about hockey too, that the players are much more laid back and down to Earth than most players of football, basketball, and IMO, baseball. (Though I still love football regardless, just not the T.O.s and the Chad Johnsons, etc) Plus, hockey is such an exciting, fast paced game.

I haven't watched the Wings enough to know their players enough to be annoyed by any of them on or off the ice, but I can't stand the coach, Mike Babcock. After game 1, with the no-goal ruling with Holmstrom's interference (1st period I think), Babcock went on a tirade at the post-game presser about the call. If getting/not getting that goal would have been the difference in the game, sure, let him cry and whine about it, but they won the game 4-0. Any classy coach would have said something to the effect of, "Well, sometimes calls don't go your way, but fortunately we were able to move on and still win the game."

ETA: The media markets Sidney Crosby (or shoves him down your throat depending on who you ask) because, outside of Canada, and select hockey-crazed cities in the US like Detroit, the NHL has a real PR problem post-lockout. If I asked a random person on the street (in MD or DC) which two teams are playing in the Stanley Cup final, I'm sure most people wouldn't be able to tell me.:( Sidney Crosby has been big news in Canada since he was 14 playing with 17 year olds. Because of his youth, talent, looks, and because he is from North America, the NHL likes to use him to create excitement about the sport and the league. Contrast him with Alex Ovechkin, for example; Ovechkin has the talent but lacks the marketability. Also, the Winter Classic. I don't think Buffalo and Pittsburgh were chosen at random to play in that game.

Psst: The 'burgh people will remind you that Pittsburgh has an H at the end. FYI, in the early 1900's, the train people were trying to unify all cities to the same spelling style (as in ville instead of vil; burg instead of burgh), and Pittsburgh did go to Pittsburg for about a decade. But! Since we have the "h" due to our early Scots-Irish history, Pittsburgh is virtually alone in keeping our "burgh"!

[/off soapbox]

I wish I had a nickel for everyone I've talked to who said, "PLEASE, NO OVERTIME TONIGHT!!!" As I've said, I'm not a big hockey fan, but that's between me and Ed DeBartolo. It's a great game, though, but I prefer football, soccer, and basketball.

BTW, octopi stink!