I have gone on record that I know very little about the NHL but because I have roommates who really enjoy hockey, I watch more than I ever have before. I think I might have watched more than them, I begged with Eric to watch the third period of the Bruins-Flyers game alas he told me no, whatever E. So here are some observations.....
-I know this happened a week ago, but you have to feel for the DMV area (D.C./Maryland/Virgina who aren't smart or listen to Wale). The Capitals were their team this year out of the four professional sports and they had big dreams of winning the Stanley Cup which would wash the season of Gilbert Arenas and the horrid Wizards, the pitiful Redskins, and the Nationals are well... the Nationals. Then Alexander Oveckhin pulled out his own Karl Malone performance of just not showing up when his team needed him the most.
- I have not moved on from the US losing to Canada in the Olympics therefore I haven't cheered for the Montreal Canadians or the Vancouver Canucks. Screw them, I want the United States to win something in hockey this year.
-Sorry to the NHL purists out there but I find Sidney Crosby absolutely boring to watch. I never feel like I need to watch him even though he is the best. People out there are probably ready to choke me but as a casual fan, he brings nothing to the table. If I am the NHL, I would want to figure how to make Sid the Kid more marketable.
-I jumped on the Boston Bruins bandwagon because well, I rule out the Penguins, Habs, Flyers, so they are the defaulted choice. I don't know if they can make it to the Stanley Cup with all the injuries that are mounting right now. Tuukka Rask might be my favorite player left in the playoffs and you gotta love 43 year old Mark Recchi doing work out there.
-I never saw myself as someone would cheer for a Chicago team but I am riding the Blackhawks in the Western Conference. I mean they are the closest to Milwaukee and they have a vat of young talent who are all very exciting. I would probably watch every game if there was a Boston-Chicago Final.
-The last part of it, I am so happy to see the Detroit Red Wings down 3-1. They are in the same fan club with New York Yankees Fan Club that I talked about in the LBJ post and others, I do not feel like putting them all done.
-Charlie.
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Showing posts with label NHL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHL. Show all posts
Friday, May 7, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
A Solid USA Effort Leading to a New Interest in NHL?
I am going to confess with everyone that this is probably the most hockey I have watched in my life. I told my roommates that I felt that every guy on the Eau Claire campus acted like a hockey superfan including myself who wrapped themselves into hockey. Not only did many young college kids get behind the hockey team, but almost everyone got behind this team because of U-S-A on the front of their jerseys. I read a retweet today from Ken Tremendous from Teddy P.'s favorite blog of all time Fire Joe Morgan.com "Everyone I know is a hockey fan today." Can't say I disagree.
A couple of my roommates like to watch hockey once in awhile therefore I will watch when they have it on and I watched a good amount of Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovekchin during the playoffs after realzing what an idiot I was for not watching. But I am still not off the hockey fever at least for now, I guess I would compare myself to somebody who might watch Major League Baseball yet only for a couple innings. That will probably be my approach with hockey, I will probably watch a couple of the games on television but probably not the whole game in the regular season.
I am not going to make picks or write a lot of posts about the sport because I honestly do not know what is happening half the time in hockey. Also 10 days after my first hockey post, I tried to analyze the two game sevens that I watched that night... not that well either. This is the same reason why I do not write about soccer, but I like to watch it. Same problem I have with soccer, I have with hockey as well... No team to cheer for. But let me list you the possible candidates in no order.
a. Buffalo Sabers- This team has to be close to the top of my list because they are a tormented franchise with a bunch of heartbreaking defeats and to add, they have Ryan Miller who gave one of the best performances in the 2010 Olympics for the Americans. More so than Lindsey Vonn, and Apollo Ohno, only Shaun White probably has an argument for putting in a better performance.
b. New Jersey Devils- If I declare my fan hood to this team, they will be named the Jersey Shore Devils. They have two of the biggest names on the USA hockey team with Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner and they have pretty great jerseys. Although, I have trouble cheering for teams from the New York-New Jersey area, I pulled behind the New York Jets this season but that's the first team I can remember in recent memory.
c. San Jose Sharks- Once again, the Sharks have Joe Pavelski who is a great player from USA Hockey and also is from Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Their arena is named the Shark Tank and they have pretty baller jerseys. It does bother me that they are a hockey team in the middle of California and really feel like they do not belong in the NHL for that reason.
d. Chicago Blackhawks- This is the favorite team of my pal and good friend of Chuck's Corner: The Doz. He loves the Hawks' and desires to go a game in the near future. This team is the closet to our hometown in Wauwatosa and they are a classic franchise. In addition, they have USA great Patrick Kane who is an upcoming star in the NHL. But the true question, can a Wisconsinite cheer for a Chicago hockey team?
e. Minnesota Wild- This team is the closet to the Eau Claire campus and also has a lot of fans here. Also they have all the games on television here for me to watch. It seems like an easy choice but there is something about them that I cannot get into this team for whatever reason. No superstar from the USA either.
This might be an overreaction and I could fall out of hockey in April although it could be the opposite. I am just happy that USA Hockey gave me another sport to get into.... Thanks.
-Charlie.
A couple of my roommates like to watch hockey once in awhile therefore I will watch when they have it on and I watched a good amount of Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovekchin during the playoffs after realzing what an idiot I was for not watching. But I am still not off the hockey fever at least for now, I guess I would compare myself to somebody who might watch Major League Baseball yet only for a couple innings. That will probably be my approach with hockey, I will probably watch a couple of the games on television but probably not the whole game in the regular season.
I am not going to make picks or write a lot of posts about the sport because I honestly do not know what is happening half the time in hockey. Also 10 days after my first hockey post, I tried to analyze the two game sevens that I watched that night... not that well either. This is the same reason why I do not write about soccer, but I like to watch it. Same problem I have with soccer, I have with hockey as well... No team to cheer for. But let me list you the possible candidates in no order.
a. Buffalo Sabers- This team has to be close to the top of my list because they are a tormented franchise with a bunch of heartbreaking defeats and to add, they have Ryan Miller who gave one of the best performances in the 2010 Olympics for the Americans. More so than Lindsey Vonn, and Apollo Ohno, only Shaun White probably has an argument for putting in a better performance.
b. New Jersey Devils- If I declare my fan hood to this team, they will be named the Jersey Shore Devils. They have two of the biggest names on the USA hockey team with Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner and they have pretty great jerseys. Although, I have trouble cheering for teams from the New York-New Jersey area, I pulled behind the New York Jets this season but that's the first team I can remember in recent memory.
c. San Jose Sharks- Once again, the Sharks have Joe Pavelski who is a great player from USA Hockey and also is from Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Their arena is named the Shark Tank and they have pretty baller jerseys. It does bother me that they are a hockey team in the middle of California and really feel like they do not belong in the NHL for that reason.
d. Chicago Blackhawks- This is the favorite team of my pal and good friend of Chuck's Corner: The Doz. He loves the Hawks' and desires to go a game in the near future. This team is the closet to our hometown in Wauwatosa and they are a classic franchise. In addition, they have USA great Patrick Kane who is an upcoming star in the NHL. But the true question, can a Wisconsinite cheer for a Chicago hockey team?
e. Minnesota Wild- This team is the closet to the Eau Claire campus and also has a lot of fans here. Also they have all the games on television here for me to watch. It seems like an easy choice but there is something about them that I cannot get into this team for whatever reason. No superstar from the USA either.
This might be an overreaction and I could fall out of hockey in April although it could be the opposite. I am just happy that USA Hockey gave me another sport to get into.... Thanks.
-Charlie.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
USA USA USA
The Olympics needed a story. Sure the medal count of the USA was as impressive as the drinking the house of 223 Broadway is going to do this weekend but the real story is the US Men's Hockey Team. Now, I do not know much about hockey so I will try my best to write about them as much as possible.
You probably will not believe me, but I thought the US Hockey had the Bill Simmons' theory "Nobody Believes In Us theory." I thought the hockey team featured no stars and they were the enemies going into Vancouver, Canada. There was absolutely no pressure on the team and they are playing like it right now. Ryan Miller, the goalie of the US Hockey team has been awesome so far and I knew Miller was an awesome player for the Buffalo Sabres. Miller is the MVP so far even more so than Brian Rafelski who has 5 goals right now I believe. The United States will go as far as Miller will go.
Do I think the US can win the gold? Yes BUT I am worried they might not be able to get it done with the power of Russia standing in their way. The Russians are damn good and I think they will be waiting for the United States in the gold medal game if the US gets past Switzerland and Finland/Czech Republic. I feel the Russians with Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk is a dominate force of offense players and in my opinion is the best team left.
I will still be cheering my country on strong and I hope you do too. Also NBC continues their 2010 year of Epic Fail with not putting this on NBC HD.
-Charlie.
You probably will not believe me, but I thought the US Hockey had the Bill Simmons' theory "Nobody Believes In Us theory." I thought the hockey team featured no stars and they were the enemies going into Vancouver, Canada. There was absolutely no pressure on the team and they are playing like it right now. Ryan Miller, the goalie of the US Hockey team has been awesome so far and I knew Miller was an awesome player for the Buffalo Sabres. Miller is the MVP so far even more so than Brian Rafelski who has 5 goals right now I believe. The United States will go as far as Miller will go.
Do I think the US can win the gold? Yes BUT I am worried they might not be able to get it done with the power of Russia standing in their way. The Russians are damn good and I think they will be waiting for the United States in the gold medal game if the US gets past Switzerland and Finland/Czech Republic. I feel the Russians with Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk is a dominate force of offense players and in my opinion is the best team left.
I will still be cheering my country on strong and I hope you do too. Also NBC continues their 2010 year of Epic Fail with not putting this on NBC HD.
-Charlie.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Welcome Back Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx
A couple days ago, ESPN's podcast regular Dave Dameshek said this via Twitter... "Is the Sports Illustrated cover jinx back? 1st LeBron's "Cleveland Rocks" cover, then Detroit's "Wings Close In on Cup". Uh-oh, Wings fans." I think we can all be afraid of the Cover Jinx now after the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup last night in a 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on the road.
Now I have said the two times I have decided to write about hockey that I know nothing about the sport and dont watch it enough to have a full on hockey article. I still think in the realm of sports for a team to come back from being down 3-2 against the best team in their sport with only having one game at home is phenomial. Not to mention that the Penguins were completly blown out in Game 5 with a 5-0 defeat making seem even more unlikely that Pittsburgh would win Lord Stanley.
The other very cool aspect of the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup is Mario Lemieux bought this team when they were bankrupt in 1999 and rebulid this storied franchise to the top of the mountian with great players like Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Flury, and Evgeni Malkin. Lemieux is truly a class act and deserves to be recongized as one.
-Charlie.
Now I have said the two times I have decided to write about hockey that I know nothing about the sport and dont watch it enough to have a full on hockey article. I still think in the realm of sports for a team to come back from being down 3-2 against the best team in their sport with only having one game at home is phenomial. Not to mention that the Penguins were completly blown out in Game 5 with a 5-0 defeat making seem even more unlikely that Pittsburgh would win Lord Stanley.
The other very cool aspect of the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup is Mario Lemieux bought this team when they were bankrupt in 1999 and rebulid this storied franchise to the top of the mountian with great players like Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Flury, and Evgeni Malkin. Lemieux is truly a class act and deserves to be recongized as one.
-Charlie.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Hockey? I Actually Like It.
I have never been a hockey fan. It never really interest me and for that reason, its probably my dad. Most of my sports allegiance and most of my overall foundations for the sports have been my father. Thats another reason why I didnt get into soccer until the 2006 World Cup.
Last night, there were two game 7's between the Detroit Red Wings beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a heartbreaking overtime game. Now I am sorely disappointed because Doz and I watched the overtime game saying that no team should north of Nashville should have a team. Also I think Doz was upset Milwaukee doesnt have an NHL team which they probably should have. This was also touched on by Bill Simmons and Dave Damashek mentioned in the new BS Report on ESPN.com so we are not the only ones to think this same theory.
Although I will say this the Hurricanes deserved to win the game last night because they were the more conditioned team as they pounded the goal consistently in the overtime period and finally lit the lamp with under two minutes. It was shame because Tim Thomas probably had a great playoffs so far out of all the goalies but his defense truly let him down in the overtimes. I mean there was four or five "coulda been" goals that Thomas prevented from happening.
Carolina has knocked out two of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference already but I think their run ends here with Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Penguins. Cam Ward has had a great playoffs so far but I wonder if he will be up to the test against a tough Pens offense. The big question will be if Evgeni Malkin shows up every game because he is the true X factor.
The other thing that I love is the Detroit-Chicago Western Conference Series because these are the Original Six and its an awesome Midwest rivalry overall. You have the Red Wings who are the perennial power and who I consider the "New York Yankees" of the NHL. Then the Blackhawks are a lot like the Milwaukee Brewers who built up their franchise in the last five years and now they are in the Western Conference Finals which is pretty cool. For the first time in my lifetime, I will be cheering for a Chicago-based team and hope that they can push the Wings to get into the Stanley Cup.
-Charlie.
Last night, there were two game 7's between the Detroit Red Wings beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a heartbreaking overtime game. Now I am sorely disappointed because Doz and I watched the overtime game saying that no team should north of Nashville should have a team. Also I think Doz was upset Milwaukee doesnt have an NHL team which they probably should have. This was also touched on by Bill Simmons and Dave Damashek mentioned in the new BS Report on ESPN.com so we are not the only ones to think this same theory.
Although I will say this the Hurricanes deserved to win the game last night because they were the more conditioned team as they pounded the goal consistently in the overtime period and finally lit the lamp with under two minutes. It was shame because Tim Thomas probably had a great playoffs so far out of all the goalies but his defense truly let him down in the overtimes. I mean there was four or five "coulda been" goals that Thomas prevented from happening.
Carolina has knocked out two of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference already but I think their run ends here with Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Penguins. Cam Ward has had a great playoffs so far but I wonder if he will be up to the test against a tough Pens offense. The big question will be if Evgeni Malkin shows up every game because he is the true X factor.
The other thing that I love is the Detroit-Chicago Western Conference Series because these are the Original Six and its an awesome Midwest rivalry overall. You have the Red Wings who are the perennial power and who I consider the "New York Yankees" of the NHL. Then the Blackhawks are a lot like the Milwaukee Brewers who built up their franchise in the last five years and now they are in the Western Conference Finals which is pretty cool. For the first time in my lifetime, I will be cheering for a Chicago-based team and hope that they can push the Wings to get into the Stanley Cup.
-Charlie.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Dear Self....
I would like to write a letter to my self right now: Watch the NHL. Why havent you Charlie watched any games throughout yet this postseason?
Here is how I answer... First of all, my roommate got kicked out of the dorms for some ridiculous reasons and the housing department truly screwed him plus me as well. It left me without a television and an Xbox360 for three weeks. Didnt really think nothing of it because I could watch 24, the Office, and most things on ESPN thanks to ESPN360. Well the NBA Playoffs and NHL Playoffs are not on the Internet at all times so that is really screwing me up.
The second thing is I would take the NBA Playoffs over the NHL Playoffs any day of the week personally just because I grew up watching the NBA with my dad and never really the NHL at all. I wrote an article last year about how I re found my love for the NBA therefore I will watch the NBA.
The last thing that brought me to this coming of age was last night Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, the two best players in the NHL last night faced off against each other in game 2 and they both had hat tricks. That is a phenomenal sporting event that I needed to watch last night but blew it off for other things. I also need to choose a side of the Ovechkin-Crosby debate because it seems like everyone has a favorite. Only a few say Ovechkin and most say Crosby for the reason of Oveckin is too cocky, gets too excited, and is just a punk. The guy practically hit on Rachel Nichols in his ESPN's E-60 interview and says he cant talk about the stuff outside of hockey. How does that not make him the man?
My overall point with all of this is the people I know that like Oveckin usually are guys who do not follow hockey all that closely and like the swagger that he brings to the ice every night. Then the guys that do watch hockey on a consistent basis see Crosby as the role model and everything that is right with hockey.
I havent decided yet but when I sit down hopefully watch Game 3 I will have my mind made up.
-Charlie.
Here is how I answer... First of all, my roommate got kicked out of the dorms for some ridiculous reasons and the housing department truly screwed him plus me as well. It left me without a television and an Xbox360 for three weeks. Didnt really think nothing of it because I could watch 24, the Office, and most things on ESPN thanks to ESPN360. Well the NBA Playoffs and NHL Playoffs are not on the Internet at all times so that is really screwing me up.
The second thing is I would take the NBA Playoffs over the NHL Playoffs any day of the week personally just because I grew up watching the NBA with my dad and never really the NHL at all. I wrote an article last year about how I re found my love for the NBA therefore I will watch the NBA.
The last thing that brought me to this coming of age was last night Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, the two best players in the NHL last night faced off against each other in game 2 and they both had hat tricks. That is a phenomenal sporting event that I needed to watch last night but blew it off for other things. I also need to choose a side of the Ovechkin-Crosby debate because it seems like everyone has a favorite. Only a few say Ovechkin and most say Crosby for the reason of Oveckin is too cocky, gets too excited, and is just a punk. The guy practically hit on Rachel Nichols in his ESPN's E-60 interview and says he cant talk about the stuff outside of hockey. How does that not make him the man?
My overall point with all of this is the people I know that like Oveckin usually are guys who do not follow hockey all that closely and like the swagger that he brings to the ice every night. Then the guys that do watch hockey on a consistent basis see Crosby as the role model and everything that is right with hockey.
I havent decided yet but when I sit down hopefully watch Game 3 I will have my mind made up.
-Charlie.
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