Jack Edwards Stanley Cup Soliloquy

Jack Edwards being his usual ridiculous self.

Memorial Day

Just want to give a special Memorial Day thank you to all of the troops serving to protect our freedom and way of life in the United States.  God bless.

Tampa Bay Lightning: A Class Act

Although I had selfish motivations for rooting for the Bruins in the Eastern Conference finals (my hope that I can catch a Stanley Cup final game while I'm in Boston), I've learned to love the Tampa Bay Lightning.   The Tampa Bay organization has conducted itself in a classy, professional matter throughout the playoffs, showing respect for their opponents, officials and fans at all times, both on and off the ice.  The players are terrific role models for young hockey players to look up to and emulate.  I wasn't surprised to learn that the day after their postseason elimination, the Lightning took the time to greet their faithful fans to show their thanks and support.

Steven Stamkos autographs a stick for a fan.

Coach Guy Boucher takes the time to shake hands with dedicated Lightning fans.

It was a great gesture to have the team show some appreciation and gratitude for their fans.  I'm sure after just being eliminated a round short of the Stanley Cup finals, the team wasn't necessarily enthusiastic about shaking hands and autographing sticks, but they did it anyway.  I have a lot of respect for that.

Let's talk about Steven Stamkos for a minutes.  One minute the man takes Boychuck's tipped slapshot directly in the face, skates off the ice doing his best to hold his perfusely bleeding, shattered nose together with his hands, and then a few minutes later returns to the ice with a cage on ready for his next shift like nothing happened.  Just another example of why hockey players are the toughest athletes around:

And why soccer players certainly are not:

Anyway, the Lightning squad represents the best of what hockey has to offer, and the team has a lot to be proud of.  It's too bad we won't get to see them contend for a Stanley Cup this year, but expect them to be right back in the race again next year.

Bruins Advance

Game 7 between the Bruins and the Lightning was one of the most complete and perfectly played games I have ever seen. The game was dominated by the defense, and even when the offense found scoring chances, Roloson and Thomas were there. Coming into Game 7 Roloson was 7-0 in elimination games. If it were not for a knee injury, he would already have had a ring on his finger. The Lightning relied heavily on Roloson in the first to fight off the incredible Boston crowd. After the first, Roloson and Thomas were perfect with 15 and 9 saves respectively. The second period had the same outcome with Roloson and Thomas perfect. Roloson, however, was a kept busy with 14 shots in comparison to Thomas' 8. Guy Boucher told NHL.com, "Roli really stood the fort there, he was outstanding tonight." At the start of the third period the game was notched at 0 and who would have expected anything less from these two teams. The lone goal tallied in the third would be all it would take to advance the Bruins to the Stanley Cup. The goal originated back in the Bruins zone when Andrew Ferrence collected the puck, regrouped, and headed up ice. Ferrence fed the puck to an open Krejci just outside the blueline. With a textbook offensive move, Krejci accelerated to the outside giving himself ample space from Lightning defenseman Eric Brewer. The move to the outside gave him so much space that he was able to bring the puck back to his forehand despite being on the left wing. In another display of offensive excellence, Nathan Horton crashed the net and found himself open on the back door. Being the playmaker he is, Krejci threaded a pass through Brewer and the back checking Stamkos for a tap in by Horton. With 17 points in 18 games, Horton now has a legendary status in Boston. Hortons eight goals will forever be remembered by the Boston faithful. He has 3 game winning goals in the series, two of them Game Seven winners. Despite Horton's publicity, he couldn't be more modest. Horton said, “Well, it does feel good,” Horton said, “but it feels better to know that we’re going to the Stanley Cup finals. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who scores the goals, but it does matter if you’re moving on.”(Norwich Bulletin) The Bruins are doing exactly that; moving on.