The Stanley Cup Finals

Bryan Bickell and David Krejci lead the Blackhawks and Bruins in goal-scoring this postseason. Krejci has nine goals, while Bickell is tied with Patrick Sharp of the Blackhawks, with eight.

It's come down to this.

The President's Trophy winning Chicago Blackhawks (who I correctly predicted in the finals, YAY!), and the gritty Boston Bruins. Neither team had an easy trip to this final round; interestingly enough both teams got a wake-up call to save their postseason.

Boston nearly blew their 3-1 series lead against the Maple Leafs, and finally rebounded in game seven from a 4-1 deficit to win in overtime. Since then the Bruins have dominated, winning their next two series in a total of nine games. They outscored Pittsburgh 12-2 in the conference finals, and left both Crosby and Malkin pointless in the series.

Meanwhile, Chicago dominated their series against the Wild, winning in five. Detroit however, had Chicago on the ropes and down 3-1 in the series, with the team falling apart (evident by Jonathan Toews' trips to the penalty box in game four). It was then that Chicago finally came together as a team and started taking the playoffs seriously, winning the next three games to advance to the conference finals.

Now we're left with a special match up, the first Original Six final since Montreal and New York in 1979, 34 years ago. On paper, things look close, especially the goaltending. Rask's GAA is 1.75, while Crawford's is 1.74. Their save percentages are .943 and .935. Rask has allowed 30 goals; Crawford has let in 31. Now that's close.

But my prediction? The Boston Bruins have got this, it won't even be close. They've worked harder, they've been faster, and will play a better physical game than the Blackhawks. This contest will be over quickly, let's say, five games. If Chicago's even going to get off the ground, they MUST have production from their star players. Brandon Saad, one of four Blackhawks with at least 10 goals in the regular season, has absolutely fallen asleep during the playoffs, minus four with no goals in 17 games. Toews isn't much better, his one goal of the playoffs came in game five of the Detroit series. And without his hat-trick to win the conference final for the Blackhawks, Patrick Kane would likely be included in this ridicule. But to get these scoring opportunities, the Blackhawks must also solve Zdeno Chara, and the Bruins' excellent defensive play (Chara leads defencemen in the playoffs with an outstanding plus 12).

I'll go ahead and predict shutouts by Tuukka Rask, and pesky moves by Brad Marchand that will drive Chicago insane. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get an oddly integral part of my bracket correct: Chicago getting to the Stanley Cup Final and falling apart. Don Cherry's getting excited already...

Opening Night

This was opening night.

This was the Thursday night in October I would suddenly rush home and turn on Hockey Night in Canada. The night in high school, when I’d get home from marching band practice and run downstairs, frantically flipping to channel 99; Toronto would be playing their first game of the season. I got to see all the new and old faces once again, hear the voice of Bob Cole, and witness some fast-paced sports action once again.

This was the night I counted down to during my freshman year at CMU, starting from a month away. The player introductions, the first goal, all the excitement. I think September 2010 was half-spent sucking in the college life, the other half was waiting for opening night on CBC…

There wasn’t any anticipation this year…I’m so sad…

Opening night 2008, where Nikolai Kulemin made his NHL debut by scoring his first goal

Time for a trade?

Leafs celebrating Wednesday night's win over the Oilers in OT

After looking at a Toronto Star poll showing that 81% of fans think the Leafs need to make a trade before the deadline; I remembered how big of a question this is. Usually, I’m not someone who likes trades in February, taking a player who’s been around all season, and exchanging him for someone new and unfamiliar to the team’s chemistry.

But of course, Toronto has only one victory in their last five, and is only one point ahead of Washington for 8^th place, and only two points ahead of 10^th place Winnipeg. This is pressure time, and not trading could mean a continued slide for the Maple Leafs, and ultimately not making the playoffs for the seventh season in a row. With that, after hearing the Mikhail Grabovski trade rumors, I think it’s absolutely a bad idea to get rid of Grabovski. He’s #3 this season in goal-scoring for Toronto, and even though he would be a free agent this summer, it’s hard to replace him now with that playoff spot looming in the distance. Who says you can't re-sign him anyway?

Kulemin, the Leaf's active leader in games played for Toronto. He has 5 goals and 18 assists on the season.

As hard as it is for me to say, I think if any Leaf HAS TO get traded, it should be Nikolai Kulemin. There are only 3 players left on the Leafs roster from fall 2008, Grabovski, Schenn, and Kulemin; all of whom have spent their entire tenure under head coach Ron Wilson. (Fun fact, Kulemin leads active Leafs in games played, with 291) From what I’ve seen recently, Kulemin hasn’t been making the biggest impact, especially compared to last season. Whereas Kulemin had 30 goals last season, he currently sits at 5 for this season. And with the Leafs’ season 70% done, Kulemin would have 7 goals if he continues his pace until April. A drop of 23 goals? Now that’s something to be concerned about.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Kulemin has been essential to Toronto in the post-Sundin era, and one of the few who has actually stuck around. He is a very clean player, and still manages to score some good goals, and set up some too. (He also one of my favorite Leafs)But with what could be considered underperforming, if anyone’s getting the boot, Kulemin should be the one to go. That being said, I would rather just see everyone step up their game and surge towards a playoff spot, therefore there wouldn’t be inevitable trade talk…Let’s see how the Leafs fair against the Canucks…

Troubles for Mike Milbury

The ballad of Mike Milbury is an interesting one, I honestly have to say he's the American version of Don Cherry. They are both former Bruins head-coaches believe it or not, and both played in the NHL. (Of course, Cherry only played a single NHL game) They both are a little radical with their views sometimes when it comes to the studio between periods, but I think Cherry is much different. Cherry is a celebrated part of HNIC, some love him, some hate him. If the Leafs aren't the focal point of HNIC broadcasts anymore, Cherry is still there. Over the years, he may have said many things that have thrown his followers off the bus, let's have a look...

and he's had many other shining moments of controversy, none of which haven't made me laugh. We've heard about the french, the europeans, even what he thinks of Air Canada & VIA for threatening to cancel their NHL sponsorship after the Pacioretty-Chara hit. ("What a phony they are!") Now we turn to Mike Milbury, let's see his shining moments

I find Cherry to be a little old-fashioned sometimes with his viewpoints, but polite? He's certainly more polite than Milbury. Remember the Cup Finals in 2010 when Roenick started to cry? Milbury still didn't seemlike the most heartwarming person towards him, and his comments are quite heartless in general sometimes. NBC tried their best to get a good Cherry-like figure on their broadcasts, it definately hasn't held up. Now with Milbury's alleged incident with a 12-year old at a hockey game, I think this is NBC & CBC's opportunity to say "hey, you're done." Of course, if the CBC has kept Cherry this long, you never know with Milbury, he could be there yapping away for years. Maybe he'll replace Cherry on Coach's Corner someday.

Then of course, CBC did get rid of Dave Hodge quite quickly...