Hossa Mantra : Stanley Cup Final Game 5

In an NHL article après losing to the Flyers in Game 4 (5-3) Marian Hossa talked about moving beyond frustration and playing smarter...actually he mentioned that word quite a few times...HOSSA MANTRA...WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER. A tip of the Tony Robbins hat to you sir.

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The only question I would ask the Blackhawks and want to correct is: WHY DO YOU ALL LOOK SO NUMB OUT ON THE ICE? Is that about playing smarter or about something else? Something else that the Flyers seem to have.

What can Chicago salvage from game 4? Scoring goals 2 & 3...knowing they are capable of scoring like that under that kind of pressure...these two goals may have made all the difference heading home as opposed to walking out of the Wachovia Center with a 4-1 or including empty net 5-1 wound.

This is a most unwelcome team role-reversal but I keep 'seeing' my nephew TJ (who lives outside of Chicago) at the parade in Chitown, hopefully foreshadowing to this result - that the unexpected underdog wins in the end.

GO HAWKS! PLAY ALIVE! BLACKHAWKS FANS HELP THEM OUT!

ps. You better believe my nephew is an Islander fan. Hawks are his second team...distant second if he wants to be invited to the big people table at Thanksgiving.

Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Book vs. Street

It's 8:03 and I should be in front of a TV but am not, busy day. So before jumping into my car to get in front of a TV here's a thought for game 4...so it's like this...Blackhawks are like people with book smarts and the Flyers are like people with street smarts. Usually it's good to have as even a balance of both but that's not going to happen with these two teams. Who wins the Stanley Cup is going to depend on what type of 'event' they are at - street fight or intellectual debate. In game 3 Philly did what they are so good at doing - pulling the other team into a street fight, thus they won - although not enough of an impressive sequence or goal to make it seem like Philly can pull this whole thing off from 2 games to 1...and that is why my cell phone is still chirping crickets. Chicago looked tired in OT- yeah it sucks when the muscles start to feel sour. But like I said in prior blog post it's all about endurance so unless Chicago wakes up and turns the atmosphere into a debate of intellect (aka skill), the Flyers are going to win. And by now if you follow this blog, you know how hard it was for me to type that last sentence. For some reason I don't think Chicago is done - maybe something such as a loss was needed to jilt Chicago out of their trance. Whether it be a gut feeling or a wish I think/hope Chicago is going to come down heavy in this game and remind everyone why they (team) are playing for the Stanley Cup in the first place, while at the same time reminding Philly of how lucky they were to have even gotten this far. Hope all that makes some kind of sense, it's hard to type a blog post with one foot out the door, it's 8:15 now and I've got to find myself in front of a TV pronto.

GO HAWKS!

Stanley Cup Final Game 3: Philly Fan Factor

So the Blackhawks are up 2 games to zero as Game 3 is about to start in a few minutes. If the Flyers want to stay in the race, they will need to draw upon the energy of their fans around them. Anyone who has been at a do-or-die game at the Wachovia Center knows what I mean. Not sure what happened to Peter Laviolette but it has resulted in a scattered energy on the team, unable to focus under his leadership and like Chris Pronger, some are acting out.

Got a kick out of the shots of Antti Niemi in the third period Monday night...the crazed look in his eyes was like the look of a crazed ex who just doesn't get it that it's over.

Blackhawks still not impressive, like studying for a C and surprisingly getting an A. All the Flyers have to do is use the boards and shoot.

Best part of the series so far? The sound coming from Flyers fans on my phone -



GO HAWKS! Let's keep it this way.

GAME ON!!

There's Always a Scapegoat

Tonight is Game 2 of the Stanely Cup Finals. Much to do went around about Peter Laviolette sending in Brian Boucher to replace Micheal Leighton in Game 1. I was more focused on the poor performace of both teams, who looked like pee-wee teams doing the ping-ping scoring that often goes on at that wee age, which at that age is cute. The Blackhawks got off easy - there was no victory for them this game but it appeared they realized that by how they skated off the ice. As for the Flyers, the last thing they needed was internal drama which was what their coach wound up creating - it's one thing to replace your starting goalie when the score is 4-0 but this was not the case. Coach Laviolette made Leighton look like a chump early on in this final race, there were other Flyers that should have exited instead of Leighton.

Morale is important Coach Laviolette if you want your boys to win for you because when it comes down to it in my world, it's all about making 'Dad' proud and as that goes, by removing your goalie when both teams were playing loosely, you publically put your team in a submissive position which can change the entire mindset of a team who really believed they could win the Stanley Cup under your leadership. But like in any family dynamic there is always someone in the role of scapegoat. In ice hockey that role is all too often filled by the goalie. In my opinion Leighton should have finished the game. What a coach can do in a scenario like game 1 is essentially play confidence chicken with the other coach - puff up his feathers and show 'fake it to you make it' confidence in your collective team because at the end of the day it's not about one game, one win or one loss...it's about who is still standing at the end of what is one long ass season. It's about endurance.

All Leighton needed was one confidence boost moment like Antti Niemi had late in the game when he impressed even himself with a glove save off of Daniel Briere's line drive from the slot.

Probably The Only Case of Penis Envy

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More than the wish that the Islanders will one day again hoist the Stanley Cup in victory is the wish that future reality will include young girls being able to dream of partaking in their own Stanley Cup playoffs...to work so hard for every minute of ice time throughout the years, shooting pucks into their own dryer with bigger goals in mind that are actually obtainable - to be a part of something so intense as the race for the Stanley Cup while wearing pink skate laces if she chooses to.