Heads Up - Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals

It's that time of year again, with the end of the NHL season incoming it's time to reflect and look back at the two teams and how they got here to the finals, as well as make a few points for each team heading into this epic original six clash, the likes of which hasn't been seen in many, many a year. I hope you all are ready for this one, this is gonna be a long one.

For years up to this point, we've not had a true original six finals match since the golden age of hockey, the late 70's when the last recorded original six match-up between the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins took place in the hallowed halls of the Montreal Forum, we've had 1 of the original six teams make it the majority of the years, but there's not been a complete original six final since 1978, weird as it may sound. On the bright side however, both of these teams have recently hoisted the cup in past memory, Chicago with their momentous 2010 victory against the Philadephia Flyers in game 6's overtime, along with the Boston Bruins who took their first cup in over 40 years in 2011, so both of these teams know the taste of victory, while they also know the bitter taste of defeat.

Heading into this hallowed matchup, David Krejci is the man to watch for the Bruins, racking up the impressive 21 points heading into this final round, while all star and the 2010 winning goal scorer, Patrick Kane has a equally impressive 14 points overall, but isn't the leading points guy on Chicago at this moment, however watch for both of these young guns to score a few times during this series if at all, Chara isn't a slouch when it comes to the playoffs either, with a impressive skating regiment and his overall size are anything to count, this man could be a huge factor for the Bruins as well, but we mustn't forget the goaltenders of the two respective teams, Tuukka Rask, who was lucky enough to be Tim Thomas's backup during the 2011 cup quest is starting the series after dealing with Pittsburgh's high offensive capabilites rather easily.

Corey Crawford is no slouch in the netminder's position either, as he's managed to rack quite a impressive set of statistics, offing the LA Kings in 5 games in their conference finals in Overtime on the last game, leading to a exciting finale against the reigning champs. One key factor for this particular title I believe is the tale of the tape let's take a look at the current stats of both Crawford and Rask starting with Corey Crawford.

G.A.A:  1.74 [1st]
Saves: 443 [3rd]
Shutouts: 1 [4th]
Minutes Played: 1,070 [2nd]
Win-Loss Record: 12-5 [1st and 4th]

As you can see, Crawford's stats don't lie, he's the best goalie in the NHL playoffs as of right now with a impressive 1.74 GAA and a impressive 1000 minutes in the net combined this playoffs, now let's move onto Rask's Tale of the tape.

When it comes to Boston and their goal tenders, they don't slouch at all, Tukka Rask's stats do not lie either, heading into the most important games of his career thus far, let's take a quick look at his important stats

G.A.A: 1.75 [2nd]

Saves:   497 [1st]
Shutouts: 0 [4th]
Minutes Played: 1,031 [3rd]
Win-Loss Record 12-4 [1st and 6th]

Rask is no slouch for Boston either, with a impressive 1.75 GAA heading into this one, I'm expecting a barn burner of a game tonight when it comes to these two original six teams, but now let's take a brief look at how both of these teams got here, starting with the road to the cup for Boston, whom are eager enough for a 2nd cup in 3 years.

Boston's Road to the Cup

The eastern conference had a lot of interesting choices in terms of match-ups in the playoffs, but the worst division by far is the south eastern division with Florida, Tampa Bay and Washington with Washington being the only team from that division to make it, as it seems with this points system we have, Round 1's lineup was  Boston vs Toronto, Montreal vs Ottawa, Washington vs the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh vs the Islanders, all four of those match-ups went quite the distance, with Boston taking 7 games over Toronto in a very close finale, Montreal getting destroyed 4-1 by Ottawa of all teams, Washington being beaten by the Rangers in a 7 game series and the Penguins beating the Islanders to take their first round victory and go onto round 2.

Round 2's action for the eastern conference began with Pittsburgh facing the Ottawa Senators and the New York Rangers facing off against another original six team, the Bruins, of which Boston easily beat the rangers in 5 games, a few of them being close, as well as Pittsburgh beating the Senators in another 5 game series to bring the second round for the east to a close.  Round 3 was a interesting one as Boston ended up facing the 2009 champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins, hot off the heels of a 5 game series against the Senators, with the eastern conference finals lasting a whopping 4 games, Boston swept out the Penguins with some superb defense, with all star David Krejci leading the team heading into the finals of the playoffs.

With that let's take a look see at how Chicago got to the point in time where they are now, leading up to their road to the cup finals.

Chicago's Road to the Cup

Chicago was one I thought would go out in the early rounds due to the curse with the President's Trophy, for being the team with the highest point total at the end of the regular season, however it wasn't too much of a curse, more so a spirit lifter, the western conference had quite a lot of interesting match-ups as well, with round 1 being composed of Chicago vs Minnesota, Detroit vs Anaheim, Vancouver vs San Jose and Los Angeles vs St. Louis, most of these match-ups I wasn't quite sure who had the edge, but it proved to be a lengthy quarter finals, with Chicago beating Minnesota in 5 games, Detroit beating Anaheim going the full 7 games, San Jose sweeping the Canucks 4 straight and Los Angeles beating the Blues in 6 to head into round 2.

Round 2's matches in the west were just as lengthy, with the Red Wings facing off against the Blackhawks, while the Kings met the Sharks in a heated rivalry, the Wings/Hawks series ended up lasting a full 7 games, with Chicago pulling out the win at the last possible second, while the Kings ended up doing the distance series, taking their series with the Sharks to a full 7 games as well which meant the Kings were to face the Blackhawks to determine the Western Conference winner, of which it lasted a good while going a full 5 games, but in the end the Hawks edged it out, taking the series 4-1 over the reigning cup champs.

In short, all I know for this particular cup final, it's going to be quite interesting, as during the regular season these two never faced one another, all due to the shortened season schedule and such, but both teams feel very evenly matched, if this series is proven anything it's that the best possible teams have reached the pinnacle of the hockey dream and only one team can stand truly dominant after the dust settles, but for now let's just sit back, watch some old school, barn burner hockey and say "Yeah, it's good to be a hockey fan right now" until next time, this is Vergil signing off.

NHL Officiating and why it's so bad.

In recent months after observing dozens and dozens of games involving my two favorite teams I've come to the conclusion that the officials in the NHL are biased beyond all belief while under the management of one Gary Bettman whom let's face it has turned hockey from a sacred traditional sport into a business, which it shouldn't be at all. Over the course of this piece, I'll explain each reasoning behind this and give my thoughts as to why the officials in the NHL are corrupt.

Now most NHL officials are here in the game for one reason, to call a game fair and down the middle, which gives both teams, home and away a fair chance at winning the game, these days, the officials in this game we cherish have been biased towards teams which usually aren't any members of the original six, so this means Toronto, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal and Boston, all of whom have had these types of officials in their games to cause the game to be in the favor of the other team.

For the most part this is not as bad as it seems at first, back when the league was at a mere 16 teams, the officials in game were fair and just, but since "He" came along, I'm not going to use his name again, since most people know who "He" is, has turned this game into a corrupt business sport, much similar to Basketball or Baseball. Let's delve into a few of the reasons why officials are just so plain corrupt these days to specific teams.

#1) Faceoffs - Every game I've seen up to this point has one thing in common, lousy face-off chances, since a face-off can swing the game in a team's favor and give scoring chances, but the consistent problem is the pre-faceoff's which the person who does the face-off consistently pulls back the puck, forcing a delay of play and forces two more players to come center and take the face-off in place of another player who may be better at this, now why is this, let's look at a face-off video as proof

Now if you use the first seconds of this video as a example of what a face-off should be, you'll see it's clean and consistent, but the problem is most officials in game tend to pull the puck back to draw the game on just a few seconds longer then it should, this is not a problem right, WRONG, it happens maybe 15-20 times a game, which adds up to a few minutes of extra time being aired, which means more revenue for the NHL as a whole, these sorta things need to stop immediately, since they are getting annoying.

#2) Penalty Calls - In a normal game of hockey, penalties are bound to happen for either team, but the issue with this is a minor infraction like a poke check these days can warrant a penalty, which let's face it can give the other opposing team a major edge with a power play goal chance, a Penalty is supposed to be a infraction against the rules of the game, if you were to send a guy flying onto the ice by tripping him with a stick, that would be a proper penalty, if he had possession of the puck that is. Major infractions can also be called at a given point or time, but the problem is the fact that we've seen officials call for the stupidest offenses in the game time and time again, a minor slash on a stick, a clean hip check, all of these examples have somehow warranted a infraction according to the officials, but the proper calls that should be made aren't being made at all, leaving the stupidest calls ever to be made, which gives the opposition a chance to score and give them a major edge as I've previously stated.

Is this a proper way of the game, no, it's not, it is getting to the point where the game is always lopsided in the favor of teams whom are liked by "Him" which is wrong, it's not a business, it's a sport which has spanned many decades and is a tradition here in Canada, which you are perverting for your own selfish gains.

#3) Play Stoppage/Offsides - Most games have these incidents occur, where the play is stopped for no particular reason whatsoever since the official lost sight of the puck, since that's how they work these days, officials aren't supposed to stop play for any reason except for the following.

#1) Offsides
#2) Icing
#3) Penalties
#4) Puck goes out of bounds
#5) A Goal is scored
#6) Glass screen getting shattered - This is a rare occurence and happens maybe once every 100 games, if your lucky.
#7) A goalie holds onto the puck

Other then that, officials aren't supposed to stop the clock for any other reason, which frustrates me to no end, since once a official loses sight of the puck, that's it, play is stopped which is wrong, play is supposed to continue regardless of losing sight of the puck or not, not to buy additional air time on tv shown games, which is ridiculous, since games have a set limit to air times, plus their given additional time in case, I mean "In case" of a Overtime period is needed to decide the game, then the game if necessary is given additional time as a whole. But to do this consistently like 10-15 times over the course of a single game, is just downright wrong,
                                                                                                                                                                       
In essence the game of hockey has become nothing but a business for the ones who are a part of the NHL board, including "Him" and the game boils down to money, where's the respect for the game, where's the love for the game, it's gone until "He" leaves the game forever and we return it to the way it used to be, anyways enough ranting for today, this is Vergil signing off.

Old Guard/New Guard

You all remember the days of the Detroit Red Wings and their super lines, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov ring any bells, these 3 are pretty much through and through members of the red wings, whom in my eyes will always be legends for the team, since they won 3 cups in their careers, Yzerman having a 20 year career with a whole bunch of stats, fast forward to 2013 and here we see the Detroit Red Wings of new, led by none other then Mike Babcock whom is a very good choice for a coach for a team as legendary as they are.

But I digress, the team itself is in a bit of a dis-array over the course of the past few months with the recent retirement of Nicklas Lidstrom whom let's face it was the last of the old guard bringing in the new guard, though I've gotta give props to the fact that Henrik Zetterberg a main stay of the team for the past 10 years has done this well to earn the coveted "C" for his team. This team has somewhat declined over the past few years with a few key old guard retiring, but hey retirement in itself is a very coveted spot, it's a shame though that Steve Yzerman, whom I covet as one of the greats of all time is the GM of the one of the worst teams in the league, sigh how the mighty have fallen, at least Scotty Bowman is rather happy with the outcome of the team, right, am I right?


Let's focus on one of my newer favorites for the team, Carlo Colaiacovo whom was once a Toronto Maple Leaf, he seems to have found his niche in the team as a very solid defensive player working alongside the likes of the best 3rd string defensemen the old guard had Nicklas Kronwall, but let me explain as to why I feel the games these days simply don't feel the same.

Sure we have a few good players here, Bertuzzi, Kronwall, Zetterberg, hell I'll even preach for Jimmy Howard whom in his right mind has proven himself a great goalie and can go as long as he wants without much difficulty, but the old style of the Red Wings is nearly gone, there's few from the old guard left, but those few are proving that they still have some fight left in them, with the majority of the old guard either retiring or finding their way into the Wings organization somehow, goaltending coach, defensive coach, etc, which is all fine. But when the last puck drops it's going to end up to the point where we won't see the second coming of the Red Wings dynasty

The fact of the matter is that the wings aren't as solid in the defensive department as they were back then, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but the lack of committment is a bit of a downer for fans like myself whom have been watching since the great dynasty of 1997-1998 where it was the back to back wins for the wings. As clearly seen in the photo, Chicago crushed detroit defensively in game 6 of the second round, which is not good.

I'm not sure as to why, but this team really needs a reshape as a whole, it's gotten to the point where defensively, the team is struggling in some areas and re-evaluate as a whole, which I get since there's a whole 3 months in between the next season and next season's schedule has yet to be determined, but the problem is the realignment of the conferences, which puts us in the same exact conference as my other team, the Toronto Maple Leafs for next season along with the worst teams of league in this writer's humble opinion, though being one of the top 8 teams of the 2012-2013 season is no slouch either, it goes to show even the next generation of Detroit players can play among the best of them, I for one am sure as hell proud of them as a team for getting this far, even if the game 7 ends up in Chicago's favor, good on you boys, I'm damn well proud.

In short, feel proud of yourselves detroit, you've gotten to the point where few good teams get to, proven your willing to grind it out till the end of the day and break a few nets to do the job, along with plenty of sticks, so if the Wings survive round 2 tonight, it will be a bit of a miracle, till next time this is Vergil signing off.