One May 29, venerable hockey writer Stan Fischler tweeted the following:

The Bruins have less of a chance to win The Cup than Atlanta has of retaining the Thrashers.

He wasn’t alone. The vast majority of hockey experts, from Puck Daddy to ESPN to THN, picked the Vancouver Canucks to easily skate off with the Stanley Cup against the overmatched Boston Bruins. After all, the Canucks had scoring powerhouses Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Selke Trophy finalist Ryan Kesler, and Olympic gold-medal winner and Vezina finalist Roberto Loungo. The Bruins? Sure, they had their own Vezina candidate in Tim Thomas, but their top regular-season scorers (Milan Lucic and David Krejci) had totaled just 62 points each. Zdeno Chara was a Norris finalist and former winner, but had been panned by some as overrated and overhyped. Thomas? A freakishly lucky goalie whose success rested largely on the Bruins’ defense-first system. Or so many said.

The Canucks, NHL royalty as the Presidents Trophy winner with the best regular-season record, looked down their noses at the rag-tag Bruins as the media all but crowned them champions before the first puck drop.

The disrespect manifested itself in Game 1, when Alexander Burrows bit Patrice Bergeron’s finger during a scrum, and continued in Game 2, when Max Lapierre taunted Bergeron by shoving his fingers at the Bruins center’s mouth.

And that’s when Nemesis stepped in.

Today, nemesis refers to someone’s particular enemy, but in ancient Greece, Nemesis, according to Wikipedia, “was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods). The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess; the goddess of revenge. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν [némein], meaning ‘to give what is due’”

Nemesis showed up at the TD Garden with revenge on her mind; the Bruins blew the Canucks out in Games 3 and 4 by scores of 8-1 and 4-0, respectively, to even the series.

The Canucks pulled ahead 3-2 in the series after returning to Vancouver and winning 1-0, but apparently hadn’t learned their lesson. Loungo criticized Thomas’s goaltending technique, calling the one goal allowed one he himself would have stopped due to his superior positional play. Given a chance to clarify his statement the next day, he plaintively said he had “pumped (Thomas’s) tires all series,” and that Thomas has said nothing nice about him.

What kind of professional athlete, one making $10 million per year, needs validation from his opponent? As Thomas said after Game 6, “I didn’t know it was my job to pump his tires.”

Perhaps Loungo took his cue from his coach, who whined that Thomas played too far out of his crease and made a formal complaint to the NHL about him. Or Daniel Sedin, who allowed a 5-foot-nothing rookie (Brad Marchand) to use him as a speed bag late in Game 4. What kind of a man – what kind of a hockey player? – allows that to happen? What member of the Bruins wouldn’t have knocked Marchand into the middle of next week?

So Nemesis had to be smiling on Game 7 as Thomas solidified his Conn Smythe trophy, as Marchand and Bergeron scored two goals each (talk about divine retribution!), and Chara lifted the Stanley Cup to the rafters as  the Bruins celebrated their first Stanley Cup since 1972.

Postscript: The night of Game 7, there was a total lunar eclipse over parts of Africa and Asia. The last time the world witnessed a lunar eclipse was Oct. 27, 2004, the night the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first World Series since 1918.

Photo from boston.com

On Monday night at TD Garden in Boston, Boston’s Nathan Horton was knocked out of the game and into Massachusetts General Hospital by a vicious late hit from Vancouver’s Aaron Rome.

On Tuesday morning, the Bruins announced that Horton would miss the rest of the playoffs with a severe concussion.

Tuesday afternoon, NHL disciplinarian Michael Murphy announced that Rome would be suspended for four games.

So we are supposed to feel sorry for… Aaron Rome?

According to Manny Malhotra, we are:

“It’s devastating,” said center Manny Malhotra. “To be so close, to be playing in your dream, to now have it taken away, it obviously hurts a lot. That being said, he’s still a huge part of our team in that room. Just his attitude, his mentality, his focus, he’s going to help our guys a lot. I think as a group we don’t agree with the suspension.”

Here’s an idea: You don’t want to miss the Stanley Cup playoffs, don’t leap off your skates and drill a guy in the head more than a second after he’s released the puck.

Canucks coach Alain Vigneault says Rome “isn’t a dirty player, never has been, never will be.” Whether he is or not is irrelevant. It was a dirty play.

Here’s Andrew Ference in February, after teammate Daniel Paille (not a dirty player; never disciplined before) was suspended four games for a head shot on Raymond Sawada (who was unhurt):

“It’s a bad hit, right?” said Ference. “You hear it from every player after they do it, they feel bad, and same thing, I talked to Danny [Paille] and he feels bad.

“You can’t be a hypocrite about it, though. I’ve thought about this a lot and had plenty of time to put things in perspective over the last year. Sidney Crosby has been very vocal about the head shots and blindside hits since he suffered one in the Winter Classic, but what did Crosby say after Cooke hit Savvy last year? Nothing.

“I thought a lot about that. You want to be a good teammate, but you shouldn’t be a hypocrite about it.” 

So here’s the question: If that was Henrik Sedin being strapped to a backboard and carted off on a stretcher, would Alan Vigneault be protesting that it wasn’t a dirty hit?

Photo: Nathan Horton from Getty Images

Actually, an NHL arena has a new name; and it’s the rink formerly known as GM Place. As of yesterday, GM Place will now be known as Rogers Arena; and will be for at least the next 10 years.

General Motors was the first sponsor of the arena when it opened as the brand new and gorgeous home of the Vancouver Canucks in 1995. It was to be a 20 year deal extending to 2015; but as we all know, times have been tough all over and especially in the auto industry. So, GM will still be a sponsor, but will be moving to in-arena activities. Rogers is Canada’s largest wireless company that also owns radio and television stations, magazines; and they also own the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto’s Rogers Centre, which used to be the SkyDome. That means they have lots and lots of money; so I’m very interested to see what, if any, changes will be made to the arena over the summer as they re-brand.

And the workers are going to have to work around a bunch of the players as Canucks Prospects Camp opened yesterday. 36 players, including draft picks, invited players and two of my boys: former Tip Taylor Ellington and current Tip Kellan Tochkin. As with most camps, they will spend this week doing the normal things like strength training and on-ice work but they also do yoga to build strength and flexibility as well as the Canucks said that they will be getting to do some dragon boating on False Creek.

The final activity will be the annual trek up the Grouse Grind, a very popular hiking trail, located at Grouse Mountain which is north of the city. It is an extremely steep and mountainous trail that takes you up 2,800 ft over a distance of 2 miles and the grade goes up 30 degrees. Most people reach the top in about 90 minutes although some who are very fit can finish in under 30 minutes; and even though the boys hate it, they love it too. I know that the last couple of years the Nuck prospects have been split up into teams and each hike up together with a mini plastic Stanley Cup that they try to steal from each other then deliver them to the coaches who meet each group at the top.

Once the hike is over and they’ve ensured that no one is dead or missing, the boys also receive an actual Canuck jersey with their names and number on them; and the smiles on their faces when they slip those on is just amazing to see. Even though some of them got one on draft day, it’s something different when it’s your name and you receive it from the GM.

The appearance of prospect camps makes me all kinds of happy because not only does that mean that the new hockey year has started; but it’s just about a month or so before WHL camps open up and that is a glorious thing. Life without hockey is like peanut butter without jelly… just not right. :)

Photos:  From Wikipedia commons and Canucks.com.

I know I should be talking about something Avs related, like where Paul Stastny went during the first (and only) round of the Avs playoffs this year, but something more intriguing has me itching to blog.

For those who missed the big (snicker) news, some Canadian blogger named Gordon McIntyre lashed out at Darren Pang for calling twin hockey stars Daniel and Henrik Sedin “The Twinkies.”  McIntyre claimed that the term “twinkies” somehow questioned their playing abilities, their characters and their status as real men.

The debate has been raging ever since.  Did Panger really mean to use the term “twinkies” as a humorous nod to their, in fact, being twin brothers? (In my day, “twinkie” was very often used to describe, for example, two people who wore the same shirt to a party: “Oh look! We’re twinkies!”) Or was it something more sinister?  Most people laughed, with the majority of readers believing he really did mean nothing more serious than that, yes, they are twins.

Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

Let’s assume for a moment, that Darren Pang really did mean to refer to the twins as “twinkies” a term often used by the gay community.  Is this a bad thing?  Despite what McIntyre was able to dredge up from the oh-so-credible source, Urban Dictionary, the term “twinkie” is not necessarily, or even usually, meant to be derogatory.  Its origins in the gay community refer to a certain type of man -– one that is pale, slender and good-looking with boyish features.

So, let’s continue down this road and say that Darren Pang really was using this particualr definition of “twinkie” to describe The Twins.  Does that put him in the wrong?  Does that mean, as McIntyre suggests, that the slender, boyish, handsome men dubbed “twinkies” do not possess “character and altruism?”  Or, that they aren’t capable of such feats as winning the Art Ross trophy or playing all but ten games in the last nine seasons as the Sedin brothers have?   Or, even worse, that these men are “sissies” simply because they might be gay? Or at the very least, possess a certain look that the gay community finds attractive?  Is our friend Gord so homophobic that he can’t stomach the fact that an NHL player might be attractive to other men? Or God forbid, even –- dare I say it Gord –- be *gasp* gay?

Well, Gord, I have some news for you.  Studies indicate that 1 in 10 people in this world are estimated to be homosexual (and that estimate is now, generally, seen as low.)  That means statistically, there are at least 30 (and probably closer to 50-60) gay men in the NHL. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that at least a few gay men have won an award, title or Stanley Cup in the past 100 years or so.  Think men tough enough for hockey can’t be boyishly good looking, pretty or even gay?  I would think an educated Canadian like you would know better.

So really, the controversial character shouldn’t be Darren Pang at all. Regardless of what he meant, he said nothing wrong.  Rather, the odd, seemingly homophobic implications of one McIntyre should be what is in question.

Let us know what you think.

Photos: Daniel and Henrik Sedin by Goddess Kaatiya. Copyright 2007-2010. All Rights Reserved. Darren Pang from his official Twitter page.

I wrote this about a month ago, and now that Calgary is out of the playoffs it seems a little less timely.  Still, I felt it worthy of posting. Apologies for the lack of posting here lately, but as you can imagine, with both goddesses mourning (or pouting?) the lack of their teams in the postseason, sour grapes can often distract one.

The poor Steve Moore saga drags on, and the longer it drags on, the more furious it makes me.  I’m pretty much a “it’s part of the game” when people unfortunately get injured, but no matter how many times I look at the film, I can’t see any justification for this.  And I feel so horribly for the guy, who continued to be directly harassed.  Few things in professional sports make me want to cry, but the injustice in this whole scenario I  find incredibly depressing.  It really gives the league a black eye, more than a few “denigrating” words.

The latest on Steve Moore

The video of the incident (if you haven’t seen it)

And finally, an unsung hero who is someone I have always respected — Andrei Nikolishin, who was keeping an eye on the situation and immediately jumped on Bertuzzi to stop the attack.  He was only in Colorado a short time, but was loved by his teammates, and has wherever he has gone and, if you’re interested, is still playing in Russia, captain of Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL.

I’m not only saying this because I am a Colorado fan.  Anyone who knows me knows I try to be completely objective when it comes to the league. In fact, I tend to be more hard on my team than on other teams.  But as I’ve said before, I am more about the individual players than I am a team.  And when people’s livelihoods are effected, I can’t help but be saddened.

War … What is it Good For? Absolutely nothing? Or maybe, among teammates it can serve as a wake up call?

Two members of the Vancouver Canucks fought each other in practice yesterday.

Losers of eight straight home games, the Canucks’ tension and frustration boiled over with a practice altercation involving defenceman Willie Mitchell and winger Mason Raymond.

Mitchell ran at Raymond during a drill and, when the speedy sophomore came back at the veteran in the corner, Mitchell punched Raymond in the head and cross-checked him hard on the shoulder.

The fracas drew several players and coaches, and tough defenceman Shane O’Brien skated to Raymond’s defence and challenged Mitchell to fight before tempers calmed.

– The Vancouver Sun, 01/29/2009, Canucks duke it out at practice

I can’t help but wonder if the Atlanta Thrashers could use some teammate-on-teammate butt kickings after the way they’ve been playing lately. They’ve shown little heart and determination (Kari Lehtonen’s outstanding play in Dallas being pretty much the one exception).

Speaking of the Atlanta-Dallas game, I was at the game and witnessed the bad and bobbled passes, lackadaisical play and general boredom of the Thrashers firsthand. Kari showed exactly what kind of goalie he can be when he is on — and when he is on, he is a wow-the-crowd, “who is this guy?!” kind of player. Unfortunately, you can’t win a game as a goalie unless the team in front of you scores.

Finally, there’s a “Top 10 Teammates Fighting Each Other” video that features three different sets of Canadiens players squaring off in practice (including one of my favorites, Richard Zednik). Take a look.

Could fighting help the Thrashers? Hmmm … I don’t know, but maybe it’s worth a shot. I kid … sort of.