victory! victory! victory!

I haven't been totally honest here--it's not just that I've been lazy or overwhelmed during the playoffs, it's that I've been oddly superstitious about saying much about playoff series while they're going on (yeah, gonna have to fix that in round two). but now I can say....YESSSSSSSSSS! THE THREE HOCKEY TEAMS I'VE BEEN ROOTING FOR ALL YEAR ALL WON TONIGHT! AND ALL ADVANCE TO ROUND TWO OF THE PLAYOFFS! it was too excruciating to say that before or during the games, but now I can.

at 6 pm Central, the Buffalo Sabres-Boston Bruins game started. Bruins won 4-3!
at 7 pm, the Milwaukee Admirals-Chicago Wolves game started. Wolves won 2-1!
at 8 pm, the Nashville Predators-Chicago Blackhawks game started. Hawks won 5-3!

it was agony to have all three of my teams play the potential series-clinching game the same night, but I managed, and now this frees me up to write my recaps (which I will do, I swear. and my playoff preview becomes more of a round two thing). I've especially been anxious to talk about the AHL games since they don't get a lot of coverage. it's funny (well, except for Nashville fans) to think how the Chicago teams (both division leaders with a 100+-point season) beat the Predators and the Admirals, their AHL affiliate, the same night. honestly, I was the most nervous about the Wolves game because I entirely missed seeing them live in round 1, and this was a game 7. I've got to go to round 2 (the only downside to all this is that unlike regular season games, Blackhawks and Wolves playoffs are often the same night). and the Canadiens forced a game 7 against the Capitals, and Tuesday I've got ECHL, AHL, and NHL games to keep an eye on...

grueling games, Twitter, Predators & Sharks

so the game I was all excited about going to tonight? well, I'll post any interesting photos later (Chicago Wolves looked great in their new green jerseys), but the laziest recap:

I got home to find out on Twitter, thanks to the knowledgeable and entertaining @HockeyJoeGM  (see, I'm doing a Twitter "Follow Friday," but on my blog instead. ha!) that a men's college hockey game was about to become the longest college hockey game in history. Quinnipiac was playing at Union (these are in Hamden, CT, & Schenectady, NY respectively--I had to look those up just now). there's the score at bottom (what's that cool building?):

and you could have watched it unfold here: 

so this game was starting around the time I left for the Wolves game, and still going on when I got back. and it's a CTA bus, CTA train, and Pace bus each way for me to get to Allstate Arena. a relatively brief 2.5 hours to see the home team lose doesn't seem so bad now.

speaking of other crushing defeats...how about the Predators at Sharks game Thursday night? I doubt many east coasters stayed up for that but it would have been worth it. I wanted Nashville to win, to keep some points away from San Jose. not just because I've recently become enamored, like so many others, of Preds' goalie Dan Ellis' Twitter account, @dellis39 (my favorite "verified" sports celebrity Twitterer, though I can't say I've sought out many yet. @OzzieGuillen is...well, did you SEE the feud, possibly one-sided, with Sean Penn? he's always, um, interesting.) linked in this tweet are photos each of us posted of the demolition of the Lafayette Building in downtown Detroit (he threw in a swipe at Detroit...and the Preds were beaten badly by the Red Wings that night)! 

anyway, it was a fine back-and-forth game, with the Predators leading for much of the first two periods. late in the second, in a few minutes of game time, the score went from 3-2 Preds to 4-2 to 3-2 back to 4-2. the Preds seemed to score a goal and the score went up but the goal was disallowed (the "distinct kicking motion" call). then right after, they scored a 4th goal for real. but I guess this messed with them a bit, because then in the third period...the Sharks starting scoring. 
 

A LOT. even a goal which was questionable, for..."distinct kicking motion." but was allowed. (I don't think I've seen TWO goals under review in any game I watched this season. interesting that both were decided in the home team's favor, though I haven't watched them enough to judge for myself.) after 4 fairly quick Sharks goals (another from Preds too), Dan Ellis was pulled. goalies often get pulled when that many goals happen quickly, but to put in the other goalie with only 5 minutes left in the game?!

then Marleau got his 40th goal of the season...then Jay Leach got an empty-netter, his first career NHL goal. and then I learned the Sharks set an interesting NHL record (this surprised me):

boy, I hope no one left that game early to beat traffic. I checked NHL.com after the game hoping for a spectacular headline, but I guess they were in bed for the night, nothing on the main page. in the morning, Joe Pavelski got this salute on the front page (and I agree with the Blackhawks fan who said he looks like he could be Kris Versteeg's brother):

I'll let Dan Ellis have the last word, which did appear before I went to bed:

Hawks vs. Canucks, football vs. hockey...

a little more about the Chicago Wolves: Committed Indians wonders if Chris Chelios, who plays for them now, could somehow return to the Blackhawks if Sopel and Barker were traded. I'm going to say that's unlikely...(Third String Goalie features Chelios' 1991-92 Blackhawks jersey today because "on this date in 2006, Chris Chelios passed Phil Housley as the all-time leader in games played by an American born player when he skated in his 1,496th game...")

oh, and the hat I mentioned, worn the next day in Chicago's Loop. here, I bring together my love of cute winter hats, hockey, public transportation, and not smiling in photos:

 

 ...so I got back from the diner Sunday and had an hour I could have watched the Bears-Eagles game, but didn't. nothing against football, but I have trouble getting into a sport where there are so few games that every one becomes such an event (and dominates the news all week, news space that could be used to discuss, I don't know, hockey?). also, it's been years since I've seen football in person and I never entirely learned the rules (look, do you expect me to fill up my ladybrain with the rules of more than one or two sports? I can't, not when I need to be able to remember things like which trains use F40PH locomotives).

anyway, Blackhawks @ Canucks finally started at 9, their first meet since Willie Mitchell hit Captain Toews and he was out weeks with a concussion. there's other, uh, tension between these teams (sadly, I wasn't paying close attention to the Hawks when the line brawl which included Duncan Keith getting his hair pulled happened, March '09). no major incidents this time except a Ben Eager-Rick Rypien fight, but overall the game was, well, a little chippy:

 

Bryan Bickell got his first goal for the Hawks, but got sent back to the Rockford IceHogs the next day (Hawks salary issues, of course). Antti Niemi got an amazing shutout. I'm not sure how someone other than maybe the Canucks' goalie was a "star" in a shutout game, but here you go. Keith is star of almost every freaking game this season (I'm not complaining).

Wolves vs. Stars 11/22/09

I made the CTA/Pace bus trek out to Rosemont Sunday afternoon for my first Chicago Wolves game in a while; they'd been away (played Sat. night too, but I was watching the Hawks and other games online). I got there just before the game started and bought an upper-level seat this time for the match against the Texas Stars (their NHL affiliation is a little easier to figure out than the Wolves'). I won't describe the game in too much detail (you'll note this will be a recurring theme here), so...

Stars scored one goal in the first period. Wolves tied it in the second. Near the end of the 2nd, FIGHT! And a real one (sorry, Blackhawks [to be another recurring theme here, how Hawks fights never get rated much higher than 4/10 on hockeyfights.com, I mean, I care much more that they win GAMES, but that's a bit embarrassing])--I immediately looked at the game day stat sheet thing (how'd I miss getting one of these at all the other games?) and noticed both fighters led their team in PIM. Josh Gratton (Wolves) vs. Luke Gazdic (Stars) video here. Intermission: I didn't get a free t-shirt or cookie or anything. Scoreboard showed that the Manchester Monarchs were beating the Providence Bruins 4-2 (a game the first blogger to blogroll this blog mentioned he'd be at); I find out later the Bruins came back and won 5-4. Third period: Wolves score again. Two minutes left, Stars pull their goalie. Wolves immediately score again. Goalie reappears. Something happens and Wolves get a penalty with 5 seconds left. WIN! My first Wolves game with a win AND a fight. I buy a Wolves winter cap on the way out--my first hockey apparel of any kind. (But I have pages of stuff I want to buy from several teams secretly bookmarked on Delicious.)

After the Pace bus and CTA train, I stopped at a Walgreens a couple miles from home, but it'd moved across the street to a dazzling new building and the store is all shiny and balloon-filled. Bought a Sunday paper, and weak with hunger, went to the 24-hour diner across the street. I'm not even sure what the place is called (one of those places that has no name, or several different ones on the signs and menus [one place like that, I didn't know what it was called till I saw it in the paper shut down for a health code violation]), but I like it, and drank lots of coffee and had a BLT club with fries and watched the TV tuned to the Sunday night football (Eagles at Bears, uh oh) pregame show. And then got home, all caffeinated and waiting for the late Blackhawks @ Canucks game...

Another recent Gratton fight, versus Matt Kassian (Houston Aeros) (rated 8.7 on hockeyfights.com, but it's a small sample). (I haven't learned to post videos in Blogger yet but I will soon...)

at least they didn't say "Gary Wolves"...

here's an item from the Chicago Wolves (Atlanta Thrashers AHL affiliate) website. I’ve been to a few of their games this year and keep meaning to post photos or something. as of now they’re last in the Western Conference.

“When fellow passengers witness 23 or so, mostly young athletic men, board a flight there is sure to be some curiosity. Here is how things typically went down PC (Pre-Chelios):

Are you a soccer team? College Choir? Or my favorite, are you a Latin Dance Troupe? The people who asked that question obviously weren’t paying attention when Brian Sipotz and Brett Sterling were boarding. Very rarely did people come up with the correct answer of a hockey team.
Now the team is the toast of the plane, signing autographs and answering questions to non-hockey fans. I honestly overheard “didn’t he play for the Detroit Wolves” on the flight back.”