Yes, another glog, but we are up to game 6 of the Stanley Cup final now, so this may be the last hockey glog of the season . Really, hold your applause, we still have a couple hours to go yet, and should Boston win tonight there would also be the possibility of yet another one of these.
Actually I am surprised NBC opted to pass on another fine episode of “Stupid Human Tricks” or “Fat Camp” in order to broadcast the game. Then again, this is NBC we are talking about, they could break away from live action to go with a regularly scheduled episode of “Dateline”.
For those that have not been following the series to this point, Vancouver leads the best of seven series 3 games to 2, with each team winning every game on their own ice. Tonight's game will be in Boston, so if that trend holds we will be looking at a game 7 on Wednesday in Vancouver. No word from NBC yet on how this would affect their schedule for “Celebrity Apprentice” or whatever inane thing they are passing off as programming on Wednesdays these days.
While I usually don't follow basketball all that much, like other sports, if it is at the championship level I might poke my head in for a looksee, and last night I was glad I did, as the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title. The title was the first ever in the history of the Mavericks franchise, and it what was a classy move, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had the league present the trophy to the original owner of the Dallas Mavericks, rather than to himself. Maybe I am just biased because Cuban is the typical “local boy does good” in that he made a great deal of money before the dot.com bubble burst, creating and then selling broadcast.com (I think Yahoo bought it, which means now it probably doesn't work), but he parlayed the money he made in that into ownership of the Dallas Mavericks, and 11 years later his franchise has its first ever championship. It is not lost on the locals that Cuban was one of the names that was rumored to be in the running to buy the Pirates at various points in the not too distant past, instead we have endured 18 years of losing and counting under the Bob Nutting regime.
Well that little diatribe, plus the fact I am eating and typing (who says I can't multitask?) has gotten us closer to faceoff.
And before you forget, my birthday is Saturday. Don't be waiting till the last minute. Get cracking on that task already, lol.
We are up to the national anthems and I think I like the singers from Canada better. Not just the audience participation, but the guy who sings in Boston just isn't that good. He is like a bad lounge act. Which may be okay if you are doing karaoke, but not anthem singing.
Game just underway, and just 20 seconds in Mason Raymond is lying on the ice, apparently injured on a collision with Boston's Johnny Boychuk. He is helped off the ice, but it looked like he couldn't put any weight on his left leg.
First penalties of the game, one per side and we will have 2 minutes of 4 on 4 hockey. Guilty parties are Zdeno Chara for interference and Henrik Sedin for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Okay penalties have expired and nothing comes of it as the teams resume skating 5 on 5. It actually has been very uneventful, almost 5 minutes in and each team has only registered one shot thus far.
Well, for those of you hoping my glogging career was over, bad news as Boston just scored to take a 1-0 lead here in the first period. Brad Marchand gets the goal that stakes Boston to the early lead.
And the flood gates may have just opened, 35 second after the Marchand goal it is Milan Lucic scoring and increasing the Boston lead to 2-0. It should be noted that while the games in Vancouver have been close games, the two games Boston won at home really weren't, winning by tallies of 8-1 and 4-0.
I would be remiss in not mentioning those that contributed to the games first two goals. Mark Recchi and Dennis Seindenberg get assists on the first one, and the second goal the assists go to Richard Peverley and Johnny Boychuk.
Down 2 goals, Alexander Edler takes a stupid boarding penalty to further complicate matters for Vancouver here. If you had only glimpsed the first 9 minutes of this game, you would be hard pressed to believe that Vancouver actually leads this series.
Speaking of that, it's now 3-0. Yeah, that penalty was really stupid. Andrew Ference with the power play goal. With a third goal allowed on 9 shots, we would like to thank Roberto Luongo for playing this evening, but his services are no longer required and he has been replaced by Cory Schneider.
Not that the goalie switch matters, say hello to goal #4 1 minute and 10 seconds later, Michael Ryder adds his name to the list of Boston players that have a goal in the first period. Again I have some assistage to catch up on with all of the quick goal scoring, credit Michael Ryder and Mark Recchi with assists on the Ference goal, on the 4th goal the lone assist is to Tomas Kaberle.
Delayed penalty call on Vancouver and here we go again. Another Boston power play opportunity, while they are sporting a 4 goal lead. Ryan Kessler gets called for holding and right now the score is Vancouver shots on goal 4, Vancouver penalties 3.
A small victory for Vancouver, they kill off the penalty. Not that the game is over, there is still over 45 minutes left, but it just feels like it is over.
Vancouver has their best chance to score so far, by Ryan Kessler is denied on a wrap around attempt by Tim Thomas. But the shot is just the beginning of a flurry of activity by Vancouver in the Boston end, but Thomas is up to the task for all of it, and the game remains 4-0 Boston.
The momentum that Vancouver has is short lived however, as they get called for too many men on the ice and Boston will get their third power play here in the first period.
Vancouver kills off the the penalty and actually has a breakaway with the player coming out of the penalty box, but again Thomas makes the save. And with that we have reached the end of the first period with Boston holding a 4-0 lead after one period.
While you guys go get a frosty beverage or do whatever it is you do during intermission (shopping online for my birthday present would be an idea, hint, hint) I am going to catch up on some blog/comment reading.
Okay, second period is underway, hope you got your shopping done.
Vancouver will get their first power play early here in the second period and Patrice Bergeron gets called for goaltender interference.
A couple of decent opportunities for Vancouver here, including a shot that rang off of the goal post, but Boston successfully kills off Vancouver's first power play of the game.
Vancouver gets a two on one break in on Tim Thomas but again fail to convert. There have been few chances so far in the second period, but of the ones that have occurred Vancouver has had the better ones. The problem being, down 4 goals, they need to start converting on some of them. The clock is not their friend, with less that 35 minutes of game time remaining.
Commercial break, not sure what you did, I used the opportunity to go vote over at Toyota on Facebook. They are giving cars to non profit charities, one a day for 100 days, and I figured I might want to skew today's voting results a little bit.
If there is any bright spot for Vancouver to this point, it may be the play of their backup goaltender Cory Schneider. Since being inserted into the game in the first period, he has made 15 saves on 16 shots. Had he not entered the game with his team already down three goals, I would argue he would be in the running for one of the game's three stars at this point.
Vancouver gets another power play here, with 7:45 left n the second period. Boston has killed off 20 consecutive power plays though in the playoffs. And 2 minutes later you can make that 21. Rime is certainly becoming the enemy of Vancouver now, a team that hasn't scored once yet needs to somehow score 5 goals in a little over a period's worth of time.
I would like to be more descriptive of the game here, but I have actually been almost fading in and out during the game. I think I am pretty content in the knowledge that Boston will win, and if I were not working on this particular blog entry I would probably have turned the game off by now.
But honestly, if I weren't doing this it isn't like I would be doing anything any more productive, probably just end up playing Madden on Facebook.
Well it was just announced that “America's Got Talent” will be on on NBC Wednesday night, so if there is a game 7, it will probably get stuck on Versus again.
Vancouver gets another power play, their third of the second period, though this one will carry over to the third if Vancouver doesn't score right away. And they don't keeping their 0 fer streak intact when it comes to the power play as the second period comes to a close and Boston still leads 4-0.
Just went to the NHL page and they are saying game 7 will be on NBC (if necessary but right now I think we can assume it is necessary), so either the guys calling the game got it wrong in plugging upcoming NBC shows, or NHL.com has it wrong. NBC.com says they are airing “Stupid Human Tricks” and “America's Got Talent”.
Gee, I just realized I could have glogged the GOP debate in NH. Yes, there are even more boring things going on out there than this hockey game. Be happy you have this kids. It could be worse. Much, much worse.
Third period starts and early on the carryover penalty finally pays off for Vancouver, as they get on the board just 22 seconds in. Henrik Sedin gets the power play goal for Vancouver, with the assists going to Christian Erhoff and David Sedin.
So far here in the third the play has been dominated by Vancouver, though Boston may just be playing more to protect their lead than anything else. Vancouver came within millimeters of making this 4-2, as shot just rang off the far goal post, beating Thomas but catching the iron and staying out of the net.
The replay review on the shot did provide me time enough to crack open my late night snack, garlic butter wings. Yumm!!!!
Vancouver penalty, Raffi Torres called for a pretty obvious trip. Even if Vancouver kills the penalty off, that is two minutes they will not get back. Check that, another Vancouver penalty, Andrew Alberts called for high sticking and Boston will skate 5 on 3 here. The tripping call was bad fr Vancouver, but it looked inadvertent enough, the high stick was just inexcusable if they hope to get back in this game.
And there you have it, Boston scores with the two man advantage, it is now 5-1. David Krejci with the power play tally, Mark Recchi and Tomas Kaberle with the assists. Recchi has now assisted on three of the 5 Boston goals tonight.
Vancouver kills off the second of the two penalties, but the damage has been done, the lead is back to 4 and precious time was run off the clock. With just 10:20 remaining and knowing Vancouver hasn't scored more than 3 goals in a game in this series, it would seem almost entirely impossible that they would come up with 4 goals in 10 minutes.
About the only thing to watch for now is any chippiness that may or may not take place. Teams do tend to get chippy when they are getting blown out like this, but by the same token I am sure no one wants to risk a suspension for the 7th and deciding game come Wednesday night.
Vancouver will go back on the power play as Mark Recchi gets called for a trip.
The TV timeout allowed me some more garlicy buttery chicken wing goodness. Of the half dozen wings I ordered with dinner it is Matt 3 Wings 0.
And the power play went for naught, we are back to 5 on 5 action and the clock just continues to dwindle away. At this point I am just hoping there aren't any more penalties or stappages of play, let's just wrap this thing up already.
A late goal by Maxim Lapierre cuts the lead to 5-2, but with just 2:26 remaining the goal is just window dressing on the final score, nothing more. Assists to Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen.
Boston gets a 2 on none break on Cory Schneider, yet Schneider comes up big on the save and lots of pushing and shoving after the play by both teams. Some misconduct penalties are handed out, and with 2 minutes remaining Vancouver has opted to pull their goaltender for the extra attacker. A late penalty by Dennis Seidenberg and Vancouver will have a two man advantage, one for pulling the goaltender and one for the penalty. Not that it much mattered, the clock runs out and Boston wins 5-2, so the series is tied at 3 with game 7 Wednesday night. And now they are saying the game is on NBC. Oh what will the “America's Got talent” fans do, besides wait till Thursday night? I don't know and couldn't care. As long as I get hockey I am happy. Well, its spell check time and then time to finish the rout I have going on with these chicken wings.
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