Adam Lawson

Some Hockey thoughts

All three of the initial teams I was behind are out of playoffs.  My local ECHL team, the Seawolves, and the two teams representing our former coaches, the AHL’s Hershey Bears (Bob Woods) and NHL’s Washington Capitals (Bruce Boudreau).  Of course, these aren’t the only teams I like… in the ECHL there’s the Texas Wildcatters (eliminated), Alaska Aces, Las Vegas Wranglers, Reading Royals, and lately, South Carolina Stingrays.  All for a variety of reasons, but South Carolina because they’ve really impressed me ever since winning three games straight in a five game series after being down two to nothing in that series.  So far they’re just destroying Columbia, and Columbia fought a hard series to take out Texas.

I’m not following the AHL at all now, but in the NHL, I like the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars,  and kind of Pittsburgh and Detroit, even though I really don’t want to like either team.  So I’m taking in a lot of hockey in my down time, or while doing homework, and I have some thoughts.

One, I really, really don’t like the rushing of the goalie that a lot of players are doing.  I don’t mean rushing at the goalie, that’s pretty much required.  I mean when they hit the goalies or slide into them.  It seems to be happening a lot.  I think the goalie should be pretty much off limits when it comes to physical contact.  One of New York’s players, Avery I think his name was, kept popping Pittsburgh’s goalie through the game Sunday.  Toward the end of the game, Pittsburgh’s goalie hit him with his stick in retaliation, and a fight started because of it.

Yeah, of course the goalie was pissed.  Avery was taking liberties with him.  I don’t like that, at all.  It always royally pissed me off when the other team would mess with our goalie.  They should be as off limits as the referee and linesmen.

I know some people look down on the fighting in hockey, but I don’t have a problem with it.  If the fight is fair, it’s fair.  I don’t see fisticuffs as some sort of savage thing; men fight.   In hockey fights, ninety-percent of the time the players spend most of their effort staying on their feet.  A few punches in a sportsmanlike way let them blow off steam in a very contact heavy sport.  Once either man is on the ice, the fight stops.  Nothing wrong with that.   A clean fight where nobody really gets hurt isn’t going to hurt the sport.

And that’s pretty much it.  If I had to guess right now, I’d say it’s going to be a Pittsburgh-Detroit final series for the Kelly Cup this year.  I have no real preference between the two teams, so it’ll end up being an entertaining series either way.  (Though, as a Linux nerd?  The Penguins have a slight advantage… especially if I’m still miffed at Detroit for eliminating Colorado — something that looks likely at this point.)

Tomorrow, the SeaWolves have a press conference at 2PM Central time.  I’m probably going to go to it, as it’s open to the public.  Hopefully, it won’t be something to piss me off, like us becoming a CHL team (a step down) or suspending for a year or something.  I can’t think of what else bad it could be — on the good side, it could be them building a new arena or becoming an AHL team(a step up).  But I don’t see it being a league change in either direction.

Thank you Alexander Ovechkin.

Alexander Ovechkin got the game winning goal in Game Six of the Flyers/Capitals game, taking it to a Game Seven for Bruce Boudreau’s Washington Capitals, in a game that they were originally down 2-0.  The Flyers got two power play goals pretty early, and then toward the middle of the second period, Washington seemed to wake up and realize they don’t get another chance — it was do or die.  Game Seven will take place in Washington, home ice, for the Capitals.

Not only did he get the winning goal, but Ovechkin got the insurance goal and nearly a hat trick.  The series is now all tied, 3-3.

Let’s go Caps.  I’m still hoping for a Caps/Avs Stanley Cup match-up.

On Hockey

So now that my team is officially out, I’m trying to figure out who to cheer for because I’m not ready for the season to end.  I’m supporting our former coaches: in the AHL — Bob Woods and the Hershey Bears, and in the NHL — Bruce Boudreau (which I still want to spell with an “x” at the end) and the Washington Capitals.  However, I also like the Avalanche in the NHL, and Nashville just to spite Detroit fans.  But in the ECHL…

Well, I like Texas because 1) their colors are the same as my college.  2) At least if they win, we lost to the eventual winner.  3) Texas is gone after this season.  It would be a nice send off.  Then there’s Reading, who have cool colors (in my opinion), Alaska with a polar bear for a mascot, and Las Vegas, with a freaking cowboy on a bull with a hockey stick on their jerseys.  Each one is from a different division, and other than Texas, each team?  Picked for the silliest reasons imaginable:  their mascots or their colors.

So that’s where hockey stands now.  I’m going to keep up with all three leagues that I care about until the very end.  Because God knows it’s more fun than my “underwater basket weaving class.”  (I almost walked out of class three different times Thursday because the teacher just infuriated me.  This semester cannot end soon enough.)

Heartbreak

Seawolves – 3.  Wildcatters – 5.  Our season is over.

I am without words.

Because I can barely speak.

I haven’t hockey blogged as much.  Here’s where it stands:  Bob Woods made it to playoffs with the Hershey Bears, and the Washington Capitals made it through their first NHL playoff game.  And we lost horribly to Texas 5-1 and 5-2 Wednesday and Thursday, in the best of five series.

Now, that made tonight’s game a MUST win for us.  There was no room for negotiation, no room for error — and man, were there errors.  In two back to back five on three plays, the Seawolves took an early lead of 2-0.  Texas was seriously  playing rough the first period — they had eight penalties to our four. They had a total of thirteen in the game, and eight were in the first period.  That is, for those of you going to public school, more than half.

But then, and I don’t think our #18, Andy Contois, will ever get over this… during another power play, Contois went to pass the puck while on our end, and sent it right to a Texas Player.  And it ended up right in our net because Ryan Munce didn’t have time to react.  Contois knew what he did, too, and skated right to the bench.  I’m not 100% sure, but I believe he remained there for the duration of the period.  I felt bad for him. Really bad.

Then Texas tied it up on a power play.

Contois earned himself back on the good list when he got an assist on another goal in the second — a period we ended up 3-2.

Then came the third period, and probably the most disappointing moment in the season.  On a full, five on five play, Texas got it past us to tie.  Just over three minutes into the period.

It stayed tied and went into overtime.  Four minutes, six seconds into the sudden death overtime,  Kvapil and Tejchma worked the puck around to Mike Hartwick, and he slipped it into the Texas net.  The goal light went off, the goal horn sounded, and 2100 fans jumped to their feet.  Or, in the case of my friend Derek and I, we started jumping up and down because we were already on our feet.  Mississippi had to win to stay alive tonight.  And we did.  And I won’t be able to talk tomorrow because I screamed like I’ve never screamed before.

4-3, final score.

Tomorrow is game four in the five game series.  Like tonight, we have to win to stay alive.  Our season ends if we don’t win.  And I hope the weight of that propels us through the game and into the tie-break Tuesday night in Beaumont.  We’ve shown that we have the heart to do the impossible.  Now we just have to do it two more times to make it to round two against Columbia.  And if we can make it that far — we can go all the way.

Don’t stop believing.

I noticed early in the season that, whenever we lost and the coliseum was emptying out, they would play “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.  I thought this was a pretty appropriate song.  I hope they play it in Texas tonight after the first playoff game for the Seawolves.  We’ve beat Texas four times, and they lost two games against Florida last week.  This is the Wildcatters’s last season in Texas before they become the Ontario Reign, so I kind of hate having to cheer for their defeat.  But not enough that I’m, y’know, not going to hope for their complete and utter destruction in shots on goal.   Because honestly, I want their season to stop here Saturday night.

Also, one of our former coaches, Bruce Boudreau (I keep wanting to spell it with an “x” like Thibideaux), is going to the NHL Playoffs as the head coach of the Washington Capitals.  He coached the Seawolves to our lone former Kelly Cup win, and coached the Hershey Bears to a Calder Cup win.  He took over the Capitals as Interim Head Coach earlier in the season, and they were in last in their division (I believe), and are now seeded third in playoffs.  So here’s to that.  Another former coach, Bob Woods, is possibly taking the Hershey Bears to the AHL playoffs.  A trifecta of wins would be nice.