SCOTT JACOBS

Canada loves their hockey.  In the same way that the United States cherishes their football (not futbol), the country to the North loves their pucks.  They created the game.  They play it more than anyone.  Hockey is practically religion to all the maple leaf loving ‘eh’-ers.  Yet no Canadian NHL team has claimed the Stanley Cup since Montreal way back in 1993.

So it’s not surprising that Vancouver was crushed when their team’s Stanley Cup dreams were destroyed last night 4-0 in game 7.  Boston, the city that wins everything (as if they needed another reason to gloat), got another ring to add to their sickeningly stacked post Y2k collection, and they did it at the expense of a team that has never won one.  The Canucks completed their 40th anniversary with a goose egg to show for their championship pedigree.  Losing the last two games of the series, and four of the last five apparently did not go over well with Canucks fans, who decided that starting a riot was the appropriate way of taking out their anger.

It’s funny because I tweeted last night that Vancouver fans were straight class for staying the whole game despite their team’s listless uninspired performance.  The fact that they even cheered some Bruins players as they paraded around the Canucks home ice with the Cup was a pretty unique site to see.  At the end of the day Canada is in love with hockey, and if they couldn’t watch one of their teams win it, at least they got to see the trophy in person (I’m guessing that was their logic).

But I guess I jumped the gun on Vancouver fans being classy.  They did afterall boo NHL commisioner Gary Bettman mercilessly. That has to rank right up their at the top of most awkward trophy presentations ever.  Seriously, he had to practically scream at the top of his lungs just to have his voice heard. I have never in my life seen such an angry crowd towards a commissioner after a championship game.  I thought they were going to jump onto the ice and beat him into oblivion (See for yourself):

Fortunately they stayed in their seats.

But when they left the arena, after the slow painful realization that their NHL best Canucks came just one game short of bringing their native country the Cup, drunk sadness turned to bitterness.  Bitterness turned to stupidity.  Stupidity turned into a riot.  Rioting led to injuries. Nearly 150 of them in fact.

They took to the streets in droves and began looting and rioting, damaging stores, and breaking windows.  People compared it to a war zone as firefighters scrambled to the scene and police in riot gear scanned the area.  Numerous arrests were made as well.  Cars were flipped over, sirens started blaring, and people were screaming.  C’mon Vancouver! Sportsmanship?  Eh.

This apparently isn’t the first time.  In 1994 following another bitter Stanley Cup game 7 defeat, Canuck fans also rioted in the streets of Vancouver.  That game took place in New York (’94’s riot was nothing compared to last night’s).  For a beautiful city, Vancouver people sure know how to turn things ugly.

So yeah, they take this stuff seriously (maybe a little too seriously).  Which leaves me kind of relieved that Canada won the  Gold Medal Game back in the 2010 Winter Olympics, which were held in the same arena: the Rogers Centre.  Canada partied like crazy after winning, but now just imagine had they lost.  Would Canada fans have burned the city down?  Something tells me that the U.S. which barely tweeted at all about the Stanley Cup on a national level, didn’t need to win a gold medal at the expense of a city destroying itself.  But that’s just me.

For the NHL in a strange way the riot actually brought more attention to the Cup than the series itself.  By starting a riot, Vancouver turned a sports story into a worldwide curiosity.  Again, it’s publicity, even if it’s not good.

As for the Bruins, congratulations you lucky S.O.B.’s.  They won their first Cup since 1972 and did it behind the brilliant goal-tending of Timmy Thomas, who completed an epic playoff run with 798 saves (an NHL playoff record) and the Conn Smythe trophy for Playoff MVP.  Further adding insult to injury was the fact that he was just the 2nd American to win the award. He was the only American on Boston’s team!  I’m sure Canada loves that.

People tend to forget that the Bruins were the first American team in the NHL.  Probably has something to do with the fact that you’d have to be 87 years old to have even been alive when they dropped their first puck.  An Original Six team, they now have six Cups to go along with the moniker.  The Bruins were also one of the league’s first expansion teams in addition to the Montreal Maroons.  There’s a fun useless fact the next time you try to impress a Canadian girl.

Boston also has 23 division championships to go along with their rich history.  Their captain Zdeno Chara, the first to hoist the cup after they defeated the Canucks, is the tallest player in NHL history.

Consider this: the city of Boston now has 7 championships to their name since the start of the century (Patriots: 3, Red Sox: 2, Celtics: 1, Bruins: 1).  The City of Cleveland hasn’t won anything since 1964.  Speaking of Cleveland, fans were tweeting LeBrongo last night about Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo, who was anything but spectacular when his team needed him most.  Then again, when your team scores 0 goals it’s going to be hard to win any game you play (The numbers back that up)!  But even when LeBron’s not playing he’s talked about.  Add Le in front of anything nowadays and apparently you get a star player who wilted in the moment.

As for Vancouver, they’ll recover eventually, but isn’t it odd that in both the Stanley Cup Finals and NBA Finals, the heavy favorite lost the final four out of five games of the series, and their superstar played incredibly erratic?  People were calling Tim Thomas ‘Dirk’ and Luongo ‘LeBron.’  Hard to fight the logic.

It’s even harder to think that with hoops and hockey done, it’s nothing but baseball and lockouts for the next 2-3 months.

Crap.

Photos: Getty, Reuters

2008 Stanley Cup Finals: Red Wings lead 3-2, Game 6 Wednesday, NBC
Commentary: Why Detroit Sucks Video

SCOTT JACOBS

The tension was building. The morning was approaching. Lord Stanley’s Cup was in the building for Detroit’s taking. The Red Wings up 3-1 in the Stanley Cup Finals had been here before. They led the Stars 3-1 but fell in game five, at home. This time, in the same situation, only with a NHL title on the line, they lost, again. Only this game took a little longer.

The Red Wings were 35 seconds away from winning the cup in the third, when Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot’s wrister beat Chris Osgood, and the Pens kept their unlikely, fading cup hopes alive. Then just 50 minutes and 3 seconds into overtime (not a typo) Petr Sykora (who told an NBC reporter sitting right next to the team’s benches that he was going to score earlier in the overtimes) did!

It was incredible. Hockey fun just too much to take in.

Sports the way they were meant to be played.

Overtime without commercials. Sudden death, flying bodies everywhere trying to stop that little black puck from getting near that crease. And the most exciting announcing in sports. You can have Mike Breen. I’ll take the best hockey announcers over an NBA announcing crew of Jackson, Van Gundy, and Breen any day.

Back to the game. The Penguins were outshot 58-32! They led 1-0, 2-1, and couldn’t hold on.

It didn’t matter. They fought, they clawed, and now Pittsburgh is going back to the Steel City where they’ll try to push the Wings to a winner take all game seven.

Just uh, wow. And boo to ESPN for shameful coverage. Youknow they would mention the Sykora type bit if it was in baseball, football, or even women’s softball. But in hockey, the details get lost in the terrible coverage. One of the guys on Sportscenter was talking about how its good to hit the black circle into the net. Really? How about taking the sport seriously, especially during the freaking championship round.

O well, ESPN won’t can’t ruin this. For one night hockey returned to its glory days. And I was thrilled to watch it all the way till the bitter and stunning powerplay goal end.

A phenomenal game. An epic game. The type of game you expect the Penguins to lose, because this was the perfect script for Detroit to win a Cup. In sudden death, in front of their home crowd, in comeback fashion. But that never happened.

Fleury’s 55 saves prevented that.

An absolute crushing loss for the Wings who totally and completely outplayed the Pens.

But it’s that scoreboard that read 4-3 in three overtimes that matters.

So you can take your stats and shove them.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have two more wins to go, to complete this crazy franchise turnaround.

Whether they win or not, tonight/this morning they put up one hell of a fight.

I can’t wait for Wednesday Night!