Rendition of Herb Brooks' Speech by 4 Year Old

Apparently this has been quite the viral web hit lately, but I just came across this video on this post by Greg Wyshynski in the Yahoo! Sports hosted Puck Daddy blog.

The video itself is brilliant and the post itself is well worth reading (probably even reading first) as it provides background.

Short description is it's a 4 year old kid doing the Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks "tonight we beat the Russians" speech from the movie "Miracle". Great stuff.

Original Six Piece from Sports Illustrated

So glad hockey's back. Along with that and detailed in the Michael Farber piece "It's All About The Six" are the cornerstone franchises: the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.

Such good times.

Rookie Throwdown: Ducks at Sharks

Unfortunately I'll likely be unavailable for each of these three games (middle one is possible), but would be fun to catch one of the Ducks-Sharks rookie games coming up.

From the link... 7:00PM on Mon Sept 7, Tues Sept 8 and Wed Sept 9 on the North Rink at Sharks Ice at San Jose (formerly known as Logitech Ice as well as the Ice Centre).

Tickets go on sale at 5:00PM each day, cost $10 for adults ($5 for kids 12 and under) and are limited to the first 850 people per.

Sounds fun.

"New England Hockey: A Life at the Rink" on DVD

I wouldn't send a non-hockey fan to watch it, but for hockey fans who have Netflix, I highly recommend watching "New England Hockey: A Life at the Rink" on DVD (with Netflix page hyperlinked).

It's an hour or so documentary on hockey in the Boston area with various vignettes about the game in the community. Those topics that stood out to me the most are listed below:

- High School Hockey: storyline about Catholic Memorial and it's rivalry with Boston College High as played out in the Super 8 State Championship Tournament.

- Beanpot Tournament: the annual Boston-area college mini-tournament featuring Boston University, Boston College and Northeastern.

- The Bruins during the season of the Joe Thornton trade. Funny to see what I imagine are smart hockey fans who think Joe should have become like Cam Neely in Boston. Simply not that type of player, people!

- Jack Falla and his backyard rink, the Bacon Street Omni. I wrote this blog post about Falla's book "Open Ice" earlier this month and it was interesting to see footage of the guy and rink... and a shame to know he has since passed away.

All in all, definitely worth watching for all hockey fan types.

"Open Ice" by Jack Falla

I also posted this review on my writing blog, but figured that a review of a hockey book should also be on a hockey blog. So...

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Recently finished "Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer" by Jack Falla (also the author of the novel "Saved" that I reviewed here).



I enjoyed it quite a bit and what really struck me about the book is the coincidence of Falla's passing from a heart attack just prior to it's release. This is even more profound as the book deals quite a bit with Falla's view of mortality in this highly personal account of his life in hockey.

Some of the chapters I found to be of note are below:

"A Death in Montreal": About Falla's trip on his own dime to be at the memorial service for Maurice "Rocket" Richard. A fascinating account of how Richard impacted French Canada... which compels me to recommend the movie "The Rocket" (sometimes known as "Maurice Richard". Available on Netflix, it features some excellent hockey action from this era and shows the circumstances of Richard's career and why he mattered so much.

"Skating the Rideau Canal": One of the chapters that struck me in light of Falla's passing as his stated goal was to skate the canal through Ottawa while 80. Sadly, he didn't make it.

"Requiem for the Cucumber": About another Falla hockey field trip of sorts... this time to the small town of Chicoutimi, Quebec to learn about local legend Georges Vezina and view his grave. Just an interesting look back in hockey history.

"Searching for Hobey Baker": Chronicles a Falla trip to the New Hampshire school attended by perhaps the most famous American hockey player. The namesake for the college hockey player of the year, Baker was one of those larger than characters who died extremely young... actually, the last person to die in WWI. Similar to that on Vezina, a very cool history lesson of sorts provided in this chapter.

"Goodbye to the Backyard Rink": Details Falla's experience with his backyard rink and how it has influenced the lives of he and those close to him. Another poignant section of the book as Falla wrestles with the question of whether to stop putting the rink up of his volition, or whether to wait until he's no longer healthy enough to put it up.

Apart from the book, I found to be of interest a memorial Facebook group page that I found through a google search for Falla. Just seems like he was a really good guy and definitely an excellent hockey writer.

NHL Franchise Empire Building

After just posting about the Penguins remarkable Cup Finals win over Detroit, I think it also makes sense to highlight and link to a couple of excellent articles about how the two team got there (and may well remain at this elite level for years to come).

First came a terribly interesting Sports Illustrated piece by Michael Farber (yep, he does do most of the SI hockey writing) titled "Spirit of '89". Written about the draft in which Detroit took the fairly unheralded Nicklas Lidstrom along with an additional cadre of players who would start the Red Wings resurgence, it's a great look at how the organization operates... and drafts really really well.

After this came not necessarily a companion Pittsburgh piece by Farber, but rather one which showed how the Penguins have perhaps as good of a chance as Detroit to remain at the top level of the NHL year over year. Titled "Same Time Next Year?", it's... a very descriptive title.

Solid stuff and lots of things can change in the NHL (perhaps even more so than with some of the other major sports), but one thing that likely won't soon is these two teams being the ones to beat in their respective conference.

Pittsburgh Penguins - 2009 Stanley Cup Champions

Wild. Absolutely a wild and incredibly entertaining Stanley Cup finals.

Here's a look told through the lens of Michael Farber and his Sports Illustrated articles as well as SI covers (not of course actually sent to all mailboxes in America covers, but covers that you can see on the magazine's website nonetheless).

Started up something like this (and with accompanying story):

Then the Penguins showed amazing resolve... leading up to this (copied from Getty Images):

Finally, it was all over (and written about here by Farber in SI):

Penguins Gameplan vs Red Wings

I think I figured out the most likely way for the Pens to win the series... put everything out there tonight, get great performances from the stars in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury and hope that the Red Wings stars don't match them.

Then with their victory in hand, try to figure out how to have the Detroit team get food poisoning before a Friday night game 7 back at Joe Louis Arena.

Seriously... the Wings are good.

Mickey Mouse NHL

I suppose it doesn't make me a writing genius to simply link to a story, but "Potential Stanley Cup break could be long, very long" from Puck Daddy on Yahoo! Sports tells the story well enough.

Yea, no hockey for 10 days before the Cup Finals... that will be great for bringing in the casual fan. Guess it's important that the NHL do what NBC wants given $0 in right fees paid by the network (it's just an ad revenue-sharing deal).

Here's to hoping the Penguins do sweep, the Red Wings win in 5 and then league looks stupid enough that the owners sack Bettman and bring in as commissioner someone with a hockey background to run the league.

2009 NHL Playoffs: Almost Down to Two

Well, I haven't posted much since the Sharkies got eliminated so now is as good a time as any to look at how the second round series wound up and where we're at with the third round.

Western Conference Round Two

Detroit over Anaheim in 7 games: Now, that was a great series. It doesn't really give San Jose any consolation to know they got beaten by a good team, but the Ducks certainly gave Detroit all they could handle. At the end of the day, the series was a virtual pick-em affair with the Red Wings just happening to get and convert on a good scoring chance with 3 minutes to go in regulation. A great series that could have gone either way.

Chicago over Vancouver in 6 games: Very entertaining hockey... Chicago just a more talented team. Big credit also due to the Hawks for matching every bit of physical play put their way by a tough (and chippy) Canucks team.

Eastern Conference Round Two

Pittsburgh over Washington in 7 games. Another great series in the Detroit vs Anaheim vein. Washington was extremely entertaining to watch and gave the Pens a good run. At the end of the day, Pittsburgh having both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin simply gave them a 2-1 superstar advantage over the Caps and Alexander Ovechkin.

Carolina over Boston in 7 games. Can't say I watched a lot of this series, but from what I did, it made me view the Bruins season much as I did the Sharks... a really good regular season that got made moot due to playoff disappointment.

Western Conference Finals: Detroit is about to go up three games to one on the Blackhawks. I suppose it's possible for Chicago to mount a comeback starting with game 5, but... I doubt it.

Eastern Conference Finals: Pittsburgh vs Carolina reminds me of Vancouver vs St. Louis in round one. A good team playing fairly well again one that's simply better.

Stanley Cup Finals: Me thinks Detroit would be favored against a Penguins team that replaced their coach during the regular season, but if they can continue getting great goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury along with Crosby and Malkin-like efforts from Crosby and Malkin... could be a great series.