Wooo Awards Show!

by Anne

In moves that surprised exactly no one, Tyler Myers and Ryan Miller won their respective awards last night at the NHL Awards show. They were both adorably excited in their acceptance speeches, Millsy was more nervous than I expected he would be, and both wrote down their speeches. I'm not sure if Tyler got to thank everyone but I hope some day he'll have the chance to thank more people when he wins another NHL award some day. ;) I loved the personalized shoutout to Patty Lalime from Miller at the end of his speech.

Millsy also won the NHL Foundation award which gave him an engraved glass block and $25,000 for the Steadfast Foundation. 

Sadly, Drew Doughty did not win the Norris. On the plus side, he looked really good, like maybe he's working out (imagine that!). I'm sure that Dewey will win the Norris at least once, if not many more times in his career, so I'm not worried. He and Tyler can alternate winning it for the next 20 or so years. :)

Props to Marty St. Louis for having his notes on his Blackberry instead of on paper. Props to Duncan Keith for thanking everyone he's ever met and running WAYYYY over time. When Duncs went back to the media room he realized he didn't get a chance to thank Seabrook and he felt bad. Their bromance is unending. Jose Theodore won the Masterton and told people that GM George McPhee told him he wasn't be re-signed. He has all the makings of the Sabres' back-up. Good looking, French Canadian, great starter for a short time in the past, but now stinks. Perfect.

The show itself wasn't as awful as in previous years. That stupid bit with Jamie Kennedy and D.B. Sweeney before the Vezina was announced was unnecessary, but that video with Bobby Ryan and Ryan Getzlaf (feat. Scott Niedermayer) was fantastic. It was fine until Jay Mohr started doing impressions, really.

Some of the performances were a bit... unexpected, but that's why God invented the mute button.

So proud! Congrats boys!

Um, Blackhawks?

by Anne

The only reason I felt I didn't need/want to put much effort into watching this series was because I assumed that beating Philly would be no problem for you. I do not like that this series is tied at 2. Do gooder when back in Chicago. NOW. That is all.

My sister will be in Chicago for her final weeks of grad school this summer, it would sweeeeet if when I visited for her graduation in the end of July, I could see all the "Woooo Stanley Cup champs!" banners and carryingson that are likely to occur throughout the summer. I would appreciate not having to see the losers and ne'er-do-wells of Philadelphia (my cousin included, but not his wife or son)* celebrating a cup victory.

Duncan Keith didn't lose 90% of his teeth just to lose in the Final. Brent Seabrook didn't sacrifice his beautiful face and resemble a yeti to give it all up against Philadelphia. Jonathan Toews doesn't look like Wolverine's reject sidekick to NOT hoist the Cup over his head. But for serious, when are we going to have a winning captain with a proper playoff beard? If Nick Lidstrom's is the most "impressive" playoff beard of the last three Cup winners (if Chicago wins, I mean), this will be sad. HOWEVER, that does NOT mean that I want Mike Richards to raise that Cup over his head. NO SIR. 

Niedermayer's was by far the best since the lockout:

2006 - no beard

  2008 - pittance of stubble, sort of a goatee.

2009 - Does that even count? At least you can see it?

2007- What a captainly face full of hair.

If Jonathan Toews winning keeps this playoff beard drought going for a third year, I can live with that. 

* For the record my cousin is neither a loser nor a ne'er-do-well, but don't tell him I said that.

School's Out for Summer

by Anne

My horrendously terrible semester is over! It was basically a disaster and will have to be fixed, but that can't be accomplished until the Fall so I shall simply enjoy my summer and continue my job hunt.

In the mean time, I shall be attempting to give a hoot about the playoffs. The World Championships have been an utter disaster. I mean Team USA playing in the RELEGATION round? Good LORD. I knew they weren't going to win gold, but I thought they'd at LEAST win one of their first three games. Especially since they were up against such juggernauts as Denmark and Germany. Alas. They've won their games against Kazakhstan and France and just have to beat Italy tomorrow morning. Actually, the game will be over by the time this is posted. So, I'm going to go ahead and assume they won. 

I don't imagine Jack Johnson will look back on this foray into international captaincy with great relish in years to come.

In Sabres-related shenanigans, I'm looking forward to this summer extra hard. My lifetime of Buffalo sports fandom has done nothing to convince me that I should temper my excitement. Trade Stafford? Trade Connolly? What will happen? Where will they all go? Will Marty Biron be back in Buffalo?! Could my heart TAKE that?! Yes, yes it could. 

For the Kings, the only really big question mark is Frolov. I don't think he'll be back. I'd be ok with him staying but I don't think he will so I'm ok if he peaces out. 

As far as the current playoffs are concerned I suppose I'm cheering(?) for the Blackhawks. This is a huge surprise to me. I previously abhorred the Blackhawks. They're all annoying and smug and their fans have turned each player's facial tics into a "ZOMG BRB SHAKING AND CRYING" explosion on Twitter. However, they are by far the most palatable team remaining in the playoffs and their few annoying fans (the vast majority I follow on Twitter are funny and entertaining)  can be unfollowed, and for the most part have been. Besides. Seabs wants me to cheer for them. Isn't that right Seabs? 

 Come on, Seabs, open the door.

Look, I'm sorry I called some of your fans annoying.

They all love you.

FINE! I WON'T cheer for your team. 

Whatcha gonna do about it?

You make a compelling argument.

Also, at least we're not Cavs fans. AMIRITE? Or if you are, I'm gonna go ahead and assume you're revving up the engine to drive Delonte West straight outta Cleveland. Yikes.

Climbing out from under the papers

by Anne

You guyz. Taking 18 credits of ed-joo-muh-cay-shun classes is a LOT of work, especially at the end of the semester.

I haven't even been watching the second round. I'm fairly confident this is the longest I've gone between blog posts.

Actually, that's a slight lie. I've been watching a little bit of Canucks/Blackhawks.

Which brings me to the entire purpose of this morning's post. 

In this series, as in others, I have had trouble choosing between the two teams. It was established that I play a comprehensive game of "Would You Hit That?" with each team's complete roster and the team with more "Yes, I would"s, gets my vote.

Unfortunately my completely non-discriminating palate left me with an even score for Canucks/Blackhawks and I had to go into: "Which player would you hit over all the others?"

This was a torturous and smokin' hot expedition into each team's top gentlemen. After much deliberation, it was determined that there is no Canuck or Blackhawk that makes me feel warm and tingly inside quite like this man:

Brent Seabrook, Blackhawk

Don't hate.

The Conference Finals will commence after my finals, therefore I shall be watching them. I shall use this ultra-scientific method to select the teams to cheer for in that round.

I'll try not to enjoy it too much.