Milan Lucic‘s plans for his day with the Stanley Cup in Vancouver have been scaled back due to fears of loonballs creating some havoc. Read more in the attached articles. The Canuck’s and their fans (some of them) are surely digging themselves a hole that will be difficult. They are well on their way to becoming the most reviled team in the NHL.
July 21 was David Krejci‘s turn to have his day withe Stanley Cup. He took the cup to his home town of Sternberk in the Czech Republic. The day began with a visit to his parents and his girlfriend Naomi. From there he headed to the town square. The driving rain did not stop 3000 people from showing up to see the Cup and to get autographs from David and Tomas Kaberle, who came along. The day ended with a small party at David’s parents back yard.
David was a key component to both the Boston Bruins season and their history making playoff run. He scored 12 goals, had 23 points and scored 4 game winning goals during the run to the cup. He will be an important cog in the Bruin’s drive to repeat in 2012.
What a great week it was for our heroes, the Gold Coast Blue Tongues. Needing as many points as they could get against the first place Melbourne Ice in order to keep their tenuous hold on the 4th and final playoff spot, the Blue Tongues split the series. They handed the Ice only their second defeat of the season in regulation time. The Blue Tongues are putting it all together at the right time of the year (for Australia that is). Next weekend is in Melbourne with games against the Ice and the Mustangs. Very important games. We will play our final 2 games, on the road against the second place Newcastle North Stars in a must win situation. The 5th place Adelaide Adrenaline are a mere 2 points behind in the standings. Stay tuned for the results.
Video is a recent promo that explains some stuff about Australian hockey and the league. (AIHL)
The Stanley Cup flew off to Europe on July 19 to meet up with Tomas Kaberle in Prague, Czech Republic. Unfortunately for Tomas it rained all day, fitting as he turned tail on the Bruins and signed with the Carolina Hurricanes. Serves him right. Beside the rain, Tomas had a great day with the cup, receiving a motorcycle escort to home town of Velka Dobra and then carried on to Kladno, where he played his hockey growing up.
I won’t spend much time on this journey as he is no longer a Boston Bruin, so he kind of bores me now.
Bubba Smith passed away on Tuesday. An all-pro defensive end with the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers, Bubba will also be remembered for his role as Hightower in the Police Academy movies and for his series of Miller Lite commercials with Dick Butkus. He won his only Super Bowl with the Colts in 1970. He never wore the ring as he did not believe the performance in the game was anything else but sloppy.
Nathan Horton beats the hated Habs Image by slidingsideways via Flickr
On July 15, it was Nathan Horton‘s day with the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, the TSA had other ideas. Nathan and the keeper of the Cup arrived in Buffalo and were waiting at the over size luggage area for the cup to appear, and it didn’t It did not make the flight and was still in Boston. Nathan had big plans for his day and had to leave without the prize to make the planned festivities in Dunnville, Ontario, his hometown.
Howie Borrow, the cup keeper, remained in the airport to await the arrival. Fortunately it made the next flight and it was off to Dunnville, better late than never.
In the mean time, Nathan arrived in Dunnville without the cup. The decision was made by the organizers to delay the parade by an hour, but to go, with or without after the hour was up. Fortunately, it ended up being without as Howie and the cup did not make it within the hour. Howie, who now had the cup, grabbed a cab and headed for Dunnville. He arrived after the parade, but made it for an event at the town bandstand.
Now in possession of the cup, Nathan continued on with the scheduled events for the day which included a stop at his mother’s house, a trip to Niagara Falls to visit his father, a visit to the OPP and a stop with a young cancer patient. The final stop was a backyard party at the home of one of his friends.
A lot has happened to the Gold Coast Blue Tongues since my last post on July 8. I will bring us all up to date. In the AIHL, the top 4 teams make it to the Finals. On July 8, we were in 5th spot looking up at the Adelaide Adrenaline. In the period since then, we have gone on a bit of a tear, winning 3, losing 1, and 1 each of a shootout win and a loss. As a result of this streak we are now in 4th spot, 2 points up on Adelaide with 4 games to go. In the AIHL, a win is 3 points, a shootout win is 2, a shootout loss is 1 and nothing, of course, for a loss.
The surge has been led by Matt Amado, who now has 37 goals in 22 games. His linemate, Tobias Falk has 28 assists. Goaltender, Luke Fiveash has returned from injury to post 4 straight wins and a 3.00 GAA. All of the above has combined for a legitimate shot at the title. A major test will be held next week as the Blue Tongues play the first place Melbourne Ice.
The video attached is a short news story on the Sydney Bears, who were preparing to meet our heroes.
When we last saw the Stanley Cup, it was in Whitefish, Montana with Doug Houda, Boston Bruin assistant coach. From the wilds and mountains of Whitefish, it travelled across the USA back to Massachusetts to spend the day with Assistant Coach Geoff Ward, who then handed it off to Assistant General Manager, Don Sweeney.
Geoff Ward took the cup golfing at the Butter Brook Golf Club in Westford, MA. The Cup appeared to be enjoying the round, but had to cut it short to visit Geoff’s daughter at her gymnastics club. From there it was off to some more exciting action at Waxy O’Connor’s Irish Pub in Lexington, MA. There appears to be a definite pattern with the cup and pubs developing here. There is no video that I have found of this pub crawl. I did, however, find this video taken a couple of days prior at the Massachusetts General Hospital Of all the major sports, there is nothing that can come close to the magic of the Stanley Cup, or as accessible.
Following Geoff is Don Sweeney’s day with the cup. Don is a life long Bruin, playing with them after being drafted in 1984. His day with the cup was quiet in comparison with most and, after visiting Don’s friend Jack Kirrane, it was off to a friend’s place of business for the staff to enjoy and then to a house party. Like I said, very quiet day for the Cup.
I was wondering how long it would take for the Harper hating, anti Military complete fools would take to make the connection between the Winnipeg Jets new logo and militarism. Not long is the answer. Watch the attached video and be sure to make use of both the comment section and the dislike button. What a bunch of lunatics. Sheeeesshhh, it is a bloody team logo, not some secret mind altering propaganda tool. Losers.
Found this at @NHLWinnipeg who retweeted from @MarkChipmen Must give credit where it is due.
Now we’re talking. The new Winnipeg Jets took another step towards being a real on ice product as the team unveiled its logo and and secondary logos.
At time of posting, the team has still not released their team colours or sweater design. I assume that with training camp a month away, this is a supply issue for the anticipated retail sales as it will be pretty tough to play exhibition games without jerseys. Stay tuned.
![Cover of "Police Academy [Region 2]"](https://i0.wp.com/ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511E5RH6W0L._SL300_.jpg?resize=254%2C300 "Cover of \"Police Academy [Region 2]\"")
