East Coast Highlights

With playoffs all over the place and baseball season starting since my last post, there’s been a TON of stuff going on in the world of sports that I’ve neglected blog-wise. Catching up completely isn’t gonna happen, but here are some highlights:

Charlotte Checkers—Yup, I’m starting with Calder Cup Playoffs. Our AHL affiliate is just that awesome. They lead the East Division Semifinals series 3-2 and are playing game 6 as I type. My sources tell me that these possible future Canes looked great in Game 5, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win 5-3 on Friday night. With the recent addition of Justin Faulk following his Frozen Four Championship run with the Univ. of Minnesota- Duluth, my fellow Caniacs in attendance noted his potential as a big D-man, similar to Joni, but perhaps a little more consistent. My sources also shared how impressed they were with the Jedi-like goalie skills of one Mr. Michael Murphy. Apparently he’s not only a hilarious source of entertainment on Twitter and through Mike & Mike Mailbag clips on their YouTube channel, but he can also stop pucks in unbelievable ways. Definitely great to have him as one of our boys!
**Immediately after posting this, Blanchard scored the game winning goal in OT, sending the Checkers to Round 2!!! So proud of these boys!

Blackhawks v Canucks—Vancouver may lead the series 3-2, but Chicago definitely has the momentum. They lost the first 3 games, then have come back with a vengeance after some questionable hits and look more like the team that won the cup last year. Most people had picked the Canucks to win it all, from what I’d been hearing at least, and I may be a tad biased with Chicags as my team in the West, but I think if anybody could pull off the come-from-behind-to-take-the-series move these guys are poised to do, it’s the Hawks. With face off for Game 6 about to happen, we’ll see if they can tie the series tonight.

Flyers v Sabers—This series has been a lot of fun to watch, partially because the games have been so exciting, but also partially because my fellow Caniacs and I want to see Buffalo get knocked out in round 1. It’s definitely been nerve-wracking, but this afternoon, Ville Leino (Finn!) scored the OT goal for Philly to force game 7 Tuesday night. Keeping our fingers crossed the Flyers blow them out and send them golfing!

Red Sox—My Sox started out their season on an incredibly rough note. Their only 2 wins in the first 12 games were against the Yankees, at least, but being 2-10 is still just sad. Somewhere in there, I vowed to stop watching until they pulled it together and started watching the Braves more instead. Apparently my threat worked, because they’ve won 8 of their last 9 games since! Not sure if this means I should continue to avoid watching games, or if it’s safe to pay attention again… either way, I’m feeling much better about the potential for the season and am happy I can at least claim 2 victories over the Yankees so far :)

Janoris Jenkins—Gator CB Janoris Jenkins had his third arrest in two seasons this week for marijuana possession. Love him, but seriously, how do you get caught 3 times?! It’s still fresh news, so there hasn’t been a decision yet (as far as I’m aware) as to whether or not he’ll be playing next year. Should be interesting to see how Coach Muschamp handles this kind of stuff… and if our players get any better at not getting caught for stupid stuff like this. I swear, all the comparisons to Thug U during Urban’s reign killed me. If you look at the records and see what the charges were, Miami’s are more often violent and ours are something like that of Mr. Jenkins here. Completely different situations, really. Apples & oranges.

NFL Draft—The Draft is this Thursday. It’s typically like a holiday for some of my friends and I who have an annual Draft Party as we watch our college football guys join our favorites in the NFL , crossing our fingers they don’t get picked by the Pats, Cowboys or Miami. This year, I’m anticipating a completely different vibe with the lockout, and am a tad concerned it won’t be as exciting as it normally is. Yet another reminder that my beloved fall weekend rituals may be thrown off this year… and I don’t like it.

Magic vHawks— The Magic and Hawks have been keeping the opening round of the NBA Playoffs interesting. With the series currently at 2-1 Hawks after a heartbreaking OT loss Friday night, game 4 is about to tip off in Atlanta as I type. I would love to see my boys move on, but if they have to lose, I’d be ok with Atlanta moving on in their place, solely because of Al Horford. One of my favorite Gators during my time at UF, I am incredibly proud of how he’s representing us in the NBA. Great guy and great player, definitely deserving of a championship at some point, but it’s still early in his career, so my boys can win it this year :)

Celtics v Knicks—After all the Melo trading and drama that went with it, the Knicks got swept in round 1. I appreciate the Celtics for their history and tradition, and am a fan of most guys on their roster. I’m glad they’re moving on, but feel a little sad for the Knicks and their fans, I’m not gonna lie. Hopefully they keep Amar’e and Melo and can build a functional team for next year.

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In Memoriam

The 2010-2011 Carolina Hurricanes season was cut way too short. Taken in its prime, it had so much potential in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we’ll never get the chance to see what might have been. I think all of us who love the Canes have spent the past week coming to terms with the abrupt ending of the season. While it still hurts to think of our loss and everything that slipped away with it, there are a lot of good memories that came from it. I think I’m finally ready to move on from the sadness and celebrate the good that was the 2010-2011 season.

Though I regretted greatly that I couldn’t make the trip, the start in Helsinki was great for the team and put us at the top of the NHL standings, if only briefly. It also set up the season-long Tripp Tracy interview fodder (and subsequently, running joke) with the team bonding trip to Sauna Island, facilitated by my favorite Finn. Wonder if they’ll bring it up again next season…

Despite a crazy chunk of travel, this season started off much better than the last. We avoided the whole 14-loss streak thing this time, but the most notable excitement of the early season (well, whole season) was watching Jeff Skinner’s NHL debut. We watched in awe during the first half of the season what I think we came to take for granted during the second. The freshman phenom shocked us all… or at least everyone except Rutherford and those involved in the genius scouting that went into our draft pick. It’s been a blast all season not only watching him develop as a player, but watching the effects of the rookie sensation on the media and fans—including hearing commentators calling him things like “rookie sensation” and seeing the throngs of fans going crazy over him during All-Star Weekend and beyond. And through it all, he remained the poised, mature (freak) 18 year old he is, taking it all in stride, smiling and not letting the insanity affect what was most important to him—his job on the ice. PS- Skinner for Calder!

All-Star Weekend was another huge part of the season we’ll all so fondly remember. Being the host city/team was an amazing experience. No words can quite describe how it felt to welcome such great players from around the league (even those we typically have at least a little grudge against) into OUR house via red carpet. Seeing their personalities come out and getting to know them a little more throughout the festivities of the weekend made the rest of the season that much more fun.

The season post-All-Star break had some ups and downs, but more ups for sure. Being at nearly every home game and several practices for this chunk of the season, the CaniacGirlTrio was practically a part of the team, in our own minds, at least :) We ate, slept, and breathed hockey, even more than usual, and rode the emotional rollercoaster that came along with that level of devotion. With our Twitter debut, we found not only another medium through which to extend the hockey obsession, but also an awesome group of fellow Caniacs. Watching the Canes and going through the stressful last week of the regular season with the #Caniacmob has been fantastic, despite the sad note we ended on in the final game.

Though the season ended abruptly, just when it looked like there was hope for a good playoff run, there’s still more silver lining than sadness to take away from it. Our younger players, both prospects and those with the Checkers or making brief visits to the Canes, have a lot of promise and give us hope for future seasons. Some of our older players had great seasons, like Cole and Ruutu, and Cam’s season just goes beyond words.

2010-2011 season—we were sad to see you go, but it’s been fun, and you’ll hold a special place in the hearts of Caniacs. Thanks for the memories.

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