Penguins Win the Cup...

Very happy for Petr Sykora and I loved seeing him lift the Stanley Cup, although I'm pretty sure he cursed very loudly on TV last night. (Thought he said "F***in' right!" as he lifted it.)

People are villifying Marian Hossa, but for no reason. He did the noble thing, it just didn't work out for him. He could've taken somewhere around $80M from Edmonton to play there for a few years, but he took a cut to play in Detroit. Granted, $7.4M is still a nice chunk of coin, but at least he wants a Cup. What's next for him, back to the Penguins? Head over to San Jose? Stick with Detroit? I doubt that one, because they have a bunch of players to re-sign as well.

Besides Petr Sykora, the one guy on the Penguins I really love is Max Talbot. Not only does he rock awesome facial hair (he used to have a huge mustache), but he is the nicest guy. Of all the NHL players I've met/seen, him and Martin Biron are the most genuine and the nicest. He signs everything, he gives pucks to all the kids in the crowd. Good guy, always smiling. And now, he goes down in history as scoring 2 goals in a Game 7, much like his teammate Ruslan Fedotenko did in 2004 in a 2-1 win after trailing in the series 3-2. (One difference, Tampa Bay was at home, not in Calgary for that Game 7.)

No, I'm not ashamed to have rooted for the Penguins to win last night. I was much happier seeing them win than I would've been had the same team as last year won.

Saw this phrase written somewhere, and I found a picture of the two of them together, so, here it is.

Two Girls, One Cup

Playoff Bet Update, Third Round...

The $100 playoff bet that Bryan and I made is in full swing going into the Finals. I am ahead 10-8 with one round left.

To recap, you get a point for successfully picking the team who wins the series; another point if you guess it in the correct number of games; and another point if it is an upset win.

Since neither Pittsburgh or Detroit were underdogs, no "upset points" were given out. And since both me and Bryan had the same picks (Penguins and Blackhawks, both in 6), we received the same amount of points, obviously (one point).

He had 7 in round 1, 0 in round 2, and 1 in round 3. I had 6-3-1.

So, my pick for the Finals is Penguins in 6. In fact, in every single round this year, I have had "Penguins in 6" as my choice. I actually only picked Detroit to win once, in the 2nd round against Anaheim, although I knew they were going to beat Columbus in Round 1, but I wanted to get upset points if they lost.

Regardless, this should be a good series. Better than the 3rd round, no doubt, and even better than last year. Last year, the Penguins were good but definitely beatable - the Rangers could have beaten them, and since Montreal was out, there was no other strong team in the East.

That said, Game 5 of last year's series, the triple overtime game where Petr Sykora scored the game-winner, was one of the best, if not the best non-Rangers game I have ever seen.

I'm looking forward to this series. TiVo has been put on notice.

Like Natalie Imbruglia, I'm Torn...

Quickly, before someone scores to make this post a moot point.

The reason I want Henrik Zetterberg to score in the third overtime...

Because I hate many of the Penguins. I hate young neck-breaking punk Brooks Orpik, young behind-hitting Jarrko Ruutu, and old, old run-taking Gary Roberts. I know Sidney Crosby is talented, but everytime I see his dirt-beard I wish Gilette would put him in a commercial with Tiger Woods so he would shave it. I can't stand Hal Gill or Adam Hall, although Hall isn't good enough to actually dislike. I don't like Marian Hossa because I don't like Marcel, and I don't want to see Georges Laraque drink from the Cup.

In fact, the only Penguins I like make a short list. I like the Ryans - Malone (because I want him in blue next year) and Whitney (because he went to BU). I also like Rob Scuderi because his mom taught in my high school and I saw her going to a Ranger/Penguin game in November. I like Petr Sykora, he's one of my favorite NHLers and someone the Rangers never should have let go (he waited for a call from them until August of 2006 before signing with Edmonton). I like Pascal Dupuis and Maxime Talbot also (nice guy, used to have a great 'stache). I also think Ty Conklin deserves the Cup that he didn't win as a back-up goaltender in 2006 with the Oilers.

The reason I want Sykora to score in the third overtime...

So the NHL can have a game seven.

(P.S. The only reason I would want the Penguins to win the Cup is so a second Staal brother gets his name on it, meaning Marc will have his on it in 2010.)