oddities and endings

You might think that I'd be rooting against the Capitals after they took my beloved Rangers out, after all that's a logical assumption. If so, you may have overlooked the prevailing theme of the peeps diorama, which is complete domination of the Peepitals over their weaker and uglier opponents, the Pittsburgh Poultry. Whatever resentment I might have held against Washington was over the minute they faced off against those PA punks. My dislike for Pittsburgh has only been compounded by the way this series has played out. Did you see Crosby complaining about Ovie's hat trick in game 2? When he made that NHL Channel promo earlier this season about how he couldn't fathom how the Penguins managed to win any games without him in the lineup I thought, "What a prick!" but watching this press conference I realized he's not a prick intentionally - just a complete tool! He doesn't even have enough personality or self-awareness to know he should either keep his whining private or rub everyone's face in it.  Whatever you think of Ovechkin at least he has an agenda, a point of view, some color. The Pens are like lifeless drones. I'll admit they work hard, but they expect results just because they showed up, like they're more deserving because they've been anointed by the NHL brass and the Canadian media. This is particularly apparent in the post game press conferences with their new creepy coach Dan Bylsma.  It's a giant media circle jerk. After game 3 I heard a reporter ask him, "When did you know that your team had the backbone and resiliency to overcome adversity as well as they have?" His answer was something obnoxious like, "The moment I stepped into the locker room as head coach." It made me throw up. Conversely Caps head coach Bruce Boudreau is a complete chubby delight. His (over)reaction to winning game 6 was cute and awesome. Well, hopefully the Pens can suck it in game 7 tomorrow. 

The Chicago Blackhawks have already moved on to the Western Conference finals. I've been rooting for them because I like them, and also I'm sick of smug ol' Roberto Luongo. I didn't get to see much of the Hawks during the regular season (save for the Winter classic and the Rangers 2 wins), so I didn't notice that their goal song is the Fratelli's "Chelsea Dagger" until the playoffs. It makes sense that this young team whose fans have only returned in the last 2 seasons have a celebration song only a couple of years old. I happen to love the song, but last night they not only played it after all 7 Blackhawk goals, but at the end of the game for the win.  A bit too much of a good thing for me - imagine if you hated the song? Jeez.

So the Blackhawks have this player called Dustin Byfuglien, and he's pretty awesome. His surname is pronounced "BUFF-lin", but I cannot help but think of it phonetically as "Ba-fugly-in"! Luckily Dustin is not fugly at all but like a beautiful grown baby with super sparkly eyes and tufts of unruly hair. Not only that but he's American which, while awesome, doesn't explain where he picked up that last name. Speaking of black players, who would have thunk that the Devils' Johnny Oduya was Swedish? I had no idea until he scored the game winning goal in the Bronze medal game (against the USA) at this year's World Championship.  I might have known if IKEA had any Oduya bookcases. Curses IKEA!