Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sean Shines For The Kids


Number two son and his wife have gotten involved in a wonderful charity, the kids at St. Mary's. and St. Mary's Healthcare System For Children. For info go to stmaryskids.org/cocktails. It is truly a worthy cause and support it if you can. The event will be held on June 22, 2011 between 6-9 PM at the Empire Hotel Rooftop, 44 West 63rd Street, New York City.

Number two son has enlisted the aid of Sean Avery, who is always available to help out for worthy causes. The tough guy with the big mouth always puts his money where his mouth and heart are. He has offered dinner at his place, as one of the items to be bid on.

The auction item is dinner for six guests, with Sean Avery and a mystery Ranger. No. Tortorella is not the other guest though he is quite a mystery. The dinner wil be at Tiny's and the Bar Upstairs, which is jointly owned by Sean and Henrik Lundqvist. The initial bid for this dinner must be $ 1,000.00. Time and place to be decided at bidders convenience.

So if you are in the neighborhood, drop by. $250.00 to help the kids and hobnob with friends and celebrities is a bargain and anyone who knows Sean knows that sometimes the unthinkable is actual thinkable.

God bless the St. Mary's Children. God bless Sean Avery.

Pre-Game 7 Stanley Cup Finals Roundup

Some stories about tonight's game 7 Stanley Cup Finals that caught my eye.

So Canada has a longer Stanley Cup drought than the Rangers. Get in line. No wonder the ticket prices for game 7 in Vancouver are through the roof. A sad footnote on this talk of ticket prices in Canada is how the mighty have fallen, because in June 1993 a Canadian dollar was worth around 78¢ U.S., today a Canadian dollar buys $1.03 U.S. I think I would bequest a few more Cups to Canada if we could keep the folks in Washington from screwing our currency.

Bloomberg:
Stanley Cup Tickets Top $5,000, More Than Super Bowl --

Hockey fever in Vancouver has pushed average ticket prices for tonight’s Stanley Cup Final decider between the Canucks and Boston Bruins to more than $5,000 on the secondary market.

The average price exceeds the $4,300 for last year’s Olympic gold medal hockey game between Canada and the U.S., which was also played in Vancouver. It also tops the $4,500 resale price for this year’s Super Bowl, according to FanSnap.com, an Internet search engine that finds seats on about 50 ticket-reselling Web sites.

The Canucks host Game 7 tonight at Rogers Arena with a chance to win the National Hockey League championship for the first time in their 41-year history. They’re also seeking to become the first Canadian team to win the title since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993...
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The Bruins are on their own 39 year Stanley Cup drought. So either Boston or Vancouver will be in a world of hurt tomorrow.

Boston.com
Fevered city awash in the spirit of ’72 --
With the Bruins a victory away from a Stanley Cup for the first time in nearly four decades, a sports-crazed city that had all but forgotten its once beloved hockey team is clearly once again in the grip of fever.

Across the city yesterday, with anticipation surging for tonight’s climactic Game 7 against Vancouver, fans wore every piece of Bruins clothing they owned and eagerly snatched up new ones at crowded kiosks. Cafes hung Bruins placards in their windows, a tobacconist sold Bruins cigars, and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital dressed newborns with tiny Bruins hats...
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The Red Sox "won't rest 'til the Stanley Cup is back in Boston!"

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Is this a good luck or bad luck move? Isn't there a commandment that says: "thou shalt not worship false idols"?

Canucks fan Neil Evans hoists an inflatable Stanley Cup at the start of a game.

Vancouver Sun:
Editorial: The most important game in Canucks history --
This is it, hockey fans: the all-important, momentous, decisive Game 7 that will determine the home of the Stanley Cup until next year.

The Vancouver Canucks face a formidable opponent tonight at Rogers Arena. The team has suffered difficult losses at the hands of the Boston Bruins, but has retained its composure with the philosophy that a loss is a loss, notwithstanding Game 3’s 8-1 pounding, the second-worst loss in the history of the Cup final. It’s worth noting that even then, the Canucks outshot the Bruins 41-38...
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Those crazy "custodians of the cord cottage" = the wildcard.

Bruce McCurdy / The Cult of Hockey:
Roberto’s masterpiece
--
Among current custodians of the cord cottage, one of the more quixotic characters is Roberto Luongo, goaltender of record for the Stanley Cup finalist Vancouver Canucks. The man they call LUUUUUUU has achieved some major highlights tending the twine for Team Canada over the years, but frequently seems on the verge of buckling at key moments. Even his biggest fans don’t entirely trust him, because one can never be sure whether one will see the Good Lu or Bad Bobby...

Luongo sports what may be the most remarkable home/road splits I’ve ever seen. Heading into Game Seven, he sports goals-against averages of 0.67 in Vancouver and 8.05 in Boston. That’s a factor of TWELVE in a department usually measured in fractions. Wow...

Monday, June 06, 2011

Sean Avery Shows Off on Sunday

Sunday was a great day for Sean Avery. Sean Avery's thoroughbred namesake did him proud. In case you were wondering an NHL hockey rink is .303 furlongs long.

Daily Racing Form:
Monmouth Park: Sean Avery romps in Longfellow Stakes --
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Sean Avery – the horse, not the hockey player – looked like a superstar Sunday in the $75,900 Longfellow Stakes at Monmouth Park.

After stalking the quick pace set by Awesome Son, Sean Avery took charge at the top of the lane and drew off to an 11 3/4-length win. The victory extended his winning streak to three, after missing all of the 2010 season.

Joe Bravo rode for trainer Allen Iwinski as Sean Avery ran the six furlongs in 1:09.27. “That was real impressive,” Bravo said. “Around the turn, he was pulling on me and gave me every indication he would be tough. I just held on and enjoyed the ride.”
The 7-5 favorite, Sean Avery paid $4.80 to win...
p.s. Unlike the real Sean Avery the four legged, 5-year old Sean Avery is a gelding.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Does Size Matter in the NHL?

Mats Zuccarello and Brian Boyle

Marty St. Louis and Zdeno Chara

Danny Briere and Chris Pronger

Hal Gill and Brian Gionta

David Desharnais and Andrei Kostitsyn

Theo Fleury and Eric Lindros
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ICINGS:

Shanny becomes vice-principal in charge of discipline.

Denis Gorman / Hockey Prime Time:
Shanahan facing a tough test of character
As the league's head of discipline, Brendan Shanahan must put to work the same moral compass that guided him as an outspoken player...

Gary Bettman announced in Vancouver on Wednesday that Shanahan will become the NHL’s Senior Vice President of Player Safety and Hockey Operations, along with replacing Colin Campbell in “administering supplemental discipline.”

What kind of discipline czar will Shanahan be? Judging by his history, the initial belief is that he will not follow in the oft-controversial footsteps of his predecessor, nor will he make the indefensible – frankly, disgraceful – decision not to suspend Alex Burrows for at least a game in the Stanley Cup Final for biting Patrice Bergeron's finger...

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Ice beats Heat

A bad NHL game is better than a great NBA game. If you're reading this blog that's a memo from Captain Obvious. The ticket prices for the NHL and NBA finals are evidence that the Stanley Cup has more juice than the NBA finals.

Fan Snap:
Stanley Cup Bigger than the NBA Finals According to Ticket Demand

Average listing price for tickets to the NBA Finals is $924. Average listing price for Stanley Cup Finals is $1,518...

HuffPo:
NHL and NBA Finals' Ticket Price Premiums: Bruins Win!
For the first time since 1990, the Bruins are in the Stanley Cup. For the opportunity to witness a piece of the first Stanley Cup Title since the days of Orr, fans are paying a hefty premium over the regular season average price -- 1,220% to be exact. In the world of sports ticket data, Final premiums are the most scientific measure of raw fanatical emotion, and one the few consumer transactions where discretion can be checked at the door without hesitation...
Real Clear Sports:
Stanley Cup Finals Cooler Than NBA Finals
1. The cities. Boston and Vancouver vs. Miami and Dallas? A mismatch. America’s universal college town is paired with every North American’s favorite city they’ve never been to. Miami was cool in the ‘80s; Dallas isn’t even the coolest city in its own Metroplex...

8. Settling scores. Things got a little chippy along the boards? It’s OK, they’ll be on the ice together eventually and nobody forgets a thing. If a hard check doesn’t satisfy, drop the gloves and duke it out. In the NBA, hard fouls lead to a conference among the referees to determine if it’s a flagrant, and if so, is it Category One or Two? Please...
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Boston Herald:
Stanley Cup Game 1 earns best rating since 1999 --
The Vancouver Canucks’ last-second 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins earned a 3.2 overnight rating and 6 share on NBC on Wednesday. That’s up 14 percent from last year’s Philadelphia-Chicago Game 1 and the highest since a 3.7 for Buffalo-Dallas in 1999...

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