Stormin Norman Rumack

 

The Montreal Canadiens seem to have the organizational genetics, that no other National Hockey league team has. That is, almost as though it was a biological event, every generation or so, a Montreal goalkeeper seems destined to rise up,to steal playoff games along with at least one playoff series. Jaroslav Halak is the latest net minder in the Montreal mold, who has stunned an opponent, with show stopping saves, and a stratospheric shots on goal totals, in 3 consecutive games. Halak stopped  131 of 134 shots from the Washington Capitals in games 5 through 7. Halak made 37 saves in a 2-1 win in game 5, 53 saves in a 4-1 win in game 6, and then 41 saves in game 7, to eliminate the President’s trophy winners. This latest unpredictable outcome seems to follow Habs history, with Halak’s domination of the Capitals, bringing back memories of Patrick Roy, and Ken Dryden.

 

The Canadiens were certainly outplayed by the Capitals for most of the series, but Halak’s heroics, were similar to what Ken...

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The one thing we know about game sevens for sure,is like most sporting events, they are entirely unpredictable. Many sports fans feel they can get a sense of what might transpire in the final game of a playoff series, by measuring who they feel has the momentum coming out of game 6. That is the sports equivalent  of fools gold. Don’t you dare buy it! Professional athletes are well trained to have short term memories. They are also conditioned from an early age, to not get too emotionally high after a win,  and conversely, they are also counseled to not get too low after a loss.It is therefore completely useless to gauge a seventh game in advance,based on anything or everything that preceded it.

 

So you’re probably wondering if there  is any way of calculating who might win or lose. I tend to go with the better team, while also being cognizant of injuries. I don’t have the statistics to draw any conclusions, but I’m not so sure that home ice, home court, or field, as may be the case, is much of a...

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Championship teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Windsor Spitfires know how to win. They also know how hard it is to win.

 

It almost seems that it’s destiny, that every decade or so, there will be a Montreal Canadiens goalkeeper, who performs the seemingly miraculous in a playoff series. No team in NHL history, has been quite as prolific as the Canadiens have, when it comes to goalies who steal the show, by stealing a game, a series, or several of them. Jaroslav Halak has continued that Habs tradition, in stifling Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, and forcing a game 7 Wednesday night in The District of Columbia.  Halak’s 53 save performance against the league’s best regular season team, reminded me of another game stealer, turned into a series stealer, in the form of Ken Dryden. ( obviously Patrick Roy is at the top of the list for most Montreal fans. )Halak’s heroics seem very similar in several ways, to that of the soft spoken,and very verbose Cornell University alumnus. At this stage, it still remains to be seen, if Halak can help his Habs complete the coup, by overthrowing the “Ovie” ( Ovechkin ) led wunderkinds...

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What a treat it was for me, to watch the Chelsea Blues demolish Stoke City at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. It’s not as though I was expecting Chelsea to lose, but to produce a 7-0 score for the second time this season, is really a remarkable achievement for any team at any time, in the Premiership. I enjoy cheering for the Blues, and have since the 2007-2008 season,as it is particularly enjoyable for me, with the large number of soccer fans in Canada who are followers of Manchester United. I have only seen 4 or 5 people in the Toronto area, who also have any clothing with Chelsea colors and logos on them. It is always a lot more fun to cheer for a team which very few others support. The Blues do have a global following, with megastores serving North America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and of course the U.K. It just seems that they don’t have a large following in southern Ontario, where the Manchester United allegiance is quite dominant. In fact, they even have specific bars where their followers congregate to...

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Former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager and executive, Cliff Fletcher had no idea about the monster he created, with no intent of course, when he uttered the expression, “draft shmaft”, somewhere in the mid 1990’s,  when NHL teams like Toronto, could buy whichever players they wanted, and theoretically purchase a contending team through trades and free agency. Other teams also spent freely, including Detroit , New York, even Washington for a short time, although the Red Wings kept most of their draft picks and selected wisely. For the most part, Toronto has a very poor record in the draft over the last thirty years, with only a few star players that they brought into the league and developed.  They would include Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Ian Turnbull, Wendel Clark, and Tomas Kaberle more recently. ( Borje Salming was a free agent signing.) It remains to be seen, how Brian Burke’s scouts perform, and how their current young players evolve.

 

Whether it’s the NHL,NBA, or NFL, the over the...

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Wow! What a shock ! The commissioner of a major professional sports league is taking disciplinary action against a player who hasn’t been charged with a crime,but was clearly doing something stupid and dangerous. Three cheers for the NFL’s Roger Goodell ! A standard of behavior is being set , and finally, sweet music to my ears, a professional athlete is being held to a higher standard, because whether they like it or not, they are role models. This type of action by the NFL commissioner, is a welcomed move. For years, we’ve been force fed the philosophy, that professional sports is almost a mandatory form of rehab for law breakers, so they’re not only brought back into mainstream society, but they’re also given the privileged type of career that most of those who live by the law will  never get, and especially the dollars that come with the job. Pathetically, some of the fans are such intense jock sniffers, that they don’t really care about the background of the athletes who wear their favorite team...

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No one can say that the Montreal Canadiens don’t have any heart or character. They have given a solid effort throughout their series with the heavily favored Washington Capitals. With the Habs trailing in the series by 3 to 1 in the best of 7, it obviously looks pretty bleak for Jacques Martin’s men, as they head back to the Verizon Centre for game five on Friday.  Hopefully the Hab’s fans aren’t too down on their team, as they stand on the verge of elimination. The bottom line is that Montreal doesn’t have anywhere near the skill level of the Caps, so the fact that they haven’t been able to cash in on opportunities when they were dominating , as was the case in the second period last night, isn’t really all that surprising. Montreal outshot Washington by 21-9  during those 20 minutes, but killed their own momentum, by allowing a shorthanded goal by Mike Knuble, with 7 seconds remaining in the period, to tie the game at 2.  I’m not discounting the  remote possibility that the Canadiens, could pull off the comeback...

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How unusual is it, that Donovan McNabb and Terrel Owens would want to play together with the Redskins, after Owens went frosty on his former Philly teammate, in their second season together with the Eagles, who were losers in Super Bowl XXXIX ( 24-21, Feb.6,2005.) to the Patriots ? Even though the Redskins are unlikely to sign the well travelled wide receiver, it really isn’t surprising that two seasoned veterans who are highly competitive, would actually need each other, to help prove to the football world, that they each are still very capable of being elite players, even though some critics probably disagree.  With a large void at the receiver position, the Redskins desperately need to find some decent talent for McNabb to throw to. Conversely for McNabb, without some solid receiving talent on his new team, it will be very difficult for the Chicago native and his Redskins, to be successful to any degree, in the brutally tough NFC east division. Even though they seemed to have had a bitter feud going in Philly,...

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