All things Canadian.....

Introduction

Here's the Stanley Cup edition of the Carnival of the Canucks. I'm Don and this is my blog - All things Canadian... or for some - TalkCanada. Sorry for the old school blogger format. Enjoy the rambling thoughts and links to bloggers who had thoughts about the Flames and other aspects of the greatest game.

Canada's Team

Of course most of Canada was cheering for the Flames but in the words of the Vancouver Canucks Op Ed:

Where does everyone get the idea that all Canadians are rooting for Calgary? Yes, it's true that many of us are, but some of us also still think they're Evil Spawn (ie. total bastards). And there are many, many Canadians who are actually cheering hard for the Bolts.
Not us, but we can sympathize.

Even Edmontonians - the natural rivals - were cheering on the Flames. But some in Alberta have a hard time with Calgary's success - read this explanation from Colby Cosh on why his hockey blogging pretty much stopped:

The reason the page has gone cold is that thinking about and looking at hockey depresses me now. I could just about tolerate a Calgary Flames Stanley Cup, which--it became clear to me halfway through the Western Conference final--is now probably going to happen. I can't tolerate them winning the last Stanley Cup before a possible year-long lockout. The Stanley Cup could end up living in Calgary for two years or more. It's just not right. I can't pretend to participate in Edmonton's sudden love affair with a "Cinderella" team we've always despised.

The other people in Canada who were cheering for the Lightning? Separatists and relatives of the Lightning players - that's it - nobody else.

Oops - The Meatriarchy questioning which team is more Canadian?

I know a lot of people were rooting for Calgary to win the cup because the franchise itself is situated within Canadian borders. By default this led most people to disparage Tampa as an “American” team as if the team was made up entirely of US born players.
Fact is Tampa had 19 Canadian born players to Calgary’s 15 so in a way they were more Canadian than the Canadian team.

Here's an Albertan's final take on it - Don from Revolutionary Moderation - home of the Gaffe-O-Meter:

I can't abide the Stanley Cup living in a city that has never seen naturally-occuring ice.

Pure Hockey Takes

The Hockey Pundits weighed in on the final with this take on the Canadian content:

To console myself, I looked at their roster and see that the Conn Smythe winner(Brad Richards), the regular season points leader (Martin St. Louis) team Captain (Dave Andreychuk) and a total of 15 players for Tampa were Canadian.

Dave Andreychuk was a beautiful sight after the game - his greying beard and all - here's Hockey Nation's recognition (Gotta think Andreychuck will be retiring now.):

Captain Dave Andreychuck, the 40 year newbie in a Stanley Cup was dominant in his checking, frustrating Iginla for most of the night. For Andreychuk it was mission accomplished as he collected his first Stanley Cup ever, finally given a chance to hoist the fabled trophy high above, perhaps for his only time.

Sens Fanblog comments on the Lightning brand of hockey:

The Lightning are a young, skilled, offensive-minded bunch. They play exciting hockey that doesn't involve a whole lot of trapping which is simply amazing to watch. The Ottawa-Tampa games this year were high tempo affairs that kept you on the edge of your seat - exactly the kind of hockey that will rope in new fans. If even one team models itself after Tampa Bay next year, then the NHL will benefit from it.

Did you think the ending was anti-climatic? Puck Update thinks so:

Tampa played a smart, if safe and dull series and deserved the Cup. They just didn't seem horribly relieved or light-hearted after their win.
They must be a bunch of serious guys.
Or maybe it's the humidity in the St. Pete Times Forum.

Jex Golbez saw into the future when he wrote "Note to the Flames: STOP TAKING DUMB PENALTIES!" after the second period - not that the hitting from behind, er, high sticking, er, boarding, er, charging (?) penalty with less than two minutes to go was really a 'bad' penalty on the part of the Flames. I thought it was marginal - St. Louis had his head down looking for the puck - charging? I'm sure we'll see some thoughts on that one in the sports pages.

Random Albertan Takes

DiscoMonkey: Finally, I am totally pissed off at PEI... I couldn't believe the footage of them cheering on the Tampa team because they have a home town guy playing for them. As a Canadian I was embarrassed for them. It is surely going to be in the papers tomorrow.
jenandtonic: STOP BANGING ON THE FUCKING GLASS! No hockey loving fan from a real hockey city that can actually PRODUCE ice outside does that. Stop it.
Ray's World: I've never heard so much honking anywhere, so many red car flags, fireworks going off, breast being shown, and even a guy's ass mooning cars. Yet, I've never seen a community come so close together so quickly.
O'Canada: Losers - Paul Martin said it himself: Les Calgary Flames et les Libéraux, c'est la même chose. [The Calgary Flames and the Liberals, that's the same thing.]
robot guy: For those of you who can't make it to the party (or who live too far away from Calgary), one of the bars on the Red Mile has set up a webcam on their roof; it isn't operational right now, but perhaps come game time it will be. Hey, maybe that webcam will catch a few pickled party poppets showing their..ummm... enthusiasm. (Oh, c'mon, like you've never seen any nudity on the web before)

And that last post transitions nicely into...


FlamesGirls

In the CBC opening introduction yesterday, they showed several very large breasted Calgary fans jumping up and down and then moved to Don Cherry who elegantly stated "I love those lucky bounces!"

Kim Siever of Lethbridge had this conversation with his daughter after seeing a similiar introduction prior to game six:

My five-year-old daughter turns to me and asks, “They’re not dress very modest, are they”?
“No, they’re not”.
“We dress modestly, don’t we”?
“Yes, we do.”

Lots of people have talked about the infamous flamesgirls website - this American (the only non-Canadian blog being linked to today I promise) wrote this:

This series has plenty of interesting subplots.
....
There's the anticipation of trying to predict when flamesgirls.com will finally post a picture of a female who isn't a total skank.

Ouch.

Cherry

Alan didn't get an answer to his question: "I am waiting for the big news during this game 7's first intermission: will or won't he be back?"

But Debbye had some nice things to say about the icon:

The past 23 years with Don Cherry have been a delightful education for me. Like many women, I was somewhat astonished at this flamboyantly dressed man and more than uncomfortable with some of his statements. As my boys grew up, though, I felt relief than discomfort that someone other than their father and I was giving them some straight talk about sportsmanship (never sucker punch a guy from behind, kids,) backing up your teammates, and playing your heart out.

Final touches

Of course, thanks to David Janes for the Carnival - hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
Next week's Carnvial is being hosted by Sean at PolSpy - see you there next week.

The last word to another Albertan - Vicki from Just in From Cowtown - "Next Year".