Dark and Light

First, the less important stuff:

No upset in this year's Final, with the veteran Red Wings taking the series from the upstart Penguins, but kudos to Pittsburgh's lot for fighting until the literal final second. The third period of game five was one of the best I've seen in a long time. A bit of a shame about the game winner, but quite the match.

I would love for this win by Detroit (who used to be based in Victoria, B.C. of all places) to end three myths:

1) Europeans can't captain a Cup winner - though the polar oposite of Yzerman's dragging the team by the scruff of the neck force of will in 2002, Lidstrom's aura of fierce calm proved tremendously effective as other teams blew their cool trying anything to get the Wings off their game;
2) Europeans don't play tough in the playoffs - Zettergerg was one of a few potential candidates who fully deserved the Conn Smythe, three of whom were Swedish);
3) There are no dynasties in hockey any more - Detroit has been an awesone team for 15 years now. That they have "only" won the Cup four times in that span proves that the NHL championship is the hardest one to win in professional sports.

I'd add "3.5) That anyone likes Gary Bettman besides the owners (and even that's changing)" but decided to limit the list to things that people may have thought at one time.

Now to the more important stuff:

A young hockey player named Luc Bourdon died doing something stupid - riding a motorcycle that was far beyond his capabilities when he had a week's worth of experience. The stupid is compounded when it inspires people to write this drivel:

"Maybe another young man will be saved if NHL teams prohibit their players from riding motorbikes. Maybe we'll be spared this terrible emptiness again if they could be stopped from getting on a bike in the first place.

Last week, one scribe opined that the real tragedy of Bourdon's death was that it was preventable; that if these young players were made to understand the dangers of motorcycles, they'd never ride one."

Not even close. If I'm working for someone, I'm working for them: I am not owned by them. I decide what I wish to do with my health, what risks I want to take, and what sort of "lifestyle" (ugh) I'm going to have. The only concern they should have is whether or not I'm doing my job and doing it well. If not, talk to me, send me a reprimand, or have your resident jackal pink slip me. That is, after all, well within your power to do. Beyond that?

Piss off, frankly.

***

On a lighter note, I see that one of the owners of the Nashville Predators has filed Chapter 11, while Research in Motion co-founder Jim Basillie was in the Hockey News this week still looking to purchase a team and bring it into Canada, something both NHL Commissioner Bettman and the Toronto Maple Leafs have been actively fighting.

Lots of love to you both!