2016 Stanley Cup Finals

[billmcdee]

The San Jose Sharks are playing in their first ever Stanley Cup finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Now I don't really follow hockey at all, but I do check the scores to see how the playoffs are going.

I am pleased that the Penguins made it since it will irk Flyer fans who are jealous and other nasty things.

I am pleased the Sharks are in it for the first time ever.

I loathe all Philadelphia teams and a lot about the city in general.  So to those Flyer fans who are jealous all I can say is this...




MWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!

Haven't won a cup since 1975, back when the league only had maybe a dozen teams???  A TEE HEE, A TEE HEE, A TEE HEE!!!!!

[jmdarrall]

I'm with you, Bill. I do not like the Flyers, either. Since my Dad's side of the family is from Pittsburgh, I have a very strong attachment to the city, and I remember the Pens' first Stanley Cup victory under the great Mario Lemieux. I am pulling for the Penguins to win, but it would be cool to see an expansion team go all the way. The Sharks have surprised a lot of the hockey world.

[koopakid17]

I got a reprieve when the Penguins knocked out the Lightning. That was for eliminating my Islanders!

Should be a great final match. It could go either way but I'm pulling for the Sharks.

[billmcdee]

I was bummed too about the Islanders getting the boot.  Seems funny to call them that now that they play in Brooklyn, and no longer on Long Island.

[jmdarrall]

Brooklyn is actually on Long Island, so the name still makes sense.

[billmcdee]

Oh wow, I honestly never knew that before.  I picture Brooklyn being more inward.  I've never been.  Time to brush up on my American geography!

[koopakid17]

Geographically speaking, the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and the counties of Nassau and Suffolk are Long Island. For political purposes, Brooklyn and Queens are part of New York City and the counties are Long Island. While it would make sense to call them the "Brooklyn Islanders", they don't have to change their name because of the geography.

[blackwoodcompany]

Well, game one is tonight, and I don't know who to pick.

[jmdarrall]

Pens took Game One!

[Bill Skinner]

Sharks come back to win Game 3, and now they're down 2-1, with Game 4 tonight. Along with the Warriors in the NBA Finals, wouldn't it be cool if they both won?

[billmcdee]

Since learning that San Jose' is a "Sanctuary City", I can not root for them.

That being said, and being from Pennsylvania, and being a Steelers fan, I am rooting for the Penguins to take it all.  Was so glad to see Pittsburgh won game 4 last night, now they are just one win away, and the best part of all, this will stick in the craw of Flyers fans who will be so jealous...

The Eagles are going nowhere, the Phillies are pathetic, the Flyers are mediocre at best and the Sixers, I can count on just 2 hands the number of victories they had this past season.

And in spite of their draft order or picks, it isn't going to matter.  Philadelphia is another loser city.

Phillies, only 2 World Series wins since it began in 1903, and the Phillies were around all the way since then (and even before).  And who did they beat in the World Series both times?  Expansion teams.  The Royals were barely a decade old in 1980, and the Tampa Bay Devil Dogs (Devil Rays, but in 2008 they were the Rays) in 2008.  Tampa Bay from 1998-2007 were the worst team in baseball.  Big whoop, they beat up on 2 mamby pamby expansion squads.  They've never defeated a legitimate contender.  And they only made it in 1980 because of Pete Rose.  Pete was to the Phillies what Viagra is to an impotent man.

Eagles - 2 Super Bowl appearances, almost a quarter century apart, and both times they choked.  First time was against a wild card team...a WILD CARD TEAM?!?!?!?!??!  They just about always choke in the playoffs, that is when they even MAKE the playoffs.  The crappy Redskins even have THREE Lombardi Trophies, the Giants have 4, and the Cowboys have 5.  Every other team in their division has a MINIMUM of three....MINIMUM....Do you hear me Khan?  DOOOOOOOOOOOO YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? (William Shatner from "Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan").


1983, the Sixers last title, and at that, they needed Dr. J, a former NEW YORK Net.  33 years, a third of a century and they haven't done squat, even with the so-called "great" Allan Iverson.

Flyers have 2 Stanley Cups, back when the ink on Nixon's pardon was still wet.  1973-74 and 74-75.  Over 40 years without a title.  They got to the Finals in 87 but were smoked by Edmonton.  One other year they got their butts handed to them by the Detroit Red Wings. 

I loathe the city of Philadelphia.  The last winning team they had was in '76.....SEVENTEEN 76 that is, Hancock, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin just to name a few.

Having grown up in the Trenton NJ area, I was blessed to get both New York and Philly stations.  I just about always watched the New York feeds since Philly would constantly interrupt for stupid stuff that they thought was newsworthy, be it a snowstorm, or the time the Packers plane landed in Philly for a divisional playoff game.  Not a conference championship mind you, but a piddly DIVISIONAL playoff game.  They are so desperate to be significant in a positive way and yet they aren't.

Endless murders every night, fires galore, lawlessness.  Ineffective leadership for decades, with perhaps the lone exception being Mayor McCheeseSteak himself, Ed Rendell. 

The "great" Philadelphia hospitals down there were unwilling to try to help my aunt to get a lung transplant, so she and my uncle ended up going to Pittsburgh.  Ultimately she passed away before she could get a lung, but at least Pittsburgh gave them some hope.

My wife's best friend who died in 2009 from ovarian cancer once got an IV screwed up at a "great" Philly hospital.

This Thursday, June 9th, will mark 15 years since my mother died at the University of Penn hospital. 

Sorry to go on such a rant.  I just want people to fully understand why I deplore the city of Philadelphia, and their fans, and the local yokel media, both television and radio (especially Mike Missenelli who is such a bag of hot air, had he been on the Titanic, he would have kept it afloat).  For months Missenelli kept rambling on about getting Marcus Mariota.  Finally I e-mailed him and said "You should change your call letters to W.M.M.R.  (Marcus Mariota Radio).  He must have talked him for six months or more, since the crappy city had nothing else going on sports wise, and it was all for nought anyway.

They were so thrilled to get rid of Andy "I gotta do a better job" Reid and were all aflutter when Chip Kelly arrived.  I knew ultimately he would fail too, and he did.

I think I have made my stance 100000000% clear about how I feel about that city.  There's another word that rhymes with city that springs readily to mind too when I think about it.

[Bill Skinner]

I feel you, McDee. As a huge New York sports fan, I despise Philly teams as well. As a Mets fan, it always gives me the greatest joy to see them beat up on the Phillies, and I'm glad that the Yankees beat them in the 2009 World Series for their record 27th World Championship. While I wasn't around for the (Miracle) Mets' first World Championship in 1969 (or the Jets' only Super Bowl win from earlier that year), I still remember jumping around for joy as a 10-year old upon learning that the (Amazin') Mets had won their second title in 1986. The Giants have four Super Bowl championships, as you pointed out, and the Knicks and Nets have two championships each, although the Nets' titles were from their time as an ABA team, and they've never won any in the NBA, although they made it in back-to-back years in New Jersey (losing to the Lakers the first time, and the Spurs--a fellow ABA team that did not win its first championship until 1999, its 23rd season in the NBA-- the second time around). Hell, the Rangers and Islanders own four Stanley Cups each, and even the outsider Devils have three of their own. So with that being said, I would like to see the Penguins win it all, though I wouldn't be too upset if the Sharks somehow mounted a comeback and won either.

[billmcdee]

I remember that 1986 series too.  I was 19, but was jumping around like a 10 year old when Buckner flubbed that ground ball to first base.

1986 collectively was the single best and most dramatic post-season in MLB history.  The Mets-Astros NLCS, the Red Sox-Angels ALCS, capped off by that unreal Fall Classic.  There will never be a post-season as awesome as '86 to me, even though my boys (the Yankees) weren't in it that year.

Some folks wondered why I didn't root for the Red Sox in that Series, since they were the American League, like the Yankees.

I said "New York first!"  And there's no way ever that a Yankee fan could root for the Red Sox... blech!  

[blackwoodcompany]

SHARKS CUT THE LEAD WITH A WIN AT GAME FIVE

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With the Penguins up 3-1, the Sharks easily won game five 4-2 to cut the series lead to 3-2. Game six is Sunday night, but I have not paid attention to that.

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SPECIAL SIDE NOTE

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I am thinking that starting next year that I should have the same for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Finals.

[blackwoodcompany]

PITTSBURG PENGUINS STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS TONIGHT

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It is now over to tell you. The Penguins won 3-1 tonight to win the series 4-2 and take the cup. I have not paid attention to the game and was not sure originally so I think I need the rest to fill me in.