Oscar Gamble Society

2-1 in OT, courtesy of the Nashes who collected 1 goal and three assists between them.

Despite being manhandled by St. Lawrence over the weekend, Cornell only fell one notch this week to 5th place in this week’s poll. Harvard remains not only unranked, but without a single vote in the poll. Which is nice.

Cornell crushed by St. Lawrence tonight, 8-1. Ouch.

The ELyhah Forum features the following Important message to ice hockey ticket holders:

Hello Season Ticket Holders,

Thank you for your cooperation in promoting good sportsmanship and in creating an inviting atmosphere (no profane language) in Lynah Rink. 

I will grant that some of the cheers don’t necessarily put the University’s best face forward. At the same time, coarse cheers at hockey games strike me as a venial sin at worst, and I can’t help feeling that the fact that someone has time to spend on the issue strongly suggests that Day Hall could do with some layoffs as part of the University’s belt-tightening.

Wow. Do the Montreal Canadiens employ Greg Louganis as an assistant coach? If Canada’s Olympic Team runs short of skilled divers to send to Beijing later this summer, the Canadiens roster is full of suitable replacements. Heck - the Canadian Olympic Diving Team could learn a thing or two from their hockey counterparts. For their first round matchup with the Bruins, the Canadiens acting skills were more Oscar-worthy then Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (horrible movie, btw, but I digress).

I looked up the “diving” rule in the NHL rulebook: (more…)

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=463718

Huh?  The Canadiens have won 22 Cups in their long and illustrious history, but haven’t won one since 1993.  Still… they just won a *first*-round series, (more…)

In case you haven’t been paying attention, and judging by the lack of posts, you haven’t… the NHL has started its annual Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Some of you will remember the Stanley Cup as that shiny bauble that we drank from almost five years ago… while others of you will remember it as… well, that shiny bauble that you *could* have drank from with us five years ago.  But I digress…

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The Bruins were unable to put the biscuit in the basket last night against the Canadiens in Game 4 of their first round matchup in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  As a result, they lost.  See, I’m pretty sure that in the NHL, if your team cannot score *any* goals, then you automatically lose… it’s like their law.

Perhaps its the frustration of losing to the dreaded Habs for now the 236th time in the last 237 games (or something like that - actually I think its like 14 of the last 15, but it just seems like a lot more), but today I’ve heard folks in several different places whining about the number of Canadiens fans in the Fleet (nope - I refuse to call it “the new Gah-den” when the Bruins play in it, they haven’t earned that right).

Wow.

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According to the New York Times, he’s still married to the former Mrs. Ron Greschner, (trading down from a Ranger to an Islander? Things are tough all over, I guess.) but instead of playing for her hometown Islanders, he’s now starring for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv in the Russian Superliga.

The article suggests that the Superliga is emerging as a competitor to the NHL for top hockey talent. As seems standard for the Times these days, though, the headline assertion isn’t supported by much evidence. The Superliga’s talent raid on the NHL appears to consist of an over-the-hill Yashin and assorted journeymen, making it more of a competitor to the AHL, or possibly the ECAC.

And even that level of competition is supported mainly by money flowing from the global commodities boom, rather than sustainable economic growth and the emergence of a bona fide middle class. The subtext is one of renewed nationalism, with former Red Wing and Stanley Cup winner (and 1980 Bronze medalist, snicker) Slava Fetisov grousing about the NHL “stealing” Russian players. But $100/barrel oil and a proto-fascist regime in Moscow waving the bloody shirt may be as good as it gets for the Superliga. The oil boom and Putinism will one day fade, and the NHL will continue to offer a brighter future to the world’s best hockey players, Russian or otherwise.

Plus, can you imagine a crappier team name than “Lokomotiv?” So 19th-century. It would be like calling Detroit’s team the “Horseless Carriage.” Clearly, the scars of Communism will remain with Russia for years to come.

The color barrier fell in the NHL, when Willie O’Ree took the ice for the Boston Bruins. Which means the Bruins actually integrated before the Red Sox. I wouldn’t have guessed that.