World championship

[Da Coach]

Not often do local fans have a chance to see one of the "local" teams play for a championship. And I realize not everyone here follows hockey or is a Blackhawks fan. But tonight, the Chicago Blackhawks play for their 3rd Stanley Cup in the past 5 years (they won in 2010 & 2013). Go Hawks!

I just got back from Tampa where I was able to watch the Hawks win game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa. What a blast!

Tickets for tonight's game are going for $3000+ each!

[tornado]

yes - you were visible on your red Blackhawks jersey when the camera guy went by during the National Anthem
...and was it you that distracted Bishop on the fluke goal play - ?

[Da Coach]

We were carrying on a conversation with his backup the whole game. I told him he would probably not have made such a blunder. But since I don't speak Russian, I am not sure how much he understood.

[Da Coach]

The Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup for the 3rd time in 6 seasons (they also won in 2010 & 2013)

http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/38471/third-cup-proves-blackhawks-are-among-the-eras-best

[tornado]

the announcer kept saying that every name of every member of every Stanley Cup winning team is on that very trophy...
but that is not true, as the trophy would have to be 10 feet tall...
those added rings with the names engraved keep being added on while the older rings are removed and displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame

One other striking fact - since so many of the players in the League are - and always have been Canadian - you'd think the Canadian teams would have a leg up on winning the Stanley Cup.
And that was once the case - back in the first half of the 20th century - it was won pretty regularly by a Canadian team - and even up thru the 80-90's (Gretzky era)..
BUT since 1993, 22 years ago - NO Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup.
I think the most interesting team to win was 100 years ago - in 1915, the Stanley Cup was won by the
Vancouver Millionaires!

http://globalnews.ca/news/1901811/how-the-vancouver-millionaires-won-the-1915-stanley-cup-and-revolutionized-hockey/

(btw, the Millionaires revolutionized hockey - because they changed the rules - and forced the east coast teams to follow suit...
up 'til 1915 players could NOT pass the puck forward (it was like rugby) and the only way to advance the puck was to skate & carry it forward.
The west coast teams changed the rule, the fans LOVED it and the east coast teams had to follow suit...that was the biggest rule change in hockey.)

[Da Coach]

An English language South Korean newspaper headlined the Chicago Stanley Cup victory. But there was one problem....they got the team wrong -

http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/06/17/stanley-cup-chicago-bears-blackhawks-newspaper-headline

[tornado]

speaking of World Champions....
I have read several opinions about Golden State's run to the title - suggesting that the era of the big man may be done and gone....

there have been eras where talented big men (Jabbar, Tim Duncan, Shaq with Lakers, Olajuwon, Dirk, etc.) made every NBA team take chances and use draft picks on big men (2006 POB, etc)...

but now with the emergence of small ball - Golden State looked dominating all year long using largely their deep pool of talented small guys (Curry, Iguodala, Draymond Green, Kyle Thompson...)
Their one decent big man (Bogut) was virtually dispensable...

This is good news for a lot of guys like Corey Hawkins, Keifer Sykes, and other smaller guys whose draft stock might have risen a bit....

Of course there's always a need for top big men but I think some teams might value ballhandling, shooting, and talents small guys have a bit more this year...

[Chico]

Yahoo sports has an article that said "Shaun Livingston was the perfect straw that stirred the drink" for the Clippers. Great tribute for the local guy. Congrats Shaun.

[Da Coach]

And despite the heroic performances by LeBron James and Stephen Curry the NBA Finals MVP was Andre Iguodala, who wasn't even a starter for the Golden State Warriors at the first 3 games of the Final series.-

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/13096860/andre-iguodala-golden-state-warriors-named-nba-finals-mvp

Andre Iguodala is from Springfield (Lanphier HS).

But the Central Illinois connection for the Warriors was key to their winning the NBA Championship.

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150611/SPORTS/150619808/11130/SPORTS