Congratulations, Chicago Blackhawks

2010 Stanley Cup champions.

More categories...

We've probably got too many of these categories to ever be able to post them all, probably because I got just a bit too excited about this project and suggested a "Best Rapper" category. Crazy, I know. In any case, this blog wouldn't be here if we didn't think fans had a voice in hockey. Two categories honoring fans just seemed appropriate.

Famous fans are just as busy with their movies, TV shows, albums, clothing lines or what have you as they are with their passion for hockey. Still, it's always cool to see someone cheering at a game when you're used to seeing them at awards shows.

VINCE VAUGHN was born in Minnesota, so of course he'd grow up to be a hockey fan, but spent his childhood in Chicago. That's why his Blackhawks jersey remained pasted on throughout the playoffs. He's also frequently seen at the Staples Center for LA Kings games, and I'm starting to think that a major part of the Kings' fans just started out as expats from other cities who really needed their hockey fix.

JASON REITMAN, who probably resides in LA for most of the year, is further proof of my LA Kings theory. He's a huge hockey fan and has grown very fond of the Kings, but you can't take him away from his Canucks. Last year he was one of NHL.com's celebrity bloggers, and this year he cheered for the Canucks in LA during the playoffs. (The passion of a guy born in Montreal is all there, but the bleu-blanc-rouge isn't. I don't know why he's not a Habs fan, but I really like his work so I'll let it slide.)

ROBIN SCHERBATSKY is technically not a real person, but she is a minor New York celebrity on How I Met Your Mother. I've already mentioned on this blog that she's an awesome female hockey fan. She started the show's fifth season by agreeing to go on a date with a guy because he had Canucks-Rangers tickets, and wore one of her Vancouver jerseys in a sea of blue shirts. She also needed her best friend to make a Canucks analogy in order to understand why New York women want to date Yankees. Sure, she sounded just a LITTLE bit like a puckbunny, but considering that the girl knows her sport and owns multiple big Canucks jerseys, she can't ever be called one. Plus, there's a message board thread on actress Cobie Smulders' IMDB page discussing hockey. (The best part is the end, where someone mentioned the Habs.)

GEORGE STROMBOULOPOULOS, whose name I hopefully spelled right. is awesome. He's a vocal Habs fan whose feelings about the Leafs range from the "respectfully disagree" to, well, the expected. He came to town for the centennial. He keeps a Habs jersey visible in his office. He LOVES Saku Koivu, as any sane Habs fan should. And he was born, educated, and currently works in Toronto. Earlier this year, he auctioned off a Leafs jersey someone brought to the Hour, with proceeds going to charity, basically asking Leaf fans to get the thing out of his sight. He might just be the greatest of them all.

VIGGO MORTENSEN is probably the most famous of the famous Habs fans. (Starring in an Oscar-winning, globally popular film trilogy will do that to you.) My brother told me I'd never guess that he showed up at the Centennial game, and if I did guess, that he would literally buy me a pony. (A real one!) Viggo was my third guess, after two completely irrational answers befitting his "You'll NEVER guess..." however, I'm still waiting on that pony. But about Viggo: he's told the world he loves the Habs. He came to town in his well-worn Lafleur jersey and spoke French. I'm almost surprised Montrealers haven't started buying shirts with his name on the back.

Honourable mentions to Habs fan Alex Trebek, and onetime LA Kings game attendee, the delightful Jake Gyllenhaal.


As for the rest of us... lots of people call themselves hockey fans. Some of them can't name their hometown goalie, some of them bought a T-shirt a week or two into the playoffs, some of them ARE hockey fans, and some of them take it to the next level and let everyone know how much they love their sport. These are what we like to call "superfans" - the sporting equivalent of those long-haired guys who keep the KISS cover band together well into their fifties.

THE GREEN MEN have a taken a brilliant Always Sunny In Philadelphia joke and run with it like Usain Bolt. Sully and Force have made Vancouver the team to watch - if only for the entertainment. They've become famous for their flexible, sometimes crude antics by the penalty box.

MR. CANADA, whose real name is Dave Ash (according to a Saskatchewan newspaper) goes wherever Team Canada goes. Fans are often called "the seventh man on the ice," and Mr. Canada takes that to a whole new level. He shows up to every game, wearing his uniform, and he brings his own equipment (concise but sassy homemade posters).

ANGRY SAL (the image above is an artist's rendering) might just be the most popular Canadiens fan of the season. Thanks to word of mouth and YouTube, whoever missed his bit on Team 990 (airwaves for the insane!) has had a chance to hear it. We have no idea if this guy survived the postseason. Still, he's the #1 argument people can use in the "Habs fans be crazy" debate, and we love him all the same.

More on Coach

Gotta love these crazy news days, right? Yeah, me neither. I'm trying to counter all this NHL drama by watching me some WB drama.

In any case, all this Guy Boucher news has been a lot to handle in just a few days - and I'm not even the one all over his Facebook fan page.

We thought he was going to stay with the Habs organization, then we thought we lost him, then we thought we got him back, and now it seems like he's gone to the beach. This is probably even worse than knowing that Steve Yzerman, the man responsible for a gold medal at the Olympics, is working for a team that's inferior to both Team Canada and the Detroit Red Wings. OK, maybe that's the Canadian "nationalism" and Original Six jackassery talking. Now, Tampa has both Stevie Y and Guy Boucher. No more Coach after one glorious season with the Bulldogs, where he might have turned a lot of our top prospects into NHL-ready players. And, like the most promising of players, he's been called up.

Why couldn't it be the Panthers? They let all their talented guys get away eventually so we'd have a good shot at getting him back someday.

If I had to find a bright side to all this, I guess it would be that Lightning fans finally get some good news. Coach will make Steven Stamkos even better than he was this year. He might make Vincent Lecavalier, who's got one of the most ridiculous contracts in the NHL, worth the ridiculous money he's being paid. Because right now, the best thing Lecavalier's doing for hockey is making Scott Gomez look like one hell of a bargain. (Just kidding, Scott! Let's get some frogurt sometime and we'll gossip.) Or he'll just be one more francophone that RDS can talk to, so we'll have a bit more variety in interview subjects.

Guess we'll have to see what happens next.

Update

The winner of the "perhaps" derby, it seems, was "perhaps I spoke too soon."

For the record, this still isn't over.

Best of luck to Guy Boucher and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yes, I said it. Sue me if I'm not willing to torch the man for pulling a bit of a fast one on two leagues and 4+ teams' fans. Everything in the last post is no less true if/when this comes with an official presser.

Because it's mandatory I step in here

I have somewhat ridiculously long-term commitments to my favourites. One of my most long-standing is that with strawberries, eventually evolving into the combination of strawberries and chocolate. Try all they might, Chez Cora persists in the idea of getting me to order something else, but I'm a little--more like a LOT--difficult to shake.

Mark Recchi's been stuck with me since my hockey fandom started in 1998, despite sporting few jerseys since then that I would ever be seen dead wearing myself. Tomas Plekanec shares the same burden since his first (or second, if we're counting his draft day) public appearance in North America (Jamboree 2001).

He didn't even have a goatee then, to give you an idea. (Still the turtleneck though, so don't worry.)

Guy Boucher's a bit of a "new" one by my standards, running at four years now. I'll be the first one to admit that the ones that stick like the ones I've mentioned come with a little overprotectiveness and this is no less true even for the newbies. So here I go.

(credit, once again, to l'Express)

Every decision comes with two halves. No, it's not every day that a coach that's only been in the pro ranks for one year gets so much buzz and excitement, translating to offers from bona fide NHL teams. It's also not every day that said coach would decline the opportunity to move up.

But in all this rarity there's a little familiarity, from "weighing all the options" to "one step at a time." Individuals, and special ones such as Boucher, especially with his attention to detail and considerations of the whole picture, don't jump at just anything, no matter how good it looks. Remember, this is only June and the Bulldogs were just eliminated from the playoffs. Wrapping up that season is as new as most of the attention those accomplishments have brought him so far. The setting is very much the same as what it was last year, when the bubbly from the President's Cup hadn't even had time to go flat and in waltzed Julien BriseBois and the rest of the Hamilton crew.

I know what you're thinking: "That time he said yes. Did something go wrong?" Not necessarily. His demeanour approaching last year's offer and the one now have been the exact same--which is what the people who look at this latest turn of events with a puzzled eye may not necessarily understand. Personally, I was fully prepared to have to make another adjustment in him moving up again. But as much as his final word shocked many, I was thinking, "classic Boucher." If anyone knows how and why to say no, it's him.

As we will see July 1st, unrestricted free agents seldom say yes to the very first offer. Especially first-timers. Coachwise, it's hardly different. Boucher is very much a rookie himself--he would probably be the first to tell you--but he is certainly not unaware of the clamor and commotion surrounding him. All the vacancies, all the big city names popping up, all the upset fans in Montreal having barely made acquaintance to his name picking up a newspaper, seeing the quotes, hearing those of others and realizing how important it is to hang onto such a commodity. That's all well and good, and surely the Habs' and other organizations are not blind to this fact and not sitting quietly about it, but the final word is his and only his. Power like that isn't something to take lightly, and he is fully managing that situation. Columbus won't be the last, as we can already tell, heck, he might even just stay where he is. We've got a good while longer with this rollercoaster left to go.

Like you and I, Boucher is a family guy. In considering Hamilton, he also needed "a weekend." He said then, as he surely said recently, that if he saw anything that would hinder his family to adjust, he would stay put or look elsewhere. (Not that Columbus isn't kid and wife friendly, but moving to the States itself--I'd imagine--has to be somewhat of a significant deal after just having moved to Ontario the year before. Whether that's the case or not, that is a pretty focal part of his decision-making.) The more ambitious guys would find a way to make it work. But to Boucher, whose attitude is probably the most ambitious of all without even directly being so, finding the best surrounding conditions to undertake such a significant career move is as important a factor as the job conditions themselves.

Then there is timing. Boucher famously keeps his eye on the present, and firmly believes in each of his projects until he feels it's time for his involvement to end. Until he signs the dotted line, he stands by what he has going with the organization that retains him. Drummondville hadn't had a league championship to its name in its 27 years, but when the job with the Bulldogs wasn't set in stone yet, the mindset to get his players to repeat the 2008-09 performance was definitely one he had on his plate. So there is that speculation to consider as well. Perhaps he felt like his work with the Bulldogs wasn't done yet. Perhaps his plans extended farther than the third round of the Calder Cup. Perhaps he wanted to take those 30+ records and add to them. Perhaps he quite simply wasn't ready to move on just yet.

Perhaps, like me, he abides by some pretty strong commitment principles.

You and I can dispute all the perhapses until we turn purple in the face. But there certainly isn't and end to this story, nor will there be until all the spots in the NHL and AHL are accounted for. And even afterwards. So buckle up.

What I did on my blogging vacation

...Well, I didn't get a truckload of hours at work like I would have liked. Oh well. I took a little bit of time off because I needed a little break from blogging, and recharge, so to speak. I didn't think it would be so lonely.

It would have been stupid to take a week or two off from the blog during the playoffs, so I waited until there were no more Habs of which to speak. Suddenly everything was very quiet. I even started to miss the scalpers on Avenue-des-Canadiens... yes, the scalpers. That's how bad it got. Heck, I even joined Twitter when I was supposed to be on a break - that, kids, is what we call "taking a page out of the Mike Cammalleri playbook."

I pretty much jumped at the first chances I got to do anything Habs-related: I stared in awe at game-used sticks and equipment at the end-of-season Habs Zone sale. I picked up some merch for myself. I laughed at the teenager and his mom who stared at skates, bewildered: "How are you supposed to know which ones are your size?" I combed my house for exact change for the South Shore buses on the first two days of development camp.

By the way, how does a development camp differ from a scouting combine?

So I hopped on the 90 bus, for the first time since last July, when I spent most of my bus ride on the phone, getting hired for my first real grownup job (which, despite the economy, I fortunately still have and love). But that's a story for another day.

It's a pretty nice bus ride, compared to the loud, hot, smelly, jerky STM buses

You'd think it had been months since there was live hockey in Montreal. ~czechtacular and I dressed for the occasion, chose our seats, and settled in, preparing for an afternoon with no cell reception or WiFi.

Best seats in the house

Considering that my knowledge of each of these prospects is somewhat limited, I spent most of my afternoons watching the drills as a form of hockey catharsis, having snacks, and snapping endless pictures of Kirk Muller. I don't know why.

ok, maybe I do know why. Who doesn't love Kirk?

We even had a Guy Boucher sighting despite reports that he'd miss camp on Tuesday due to "family matters." And by now, we've figured out that these family matters were in Ohio and that Rick Nash was probably Steve Urkel.

Boucher, pictured here with a pink-shirted Jacques Martin and an unidentified bald man

Kids, there's nothing like spending a hot summer day inside a cold arena and finding every opportunity to make a pun on "Hunter Bishop." And, to be honest, Tanner House too. You very narrowly escaped seeing a picture of House captioned "It's not lupus." (But maybe sometime in the future.)

It's good to be back.

Next categories...

Pretty straightforward here. Who was the most valuable player for the entire balance of the season for the Montreal Canadiens? How about the Hamilton Bulldogs? Here's some of the reasoning behind HIHW's nominees:

Canadiens:
Jaroslav Halak: Unless you've been living under a rock, we might get away with not having to explain this particular one.

Brian Gionta aka Superman: A leader in every game that he dressed in the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. His relentlessness and fiery attitude led to him having the most goals on the team despite being in only 61 regular-season games. Some of those goals we still don't believe went in.

Michael Cammalleri: Point-per-game ratio in the playoffs, another close-to-thirty goal scorer and another example of "imagine if he hadn't been injured," Cammy won the hearts of many with his proposal-goals and ridiculous amount of shot-taking (hey, if you don't shoot, it doesn't go in) second only to Gionta in this category.

Tomas Plekanec: Establishing career-highs and returning to his form of two years ago to lead the team when those who were injured...were injured, he was your consistent everyday numero uno centre who could account for himself defensively as well as offensively. Until...you know. BUT. It's worth noting that for all the flack he's getting now, he was still 4th in Habs' pointgetters in the playoffs with 11.

Bulldogs:
P.K. Subban: Reasons, let me show you them:
Single Season Plus/Minus - +46
Single Season Points by a Defenseman - 53
Single Season Goals by a Defenseman - 18
Single Season Assists by a Defenseman - 35 (tied)
Single Season Power Play Goals by a Defenseman - 11
Single Season Plus/Minus by a Defenseman - +46
Single Season Overtime Goals by a Defenseman - 1 (tied with Yannick Weber)
Shootout Game Winners by a Defenseman - 1 (tied with Shawn Belle)
Single Season Shootout Game Winners by a Defenseman - 1 (tied with Shawn Belle)

Brock Trotter and David Desharnais: The two were instrumental leaders for the Bulldogs, each coming off impressive 2008-09 campaigns. It's a little hard to name one without the other, because they both notched key goals in the regular season and playoffs. My scouting is a little remiss (aka purely statsheets minus a handful of regular-season games and the playoffs) but I have backups who are capable of elaborating on this if need be.

Cedrick Desjardins: Okay, so he had help in a pretty decent supporting cast, but he established records of his own in wins and shutouts. He made the All-Star squad, and with Curtis Sanford formed a goaltending tandem to be jealous of, registering a 2.00 GAA and .919 SV% for his part in the regular season. None too shabby.