to move up and down
New idea or totally sexist?
The CBC is planning some counter-programming for female non-hockey fans as the Stanley Cup final begins next week, but faced a backlash on Twitter as a slew of posts denounced the idea as sexist.
Viewers can go online to listen to an alternate commentary from Lena Sutherland and Jules Mancuso, who run WhileTheMenWatch.com. They describe their site as a sports talk show for women, “Sex and the City” meets ESPN, with banter “from a woman’s point of view.”
“One afternoon while (our husbands) were both watching the same game on TV Jules and I were on the phone and we started just making comments to each other like, ’Did you see that guy’s hair?’ and ’What’s going on with that coach wearing the suit four sizes too big for him?”’ said Sutherland of their web show’s inspiration.
“And we kind of thought, ’Wow, this is funny, wouldn’t it be great if we could tune into an alternative version of the commentary from a female perspective?’ And that was kind of where we got the idea.”
Not everyone was happy with CBC’s decision.
“Seriously #CBC? While the Men Watch? I’m a serious sports fan and can go toe to toe with any male fan. Thanks for the patronizing insult,” wrote Laurie Kempton.
“Everything’s OK. Thanks for your concern” — Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur said on Monday, after being asked whether he was OK after getting punched in the face in Sunday night’s victory over the Rangers.
Two Swedish researchers compiling an encyclopedia of hockey history have made a few significant new discoveries, including what they’re calling the earliest known image of a hockey player — a well-dressed skater with a curved stick and flat-edged puck striding along England’s ice-covered Thames River in December 1796.
Sport historians Carl Giden and Patrick Houda have also unearthed an extremely rare book published in 1776 that includes the first detailed description of field hockey — ancestor of dozens of derivative sports, from NHL hockey to ringette to the underwater game of “octopush” — as well as another vintage illustration of a group of boys at play that’s considered the earliest of its kind.
The engraving of the Thames River skater came to the researchers’ attention after a U.S. collector purchased it from an antique shop in Maine. Though the image was printed in 1797, Giden and Houda believe the scene depicted took place in December 1796, when a spell of unusually cold weather swept across Britain and froze rivers and ponds throughout Greater London.
The picture’s background even contained a clue — a distinctive obelisk situated on the riverbank behind the skater — that allowed the Swedes to pinpoint the location of the scene as a bend of the Thames near the Kew Observatory west of downtown London.
A second boy seen lacing up his skates is believed to be sitting on the edge of Islesworth Ait, a large, teardrop-shaped island in the middle of the river.
The IIHF World Hockey Championship ended in agony once again for Canada.
“It’s deja vu,” general manager Kevin Lowe said after a 4-3 quarter-final loss to Slovakia on Thursday.
It’s the first time in history Canada has made an early exit from the tournament on three straight occasions. The country also suffered quarter-final losses in 2010 and 2011.
“It hurts like hell right now,” said captain Ryan Getzlaf. “I feel like I let the guys down. To be in a hard-fought game like that and play the tournament we did and lose in that fashion, it’s not easy to swallow as a group.
“The guys worked way too hard to be delivered something like that.”
Don’t get in his way: Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith (L) goes after Los Angeles Kings right wing Justin Williams (14) in the first period during Game 1 of the NHL Western Conference final. REUTERS/Todd Korol
This kind of sums up what happened last night between the Predators and Coyotes. Country music star Carrie Underwood reacts to a play during the Predators-Coyotes game.
For Phoenix, it was a tale of two victories - a potential sale in the works, and an appearance in the Western Conference Final. But for the Predators, it was a night of what ifs - and questions about how their dream season turned to dust.
Life in the dying seconds
These two teams seem destined to be separated by some small thing, some fragment — a puck that bounces just right, a stick that catches just enough of a puck, a shot that is not quite blocked enough. It’s so close. Anything could matter.
And in Game 5 of their second-round series, the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals extended their slow dance with a heart-pounding late goal by the Rangers to force overtime. And with only 1:35 gone in overtime and the Rangers on the power play, a Marc Staal drive from the point bounced its way through a crowd and past Braden Holtby for a 3-2 victory at Madison Square Garden that gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead in the series. Game 5 takes place Wednesday at the Verizon Center in Washington, and the Capitals will face elimination. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
This is for all you “Bones” fans: The Stanley Cup dropped by the television show’s set on Wednesday. We don’t know whose skull that is, but click through for more photos.
The thinnest of margins
Bruce Arthur: Towards the end of the second period, Boston’s Rich Peverley was being pushed around, and he turned at Washington goaltender Braden Holtby and started an angry two-handed slash that he stopped short of the Capitals netminder by a few inches, just enough. Holtby stood with his arms crossed, a statue. He might not even have blinked.
And Game 7 between Boston and Washington was about who would blink first, and who would follow through. It was the first playoff series in NHL history to have all seven games decided by a single goal; it was as close as a playoff series can possibly be, or has ever been. And the final goal of the series belonged to Washington, on a goal 2:25 into overtime, for a 2-1 victory. The margin, as it had been all series, was a skate blade, if that.
Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
Senators have history with Game 7: Rarely have truer words been written: “Not that this was the Senators’ chosen path, it is their fallback option,” columnist Wayne Scanlan wrote in the Ottawa Citizen. “And they may regret, dearly, that Game 7 was even necessary.”
The Senators had a chance to complete a first-round upset of the top-seeded New York Rangers on Monday night, but allowed three goals in the second period to lose 3-2 at home. Ottawa will face New York in Game 7 on Thursday. They have never won a Game 7.
