Well, so much for my seven part recap of last year’s finals. The skinny on games two and three: Lightning returned to form, Kipper was awesome, Stillman got the crap beat out of him (deservedly), Lecavalier and Iggy proved that stars can fight, and the two teams split the two contests.

One year ago, one of the most infamous games the Flames have ever played, and ever will play took place at the madhouse that was the Pengrowth Saddledome. It was a ridiculously tight checking game that otherwise could have gone down as a defensive masterpiece, except that it will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. It was also a game that also proved hairspray causes brain damage.

There are really only two things to remember about this game: The 5-on-3 in the first, and Niemenen running Lecavalier in the third.

This game was decided in the first period, but not by “clutch hero” Brad Richards. No, it wasnt decided by the players, but by the referees. In particular, one referee: Kerry Frasier. In a series of decisions that will baffle me for all time, and which angered an entire city to the point where the NHL was left with no choice but to change officiating assignments for game 6, Kerry Fraser took the the game away from the players.

Barely 90 seconds into the game, the chain of events went something like this: With the play deep in the Lightning zone, Darryl Sydor runs Jarome Iginla from behind with Fraser looking straight at the two players. Inexplicably, he decides not to call a penalty on this play. Watson evidently did not see the hit, as the play was starting back up the ice. A few seconds later, Frederik Modin is hauled down by Mike Commodore, who had no choice but to take the penalty or risk a fairly easy goal against. This call was made by Watson. Behind the play, and with everyone knowing that Calgary was already going a man down, Chris Clark and Nolan Pratt come together, with each taking a fairly weak swipe at the other. After deciding a check from behind wasnt worthy of a call, Frasier somehow decided that the Flames deserved to go two men down. In game four of the Stanley Cup Finals, Fraser made one of the weakest penalty calls of the entire season.

Instead of what should have been a Flames powerplay, or at worst, a one man advantage for Tampa, Frasier handed one of the deadliest teams in the league a full two minute two man advantage. The gift goal the Lightning received turned out to be the only goal of the game. And while the obvious - and accurate - counter argument is that the Flames were unable to tie the game in the remaining 57 minutes, the fact remains that Tampa didnt really earn their goal either. But for Kerry Frasier, this game is scoreless for who knows how long, as neither team was really able to penetrate the defense of the other the rest of the game. And while Tampa Bay might have won legitimately anyway, chaging nothing, we will never know, as Kerry Frasier ripped the decision from the players.

The second play that will be remembered forever in Calgary was Niemenen’s hit from behind on Lecavalier. While you can’t really defend Ville, as it was as much a hit from behind as the one Sydor layed on Iginla in the first, and it was also deserving of a major, as the hit drew blood, it is Lecavalier’s reaction that really drew the ire of Flames fans and players. Before I get into that, it is notable that once again, Frasier was staring right at that hit, and once again, Fraser chose not to make the call. It was Watson who called the penalty from across the ice, as this time, he saw it.

All Lecavalier had to do was get up, go to the referee, show the blood, penalty called. Instead, he had to make a big show of it, playing dead for the benefit of the referees. (He must have picked up some acting lessons from Mike Ribiero). There were even stories that one of his teammates told him to stay down. Watson skates over, looks at Levavalier, announces the major while the fans and Flames players were getting ready to applaud Lecavalier as he struggled back to his feet — only to see him jump right up with a big grin on his face and do his little hair flip towards the Flames bench. LORD IT WAS A MIRACLE!

Not surprisingly, Niemenen was immediately suspended for the hit. A curious decision given that the NHL admitted it was basing a decision on suspending Stillman for his illegal check in game 1 on whether Nilson could go for game two. While there was no doubt Lecavalier would not miss any time, no such concession was made towards the Flames forward on a hit that was no worse than the one Stillman laid out.

The game ended as it began, with the crowd mustering up all of the vitrol and venom it could and aiming it towards the referees. That fury would be captured, and used by Darryl Sutter before game 5, as he launched a Gretzkyesque tirade against the NHL and it’s decision making, suggesting that the league was cheering for Tampa to win, and that it was the world against the Flames.

The most striking part of this game was the looks on the faces of the fans during and after the game. Quite honestly, if the same events had taken place in a town like Detroit, there would have been a riot. The fury in the eyes of the fans was that strong.

However, ultimately, the final verdict of this game is that the Flames lost their chance to take a stranglehold on the series, and we were headed back to Tampa Bay to begin a best of three for the cup as everyone in North America was left to wonder how the Flames would bounce back.

I missed this one because it was most likely part of baseball coverage but Brian Bradley blasted Gob and Bary last week:

“I think both of them are in the wrong,” he said. “I don’t think both of them should be around once the deal is made. We need a change.”

“I think Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow have ego problems,” Bradley said. “I’m not saying Gary’s a bad guy. I’m not saying Bob’s a bad guy. I know them both personally. But after everything is said and done, what they did to the game, they damaged it.”

Just anothner voice of discourse from a former star…. While the current players remain mostly mute.

The NHL is set to hold a Research and Developement meeting at a small rink in Toronto… They’ll be trying new things out, keeping an open mind… The possibilities for change are quite a few.

But until a new CBA is reached (and until the dust settles from this lockout), these changes still amount to re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic — while the Titanic sits on the ocean floor. Changes alienate those fans who remained loyal during the lockout, and only detracts from fans who have run from the game because of the CBA warfare. “They changed the game? Ha! I’m happy I got out while I did!”

Eric over at Off Wing had posted about ESPN Declining broadcast rights for the NHL in 2005-06 under the current contract. I had attempted to write up my own piece and opinion on the entire situation on Boltsmag but what I wrote was destroyed by a browser lockup….

However, I did comment on Eric’s thread:

Am I the only one who sees this as a positive isntead of a negative?

Fact — the NHL would be treated as red headed step children and below by ESPN if they did pick up the option this year. Everyone KNOWS that ESPN is oversaturated with sports content and they’ve veered off the sports focus and put more focus on entertainment. The Hockey coverage during the playoffs last year sucked so bad it wasn’t funny….

I say — good riddence. I also say that Gary should be on the phone with Dick at NBC and talking about another deal — another sweetheart for NBC Universal — to move gamves back onto USA Network where they used to appear. USA has had basically zilch since WWE RAw and the Westminster Kennel Club dog show left. It also has the reach that ESPN had and more of a reach than ESPN 2 has (which was the channel that would end up hosting most NHL games).

Give it a year or two for the NHL to rebuild their base and hopefully spark ratings on USA and then renegotiate….

Being free of the Mouse is a blessing for the league, even if people associate ESPN with sports — the NHL was treated poorly by ESPN and I say good riddence.

And yes, i repeat phrases too often and my spelling sucks - what’s your point?

The fan walkout sponsored by OustNaimoli.com and VinceMustGo.com is today during the Seattle Mariners vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays game at the Trop this evening.

There won’t be many in attendance, and of the people in attendance, only a fraction will be participating in the walkout.

From under my rock I happened to hear that the Oldsmar Sandsharks have a new Head Coach. Out is Dave Beaudin, in is Bob Whidden…. As in the winningest coach in Ohio hockey history, former coach of St. Edwards High School…

Meetings conclude blah blah blah still a ways apart blah blah blah plan to keep talking blah blah blah open dialogue yada yada yada committed to discussion blah blah blah cautiously optimistic yada yada yada need for more talks yada yada yada Bob and Gary blah blah blah getting closer blah blah blah fragile discussions blah blah blah….

My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the workings of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby.
–Robert Browning, Childe Roland of the Dark Tower Came

I don’t know… I started thinking of a game one recap and the first stanza from Browning’s poem came to mind… I happen to be a big fan of Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga and game one of the Stanley Cup Finals does not at all seem to be linked to this poem…

But then again… That stanza, that verse…

When I recall Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals, I think about my initial excitement. This was the Tampa Bay Lightning doing the impossible…. They were about to play in the grand event of hockey… Something that seemed implausible and impossible 5 years ago with the depths the Lightning were in. More than five years, in fact… countless years of wondering if the Lightning would rise above mediocrity, rise above and — dare I suggest it — dominate.

But I’ve been through that melodramatic stuff before. I’ve already said the pomp-and-circumstantial openings, throwing out cliché’s and what not. What about the game? What about the game?

And for that, I go back to the opening stanza to Browning’s poem…

My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye

Game One was a lie. Game One was presented as a lie to those who had followed the Lightning in 2003-04. This is not discrediting Jerome Ignilia, Marcus Nilson or anyone else on the Flames roster for taking advatage of the lie workings - this is stating that the team that showed up on ice was not who I (nor TB fans in general) should have recognized.

I’ll whine about the Philadelphia series taking a lot out of the Bolts — Six days off would be a luxury the Lightning could desperately have used after the bash-fest versus the Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals. That rest was in Calgary’s advantage this time (just as it was in the Lightning’s advantage after the sweep of Montreal in the Semi-finals)… The saw an opportunity and took it - which the Lightning themselves were able to do so many times the past season.

Keith mentioned in his post about Tampa Bay getting away with thuggary in the opening game. This brings up two points - one for this game and one for the series in a whole. The Bolts thuggary did deserve major penalties - and I was aghast that it happened at the time. Anyone who looks at that game objectively knows Stillman and Roy are intentionally doing what they were doing. Aside from that, this would show a greater issue during the entire series (and one that had been seen time and again during the playoffs) of officiating and a lack-there-of. That’s a can of worms that’ll be opened in due time… But it first reared it’s ugly head here with Corey and André getting away with their antics.

And to Calgary, one game up against this Lightning team that had been written off and laughed at by the Media all playoffs long…?

Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby

We were going to have to play a hell of a lot better than what we put out that night if we weren’t going to be the 5th division champion that Calgary had dispatched.

Today begins what I hope will be a seven part retrospective of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals. Rather than a bland, dry recap, I hope to tell the story from the point of view of a Flames fan. Dry recaps can still be found on the websites of all major sports sites, but hockey, more than perhaps any other sport, is ruled by emotion.

Today, two sides are locked in a life-or-death struggle for supremacy over the National Hockey League. One year ago, the same could be said. Except that one year ago, the battle was fought on the ice, as the Stanley Cup Finals opened up featuring the unlikely Tampa Bay Lightning, underrated by everyone in hockey and the impossible Calgary Flames, who had no business even being there.

I always had something of a “dismissive liking” of the Lightning before this series. While I doubt I would have cared either way if they didn’t exist, they were a team I didn’t mind cheering for, and if Montreal or Ottawa couldn’t make the finals, Tampa was as good a choice as any to represent the East. However, that feeling died the second the final buzzer sounded a few nights earlier, and Dave Andreychuk ignored the Prince of Wales Trophy.

You were now the enemy. I hated you. By the end of the series, I would come to hate some of you more than others, but let’s leave that for the game six recap…

We had already knocked off all three division champions from the West. The top team of the weakest division in the East shouldn’t be much of a problem, or so many of us thought. The result of game one only reinforced this belief. In Calgary, the media was throwing out stats like “80% of the teams that win game one go on to win the Cup.”

And really, why should we have felt worried after the first game? Despite six days off, Tampa couldn’t take advantage of Calgary’s rust, generating few great scoring chances. The vaunted Lightning powerplay only managed to go 1-5, and gave up a shorthanded goal on Iginla’s remarkable second effort play. When the Flames got their legs under them, they simply rolled right over Tampa’s defense, and by the time the second period had ended, the Flames were up 3-0.

While a lot of people - especially in Tampa - were talking about the “skill and finesse” of the Lightning vs. the “dirty goons” from Calgary, this game proved immediately that such characterizations are not very accurate, as the Flames simply out skilled the Lightning in the first two periods, while the Lightning resorted to the goon show in the third.

On the same play in the third, Cory Stillman left his feet to elbow Marcus Nilson in the head, while Andre Roy crosschecked Ville Niemenen into the boards from behind. Both plays should have resulted in major penalties, as both were deliberate attempts to injure, however the referees ultimately chose to only call minor penalties against the two players. It is still absolutely baffling that the league would announce that it would suspend Stillman only if Nilson was unable to play in game 2. Just goes to show the league hadn’t learned a thing from the Bertuzzi incident, but that is a can of worms that I really don’t want to open right now.

Honestly, what did we have to fear from this Tampa Bay Lightning team? We outworked them, we out chanced them, we outscored them, our goaltending was better, and when push came to shove, the Lightning could only counter with cheap shots.

Though one realistically had to expect Tampa would rebound and return to its own game, on this night one year ago, we were only interested in partying.

After all, 80% of teams that win game one go on to win the Cup.

The city of Tampa and Raymond James Stadium hath been awarded the 2009 Roman Numeral Classic.

Winning the bidding war over Arthur Blank and Atlanta’s presentation, Tampa has squelched 150 Million dollars worth of improvements to Georgia Dome that Blank was hoping for. Continuing rivalry, anyone?

This will be the area’s fourth Super Bowl. It’ll be the third that I’ve been a resident for. It’s odd, cuz I still can remember it like yesterday when I had friend bragging about being part of the Half Time show of Super Bowl XXV (one of the greatest games of them all). Of course, none of them were on TV because ABC decided to forgo halftime-show coverage in favor of coverage of the Persian Gulf War…. But it still was a huge event.

Just, this time, please do not allow Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears or even Whitney Houston anywhere near the show…. please?