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?

Though he expresses his views in a post entitled Sour Grapes and explains his sour grapes int he comments fo his post, Tom Benjamin does what I and others on the blogosphere have done in recent months and take time to discredit and discuss the phenomenon that is known as Eklund and his “Hockey Rumors” web site.

Make sure you take time to read the comments on this one… It’s a great bit of information for those who take Eklund to heart (for one sick reason or another).