I’m lucky to have friends that enjoy entertaining and are willing to host poker party / card nights and open houses and invite anyone that wishes to stop in and enjoy each other’s company and some really delicious food.

Especially in this holiday season I encourage you to be “hyper-local”, stay home, make a meal, have your friends over and enjoy the games on TV.  The holidays, for me, are all about being together with friends and family.  It’s fun, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than going out to eat!

Origins:

The sport we watch and play today began as immigrants to cold weather climates—primarily in Canada—struggled to adapt familiar games to an unfamiliar climate. The first indoor hockey games on record were played in the mid 1800s, while the first “official” set of ice hockey rules were published in an 1877 issue of the Montreal gazette. Today, many different provinces and towns lay claim to the “first” ice hockey game on record, but there is no clear winner.

Making it Official:

• In 1888, 11 years after the first rules of hockey were determined; a league of six teams was assembled in Canada. Surprising for the times, the first women’s ice hockey games began during this time period as well; though men’s teams would move on to dominate the sport.
• The Governor General of Canada, also known as Lord Stanley, donated a prize to the infant hockey league in 1893; the first team to win the coveted Stanley cup is from Montreal.
• Colleges and universities from the United States catch hockey fever in the last years of the decade; Canada still dominates the sport in its infancy, but hockey establishes a hold on the northern United States as well.

Early Years:

• In the early 1900s, individual teams and leagues form in Canada and specific regions of the U.S. the next two decades see a lot of shifting loyalties, as leagues are formed and disbanded. Early hockey leagues paved the way for today’s NHL, and included the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the National Hockey Association and the International Hockey League.
• In 1920, ice hockey becomes an official Olympic sport – as part of the summer Olympics. Not surprisingly, Canada takes home the first gold. 4 years later, in 1924, ice hockey will be added to the roster of Winter Olympic games. Canada sails to an easy victory again.
• The “Original Six” hockey teams begin to play; by 1940, the Bruins, Blackhawks, Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Rangers and Red Wings have all taken to the ice as part of the growing NHL.

Middle Years and Miracles:

• While the Original Six teams will dominate hockey for over two decades, other cities begin adding professional teams. In 1972, the World Hockey Association is established, with teams from all over the world participating.
• Hockey screams into the mainstream media, when the underdog United States team defeats the Soviet Union and Finland to capture Gold in the 1980 Olympics. The “Miracle on Ice” propels the NHL to an all-time high in terms of interest and viewership.
• In the 80s and 90s, the NHL continues to add teams from diverse areas, including states more typically known for sunshine and beaches than ice. The Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning join the NHL by 1993. While some of the new additions are better received than others, Tampa Bay will take home the Stanley Cup just over a decade later.

NFL Team with the Most Games Won in a Season: 1972 Miami Dolphins

The 8th Annual 100 innings of Baseball game for ALS will be held once again at Adams Field in Quincy, MA over Columbus Day weekend starting at 9:00am on Saturday, 10/08, and continuing for 33+ straight hours, ending sometime Sunday afternoon, 10/09.
Curt Schilling will once again be playing this year. His son Gehrig, a high school junior from Medfield, is expected to pitch some. Curt and Shonda Schilling continue to support of the ALS cause. They’ve been true champions and have been directly responsible for raising over 10 million dollars for ALS since Curt began his major league career.

Reeboks is sponsoring the game for their 8th consecutive year, providing durable game equipment to those ironmen playing in this world’s longest game.

Donations can be made at:
http://www.gratefulnation.org/100innings

Since it’s inception in 2004, the 7 previous games have raised a staggering $488,000 for ALS, an incredible amount especially in these tough times.

In 2011, participants in the 100 innings and umpire chief Walter Bentson will align with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the ALS Clinic at BIDMC to help patients and programs in their clinic. Walter is an ALS patient himself, yet continues to be the umpire chief for this game, and for more than 14,000 regular season games around Boston during the regular season.

This is a moment that Bruins fans, and the city, have been waiting for for years.  The diehards know that is has been 39 years but the influx of “new fans” can barely claim to have been waiting as long.  I use the term “new fans” as opposed to pink hats because in this case it does truly appear to be new fans that aren’t pretending to know everything about the team, and were just fans, a far stretch from the Pink Hats over at Fenway Park!

You may be wondering why I didn’t do any updates throughout the series and to be honest with you, I was to invested in the series to even write about it.  I was never a Bruins fan when I was growing up but a few years ago Toucher and Rich came to Boston and made Hockey relevant again to the city, and to me.  Hockey is an incredibly easy sport to love to watch.  It is fast paced, requires tremendous skill, and the hard hits keep things interesting.  I found myself spending some of the off nights of the series re-watching some of the previous games and being my own analyst, trying to find out how the team could improve.  Clearly they did not need my help!  Whether it was Horton going down or not that sparked this team to victory we’re not quite sure, but they won, and won in style.

Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another 39 years!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BOSTON BRUINS!

You can knock the power play all you want but up until this point the lack of a decent power play hasn’t sent the Bs packing, yet. I’m not going to come out and say that the power play is a non-issue; clearly something has to be done to make it effective if the Bruins have any hope of success should they make the finals. Julien finally made some changes at the end of game 5 including putting Zdeno Chara at the post with the 3 defenseman powerplay. If they can become more effecitve and capitalize on the powerplay they are going to make it a lot easier on themselves.

The Bruins are going to take the win in Tampa tonight and here’s why:

1. Tim Thomas
   • 50% Man / 50% Machine and 100% amazing.
   • His 33 saves the other night were capped off by what may be one of the greatest (luckiest) saves of all time.
   • With Thomas being as hot as he is it’s going to be difficult to get anything by him.
2. Guy Boucher
   • It seems like the man that has been credited by some as one of the more creative and intelligent coaches in the league is stumped when it comes to the Bruins.
   • His team looks visibly shaken and it’s going to be difficult to get them back on track although they do have home ice.
3. Dwayne Roloson
   • According to sources Guy Boucher is swapping back to Roloson for the big game tonight.
   • Roloson was benched for game 5 in which Mike Smith put up a stellar performance in which he was only really responsible for one of the goals.
   • Boucher is really rolling the dice on this one and I think the Bruins are going to benefit from the frustrated coach’s indecision on who to put in net each night.

The Bruins are only going to be without Marc Savard as Johnny Boychuck is cleared to play after taking a big hit from Steve Downie. Don’t expect too much out of Tyler Seguin tonight either, although the young rookie was certainly impressive the other night he’s not getting the open ice he wants to be as effective. The Bruins need to be physical to win this one as the Lightning are immensely faster on the ice.

Although my predictions are incredibly inaccurate, I’ll keep trying:

Bruins 4 – Lightning 3

Bruins head to Stanly Cup Finals!

P.S. – Does anyone else think that Steve Downie is a no talent, cheap-shot giving, cry-baby, attention monger? His call for attention the other night was pathetic. Who sits on the bench and stares at the ice after a Game 5 loss that doesn’t put your team out of the playoffs?

A CRY BABY LOSER NAMED STEVE DOWNIE!

• Steve Downie is crushed at centre ice by Sergei Kostitsyn
• Don Cherry Calls Out Steve Downie
• Steve Downie Gets Hit by Laraque
• Steve Downie Slashes REFEREE

Steve Downie – A True Class(less) Act

Look for Thomas to start settling back in to his rhythm after being thrown off by a break between the series. This should be a lower scoring game as both goalies have something to prove after two huge scoring games but.

Seguin should also play a larger part of the B’s offensive gameplanning so look for him on the power play.

My prediction:
3-2 Bruins win in OT.

BRUINS LEAD FLYERS 2-0

The Boston Bruins will take on the Philadelphia Fylers tonight at the TD Garden in attempt to take a 3 game lead.  Although the Bruins power play can be described as lackluster at best, the penalty kill and Tim Thomas’ goal tending have kept them winning.

Tonight’s game is sure to be a tough physical match up as the Flyers fight for their first win of the series.

HEAT @ CELTICS (5/7 @ 8PM on ABC)

HEAT LEAD CELTICS 2-0

I really don’t have much to say about this one besides the Heat are up 2 games to 0 heading into Boston.  It just looks like the Celtics can’t finish out a game, which is what the critics were saying about the Heat before this match up.  I haven’t been watching the games but I’ll tune in to this one and try to get an update out on it ASAP.

ANGELS@ RED SOX (7:10 PM NESN / ESPN)

SOX LEAD ANGELS 2-0

This is more of an update for you loyal Red Sox fans.  If you read my previous post, you know I’m not all that into baseball this year.  The Red Sox are hoping to take game 3 of this 4 game series to even up their record to a stunning 50%.  With a record like that, it’s no wonder I’m not into them this year, I say to myself while donning my nice new Pink Hat!

I’ll try to keep you all up to date on what happens and thanks for coming back to the Boston Super Blog for your updates.  (I know we were in and out there for a while but I think we’re BACK!).

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