PLAYOFF BEARD, DAY 13

by Neate Sager, Out Of Left Field

It would not come as a surprise if the NHL actually had an Executive Vice-President, Ruining Anything Fun in Hockey.

As you know, the killjoys who know everything about the NHL except how to have fun with it -- unless it's league sanctioned, tightly controlled, on-message fun, the best kind there is -- cracked down on a Detroit Red Wings tradition. For the past two decades, Detroit fans have regularly tossed octopi on to the ice during the post-season, reviving a good-luck charm from the early '50s, when its eight legs symbolized the eight playoff wins teams needed back then to capture the Stanley Cup.

An arena staffer named Al Sobotka has become a folk hero, since he'll come out, grab the mollusk and twirl it over his head, to huge roars of the crowd. The league has said no more; the NHL will fine the Red Wings $10,000 if anyone but an on-ice official picks it up. Strangely, that wasn't the league's stance about a year ago. During last season's playoffs, the New York Times did a human interest piece about Al Sobotka -- the team mascot is even named after him, for pity's sake! -- and they seemed cool with it.

"The N.H.L. has hardly considered penalizing Sobotka.

"Frank Brown, the league's vice president for media relations, said: 'Every so often, an octopus slips out of someone’s hands, and Al is right there to take care of the matter. And he cannot be blamed if, as it tries to break free from Al's grasp, the
octopus lifts Al's arm and twirls itself in the air.' " -- May 20, 2007

This about-face makes you wonder how it is the NHL probably couldn't even get a TV deal with the Oxygen network today, even if it sent Patrick Dempsey to negotiate. (That was sexist. I'm so sorry. Ah, what the hell.) Any hockey fans who knows about the Red Wings, an Original Six franchise, knows about the octopus tradition. What's not to get?

The worst part? It's almost enough to warrant cheering for the Red Wings for their duration of the playoffs, just to see if Gary Bettman gets booed louder than usual during the Stanley Cup presentation.

Tonight's docket

Game 7, Bruins at Canadiens: This must be torture for all the folks who have been diehard, bleu, blanc et rouge-sporting fans of Les Glorieux since about the middle of February. Losing to Boston, the epicentre of bandwagon hoppers, would be the ultimate irony.

Alexei Kovalev has reverted to playoff form, the Bruins are outworking the Habs and Montreal's rookie goalie Carey Price has given up eight goals over the past two third periods. Strange as it sounds, Montreal might be OK tonight; the pressure might be off since everyone is bailing on them. Man, sports cliches are hard to get away from.

(By the way, if the Canadiens go through, start cheering for a Montreal-Dallas final -- George Gillett Jr. vs. Tom Hicks. They're kind of not getting along.)

Game 6, Capitals at Flyers (Philadelphia leads 3-2): There doesn't seem a likely way that Washington finds a way to win two more games and knock out Philly. The Flyers are tougher and Martin Biron doesn't look like he's going to crack in goal.

Alex Ovechkin isn't scoring, but at least the Capitals know that their win-or-go-golfing game bumped the Washington Wizards' playoff tilt to a less readily available channel. That hasn't happened in the District region too often.

About yesterday ...

Flames 2 Sharks 0 (Game 7 on Tuesday in San Jose): There's an APB out for San Jose's big trade deadline acquisition, Brian Campbell (no goals, two points) in the series. San Jose must really be confident it can close out Calgary at home in Game 7. Please, don't let Calgary be the only Canadian representative moving on to Round 2. It would just be a boring rehash of 2004.

Stars 4 Ducks 1 (Dallas wins series 4-2): Anyone else adopting Dallas as a sentimental favourite for dispatching the Ducks? The topper was the unloved Chris Pronger taking a penalty in the final two minutes that snuffed out whatever hope Anaheim had left. Dallas goalie Marty Turco also finally won a playoff series, and people seem generally happy for him.

Anaheim becomes the fifth straight Stanley Cup winner to fail to get by the first round of the playoffs the following season. Does anyone else believe that the season is just too damn long and the Cup winner has nothing left in the tank for the following season?

Red Wings 2 Predators 0 (Detroit wins series 4-2): Dan Ellis, the Nashville goalie, apparently collapsed under the psychological weight of propping up his outgunned team, as evidenced by Nicklas Lidström's series-winning goal on a dump-in from centre ice.




Far be it to suggest that Ellis gets a truer hop if the Predators were playing in Hamilton, Ontario rather than Nashville, Tennessee, which is significantly farther south.

Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.