Double Championship Challenge Update: Off to Round 3!, Amongst Other Hockey Thoughts.

Alright, an update on the Double Championship Challenge:

With Pittsburgh’s shocking (?) elimination also sees the departure of contestants Grant McMillan and Adam Whitmore. 

Bergeron and the Bruins are done, but no one put any stock in them.  Mark Recchi’s easily the NHL’s best “Old-Guard” player left.  Scored a lot of goals this year, and did well for himself.  I hope he sticks around for a few seasons yet.  That is, unless he can’t take a hint like Chris Chelios went he got sent down to the AHL and kept hanging around.  I think Mark’s value will be decent for a few seasons yet. 

And easily my favorite elimination, the Canucks exit sees Casey Fodor and Jeff Bourne bow out. (my favorite because I hate the Canucks, not because of who picked them).  I’ll admit, I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Luongo after the Gold Medal, but not soft enough to cheer for him while there’s a whale on his chest.  I’ve never seen so many people want a captain stripped of his captaincy so badly; sad really.  I’m sure he’s doing a better job in that role than he’s being given credit for.  I know I hate on the Canucks and their fans a lot, but I will miss the way the inhabitants of GM Place sing the Canadian national anthem together.  If there’s one thing they’re doing right, it’s that.  Anytime the singer can stick the mic in the air mid-song and have the crowd take it from there, you know you’ve got a good audience.  Oilers fans at Rexall do it well too. 

So, with those developments, we’re down to 3 contestants and teams.  Here’s what we have left:

Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook, and Duncan Keith – represented by Rich Abney.

 

Mike Richards and Chris Pronger – represented by Ryley Herzog.

 

 

Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton, Dan Boyle, and Patrick Marleau – represented by Rob Cunning.

Did that big duface Chris Pronger and the Flyers make themselves contenders after pulling off the greatest playoff upset in history (only 3 teams in history have ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series; the Flyers were the only of those teams to comeback from a deficit in the last game to win as well), or did they just burn themselves out to get lit up by Montreal next round?  In that same notion, are the Canadiens a legit Cup contender now, after knocking off arguably the 2 best teams in the playoffs?  As long as Montreal doesn’t keep spoiling everyone’s fun, one of our contestants will be our champion in 2 rounds of play. 

Also, I think I’m going to allow someone to select Corey Perry, who has a chance to win 2 championships for Canada in the same year; that is, if Canada’s B Team can go all the way at the World Championships.  As I’ve said before, that World Championship title doesn’t seem to mean a whole lot when the best players in the world are not competing for it.  It’s far from a Stanley Cup,  but it’d still be pretty cool.  Any takers????

Can Jonathan Toews change his last name’s spelling to Tayves already, or some other phonetic spelling that makes sense?  There really wouldn’t be any worry about disgracing the family name I’d think, Johnny’s easily the top Toews around.  Just a thought.