People are talking about...Roy Halladay's perfect game

On Saturday, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy "Doc" Halladay pitched a perfect game.

A perfect game means that no player on the opposing team reaches base for any reason - not a hit, not a walk, not a home run. In other words, every batter that comes up to hit goes right back to the bench to sit down.

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A perfect game is rarer than Lindsay Lohan showing up to court; in fact, it's happened only 20 times in the history of major league baseball. That's 20 time since 1880 folks, or 20 times in the last 130 years.

It's so rare and so special that the Florida Marlins (the home team in the game) have put the unsold tickets for the game back on the market. People can buy their own little piece of history and have some collateral when they lie to their grandkids about being at the game.

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This perfect game is bitter-sweet for me. Halladay used to play for my team, the Toronto Blue Jays, but got traded before the start of this season. It's hard to know we gave up the best pitcher in baseball, and it would have been great to see him do this in a Blue Jays' uniform.

But Halladay is the type of guy you have to be happy for. He played for 15 years in Toronto, and was always classy, humble, and good to the fans. When he left Toronto, he even took out a full-page ad in the paper to say goodbye.

On a personal note, I once saw him in a Sobey's grocery store. He is very tall. My guy spent 45 minutes following him around like he was RPatz.

Three things to know about Game 1

1. The Blackhawks won, 6-5.
2. Flyers goalie Michael Leighton got pulled out of the game after giving up 5 goals on 20 shots (that's pretty bad).
3. The game-winning goal was scored by Tomas Kopecky, who had been sitting out for the last 5 games. He only played last night because someone else was injured.

That's it, you're caught up. Game 2 is Monday night, 6pm PT/9pm ET.

Leighton out, Boucher in.

The Holy Grail

Yesterday we talked about the conference trophies, today, a little history lesson about the big enchilada:

The Stanley Cup, also known as Lord Stanley's mug or the Holy Grail, is probably the coolest trophy in sports because A) if you win it they engrave your name on it for all eternity and B) you can drink out of it.


It's also the oldest trophy in North American sports, donated by then Governor General of Canada the Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892. It was just a bowl, but they've added rings to fit people's names in.


Another cool thing: unlike most other sports trophies, where a new one is made every year for the victorious team to keep, this one is returned by the winners before a new champion is crowned. Each player gets a day with the Cup to do whatever he wants, and the Cup has had some adventures. It's been around the world, starred in the soap opera Guiding Light, and met Presidents and Prime Ministers.

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The Cup's also been used as:

1. A baptismal font
2. A dog dish
3. An engagement ring bearer
4. A sleeping companion (many players have admitted to taking it to bed with them)
5. A urinal (seriously)

It's also been thrown in numerous pools, dropped in a bonfire, left overnight on the side of the road, and drop kicked across the Rideau Canal.

New Jersey Devils' goaltender Martin Brodeur takes a dip.

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Teemu Selanne (right) of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and his neighbour's baby.

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Pool party!

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Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins takes a nap.

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Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks gets contemplative at Kootenay Lake.

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Buddy, Sean O'Donnell of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' dog, enjoys lunch.

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Brad Richards of the Tampa Bay Lightning on his boat.

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The Stanley Cup is not a trophy that sits in a display case, but rather one that's meant to be shared and enjoyed. Tonight when the Flyers and the Blackhawks face off, I'm sure their plans for the Cup will be dancing in their heads.

To touch or not to touch?

Tomorrow the Stanley Cup finals begin between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers.

To get there, each of these teams had to win their conference by beating 3 other teams. The Blackhawks won the Western Conference and the Flyers, the Eastern Conference.

Each conference hands out its own trophy to the winner.

The Western Conference has the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl:

And the Eastern Conference has the Prince of Wales trophy:

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There's some debate among players and fans as to how to celebrate a conference championship. Some believe that it's bad luck to touch these trophies. The real prize is supposed to be the Stanley Cup, and the superstitious think celebrating prematurely could jinx their team's performance. Others feel that winning the conference is a huge accomplishment in itself and should be celebrated as such, trophy and all.

This year, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews refused to touch the Bowl, explaining "You know, big deal, it's not what we're after. We're here to win the Stanley Cup.... We're not satisfied yet." What else would we expect from Captain Serious?

In the East, Flyers captain Mike Richards had the opposite reaction:

"It was actually a little bit of a debate on the ice.... My first instinct was to grab it.... We haven't done anything conventional all year, especially in these playoffs. So might as well go against the grain one more time."

We'll have to wait and see who had the better strategy. For the record, last year the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrated with the Prince of Wales trophy, and they won the Stanley Cup. Their competition, the Detroit Red Wings? They had refused to touch their trophy.

Trevor Linden, celebrating after the Vancouver Canucks were crowned Western champs in 1994. Not only did he pick it up, but he dropped the lid (see, it's already fallen off in this picture). The Canucks lost in 7 games in the Stanley Cup final.

Stevie Y in TB

Some news today in the hockey world: Steve Yzerman, whom you might remember as the man who put together Canada's gold medal winning Olympic team, is the new General Manager for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Steve Yzerman used to play in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. He won 3 Stanley Cups with the club before retiring in 2006. He's from Cranbrook, B.C. and is often referred to as "Stevie Y."

In my humble opinion, he is also one of the most handsome men in hockey.

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His new job as a General Manager (or GM) basically means that he is responsible for signing players, negotiating their contracts, and trading them.

He has his work cut out for him: the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, but have been terrible since then and have seen their attendance drop steadily.

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Also, there are a couple of Tampa Bay players, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, that Stevie left off of Canada's Olympic team, so he may have some hurt feelings to deal with too!

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Best of luck to you Stevie Y!!

Captain Serious...Seriously Hot!

The Montreal Canadiens lost last night, ending their magical playoff run. That means the Philadelphia Flyers will duke it out with the Chicago Blackhawks in the final round of the playoffs.

Since the Blackhawks will be going to the Stanley Cup finals, I thought it made sense to feature one of them as our Monday Man. On a team full of gross guys I strongly dislike (Patrick Kane, I'm looking in your direction) Jonathan Toews stands out as a seemingly nice guy and major cutie.

Nicknamed Captain Serious by his teammates, Jonathan Towes (pronounced Taves) is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba and the captain of the Blackhawks. He is the youngest current captain in the NHL, having just turned 22 at the end of April.

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Wait, did I go to highschool with this guy?

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When he was a teenager he played for Canada in the World Under-17 tournament and later at the World Juniors, winning a bunch of gold medals along the way. He also won gold with team Canada in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics earlier this year. Oh, and he also scored on his first shot in his first game in the NHL.

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Don't worry, all hockey players wear leggings like this.

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Aside from an arrest at a bar in Grand Forks for underage drinking (he was 18 at the time), his rep is pretty untarnished. He's been described as "a budding superstar with his ego in check; an Olympian who still brings his hard hat and lunch pail to work every day."

I still want the Blackhawks to lose, but I have to say, I'm standing at attention for this Captain.

What a good Canadian boy!

When to bring your broom to the game

Yesterday the Chicago Blackhawks swept the San Jose Sharks.

A "sweep" means that one team, in this case the Hawks, wins all the games it needs to win the series without losing a single game. In other words, Chicago won four games in a row and San Jose didn't win once.

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This is a pretty embarrassing thing to have happen, and super disappointing for the fans of the team that gets swept. Fans on the other side love it though, and will often bring brooms to the rink the day of the potential fourth victory to rub it in.

Now the Chicago Blackhawks are headed to the Stanley Cup finals. They'll play either the Montreal Canadiens or the Philadelphia Flyers. Since I dislike the Hawks so intensely, I will have to root for whichever team they face. Unfortunately, Chicago looks unstoppable right now.

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At least the weather is nice....

The Habs

Today we feature the last remaining team in the playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens.


They are currently down 2 games to zero against the Philadelphia Flyers. Not only that, but they have yet to score a goal in this series.

Nevertheless, Canadiens faithful are optimistic. The first two games were played in Philadelphia, but tonight they're playing at home in Montreal. The crowd is so loud there people often say it's like having an extra player on the ice, so we'll see how it goes!

Fun Fact: The famous Canadian children's book The Hockey Sweater features the Montreal Canadiens prominently. A passage from the book appears on our $5 bill.

Big Names:








Mike Cammalerri, our Monday Man from May 11th.























Andrei Markov










Brian Gionta, one of the smallest guys in the NHL at just 5'7"

Better late than never

Yesterday got so hectic I managed to forget all about our weekly Monday Man. My apologies for the delay. Today's featured hottie is Ray Emery of the Philadelphia Flyers, whom we'll use to gain a little insight into the team, namely their goaltending situation.

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Ray "Razor" Emery was born September 28th in Hamilton, Ontario. Now if you like bad boys, he's your guy. Note the following:

• He ate a cockroach found on the dressing room floor in a bet and used the $500 he won to get a tattoo that says "Anger is a Gift."
• He got in an accident speeding to the airport in Toronto after sleeping through his wake-up calls for a team flight to a playoff game. His white Hummer was damaged, so he switched to an orange Lamborghini for awhile.
• He's gotten in several well-publicized fights with teammates during practices.
• He has a python named Brendan.
• He once had Mike Tyson painted on his mask, until his team told him that having a picture of a convicted rapist on his helmet was just so not cool.

His off-ice antics, combined with some pretty poor play, got him booted off his team at the time, the Ottawa Senators. No other team wanted him, so he headed off to play in Russia for a year - a serious demotion.

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Before this season the Philadelphia Flyers decided to take a chance on him and signed him to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. Philly fans hoped he'd make the most of this second shot, but unfortunately he got injured early in the season and later learned that he would miss the rest of the year with hip surgery.

In hockey, you generally have a number one goalie who plays most of the games (and all the important ones) and a backup who steps in when he's injured or to give the number one guy a rest.

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Emery was the starter in Philadelphia and a fellow named Brian Boucher was his backup. When Emery got hurt, Boucher became number one and the Flyers picked up Michael Leighton to be their number two.

Then in the last round against Boston, Boucher got hurt when one of his own defensemen fell on top of him. So now Leighton is number one, and some Swedish guy named Johan Backlund (who's played only 41 minutes in the NHL) is the backup.

Right now, Leighton's playing great. He had a shutout (meaning he let in zero goals) on Sunday night against the Canadiens. But with the Flyers' bad luck with goalies, I wouldn't be surprised if he got hurt soon too. Canadiens fans are probably hoping for that after the last game.

Not just home to the Fresh Prince

Yesterday the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the San Jose Sharks in the opening game of their series.

The Montreal Canadiens, meanwhile, got pounded 6-0 in their first game of Round 3 by today's featured team, the Philadelphia Flyers:

Fun Fact: The name was decided in a contest back in 1966. It was chosen because it captures the speed of the game, sounds good with "Philadelphia," and would fit nicely into headlines. The logo is a "P" with wings (the orange dot is a puck).

Big Names:

Jeff Carter

Chris Pronger

Mike Richards

What would YOU do if you made millions of dollars?

Today, the Chicago Blackhawks:

They're young, they're fast, they're felons. Okay, not really, but star player Patrick Kane was arrested for assault.

Fun fact: They like to drink Kokanee and party shirtless in limos (see photos below, taken the night before they lost 5-1 to Vancouver in the opening game of Round 2).

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little hard on this team because they just knocked my team out of the playoffs. But still, those pictures ain't pretty.

Big Names:

Jonathan Toews (pronounced Taves, he is known as "Captain Serious" to his teammates)








Patrick Kane













Marian Hossa

Great whites?

Alright, we're into the third round of the playoffs. This means there are 4 teams left: in the West, the San Jose Sharks will face the Chicago Blackhawks, and in the East, the Philadelphia Flyers will play the Montreal Canadiens. The winner of each of these series will play for the Stanley Cup. Like in every round, they'll play a best-of-seven series, meaning the first team to win 4 games moves on to the next round.

To get you ready for the next couple of weeks, I'll give you a brief synopsis of each remaining team over the next 4 days.

Today, the San Jose Sharks.

Hockey in California? Yes, it's weird. Nevertheless, they were the best team in the West all year.

Fun Fact: They're known for choking in the playoffs. Over the past 5 years this team has been amazing in the regular season, only to fail miserably during the time that matters - the playoffs. The last time they made it this far was back in 2004 (they lost). Any bets on their chances this time around? Oh, and they also skate onto the ice out of a giant shark head.

Big Names:

Joe Thornton (nicknamed "Jumbo Joe")

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Joe Pavelski (Little Joe)

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Rob Blake (you might recognize him from his cameo in The Love Guru, er...did anyone see that movie?)

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Dany Heatley