Brooks Orpik puts a Hurtin' on Marian Hossa

...oh... what? ... oh, was I really just dreaming? The Stanley Cup Finals don't start until Saturday?

Dang.

I am very, very, very excited that we are getting the grudge match I've been wishing for, if only because of the possibility of the carpetbagger Marian Hossa NOT getting the cup he carpetbagged his way over to Detroit for. Hossa is the Roger Clemens of hockey, and I hope Crosby and Malkin wipe the ice with him and that Brooks Orpik finishes him off. Since the Pens don't have Ruutu and Laraque anymore, Orpik's the closest thing the Pens have to an enforcer. But since he's getting up there in years (ready for the glue factory at 38), I'd hardly even call him a pest (a type best defined by Rangers closet-case Sean Avery); Orpik has become more, well, pesky. So if we have to have any sort of physical hockey during the finals, I hope it's Orpik on Hossa. (There was a rolling-around-on-the-ice fight during last night's Wings-Hawks game, and it was kind of refreshing to watch). Maybe it'll get old school and we'll see Chelios and Orpik go at it. Yeah!

You may find this hard to believe but hockey has gotten more, ahem, gentlemanly. Sigh. Where are the cementheads and goons of yesteryear? I like when the gloves come off and things get rough. It's part of the game. You remember that old joke, don't you? I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. Badump-bump! Chhh!

And speaking of the old-school hockey, take a look at Chris Chelios reminiscing about his favorite old coach:



Pittsburgh v. Detroit, Game 1, Saturday night, May 30th.

I'll be the one at Lansdowne screaming, "Englewood Jack! Englewood Jack!"