Wrath O' the Hockey Gods... Not To Mention the Wings

Detroit's Justin Abdelkader celebrates in front of his teammates and Pittsburgh's Philippe Boucher and Jordan Staal after scoring a goal during 3rd period action.

(JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP)

As you might expect, Gentle Reader, my morning has been completely consumed with reading what the sporting press has to say about last night's Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals. And there's almost literally a TON of stuff out there... which is semi-surprising for a game "that don't get no respect" in the generic sense. But as of this writing Google is listing 2,916 SCF Game One related articles in the press and 40 related blog posts. And George Malik posted enough video in a single post to crash my browser not once but FOUR times (Chase this link at your peril. You are warned.). I'd say that qualifies as "respect," wouldn't you?

Here's my favorite kernel o' wisdom from the morning's harvest... by Cam Cole, writing in the Vancouver Sun:

Indeed, unless there was a full moon that nobody noticed, it was either pure happenstance or some powerful statement by the hockey gods that allowed the dinged-up Red Wings, still with no Pavel Datsyuk or Kris Draper, to escape the first act of hockey’s great passion play with a 3-1 victory, a cushion they will be delighted to have with Game 2 looming just 21 hours after this one ended.

You may recognize a certain sumthin' in the passage above, which I've taken the liberty of highlighting in a bold red font just in case you might have missed it. Ring a bell? It should:

The Hockey Gods do not look kindly upon apostates; heresy is NOT allowed in this church**. The Faithful will note Henrik Zetterberg did NOT touch the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl during the presentation of same for winning the West this year. Ergo, The Cup will follow in due course. It's ordained.

Heh.