Pittsburgh in six

30 teams started the NHL race on October 4, 2008. Pittsburgh started the season with a pair against Ottawa in Stockholm, Sweden and tonight they start the Stanley Cup Final in Detroit. WhatIfSports.com predicts Detroit in seven games. My WHL colleague on Shaw-TV, play-by-play announcer Dan Russell, has predicted Pittsburgh in seven. I will go along with the Penguins but think they will "take it all" in six.

Earlier this week, Shaw Communications and the Western Hockey League (WHL) announced they have extended their partnership for an additional five years. Shaw also had some exciting international coverage over the Christmas holidays that I voiced promos for.
Bring on NHL coverage for Shaw I say!

Anyway, a mass of Chris' in the Stanley Cup Final.

For Detroit: Chris Osgood, Chris Chelios and Kris Draper.

Pittsburgh has Chris Kunitz and Kris Letang.

Boats and Goats

The Indianapolis 500 race is tomorrow morning. 33 cars will start the race.
Here is the fast paced Marine Center of Indiana TV commercial I said I would post after my last blog entry.

From boats to goats...

The Vancouver Canucks may be out of the playoffs, but their efforts will live on — in Africa — after some charity-minded fans decided to do more than grow a beard to support the team. Visit: http://www.goatcanucksgoat.com

As of today, 875 goats have been raised for Africa

- UP 16 in the last three days!

Tyler Myers and the Kelowna Rockets are in the final tomorrow afternoon for the Memorial Cup to decide Canada's best junior hockey team. They will be taking on the Windsor Spitfires from the Ontario Hockey League. Proving again it is a small world, I began work yesterday for a new client in Windsor - an elearning company.

Do you want to be Canada's next Sportscaster? You could be drafted by the Score television network. This week on their blog, the Score linked to the sportscasting exploits of Shaquille O’Neal and the Buffalo Bills' Terrell Owens.

It IS a Small world...

UNLESS you are standing next to a 6’8” hockey player named Tyler Myers! It is worth mentioning again that he was the MVP of the Western Hockey League Final against Calgary, just like he was in the Western Conference Final against Vancouver. His incredible season included signing a pro contract with the Buffalo Sabres last Monday.
I am 5’10 1/2” if you are keeping score...

It really is a "small world." On the season finale last night of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the TV station featured in Indianapolis
was the same one (RTV6) I did a boat commercial for at the end of April.
I will post a link to it when I get a copy.
Last night's show got quite the response!
RTV6 has a detailed article here with links about Bernard McFarland, the single father of three who mentors area youth.

• Tonight on ABC-TV they launch the fifth edition of "The Bachelorette." Jillian Harris became a fan favorite on the last edition of "The Bachelor." She lives in Vancouver but grew up right here in Kelowna, BC. Her Dad makes a prediction for the show here from his home in Kelowna.

“It’s a small world” at Disneyland opened five weeks after I was born on April 22, 1964. Here is an informative historical discussion of the attraction.

Live Long and Prosper

Live Long and Prosper are the words that accompany the Vulcan salute. It is a hand gesture consisting of a raised hand, palm forward with the fingers parted between the middle and ring finger, and the thumb extended. Thank you Leonard Nimoy! The new "Star Trek" movie looks to be a big hit and features an appearance by Nimoy. This review says it Should Live Long and Prosper.


Live at Prospera Place this morning were three radio stations and fans like me to help send off the Kelowna Rockets to the 2009 Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Quebec. Susan Knight of Sun FM said it would take 41 days to walk there...

BUT the Rockets boarded their team bus and had a charter flight waiting at the airport. The Rockets won the Ed Chynoweth Cup Saturday at Prospera against Calgary! The game went into overtime with Kelowna winning 3-2. The MVP of the Finals, as he was in the Western Conference Final against Vancouver, was Tyler Myers. His incredible season included signing a pro contract with the Buffalo Sabres on Monday! Here is the link off the Sabres' website.I ended my last post with "the scoop" on some NHL coaches. Here I am this morning with the Rockets' Ryan Huska, the seventh head coach in Rockets franchise history. He is very calm, cool and collected behind the bench and has a bright coaching future ahead of him. He is only 33. How can you go wrong with someone who has the initials RH?

• Happy birthday tomorrow to Roy Halladay!
• The Blue Jays' ace turns 32 - same as his number.

Lucky number Seven?

Here on May 7th we had teams with 7 letters in their city names playing:
Kelowna and Calgary went at it in Alberta. 7 goals were scored in the game - won easily by the Calgary Hitmen, 6-1. The Kelowna Rockets can still win the Ed Chynoweth Cup Saturday on home ice against Calgary...

Detroit, Anaheim, Chicago and Vancouver all played in the NHL playoffs. The latter has 9 letters but Canucks has 7:) Chicago rallied late on home ice to tie their series with Vancouver at two games each. The Hawks won in overtime, 2-1. Former Calgary Hitmen junior Andrew Ladd scored in overtime to win it for the Blackhawks. He scored 57 goals over two seasons with Calgary - including the playoffs. His pro career (including the postseason) has now seen him score 51 times.

Detroit beat Anaheim 6-3 to even that series at two. The first star of the game was Johan Franzen, who scored Detroit's first two goals of the game. He has seven letters in his last name...just like the coaches:
Randy Carlyle and Mike Babcock.

There is a new hockey website out now called Make It Seven. Jim Balsillie of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is attempting to buy the financially ailing Phoenix Coyotes (yes, 7 letters in the city and name) and move them to Hamilton. It would be Canada's seventh team. Phoenix came into being when the Winnipeg Jets moved there in 1996. I would actually love to see Phoenix go back to Winnipeg! At the time of the Jets' move to Phoenix, it was estimated that about 600 area children played organized hockey. The number in Winnipeg — with roughly half the population — was around 24, 000. There you have a tale of two cities - starting with P and W.

Another tale of two cities - starting with P and W - takes place Friday night in Pittsburgh. Washington visits with a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven. Anaheim coach, Randy Carlyle, has a lot of good memories as a defenseman in Pittsburgh. He won the James Norris Trophy in 1981 as the NHL's best. Carlyle played six years there before moving on to Winnipeg for parts of ten seasons. The coaches in question Friday night (Caps' Boudreau and Pens' Bylsma) go back more than 15 years. Here is the article - "hot off the press" from the Washington Post.

A picture worth a thousand words? Thousands of calories...

The Kelowna Rockets can win the Ed Chynoweth Cup tomorrow on home ice against the Calgary Hitmen!

A big reason for the Rockets' rise in the playoffs is the man between the pipes, Mark Guggenberger. He was the first star last night in Kelowna and you can see him here. The PA announcer heard in the clip is a former radio colleague of mine, Bill Barnes. Bill's day job now sees him as a big part of Enquiro, a privately held search engine marketing firm with ten years of experience in search engine optimization (SEO) and sponsored search (PPC) to make your search engine marketing strategy more powerful.

From a recent Regan's Rant blog post comes this food for thought:
How popular is Mark Guggenberger in Kelowna? A local restaurant called the Grateful Fed had a special last week called the...wait for it....the Gugg-en-berger. What is the Guggenberger? It is a turkey burger with cranberry mayo.

That can only be topped by footage of U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden ordering lunch today at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia. My research here leads me to believe the President probably came close to ordering a thousand calories...

I think I came close to burning a thousand calories off after voicing this hockey promo for Shaw TV: