Thursday, May 07, 2009

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.

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