calgary-flames
Most kids idolize a particular athlete and basically worship the ground he or she walks on. When we were younger it was Magic Johnson, until that one fateful day when he took the microphone and said the words that shook us right to our cores: “Welcome to the Magic Hour!” We still get shivers thinking about it. For this kid, it’s Flames goalie Mikka Kiprusoff.
With the game out of hand on Saturday night, Calgary backup goalie Jamie McLennan went a little nuts and whacked Johan Franzen in the midsection with his stick. As you can see from the video, it’s not a huge slash but the NHL came down hard on McLennan and the Flames for the violation.
McLennan got a five game suspension, his coach got a $25k fine, and the Flames’ organization got a $100,000 fine. The league had warned all teams about any shady business late it the game after a game was out of control.
Franzen, the recipient of the lumber, got the last laugh as he scored the game-winning goal in OT of game 6 on Sunday to send the Flames packing from the playoffs.
Links:
[Canada.com]: NHL suspends Flames goalie 5 games
The last of the top rated western conference seeds went down yesterday as the Ducks dropped the Flames 3-0 in Calgary. Watching the game on OLN, the Pengrowth Saddledome (what an awkward name) was dead silent when Salei scored to make it 2-0. Flames fans knew that a comeback was highly unlikely they way Ducks goaltender Bryzgalov was playing.
At the end of the game, they showed a Flames fan offering congratulations to a Ducks fan in the stands. Dare we say that if this was Philly, that would never have happened, unless the handshake was a ploy to drag the opposing fan closer for a punch in the face. We were rooting hard for the Flames too. Not because we have an interest in the club, but we imagine that a run through the Stanley Cup playoffs would have brought us more pictures like these. Ahhh… missed opportunities.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, the Pistons felt they had had enough of the Bucks and blew them out to clinch their series. With the other series going 6 or 7 games, the Pistons will get some rest as they await their next opponent.
Can you imagine being a professional hockey player for 12 years in the NHL and being over $6M in debt? We feel really bad for Darren McCarty even if he was a Detroit Red Wing.
Among his debts are $185,000 to three casinos. Of course, this is what everyone is focusing on because of the recent Rick Tocchet scandal but McCarty insists that the did not bet on any hockey games. He had previously said that he wanted to compete in the World Series of Poker but considering his gambling losses, that’s probably not going to happen.
Look at his assets: $5,600 in jewelry, two Harley-Davidson motorcycles worth $16,000, $500 in golf clubs and a house where the mortgage exceeds its market value. Think about this for a second. This guy is a professional athlete, a former star in the NHL, and your golf clubs are worth more than his. That’s just sad.
Finally, the Red Wings bought out his contract last year for $539k but most of that went to his ex-wife. No wonder the guy is broke. I guess the sayings’ true. In the poker game of life, women are the rake man. They are the fuckin’ rake.
Links:
[Globe and Mail]: NHL veteran McCarty embarrassed by bankruptcy