When Joe Sakic officially announces his retirement, the NHL will not only be losing one of its best players of all-time, it's also going to be losing one of its best leaders and captains, and from nearly all accounts, an incredibly classy person. A rarity in the modern sports culture, Sakic spent his entire 20-year career with the same organization (Quebec/Colorado), scoring 625 goals and finishing with 1,641 points (eighth most all-time).
HOMESTEAD, Pa. -- Phil Bourque spent eight of his 12 NHL seasons as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, helping the team win two Stanley Cups in the early 1990s. Since the 2003-04 campaign, he's worked as an analyst for the Penguins radio network, and we had an opportunity to catch up with him at the team's Championship DVD release on Monday night.
Among the topics discussed: How do the current Penguins compare to the teams he played on, which current Penguin is the modern-day Phil Bourque, and why are hockey players the most approachable, fan-friendly athletes in sports?
In Chicago, Milton Bradley further endears himself to Cubdom by flipping a ball into the seats with two out, a farcical sign that 100 years without a World Series title soon will be 101. In Cleveland, the poor people still haven't won a championship in any sport since 1964 and might lose LeBron James to New York, assuming the gulls and midges don't eat him first. In Buffalo, they're not yet over the sting of reaching the Super Bowl four times and losing four times, which still trumps chicken wings as the civic identity.
"That's life," Bradley explained. "These people have high expectations. I have high expectations for myself. I never made a mistake like that (losing track of the outs) in my life. Sue me."
"Something needs to be done," the Indians' Ryan Garko said of the birds and bugs that attack Progressive Field. "There's got to be a way to get rid of them. It's kind of embarrassing. We look like a bunch of kids playing on an abandoned field. It's kind of funny, but kind of not funny."
During the Penguins' game 4 win on Thursday night, captain Sidney Crosby finally had his bust-out game of the Stanley Cup Final, recording a goal (the eventual game-winner) and an assist in Pittsburgh's 4-2 win to tie the series at two games apiece. The performance helped him eclipse the 30-point mark this postseason, joining his teammate, Evgeni Malkin, who is currently the leading scorer in the playoffs with 35 points, putting the duo in some elite, historic company.
It's not exactly a national secret that hockey teams tend to go through coaching changes about as often as a high school kid goes through a change of clothes (speaking on personal experience, that's about once per year). As we begin the conference finals, it's probably worth pointing out that three of the four teams taking part -- the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks -- experienced a change behind the bench during the regular season.
There was a time when my favorite sport was, without hesitation, baseball. Recently, however, my interest in the game has been lost. Not because of a steroid scandal or the incompetence of Bud Selig, but mostly because the team I grew up cheering for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been a Major League Baseball team in name only and is currently working on its 17th consecutive losing season with no end in sight.
You might argue that makes me a fair-weather fan, but I disagree. My interest is so low that if, by some perfect storm -- like the rest of the National League halting operations and disbanding from the league -- the Pirates actually won something, I still probably wouldn't care as much as I should. I just don't care about baseball anymore, but I certainly don't begrudge those who still do. It's still a great game, even if my interest is at an all-time low.
Thanks to the events of Tuesday night, as the Capitals and Hurricanes advanced in their game 7 victories, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals will be taking part in a playoff series that could very well consume us all. We've seen playoff series' get hyped before, but nothing will come close to the tidal wave of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin coverage that is about take the NHL by storm. Consider yourselves warned.
Before we look ahead to the madness, let's take a few minutes and remember the glory days of one of the best playoff rivalries the 1990's ever produced.
During the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it's not uncommon to hear local radio stations blasting corny "fight songs" over the airwaves in an effort to build excitement and support for the home town team. At least, I think that's why they do it. The problem is, many of the songs are awful, and so bad that they make your brain bleed out of your ears. But what happens when they're not only somewhat catchy, but when they're recycled from one city to another by simply replacing team and player names?
Let's ask the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes.
On Wednesday night, the Penguins and Flyers face off in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs to battle for Keystone State supremacy. It's the fifth time the two teams have met in the postseason. The Flyers won in 1989, '97, and '00, while the Penguins took state bragging rights in the '08 Eastern Conference Finals.
The two teams have a long, and sometimes violent, history with one another, so let's take a trip down memory lane and see just how much these two franchises dislike one another.
With his 35th goal of the season in Pittsburgh's 3-1 win over Montreal on Saturday night, Evgeni Malkin secured the first Art Ross Trophy of his career as the league's leading scorer. Malkin finishes the regular season with 113 points, beating out Washington's Alex Ovechkin, who finished with 110.
Ovechkin will take home his second straight Maurice Rocket Richard award as the league's leading goal-scorer, tallying 56 for the season.
HOMESTEAD, Pa. -- Phil Bourque spent eight of his 12 NHL seasons as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, helping the team win two Stanley Cups in the early 1990s. Since the 2003-04 campaign, he's worked as an analyst for the Penguins radio network, and we had an opportunity to catch up with him at the team's Championship DVD release on Monday night. 
In Chicago, Milton Bradley further endears himself to Cubdom by flipping a ball into the seats with two out, a farcical sign that 100 years without a World Series title soon will be 101. In Cleveland, the poor people still haven't won a championship in any sport since 1964 and might lose LeBron James to New York, assuming the gulls and midges don't eat him first. In Buffalo, they're not yet over the sting of reaching the Super Bowl four times and losing four times, which still trumps chicken wings as the civic identity.
There was a time when my favorite sport was, without hesitation, baseball. Recently, however, my interest in the game has been lost. Not because of a steroid scandal or the incompetence of Bud Selig, but mostly because the team I grew up cheering for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been a Major League Baseball team in name only and is currently working on its 17th consecutive losing season with no end in sight. 
