As promised, Ducks Cup celebration pix; Notice Stanley's dent?

As promised, here are more pictures of the Ducks' Stanley Cup celebration at Honda Area in Anaheim. See you if you can find the picture of what looks to be a considerable dent in Stanley's rings. I think that's funny - hey, you work hard to win it, you've gotta play hard when you finally do.

Enjoy, and one more time, congrats to the Ducks. And I hope that's the last post I put up about the Ducks this year. My Edmonton Oilers had best get moving.

I love this shot - the Ducks arrive on a bus decorated with a Stanley Cup Champions paint job. It doesn't get much classier and stylin' than that.

Ducks sniper Teemu Selanne makes his way through throngs of adoring fans outside of Honda Arena, the home nest of the champion Ducks.

Ducks stud goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere carries the team drinking Cup. He was arguably the best goaltender in the playoffs, and along with Selanne, I can think of no other Duck player who had earned a Stanley Cup ring more than Jiggy. Anaheim needs to resign him this offseason, and I would love NOTHING more than the Oilers opening up their checkbooks and taking a run at Giguere. I love to watch him play, and this is undoubtedly the first of several Cups for Jiggy before his career is said and done. Oh, and the Oilers getting him would be sweet revenge for Chris Pronger. It's not likely to happen, though.

Ryan Getzlaf takes his turn hoisting Stanley into the arena.

Ducks Captain Scott Niedermayer, without his very gray playoff beard, grabs Stanley for the cameras. the old warhorse really got it done during these playoffs, capturing the Conn Smythe, capturing his fourth Cup, and helping his brother Rob experience his first one.

I love this shot - a silhouette of fans outside Honda Arena, cheering on their Ducks as the sun sets on the celebration, and the 2006-2007 NHL season.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with Stanley. Some might call me oversensitive, but I don't like pictures like these - I feel the only people who should be allowed to lift Stanley overhead are people who have won it. But, I'm sure this happens all the time in celebration.

The Governator with Brad May.

Arnold addressing players, staff and fans of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, the first-ever California-based NHL franchise to win the Stanley Cup.

Selanne with the Stanley Cup inside Honda Arena. Notice the orange-sized dent in the middle of the Cup.

A fireworks display capped off the night. Way to celebrate, Anaheim.

All photos from AP

Oil honors best-ever leader in team sports

This is the last Oilers Stanley Cup Championship, from 1990. Looking at this picture and a much younger Mark Messier makes me feel a bit older. And I felt a lot older the other night when the Oilers retired #11 in a great ceremony at Rexall Place. Watching the montage of video clips from those great Oiler teams in the 1980s really brought back many memories. It seems so far away now.

I still remember where I was when the Oilers won their first Stanley Cup in 1984 - in my living room, really excited that they finally managed to beat the Islanders. and I remember the team's last Stanley Cup, after they beat the Boston Bruins. I heard the news on on the radio, and I watched a tape of the game the next day. (At the time, the NHL decided to broadcast its games on SportsChannel America, which was in about 10 homes at the time.) And I remember where I was when I heard the news that the Oilers had traded Mess. I'd heard rumors, but I didn't think the team would really do it.

Anyway, it sure was great to see, in many ways, my favorite hockey player ever back in Oiler blue the other night. The pictures really are quite cool.

Love this shot.

Some say that it's inappropriate for players to handle the Stanley Cup in retirement ceremonies like this. I say hogwash. It should be judged on a case-by-case basis, but Messier has his name on the Stanley Cup six times, and is the only man ever to captain two Stanley Cup winning teams. He's earned the right to appear with the Cup when his number is retired.

I love this shot, and notice how he's holding the Cup - not like players do when they win the Cup and parade around the ice. I know, it's subtle, but I did notice it. For instance, look at how Messier holds the Cup in the top picture, taken immediately after the Oilers beat the Boston Bruins to win the Cup in 1990, and how he holds it above.

This is the last time I will ever see Messier with the Cup in this uniform on Edmonton ice. It was a special moment I'll never forget.

The greatest leader in the history of team sports alternated from smiling from ear to ear to...

...being an emotional, sobbing man, humbled by the Oilers raising his number to the rafters to hang with other Oiler greats. Messier has always worn his heart on his sleeve, so this was anything but unexpected. He was a giant on and off the ice, and I miss him as a player more than I can describe here. Anyone still want to say that real men don't cry? Yea right.

It was great to see the old Oilers in attendance to congratulate Mess, including Wayne Gretzky (left), and to the right of Mess, from left to right: Paul Coffey, Grant Fuhr and Jari Kurri, all of whom have their numbers retired by the Oilers as well. The Oilers kept it classy and formal, too - Messier was the only former Oiler who was wearing a jersey, instead of a greeting line of former players all wearing their old jerseys.

The Oilers also considered the fans during the ceremony, too; Messier made several laps around the ice and greeted many fans to pay homage to his 12 years in Edmonton. My favorite part was when he held up the Oilers crest on the front of his jersey and so proudly showed it to the crowd. To many/most hockey fans, he'll always be a New York Ranger, the man who ended the crazy-long Stanley Cup drought on Broadway. No doubt that cemented his reputation as a legend, but he'll always be an Oiler to me. Hey, he won five out of his six Stanley Cups up north, so it's a fair argument.

Finally, the night concluded with Messier holding his son, while watching what we'd all been waiting for...

..his #11 being raised to the rafters. He is the only Oiler in team history to wear #11, and now, no one else ever will.

Those days are long gone, but I can't help but wonder how many Stanley Cups the Oilers would have won had they not traded Gretzky and Messier. Seven? Eight? We'll never know, but the number surely would have been higher than the five the team did win.

I feel a little bit older today, and a lot sadder, realizing that the glory days of the Oilers are long gone. The way the team is progressing, it may be a long time before I see another Stanley Cup in the best hockey city in the NHL. Maybe not, but it's hard to be optimistic right now after the Ryan Smyth trade. It's a young, talented team, but the team has to mature with the right mix of players at the right time. Losing Smyth will really hurt this team down the road.

Photos from AP

Vegas here we come!

I'm sooo far behind on blogging - I've got about a million things I want to write about, but most of it will have to wait until this weekend, when I will most definitely catch up. Anyway, just a few quick posts this morning.

I'm pretty excited to say that we are going to Vegas at the end of January; it will be my first trip to Las Vegas. I'm going to be speaking at the Far West Popular Culture & American Culture Association Conference the weekend of January 26-28.

In case you're curious, here's what I'll be speaking about:

Title: American Idle: How Pop Culture Pap is Hindering Real Debate in
U.S. Elections

Abstract: National U.S. elections are increasingly driven by pop culture, specifically reality shows. Election coverage, as well as campaign ads, are rife with examples of reality TV's influence on American political discourse. Gone are the days when the issues mattered most; contemporary elections are now dominated by superficial non sequiturs. This tilt toward the mundane is a decades-long movement, but reality television and pop culture have conspired to dramatically increase this troubling trend.

**
It will also be my first time speaking at a conference, so I'm pretty excited about that, too. I'm really look forward to writing my paper, too; anyone who spends five minutes on this blog knows how passionate and driven I am about politics.

We are also going to wedge in some time for a short trip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. I've never been to either one, and neither has Vandra.

So, this promises to be a pretty big trip. Oh, and you know that I'll be sharing lots and lots of pictures on here when we get back.

Psst - while I'm there, I'm going to be putting a few greenbacks down on the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl (if they are still in it by then!) and the Oilers winning the Stanley Cup. Hey, why not? I think both teams have a shot.

Oil not FLAMEable tonight

Just a quick one on my first night of hockey (even though the season technically began Wednesday night).

The Oilers began their season tonight with a 3-1 victory of their hated rivals, the Calgary Flames. I'll take it. It was a pretty sloppy game, with plenty of penalties on both sides and lots of defensive lapses by the Oilers, but that's to be expected, since the Edmonton blueline corps is a bit wet behind the ears. However, I'm not complaining about a win - it was very fun to watch and a great way to begin a long season.

Two things I loved about the game: 1. Goalie Dwayne Roloson looked stellar, giving up one goal late in the third. A big relief after his Stanley Cup Finals knee injury, and 2. Peter Sykora (center, above) potted two goals. I wrote yesterday that I think he will prove to be one of the best NHL signings of the summer, and tonight he made me look good. I think he's going to be an excellent player up north this season.

The Flyers lost 4-0 tonight to the Pens. Youch. Don't know what else to say there. Based on both games, I'll say this - I don't think the Flyers are this bad, and I don't think the Oilers are quite this good. I may be wrong on both accounts, but we'll see.

Lastly, one other quick comment about the Oiler organization. It's a classy team, led by two men who have won multiple Stanley Cups. The Oilers know when to celebrate and commemorate, and more importantly, when not to. At top, the Oilers 2006 Western Conference Champions banner took its place on Thursday night next to the many other banners hanging from the ceiling at Rexall Place, without ceremony or fanfare and with no smiles on the players faces, watching the banner rise to the rafters. It happened before the players even took the ice.

It's as if the Oilers were saying, "We haven't won anything - we came up short - there's nothing to celebrate." Now that's smart, and a message to the young players: "Win something, then we party, but not 'til then." A younger team with much less experience would have made a big deal about making it that far, but not a team going on 30 years in the NHL with 5 Stanley Cups to its credit (and 7 Finals appearances).

Stanley Cup, here we come. 81 games to go.