If you only tuned to Versus for the final minute, you wouldn’t know Les Habs had lost the game and series – that’s how loud the classy, grateful fans inside the Bell Centre were between Mike Knuble’s empty-netter and the handshakes.
Meanwhile, America’s so-called hockey network tells me (in both graphic and play-by-play form) that the Flyers have made it to the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 1997, which would only be true if the current year is 1998 or 1999 (they also made it in 2000 and 2004).
But the good folks at the Flyers’ local paper (or at least its web site) aren’t any smarter: “Flyers Shock Canadiens, Face Pens Next,” it reads for now, with the mistake repeated in the two-graf story too.
Two goals and an assist for R.J. Umberger, giving him eight for the round (he only had a single goal in seven games against the Caps, a series he began as a fourth-liner). If the Flyers do indeed go on to face his hometown team, someone in Philly ought to name a sandwich for him. And put french fries on it.
(Post-Google addendum: goofy South Street tavern Copabanana already did, presumably in honor of the the ’05 Calder Cup):
NEW!! PHANTOM (R.J.) UMBERGER Fried Onion Rings, Muenster Cheese & A-1 Sauce
Anyway, go Rangers! At least for a few games.
Finally, it’s old news now, but I enjoyed this tidbit from Sports Illustrated, back before Alexei Kovalev ran into Timonen and Coburn:
Says linemate Tomas Plekanec, the center, “It’s easier to read Kundera than Kovalev. You just try to [match] his thinking and vision and hope for the best.”
(The original piece inserted “Czech novelist Milan” in brackets, but I know we’ve got a highly literate readership around here.)