Like the Hawks - The Deep Dish pie was a Winner

It felt as if it had been forever since there was a hockey game on TV, but I should get used to that feeling as it will truly be “forever” once the finals are over and we delve head first into the “off-season.” As pleased as I am that the game was on NBC (does anyone know the ratings? Ah, not yet? Okay.**And here's my answer from @NBCSportsPR on Twitter: "Best Stanley Cup Final Game 1 overnight rating in 11 years; also up 12 percent vs. last year.") as a hockey fan, I can’t get used to not having a pre-game show. It must be a conditional thing.

As discussed so passionately on the Internet yesterday, NBC did air the National Anthem portion of the game. Excellent move on their part, especially over the Memorial Day weekend when the anthem is an important part of our culture and patriotism. (I can't wait to see what they do in Philly with the Kate Smith video!) I am sorry that I do not agree with our Canadian hockey brothers that the Canadian anthem should also be included in the finals. I would have no problem with that had one of the Canadian teams be vying in the finals. However, as they are not, I see no real reason to include it. Please do not take that as discounting what Canada means to Hockey or to the United States as neighbor and ally. I just don’t feel it’s necessary at the finals when two US teams are playing, (while I understand that many who are battling are Canadian, to play it would then mean having to play ALL national anthems of ALL countries being represented on the ice. NBC doesn’t have that sort of time.)

But I digress -- I pleaded for the Blackhawks to score early and set the tone sending the Flyers on their heels. That didn’t happen and it was the Flyers' Leino who started the scoring battle at 6:38 of the first. Armed with the idea that the odds of the team who scores first coming out on top by the end of the 3rd, I headed back for more deep dish pizza at the dining room table.

Yes, I figured I would attempt to make Chicago Deep Dish pie in honor of the Blackhawks (a team I knew almost nothing about until recently). It was spectacular, thank you. It also seemed to help as the Hawks evened up the score less than a minute later.

That would be the tone of the game for the first two periods sending my dinner guest and I into bouts of cheers and boos. Five goals scored in the first period. Five goals scored in the second. This was the highest scoring game of the finals since 2000. If all the games are going to be like this I won’t have any nails or voice left.

Living on Long Island, it was impossible for me to find any Blackhawks t-shirts to wear for these finals, so I invested an entire $8 in two multi-colored boas. My guest and I donned them at the end of the first and didn’t remove them until the Hawks came away with the win. And what a win it was.

With the sixth goal scored at 8:25 of the third by replacement Tomas Kopecky (I don’t want to discuss the call controversy currently going on. They scored. I’m good with that.) I hoped aaloud the Hawks could keep the lead for the remaining 11:35.

The Flyers threw six shots at Niemi (who had mask trouble all night) in the third period. Both teams had managed to lob 32 shots at each net minder, but Leighton was pulled and replaced by Boucher who stopped 11 of 12 shots that got through to him. Only one mattered -- the winner that sent the 22,312 fans at the Madhouse into a frenzy.

Game 1 is in the books. Odds dictate that 86% of the time, the team that wins the first game goes on to win it all. I personally really LIKE those odds.

*Thanks to @MFischel for the use of his Hawks Press Box view photo from last night!