rekindling an old flame

Most people probably forgot that the NHL even exists, let alone even know that the playoffs are going on right now. Once upon a time, the NHL was a prominent sport, or maybe that was just my childhood interpretation of the sport. But it did used to be on national TV and ESPN more prominently than it is now. Those days are long gone. Heck, if you even want to watch most of the playoff games, your cable provider better provide the "Versus" channel (not a joke). Maybe it was NHL 94 video game...arguably one of the best games of all time (there is no argument here), that gave me my perception of hockey, but obviously the sport has tapered off. The league has too many teams along w/ having teams in cities that don't make any sense (Phoenix and Tampa Bay, really??) Within the next year or two, the NHL will contract from 30 to at minimum 24 teams. I'd love to see the conferences split between Canada and the USA. Give Winnipeg their team back, bring back Hartford and Minnesota. How awesome would that championship game be? granted, its not like it would just be Canadian born players versus U.S. born players, but i think you could still get some country allegiance in the NHL Finals...who doesn't like a good Canadian beat down.

Anyway, for those of you who aren't aware, the NHL Playoffs this year are awesome. There have been a ton of OT games, a 2nd round matchup between arguably the sport's two best players (Crosby vs Ovechkin), the resurgence of the Blackhawks, a ton of series that are going to Game 7, including 3 of the 4 second round series, a potential Red Wings / Blackhawks Western Conference Finals, and plenty of facetime for Barry Melrose's mullet. I'm looking forward to the couple of Game 7's that will be occurring over the next few days, although, I don't think they will all be on TV....seriously, remember when their used to be 4 major sports in the USA? it wasn't that long ago

Alright, enough about hockey. On an unrelated note, don't drink wine, whiskey, vodka, and beer all in the same night - the result could be less than positive. Hmm, let's see, what else? Work has been interesting lately, but we won't get into that here. Indy 500 in 10 days, which means 2 1/2 days of not showering, drinking beer, eating about 5 lbs of sausage, hot dogs, brats, along w/ other grill food, playing cornhole (bags) and getting no sleep. Have the same tickets as last year, near the top of Turn 3.

Sticking w/ the NHL theme, here is the video of the week. On a related note, this is the strategy and attitude that Steve Martin, one of our partners, wants our firm's bball team to have during the upcoming Indianapolis CPA Bball Tournament. I'm not sure the other partners would agree...

Go Blackhawks! Down w/ Hockeytown!