Unfortunately, I have not fond memories of the dark, cold years when my Blackhawks were just plain lousy. Of course, the last 10 years or so have made those years forgettable. This season however, the Hawks weren’t very good, and so, for the first time in those 10 years, I harken back to the days of not really having “a horse in the race” during the NHL Playoffs. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t watch any games, far from it; but it did lead me to have a tradition – who DON’T I want to win.
Back in those days, it was fairly easy – I hate the Red Wings – simple. I don’t like St. Louis either, so I don’t want them to win. During the great last 10 years, I added Vancouver because our rivalry with them was so intense.
This season of course, the Blackhawks stunk up the joint and missed the playoffs. As time has gone on, teams’ fortunes have changed – Detroit and Vancouver didn’t make the playoffs themselves and haven’t in a while. (Plus, will we have the same passionate hate for Vancouver now that the Sedin sisters, I mean brothers have retired?) St. Louis were eliminated on the last weekend of the regular season.
What to do? The traditional nemeses were already out. So, who to root for/against? One team was easy – while I have no real feelings for or against Pittsburgh, they’ve won the Stanley Cup 2 years in a row, so I’m tired of them. I not very fond of the California teams – L.A., San Jose, or Anaheim, but not the level of hatred reserved for the others. I don’t like the Wild, but they never make it out of the first round anyway. I do dislike Nashville because of their front office who try to keep opponents from attending their games. If they were a bigger market, they wouldn’t have that problem. In the east, at the start of the first round, mild dislike was reserved for the Flyers just because they’re from Philadelphia, and I will always hate Columbus as long as they have John Tortorella behind the bench.
Now, we’re one game 7 away from making it to the Conference Finals. I generally am okay with the Bruins, but with Brad Marchand licking people, I am very happy that they’re sitting at home. Marchand is a pest, but the licking took it too far; he knew he could get away with it because no one would risk taking a major penalty for beating the crap out of Marchand. I felt sorry for the Capitals, winners of the President’s Trophy twice over the past few years, but never being able to get past Pittsburgh, but not anymore. They ousted the Penguins last night and so we won’t have to listen any more about their dynasty. The Cinderella team has been Las Vegas, and the Golden Knights continue to play well, swamping the Sharks in 6 games. All that’s left is the deciding game 7 between Winnipeg and Nashville Thursday night. (Why so long NBC/NHL?) If the Jets win, then I really won’t have anyone to root against.
So, I like the Lightning, if they win, it’s cool. I can live with the Caps. I wouldn’t like it if the Preds win, but I like P.J. Subban so I could deal with it. I would LOVE for the Golden Knights to win because it would piss off a lot of old time hockey purists and a lot of front office people who thought Las Vegas would suck like most expansion teams do, but they were shrewd and got the type of players who could play an up tempo style, and with Marc-Andre Fluery in goal to stop the odd man rushes, they have done what was thought to be impossible.
Let’s get the Conference and Cup Finals going. I’m certainly ready.

Long time readers know that I am a movie fan. I watch lots of movies, have attended the Toronto International Film Festival for 17 of the past 19 years. I used to watch lots of comedies, but they don’t do much for me anymore – too many dick and fart jokes, very little wit. I love dramas, and kung fu films, documentaries, foreign films. I still believe in buying physical discs of films. There are however films and stars that I’m not a big fan of. Sometimes, it’s because of the genre, sometimes it’s because the star, or the director are bad, or, in real life, scumbags. Then there is one actor who isn’t bad, doesn’t seem to be a bad person, but I don’t watch his movies – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
While I’ve been out of work, I have watched a number of movies in theaters, giving myself a break from searching for work and doing stuff around the house. Usually, at Academy Awards time, I’ve seen one half of the films nominated for best picture. This year, I saw all but two (of 9). There is nothing at the Cineplex this week that I wish to see. Ready Player One, usually my cup of tea, leaves me cold (aided by a comment on Facebook by a female sci-fi fan that the book is misogynist trash).
The big film of the week is Rampage, an action film based on a video game starring Dwayne Johnson. It has big monsters; I love Godzilla and King Kong movies. Why don’t I want to see it? Perhaps the fact that I’m not a gamer. The only video games I play are sports games. I have no particular interest in seeing Tomb Raider; I wasn’t a big fan of the first Jumanji, so I skipped the second one, even though it seemed amusing.
I asked myself, was it Dwayne Johnson? He’s a good looking man, buff. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy (unless you are Vin Diesel). He has had his challenges, getting cut at football, going against his father’s wishes to follow his footsteps into wrestling. He has been very candid about his battles with depression. He has a casual, movie star quality about himself. He has more talent than many.
Then what is it? My girls and I watched “Tooth Fairy” on cable some time back, and it was innocuous, mainstream entertainment. I like his vocals for the animated Moana. HBO’s “ballers” series is a more adult project, but I don’t watch it. Looking at his films on IMDB, there are a lot of family films, mindless entertainment projects including the G.I. Joe films, or the Fast and the Furious series. None of which are exactly targeted for my demographic. He’s popular though – the highest paid movie star in the world.
I don’t hate Dwayne Johnson movies; not like Michael Bay films. What I’ve seen of Johnson’s films, they are well made, look good, and please the masses. In the words of Graham Parker “I don’t appeal to the masses and they don’t appeal to me.” Like I said above, he seems to be a very nice man. Just not to my taste, and that’s OK.

The relationship between the NFL and its payers and fans of color continued this week. Colin Kaepernick, the center of the kneeling during the National Anthem controversy and has not played football in over a year, had been invited to work out for the Seattle Seahawks backup quarterback job. That is until Kaepernick refused to say that he will not kneel again.
Keapernick is still young; heled the 49ers to the Super Bowl; he’d be a perfect fit to backup another mobile quarterback, Russell Wilson. The NFL’s owners hate Kaepernick so much that not one team decided it was worth signing the mixed-race QB. The Seahawks, who were close to signing Kaepernick last year have postponed his workout.
For those who may have forgotten, Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem quietly to protest the killing of young men of color by police, and the failure to pay for the murders in court. Last year, he committed to stop kneeling, but since then of course, he has sued the league for collusion and some of the owners have been deposed in the upcoming lawsuit. Now, he has changed his mind on exercising his First Amendment rights on the sidelines.
The NFL, the plantation owners who use and throw players away like Kleenex don’t like the Kleenex to rock the boat by speaking up. The Right Wingers have said that Kaepernick’s protest is against everything from motherhood to apple pie to failing to support the troops, which is not at all true. I don’t know if Colin Kaepernick will ever play another game in the NFL, but the owners, already perhaps seeing the future of the sport in jeopardy from the specter of CTE, have a real problem with players of color and their supporters and all of the fans of color.

With the NFL Draft just a couple of weeks away, it’s time to take stock of what players you have, what you need, and who’s available. As I wrote in the Colin Kaepernick story, the NFL is cruel – players get dropped and forgotten. Even superstars get cut, part of declining performance and saving money.
Still, it was a surprise when it was announced today that the Cowboys had parted ways with wide receiver Dez Bryant. The 29-year-old Bryant’s performance has declined over the years, but he was still the team’s top receiver in yardage, but not near the 1,000 yard top of the league receiver that he had been.
Also, Bryant has always been a showboat and a braggart and sometimes divisive personality. I’m sure he will find another job in the NFL, but it is surprising.

I’ve been busy with the Indignant Girls on Spring Break, but I do want to catch up:
• Congratulations to the Loyola Men’s Basketball team. The team brought hope to the entire city who are suffering from bad pro basketball, pro hockey, and the disappointment of Northwestern.
• By the same token, congratulations goes out to Villanova. With 2 National Championships in 3 years, they are now the dynastic program in college basketball. Not Duke, not the one and done Kentucky, not North Carolina.
• I still hate Notre Dame, at least their football team. They can’t lose enough games for my money. However, the women’s basketball team won the final two games of the NCAA tournament on unbelievable last second shots by the same young woman – Arike Ogunbowale. Still, there’s a little part of me happy that ND’s championship was sealed by a black woman. I’m sure there’s some Domers who won’t be outwardly happy with that.
• Baseball season has started and the Cubs have struggled at the start while the White Sox have played well. It could be a very interesting season in Chicago.
• This weekend is The Masters and the buzz is highest its been in years with the sudden resurgence of Tiger Woods. Again, I do not like or play golf, but I bet the ratings with be huge this weekend, especially is Woods makes the cut and is playing Saturday and Sunday. I might even pay some attention.
• Bruins forward Brad Marchand injured another player on a check the other night. Of course, the NHL weaseled out, fining Marchand $5,000 instead of suspending him for a certain number of games. We’re too close to the playoffs for the league to give Marchand the punishment he deserves. It’s too bad because he is a talented player, a great scorer, but he’s a thug, playing hard as the rest of the league tries to clean up its act.
• Talented but hated, we have to say goodbye to the Sedin Brothers (often called the Sedin Sisters by opposing teams’ fans), the twins who have carved out Hall of Fame 17-year careers with the Vancouver Canucks. The two announced their retirement at the end of the season. When the Canucks were the Blackhawks chief rivals in the Western Conference, Most Chicago fans hated them, myself included. The best thing that happened was when the Canucks lost Game 7 at home to the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011. The Sedins will have the numbers and Hall of Fame, but they’ll never have a Stanley Cup.

For the first time in nine years, the Chicago Blackhawks will be watching, not playing in the NHL Playoffs. I had forgotten what it’s like to not have a rooting interest in the playoffs. In the past, I wrote here that when you have a team not making the playoffs, it is freeing – you can just watch the hockey and not have a rooting interest. However, there are teams that you don’t want to win. In my mind, it’s the Red Wings – already eliminated; the Canucks – ditto. Which leaves the St. Louis Blues. With three games left in the regular season, my Blackhawks have two games left against the Blues, and the Hawks know that they can spoil the Blues playoff hopes by beating them. I certainly hope the Blues are at home watching the playoffs with the Hawks.
Part 2 of this post is more serious. The Hawks have not played well this season and a lot of the reason has been poor goaltending once Corey Crawford suffered his mysterious upper-body injury just before Christmas. Reportedly, Coach Joel Quenneville is on the hot seat. Despite 3 Stanely Cup Championships, Quenneville and General Manager Stan Bowman are reportedly not speaking.
It isn’t good to be on the outs with your boss, but Quenneville I assume, has not been happy with the personnel changes Bowman has made. For every astute decision, like drafting Artemi Panerin, there’s two that haven’t worked out, like trading Panerin for Brandon Saad, bringing back too many of the old Stanley Cup Champions like Patrick Sharp, signing Brent Seabrook to a long term contract as his skills deteriorate.
Quenneville, notoriously impatient with young players, giving them a quick hook. Over time, the hooks came fewer and further between, and this season, many youngsters played, made critical errors, turned pucks over, allowed soft goals, but Q stayed with the youngsters, just benching them or making them a healthy scratch. It hurts Quenneville to lose, and this is the first time in 21 years as a head coach hat his team has posted a losing record. Still, he did what no other coach has done – bring a Stanley Cup to Chicago, and Quenneville has done it 3 times, with different players surrounding the core.
Of course, Stan Bowman did make the moves – signing the core, although most of the core were acquired by the previous GM Dale Tallon. Bowman has a powerful hockey pedigree – so of winningest coach in history – Scotty Bowman, who acts as special consultant to the team. From my point of view, Bowman should be on a much hotter seat than Coach Q. After successfully navigating the salary cap for years, his moves, most often done, I hear, without Quenneville’s input have shown more losers than winners.
One thing is certain, every NHL team who will soon be firing their head coach is waiting to see whether Quenneville will be fired. President John McDonaugh and Owner Rocky Wirtz will probably be the final arbiters. Having a civil war in a team’s front office is a horrible thing, but both men need to stay with the Blackhawks, and Wirtz need to sit both men down and make them play nice. Or else.

The first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is made for basketball and gambling. This year, the basketball has been at its usual high level, but for once, the gambling is different. Usually, a safe bet is to pick the number one, two or three seeds, plug them into the finals; pick 12 seeds over 5, and choose a few more upsets and you’ll be fine.
Not this year. I haven’t participated in an NCAA pool in a few years, since I have been bored with basketball for awhile, but tons of friends have had their brackets busted, and they arern’t alone. To me, it started with my old friend Rick Telander. Before the tournament started, he wrote a column that one day, a number 16 seed would defeat a number 1 seed. It had never been done before, number 1 seeds were 132 and 0. Then UMBC knocked off Virginia, the first time in history, and the upsets kept coming. Right now, number 1 seeds Virginia and Xavier are out, as are other big time programs like Michigan State, and North Carolina. Here in Chicago, the big story is the 15th seed in the South Region, the Loyola Ramblers. They have won their first 2 games, reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since the school won the very first tournament in 1963.
Personally, I think it’s a great thing for the tournament to have more Cinderella teams still alive. There’s still Kentucky and Duke and Villanova and Gonzaga, but besides Loyola, there’s Nevada and Kansas State and Florida State and Syracuse. I have watched some buzzer beaters and the basketball has been, as usual, excellent. The rest of the tournament should be outstanding. As long as you didn’t spend a lot of money on brackets.