As you can imagine by my blog name, it’s obvious I love hockey. Being a goalie, I can only imagine what the mental makeup is going into overtime knowing if you make a mistake, you lose the trophy you have dreamed of winning your whole life. Having my name etched in the Stanley Cup is something that will never happen. Not unless I somehow get a REALLY good high up job with an NHL team. However, I don’t know anyone with any leads to help me get in the door. No matter, the Stanley Cup playoffs are always must see TV for me. The emotion and passion by the best athletes in the world to earn 16 wins is an amazing road to complete after an 82 game season. 4 rounds, best of 7 each, is the hardest trophy to win in all sports.

Around the rest of the world, except the United States, the biggest tournament is about to begin. I mildly follow soccer and passionately follow this tournament. I am glad to see the popularity for our national team growing in this country, but it pales in comparison to the national pride around the globe. I was not myself a fan of the game in any way until I spent some time in England before the World Cup 8 years ago. The fever was contagious and I was amazed at the national pride on display. Every night were replays of the nations best matches. Every house and I mean EVERY house and storefront had a flag or a sign out front. I have since learned the artistry of the game and played it a bit myself locally. It’s amazing how hard it really is. My hope for this edition of the most prized trophy on the planet, except in America, does not see a slew of dives to draw fouls. The game deserves better.

Next week we get the US Open golf tournament at the Pebble Beach golf club in California. Some day I will play this public course. Golf can be pretty boring on TV, even though I play the game I can find it boring. However, this is a major and this is one of the most scenic places in golf. Take a peek and try to imagine the pressure felt in that final round by whoever is leading at the end. Then go to a golf course and bet a friend of equal skill $1,000,000 on a single hole. See how you do.

In baseball we saw a human error take away something that happened only 20 times in the history of the game. Kudos to that human for admitting and apologizing for his mistake. No, replay does not belong on anything but scoring plays in any sport. Tough luck is part of the game, so are human beings.

For football, just to cover my bases, I just check headlines to see who got arrested this week. Sad really. Basketball? Who cares. Tell me when there’s 2 minutes left in the game and I might watch those last 45 minutes. What do they get 100 timeouts? Boring.

Congrats to the Blackhawks for winning the Stanley Cup. As an Islanders fan I don’t much like the Flyers. However, it was a great series and all the games were physical and close and I couldn’t ask for anything more when my team isn’t in it.I was glad to see the ratings up this year for the series. Its about time more people start paying attention to this amazing game in the United States.