PHILADELPHIA – After nearly a half-century drought, the Chicago Blackhawks hoisted the Stanley Cup after defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in overtime in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Flyers battled back from a one-goal deficit scoring late in the third period to send the game to overtime but Buffalo native Patrick Kane responded by scoring the game winner at 4:06 in OT.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville celebrated after the win:

“The party in Chicago is going to be all-world. It’s been a long time.”

Yes it has. The last time Chicago won the cup was in 1961 when names like Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull were on the back of one of the NHL’s most famous sweaters.

Blackhawks captain, 22-year-old Jonathan Toews is having a great year regarding hardware. After winning a gold medal in this year’s Winter Olympic Games, Toews not only gets his name on hockey’s Holy Grail but he also skated away with the Conn Smythe MVP award. He finished the playoffs with 29 points in 22 games.

“This tops everything, for sure,” said Toews. “We’re brothers in that locker room and we pull for each other, and that’s what makes this so special.”

After receiving the cup from NHL Commish Gary Bettman, Toews did his skaete-around then handed the Cup to Marian Hossa, who was becoming notorious for losing the Finals after being a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings runner-up teams in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

“I was so happy to be in the Final but at the same time it was scary,” Hossa said. “I’m so glad. I won it. I got the Stanley Cup. What a feeling. Wow. This is unbelievable.”

Other top contributors were African-American player, Dustin Byfuglien, who found the back of the net 11 times during the playoffs, Patrick Kane (28 points) and Patrick Sharp (22 points).

More Blackhawks: Dustin Byfuglien Interview/Feature

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The NHL needs all the P.R. it can get and it took a blunder by a U.S. Senate candidate to get it for them this week.

After the 2010 Winter Olympics hockey ratings were sky-high thanks to an adrenaline filled 3-2 victory by Canada over the U.S. the league missed out on retaining a lot of that interest. With a potential rematch between U.S. Olympic goaltender and MVP of the tournament, Ryan Miller and Canada’s Sidney Crosby just days after the gold medal game, Miller was benched for rest and sat out the game.

The following week, Crosby, for reasons no one in marketing can figure, turned down an offer to do the Top Ten on the David Letterman Show.

Jump to this week when Marc Delphine who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Oregon accepted a ‘free’ logo from a volunteer and placed it on his website.

Turns out the logo is a trademarked piece belonging to the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets. The silver star wrapped in a star-spangled banner, his designer said, evoked the letter ‘D’ for branding purposes.

Delphine thought the design was original but several people contacted him and advised him of the rip-off.

“They were all like, ‘What are you doing with their logo?’ and I was like, ‘I didn’t make the logo!’ and we pulled it immediately,” said Delphine, a Libertarian candidate. “I’m not interested in any kind of infringement. We don’t even need a logo.”

The current Blue Jackets logo is in the photo above and looks almost identical to the hockey one. It is just been flipped from left to right and the red circle synonymous with the Ohio state flag was removed.

“I don’t know if you know anything about Libertarian candidates, but they typically don’t have a lot of money coming in. I was thinking this was so nice, but it was too good to be true,” said Delphine.

Since discovering the rip-off, Delphine removed it from his site and said, “If anything, I hope this raises awareness for the Columbus Blue Jackets.”

Hopefully it does, Mr. Delphine because when it comes to P.R. and marketing, Gary Bettman and the NHL need all the help they can get.

©2010 Sports Climax™

NEW YORK – After suspending Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery for six games, without pay, as a result of inappropriate public comments that he made Tuesday in Calgary, it’s obvious that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is out of touch with his players and should consider stepping down from the league.

To play Bettman’s game, Avery has agreed to seek a professional anger management evaluation and, if necessary, structured counseling in response to a pattern of unacceptable and antisocial behavior.

During a conference call with the NHL Media, Bettman added that if the counselors decide Avery “needs more time”, his time away from the game could be longer.

“Mr. Avery has expressed remorse for his recent comments and has sought a professional anger management evaluation,” Bettman said. “I will require that he follow through with that process as a condition of his returning to the ice and that he complies with any and all recommendations.

“Playing in the National Hockey League is a privilege, requiring a high standard of personal behavior. Mr. Avery forfeits that privilege for six games.”

A reporter asked Bettman what “anti-social remarks have to do with anger management” and “why other players who have in the past been suspended for violent acts on the ice were not required to attend anger management classes”.

Bettman, whos league was beaten out in the ratings by Sponge Bob during last year’s playoffs,  could muster up no logical response to those questions.

Chris Pronger has been suspended several times for high sticking or other violent injury-causing attacks on the ice and when Todd Bertuzzi jumped off the bench, sucker-punched opposing player Steve Moore, breaking his neck and ending his career, he was not required to get any anger management counseling whatsoever. (see the pic of Moore leaving the ice on a stretcher with his broken neck)

Bettman tried to skate around these and other questions simply stating Avery’s situation was “Completely out of the norm”.

Sounds more like there exists a commissioner in one of the major sports who is the one that is “out of the norm”, are you listening Mr. Bettman?

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax