Black Hand Productions

This past Sunday Julie and I went to Game Five of the Stanley Cup Final.  As much as I’d like to see the Stanley Cup won in Chicago it felt like the odds were against the Hawks going into this game.  After dropping games three and four to the Flyers everyone had assumed the series would end in Game Six.  Now if that holds true the Blackhawks will have their first Cup in 49 years. As all the Chicago games have been in this series it was intense and the Hawks started off quickly getting their first PowerPlay goal in about three months.

Side Note:

* The rest of my photographs are up on Flickr.

On Friday Julie and I went to game one of the Stanley Cup Final between the Blackhawks and the Flyers.  This is our third trip to the Finals in three years (much like Marian Hossa), we were at games one & two in 2008 and game one in 2009; all in Detroit.  Thankfully we had a different outcome this time around with the Hawks pulling out a 6-5 win.  The United Center was probably as loud as I’ve ever heard it in the past two years.

Julie’s got some great pictures over at chicagometsfan.com, including shots of a couple of the Hawks goals.

The Blackhawks completed the sweep of the Sharks last night at the United Center.  Once again the Hawks came from behind and now we’re headed to the Stanley Cup Final.  We got to see the Campbell Trophy awarded and the handshake line.  Jonathan Toews, much like Crosby two years ago, did not touch the Conference Championship trophy.

Side Note:
*The rest of my photographs from Game 4 are on Flickr here.
**Once the on ice celebration began Patrick Kane began circling the rink waving his stick looking for some one toss it to:

On to the Stanley Cup Final.

Last night Julie and I went to Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals at the United Center.  The Blackhawks won 3-2 in Overtime to take a 3-0 lead in the series.  This game was much closer than the two in San Jose but once again the discrepancy in penalties was unreal.  I think the Sharks were on 6 Power Plays and maybe the Hawks had 1.  Either way the Hawks managed to pull out a home win and are one game away from the Stanley Cup Final.

Side Note:
* If you check the photograph above closely the two guys in jerseys on the glass farthest to the left are Kevin James and Vince Vaughn. During the Kiss Cam Vaughn slipped some tongue to James.
** The rest of the photographs are on Flickr here.

This past weekend I ventured into the heart of Snowmageddon for the Capitals – Penguins game on Sunday morning. This trip was planned this past spring with no intenion of there being anything near 2 feet of snow on the ground. Early in the week we started to get word that the weather was going to be bad and then like clockwork my Saturday morning flight was canceled on Wednesday afternoon.  I looked into a couple different options, Train from Chicago to DC which sold out and earlier flights were already booked or canceled.  I ended up booking a train from Penn Station in New York to Washington on Saturday morning (6:45am).  Then I got a flight to New York for Friday night.  I got in around 10pm and proceeded with the following schedule:

10pm – Blondies
Midnight – McAleer’s Pub (ie the Krull bar)
1am – The Dead Poet
3am – The Dublin House
4am – The Green Kitchen
5am – Back to Jim’s Apartment to Shower
6am – Penn Station
7am – The Northeast Regional heading to Washington
11:30am – Union Station

To say the above was challenging is the understatement of the decade but this was just the beginning of a Epic Journey. Once we got into Washington Jim and I made our way to the Metro system and took the train out to Depont Circle where we came upon this seen:

The Escalator of Doom was not running and was covered in snow.  To say this was a large escalator is an understatement.  This has to be at least one of the largest and steepest escalators in the Western hemisphere.  It’s 188 feet of pure burning pain but who’s counting. Needless to say it took every once of will power and agility to summit. Once we got to the top we were greeted with our first taste of Snowmageddon.  From this point we began our march to the hotel down the middle of the snow covered streets.

As fate would have we actually had a relatively easy journey into the city. Meanwhile after a failed attempt to get their truck out Josh and Tom began their journey from Alexandria, VA to Washington on foot.  On the Road:

All told I’m think they walked over 6 miles and there were only minor incidents of cannibalism.  I think when Jim and I made it in to Washington the ball was clearly in their court.  Would I have walked 6 miles in two feet of snow on the open road to see the Caps – Pens game?  There  is no way to ever know but they did.

The game was about as intense as a regular season game could be.  The Pens gave up a 4-1 lead to fall in overtime when a questionable high sticking was called.  At least they walked away with a point.  Below are my pictures from the the rest of our expedition in the Nation’s capital:

*Side Notes:
*My Snowmageddon pictures are here.
** Caps – Pens pictures are here.

Saturday night Julie and I headed to Detroit for the last time in my life. After the seeing the first to games of the Stanley Cup Final last year (2008 Game One, Game Two) I decided to tempt fate again and I have learned my lesson. Nothing good will ever come out of my presence in the city of Detroit. The Pens played a decent game and if not for the dual goal tending defensive strategy employed by the Wings the outcome could have been different.

Visiting Detroit is a lot like entering the Thunderdome:

*Side Note:
The rest of my photographs are on Flickr.

This afternoon Julie and I headed down to the United Center for the Blackhawks – Red Wings game. It didn’t go well. The Hawks were more or less ran out of the building.

*Side Note:
Honestly, what is it with people from Detroit drinking beer with straws? If some one could possibly explain to me the benefit of using a straw I would greatly appreciate it. At this point I can only assume if you have an open beer in the city limits of Detroit some Detroitonian will spit into your glass as a sign of respect.

The Blackhawks have circled the wagons.  Last night the hawks won 4-3 in OT at the United Center to put the series 2-1.  The game started as with the hawks going up 3-0 rather quick but then Detroit simply turned it on.  There were a good number of Wings fans in the stands but much less than I would have expected.

The photographs above are of the OT goal by Patrick Sharp.
 

The Hawks did pay a price for the win.  Martin Havlat was leveled by Niklas Kronwall late in the 1st period and will be out for game 4.  Nikolai Khabibulin also didn’t finish the game and word is he’ll also be out.

Those are two big losses but worth the win.

*Side Note:
All of my Blackhawk playoff photographs are here.

Last night was game 4 of the Blackhawks – Canucks series and my second OT game of the Playoffs.  The Hawks were able to tie up the game in the final minutes and then won on an Andrew Ladd deflection in OT.  The top photograph is from the game winner.

* Site Note:

The rest of my photographs from the game are on Flickr.

Tonight we went to the Untied Center for game 3 of the Blackhawks – Canucks series.  The Canucks won 3-1 in a rather lackluster showing by the Hawks.  I did manage to get some good photos of the game.  This is the second time I’ve used my new Nikon D40 at a Hawks’ game.

All of my Blackhawks Playoff photographs can be found here on Flickr.