The Dark Night

It's Saturday of the May long weekend here in Canada. For the first time since Christmas night 2008, there is no hockey being played on a Saturday.

We are down to four teams left in the marathon race known as the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Both conference finals series promise to be entertaining as all four teams are highly skilled teams that value speed and offense. In the west Detroit takes on Chicago in an Original Six showdown. In the east the Staal brothers collide as Carolina faces off with Pittsburgh.

I will go on record and predict Detroit and Pittsburgh will win, setting up a Stanley Cup rematch from 2008. For the first time this playoff I actually feel somewhat confident in making such bold predictions. That being said, Cam Ward is playing amazing right now and I hesitate to bet against him.

Since this is a dark night in the NHL, I thought I would highlight a few pieces I have been working on in the background. These are four of the more interesting biographies I have worked on in some time:

Canada's First Nemesis: In the 1936 Olympics Canada ran into their first challenge in international hockey - the unlikely Great Britain team led by Canadian goaltender Jimmy Foster. Foster upset the Canadians 2-1, and, with the help of a very controversial rule interpretation, helped capture the Olympic gold medal.

Hockey Legend In Her Own Right: Here is the amazing story of Pia Grengman. She pioneered many women's sports in Sweden, first as a player then as a coach. After playing men's hockey in the lower Swedish divisions, Grengman turned to coaching. She was tutored by none other than Anatoli Tarasov. Fred Shero also was a fan of hers, even possibly offering her a job at the 1976 Canada Cup had Shero been named head coach.

The Day Dean Bergeron's Life Changed Forever: Here's a look at Dean Bergeron. He is one of Canada's more decorated paralympians. In 1987 he was a promising able-bodied hockey player with dreams of playing in the NHL. Then tragedy struck, as he became paralyzed in a hockey fight. Following the recent hockey fight related death of Don Sanderson, Bergeron is speaking out. Nothing changed when he lost use of legs, and he doesn't want Sanderson's lost life to suffer the same circumstance.

ZZ Top - Remember Zarley Zalapski? Here's a reflection of the ups and downs of the career of one of hockey's all time great names.

On a related note, I wanted to take this time to thank all of my readers. May long weekend usually marks the slowing of hockey blog traffic. With only four teams left in the playoffs, this is expected for most hockey websites across the blogosphere. That being said I've had the third busiest week of 2009 this week.

It has been an amazing seasons for this website. I'm hoping that by the end of the playoffs to reach 2 million page views. Those are mindboggling numbers. When I started this site three seasons ago I never would have guessed I would get those kind of numbers. Thank you.

Keep coming back. I plan on providing regular content through the summer as well as working on special features for the draft, Hockeyville, 2009 hockey books and of course the 2010 Olympics.

Plus lots of hockey history.