First One Won & Done

Some thoughts about this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs now that the first round is in the books...

My Lightning Indulgence

I can't really complain about the way the Lightning knocked off New Jersey. They got better throughout the series, and exited their own zone quickly and decisively to keep New Jersey from setting up offensively. They skated fast, passed sharp, were not hesitant to shoot, and they hit hard. Their power play clicked and their penalty kill was much better than it was in the regular season.

All of Tampa Bay's lines played well, and Nikita Kucherov -- who now has 52 points in 50 career playoff games -- was Mr. Clutch with five goals and five assists in the five games, including picture-perfect game-winners in Games Four and Five. And Andrei Vasilevskiy looked like the Vezina finalist he is by dialing up a .941 save percentage and 2.01 GAA.

The Bolts proved they are one of the handful of teams with a legit chance of winning it all. But of course, the odds are still long because they are not the only team in that handful, and their longtime nemesis, the Boston Bruins, await them in Round Two. My rational expectation is that the Bruins will win Game One because they have been playing games and staying at game speed up until last night's Game Seven, whereas the Lightning haven't played in what seems like forever because they ended their series quicker. But I do believe in my team. Go Bolts!

The Whiteout

How can you not be happy for the fans and players in Winnipeg? The last time a Jets team advanced past the first round was 31 years ago, back when the first Jets franchise played on the prairie. This year's roster includes four original "Jets 2.0 players" who were on the roster when this franchise moved north from Atlanta seven years ago: Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien, Toby Enstrom, and Bryan Little all could have since left for bigger paydays in warmer climes with teams that had a better chance of winning the Cup, but they all chose to stick it out in The Peg, and now here they are with a realistic chance to win it in a city that has never experienced that jubilation.

And here's the thing: The Jets are not a team that is just happy to be here, nor are they one that is going to be satisfied to finally advance if they then get eliminated in Round Two. They, like my Lightning, are a legit contender that wants to hoist the chalice and hoist it now. If you saw how loud and raucous Bell MTS Place was after every one of their five goals last Friday, can you imagine how loud and raucous it would be if Lord Stanley's Cup was in the building? Can you imagine how spastic the scene would be if Lord Stanley's Cup arrived at Portage & Main to cap off a championship parade?

By all means you should root for Tampa Bay to win the Cup this year. You should root for that every year! But if we find that for some reason Tampa Bay winning it is simply not in the cards, you should then root for Winnipeg. And if you are from south of the world's longest peaceful border, you should not get hung up on the fact that Winnipeg is located north of that border -- I already explained why seven years ago.

Pens-Caps

Nothing screams "Spring!" like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals facing off in the playoffs. Especially in the second round. Which usually means Vegas sports books should not take bets because everyone with a sense of history is sure to bet on Pittsburgh and the house is sure to take a hit.

Will the Pens prevail again this time around? It's hard not to think so. Sidney Crosby is the best player in the world; Evgeni Malkin is one of the top five centermen on Earth, yet plays on the Pens' second line; Phil Kessel is an elite sniper yet can be sent out on their third line; and Jake Guentzel, merely two years removed from playing college hockey at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, just scored four goals in an elimination playoff game. When a team has that kind of pedigree and depth, how can you bet against them?

I predict Pittsburgh in six, but I won't be shocked if Washington pulls the upset. For once the Caps are not coming into this series weighed down by the pressure of being the top seed, of being designed to win it all now or bust. Rather than coming in off a Vezina caliber season, Braden Holtby is coming in off a bad campaign in which he lost his starting gig and didn't gain it back until a couple games into the post-season, after which he played like a gangbuster against Columbus. And after guaranteeing the Caps would rally back after dropping the first two games, and then delivering on that promise, Alexander Ovechkin has a swagger about him. And isn't conventional wisdom often wrong?

Granted, my reasons for thinking the Caps have more than a slugger's chance are based more on Karma-ish fluff than on logic, but let's face it: The Penguins' offensive excellence (they averaged 4.5 goals per game in Round One) masks a lot of defensive question marks (they twice surrendered five goals in Round One) and defensive question marks have a tendency to be your undoing; and there is no chance whatsoever that Washington's goaltending, even if Holtby struggles and gets replaced by Philipp Grubauer, will be as dismal against the Penguins as Philly's was (the respective save percentages for Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, and Petr Mrazek were .856, .847, and .857).

This series will, as always, be fun to watch, and I cannot wait!


Cheers
To Marc-Andre Fleury for posting that mind-boggling .977 save percentage and enabling the Golden Knights to sweep LA despite averaging only 1.75 goals per game.

To Filip Forsberg for scoring the kind of playoff goals that remind you of Mario Lemiuex and Mike Bossy at their peaks.

To Evander Kane for showing up big in his first playoff appearance, tallying four points in four games and helping San Jose sweep Anaheim.

To the Colorado Avalanche... not only for making the playoffs just one year after having the worst season of any NHL franchise in the salary cap era, but for actually pushing the Cup favorite Predators all the way to a sixth game.

To Mike Babcock for his salty reply to the media when asked why he used a 37-year-old (Ron Hainsey) so much on the penalty kill. Babcock responded by rhetorically asking "who did you want out there instead?" -- then he noted that neither 41-year-old Zdeno Chara nor 38-year-old Patrick Marleau were "bad" despite their workloads, and snipped that "age has nothing to do with it" because all that matters is "are you physically fit or not." It's against my religion to like Babcock, but in this instance, I like what he said!


Jeers
To Marc-Andre Fleury for posting that mind-boggling .977 save percentage and enabling the Golden Knights to sweep LA, thus making me look stupid for predicting they would lose to LA.

To Jake Gardiner, for inexplicably turning to the middle of the ice and leaving the entire right side open for Jake DeBrusk to race down uncontested and beat Frederik Andersen for the Game Seven winner.

To Brad Marchand. For being Brad Marchand. No further explanation needed.

To Philadelphia fans, for being generally boorish and throwing full beers on the ice when things very predictably didn't go the way they wanted in Game Six.

To the NHL's brain-dead division-bracketing post-season scheme, which is responsible for guaranteeing that only one of the teams with the two best records in the league (Nashville and Winnipeg) can make it to the conference finals, while simultaneously seeing to it that either San Jose or Vegas is guaranteed a trip there... And that's only in the Western Conference! Back here in the East, the NHL's scheme guaranteed, before the first playoff puck ever dropped, that only one of the conference's top three teams (Tampa Bay, Boston, Toronto) could make it to the conference finals... The league has got to go back to the true seeding system it used up until a few years ago, because the current system is nothing more than corporate Marxism run amok. That might not be what it was intended to be, but that's what it is now that it has been moved from theory to practice.


And now...
...bring on the games!

Thank you and farewell

I did not finish publishing my thoughts about notable events in the 2017-18 NHL regular season when I intended to, meaning before the playoffs started. And now that the playoffs are happening, I am not about to go back and beat a dead horse by opining about the regular season.

But there is one non-playoff event I have to comment on, and it is the retirement that was announced on April 2nd.

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Have there ever been two players who were simultaneously celebrated and criticized as much as Henrik and Daniel Sedin?

These identical twins from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, entered the league almost 18 calendar years ago and have played their entire careers for the Vancouver Canucks. And with their somewhat last-minute announcement that this season was their last, it is fair to say that many of us did not appreciate them as much as we should have over these 18 years.

Each of the Sedins is an elite player in his own right and destined for the Hall of Fame. Each of them would have still turned in a Hall of Fame career if they played on different teams, instead of on the same team as each other. However, they played on the same team from day one, and on the same line, so it is damn near impossible to talk about them without it sounding like you're talking about a single being rather than two.

Hockey has had many famous brothers over the years, but the Sedins are the only ones to have both finished with more than 1,000 points. In fact, their numbers are so eerily similar as to be a statistical tie. Despite playing for so many years that variables such as injuries would be expected to cause a natural separation in any two athletes' output, Henrik finished with 1,070 points in 1,329 games played and Daniel with 1,041 in 1,305.

From a franchise-specific perspective, eleven all-time Canucks records are held by one Sedin or the other, and the Sedins rank 1-2 in three different statistics (regular season points, regular season assists, and games played). Plus, they rank 2-3 in at last four different statistics for which somebody not named Sedin holds the top spot (playoff points, playoff assists, playoff power play goals, and playoff games played).

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As you would expect from Swedish hockey players, the Sedins' game is driven by tons of skill and quickness and also by an undoubtable work ethic. However, what really sets them apart is their penchant for dominating possession time and cycling the puck around the offensive zone, thus wearing down opponents and creating the most optimal scoring chances en route to putting the puck in the net.

Watching them skate across the blue line and set up shop, expertly moving and passing the puck between points A and B and C and D and eventually orchestrating its being rifled into the twine, is (I hate to say was) mesmerizing and exciting.

Yes, that telepathic twin thing -- just knowing where the other one is on the ice, and more importantly, where he is going to be one or two seconds from now -- undoubtedly had something to do with how prolific the Sedins were, but do not for one second assume that it explains everything. Henrik played center with Daniel on his left wing, and considering how long their careers were, a number of different teammates played right wing on their line at various points in time, and those right wingers seem to have always experienced their best playing days while skating with the twins.

In a round robin interview with Sportsnet this season, Nicklas Jensen, who played with the Sedins from 2012 to 2015, said this: "The thing I got told by pretty much everybody on the team: 'Close your eyes, get to the net, keep your stick on the ice and they'll hit it.' I mean, they're amazing passers." He also remarked that "they really make you feel part of everything...they right away take you aside to go over stuff with you and make you feel part of that line."

In that same round robin, Ryan Kesler (2003 to 2014) said: "Really all you have to do is get open and they are going to do their magic, and when they see you they put it right on your tape."

And do not assume that their vaunted passing abilities mean that they overpassed and were hesitant to shoot. Far from it. They both have lethal shots (especially Daniel, which makes sense since he's the winger) and they enjoyed pulling the trigger.

Finally, I have to add that despite their all-business approach and low-key demeanor, the Sedins proved they have a sense of humor when they embraced a certain nickname that I happen to think is one of the best in hockey history: In the 2005-06 season their linemate was Anson Carter, who is black, and their line was called The Brothers Line. I also think it's worth noting that that particular season was, up to that point in time, the most productive that any of those three players had had (it was the twins' fifth year in the league and Carter's ninth).

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So what gives? How can guys like this be criticized just as fervently as they are celebrated?

Well, it happens because some people like to take what is arguably the twins' greatest strength -- their composure -- and portray it as a weakness.

The Sedins do not have fiery personalities and are not the kind of people who smash sticks over crossbars and shout down opponents when things aren't going well, nor are they the kind of people who get goaded into committing retaliatory penalties. They are the kind of people who keep their wits about them and their noses to the grindstone and stay on task.

Some people look at that pacificity and mistake it for passivity. They are the same people who amplify their mistake by pointing to the fact that the twins end their careers without a Stanley Cup, and connect that true dot of "no Cup" to the false dot of "passivity," and conclude that the twins are "soft."

You know the people I'm talking about: You have heard them refer to these soon-to-be Hall of Famers as "the Sedin sisters," and you have heard them ridicule these soon-to-be Hall of Famers for "disappearing in the post-season" and "not coming through in the clutch."

Something you will not hear these people say (because it's something they don't know) is that each Sedin averaged more points per playoff game over the course of his career than Teemu Selanne and Igor Larionov did over the course of theirs. And since most of the Sedin critics are big fans of thug punks like Brad Marchand, I feel compelled to mention that the Sedins' points-per-playoff-game averages (.743 for Henrik and .693 for Daniel) are better than Marchand's .658.

Look at the 2011 post-season, when Vancouver met Boston in the Stanley Cup Final, and you will see that the Sedins finished 2-3 in playoff scoring among all of the NHL players who participated in that post-season. Henrik had 22 points and Daniel 20, coming in just ahead of Marchand's 19 and just behind David Krejci (23), so why say that Marchand ways are better than Sedin ways?

I've said it before and I will say it again: Hockey is a team sport in which teams dress 20 players and rotate four different forward lines throughout a game; and therefore, when evaluating a player's personal stock, why are we expected to place so much emphasis on whether his team won the whole kit and caboodle?

While the Sedins' line may have often gotten more ice time than the Canucks' other lines, it was still only one of four lines and they couldn't be out there when the other lines were on the ice. Also, seeing as how the Sedins are forwards, they could not protect the back end because that's the defensemen's job, not the forwards', and they obviously couldn't play goalie.

Their lack of a Stanley Cup should not be held against them, just like the lack of a Stanley Cup has never been held against Henrik Lundqvist, Dino Ciccarelli, Cam Neely, Marcel Dionne, Borje Salming, Dale Hawerchuk, Carey Price, and God knows how many other hockey greats.

And more to the point, the allegation that the Sedins are "soft" is complete and utter hogwash. They were far from the biggest players in the league, and because they were such stars they spent most of their careers with gigantic X's on their backs, with opponents taking runs at them and often hitting them hard and cheap. Players who are "soft" would not be able to withstand that barrage and would likely not last long in the league, yet the Sedins withstood it across 17 full seasons and remained impactful players the whole time. Even in this, their final year, at their advanced age and with very little supporting cast, they both turned in 50-point seasons with Daniel finishing with 55 and Henrik with 50. If you ask me, that is the very definition of tough.

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But as great as all the hockey stuff is, what matters at the end of the day, when the arena lights have been darkened and a man on Earth is being evaluated by the man above, is not the wrist shot or face-off but the man himself. And each Sedin is a man who will be evaluated well.

In the twins' early years they were coached by Marc Crawford, who to this day says there was only one time he ever became mad at either of them. That was when he thought Henrik had missed a face-off assignment and he verbally undressed him in front of his teammates. Henrik accepted the tongue-lashing and took it like a man. Then, after the players went back out on the ice, Daniel pulled Crawford aside and said "I just want you to know that was me who took the face-off, it wasn't Henrik." That right there encapsulates everything you need to know about them: They didn't push back at their coach, because he was correct about the face-off even if his urge to embarrass was not good; and they didn't draw attention to him misidentifying them, because they didn't think it would be proper to embarrass him in front of his charges; and Henrik took the fall for Daniel; and then Daniel owned up that it was him who should have taken the browbeating.

The Sedins always signed for identical salaries and thus they closed their careers each having been paid an identical $74.1 million USD. Canadian tax rates no doubt took a big chunk off of their top line, and their generosity did the same when you consider how much money they donated to the BC Children's Hospital and their own charitable foundation (to which they also donate their time), but they earned healthy identical sums and they are responsible men who don't spend foolishly, so it is safe to speculate that they have set their families up for life at the same time they have extended a big helping hand to others who are not so fortunate.

They and the Canucks previously came to a gentlemen's agreement whereby the Sedins said they wanted to retire as Canucks and the Canucks said they would keep re-signing them to contracts (presumably one-year contracts) until they were done. Since they have remained 50-point producers, the Sedins are no doubt good enough to have kept going after this season. Nonetheless they decided not to, and decided to announce their retirement with three games remaining before season's end, in an open letter to Canuck fans which read, in part:

Being part of the Canucks family for 18 seasons has been the best period of our lives. But it's time to focus on our families and life after hockey. It's time to help with homework every night. It's time to be at every birthday party and to stand in the cold at every hockey rink, soccer game and riding lesson on weekends. It's time to be at home for dinner every night. We're saying it now because we want to share these final three games with you. We also want to share these games with our families, friends, teammates, coaches, trainers, staff and everyone at the Canucks who have supported us... It's time to let the next generation of young players lead the Canucks... We plan to be part of this community long after we retire. Vancouver has given us so much and we've tried to give everything we have in return. That won't change.

TSN's Frank Seravalli summed it up best on the day of their announcement: "The only shame is that the Sedins did not announce their decision earlier, to give each NHL stop on the tour a chance to say thank you, like so many of the other greats have done. Henrik and Daniel earned that opportunity. That just wouldn't be their style, one uniquely their own, intertwined with each other and a city -- now forever."

Three days after their announcement, the twins played their final home game, against the Arizona Coyotes... 33 seconds into the second period, Daniel scored a goal off an assist from Henrik. And by the way, 33 is Henrik's jersey number, and the goal was Daniel's 22nd of the season and his jersey number is 22... Eventually the game went to overtime, where Daniel won it with yet another goal off of yet another assist from Henrik... Is your flesh rippling with goosebumps? And if not, what is wrong with you?!?!

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In the English-speaking world, we say thank you and farewell. In Sweden they say tack and farval. Both of those appreciations apply to them.

In hockey, talking is done by your actions on the ice, and in life talking is done by how you comport yourself and how you treat others. In both hockey and life, the Sedins are a standard to which our children should aspire.

Tack och farval, broder!

243 years ago today

The hours from tonight through tomorrow morning mark the 243rd anniversary of Paul Revere’s “midnight ride” and the battles that ensued. It is one of the most significant anniversaries in American history -- perhaps the most significant, because it can be argued that if not for the events that took place on April 18th and 19th, 1775, the United States might never have come to be.

Tensions between colonists and the royal rulers from the other side of the Atlantic were running high in those days. Though this was true in all of the colonies that would become our first 13 states, it was especially true in Massachusetts, where the monarchy had effectively shut Boston off from the world by blockading its port and quartering large numbers of soldiers within the city.

It was believed that government forces (officially called "Regulars" and derisively called "redcoats") would invade the colony en masse, so residents in surrounding towns had been stockpiling munitions to defend themselves. The redcoats targeted Lexington and Concord, the former because revolutionaries John Hancock and Samuel Adams were thought to be there, and the latter because it hosted the Provincial Congress and was rumored to have a huge stash of munitions the government wanted to confiscate.

When redcoat forces were detected sneaking from Boston under cover of darkness on April 18th, Paul Revere and William Dawes mounted their horses and galloped into the countryside to warn their fellow citizens. Revere departed from Charlestown, across the Charles River from Boston proper, while Dawes left directly from the city. Revere’s route was the shortest to Lexington and Concord, and thus he was the first to warn their occupants of what was coming.

The next morning, Lexington’s village green was the site of the first skirmish between government forces and the citizen militia known as minutemen. The latter took the worst of it, with eight dead and ten wounded compared to just a single wounded redcoat.

The redcoats then marched on to their primary goal of Concord. After arriving and crossing the North Bridge, nearly half of them went about securing the bridge while the rest searched for weapons. When wooden cannon mounts were found, they were set afire and before long the flames engulfed a church.

Positioned on Punkatasset Hill some 300 yards from the bridge, Concord’s minutemen had been joined by minutemen from neighboring towns, giving them a numerical advantage the redcoats did not anticipate. When they saw the rising smoke, they believed their homes were being destroyed and responded by advancing.

Seeing them approach in such numbers, the redcoats retreated back across the bridge. A shot soon rang out, though no one knows who fired it, and within minutes a full-blown battle had transpired in which half of the officers from the government troops were wounded. Disoriented, they fled back toward Boston and along the way fell under fire from minutemen who had arrived from elsewhere and were hiding behind fences and walls. By the time they made it back to the city, they had sustained more than 200 casualties.

It was an indisputable defeat for the world’s most powerful military, delivered by ordinary people seeking simply to defend themselves against oppression. The example set by those people ignited the fuse of the American Revolution in such a way that it would not be extinguished.

But as with all mass "remembrances" of things that happened long ago, some of the things people assume to be true are not. In the case of Paul Revere's ride, the inaccuracies cut both ways and are of differing levels of importance.

Generations upon generations of American schoolchildren have been told that Revere warned farmers and villagers that "the British are coming!" Those schoolchildren have grown up and passed along that telling to their own kids. In reality, however, what Revere said that night was "the Regulars are coming out." That quote is from his own subsequent account, and from accounts of those he warned. It would never have occurred to him to say "the British are coming!" because he himself was British and so was everyone else in the 13 colonies.

For Revere to have warned people that "the British are coming" would be like me telling my neighbors that state troopers are entering the neighborhood by saying "the Floridians are coming." It would not have made sense. But by keeping the "British are coming" narrative alive for so long, and casually saying that the subsequent Revolutionary War was against "the British," we citizens of the United States have unwittingly distorted something important about our nation's genesis. Specifically, we have abetted a myth which holds that the idea of individual human beings having rights upon which government may not infringe was born on these shores, in the brains of our Founding Fathers. In reality, that idea -- which I fervently believe and which I do indeed "hold to be self-evident" -- was born not in American colonies of the 1700's but in southern England of the 1200's.

A full 558 years before the Boston Tea Party, 560 before Paul Revere's ride, and 561 before the Declaration of Independence, the outline of individual rights that would later serve as the basis for the United States was laid out in the Magna Carta, in the year 1215. Because human nature is human nature and political power abhors a vacuum, the British government infringed on those rights as the centuries passed, but the Magna Carta did not disappear from the British public conscience. In the 1500's an upsurge of interest in that document was kindled; and in the 1600's, Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke argued in favor of the freedom that was enshrined in it.

When our Founding Fathers pushed back against the monarchy of the 1700's, they did not do so with the belief that they were sailing uncharted philosophical waters. They did so because they believed, accurately, that their rights as British citizens had been violated by a British government that was acting counter to British ideals. They considered themselves the true Britons and the rulers from London the false Britons. The notion of a separate American identity decoupled from any British identity probably never entered their minds, yet a separate identity is what came to be. Most Americans living today wrongly believe that a separate identity was part of the plan.

I am not sure exactly how to build the bridge between the inaccuracy I just noted and the one I am about to note, so I won't even attempt to build it. However, the inaccuracy is worth noting and there may be no better time to do it than when talking about Paul Revere's ride, so here I go -- and it is related to, of all things, race.

I am a history buff who grew up in a house where history was frequently discussed, and I always did good in school, always taking advanced classes, so it says something bad about American schools that I never heard of Crispus Attucks or Peter Salem until I was grown. Rather than learn their names when I studied AP American History, I learned them by reading the text of a speech that was given by Duke Ellington in 1941, in which he passionately made the case that black Americans are historically loyal to and historically integral to the United States.

Opining that "although numerically but ten percent of the mammoth chorus that today, with an eye overseas, sings 'America' with fervor and thanksgiving, I say our ten percent is the very heart of the chorus," Ellington mentioned that "America is reminded of the feats of Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, black armies in the Revolution..." Realizing that those names had been mentioned with the assumption that listeners knew them (in the era of Jim Crow, no less) got me to researching, and I learned things that most Americans would have a hard time believing.

Crispus Attucks was born a slave, circa 1723 in the vicinity of Framingham, Massachusetts, which tells you that slavery was not just a Southern thing. Attucks was the son of a black man and Natick Indian woman, and at some point in his adult life became either a free man or a runaway slave who was not seriously pursued. What is known for sure is that he became a productive rope-maker, seaman, and goods-trader who was known and respected on the Boston docks.

On March 2, 1770, five years before Paul Revere's ride, a fight erupted between redcoats and Boston rope-makers. Three nights later, the dispute escalated when five Bostonians were killed by redcoats in an event that came to be known as the Boston Massacre. Many historians consider the massacre to be the first violent act that started history's train chugging toward the Revolutionary War, and because Attucks was the first colonist to die in the massacre, he -- a biracial man born a slave, hailing from the only two races that have experienced systemic legal racism in America -- is considered by many to be the first fatality of the American Revolution. Today you can visit his final resting place in Beantown's third-oldest cemetery.

Meanwhile, Peter Salem was also born a slave in the vicinity of Framingham. His original slave master, Jeremiah Belknap, at some point sold him to Lawson Buckminster. In 1775, when Salem was believed to be 25 years old, Buckminster granted him freedom and he enlisted in the Continental Army to combat the redcoats.

Salem was literally involved in Paul Revere's ride because he fought as a minuteman during the skirmish in Concord. One week later he enlisted with the 5th Massachusetts Regiment and went on to fight at the famous Battles of Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Stony Point.

One of the colonists' main achievements at Bunker Hill was the killing of British Major John Pitcairn as the battle unfolded. It is known that Salem was one of the soldiers who shot Pitcairn, and generally believed that his shot was the first to strike him. Salem's role was publicly acknowledged as far back as 1786, when a famous painting by John Trumbull depicted him holding a musket as Pitcairn fell. In 1968, that portion of the painting (excluding the image of Pitcairn on the ground) was reproduced as this U.S. postage stamp.

After the war Salem built a cabin near Leicester, Massachusetts, where he lived most of his remaining days subsisting as a gardener and cane-weaver. He was reportedly well-liked by the townspeople and enjoyed regaling children by telling them stories of the war. Upon his death in 1816, he was laid to rest at the Old Burying Ground in his birth town of Framingham. In 1882 Framingham established an annual Peter Salem Day, and the town still observes his birthday each October 1st.

None of which is to deny that slavery was America's Original Sin, or that racial inequality in non-slave areas was American's Original Sin Part 1(b). These historical facts do, however, show that the racial jumble which existed at America's founding was not as cut-and-dry as most people assume. They show that the Revolution was supported by more people than just the rich and "lily white." These things need to be understood and taught in order for future generations to have a true, balanced understanding (and appreciation) of how America got to where it is.

The train of history does not follow an inevitable track. It changes direction over and over again based on the actions and inactions of men and women. If a bunch of ticked-off English property owners had not precipitated the drafting of the Magna Carta in 1215... if later encroachments by the British monarchy had not incited people to hold the Magna Carta dear to their hearts... if the likes of John Locke had not later written clearly about the ideals of liberty that were at its heart... if, later still, Adam Smith had not written about how those ideals apply to economics and lead to mutually beneficial free trade... if the Founding Fathers had not read the likes of Locke and Smith, and not sought to re-assert individual rights against the monarchy's despotic aims... if Crispus Attucks, by being murdered along with four other Bostonians in 1770, had not helped make commoners feel antipathy to the crown... if Paul Revere had not chosen to warn colonists with his midnight ride, so that the colonists could prevent the British Regulars from stealing their arms... if Peter Salem had not been at Bunker Hill to shoot Major Pitcairn and deprive the British military of one of its most creative leaders... if America's early abolitionists were not able to point to heroic actions by the likes of Peter Salem, in order to give some of their uncertain countrymen pause and thereby keep their movement alive... well, who knows what would have happened? Those are a lot of ifs, and every one of them was an important link in a very long chain that eventually led to freedom expanding its reach and slavery being abolished in North America.

Today is a day for reflection on our shared past, and a time for figuring out how we can learn from that past to decide what course we should take in today's extremely dangerous world. We must take pains to ensure that our national memory first gets strengthened, and that it then gets preserved, if we have any hope of being confident and self-assured as we face the future.
  

It's Time

The 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin tonight, and that old devil "not enough hours in the day" has resulted in me not yet being done writing the post that I intended to publish as my way of heralding them. So instead I am going to take the easy way out and publish my first round predictions!

You may say that's not really the easy way out, since all of my predictions could end up being wrong and that would open me up to mockery and invite people to question whether I know what I'm talking about.

But whatever. I think it's easy because it doesn't take long. And because when you're typing away about things that haven't happened, you don't need to jump down rabbit holes checking your facts. So here I go!

And fyi, for each match-up the highest seeded team is the one named first.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New Jersey Devils

Tampa Bay is the top seed in the East and had the best record in the league for much of the season. It led the NHL in goals and tied for second in goal differential. Is is insanely deep at forward, and after the trade deadline acquisition of Ryan McDonagh it also has impressive depth on the blueline. Meanwhile, New Jersey is the bottom seed in the East and relies heavily on one forward line... However, the Lightning wavered noticeably down the stretch, especially in goal, whereas the Devils won eight of their last ten and enter the post-season playing their best and Keith Kincaid is performing lights out in net. Plus, the Devils beat the Lightning all three times they played them this season. So this series ain't a gimme... But don't get too cocky, Jersey fans, because Tampa Bay is the better team and has more playoff experience and also has a chip on its shoulder. This series will be more interesting than Bolts fans like myself want it to be, but the Bolts will prevail. Lightning in six

Boston Bruins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

It's odd that this Maple Leafs squad has more points than any other in the franchise's storied history, yet only finished third in the Atlantic Division. And it's unfair of the NHL's brain-dead division-bracketing post-season scheme that they are forced to play the Bruins -- arguably the league's best team -- in Round One rather than be bracketed to face them in Round Two like they would have in the not-long-ago days when common sense prevailed. Of course, the Leafs are stacked with talent and could certainly win this one, but the Bruins just seem too stacked and sure of themselves and supremely coached to bow out this early, no matter who they face. There will be no first round exit for a team whose top line features three forwards who each play Selke-like D and each scored 30+ goals. Bruins in six

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers

It's the Battle of Pennsylvania, featuring two teams who despise each other and overcame dismal early stretches, including a 10-game losing streak by Philly. It also features at least two players who belong in the Hart Trophy conversation (Claude Giroux and Evgeni Malkin). But come on. We are talking about a team that has won back-to-back Stanley Cups and has a legit chance to win its third straight, versus an organization that hasn't had decent goaltending since the Clinton Administration and hasn't won a Cup since the Ford Administration. Penguins in five

Washington Capitals vs. Columbus Blue Jackets

I am going against my own brain on this one. Columbus finished the year on fire, whereas Washington seemed to get away with over-relying on special teams and outperforming its underlying numbers, i.e. the exact things that tend to bite you in the arse come playoff time. Columbus has a stellar #1 goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky, whereas Braden Holtby has struggled so mightily that he has surrendered the starting role to Philipp Grubauer... But you know what? I think it will help the Caps if Grubauer starts in net for them, because he is not haunted by the ghosts of playoffs past that surely plague the mind of Holtby when you consider his history of post-season meltdowns. I also think the Caps will play much looser now that they are no longer saddled with astronomical expectations. They will have their hands full in this series, but they will see to it that the Blue Jackets have theirs full as well. Ovechkin & Co. will advance. Capitals in seven

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Nashville Predators vs. Colorado Avalanche

Um, no. The Avs did a great job reaching the playoffs one year after being the worst team in the league and all that, and it's nice that Nathan McKinnon strapped them to his back and dragged them here and possibly earned himself a Hart Trophy in the process. But no. Break out the brooms. Predators in four

Winnipeg Jets vs. Minnesota Wild

The Jets are deep especially on offense but also on defense and finally have solid goaltending, with Connor Hellebuyck posting a .924 save percentage and setting a new NHL single-season record for wins by a US-born goalie. Meanwhile, the Wild were a great story with their stellar second half of the season. Unfortunately for the Wild, however, key defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter went down with injuries late in the campaign. The Peg is about to see its team advance past the first round for the first time since the Jets 1.0 got past Calgary 31 years ago. Jets in five

Vegas Golden Knights vs. Los Angeles Kings

The Golden Knights won the Pacific Division and were the greatest story of the year up to now, but the midnight bell is about to toll and Cinderella's slipper is about to shatter beneath the force of a Drew Doughty backcheck. The Kings are the lower seed in this series, but they are a playoff-seasoned squad with a Stanley Cup pedigree and they have been rejuvenated under the more scoring-friendly coaching of John Stevens -- Anze Kopitar finished the season with a career-high 92 points, for Chrissakes! LA is gonna win and people are gonna call it a surprise, but I won't. Kings in six

Anaheim Ducks vs. San Jose Sharks

Can you say evenly matched? They don't come any more evenly matched than these two. Give me five minutes to make a case for Anaheim, and I will convince myself that they are going to win this series and that they qualify as a dark horse for the conference title. Give me five minutes to make a case for San Jose, and I will convince myself of the same thing for them. But since I have to pick one or the other, I am going to predict San Jose. And if you demand that I give a reason, I will say that it's because Anaheim is more reliant on John Gibson's netminding than San Jose is on Martin Jones's and right now Gibson's health is the more questionable of those two. Sharks in seven