Lord Stanley Lives On

Whalers No More

The Carolina Hurricanes did more than just win the Stanley Cup last Monday night. They rejuvenated a sport which was once pronounced dead.

Monday night was more than just another game 7. It was more than just another champion being crowned. It was a sign that hockey is back, whether you like it or not. This time last year, hockey was gone. Some thought it would be forever. Others were so disenchanted with the sport that they never even noticed it was missing.

Commissioner Gary Bettman canceled the 2004-05 season due to an extending lockout. Subsequently, the only hockey you could have seen last June had to be on your video game console of choice. A whole winter passed by with no hockey, and the National Hockey League fans who were on the fence to begin with, most likely fell off the wagon (whether they were pushed or jumped at their own will has yet to be determined) once Bettman pulled the plug.

But Monday night was special. It marked not only the end of a great season, but the beginning of a new era. It showed why hockey is the greatest sport in the world, and that the Stanley Cup ceremony, in itself, is truly the most astonishing moment in life.

Just watching Rod Brind'Amour (right) lift the cup with so much emotion is enough to send chills down anybody's spine. Watching the players pass it from teammate to teammate, kissing and raising it with a feeling of extreme joy and a sense of accomplishment. Nothing is better to watch than that . . . NOTHING.

And unfortunately, for basketball fans, the same cannot be said while watching the Miami Heat win the NBA Championship. There's no comparison. There's no sense of urgency. There's no feeling of "finally" in the faces of those players. There's no sign of Shaq thinking, "I may never be able to do this again," as he holds the NBA Title in his massive hands. It's just not the same.

Try putting NHL on NBC announcer Mike Emerick behind the mic during an NBA Finals game. The intensity levels would certainly not match up they way they do in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Hockey is back, and in a few short years, it will be better than ever. And we can thank the Hartford Whalers, I mean the Carolina Hurricanes, for bringing Lord Stanley back from the dead.

Thornton Wins MVP

Jumbo Joe Silences Critics

They said he never lived up to his potential. But nearly seven months after being traded to the San Jose Sharks, the former Boston Bruins captain was rewarded the Hart Trophy as the 2005-06 NHL MVP on Thursday night.

Thornton finished the regular season as the NHL's highest scorer with 125 points (29 goals, 96 assists), setting a league record for the most points by a player who was traded during a season.

The 1997 No. 1 overall draft pick was sent packing in a highly questionable move by now-former Bruins GM Mike O'Connell in late November. In return, the Bruins got Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart, and Wayne Primeau.

Enough said.

O'Connell became the first executive in NHL history to trade away the eventual league scoring champ. Meanwhile, Thornton tallied 92 points in 58 games with the Sharks. He turned a lowly San Jose team into a Stanley Cup contender, and those in Boston watched their once-beloved Bruins fall off the map.

Jumbo Joe, as he's called in Beantown, came into San Jose as the same player he always was. The Sharks benefitted from his scoring touch, but more importantly, his playmaking abilities.

Just ask Jonathan Cheechoo.

Cheechoo won the Maurice Richard Trophy as the league's top goal scorer with a franchise-record 56 goals in the regular season - the most in the NHL since Pavel Bure's 59 goals in 2001. But he would not have done it without the acquisition of Thornton.

Cheechoo had only seven goals before Thornton arrived in San Jose. Thornton then assisted on 38 of Cheechoo's next 49 goals in only 58 games together. As a result, they became the first teammates to share the league's awards of most points and most goals since Peter Forsberg and Milan Hejduk did it with Colorado in 2003.

The Sharks went 36-15-7 with Thornton donning the Black and Teal, and his phenomenal passing abilities led to Cheechoo's first five hat tricks of his career - the most three-goal games in a single season since Mario Lemieux's six in 1995-96.

The Bruins eventually fired O'Connell, and are now struggling to find ways to get their organization back to where it used to be in the late 80's.

Thornton was used as the scapegoat for failure in Boston. They said he wasn't living up to his potential.

They just had no idea how wrong they would be.

Rocket almost landed in Boston

It came down to Houston and Boston . . . and the Red Sox were a lot closer to acquiring Roger Clemens than people think.

"If it were a horse race, Boston was beaten by a nose in a five horse field [that included retirement]," Randy Hendricks said this past weekend via e-mail. "Boston did make an offer consistent with Roger's number, just like Houston did. If Roger had decided on Boston, which he considered to the last day, we would have accepted their offer."

Check out the rest of my follow-up interview with Clemens' agent, Randy Hendricks.