Released from the mental institute – and the Blackhawks are still losing

Chicago Blackhawks

We previously noted our stay in a mental institute, the devastating effects from missing doses of puckahol during the All-Star break. Four days without actual NHL games, nothing but boredom and gimmicks, and it all created a horrific relapse. No puckahol? A fan can lose his mind.

But now, this fan has been cured. He’s been treated and released after a 12-day stint. During the entire time he was cooped in solitary darkness one thing didn’t change: The Chicago Blackhawks.

They were on a losing skid when he entered.

They are still losing as he exits.

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Suddenly, Sabres’ spending spree seems specious

Milan Lucic Ryan Miller
Photo by Dan Hickling

You wouldn’t have been out of bounds if you had wondered, after the first half of the National Hockey League season, if Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula was going to ask for a refund.

After all, $189 million isn’t supposed to buy you last place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Isn’t supposed to buy you 20-24-5. Isn’t supposed to buy you a 12-game road losing streak. Isn’t supposed to buy you howls from the faithful at the First Niagara Center calling for the heads of coach Lindy Ruff or GM Darcy Regier or trades of Ryan Miller, Derek Roy or Drew Stafford …

Yet at the All-Star break that’s exactly where Pegula found his newly-minted hockey toy.
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Actually Tim Thomas, it isn’t about you, and it is about politics.

Tim Thomas
Photo by Dan Hickling

The unofficially crowned “Sportsman of the 20th Century” once said that “integration is wrong. We don’t want to live with the white man; that’s all.”

Muhammad Ali also said, on the topic of interracial marriage, “No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.”

At the peak of his boxing career, the former Cassius Clay was equally candid about black nationalism: “Why don’t we get out and build our own nation? White people just don’t want their slaves to be free. That’s the whole thing. Why not let us go and build ourselves a nation?”

Maybe the biggest difference between Muhammad Ali and Tim Thomas is this: Ali didn’t pretend that it wasn’t about politics.

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Tim Thomas is down and so is his alma mater. Yes, it’s getting crazy in here.

Tim Thomas
Photo by Dan Hickling

There are little things that annoy me such as bad driving habits, people who are frequently late, and the fact that there isn’t a Taco Bell in the town that I live in.

And then there are things that really “grind my gears,” to quote Peter Griffin.

One of those things occurred a couple of days ago when Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas decided he wasn’t going to join his teammates for their White House invitation after the won the Stanley Cup last June.

Continue reading “Tim Thomas is down and so is his alma mater. Yes, it’s getting crazy in here.”