ANOTHER EPIC GAME 7 TONIGHT!

Normally at this time of the year we are all about hockey and the NHL playoffs.  However, I'd be shirking on my duties as a sports fan and bar manager if didn't talk about tonight HUGE Game 7 match-up between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers.

(credit: Denver Post)

Going into this series, most basketball pundits and fans had the Miami Heat penciled in as the representative for the Eastern Conference in the upcoming NBA Finals.  This, in spite of the fact that the Indiana Pacers won the season series, 2-1.  The Pacers have shown themselves to be a worthy foe for the Heat, playing with confidence against the defending champions with each passing game.  That being said, this matchup has turned out to be the best matchups of the NBA playoffs thus far and it's appropriate that it's come down to Game 7 to decide the winner.  

Who's going to win?  Share your prediction with us in the comment section.  In the meantime, join us tonight for the epic battle (8:30p w/audio)!  Hint: You may want to get here early.

ALSO TONIGHT: Catch Game 2 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, Boston vs Pittsburgh (8pm) and enjoy $2 domestic drafts ALL NIGHT LONG!

Cheers!

DESPERATE TIMES FOR NY RANGERS

In a game in which NY Ranger fans were expecting a bounce-back performance from their team, what they got instead was something from a team that looked like a shell of their former self.  The Rangers took a 1-0 lead and then basically played a game in which they looked as if they were trying NOT to LOSE instead of PLAYING to WIN.  That approach almost never works and sure enough, it cost them in the end as Boston played a relentless game in route to a 2-1 comeback victory.

This puts the Rangers in an unthinkable 3-0 series hole and on the verge of elimination.  What makes it worse is that they could possibly get eliminated on home ice.  Talk about embarrassment!  I wasn't expecting from this series, not even close.  Let's face it, the Bruins have outplayed the Rangers in practically every facet of the series and have done the little things that you need to do to win.  If the Bruins do end up winning this series, they totally deserve it.  Tomorrow night is the NY Rangers last chance to win a game to keep the series going.  Lose this, and it's tee time for the Blueshirts and a disappointing end to a team filled with high expectations.  Catch the game here at 7pm (w/audio).  We'll have plenty of giveaways (rally towels, t-shirts, etc) for the diehard Ranger fans who haven't jumped ship yet!

Cheers!

FUN-TASTIC WEEKEND (long post)

The past weekend was a blur for us, but in a good way.  Between the return of the NHL and the NFL Championship Sunday, it was a great weekend to be a sports fan.

Saturday brought us the long-awaited return of the National Hockey League and to be honest, I was curious to see what kind of turnout we'd get.  As I mentioned in previous blog posts, there was a lot of resentment towards the NHL for starting the lockout and there had be growing rumors of fans staging boycotts and turing their back on the league who, in their eyes, had turned their backs on them.

When the 3pm games started, there were four girls at the bar, anxious to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins/Philadelphia Flyers game.  Nobody else.  I went to the NHL Store to pick up a few things to raffle off for the night games and when I returned an hour later, the bar was full of hockey fans.  That was at 4pm.  By the time the 7pm games started, we were packed with Rangers fans, Bruins fans, Islanders, Devils, Habs and Leafs fans, all excited to see the return of the game.

I guess it's safe to say that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was right: The fans will return, and they surely did. Damn him!

In any case, the crowd was totally into the return of the NHL and the great matchups that kicked off the mini-season: NY Rangers/Boston Bruins, NY Islanders/NJ Devils, and Montreal Canadiens/Toronto Maple Leafs. Lots of good-natured banter throughout the bar, and within a few minutes, it was forgotten that there was even a lockout.  Very encouraging to see.

Sunday was going to be a pretty exciting day for an entirely different reason;  It was NFL CHAMPIONSHIP SUNDAY with two great games on tap: Atlanta vs San Francisco and Baltimore vs New England.

We were already expecting a good crowd for both games, but for added excitement, we decided to host a "Chili Cook-Off".  We have a number of budding "chefs" among our regulars, so we figured this was a good way to have them show off their culinary skills.  So we invited anyone who was interested in showing off their skills to prepare some chili and enter it in our contest.  We ended up with five entries, so we let the patrons sample all five and they got to vote on which chili they liked the best.  The entry with the most votes won, and in this case,  SEXY LEXY was voted the winner, collecting some cool swag from BUDWEISER and LONG TRAIL in the process.  Congratulations!

The rest of the day was capped with two exciting games; The first one being a comeback thriller, won by San Francisco, 28-24, while the second game started out close, but ended up with Baltimore pulling away with a 28-13 win in a mild upset.  This sets up an interesting Super Bowl, with San Francisco facing Baltimore on February 3.  What's more interesting about this matchup is that the two head coaches are brothers:  This would mark the first time that two brothers coached against each other in a Super Bowl.  In any case, this should make for a great (and intriguing) Super Bowl, and we anticipate a good day of football and high-jinks!

PLEASE NOTE: Pub Trivia will take place on Tuesday (Jan 22) this week instead of its usual Wednesday slot, due to our NY RANGERS/BOSTON BRUINS VIEWING PARTY (Wednesday, Jan 23, 7pm).  Make it a point to join us!  

Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post!


Cheers!