ROR-ing to the Top

Many people will remember June 19, 2011 as the beginning of Rory McIlroy's superstar golfing career as he took home his first Major Championship, winning the US Open at Congressional Golf Course by 8 strokes, and also set a record by finishing the tournament at -16, the lowest that anyone has gone in a US Open.

But had a few things gone his way in the last year, yesterday's so-called beginning to a career of greatness, might have actually been the finishing touch on a Rory McIlroy Grand Slam.


A Rare Feat

Winning the Grand Slam consists of winning all four Major Championships in the same calendar year. The Masters, US Open, British Open, and the PGA Championship.


Now nobody has ever won all four in one year, but these four tournaments have not always been considered the four majors.


Bobby Jones won the US Open, British Open, US Amateur, and British Amateur in 1930 and that time, this was considered the Grand Slam. The amateur tournaments were considered majors in 1930. The first Masters Tournament was not played until 1934, and the PGA Championship was just another tournament, not yet recognized as a major.

Six golfers have completed the "career" Grand Slam, which means they have won all four tournaments at some point in their career. Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, and Tiger Woods.

Woods was the only golfer to come anywhere close to the Grand Slam when in the year 2000, he won the US Open, British Open, and PGA Championship. Three out of four ain't bad. So the next year, Tiger came to the 2001 Masters at Augusta National Golf Course and claimed the green jacket. Technically, this wasn't considered the official Grand Slam, since he hadn't won all four in one year. But the fact was that Woods held all four championships at one point. So people dubbed this as the "Tiger Slam".

A McIlroy Slam?

We may never see a Grand Slam, or a "Tiger" Slam, again in golf. But what a lot of people don't realize is how close we were to a "Rory" Slam. And throw in the fact that he's 22 years old.

Let's take a look at the last four majors and see how the Rory Slam almost came to be:


2011 US Open

McIlroy leads from the beginning of the tournament on Thursday to the end of the tournament on Sunday, going wire-to-wire, and winning by a commanding 8 strokes. There was never any doubt he would win this one as he set numerous scoring records and put on one of the more dominating performances in Major Championship history.




2011 Masters

McIlroy leads after the first three rounds, and goes into Sunday at Augusta with a four shot lead. And even after a rough front nine, he still held a share of the lead heading into the back nine. But in one of the more shocking collapses in Masters history, McIlroy shot triple bogey-bogey-double bogey on the next three holes, and then drove his tee shot on 13 into the water. He ended the day shooting an 80, and finishing 10 shots back of the lead.




2010 PGA Championship

Everyone will remember this tournament for Dustin Johnson's fatal grounding of his club in a bunker, but many people may not remember the logjam at the top of the leaderboard in the final round. Seven players all held the lead at one point on Sunday, and McIlroy was one of those players. It came down to 18 where Rory needed to hole a 15-foot birdie putt to join Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson in a playoff, but McIlroy missed and ended up finishing the tournament tied for 3rd.




2010 British Open

McIlroy explodes out of the gate, shooting a 9-under 63 to lead after the first round. But in Friday's second round, McIlroy was troubled by a strong wind at the St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland, and shot a disappointing 80. That was the end for McIlroy, but he quietly posted two solid rounds, a 69 and a 68, on the weekend, finishing the tournament tied for third place.





I know a lot of people hate resorting to "what-if's" but what if McIlroy had kept it steady at Augusta? What if the Irish youngster holes the very makeable putt on 18 at the PGA Championship? What if the Scotland winds hadn't destroyed McIlroy in the 2nd round at the British Open?

Had the luck of the Irish been on Rory's side for those last three tournaments, we'd be talking today about one of the greatest accomplishments in sports history. But the way things are looking right now, there may be a few more brushes with a Rory Slam down the road.

We've had a Tiger roaring for nearly a decade at the top of the golf world, but now we have ourselves a new "Ror" at the top. And we might have to get used to this roar for quite a while.

Habs Fans: Don't Jump!

You’re a Montreal Canadiens fan.

One of your biggest rivals just won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years.

You watched as Zdeno Chara, the same guy who tried to decapitate one of your best prospects, lift the Stanley Cup high above his head.



It doesn’t get much worse than this.

But if you think about it, there’s a bright side to the events of last night.

Here are 10 reasons why you don’t need to be depressed if you’re a Montreal Canadiens fan.

1. We were the only team to give the Boston Bruins serious grief this year. 13 times the two teams met during the regular season and the playoffs. The Montreal Canadiens won 7 of those meetings.

(Note: Watch Chara flip his lid after this goal)






2. The Stanley Cup Champions needed overtime of Game 7 to beat us.

3. We continue to be the last Canadian team to have won the cup (1993)






4. The Conn Smythe Trophy Winner got ragdolled by our goalie

5. Tim Thomas is 37 years old, his days are numbered.

6. Alex Burrows didn’t win a Stanley Cup.






7. We only riot when we win.






8. At least our captain isn’t a psychopath sasquatch.

9. We get four easy wins next year against the Winnipeg Jets. (Ouch)







10. At least the Leafs didn’t win.

History Repeats Itself..

They say anything can happen in Game 7.

They say it’s unpredictable.

One lucky bounce could be the determining factor in who takes home Lord Stanley’s Cup.

So if we’re led to believe that Game 7 is so unpredictable, why then have we seen a very similar pattern among the 15 other Stanley Cup Finals that have gone to a Game 7

Let’s take a look at the previous Game 7’s in Stanley Cup Finals History: (Home team on right side):

1942: Detroit 1, TORONTO 3
1945: TORONTO 2, Detroit 1
1950: NY Rangers 3, DETROIT 4 (OT)
1954: Montreal 1, DETROIT 2 (OT)
1955: Montreal 1, DETROIT 3
1964: Detroit 0, TORONTO 4
1965: Chicago 0, MONTREAL 4
1971: MONTREAL 3, Chicago 2
1987: Philadelphia 1, EDMONTON 3
1994: Vancouver 2, NY RANGERS 3
2001: New Jersey 1, COLORADO 3
2003: Anaheim 0, NEW JERSEY 3
2004: Calgary 1, TAMPA BAY 2
2006: Edmonton 1, CAROLINA 3
2009: PITTSBURGH 2, Detroit 1

For most people, this list probably looks like a bunch of random scores, but take a closer look and we can find ourselves three pretty consistent similarities between these games which may tell us who wins tonight’s clash between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks.

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1. Home Team Domination

This has to be the stat that stands out the most. Home teams are 12-3 in Game 7’s of the Stanley Cup Final. Home ice advantage in hockey was just beginning to become a bit overrated, as in recent years, road teams kept winning important playoff games (see: 2010 Playoffs, Road teams 4-0 in Game 7’s)



But this year, we’ve seen home ice become very important yet again as home teams are 5-1 in Game 7.

And if you didn’t believe it is making an impact, just look at what we’ve seen in this 2011 Stanley Cup Final. A road team has yet to win a game. So a lot of things are going in favour of Vancouver here.

Now let’s take a look at the road teams and some of the players on those teams who managed to win Game 7’s away from home. The 1945 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1971 Montreal Canadiens, and the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins.


1945 Leafs
Sweeney Schriner- HHOF (Hockey Hall of Fame)
Ted Kennedy -HHOF
Babe Pratt -HHOF
Frank McCool- Calder Trophy Winner

1971 Habs
Jean Beliveau- HHOF, Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy
Henri Richard-HHOF
Jacques Lemaire-HHOF
Yvan Cournoyer- HHOF
Frank Mahovlich-Calder Trophy, HHOF
Jacques Laperriere-Calder Trophy, Norris Trophy, HHOF
Guy Lapointe-HHOF
Serge Savard-HHOF
Ken Dryden-5-time Vezina Trophy Winner, Calder Trophy, HHOF

2009 Pens
Sidney Crosby-Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy,
Evgeni Malkin-Art Ross Trophy

My point is that those three teams had unreal talent on their teams. The Boston Bruins do not have unreal talent. They have 1 (maybe) future hall of famer in Mark Recchi.. The Bruins did not have anyone score more than 65 points this year. David Krejci, their leading scorer, is certainly not Sidney Crosby. Zdeno Chara is nowhere near Guy Lapointe. And Tim Thomas should not even be mentioned in the same breath as Ken Dryden.

The Bruins are a bunch of hard working players (the “lunch pail gang” as former coach Don Cherry called them) who get their noses dirty in the corners and throw their weight around. But as history shows, teams like these usually come up short in Game 7 of the Finals due to the lesser amount of talent.

And when they want to be, The Canucks are easily the more talented team in this series.

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2. Low scoring/close games

Roberto Luongo will not puke all over himself again tonight. At least, that’s what history says. Expect both goaltenders to be on their "A" games tonight. Only once in 15 Game 7 Finals has there been more than 5 goals total. As you see above, the common score tends to be 2-1, 3-1, 3-0.

The last Finals Game 7 was the Penguins/Wings 2009 clash, and believe it or not, I recall this game being a real snoozer. The shot totals for both teams were very low, and it appeared that everyone was scared to make that crucial mistake and become the goat. (Detroit’s Brad Stuart was the eventual goat, giving the puck away which led to Pittsburgh’s first goal)

And as history shows us, this pattern will continue tonight.

Also, look at the margins between scores. 12 of the 15 games are decided by 2 goals or less, including 7 one-goal games. Basically, expect the team to score first tonight to just go into lockdown mode and play extremely defensive hockey.

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3. An unexpected hero

Expect the game winning goal to be scored tonight by some 3rd/4th line grinder.

Or at least that’s what history tells us.

I just finished saying how the teams with more skill usually win these games. And yes, that’s still usually the case, but for whatever reason, it will usually be a lesser known individual who will be the Stanley Cup hero in Game 7.

Here are the names of some players who have scored game-winning goals in Game 7

Pete Langelle-1942
Pete Babando-1950
Tony Leswick-1954
Alex Tanguay-2001
Mike Rupp-2003
Ruslan Fedotenko-2004
Frantisek Kaberle-2006
Max Talbot-2009

Who are these guys????

The last 5 game 7’s all have pretty average guys scoring game-winners. (Yes, Alex Tanguay is very average…)

Basically, over half of the time, we see some plug who really hasn’t done a lot in the playoffs step up at the right time. And, ironically, there are a lot of plugs on both the Bruins and Canucks tonight.

Can anyone say Raffi Torres??

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If history has any effect on tonight’s game, the home team Vancouver Canucks will win a low scoring and close 2-1 game, with a game-winner from either Raffi Torres, Maxim Lapierre, or Victor Oreskovich and take home the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.