another sam chan: the student blogger

I am ecstatic to announce the launch of Another2010Blog.com. As many of you may have known, the Winter Olympics have hit my home town, and this blog will follow the events and the buzz (sorry Yahoo, I mean Google) going around the city during these couple of weeks. If you’re a big sports fanatic like me, you will definitely want to stop by.

The personal branding and ‘business’ (used loosely) side of me tell me that I should cover the Olympics here, since I haven’t exactly been overflowing with posts and it’d make for more visitors, hits, and other goodies that us bloggers love. However, I ultimately decided against that and here’s why:

• I see blogs as story books. Another Sam Chan is my personal story, and I believe having the Olympics in my home town is worth it’s own story – with it’s own binding and cover. 50 years from now, I want to be able to read back as about the time the Olympics hit Vancouver as its own book, and not as simply a chapter.
• The Olympics are not about me. Although I am extremely lucky to be here during this time, the 2010 Olympics are about celebrating sports and the city of Vancouver, and reporting news doesn’t keep in line with the idea of a personal blog.
• It’s an opportunity for me to use Tumblr. I have been itching to try out Tumblr for a while now and am very excited for it’s re-blog feature. It allows for greater content to be posted on a blog from different perspectives, and allows for better community building. It is my hope that during this short time, I can use the blog as a collaboration to find many more amazing experiences and stories that will live past these next 17 days.

To make it easier for you, I have added a tab at the top that links directly to the new olympics blog. I hope that I can share some of the excitement of my home city in the upcoming days.

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Joe Sakic. Taken from hespelerbob's Flickr. All credits go to him.

Joe Sakic was drafted the same year I was born. The first rink I ever skated in was the same rink that Joe Sakic played hockey in as a kid. Somebody somewhere told me that and I was damn proud of it, although my childhood was spent in the swimming pool next door a lot more than the ice rink. Although I spent the majority of my childhood in the Tri-Cities Coquitlam area, Burnaby has always served as my first home and for as long as I could remember, i followed Joe Sakic’s career. It wow-ed me that he was so good, so respected, so classy and so loyal (the last one hurts because I would have given anything for him to be in a Canucks uniform instead of hitting milestone goals on us with his beloved Avalanche team). Everything I knew about him screamed role model to me. I felt a connection to him as a fan, as if I could share in his successes since he was from BC and lets face it – we’re not exactly the city of champions when it comes to sports. So as he retired today, I also felt like I have moved on to a different part of my life as well. When I talk to younger hockey fans now, I’ll be bringing up “old time greats” like Sakic and Markus Naslund and they won’t know who the hell I’m talking about, because when it comes down to it, these guys weren’t just my favourite athletes, they were my role models. I will always love the game of hockey and sports in general, but I will never call Sidney Crosby or Lebron James my role model. Hell, Crosby is 5 months and 1 day older than me.

Watching Sakic play and the way he carried himself through his career taught me tons about sportsmanship and having the right attitude.  When I look back at his highlights, its a reminder that there are still people who can succeed immensely the right way – even through this cut-throat ruthless business world. This is the same league where owners didn’t give a damn when their loyal captain of 13 years leaves (Saku Koivu) and Brian Burke personally escorts soon to be ex-players to the airport because they ain’t worth the money (Peter Schaefer). When I watched the press conference today, it made me realize how great a person Joe Sakic must be off the ice. How many of you in your jobs today can say that when you retire, your boss will be reduced to tears because he’s so happy for you? Not even Michael Jordan got that treatment.

I realize that I’m making it sound like he died when he’s really just retiring, and with all the deaths lately, we really don’t need this kind of talk. I also realize that I’m bordering on insane sports idolatry. I guess what I’m trying to say is that watching one of my last sports role models retire has made me recognize that I’m exiting the stage where I can simply follow and appreciate other’s deeds and greatness, and that it is going to be my turn to have the opportunity to impact others. No, I’m not going to be an athlete, but as Joe Sakic set the example, leaders come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, forms, and personalities. If one day, I can impact some kid (who probably isn’t born yet), I’ll look back at whatever I’ll have done and call it a success.

But damn, in a normal, healthy, simple sports fan kind of way, I’m sure going to miss Joe Sakic. It indeed is the end of an era. Here’s the highlights:

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What do you know, this year looks a lot like last year. Detroit vs Pittsburgh all over again. A few things have changed – Marian Hossa sold his soul and switched sides, the Ryans (Whitney and Malone) are gone, and the Penguins have a new guy behind the bench. Add in the fact that the Red Wings manhandled the Blackhawks (again, what the Canucks were supposed to do…but I digress)without arguably their two best players and hall of fame shoo-ins  and this is probably be my easiest prediction yet (and I went two for two in round 3, if you hadn’t forgotten, although I did predict Carolina would take Pittsburgh to 7) But I’m a stubborn fool, so I’m calling it now: Pittsburgh in 7 games, a series in which they will come back from 3-1 hole.

The Penguins remind me too much of the Penguins of the early 90s, the ones with Lemieux, Jagr, and Francis – with Crosby, Malkin, and Staal filling those respective roles. I’m actually surprised the comparison isn’t thrown out more often. But the main reason I’m going with Pittsburgh is because of the first guy – Sidney Crosby.

He is extremely similar to another rising superstar in control of their sport – Lebron James. Both were dubbed ‘the chosen one’ long before they even entered their respective leagues, and the onslaught of criticism began the moment they had theri debuts. For Lebron, it was his free throw shooting. For Crosby, his loose temper.

The former’s team has struggled and is currently down 3-1 as we speak. However, there is no doubt of Lebron being the King of basketball now and everybody knows that any team he should always be favored against all odds. Even as he’s down, I still highly believe that his team will come back due to his leadership and his willingness to win. (Here’s an example) James currently leads his team in both scoring and shooting percentage. You don’t have to be a basketball analyst to understand that the more shots you take, the easier it is to have a lower shooting percentage. Many people score a lot of points by shooting a lot, but rarely do any score the most while doing it at 50 percent efficiency. To stat-pack some more, he also leads his team in assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, and minutes. But this is about hockey.

Just like Lebron has done in basketball, Crosby has also turned all his doubters into believers. He took a backburner to his fellow teammate and Alex Ovechkin during the regular season scoring title but while Malkin has struggled at times in these playoffs, Crosby has brought it: every. single. game. He went head to head with the supposed best in the game and took them all down: Mike Richards, Alex Ovechkin, and recently Eric Staal. People often note that Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zettleberg are two most skilled defensive offensive players in the league, but Crosby has impressed me immensely with his hustle and leadership on both ends. He has turned team-hoppers like Craig Adams into scoring options, made an unnoteworthy defense (quick: name 3 guys on the Penguins defense) look good, and perhaps even inspired Malkin to show his true colors (Remember him in last year’s playoffs? I don’t). I was never on the Crosby bandwagon, and I never believed for a second that he could one day rule the league the way Gretzky and Lemieux did. But his gritty and skilled play this spring has changed my outlook, and now I, along with everybody else are all just witnesses.

Penguins in 7. Book it.

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In round 2, I went 2 of 4, bolding boasting that my canucks would take the hawks in 5. I still cry silently every night before I go to bed. Even though I no longer care who wins and am 3 games late, I thought I would post my Round 3 Predictions as well. I have to go with the safe bet of a Pittsburgh and Detroit final, with Pittsburgh going 7 and Detroit beating those pesky darn hawks once and for all in 5. That is all.

Taking a look at my past predictions:
Round 2:

Western Conference:

2 Detroit Red Wings vs 8 Anaheim Ducks
Wings in 6

3 Vancouver Canucks vs 4 Chicago Blackhawks
Canucks in 5

Eastern Conference:

1 Boston Bruins vs 6 Carolina Hurricanes
Bruins in 7

2 Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins
Penguins in 5

Round 1:

Western Conference:

1 San Jose Sharks vs 8 Anaheim Ducks
Sharks in 6.

2 Detroit Red Wings vs 7 Columbus Blue Jackets
Wings in 5

3 Vancouver Canucks vs 6 St. Louis Blues
Canucks in 7

4 Chicago Blackhawks vs 5 Calgary Flames
Hawks in 6

Eastern Conference:

1 Boston Bruins vs 8 Montreal Canadians
Bruins in 4

2 Washington Capitals vs 7 New York Rangers
Rangers in 6

3 New Jersey Devils vs Carolina Hurricanes
Devils in 5

4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers
Penguins in 7

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In round 1, I was correct selecting 5 of the 8 possible teams to make it through to round 2. My Canucks surprised me and everybody else by sweeping the Blues in 4 straight games. How did you guys do? As always, looking for your thoughts and your own predictions.

Round 2:

Western Conference:

2 Detroit Red Wings vs 8 Anaheim Ducks
Wings in 6

3 Vancouver Canucks vs 4 Chicago Blackhawks
Canucks in 5

Eastern Conference:

1 Boston Bruins vs 6 Carolina Hurricanes
Bruins in 7

2 Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins
Penguins in 5

Round 1: