Anchorman Challenge: Phil, phrench phries and the phinals

OK, let’s call it even. The Anchorman hockey pick ‘em between myself and Matt Pearl is essentially even as we head into the finals. If the Wings would have beaten the Stars in five, I would have clinched at least a piece of the crown. Instead, since they won in six, Pearl picked up a bonus point and pulled within one.
Then on Saturday, I realized I’d forgotten to blog about the finals, even though Matt and I talked about it while I shopped for a BBQ. I told him I liked Detroit (in 6, by the way) and he said he was picking Pittsburgh. The agreement was set.
Since I didn’t get on the blog before Game 1, I’m assessing myself a one-point penalty, a true show of sportsmanship followed by a revolting bit of braggadocio. That means we’re dead even heading into the finals.
Now, here’s the E! Hollywood Back Story: After my first-round picks, I stepped into the newsroom at the Tonawanda News, only to be chided by current Night & Day features writer Phil Dzikiy (shown above), who hails from the Pittsburgh area. He drilled me on picking the Sens over the Pens in the first round — my only big mistake of the playoffs thus far. Being that guy, I turned to Dzikiy and said, “I’ll give you 10-to-1 odds the Penguins don’t win the Stanley Cup.”
As any good gambler knows (and for the record, I rarely gamble), you can’t let emotions and odds intertwine. I did. If the Pens fall, I get 10 clams, barely enough to get my daughter a hot dog and some cheese fries at Mississippi Mudds. But if Sid the Kid and Co. succeed, I’m screwed. Phil and his girlfriend can order the beef tournadoes in a rich mushroom ragout from Left Bank. Or buy Phil something pretty.
Either way, it’s 100 bones I’m not prepared to part with.