Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Conference Finals Predictions

And now for some ballsy predictions.

Red Wings beat the Ducks in 6 games.
Sabres sweep the Senators.

Ahh... it feels good to live on the edge. Allow me to expand a little on these picks.

Wings 4-2 Ducks
The Wings are playing better hockey now than they have played in the past 6 years. If you watched the last 3 games in the San Jose series, then you saw what a perfect hockey team looks like. They simply dominated one of the best teams in the NHL. I won't even touch on the goaltending, because it's obvious that any Hasek doubters have been silenced. Let's talk about physical play. They beat the crap out of Calgary, and they beat the crap out of San Jose. Yeah that's right, the Red Wings are a very tough team. And in that lies the reason why they are playing the best hockey out of any team left. No one ever talks about this in hockey, but it's true: just like basketball, physical play around the net allows your skilled players the space they need to make plays. The Wings forecheck will win this series. I would take them in 5, but the Schneider injury costs them a game. The mix of tough play, crazy skilled forwards, smart team defence, veteran leadership, and the best goalie left in the playoffs, is a combination no other team can come close to matching. I'll make another prediction, Teemu will score no more than one goal this series. You won't hear the name Chris Pronger much either. Ducks will be the best team in the NHL... but not this year.

Sabres 4-0 Senators
Ok Leaf fans, watch this series. You're going to see a good first game, then a Senators collapse for games 2, 3 and 4. Buffalo is like Calgary a couple years ago: speed, speed, speed, and grit. They are relentless. The Senators can't match their tempo, and when they try and fail, they will get dejected and revert back to the team we saw the last few years in the playoffs. Emery is a decent goalie, but he's going to get shelled. 40 shots a game at least. And these aren't point shots like he's been facing so far in the playoffs... these are off angle rebounds, dekes, and plays off the end boards. This will be like watching a Sabres practice... against pilons.

The Sabres vs. Wings final is going to be the best series in a very long time.

Friday, May 4, 2007

I had a dream

I must have fallen asleep on the couch watching sports highlights, because I could swear that I heard that the Milwaukee Brewers had the best record in baseball. That couldn't be right. What was even stranger, was that I thought I had just watched the Dallas Mavericks get eliminated from the playoffs by the Golden State Warriors. Bizarre.

I dreamt that Dirk Nowitzki, the likely MVP of the league, only scored 8 points and that this was the exclamation point (question mark?) on what had been a horrible series for him.

I dreamt that Baron Davis pulled a hamstring early in the game, which meant that GS was screwed. But it was crazy, because in my dream he ended up four assists shy of a triple double. That doesn't even make sense, right?

I dreamt that the Mavericks were totally lifeless and on their heels the whole time and that the Warriors fans were rewarded for their years of loyalty by being treated to a run and gun style that never stopped hustling and never stopped scoring.

I dreamt that for a brief moment, everybody forgot about Stephen Jackson's off-court shooting and recognized his incredible on-court shooting.

I dreamt that Avery Johnson did nothing but look pissed off for six straight games.

I dreamt that the two teams from last year's finals were already eliminated from the playoffs after the first round.

I dreamt that I had just watched a great series where the heavy underdog turned out to be the better team and actually won.

Some dream, huh?


Brought to you by Kevin

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Salt on Monday

It is the end of April and along with the inevitable showers and sloppy weather comes the NFL draft.
The Draft has become a huge deal for the NFL and I was planning a big blowout at some dingy sports bar, with wagering – only play money of course – on each pick, mocking the idiot Redskin fans, swilling draft beer, and generally having a grand ol’ time. Unfortunately, fellow contributor Chris Hoff, decided to hold his engagement party on that particular Saturday afternoon.

Now I understand that Chris is a Redskin fan, and the Redskins as a rule, pretty much opt out of the draft each and every year (they do this because they don’t see the benefit of drafting a young, relatively healthy player, at a reasonable cost - compared to the overpriced free agency market - who might develop some attachment to your team and system/coaches as he develops, and then could become a solid player on the field, and a positive influence in the locker room. Oh no no no, not for the Danny Boy Redskins this path of reason and patience. The Redskin plan is the same as selling your house and sleeping in a different hotel room from week to week, then wondering why you never feel settled). But have some compassion for the rest of us Chris, whose teams actually have a chance at making a run in the NFL playoffs.

( Not that any other bloggers here follow teams that have a chance except me and the blessed Dallas Cowboys. Seb is a Lions fan – and that in itself is about as rare as an English speaking Tim Hortons employee in Toronto – a team so screwed up that I wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled out the ol’ flying wing formation in their first offensive series. Hey it worked for Red Grange! And Brad is a member of the perpetually lovable loser Eagles fan club. The last championship victory that city had happened in Rocky II).

Anyhow, I missed the draft for the most part. So after suffering through months of draft prospect profiles – ‘good bubble, stout at the point of attack’ – I had to miss the actual event. Thanks Chris. So instead of making bad decisions in a cheap pub, I was forced to stand around and make small talk, all the while pretending that I didn’t have a waiver offer in for Felix Hernandez. (That is the exact reason, in a nutshell, as to why I haven’t been dominating every fantasy league I have been in the past 18 months. How can you plan or strategize when you have guys who drop a huge young talent like Hernandez just because he got put on the 15 day DL? IN A KEEPER LEAGUE!!)

I missed the draft. And now I have to suffer the months of talk of draft ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. Of course how anyone can predict a draft winner when the players haven’t even said goodbye to their college girlfriends yet is beyond me. Shouldn’t we wait until they have at least found out where the football groupies hang out in the city that drafted them? I really don’t think that is too much to ask. I can’t even go to my favorite team blog – theboysblog.com – for solace, because the conversation there has disintegrated to the point that guys are writing PARAGRAPHS about how the kicker the Cowboys picked in the SIXTH ROUND isn’t as good as the kicker picked soon after. Thanks Chris…



Lets Go Raptors!


Sam and the boys went to Jersey and took a whippin’. When the game got out of hand – seemingly the second they left Toronto... - I was waiting for the Vince Carter ‘this game is done, now I can pretend I like my teammates’ bench joking, and I got it in spades on Sunday. VC was laughing it up with the scrubs in the fourth quarter after waxing the Raps for 27. Let’s face it people, the Raptors are in uncharted waters here. They don’t have anyone with playoff experience in the NBA - and I’m just not counting Rasho Nesterovic, because you can’t count on someone who doesn’t play when the game is on the line – and they don’t have anyone beside Chris Bosh to get some points where the big boys live under the hoop. I hope the Raptors can get a win here on Tuesday, but even if they somehow win on Tuesday, I just can’t see them getting to a game seven seeing as game 6 is in The Garden State.

It’s okay people. They needed this. They weren’t as good as they thought they were and the playoffs are teaching them that lesson. Would I prefer that they learned that lesson after beating the on-again-off-again Vince Carter? Of course I would. Just not happening this year is all.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Second Round Hockey Playoff Picks

I have been chosen to do the official Torontosportsblog second round playoff picks, and let me tell you I am humbled by the honour. I only hope I can serve as a role model for the millions of underachieving slackers that have used their degree for nothing more than part of a really last minute Halloween costume, ( I was supposed to be a wall. I know it sucks as a costume, but I ran out of time alright?).

BUFFALO vs NEW YAWK

I gotta say I have been amazed by the Steve Avery transformation. He used to be an irritant type of player (like a blonde Darcy Tucker in a contract year), who would – against all odds – chip in the occasional timely goal in crucial games. Now, he is…. Uh…. Well….. Forget it then. (Really, when player comes to the east coast from the west coast people act like they just came from the far side of the moon or something. Marcel Dionne could still be playing for the Kings and TSN wouldn't know).

As much as I like Brendan Shanahan, the Rangers have no chance. Listen, they did well in revealing the Thrashers as a pack of perimeter players who can’t stand the heavy going of the playoffs – especially this year when the League has seemingly mandated that anything less than a crippling injury will be only given a two minute minor at the on ice officials discretion. But, and it truly pains me to say this….. Buffalo is for real (arrrgh!!!!). I thought they were a team of losers who didn’t have agents smart enough to keep them out of this NHL backwater, but it turns out that having four (FOUR!!) thirty goal scorers and seven (WHAT??!?) twenty goal scorers means that you are going to the conference finals at least. That or you played the Leafs twenty times in a season….

The Bills ,…. er…the Sabres, win this series with room to spare. Avery isn’t going to be able to scare everybody.

SABRES in 5

NEW JERSEY vs OTTAWA

I have never seen this particular Ottawa team before. These guys are not the same softies that the Leafs got used to stepping over on their way to, well not to a championship but the next round anyway.

This Ottawa team?
Well aside from the first team power play defensive pairing of Corvo and Preissing (Who? Really? You have Wade Redden and you figure that Joe Who is the guy to leave at the controls on your power plays?), this team is a pack of killers.

It’s like the younger brother (the one you got used to beating up and typically treating like, well, like a punky little brother. You know, laughing at him and his friends, hazing him like a Beta pledge, and generally mocking his existence so completely that he spent the last 5 years crying himself to sleep every night), who went away to university and comes back in May with an extra 15 pounds of muscle, the ability to funnel three king cans like a champ, and can pick up chicks in bars that wouldn’t give you a second glance. That’s who these guys are.

I watched Chris Phillips slowly tear away Sydney Crosbys’ will to continue breathing during this series with a mauling that would make Derian Hatcher blush. Seriously, I saw him cross check Crosby in the throat and the expression on his face was that of a fourteen year old at the Opera – Booooringggg. When did he turn into Hannibal Lecter on skates? I remember when he came into the league, he had some offensive potential, could skate well, and generally was a pleasant fellow. Now? It's like he turned into Bobby Clarke in the '72 series. If the first round series with Pittsburgh went any longer, Crosby would have needed a walker to make it to his car.

These guys aren’t the same smiling happy-go-lucky young upstart Ottawa Senators anymore. Think Clint Eastwood as Bill Munny at the end of Unforgiven. They are going to spear you and skate away cause if you hit them in the back they are going to come back and kill you and your whole family.

New Jersey has home ice advantage, Martin Brodeur, and the left wing lock in its’ favor. If New Jersey can get Ottawa to play an undisciplined shoot out style of game then they have a chance ( I love Emery, but Ottawa leaves him hanging out to dry when they go into shootout mode). If not? Send the wife and kids to the neighbors and hide in the cellar cause Bill Munny will shoot you down whether you are facing him or not.

OTTAWA in 6


DETROIT vs SAN JOSE

Detroit danced it’s way past a Calgary team that was committed on beating itself. ( Hey Calgary! Stupid is as Stupid does…) In the San Jose Sharks, they face a team that has two top level centers – Thornton and Marleau – who give the Sharks a depth and toughness that the Red Wings can’t match. Think about it for a second; all the heart and soul guys on Detroit are gone.

Yzerman? Gone.
Shanahan? Gone.
Hull? Gone.
Draper? Still there but looking as old as the hills. Going deep into the playoffs every year is going to do that to a gritty forward like Draper.

They do have Bertuzzi, Maltby and Cleary, but do you even recognize this team anymore?
Detroit’s best chance lies in Dominick Hasek pulling another playoff miracle out of his hat.

SAN JOSE in 7


ANAHEIM vs VANCOUVER

Is the Dallas/Vancouver series over yet?? It is? Who won? Vancouver? Oh.

ANAHEIM in 4.

Some playoff thoughts

That was a big, fat, ugly win but it was a win. The series is tied and will move to New Jersey for the next phase where we should see two totally different teams. Before talking about that I have some thoughts to share about the first two games in Toronto.

The first thing that jumps out at me after watching those games is that the Raptors would be up an easy 2-0 if Garbajosa was playing. He would have played strong, Parker-like, defense on either Jefferson or Carter, chipped in some points a crucial times and would not have been the liability that Joey Graham was. I was shocked to hear the newly anointed coach of the year say that he would stick with Graham in game 3. Mitchell better keep him on a short leash because Carter and Jefferson are going to play better on Friday and Graham simply can’t be allowed to play like he did in Toronto.

Anthony Parker?!!? Alright, alright, I will never call him Anthony Chucker again. I retract all negative statements made about said player and am willing to argue that he was the best player on the Raptors in the past 2 games. He was calm, poised and clutch. His defense was excellent and his shot was sweet. He had the look of a guy that could have scored 30+ in both games if he had been given enough shots. He has won me over and I will wear his jersey with pride.

Hacking. I know this is the playoffs and the games are tighter and the refs “swallow” their whistles, but come on. The Nets are hacking at Bosh like the Senators did to Crosby. Now Bosh isn’t the spaghetti legged, stick man that he was when he entered the league, but bubble butt Jason Collins has about 75 pounds, 2 burritos and a midget on Bosh. Every time Bosh moves through the paint he takes shots along the way. At some point in this series, a ref is going to call the contact and put the Nets into serious foul trouble. If Bosh keeps going to the net he can force the officials to call fouls the same way Wade did last year. Remember, you heard it here first.

Has anyone been watching the Houston series? Is it me or does T-Mac look like a man possessed? He and Yao are going to take the Jazz apart and are the last team I would want to face in the next round. Their defense first game is perfectly suited to the post season and Yao is almost unstoppable in the half court.

Yes, the Bulls are looking strong right now but those emotions will fade when Miami wins a couple games and forces them into a real series. I refuse to believe that D-Wade and Shaq are going to get swept, no way, no how.

I know it was only one game but how great would it be if the Nuggets or the Warriors won their series? Honestly, I know that it isn’t going to happen. I know that Dirk and Duncan are going to bring some serious pain tonight, but think about it. No more Mavs or Spurs? It would turn the West upside down! What’s that? Snap out of it you say? No, I haven’t been eating the purple mushrooms, just doing some good old fashioned office day dreaming.

What I am getting at here is that the NBA playoffs are looking good and should only get better. Baseball is still too early to really watch and the hockey playoffs are in that boring second round before the players start killing each other in an effort to reach the Stanley Cup finals. So please, join me throwing the kybosh on Carter and Kobe and the Dallas Cowboys in this weekends NFL draft and enjoy some sports.

24/4 Highlight of the Night