Monday, April 30, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Salt on Monday
It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
Without a strong rhyme to step to
Think of how many weak shows you slept through
Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you
Eric B + Rakim ‘I Know You Got Soul’
Salt on Monday took a little break to get life sorted and all that. Changing apartments, more work and warm patio days all conspired to push the Salt out of my system but do not worry sports fans, I have enough rage from years of denial ( I am a
Leaf fan you know..) to keep the Salt flow going.
“It’s only One. They need Four”
Jose Calderone
I’d love it if the fans of the Toronto Raptors would learn from the mistakes of the venerable Leaf Nation. Don’t throw parades for each playoff victory, and don’t jump off the tower for every playoff loss.
Case in point: The Raptors – a team with two NBA newbies who play a significant role in the success of the team in Anthony Parker and Andrea Bargnani – are playing in the playoffs for the first time in forever.
(Think about it, the last time the Raptors were in the post season tournament, Britney Spears was hot, Nelly was like a bird - miles from being promiscuous, nobody (excepting yours truly of course) had yet figured out that Shaggy sucked and you could still hear his drivel in nightclubs and on the radio, the first episode of the Lord of the Rings trilogy had just started (causing thousands of 40 year old Manchildren to emerge from their parents basements) and someone spent Millions of dollars to make a movie - Glitter!!!!! - starring Mariah Carey. That’s how long ago it was. I know! Compose yourself now…)
We sent TJ Ford and Jose Calderone with their combined total of six NBA playoff games up against Jason Kidd and his 88.
So yeah. The Raptors lost. Who could have seen this coming?
This team needed to feel what the playoffs are about, and the first game showed it to them.
They learned that there is less space out there in the playoffs.
They learned why Jason Kidd is going to the Hall of Fame.
And they learned that players will do things during the playoffs that they wouldn’t dream of doing during the season (Vince Carter played perimeter defense??? Getthefuckouttahere!!!).
So don’t hurt yourselves falling off the Raptors bandwagon, they will look much, much better on Tuesday.
So, what did happen on Saturday? First timer mistakes is all.
Sam Mitchell left Joey Graham out for too long.
(Sam, I love you like barbecued meat, but when ‘bad’ Joey is on the court, you need to sit his butt down.)
Sam also panicked when the Nets went to a Zone defense and abandoned their usual man-to-man defense. Instead of keeping TJ -‘no one on the Nets can cover me’ - Ford in the game he went to Calderone, who played well, but isn’t the nemesis to the Nets that TJ is.
A lot of Jason Kidd happened.
Fifteen assists will do that.
Ten Rebounds will do that.
Unfortunately for the Raps, Kidd won’t stop happening and the Raps need to figure a way to slow him down.
( Maybe they could hire his soon to be ex-wife Joumana to sit courtside).
NHL Playoffs
(PG 13, Parental Discretion advised. Excessive and Gratuitous Violence Portrayed.)
The NHL playoffs are unfolding exactly as I predicted. Or not.
I was running late a week and a half ago, so I emailed my picks to Mr. Hoff about half an hour before the playoffs started.
My picks were,
Ottawa
San Jose
Vancouver
Minnesota
I nailed the Ottawa, and San Jose picks.
Asking Pittsburgh to beat that Ottawa team in its’ first playoff go around is asking way too much of them, even with Gary Roberts.
And since the league didn't call all the fouls on Crosby during the season, why would they call them in the playoffs when the refs traditionally swallow their whistles anyway? And sure the Pens picked up enforcer Georges Laraque at the trading deadline, but Coach Therrien wasn't willing - or maybe it was Canadian Senator in waiting Mario Lemieux - to let Laraque do to Heatley/Spezza what Phillips and Neil were doing to Crosby, i.e, foul him at every opportunity.
(My favorite Crosby foul - and there were so many to choose from - happened in Game two when Chris Neil leaped in the air to crosscheck Sidney at the side of the net. Sidney was covered at the time and Gary Roberts was left open in front of the net and banged in the goal. No penalty. The football equivalent of this is if Bears linebacker Lance Briggs nailed Peyton Manning from behind four seconds after he had thrown a touchdown pass to a wide open Reggie Wayne. And then no penalty was called. The NHL, "See the stars of the future if they make it out of today alive.")
San Jose was playing a Nashville team who never realized what it took to win in the playoffs.
I blew the Minny pick, because I didn’t think a Jacques Lemaire coached team could be beat in the first round when Coach Lemaire has a hot Goaltender. What I didn’t know was that the NHL was going to let Anaheim punch it’s way past the Wild, who despite their name, couldn’t match fists with the battlin’ Ducks.
I think Vancouver will win out in this series, if anyone realizes that these two teams are still playing in that first round snore fest.
NYI
THE Devils
ATL
Det
I didn’t do so well with these picks. The Islanders were a long shot - at the same time I didn’t realize Rick DiPietro was going to miss the first game, which is critical to the success of the first round upset.
I would rather not talk about the Thrashers. I was drunk and hit my head on something. They suck. Never again Atlanta. Now I know how you do.
There is a wonderful article on Hockey violence in the Toronto Star written by Steve Moores’ brother, Mark. ( Yes, that Steve Moore.)
I wonder if the League will ever realize that having the commissioner say – PUBLICLY – that fighting – FIGHTING – has a place in hockey, can only be seen as tacit approval of the goonery that has replaced the game in the playoffs so far. Morons.
What has hockey fights given us besides this; "Tie Domi, Millionaire".
Without a strong rhyme to step to
Think of how many weak shows you slept through
Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you
Eric B + Rakim ‘I Know You Got Soul’
Salt on Monday took a little break to get life sorted and all that. Changing apartments, more work and warm patio days all conspired to push the Salt out of my system but do not worry sports fans, I have enough rage from years of denial ( I am a
Leaf fan you know..) to keep the Salt flow going.
“It’s only One. They need Four”
Jose Calderone
I’d love it if the fans of the Toronto Raptors would learn from the mistakes of the venerable Leaf Nation. Don’t throw parades for each playoff victory, and don’t jump off the tower for every playoff loss.
Case in point: The Raptors – a team with two NBA newbies who play a significant role in the success of the team in Anthony Parker and Andrea Bargnani – are playing in the playoffs for the first time in forever.
(Think about it, the last time the Raptors were in the post season tournament, Britney Spears was hot, Nelly was like a bird - miles from being promiscuous, nobody (excepting yours truly of course) had yet figured out that Shaggy sucked and you could still hear his drivel in nightclubs and on the radio, the first episode of the Lord of the Rings trilogy had just started (causing thousands of 40 year old Manchildren to emerge from their parents basements) and someone spent Millions of dollars to make a movie - Glitter!!!!! - starring Mariah Carey. That’s how long ago it was. I know! Compose yourself now…)
We sent TJ Ford and Jose Calderone with their combined total of six NBA playoff games up against Jason Kidd and his 88.
So yeah. The Raptors lost. Who could have seen this coming?
This team needed to feel what the playoffs are about, and the first game showed it to them.
They learned that there is less space out there in the playoffs.
They learned why Jason Kidd is going to the Hall of Fame.
And they learned that players will do things during the playoffs that they wouldn’t dream of doing during the season (Vince Carter played perimeter defense??? Getthefuckouttahere!!!).
So don’t hurt yourselves falling off the Raptors bandwagon, they will look much, much better on Tuesday.
So, what did happen on Saturday? First timer mistakes is all.
Sam Mitchell left Joey Graham out for too long.
(Sam, I love you like barbecued meat, but when ‘bad’ Joey is on the court, you need to sit his butt down.)
Sam also panicked when the Nets went to a Zone defense and abandoned their usual man-to-man defense. Instead of keeping TJ -‘no one on the Nets can cover me’ - Ford in the game he went to Calderone, who played well, but isn’t the nemesis to the Nets that TJ is.
A lot of Jason Kidd happened.
Fifteen assists will do that.
Ten Rebounds will do that.
Unfortunately for the Raps, Kidd won’t stop happening and the Raps need to figure a way to slow him down.
( Maybe they could hire his soon to be ex-wife Joumana to sit courtside).
NHL Playoffs
(PG 13, Parental Discretion advised. Excessive and Gratuitous Violence Portrayed.)
The NHL playoffs are unfolding exactly as I predicted. Or not.
I was running late a week and a half ago, so I emailed my picks to Mr. Hoff about half an hour before the playoffs started.
My picks were,
Ottawa
San Jose
Vancouver
Minnesota
I nailed the Ottawa, and San Jose picks.
Asking Pittsburgh to beat that Ottawa team in its’ first playoff go around is asking way too much of them, even with Gary Roberts.
And since the league didn't call all the fouls on Crosby during the season, why would they call them in the playoffs when the refs traditionally swallow their whistles anyway? And sure the Pens picked up enforcer Georges Laraque at the trading deadline, but Coach Therrien wasn't willing - or maybe it was Canadian Senator in waiting Mario Lemieux - to let Laraque do to Heatley/Spezza what Phillips and Neil were doing to Crosby, i.e, foul him at every opportunity.
(My favorite Crosby foul - and there were so many to choose from - happened in Game two when Chris Neil leaped in the air to crosscheck Sidney at the side of the net. Sidney was covered at the time and Gary Roberts was left open in front of the net and banged in the goal. No penalty. The football equivalent of this is if Bears linebacker Lance Briggs nailed Peyton Manning from behind four seconds after he had thrown a touchdown pass to a wide open Reggie Wayne. And then no penalty was called. The NHL, "See the stars of the future if they make it out of today alive.")
San Jose was playing a Nashville team who never realized what it took to win in the playoffs.
I blew the Minny pick, because I didn’t think a Jacques Lemaire coached team could be beat in the first round when Coach Lemaire has a hot Goaltender. What I didn’t know was that the NHL was going to let Anaheim punch it’s way past the Wild, who despite their name, couldn’t match fists with the battlin’ Ducks.
I think Vancouver will win out in this series, if anyone realizes that these two teams are still playing in that first round snore fest.
NYI
THE Devils
ATL
Det
I didn’t do so well with these picks. The Islanders were a long shot - at the same time I didn’t realize Rick DiPietro was going to miss the first game, which is critical to the success of the first round upset.
I would rather not talk about the Thrashers. I was drunk and hit my head on something. They suck. Never again Atlanta. Now I know how you do.
There is a wonderful article on Hockey violence in the Toronto Star written by Steve Moores’ brother, Mark. ( Yes, that Steve Moore.)
I wonder if the League will ever realize that having the commissioner say – PUBLICLY – that fighting – FIGHTING – has a place in hockey, can only be seen as tacit approval of the goonery that has replaced the game in the playoffs so far. Morons.
What has hockey fights given us besides this; "Tie Domi, Millionaire".
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wish Granted!
Well, I got my wish and the Raptors are going to square off against the Nets in the first round…..Damn. I am a mixed bag of emotions right now. I am excited about all the achievements from this season, pumped about the possibility of sticking it to Carter and so nervous about what could happen. I won’t be able to take seeing that smug look on Vince’s face if they win this series; you know the one I am talking about. It is that look that makes every Raptors fan want to pimp-smack him in the back of his balding head.
A friend of mine made a very good point today after listening to the morning radio shows; why are Raptors fans so scared? We are the number 3 seed, we were the best team in the East after the All-star break and we are flat out better than they are. That said; I am still nervous. The Carter factor is too much to over look. No matter how much I hate him, no matter how much I boo him and break my Carter voodoo dolls knees, he is still very good.
I am going to stick by my Raptors and predict that they win this series in 6 games. Bosh is going to be huge and I think that Anthony Parker is going to do a great job on Vince. Rebounding is going to be key in this series and I hope that Mitchell sticks with Humphries. He will be able to push around an undersized Nets front court and force them to play physical series. Let’s face it, if he can take a little bit of pressure off Bosh, grab 8-10 boards and dunk the ball 3-5 times a game it will be a job well done.
We are going to try to do a live blog during these games which should be very entertaining. You can expect a lot of Carter hating, Raptor loving and random facts so stay tuned for more!
A friend of mine made a very good point today after listening to the morning radio shows; why are Raptors fans so scared? We are the number 3 seed, we were the best team in the East after the All-star break and we are flat out better than they are. That said; I am still nervous. The Carter factor is too much to over look. No matter how much I hate him, no matter how much I boo him and break my Carter voodoo dolls knees, he is still very good.
I am going to stick by my Raptors and predict that they win this series in 6 games. Bosh is going to be huge and I think that Anthony Parker is going to do a great job on Vince. Rebounding is going to be key in this series and I hope that Mitchell sticks with Humphries. He will be able to push around an undersized Nets front court and force them to play physical series. Let’s face it, if he can take a little bit of pressure off Bosh, grab 8-10 boards and dunk the ball 3-5 times a game it will be a job well done.
We are going to try to do a live blog during these games which should be very entertaining. You can expect a lot of Carter hating, Raptor loving and random facts so stay tuned for more!
Markus Naslund
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Bring on Carter
The rest of the Raptors games promise to be a snore fest, but things are getting very interesting in the East. The New Jersey Nets are making a charge for 6th place in the East and a first round date with the Raptors. This would be a great first round series and would offer a chance for Chris Bosh and the Raptors to show Vince Carter how stupid he was for leaving. I don’t care if Washington is the easier team to play, in fact, it is better for the Raptors to get meaningful playoff experience by playing a challenging opponent.
A Raptors/Nets playoff series has the potential to make this on of the best rivalries in the East and generate a lot of basketball interest in Canada. There is nothing like hatred when trying to win new fans and there are few players easier for Raptors fans to hate than Carter; just as Mo Pete.
My concern is that if we play the Nets we might lose and I hate when they lose to Carter. Normally, I am supremely confident about the Raptors chances against any team but they don’t match up well against the Nets. Richard Jefferson has been one of the few players in the NBA that can effectively guard Chris Bosh. As I have noted before, Richardson seems to be able to make for the size difference with his speed and, in Bosh’s defense, everyone has opponents who have their number.
Guarding the “Big Three” of Kidd, Carter and Jefferson is going to be a tough challenge without Garbajosa in the lineup. You can put Mo Pete on Carter without having serious concerns that Peterson will get badly burned by Carter. Those two seem to have sibling relationship with Carter playing the dominant role and does anyone really want to see Morris Peterson crying on TV?
There is still a good chance that this series will never happen and Toronto will face Washington and the Net will play the Bulls. I think that most Raptor fans would prefer this and when first presented with this scenario, so did I. But let’s be real here, the Raptors are not going to win an NBA championship this year. What they need is playoff experience against good teams to help them build the type of championship character that is required to take on Western Conference teams. They can do that this year and what better way to put to rest the ghosts of the Carter years than to beat the man who left them for dead?
A Raptors/Nets playoff series has the potential to make this on of the best rivalries in the East and generate a lot of basketball interest in Canada. There is nothing like hatred when trying to win new fans and there are few players easier for Raptors fans to hate than Carter; just as Mo Pete.
My concern is that if we play the Nets we might lose and I hate when they lose to Carter. Normally, I am supremely confident about the Raptors chances against any team but they don’t match up well against the Nets. Richard Jefferson has been one of the few players in the NBA that can effectively guard Chris Bosh. As I have noted before, Richardson seems to be able to make for the size difference with his speed and, in Bosh’s defense, everyone has opponents who have their number.
Guarding the “Big Three” of Kidd, Carter and Jefferson is going to be a tough challenge without Garbajosa in the lineup. You can put Mo Pete on Carter without having serious concerns that Peterson will get badly burned by Carter. Those two seem to have sibling relationship with Carter playing the dominant role and does anyone really want to see Morris Peterson crying on TV?
There is still a good chance that this series will never happen and Toronto will face Washington and the Net will play the Bulls. I think that most Raptor fans would prefer this and when first presented with this scenario, so did I. But let’s be real here, the Raptors are not going to win an NBA championship this year. What they need is playoff experience against good teams to help them build the type of championship character that is required to take on Western Conference teams. They can do that this year and what better way to put to rest the ghosts of the Carter years than to beat the man who left them for dead?
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Game III Live Blog
Here we go into game three in this series, and if you listen closely, you can hear the sounds of the Ottawa fans breaking body parts jumping off the bandwagon. The city has to be one of the most fragile in terms of fan psyche in North America.
6:11
Pittsburgh fans show they can be just as classless as the next bunch of yokels as they boo the Canadian anthem. Can we dispense with the anthem playing before sporting events already?
6:12
Crosby, Armstrong, and Roberts score 51 seconds into the first period on a rush and the Pittsburgh arena loses it.
6:14
The Pittsburgh fans start going after the Ottawa goalie with the ‘Emmmmry, Emmmmry’ chant.
6:16
If the Ottawa fan base was jittery before the start of the game, they must be in a full blown panic at this point. Hey, we are three minutes into the game and the refs haven’t called a penalty yet?
6:19
Hmmm, there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency from the Ottawa players. Roberts just took a run at Volchenkov and got the worst of it, but even that doesn’t seem to wake the Senators up. You would think the series wasn’t tied at one game each.
6:22
Hey, Malkin is showing up early in this game. None of this can be good for the Senators.
6:23
Ottawa seems to want to go the wide open route the evening, which will lead to yet another wide open shoot out type of game. This plays into Pittsburghs hands as their young players don’t have the ability to stay with Ottawa in a tight defensive style of play. Staal and Crosby have both had nice scoring chances on the rush. If Ottawa isn’t careful, we might remember them as the team that the Penguin dynasty came into it’s own against.
6:25
Something Chris just said to me on the phone is also something that I agree with; for a 6’3” 216 lb winger, Dany Heatly is the biggest small man in the NHL. Martin StLouis plays with more edge than Heatly. Hell, Jason Spezza plays with more grit.
6:35
Heatly kills an promising Ottawa power play with a silly cross checking penalty.
6:38
Pittsburgh is all over the Senators during the Power Play. Where is that Ottawa team from game 1? The one with all that discipline? The team with the elightning fast transition game? Where did they go?
6:45
Ottawa kills a penalty and now they tie the game with a bit of a garbage-jam-the-net kind of goal. At this point I don’t think the Sens would care if the goal came from a Zamboni malfunction.
6:49
First period is over. I don’t know why Ottawa is going with the wide open style. Pittsburgh can play wide open all night long, so can the Sens, but why not play to the Penguins weakness instead of their strength? At this point Pittsburgh is determining the style of play and the Senators are trying to adapt to it.
6:53
Coaches corner. Hoo boy….
6:54
We open Coaches corner with a close up of his Sylvester and Tweety tie. Then he goes on to praise Emery. Wow. Never though I would see the day that happened.
Cherry calls out the Ottawa defense. Hey, I been saying that for two games now.
Cherry goes on to praise Chris Neil who went from a ‘dummy fighter’ to a real hockey player. Unfortunately they also show Neil crosschecking Crosby who was covered while the uncovered Roberts puts the puck in the net.
He goes on to show how Gary Roberts is doing his best to get into the officials heads during every break in action. Of course we end Coaches Corner with one of Ron McLean’s patented terribly unfunny puns. I would repeat it, but you don’t need that kind of crap in your life do you?
7:10
Second period starts and two minutes and thirty seconds in the Senators get their forecheck on and get the go ahead goal from Mike Comrie. Ottawa is pouncing on any neutral zone errors by the Penguins.
7:14
Crosby steals the puck from Corvo and scores, but Roberts is teaching Spezza some respect for the elderly and the whistle had blown so the goal is disallowed.
7:17
Joe Corvo walks in alone on Fleury when Gonchar slips and takes out the othe Pitt defenseman, Eaton. Fleury stones him with a toe save and you have to think that any jitters from his game one gaffes are gone, gone, gone.
7:18
Well Malkin came to play tonight, unfortunately he didn’t come to skate and gets a second penalty tonight for hooking.
7:19
Ottawa defenseman Corvo misses a mile wide on one shot and hit Fleury between the nipples on another. Why is he the Power play quarterback?
7:21
Alfredsson beats Fleury shortside with one that should have been stopped. Lets see how the Pens respond to this latest adversary.
7:26
Patrick Eaves gets nailed coming around the net. He is lying on the ice and hasn’t moved yet. McAmmond and Talbot stage the obligatory stick-up-for-your-teammate fight.
7:30
Through the commercial break I still haven’t seen Eaves move.
7:31
Saw Eaves talk and move his hands as they take him off on a stretcher. The announcers are saying that Colby Armstrong hit Eaves in the Head with his shoulder, but Armstrong did not head hunt, and the hit was clean. That’s Hockey. Real hockey, not that fighting nonsense.
Lets see what this break does for these two teams. Seeing a player lying on the ice motionless has got to be distracting.
7:34
Malkin and Crosby are back on the same line. Lets see if Malkin can stop getting penalties and start causing scoring chances.
7:42
Somewhere between the called back Crosby goal, and the Armstrong hit on Eaves, the Penguins have decided to start playing shinny and their defense has disappeared.
7:46
The Penguin power play has turned into ‘lets see what Sydney can make happen..’
7:47
The pens blow their power play and Ottawa scores shorthanded. Ottawa has put it to the Penguins defense and they Pit rearguards can’t handle it. CBC colour analyst is raking Sergei Gonchar over the coals for turning away from the play on a two on two rush that led to the shorthanded goal. I can hear fans in Boston saying ‘it was just a matter of time..’
7:52
Second period is over and the Pens have taken a step back. The Ottawa team absorbed the Penguin burst in the first period, and came out in the second with a commitment to neutral zone pressure and defensive zone spacing. The Penguins tried to get the Senators to start runnin’ and gunnin’ but all that led to was more turnovers and Ottawa goals.
7:54
Chris Neil just gave Elliot Freidman what will probably turnout to be the most expensive interview of his career. Neil used the word ‘payback’ three times in reference to the Colby Armstrong hit on Patrick Eaves. Even the NHL officiating office won’t miss that fine. I’ve seen WWE interviews that had less threats.
7:55
Look! It’s my favourite minor celebrity crush and the Casino Rama commercial!! ‘Work it, work it on the islands…’
7:57
Oooo! A second edition of Coaches corner! How did we get so lucky?
8:14
Third period, and it seems that neither team wants to prolong this game as the first 6 minutes has flown by seemingly in real time. The Sens blew a three goal lead to Pittsburgh late in the regular season. Not much indication of that happening here.
8:17
That poker star commercial – the one that is offering ‘Canada’s seat in the world poker championships – is on again. Now I think we will be looking back at this poker craze in about ten years and say ‘what the hell were we thinking? It’s a stupid card game fercrissakes!’ In the annals of embarrassing popular culture, perhaps the recent poker craze will only be topped by the even more embarrassing pet rock era. (Oh just google it or ask your mom.)
8:22
Ottawa hacks Crosby’s glove off of his hand and the ref reluctantly calls a penalty. The Pens don’t come close to scoring and have managed to blow their last chance at making this game close.
The Penguins are an interesting team in that they are so loaded with young talent, you just kind of watch and wait for their eventual ascension to the top of the league. But tonight, yesterdays talented young team is showing them what they learned on their journey up the NHL ladder. The Pens aren’t there yet, but I can’t think of a single hockey fan that doesn’t think that they will eventually get to the top of the NHL.
8:33
Malkin and Crosby work a nice give and go and Crosby scores. Five minutes left and maybe we have life in this game yet. Crosby jumped past Volchenkov on his way to the net as if Volly was standing still. The kid is fast AND quick.
8:37
Ottawa’s Chris Schubert runs Scuderi into the endboards like a runaway train. Pitt has a powerplay coming, if the refs don’t cal lthe even up penalty on Pittsburgh. Andddddd the ref evens it up.
8:40
Chris Phillips mauls Crosby yet again and to his defense come… Evegeni Malkin? Malkin leaps at Phillips like a 12 year old grandson whos’ bubbe just walked down the arrivals ramp at the Airport. I was waiting for Malkin to wrap his legs around Phillips and snuggle into his neck.
8:45
The Senators kept the young Penguins at bay with a commitment to neutral zone discipline and an end to some silly defensive zone gaffes. Oh, and run Sydney Crosby at every opportunity because the refs won’t call it.
Let us not forget the play of Ray Emery who came up with quite a few timely saves – including a dive across the crease to stop a Malkin shot late in the third. Ottawa wasn’t firing on all cylinders, although the Penguins didn’t put up a sustained effort this day.
(Don Cherry comes out and claims that Crosby won’t get calls because he embellishes hits and complains to the Refs too much. How it is Crosbys fault that the Refs won’t call fouls on him is beyond me but I don’t have that single game of NHL experience that Cherry has so, let us not belabor that point.) Pittsburgh needs to get some inspired play from Jordan Staal, and Evegeni Malkin on a far more consistent basis. They need to get some disciplined play from their defense and they need Fleury to stop giving the Senators a cheapie goal almost every game. What’s happened to Mark Recchi? Where are the timely goals from a third line plugger that a team needs for playoff success? The Senators are more than happy to concentrate on Crosby and Roberts if the rest of the Penguins won’t do more than stand around and wait for a play to be made by the two forwards who are playing as if they realize that this is an elimination tournament.
6:11
Pittsburgh fans show they can be just as classless as the next bunch of yokels as they boo the Canadian anthem. Can we dispense with the anthem playing before sporting events already?
6:12
Crosby, Armstrong, and Roberts score 51 seconds into the first period on a rush and the Pittsburgh arena loses it.
6:14
The Pittsburgh fans start going after the Ottawa goalie with the ‘Emmmmry, Emmmmry’ chant.
6:16
If the Ottawa fan base was jittery before the start of the game, they must be in a full blown panic at this point. Hey, we are three minutes into the game and the refs haven’t called a penalty yet?
6:19
Hmmm, there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency from the Ottawa players. Roberts just took a run at Volchenkov and got the worst of it, but even that doesn’t seem to wake the Senators up. You would think the series wasn’t tied at one game each.
6:22
Hey, Malkin is showing up early in this game. None of this can be good for the Senators.
6:23
Ottawa seems to want to go the wide open route the evening, which will lead to yet another wide open shoot out type of game. This plays into Pittsburghs hands as their young players don’t have the ability to stay with Ottawa in a tight defensive style of play. Staal and Crosby have both had nice scoring chances on the rush. If Ottawa isn’t careful, we might remember them as the team that the Penguin dynasty came into it’s own against.
6:25
Something Chris just said to me on the phone is also something that I agree with; for a 6’3” 216 lb winger, Dany Heatly is the biggest small man in the NHL. Martin StLouis plays with more edge than Heatly. Hell, Jason Spezza plays with more grit.
6:35
Heatly kills an promising Ottawa power play with a silly cross checking penalty.
6:38
Pittsburgh is all over the Senators during the Power Play. Where is that Ottawa team from game 1? The one with all that discipline? The team with the elightning fast transition game? Where did they go?
6:45
Ottawa kills a penalty and now they tie the game with a bit of a garbage-jam-the-net kind of goal. At this point I don’t think the Sens would care if the goal came from a Zamboni malfunction.
6:49
First period is over. I don’t know why Ottawa is going with the wide open style. Pittsburgh can play wide open all night long, so can the Sens, but why not play to the Penguins weakness instead of their strength? At this point Pittsburgh is determining the style of play and the Senators are trying to adapt to it.
6:53
Coaches corner. Hoo boy….
6:54
We open Coaches corner with a close up of his Sylvester and Tweety tie. Then he goes on to praise Emery. Wow. Never though I would see the day that happened.
Cherry calls out the Ottawa defense. Hey, I been saying that for two games now.
Cherry goes on to praise Chris Neil who went from a ‘dummy fighter’ to a real hockey player. Unfortunately they also show Neil crosschecking Crosby who was covered while the uncovered Roberts puts the puck in the net.
He goes on to show how Gary Roberts is doing his best to get into the officials heads during every break in action. Of course we end Coaches Corner with one of Ron McLean’s patented terribly unfunny puns. I would repeat it, but you don’t need that kind of crap in your life do you?
7:10
Second period starts and two minutes and thirty seconds in the Senators get their forecheck on and get the go ahead goal from Mike Comrie. Ottawa is pouncing on any neutral zone errors by the Penguins.
7:14
Crosby steals the puck from Corvo and scores, but Roberts is teaching Spezza some respect for the elderly and the whistle had blown so the goal is disallowed.
7:17
Joe Corvo walks in alone on Fleury when Gonchar slips and takes out the othe Pitt defenseman, Eaton. Fleury stones him with a toe save and you have to think that any jitters from his game one gaffes are gone, gone, gone.
7:18
Well Malkin came to play tonight, unfortunately he didn’t come to skate and gets a second penalty tonight for hooking.
7:19
Ottawa defenseman Corvo misses a mile wide on one shot and hit Fleury between the nipples on another. Why is he the Power play quarterback?
7:21
Alfredsson beats Fleury shortside with one that should have been stopped. Lets see how the Pens respond to this latest adversary.
7:26
Patrick Eaves gets nailed coming around the net. He is lying on the ice and hasn’t moved yet. McAmmond and Talbot stage the obligatory stick-up-for-your-teammate fight.
7:30
Through the commercial break I still haven’t seen Eaves move.
7:31
Saw Eaves talk and move his hands as they take him off on a stretcher. The announcers are saying that Colby Armstrong hit Eaves in the Head with his shoulder, but Armstrong did not head hunt, and the hit was clean. That’s Hockey. Real hockey, not that fighting nonsense.
Lets see what this break does for these two teams. Seeing a player lying on the ice motionless has got to be distracting.
7:34
Malkin and Crosby are back on the same line. Lets see if Malkin can stop getting penalties and start causing scoring chances.
7:42
Somewhere between the called back Crosby goal, and the Armstrong hit on Eaves, the Penguins have decided to start playing shinny and their defense has disappeared.
7:46
The Penguin power play has turned into ‘lets see what Sydney can make happen..’
7:47
The pens blow their power play and Ottawa scores shorthanded. Ottawa has put it to the Penguins defense and they Pit rearguards can’t handle it. CBC colour analyst is raking Sergei Gonchar over the coals for turning away from the play on a two on two rush that led to the shorthanded goal. I can hear fans in Boston saying ‘it was just a matter of time..’
7:52
Second period is over and the Pens have taken a step back. The Ottawa team absorbed the Penguin burst in the first period, and came out in the second with a commitment to neutral zone pressure and defensive zone spacing. The Penguins tried to get the Senators to start runnin’ and gunnin’ but all that led to was more turnovers and Ottawa goals.
7:54
Chris Neil just gave Elliot Freidman what will probably turnout to be the most expensive interview of his career. Neil used the word ‘payback’ three times in reference to the Colby Armstrong hit on Patrick Eaves. Even the NHL officiating office won’t miss that fine. I’ve seen WWE interviews that had less threats.
7:55
Look! It’s my favourite minor celebrity crush and the Casino Rama commercial!! ‘Work it, work it on the islands…’
7:57
Oooo! A second edition of Coaches corner! How did we get so lucky?
8:14
Third period, and it seems that neither team wants to prolong this game as the first 6 minutes has flown by seemingly in real time. The Sens blew a three goal lead to Pittsburgh late in the regular season. Not much indication of that happening here.
8:17
That poker star commercial – the one that is offering ‘Canada’s seat in the world poker championships – is on again. Now I think we will be looking back at this poker craze in about ten years and say ‘what the hell were we thinking? It’s a stupid card game fercrissakes!’ In the annals of embarrassing popular culture, perhaps the recent poker craze will only be topped by the even more embarrassing pet rock era. (Oh just google it or ask your mom.)
8:22
Ottawa hacks Crosby’s glove off of his hand and the ref reluctantly calls a penalty. The Pens don’t come close to scoring and have managed to blow their last chance at making this game close.
The Penguins are an interesting team in that they are so loaded with young talent, you just kind of watch and wait for their eventual ascension to the top of the league. But tonight, yesterdays talented young team is showing them what they learned on their journey up the NHL ladder. The Pens aren’t there yet, but I can’t think of a single hockey fan that doesn’t think that they will eventually get to the top of the NHL.
8:33
Malkin and Crosby work a nice give and go and Crosby scores. Five minutes left and maybe we have life in this game yet. Crosby jumped past Volchenkov on his way to the net as if Volly was standing still. The kid is fast AND quick.
8:37
Ottawa’s Chris Schubert runs Scuderi into the endboards like a runaway train. Pitt has a powerplay coming, if the refs don’t cal lthe even up penalty on Pittsburgh. Andddddd the ref evens it up.
8:40
Chris Phillips mauls Crosby yet again and to his defense come… Evegeni Malkin? Malkin leaps at Phillips like a 12 year old grandson whos’ bubbe just walked down the arrivals ramp at the Airport. I was waiting for Malkin to wrap his legs around Phillips and snuggle into his neck.
8:45
The Senators kept the young Penguins at bay with a commitment to neutral zone discipline and an end to some silly defensive zone gaffes. Oh, and run Sydney Crosby at every opportunity because the refs won’t call it.
Let us not forget the play of Ray Emery who came up with quite a few timely saves – including a dive across the crease to stop a Malkin shot late in the third. Ottawa wasn’t firing on all cylinders, although the Penguins didn’t put up a sustained effort this day.
(Don Cherry comes out and claims that Crosby won’t get calls because he embellishes hits and complains to the Refs too much. How it is Crosbys fault that the Refs won’t call fouls on him is beyond me but I don’t have that single game of NHL experience that Cherry has so, let us not belabor that point.) Pittsburgh needs to get some inspired play from Jordan Staal, and Evegeni Malkin on a far more consistent basis. They need to get some disciplined play from their defense and they need Fleury to stop giving the Senators a cheapie goal almost every game. What’s happened to Mark Recchi? Where are the timely goals from a third line plugger that a team needs for playoff success? The Senators are more than happy to concentrate on Crosby and Roberts if the rest of the Penguins won’t do more than stand around and wait for a play to be made by the two forwards who are playing as if they realize that this is an elimination tournament.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Game 2 Live Blog!!
3:19
Yes we are a little late on this game, but life has a way of getting in the way of stuff. Either that or I am a champion procrastinator, take your pick. Anyway they just dropped the puck and Crosby and the kids were on the bench. Seems like Therrien is awake this afternoon.
3:24
The Ottawa crowd is booing Crosby every time he touches the puck. (Yeah cause Sidney is such a bad guy, he rips the city of Ottawa mercilessly, and he hates everything about Ottawa. What? None of that is true? Well that must mean that Ottawa has a classless bunch of small minded yokels as fans.)
3:25
Pittsburgh scores on the Powerplay. Crosby makes a nice pass while taking crosscheck #44 in the back from Chris Phillips – who is trying desperately to take Derian Hatchers number one position on the ‘dirty hacker’ list.
Of course the Ottawa crowd boos Crosby.
3:33
Phillips, realizing that the NHL refs have swallowed their whistle on all fouls regarding Sidney, has taken to following Crosby all over the ice and cheap shotting him. This is what is wrong with the NHL. Any other sport would go the extra mile to make sure that their meal ticket for the next ten years isn’t getting mauled with every stride, but no, let’s make the kid run the gauntlet for a few years. I am not asking for special treatment or ‘Jordan Rules’, at the same time Ottawa is hitting him three strides after he has passed the puck and TWO guys are hitting him. I hate NHL refs. This is why there is fighting in the sport still.
3:38
6’, 3” 227lb Christoph Schubert bumps into 5’, 11” 193 lbs Maxime Talbot and falls to the ice and hits his head. Ottawa coach Bryan Murray is livid. Ottawa, the short sighted capital of the western hemisphere.
3:44
Fleury has been solid in the Pittsburgh goal. The Penguins are doing a much better job getting into the Ottawa zone by dumping the puck deep then pressing the defensemen for the puck. Coach Therrien is fully awake today.
The game is also on NBC, and I was going to switch back and forth from the CBC feed to NBC, but I don’t want to mock the NBC coverage this early in the playoffs. Maybe in the second period.
3:48
Eveginy Malkin sighting! Everybody drink!
At least he made the game this afternoon. I guess someone set his alarm correctly this time.
3:51
55 year old Mark Recchi loses his helmet mixing it up in the Ottawa zone. Recchi is 5’10 and 190lbs with a microwave on his shoulder. He took a Phillips two hander to the chops, but he bounces back up and makes sure he gets the number of cheap shot artist Phillips before rushing back into the play. Recchi is 39 years old. That, my friends, is a Hockey Player.
3:56
Ottawa Powerplay. A legitimate hold.
At least the refs haven’t ruined this game like they did the last one.
The Ottawa crowd is chanting Fleury’s name, but the Goaltender has been solid today.
3:59
Phillips highsticks Crosby in the throat. Sid doesn’t go down, but gives a Phillips a shot on the end boards. The period ends. Crosby complains to the refs. Refs could care less. I hate the NHL for this.
How does that officiating meeting go?
‘Okay guys, lets wait a few years before we call legitimate cheap shots on Sidney Crosby, just to keep him humble, OK?’
4:02
Uh oh. Here Comes Don Cherry and the bark a thon Coaches Corner!! Lets see what stick enabler Ron McLean pokes him with today.
4:05
Cherry claims that Crosby accentuates the fouls that are committed on him, and the refs won’t call it cause they feel he is showing them up. See Sid! When you take that stick to the throat just pretend it didn’t happen. Then they will call the penalty. What a great league!
4:07
Cherry show a series of fights to refute the notion that there is no fighting in the playoffs. He has the replay stop to show a group of girls at rinkside cheering the players on.
So there you have it, irrefutable evidence that fighting is good for the game. Don makes such convincing arguments. People like pro wrestling also, so why don’t we give the players nicknames and have a ring set up at the side of the rink so goon can really get it on. People will love that!!
Second period.
4:18
I haven’t said much about him, but Ray Emery has been a rock for the Senators. The Pitt goal today was a lucky deflection. Ottawa seems to have solved their ‘tender problem for a while.
4:21
Fisher hacks Fleury like a lumberjack. Then gives another Penguin a glove to the chin after the whistle. He is doing his irritant best to get under the skin of the Penguins. Does any other sport tolerate irritants to the level that hockey does?
Ottawa Power Play.
4:24
Comrie, Fisher and Neil as a power play unit. An entire irritant line. Ottawa Defensivemen Corvo and Preissing just don’t have the powerplay quarterback look about them. Coach Murray might think about putting Spezza back there for the PP.
4:25
Crosby touches the puck and gets booed.
Ottawa’s irritant line of Vermette, Fisher, and Neil starts stupid scrum #2.
Melikar and Vermette get minor penalties.
4:30
Spezza gets a goal off of a Alfredsson rebound. Tie game.Fleury had no chance on that one. Crosby gave Spezza the old ole instead of backchecking him. Not Sidneys best defensive effort.
4:34
Another Pittsburgh penalty. I’m going to switch to the NBC coverage for the Ottawa Power play.
4:36
Just saw that vonage commercial where they tout the clarity and reliability of Vonage. WHAT? Has anyone actually tried Vonage? I have a friend who has it and I know he is calling me cause I can see his number but there is no one on the other end. Why can’t they just admit it cheaper, but it isn’t as good as traditional service? Why liewhen no one is fooled?
4:38
OH MY GOD OTTAWA POWER PLAY! SHOT ON NET! TWO ON ONE!! HELD BY FLEURY!!! OH MY GOD!!!
4:39
The announcers on NBC are a little excitable.
4:41
The announcer on NBC is Screaming on EVERYPLAY THAT MIGHT BECOME A SCORING OPPORTUNITY!! His voice is starting to go he is screaming so much. Every second play he sounds as if he is going through puberty all over again.
4:44
I’m going back to CBC. The NBC guy is scaring my dog.
4:47
Colby Armstrong runs Emery. Made no attempt to avoid Emery. Ottawa Power Play. Emery skates around in circles beside the net. If they are trying to rattle Emery, it didn’t work.
4:50
Fleury STONES Alfredsson.
4:50:20
Alfredsson gets his goal this time. Pittsburgh cannot give Ottawa this many Power play opportunities. I don’t know what Therrien tells his penalty kill squad to do, but I am pretty sure it isn’t “stand around and watch Ottawa tic-tac-toe their way to a goal”.
4:53
Another Ottawa Power Play. Ottawa can ice the game here if Pittsburgh doesn’t come to life.
4:53
Ottawa has changed their PP strategy. Instead of letting Corvo and Preissing control the flow, they are keeping the puck down low where their skilled forwards can make magic with it. Smart move by Ottawa.
4:56
The second period is now over.
Pittsburgh still hasn’t figured exactly how much it is going to take to win a game in the playoffs against Ottawa. Crosby isn’t helping with his weak defensive efforts, and taking stupid retaliatory penalties will kill them. They need to mount some forechecking pressure – which has disappeared since the first period entirely – and get pressure on Emery that doesn’t consist of running him and taking a penalty. Did Malkin go home after the first period? Is he selling programs in the stands? Where is he???
Bob Errey comes on and makes some excellent points in an interview with Ron McLean
- Pittsburgh needs to get Malkin on the line with Crosby to generate some offense.
- Pittsburgh tried to be New Jersey and protect a 1-0 lead for a period and a half.
- Put Crosby on the Penalty kill and force Murray to respond with Alfredsson or Spezza.
Geez! Nice work Bob. Not bad for an old Senator.
5:14
Two seconds after the puck drops Armstrong and Comrie drop the gloves and fight. How is this still happening in this league? The replay shows the two talking before the faceoff, and then they go at it right after the play starts. That isn’t Hockey folks. Stop kidding yourselves.
5:16
Stupidity aside, if Ottawa kills this penalty this game is over.
5:18
Malkin sighting! Everybody drink!!
5:18:15
Gary Roberts scores. Emery lets a big rebound out into the slot and Mr Roberts makes him pay.
5:21
The Alfredsson, Heatly, Spezza line causes a Pittsburgh penalty. Those three are murder on the Pittsburgh defense. Therrien needs to look at some old Leaf tape and see how the Leafs stopped these guys if Pittsburgh has any chance in this series. Ottawa looks like a team that is going to do what it needs to to get to the Cup finals. They are loaded with skill players, they have 75 irritant type players who are willing to get into the face of the opposition and they go six deep on Defense. Add to that a solid Goaltender in Emery whois on the cusp of going All World, and this team is scary.
5:25
Chris Kelly jumps a Pittsburgh change and beats a screened Fleury to make it 3-2 Ottawa.
I can’t see Pittsburgh getting back into this game. I know it is only a one goal lead, but the Penguins are looking for a break instead of trying to make one, and I don’t think Ottawa will give it to them.
5:30
Crosby touches the puck. The Crowd boos.
5:31
There is the break that Pittsburgh needed. Mr Roberts nails a defensiveman and the ensuing play gets out to Rookie of the Year Jordan Staal who makes no mistake.
Game tied again.
5:37
Malkin sighting! Everybody Drin…wait a sec !!! Goal!!!! Crosby!!
5:38
Pittsburgh is trying to steal one here today. Can they hold Ottawa off? Will they find their playoff cojones here? This is why I love Hockey and the NHL playoffs.
5:39
Malkin sighting!!1 Everybody Drin…..oh, Malkin penalty.
5:40
The more this turns into a shootout, the better it is for Pittsburgh. At this point there isn’t a lead that would be safe this afternoon. Ottawa can play the shootout game, but so can Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh can’t really play the grind-it-out game as we saw in game one.
5:41
My minor celebrity crush has another commercial during the playoffs. The redhead in a chip commercial who says Jah-Lap-Pen-Oh peppers. She kills me! ( C’mon people, find out her name and email it to me!!)
5:47
Pittsburgh is playing the dump it in protect the lead game again with four minutes left. What are the chances this works out for them?
5:48
Jordan Staal is now on a line with Mr Roberts. Good move Michel Therrien. You might just have a job next year.
5:51
1:00 left in the game, the refs have swallowed their whistle but do the Pens realize it?
5:53
Fleury ROBS Mike Fisher!!
5:54
Pittsburgh steals one.
Pittsburgh stole one this afternoon, but you need to do that in the opponents’ rink to win a series if you don’t have the home ice advantage. They got Ottawa to move away from their usual tight defensive team play and turned the game into a shoot out in the third period. Gary Roberts got the Penguins going with some timely hits and just plain old heady veteran smarts. The tying goal – the break that the Penguins needed but seemed reluctant to go after - was a testament to his constantly running motor. He ran the Ottawa defenseman off of the puck behind the Ottawa goal and made it easy for Michel Ouellet to get the puck out to Jordan Staal.
When the tight checking disappeared and the game opened up, Evegeni Malkin decided that it was time to make his appearance. His offensive skills helped the Pittsburgh offense get going and his assist on the winning goal was a thing of beauty.
Ottawa’s Ray Emery didn’t have a chance on the final goal, and would have had to make a spectacular save on Staals’ goal, or the Roberts Power plat goal, at the same time spectacular saves in the playoffs is what separates the top goaltenders from the Andrew Raycrofts of the league.
Yes we are a little late on this game, but life has a way of getting in the way of stuff. Either that or I am a champion procrastinator, take your pick. Anyway they just dropped the puck and Crosby and the kids were on the bench. Seems like Therrien is awake this afternoon.
3:24
The Ottawa crowd is booing Crosby every time he touches the puck. (Yeah cause Sidney is such a bad guy, he rips the city of Ottawa mercilessly, and he hates everything about Ottawa. What? None of that is true? Well that must mean that Ottawa has a classless bunch of small minded yokels as fans.)
3:25
Pittsburgh scores on the Powerplay. Crosby makes a nice pass while taking crosscheck #44 in the back from Chris Phillips – who is trying desperately to take Derian Hatchers number one position on the ‘dirty hacker’ list.
Of course the Ottawa crowd boos Crosby.
3:33
Phillips, realizing that the NHL refs have swallowed their whistle on all fouls regarding Sidney, has taken to following Crosby all over the ice and cheap shotting him. This is what is wrong with the NHL. Any other sport would go the extra mile to make sure that their meal ticket for the next ten years isn’t getting mauled with every stride, but no, let’s make the kid run the gauntlet for a few years. I am not asking for special treatment or ‘Jordan Rules’, at the same time Ottawa is hitting him three strides after he has passed the puck and TWO guys are hitting him. I hate NHL refs. This is why there is fighting in the sport still.
3:38
6’, 3” 227lb Christoph Schubert bumps into 5’, 11” 193 lbs Maxime Talbot and falls to the ice and hits his head. Ottawa coach Bryan Murray is livid. Ottawa, the short sighted capital of the western hemisphere.
3:44
Fleury has been solid in the Pittsburgh goal. The Penguins are doing a much better job getting into the Ottawa zone by dumping the puck deep then pressing the defensemen for the puck. Coach Therrien is fully awake today.
The game is also on NBC, and I was going to switch back and forth from the CBC feed to NBC, but I don’t want to mock the NBC coverage this early in the playoffs. Maybe in the second period.
3:48
Eveginy Malkin sighting! Everybody drink!
At least he made the game this afternoon. I guess someone set his alarm correctly this time.
3:51
55 year old Mark Recchi loses his helmet mixing it up in the Ottawa zone. Recchi is 5’10 and 190lbs with a microwave on his shoulder. He took a Phillips two hander to the chops, but he bounces back up and makes sure he gets the number of cheap shot artist Phillips before rushing back into the play. Recchi is 39 years old. That, my friends, is a Hockey Player.
3:56
Ottawa Powerplay. A legitimate hold.
At least the refs haven’t ruined this game like they did the last one.
The Ottawa crowd is chanting Fleury’s name, but the Goaltender has been solid today.
3:59
Phillips highsticks Crosby in the throat. Sid doesn’t go down, but gives a Phillips a shot on the end boards. The period ends. Crosby complains to the refs. Refs could care less. I hate the NHL for this.
How does that officiating meeting go?
‘Okay guys, lets wait a few years before we call legitimate cheap shots on Sidney Crosby, just to keep him humble, OK?’
4:02
Uh oh. Here Comes Don Cherry and the bark a thon Coaches Corner!! Lets see what stick enabler Ron McLean pokes him with today.
4:05
Cherry claims that Crosby accentuates the fouls that are committed on him, and the refs won’t call it cause they feel he is showing them up. See Sid! When you take that stick to the throat just pretend it didn’t happen. Then they will call the penalty. What a great league!
4:07
Cherry show a series of fights to refute the notion that there is no fighting in the playoffs. He has the replay stop to show a group of girls at rinkside cheering the players on.
So there you have it, irrefutable evidence that fighting is good for the game. Don makes such convincing arguments. People like pro wrestling also, so why don’t we give the players nicknames and have a ring set up at the side of the rink so goon can really get it on. People will love that!!
Second period.
4:18
I haven’t said much about him, but Ray Emery has been a rock for the Senators. The Pitt goal today was a lucky deflection. Ottawa seems to have solved their ‘tender problem for a while.
4:21
Fisher hacks Fleury like a lumberjack. Then gives another Penguin a glove to the chin after the whistle. He is doing his irritant best to get under the skin of the Penguins. Does any other sport tolerate irritants to the level that hockey does?
Ottawa Power Play.
4:24
Comrie, Fisher and Neil as a power play unit. An entire irritant line. Ottawa Defensivemen Corvo and Preissing just don’t have the powerplay quarterback look about them. Coach Murray might think about putting Spezza back there for the PP.
4:25
Crosby touches the puck and gets booed.
Ottawa’s irritant line of Vermette, Fisher, and Neil starts stupid scrum #2.
Melikar and Vermette get minor penalties.
4:30
Spezza gets a goal off of a Alfredsson rebound. Tie game.Fleury had no chance on that one. Crosby gave Spezza the old ole instead of backchecking him. Not Sidneys best defensive effort.
4:34
Another Pittsburgh penalty. I’m going to switch to the NBC coverage for the Ottawa Power play.
4:36
Just saw that vonage commercial where they tout the clarity and reliability of Vonage. WHAT? Has anyone actually tried Vonage? I have a friend who has it and I know he is calling me cause I can see his number but there is no one on the other end. Why can’t they just admit it cheaper, but it isn’t as good as traditional service? Why liewhen no one is fooled?
4:38
OH MY GOD OTTAWA POWER PLAY! SHOT ON NET! TWO ON ONE!! HELD BY FLEURY!!! OH MY GOD!!!
4:39
The announcers on NBC are a little excitable.
4:41
The announcer on NBC is Screaming on EVERYPLAY THAT MIGHT BECOME A SCORING OPPORTUNITY!! His voice is starting to go he is screaming so much. Every second play he sounds as if he is going through puberty all over again.
4:44
I’m going back to CBC. The NBC guy is scaring my dog.
4:47
Colby Armstrong runs Emery. Made no attempt to avoid Emery. Ottawa Power Play. Emery skates around in circles beside the net. If they are trying to rattle Emery, it didn’t work.
4:50
Fleury STONES Alfredsson.
4:50:20
Alfredsson gets his goal this time. Pittsburgh cannot give Ottawa this many Power play opportunities. I don’t know what Therrien tells his penalty kill squad to do, but I am pretty sure it isn’t “stand around and watch Ottawa tic-tac-toe their way to a goal”.
4:53
Another Ottawa Power Play. Ottawa can ice the game here if Pittsburgh doesn’t come to life.
4:53
Ottawa has changed their PP strategy. Instead of letting Corvo and Preissing control the flow, they are keeping the puck down low where their skilled forwards can make magic with it. Smart move by Ottawa.
4:56
The second period is now over.
Pittsburgh still hasn’t figured exactly how much it is going to take to win a game in the playoffs against Ottawa. Crosby isn’t helping with his weak defensive efforts, and taking stupid retaliatory penalties will kill them. They need to mount some forechecking pressure – which has disappeared since the first period entirely – and get pressure on Emery that doesn’t consist of running him and taking a penalty. Did Malkin go home after the first period? Is he selling programs in the stands? Where is he???
Bob Errey comes on and makes some excellent points in an interview with Ron McLean
- Pittsburgh needs to get Malkin on the line with Crosby to generate some offense.
- Pittsburgh tried to be New Jersey and protect a 1-0 lead for a period and a half.
- Put Crosby on the Penalty kill and force Murray to respond with Alfredsson or Spezza.
Geez! Nice work Bob. Not bad for an old Senator.
5:14
Two seconds after the puck drops Armstrong and Comrie drop the gloves and fight. How is this still happening in this league? The replay shows the two talking before the faceoff, and then they go at it right after the play starts. That isn’t Hockey folks. Stop kidding yourselves.
5:16
Stupidity aside, if Ottawa kills this penalty this game is over.
5:18
Malkin sighting! Everybody drink!!
5:18:15
Gary Roberts scores. Emery lets a big rebound out into the slot and Mr Roberts makes him pay.
5:21
The Alfredsson, Heatly, Spezza line causes a Pittsburgh penalty. Those three are murder on the Pittsburgh defense. Therrien needs to look at some old Leaf tape and see how the Leafs stopped these guys if Pittsburgh has any chance in this series. Ottawa looks like a team that is going to do what it needs to to get to the Cup finals. They are loaded with skill players, they have 75 irritant type players who are willing to get into the face of the opposition and they go six deep on Defense. Add to that a solid Goaltender in Emery whois on the cusp of going All World, and this team is scary.
5:25
Chris Kelly jumps a Pittsburgh change and beats a screened Fleury to make it 3-2 Ottawa.
I can’t see Pittsburgh getting back into this game. I know it is only a one goal lead, but the Penguins are looking for a break instead of trying to make one, and I don’t think Ottawa will give it to them.
5:30
Crosby touches the puck. The Crowd boos.
5:31
There is the break that Pittsburgh needed. Mr Roberts nails a defensiveman and the ensuing play gets out to Rookie of the Year Jordan Staal who makes no mistake.
Game tied again.
5:37
Malkin sighting! Everybody Drin…wait a sec !!! Goal!!!! Crosby!!
5:38
Pittsburgh is trying to steal one here today. Can they hold Ottawa off? Will they find their playoff cojones here? This is why I love Hockey and the NHL playoffs.
5:39
Malkin sighting!!1 Everybody Drin…..oh, Malkin penalty.
5:40
The more this turns into a shootout, the better it is for Pittsburgh. At this point there isn’t a lead that would be safe this afternoon. Ottawa can play the shootout game, but so can Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh can’t really play the grind-it-out game as we saw in game one.
5:41
My minor celebrity crush has another commercial during the playoffs. The redhead in a chip commercial who says Jah-Lap-Pen-Oh peppers. She kills me! ( C’mon people, find out her name and email it to me!!)
5:47
Pittsburgh is playing the dump it in protect the lead game again with four minutes left. What are the chances this works out for them?
5:48
Jordan Staal is now on a line with Mr Roberts. Good move Michel Therrien. You might just have a job next year.
5:51
1:00 left in the game, the refs have swallowed their whistle but do the Pens realize it?
5:53
Fleury ROBS Mike Fisher!!
5:54
Pittsburgh steals one.
Pittsburgh stole one this afternoon, but you need to do that in the opponents’ rink to win a series if you don’t have the home ice advantage. They got Ottawa to move away from their usual tight defensive team play and turned the game into a shoot out in the third period. Gary Roberts got the Penguins going with some timely hits and just plain old heady veteran smarts. The tying goal – the break that the Penguins needed but seemed reluctant to go after - was a testament to his constantly running motor. He ran the Ottawa defenseman off of the puck behind the Ottawa goal and made it easy for Michel Ouellet to get the puck out to Jordan Staal.
When the tight checking disappeared and the game opened up, Evegeni Malkin decided that it was time to make his appearance. His offensive skills helped the Pittsburgh offense get going and his assist on the winning goal was a thing of beauty.
Ottawa’s Ray Emery didn’t have a chance on the final goal, and would have had to make a spectacular save on Staals’ goal, or the Roberts Power plat goal, at the same time spectacular saves in the playoffs is what separates the top goaltenders from the Andrew Raycrofts of the league.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Giving the Meatballs Some Love
If there is one thing I can’t stand it is unfounded bashing of great hockey players, especially when that players name is Mats Sundin. My comrade in blogging has decided to put forth the idea that Markus “The Human Playoff Disappearing Act” Naslund ranks higher on the Swedish meatball scale than the dedicated Leafs captain. This is even more stupid than the TSN decision to put Tie Domi on T.V. (Really, what insight can this guy have on the game? Are they going to do a special called “The Insiders Guide to Cheap shots? At least Roenick has the balls to something interesting and is the only guy there who wouldn’t be afraid to tell Domi off. At one point this year I think I saw Domi sniffing McGuire’s crotch! A blushing McGuire then went on a 30 second monologue about how Domi was a great presence in the locker room and how happy everyone at TSN is to have as part of the team). Back to the Swedes…..
A simple comparison will prove how much better Sundin was, is AND will be. First some stats. Sundin, who is only 2 years older, has 1243 career points in 1231 games. This includes 12 seasons of 30 goals or more and 5 seasons with at least 50 assists (for more see the link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/34/career . Those are stats worthy of a Campbell’s Chunky commercial and the Hockey Hall of Fame. Naslund has totaled 768 points in 953 games to date http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/533/career . It is true that Naslund has had a better single season that Sundin but he was also playing with better players. In the 2002-03 season Naslund was on a line with Todd Bertuzzi who was at his man-crushing peak. Sundin was lined up with Alex “Dangles” Mogliny and Gary Roberts who were sharing a groin and a back!
After the lockout Naslund has averaged less than a point per game while Sundin has averaged more than one per night. The rule changes should have made it easier for a guy with his “burst” and “agility” to score so why the decrease in productivity? I think that Naslund is ready to call it quits and take his millions back to Sweden where he can marry a blonde and yodel across the fjords. He has never shown an edge in his game and has never shown up in the playoffs. This is a guy who plays hockey for the money, not for the love of the game.
Say it with me, 'Blue Sky' McGuire...
A note from that marathon in Vancouver last night – and why do the marathon overtime games always seem to happen on the west coast? – and some other thoughts….
Markus Naslund
- We don’t get to see him very much, but Markus Naslund is a splendid hockey player. If any Leaf fans want to see a Swedish captain playing with heart and desire, tune in to watch this guy play. I don’t think Sundin ever had the burst, agility and drive that this guy has.
(And if Sundin was truthful with himself, he would admit a change might do wonders for him as well. C’mon, the Leafs are two years – with a miracle – away from making any sort of run deep into the playoffs. Sundin is 52 now – in athlete years – and like most 52 year olds, he is going to want to spend more time on the golf course than he does at work. Signing him makes no sense and is a PR ploy at best. He needs to be somewhere where he will be the missing link to a Cup run. Like Ray Bourque did in Colorado, he needs to go to…… Buffalo, Dallas, Vancouver, somewhere he can be a compliment, not the focus. We will all be better for it.
First round notes;
- I know I picked the Islanders to upset the Sabres in the first round, but, uh, there is no way in hell the Islanders are going to win with Wade Double V in net. In fact, they will be hard pressed to win a single game. I foresee a desperate New York islander team rushing Rick Dipietro back into service for either game three or game four with disastrous results.
- Jeremy Roenick has been a splendid hockey player. He is one of the best American Hockey players in the history of the game, and I think he is his way to the HoF. At the same time, his hair leaves much to be desired. His over frosted hair gives him the look of someone who has a giant white spider perched on top of his head. Someone needs to tell him that he is on Television not radio…
- I’ll get into this in a little more detail later, but does anyone tell TSN colour analyst Pierre McGuire that everything can’t possibly be super, great, amazing, so this, the ultimate that? Hey, ‘Blue Skies’ McGuire, if Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller gets a twenty second gush-a-thon during the first playoff game of the first series that gives him a whopping total of 19 playoffs starts, then what do you do when you cover a game with Martin Brodeur starting for the Devils? Build a twenty foot golden statute of him and start genuflecting? Leave yourself some room, man!! Blue Sky McGuire. I think we should make that stick…
Markus Naslund
- We don’t get to see him very much, but Markus Naslund is a splendid hockey player. If any Leaf fans want to see a Swedish captain playing with heart and desire, tune in to watch this guy play. I don’t think Sundin ever had the burst, agility and drive that this guy has.
(And if Sundin was truthful with himself, he would admit a change might do wonders for him as well. C’mon, the Leafs are two years – with a miracle – away from making any sort of run deep into the playoffs. Sundin is 52 now – in athlete years – and like most 52 year olds, he is going to want to spend more time on the golf course than he does at work. Signing him makes no sense and is a PR ploy at best. He needs to be somewhere where he will be the missing link to a Cup run. Like Ray Bourque did in Colorado, he needs to go to…… Buffalo, Dallas, Vancouver, somewhere he can be a compliment, not the focus. We will all be better for it.
First round notes;
- I know I picked the Islanders to upset the Sabres in the first round, but, uh, there is no way in hell the Islanders are going to win with Wade Double V in net. In fact, they will be hard pressed to win a single game. I foresee a desperate New York islander team rushing Rick Dipietro back into service for either game three or game four with disastrous results.
- Jeremy Roenick has been a splendid hockey player. He is one of the best American Hockey players in the history of the game, and I think he is his way to the HoF. At the same time, his hair leaves much to be desired. His over frosted hair gives him the look of someone who has a giant white spider perched on top of his head. Someone needs to tell him that he is on Television not radio…
- I’ll get into this in a little more detail later, but does anyone tell TSN colour analyst Pierre McGuire that everything can’t possibly be super, great, amazing, so this, the ultimate that? Hey, ‘Blue Skies’ McGuire, if Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller gets a twenty second gush-a-thon during the first playoff game of the first series that gives him a whopping total of 19 playoffs starts, then what do you do when you cover a game with Martin Brodeur starting for the Devils? Build a twenty foot golden statute of him and start genuflecting? Leave yourself some room, man!! Blue Sky McGuire. I think we should make that stick…
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Ottawa vs Pittsburgh LIVE blog
We going live baby!!
6:47 – I am a bit nervous, this live stuff is kinda anxiety building. The deal here is that I will watch the Ottawa game and type in my observations live, live, LIVE as they happen!!
I stole the idea from the Sports Guy Bill Simmons, but I am sure he stole it from
someone else, whatever, I am not sure I will be able to top the live blogs going on at nhl.com where they have such luminaries such as the guy from the TV show ‘Bones’ doing playoff blogs all being hosted by Christie Brinkley.
( I would have loved to be in that meeting in some café in NYC – the hockey epicenter, the very soul of the sport)
- ‘yeah uh, who do you think we could get to host the whole deal and stay within budget?
- What about Christie Brinkley?
- Call her agent, see if she will do it for $40 000, if he says yes lets get this thing committed to paper’
Was Boy George busy? Did anyone try to get Dan Rather? He has some free time…
6:54
I haven’t turned to TSN yet. I am a little scared to go there as I caught a bit of their 72 hr marathon of pre playoff coverage – I think they went from the trade deadline overkill straight into playoff hype. I think I saw a monkey making picks on TSN. I also saw a benobo chimp making picks. I guess the monkey was allowed some time away from his handler Belinda Stronach. How they got the suit over it’s massive head I will never know…
6:58
The weather woman on CBC is calling for snow and freezing rain. Wow, we are getting hockey weather with the playoffs…
6:59
Just cracked a beverage. I didn’t want to get all sloppy so I picked Pabst as my beverage for the evening. Pabst should change their tag line to ‘Yes. It’s supposed to taste like that.’ Somehow I don’t think they will be going down very quickly…
7:00
Ok. They went ahead any way. I was concerned that without the Leafs and the Habs, they might have canceled the playoffs, but they decided to go ahead. Great, I was a bit worried.
7:01 CBC’ opening montage has a bunch of highlights – goals, hits, plays, - what no fights? Ottawa native Katherine Edwards singing ‘I got moves you never seen..’ nice work CBC..
7:02
Dun da dun da dah, Dun da dun da dah !!!!!!!
7:03
Ron McLean opens and goes to Elliot Freidman in Ottawa.
Freidman still has the ‘I can’t believe I get paid for this’ look in his eyes on camera. He says Ottawa coach Bryan Murray will let Spezza cover Crosby. Anyone with Crosby in their playoff pool just made some money.
7:07
Camera panned on Sidney Crosby while that hockey Mountie sings the American anthem. He. Looks. PSYCHED.
They won’t be able to stop him tonight. Just a small prediction.
7:09
Alfredsson looks like a small town drifter with that buzzcut
7:10
Mountie dude does that pull the hanky out of his pocket and rev the crowd up thing that he does while singing the Canadian anthem. The crowd seems less than enthused. Maybe they saw Crosby on the big screen. Once again, he will be unstoppable.
7:11
Bob Cole puts his dulcet baritone to the play by play duties, and Neale his able colour guy. I love Cole and Neale, but the truth is these guys needs spotters. They are 105 and 101 years old. Thy couldn’t see a train coming towards them. They need help on the replays. I’ll do it.
7:13
Fleury is overplaying the angles and got beat. He is letting rebounds go all over the place.
Comrie scores 1-0 Ottawa.
7:14
Now the Ottawa crowd is into it. They start the ‘Fleuuuuury, Fleuuury chant!”
7:15
Not Harry Neale doing colour, but one of the fifty former goalies doing hockey commentary - Greg Millen.
7;16
Mesaros holds Stall and Pitt catches a break.
7:18
Fleury stops a shorthanded 2 on 1 with a through the crease side to side save.
7:19
Hoff calls to call out Pittsburgh coach Therrien. “Why doesn’t he have Roberts and Recchi start the game so the kids get a chance to lose the pressure jitters?” Good point.
7:21
Ottawa scores again. I think I jinxed Crosby. Fleury looks like as jittery as a deer in a shopping mall. We will see Thibault soon I think….
7:23
Cut to Mario in a trillion dollar suit in his owners box. Yeah he probably would help here…
7:24
9 shots for Ottawa. 2 for Pittsburgh.
7:25
Fleury holds on to his first rebound of the night. Two goals too late..
7:30
Ottawa power play. Double penalty. I think the question is when will Ottawa score on this power play not if. …
7:32
Hey Pittsburgh might just get through this…
7:33
Fleury holds onto anther rebound. Glory be..
7:34
And another rebound held. The tide be turning billy!!!
7:35
Fleury just made about four big time saves in a row. Sure his defenseman made one of them but…
Shots are 15 to 3 for Ottawa.
7:36
Gary Roberts draws a penalty. Can Pitt follow through? Nice first period so far.
7:41
Another Ottawa penalty, Pitt has them on their heels a bit now.
Just saw the massive VIAGRA ad in front of the Ottawa bench. I don’t want to be crude, but, if ever a team needed ‘stiffening up’ in the chase for the big prize, Ottawa is it..
7:45
The glass on the boards has to be changed and the rink crew comes on the ice to change it. They are all wearing helmets. Thanks Insurance industry. Say a hello to your cousin 'irresponsible litigation' for me will you?
7:46
Pitt penalty. Every play ends with one player or another gesturing to the ref protesting their innocence or complaining about a missed call. We need the 'no crying to the ref' rule in hockey . Call it hockeys version of the Rasheed Wallace rule. We will all be the better for it…
7:50
Pitt looking good killing yet another 5 on three penalty kill. U
h, Mr Bettman? Mr Campbell? Two 5 on threes in one period sucks the life out of Playoff hockey. I will just write a letter to you or send a quiet email.
Don cherry is about to go ballistic during his three minutes of slobber over this.
7:53
Coaches Corner
Hockeys John Madden credits Ottawa’s lead to ‘playin smart. Thanks for the detail Don.
Ron baits Don with a penalty question. Ron is such an enabler. If I was a functioning drug addict, I would ask for Ron McLean as my partner.
Cherry spends half the time talking about the Leafs. A team that didn’t make the playoffs.
Blue Blood folks, what can I say?
7:58
TSN here we go!!!
Let the screaming begin!! HELLO PIERRE McGUIRE!!!
Nashville vs San Jose Cheechoo vs Too Too!!
8:03
TSN has an in studio playoff desk with James Duthy, Darren Pang, Jeremy Roenick - and his massive head - , and Bob McDonald. Can you have a hockey panel with only one ex goaltender? Did the Hockey broadcast union know about this?
8:06
I like that funny Casino Rama commercial – “we showed people what excitement was”. Plus it stars the current Canadian commercial champ. She of the 5 national commercials at the same time my agent is kicking ass actress/champ. Don’t know her name but she is a redhead with that husky halting Brittany Murphy voice. She is my minor celebrity crush right now. She got some moxie.
8:10
San Jose/Nashville
Anthems playing. Players a rocking. Lets get it on!! Is there anything that gets your inner fan going better that the side to side tension release rocking by Hockey Players during the anthems at the start of the game?..
8:11
Don’t know who is calling the game but he is no Bob Cole. Oh great Pierre McGuire is doing colour. And our first penalty two minutes into the game.… I sense a theme here.
Back to Ottawa.
8:13
I need picture in picture.
8:17
First close up of Nashville coach Barry Trotz. I’m speechless. Only Claude ‘bobo the clown’ Julien looked more comical behind the bench. I am reminded of a Prehistoric Stegosaurus. Back to Ottawa.
8;21
Both teams settled down a bit. This is going to turn into a wait until the Power play type of game.
George Laraque sighting!!! Everyone drink!
8;24
98 year old Mark Recchi cycles down low for about an hour and skates through three or four crunching checks into the boards. Someone sneezes near Malkin and he falls…..
8;26
1-0 San Jose! Carle scored? I need Picture in Picture!!!
8:27
Greg Millen does a nice job explaining how the Pens kept the pressure on during the last shift. See Pierre? He didn’t scream or gush once! It can be done…
8:29
Staal, Malkin and Crosby. Zero shots on goal…
8:35
Preissing scores over Fleury’s shoulder. Perfect shot. Even though Fleury has been rushing about halfway to the blueline to cut down angles, Preissing picks the corner.
8:41
Staal gets a junk goal. Maybe Pittsburgh can make this close? You’ll never convince me that Staal doesn’t deserve the Calder over Malkin..
8;49
After two periods Ottawa has the Pens in almost every area. Where the hell is Malkin? I jinxed Crosby I am sure of it. This game has turned into a penalty fest. See leaf fans, It isn’t just Kerry Fraser.
8;53
HotStove!! They could not make this any less exciting. Even the commentators look bored. Someone needs to check Harry Neale for a pulse.
Stirring observation, they feel that Martin Brodeur will be a factor in the series against Tampa bay. You can’t buy that type of riveting analysis anywhere else folks ..
9:04
Nine seconds into the third, Heatly ices this game. Fleury lets another rebound free. Therrien should have pulled Fleury after the two goals. Mario Lemieux needs a real coach next year..
9:05
Five seconds later. Um. Funny thing happened. Crosby kicks it in. Millen hasn’t caught it yet. The ‘goal’ is under review.
9:07
Still waiting.
9:08
Still waiting. They are reviewing this in Toronto at the League officiating office. The rest of Canada must love that.
9:08:30
Goal is disallowed. Why didn’t they just call me? I told you they need a spotter in the booth. As long as the commentators are going to continue to average around 79 years of age, they need someone who can see without his progressive lenses…
9:14
Ottawa slowing the game down to a crawl. Icing. Icing. Long shot. Icing. Time for Mr Blue Ribbon again..
9:14:30
San Jose and Nashville are tied at 2.
9:17
Ottawa. Icing.
9:19
Breakaway goal by Neil. 5-1 Ottawa. Good thing my Crosby prediction isn’t making me look like a fool. Wait a second…..
9;23
Ottawa has been abusing Pittsburgh with their transition game. The Sens go on the attack in a blink.
9:24
Comrie scores. 6-1 Sens. Therrien? Pull Fleury now? Maybe? Whadaya think?
9:25
Crosby on the bench in Pain. It couldn’t possibly go any worse for Pittsburgh. Does Malkin still play for Pittsburgh??
9:27
George Laraque sighting!! Everybody drink!!
9:30
Finally Therrien lets Fleury out of the shooting gallery…
Thibault!! Now here comes the inevitable ‘late in the game and we are getting smoked’ scrum.
9:32
Eight minutes left. This game was done a while ago. Eight minutes to let the Refs shine!!
9:33
Gonchar scores on a 5 on 3 power play. Talk about garbage time. At least there is some genuine animosity building between the two teams. Any team that plays Ottawa eventually comes to hate them.
They wait till they have a big lead then start pasting everyone into the boards. They have pests in Fisher and Neil, and another in Swedish veteran pest Alfredsson. They boo your best player regardless if he is a decent guy or a mope. And the team is famous for falling short in the end. They never met a blowout they weren’t willing to pad with empty net goals. Ottawa is the biggest small town in Canada. If you play Ottawa more than once it is a virtual lock that you will begin to despise them…. Just saying….
9:47
Mercifully Crosby scores his first ever playoff goal. The Ottawa crowd boos. Don't wanna say i told you so….
9:47:50
Meaningless end of game scrum #38.
9:52
George Laraque sighting!! Everybody drink!!
9:52:35
Game over.
Pittsburgh is lucky they have an extra day before they have to play again. Ottawa smoked them. The only thing I saw Pittsburgh do well was that their Power Play had nice puck and player movement. No good scoring opportunities, just movement.
Will Malkin show up for the next game? Did he miss the filght? Will Therrien open the next game with Veterans, or will he throw his kids to the wolves again.
Whew! I wonder if this was good enough for Christie Brinkley???
6:47 – I am a bit nervous, this live stuff is kinda anxiety building. The deal here is that I will watch the Ottawa game and type in my observations live, live, LIVE as they happen!!
I stole the idea from the Sports Guy Bill Simmons, but I am sure he stole it from
someone else, whatever, I am not sure I will be able to top the live blogs going on at nhl.com where they have such luminaries such as the guy from the TV show ‘Bones’ doing playoff blogs all being hosted by Christie Brinkley.
( I would have loved to be in that meeting in some café in NYC – the hockey epicenter, the very soul of the sport)
- ‘yeah uh, who do you think we could get to host the whole deal and stay within budget?
- What about Christie Brinkley?
- Call her agent, see if she will do it for $40 000, if he says yes lets get this thing committed to paper’
Was Boy George busy? Did anyone try to get Dan Rather? He has some free time…
6:54
I haven’t turned to TSN yet. I am a little scared to go there as I caught a bit of their 72 hr marathon of pre playoff coverage – I think they went from the trade deadline overkill straight into playoff hype. I think I saw a monkey making picks on TSN. I also saw a benobo chimp making picks. I guess the monkey was allowed some time away from his handler Belinda Stronach. How they got the suit over it’s massive head I will never know…
6:58
The weather woman on CBC is calling for snow and freezing rain. Wow, we are getting hockey weather with the playoffs…
6:59
Just cracked a beverage. I didn’t want to get all sloppy so I picked Pabst as my beverage for the evening. Pabst should change their tag line to ‘Yes. It’s supposed to taste like that.’ Somehow I don’t think they will be going down very quickly…
7:00
Ok. They went ahead any way. I was concerned that without the Leafs and the Habs, they might have canceled the playoffs, but they decided to go ahead. Great, I was a bit worried.
7:01 CBC’ opening montage has a bunch of highlights – goals, hits, plays, - what no fights? Ottawa native Katherine Edwards singing ‘I got moves you never seen..’ nice work CBC..
7:02
Dun da dun da dah, Dun da dun da dah !!!!!!!
7:03
Ron McLean opens and goes to Elliot Freidman in Ottawa.
Freidman still has the ‘I can’t believe I get paid for this’ look in his eyes on camera. He says Ottawa coach Bryan Murray will let Spezza cover Crosby. Anyone with Crosby in their playoff pool just made some money.
7:07
Camera panned on Sidney Crosby while that hockey Mountie sings the American anthem. He. Looks. PSYCHED.
They won’t be able to stop him tonight. Just a small prediction.
7:09
Alfredsson looks like a small town drifter with that buzzcut
7:10
Mountie dude does that pull the hanky out of his pocket and rev the crowd up thing that he does while singing the Canadian anthem. The crowd seems less than enthused. Maybe they saw Crosby on the big screen. Once again, he will be unstoppable.
7:11
Bob Cole puts his dulcet baritone to the play by play duties, and Neale his able colour guy. I love Cole and Neale, but the truth is these guys needs spotters. They are 105 and 101 years old. Thy couldn’t see a train coming towards them. They need help on the replays. I’ll do it.
7:13
Fleury is overplaying the angles and got beat. He is letting rebounds go all over the place.
Comrie scores 1-0 Ottawa.
7:14
Now the Ottawa crowd is into it. They start the ‘Fleuuuuury, Fleuuury chant!”
7:15
Not Harry Neale doing colour, but one of the fifty former goalies doing hockey commentary - Greg Millen.
7;16
Mesaros holds Stall and Pitt catches a break.
7:18
Fleury stops a shorthanded 2 on 1 with a through the crease side to side save.
7:19
Hoff calls to call out Pittsburgh coach Therrien. “Why doesn’t he have Roberts and Recchi start the game so the kids get a chance to lose the pressure jitters?” Good point.
7:21
Ottawa scores again. I think I jinxed Crosby. Fleury looks like as jittery as a deer in a shopping mall. We will see Thibault soon I think….
7:23
Cut to Mario in a trillion dollar suit in his owners box. Yeah he probably would help here…
7:24
9 shots for Ottawa. 2 for Pittsburgh.
7:25
Fleury holds on to his first rebound of the night. Two goals too late..
7:30
Ottawa power play. Double penalty. I think the question is when will Ottawa score on this power play not if. …
7:32
Hey Pittsburgh might just get through this…
7:33
Fleury holds onto anther rebound. Glory be..
7:34
And another rebound held. The tide be turning billy!!!
7:35
Fleury just made about four big time saves in a row. Sure his defenseman made one of them but…
Shots are 15 to 3 for Ottawa.
7:36
Gary Roberts draws a penalty. Can Pitt follow through? Nice first period so far.
7:41
Another Ottawa penalty, Pitt has them on their heels a bit now.
Just saw the massive VIAGRA ad in front of the Ottawa bench. I don’t want to be crude, but, if ever a team needed ‘stiffening up’ in the chase for the big prize, Ottawa is it..
7:45
The glass on the boards has to be changed and the rink crew comes on the ice to change it. They are all wearing helmets. Thanks Insurance industry. Say a hello to your cousin 'irresponsible litigation' for me will you?
7:46
Pitt penalty. Every play ends with one player or another gesturing to the ref protesting their innocence or complaining about a missed call. We need the 'no crying to the ref' rule in hockey . Call it hockeys version of the Rasheed Wallace rule. We will all be the better for it…
7:50
Pitt looking good killing yet another 5 on three penalty kill. U
h, Mr Bettman? Mr Campbell? Two 5 on threes in one period sucks the life out of Playoff hockey. I will just write a letter to you or send a quiet email.
Don cherry is about to go ballistic during his three minutes of slobber over this.
7:53
Coaches Corner
Hockeys John Madden credits Ottawa’s lead to ‘playin smart. Thanks for the detail Don.
Ron baits Don with a penalty question. Ron is such an enabler. If I was a functioning drug addict, I would ask for Ron McLean as my partner.
Cherry spends half the time talking about the Leafs. A team that didn’t make the playoffs.
Blue Blood folks, what can I say?
7:58
TSN here we go!!!
Let the screaming begin!! HELLO PIERRE McGUIRE!!!
Nashville vs San Jose Cheechoo vs Too Too!!
8:03
TSN has an in studio playoff desk with James Duthy, Darren Pang, Jeremy Roenick - and his massive head - , and Bob McDonald. Can you have a hockey panel with only one ex goaltender? Did the Hockey broadcast union know about this?
8:06
I like that funny Casino Rama commercial – “we showed people what excitement was”. Plus it stars the current Canadian commercial champ. She of the 5 national commercials at the same time my agent is kicking ass actress/champ. Don’t know her name but she is a redhead with that husky halting Brittany Murphy voice. She is my minor celebrity crush right now. She got some moxie.
8:10
San Jose/Nashville
Anthems playing. Players a rocking. Lets get it on!! Is there anything that gets your inner fan going better that the side to side tension release rocking by Hockey Players during the anthems at the start of the game?..
8:11
Don’t know who is calling the game but he is no Bob Cole. Oh great Pierre McGuire is doing colour. And our first penalty two minutes into the game.… I sense a theme here.
Back to Ottawa.
8:13
I need picture in picture.
8:17
First close up of Nashville coach Barry Trotz. I’m speechless. Only Claude ‘bobo the clown’ Julien looked more comical behind the bench. I am reminded of a Prehistoric Stegosaurus. Back to Ottawa.
8;21
Both teams settled down a bit. This is going to turn into a wait until the Power play type of game.
George Laraque sighting!!! Everyone drink!
8;24
98 year old Mark Recchi cycles down low for about an hour and skates through three or four crunching checks into the boards. Someone sneezes near Malkin and he falls…..
8;26
1-0 San Jose! Carle scored? I need Picture in Picture!!!
8:27
Greg Millen does a nice job explaining how the Pens kept the pressure on during the last shift. See Pierre? He didn’t scream or gush once! It can be done…
8:29
Staal, Malkin and Crosby. Zero shots on goal…
8:35
Preissing scores over Fleury’s shoulder. Perfect shot. Even though Fleury has been rushing about halfway to the blueline to cut down angles, Preissing picks the corner.
8:41
Staal gets a junk goal. Maybe Pittsburgh can make this close? You’ll never convince me that Staal doesn’t deserve the Calder over Malkin..
8;49
After two periods Ottawa has the Pens in almost every area. Where the hell is Malkin? I jinxed Crosby I am sure of it. This game has turned into a penalty fest. See leaf fans, It isn’t just Kerry Fraser.
8;53
HotStove!! They could not make this any less exciting. Even the commentators look bored. Someone needs to check Harry Neale for a pulse.
Stirring observation, they feel that Martin Brodeur will be a factor in the series against Tampa bay. You can’t buy that type of riveting analysis anywhere else folks ..
9:04
Nine seconds into the third, Heatly ices this game. Fleury lets another rebound free. Therrien should have pulled Fleury after the two goals. Mario Lemieux needs a real coach next year..
9:05
Five seconds later. Um. Funny thing happened. Crosby kicks it in. Millen hasn’t caught it yet. The ‘goal’ is under review.
9:07
Still waiting.
9:08
Still waiting. They are reviewing this in Toronto at the League officiating office. The rest of Canada must love that.
9:08:30
Goal is disallowed. Why didn’t they just call me? I told you they need a spotter in the booth. As long as the commentators are going to continue to average around 79 years of age, they need someone who can see without his progressive lenses…
9:14
Ottawa slowing the game down to a crawl. Icing. Icing. Long shot. Icing. Time for Mr Blue Ribbon again..
9:14:30
San Jose and Nashville are tied at 2.
9:17
Ottawa. Icing.
9:19
Breakaway goal by Neil. 5-1 Ottawa. Good thing my Crosby prediction isn’t making me look like a fool. Wait a second…..
9;23
Ottawa has been abusing Pittsburgh with their transition game. The Sens go on the attack in a blink.
9:24
Comrie scores. 6-1 Sens. Therrien? Pull Fleury now? Maybe? Whadaya think?
9:25
Crosby on the bench in Pain. It couldn’t possibly go any worse for Pittsburgh. Does Malkin still play for Pittsburgh??
9:27
George Laraque sighting!! Everybody drink!!
9:30
Finally Therrien lets Fleury out of the shooting gallery…
Thibault!! Now here comes the inevitable ‘late in the game and we are getting smoked’ scrum.
9:32
Eight minutes left. This game was done a while ago. Eight minutes to let the Refs shine!!
9:33
Gonchar scores on a 5 on 3 power play. Talk about garbage time. At least there is some genuine animosity building between the two teams. Any team that plays Ottawa eventually comes to hate them.
They wait till they have a big lead then start pasting everyone into the boards. They have pests in Fisher and Neil, and another in Swedish veteran pest Alfredsson. They boo your best player regardless if he is a decent guy or a mope. And the team is famous for falling short in the end. They never met a blowout they weren’t willing to pad with empty net goals. Ottawa is the biggest small town in Canada. If you play Ottawa more than once it is a virtual lock that you will begin to despise them…. Just saying….
9:47
Mercifully Crosby scores his first ever playoff goal. The Ottawa crowd boos. Don't wanna say i told you so….
9:47:50
Meaningless end of game scrum #38.
9:52
George Laraque sighting!! Everybody drink!!
9:52:35
Game over.
Pittsburgh is lucky they have an extra day before they have to play again. Ottawa smoked them. The only thing I saw Pittsburgh do well was that their Power Play had nice puck and player movement. No good scoring opportunities, just movement.
Will Malkin show up for the next game? Did he miss the filght? Will Therrien open the next game with Veterans, or will he throw his kids to the wolves again.
Whew! I wonder if this was good enough for Christie Brinkley???
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Blue Blood
I was Doug Favell.
I was Wayne Thomas.
I was Mike Palmateer – my god we were all Mike Palmateer!!
In the basement stopping point blank wristshots from my brother, I was all of them, those heroes from my Saturday night childhood.
It was 1974 - and I know this because I can trace the date back to the style of mask Doug Favell was wearing - and I had my first sporting memory as a young child.
I was finally allowed along to stay up with my older brothers and watch Hockey Night in Canada. I saw Doug Favell – really the epitome of a journeyman goaltender if there ever was one – playing with that Leaf painted over his mask and I was finished.
I didn’t know what it was that drove my brothers and I to watch hockey on Saturday nights. It wasn’t like our parents were big hockey fans in ’75 – not much hockey talk in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Probably, we wanted to know what all the boys were talking about at recess on Monday morning.
My eldest brother didn’t have a burning desire to become a Hockey player; he wanted to be a musician, or a tennis player like Borg, Ashe, and Connors. ( It was the seventies, remember?) He would watch with us on Saturday night, but he wasn’t sick with it like we were. And by we I mean my older brother and I, separated by 18 months but both riddled with the same disease at nearly the same time.
We share this ailment with millions of others, but Sheldon and I have it bad.
What is this affliction that courses through our veins with such fervor?
We have Blue Blood.
Oh he will tell you that he loves Cam Neely, and Ray Bourque. I might tell you how hard I cheered when Patrick Roy was winning his Conn Smythe trophies for Montreal. Sheldon has Bruins jerseys and I might have a few Habitant posters here and there. But the truth is that for us these other teams are like a kind of vaccine, a temporary fix so the disease doesn’t ruin our love for hockey entirely.
We developed a love for the sport, but there was such disarray at the professional level in Toronto from the seventies up till the early nineties, that you had to find another team to follow in the playoffs because Bill Derlago, Fred Boimstruck and Gary Leeman were going to break your heart everytime. Throw in a big dose of Harold Ballard and it is a miracle that anyone still follows the game in Toronto.
This city is sick with Blue Bloods.
My fiancé’s father, a man from a small island in the Mediterranean, asked me on Monday morning to confirm that the Islanders had won, knocking the Leafs out.
- The Leafs got knocked out didn’t they, he asked.
No need to explain what they got knocked out of. We all knew.
Now I will bet my right arm that my sweethearts Dad couldn’t name a single player on the New York Islander roster, from any era.
I am pretty sure that he probably hasn’t watched a full hockey game in over ten years. But he knew that if the Islanders lost the Leafs would be in. In the Playoffs.
And there are millions like him and millions like me, who have seen the failures and collapses and pyrrhic victories pile up until we couldn’t stand it anymore.
I have a theory that when the Leafs win the Stanley Cup, the city of Toronto will go through a renaissance such as this city has never seen. And don’t get me wrong; I understand that the Leafs winning or losing the Stanley Cup won’t make a lick of difference to my Visa bill. And it won’t make it any easier for Toronto to get its fair share of money from the federal government.
I know all that. I’m not six anymore. Mostly I’m not.
The realized collective dream of a Maple Leaf Stanley Cup victory won’t make a bit of difference to the lives of 99.9 per cent of the individuals who will be celebrating. (Truly it will be the players who would be most impacted by claiming the top honour in their profession).
Individually, it won’t matter, but collectively I think that it will. When we wake up after the parades, - and trust me; there will be more than one – and the parties, and all the hoopla that goes with winning the Cup in a Canadian city, I believe that we all take a deep breath a say, ‘Is that it? Now what?’
Because when the great celebration is over, our Visa bills will still be there. We will still have a government subsidized airport on our waterfront that we don’t want. We will still not know who lives in the apartment next to ours, or the house beside ours, except for that now, maybe we will. Maybe when we all celebrate together, not just the Italians, not just the Greeks, not just the English, or the Sri Lankan. What happens when we celebrate as a City about the thing that we have coveted for so long? Well then, I think we might just change the playing field forever. Instead of this hazy multicultural anxiety that currently defines Toronto, we might all feel confident of our place and proud of our City. We might notice how safe our city is, how many opportunities there are, and how much education is available for our children when compared to cities of comparable size the world over.
We might start to feel blessed to be living here.
(I do know that this type of collective outburst isn’t limited to the Leafs. But like our forlorn team, we haven’t had a local figure emerge to galvanize the GTA since the sixties.)
So don’t call me a ‘hater’ when I point out that this current team can’t win.
Don’t hate me for seeing our current Captain for what he is - a great complimentary player, not a foundational leader.
Don’t curse me for laughing at the statement ‘Andrew Raycroft, big time goalie’.
It’s not that I am insensitive, and I am truly not a hater.
I have a problem, a sickness.
It’s my blood.
It’s Blue.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Masters '07 Roundup
I was at the 2007 Masters.That will do it for this years Masters '07 Roundup. Join me next year for another animosity filled edition of the Roundup.
Toodles.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Leafs Nation (ca-ching!!!)
I have seen evidence that the Chinese government is retaliating for the American viral attack three years ago that came to be known as SARS.
Right here in our very own city of Toronto, there is evidence that people have been afflicted by some mind-numbing, emotion-altering pathogen.
How else to explain the annual support for the Toronto Maple Leafs crawl to the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff eligibility list.
There is no way any sane person could possibly look at this current collection of has-beens, (I'm talking to you Mats), never-weres (Travis Green, Yanic Perrault come on down!!) and never-will-be's, (Now entering the stadium...Nik Antropov, and Alex Ponikarovsky!!).
I can't take anymore honking horns.
I want the chants - the ever encouraging 'Go Leafs Go!!' to die stillborn in the throats of the deluded.
And the good luck Jerseys being worn in offices around the city need to stop.
(And if you are over 16 and you truly believe that wearing that faded 'Clark 17' jersey is really going to help this collection of pampered millionaires find the gumption to make a run at the Cup, well, then I have some beach front property I need to sell you in the Lower James Bay area.)
If certain facts haven't made themselves clear by now, then let me help you out.
When the stench is this bad for this long where do you point to? Who is the 'leader' of this team?
Ah, there's the rub.
This team is lead by the most overpaid 'Captain' in sports history. Let's call Mats Sundin's time for what it is. A Failure.
To credit him with trying during his shifts is not enough. He needs to make smarter decisions. He has never done well as the go-to guy, but he sells jerseys and in this town, that is just as good.
He is the highest paid Leaf in History, and one of the highest paid hockey players in history. He has little or no NHL success to show for all that cash.
To paraphrase prescient street prophets N.W.A; He ain't the one.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
SPORTS!!! SPORTS!!! SPORTS!!!
Spring is the best time of year for sports fans. Winter is fading, girls are coming out of hibernation and there are 3 (4 if you count MLS) professional sports in full swing. Hockey and basketball are gearing up for the playoffs and almost every game has post season implications. Baseball is still fresh and exciting and has yet to yield to the tedious monotony that comes from a 162 game schedule. The NCAA basketball tournament has just finished another exciting month of college basketball. Even golf fans are getting themselves prepared for another Tiger Woods show at Augusta.
One thing that I am getting sick of is seeing T.J Ford calling his own number at the end of games. Twice last night and multiple times this season, T.J. has decided that he wants to be the hero and failed. Pull up jumper, brick, desperate 3 pointer, brick. Check your self T.J., when the fans chant “MVP”, it isn’t for you. The Raptors have a few guys who are good at hitting big shots: Mo Pete, Luke Jackson, Anthony Parker (it hurts to admit that) and that number 4 guy; so why is T.J. shooting? If Sam Mitchell is running these plays for T.J. then that should be reason enough for Colangelo to dump him at the end of the season. It is ok to lose close games as long as you can say that you gave it your best effort but with Ford taking the final shot can the Raptors say that?
Tonight they play of “other” Florida team. Bosh loves to play Orlando and I expect a huge game for him and a comfortable win for the Raptors.
The Leafs made an exciting night out of what should have been an easy victory. They got lucky with the penalty in overtime but managed to take advantage of it. They still control their own destiny as long as they win out the season but they will have to play better if they want to do that. Sundin can’t be blamed for any of this. He is skating hard every shift and is trying to carry this team. He hasn’t scored much but has assisted on key goals all down the stretch. He will be the most important player in the next two games and I expect him to break out if this slump. I smell a huge game coming up for the big Swede!
Spring is the best time of year for sports fans. Winter is fading, girls are coming out of hibernation and there are 3 (4 if you count MLS) professional sports in full swing. Hockey and basketball are gearing up for the playoffs and almost every game has post season implications. Baseball is still fresh and exciting and has yet to yield to the tedious monotony that comes from a 162 game schedule. The NCAA basketball tournament has just finished another exciting month of college basketball. Even golf fans are getting themselves prepared for another Tiger Woods show at Augusta.
One thing that I am getting sick of is seeing T.J Ford calling his own number at the end of games. Twice last night and multiple times this season, T.J. has decided that he wants to be the hero and failed. Pull up jumper, brick, desperate 3 pointer, brick. Check your self T.J., when the fans chant “MVP”, it isn’t for you. The Raptors have a few guys who are good at hitting big shots: Mo Pete, Luke Jackson, Anthony Parker (it hurts to admit that) and that number 4 guy; so why is T.J. shooting? If Sam Mitchell is running these plays for T.J. then that should be reason enough for Colangelo to dump him at the end of the season. It is ok to lose close games as long as you can say that you gave it your best effort but with Ford taking the final shot can the Raptors say that?
Tonight they play of “other” Florida team. Bosh loves to play Orlando and I expect a huge game for him and a comfortable win for the Raptors.
The Leafs made an exciting night out of what should have been an easy victory. They got lucky with the penalty in overtime but managed to take advantage of it. They still control their own destiny as long as they win out the season but they will have to play better if they want to do that. Sundin can’t be blamed for any of this. He is skating hard every shift and is trying to carry this team. He hasn’t scored much but has assisted on key goals all down the stretch. He will be the most important player in the next two games and I expect him to break out if this slump. I smell a huge game coming up for the big Swede!
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Gators “Chop” there way into History
The Florida Gators 84-75 over the Ohio State Buckeyes earned them their second straight national championship. Florida executed a solid game plan that focused on eliminating the Buckeye’s perimeter game. The sent a clear message to the future #1 pick “we don’t think you can beat us alone”. Ohio State thrives on ball penetration and “kicking it out” for open shots. Greg Oden’s presence in the middle forces teams to collapse on him much as NBA defenses have done against Shaq and the Wadeless Heat. Ohio State was unable to adapt to the Gators plan and it was their undoing. Florida unleashed an unselfish, team assault against the Buckeyes; Corey Brewery, Al Hoford, Lee Humphrey, Taurean Green all scored in double figures. Corey Brewer also got the nod for “Most Valuable player”. He was great in the first half and provided the motivational spark that led his team to victory.
This team should go down in history as being one of the best teams to achieve a championship repeat. The NCAA tournament is one of the most competitive and has the smallest margin of error. While the debate continues about who is the “overall” best team in sports history, the 2006-2007 Florida Gators should now be added into this conversation. What’s more unbelievable is that a team of highly talented basketball players as the Florida Gators could actually stay together after winning the championship the first time. In today’s day and age, with student athletes being drawn into professional sports by big pay checks and all the fame that comes with that, the Florida Gators stuck together. They risked big money and gambled on greatness; the gamble paid off.
Florida’s sport programs over the last year have defiantly solidified what being the best really means: winning National Championships. They now have the title of National Champs in basketball and in football. No other sport program in the history of the NCAA has completed winning the National Championship in basketball and football in the same year!
“One more year!!! One more year!!!” ; was what the crowd was cheering after the game. At first I thought that it was really a cliché ending but after thinking about it, even if it wasn’t that same Florida team that took the floor next season a Florida three-peat will put them in even higher company. Only one other team in NCAA basketball history has won three straight championships, the UCLA Bruins, from 1967-1973 (Yeah that’s right seven in a row which is totally unbelievable!). In order to do this Florida must be able to continuously have an amazing recruitment strategy which has been proven already and also handle the extreme adversity of March Madness!!! So you know what I will be saying next year: GO Gators GO!!!
P.S. This was written by our college sports expert Kevin Ramalingam
Monday, April 2, 2007
Salt On Monday
A sweet Salty, and then the Leafs.....
The baseball season is starting today. I know two teams played last night, but this is the real Opening Day. It’s sunny outside and I have been checking the progress of my fantasy Baseball team, FREEPETEROSE, every thirty seconds.
(And by the way, my starting outfielder has hit for two home runs in four innings. You can’t stop Adam Dunn, you can only hope to contain him. What’s done is Dunn. Done and Dunn. I can keep going all day with this…)
The Blue Jays just beat the consensus top team in baseball – the Tigers – in extra innings 5-3.
It is relatively sunny.
I am moving back into my favorite part of the city.
What I am trying to say is I can’t find much salt today.
That is until I watch the Hockey highlights from yesterday.
Now, I see all the Leaf flags flying on cars. I see the packed sports bars when the Leafs are playing, I see the excitement of the sportscasters and writers when the Leafs actually move closer to playoff position.
Frankly it is embarrassing to live in a city where the fans get excited when the team gets closer to a playoff position. I have been watching the Leafs longer than I have been masturbating, and friends, I found my own personal fun stick at an early age. The last time this team had a collection of young stars that had a chance to make some sort of a run at the Stanley cup was in the late seventies.
Darryl Sittler 25 years old.
Lanny McDonald 23 years old.
Borje Salming 24 years old.
Ian Turnbull 22 years old.
In the four seasons starting from 1975, this quartet, Center Sittler, Winger McDonald, Defensemen Salming and Turnbull carried the team and gave true hope to Leaf fans.
Sittler averaged 98.5 points in the four year period starting with the 1975 season. McDonald averaged 88.75. Salming 71 points, and Turnbull 65 points.
Think about Sundin with a winger who wasn’t shit AND they were both under 100 years old. (And actually showed leadership on the ice.) Imagine that instead of Kaberle and McCabe as your top two blueliners, you had a guy who could skate and shoot better than Kaberle and didn’t shy away from taking the body. That was Salming. And instead of McCabe imagine a rear guard that could skate, hit, shoot and wasn’t 55 years old living off his contract year season.
Sittler, Salming, McDonald and Turnbull. Google these guys if you want to see a Leaf team that wasn’t 99% hype.
This current Leaf team sucks.
That Leaf team was young and talented.
May we live long enough to see that again.
SHAQ DADDY
Not only is he the most dominant player ever, he might just be the most entertaining.
He can dunk, board and drop it like it's hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9LmHXXWiJs
He can dunk, board and drop it like it's hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9LmHXXWiJs
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