Tuesday Tribute

Holla!
Welcome to "Tuesday Tribute": a weekly video tribute to whatever I want.

This week we celebrate America's quarterback, Tony Romo.



We love you Tony! You make football fun(ny)!

BONUS! Requested by Chris, American foreign policy in action.

Salt on Monday

It’s been a busy start of summer here at SOM – and yes our heads have gotten big enough that we can refer to ourselves in the third person with a cool acronym – with work going nuts, and my fiancé trying to see how long this old man can work seven days a week without collapsing.

( My betrothed has taken on a Rachel Ray quote - “I like to work like an Ox” - as her personal mantra. Aside from my personal belief that Ms Ray is the love child of John Madden and Martha Stewart, her mantra is killing this particular Ox…)

Thankfully there is precious little going on in the sports world at this time. They have apparently canceled the Cup finals, and no one is going to stop San Antonio from grabbing another NBA title, so that’s it for Salt this week. See you all next week….

Bye!

See ya at training camp!

*$^*&%^#(*!!!!

Fine then.





While walking home from getting Loblaws billionaire owner Galen Weston to sell me two primo sandwiches for the price of one my gleeful reverie was interrupted by the sight of an Ottawa Senator banner flying large and in charge on the second floor of a duplex on my Beloved Dupont street.

I stopped in my tracks. My worst nightmare had come true. (Well, actually my worst nightmare involves the ghost of Harold Ballard returning to run the Leafs, that is if he doesn’t get the Iraq War Czar position first...)

The HATED Ottawa Senators have made the cup final.

Truly, it isn’t that bad when you think about it, having the hated Sens reach the final. Add to that Blackberry Billionaire Jim Balsillie – J Ball from the west side Yo! – threatening to put a team in Southern Ontario and we finally might have the perfect storm for forcing the Maple Leaf Money machine to think about putting a winning tradition.

But then I see that two tower condo monster (The Residence at Maple Leaf Square) is 99% sold and I realize that there will be so much money floating around MLSE that they won’t care if the Leafs finish first or last or if they only sell twenty thousand jerseys instead of thirty thousand. So until Richard Pettie stops unzipping the Teachers Pension Fund and/or his feud with chairman of the board Larry Tanenbaum comes to an end and they give the job of Hockey operations to a G.M. who won’t be cowed by the money and influence - Brian Burke come on down – floating around the MLSE offices, we will be stuck with a team that has more money than hope.

I digress.

I said earlier that no one was going to stop the Ottawa team except for a Detroit team with Hasek standing on his head. Well, I was wrong there cause it seems that JS Gigeure has his playoff mojo back and outplayed the legendary Hasek in their recent match up. The Ducks also have no problems matching the Sens in outright surliness and cheap shots, so I am predicting a final that will be as physically tough as any we have seen in recent years.

The Match ups

Duck Defence vs Senator Defence.




Those who have followed my playoff predictions will remember that I called Chris Phillips the leading candidate for the honorary ‘Darien Hatcher Rolling Stick Violation Award’, but I left out Chris Pronger in my calculations. As mean as Phillips has become (and as cavalier as he has become about it) he still might have a way to go to match the well trained elbows of Mr Pronger. The 6’6” native of Dryden Ontario is a nasty bit of work as evidenced by his attempt to crush Tomas Holmstroms head with his elbow. The fact that the refs didn’t see the blow is nothing new, as Pronger is a master at using his massive frame to hide fouls.
The Ducks also have a Norris trophy guy named Scott Niedermayer along with the up and coming Francois Beauchemin as their second and third best defensemen. Niedermayer is perhaps the best offensive defenseman in the league, but has been hit and miss this playoff season. His good games have been great, and his bad games have been Brian McCabesque – Leaf fans you know what I’m talking about, those games where McCabe goes running around looking to jump into the rush while letting forwards stream by him in the transition game.

The rest of the Ducks defence – Huskins, DiPenta and whoever - , are a bunch of guys who get the eight to nine minutes of ice time scraps that Pronger, Niedermayer, and Beauchemin - O’Donnell too – leave to them.
Look for these guys to play the last three of four minutes of any blow out games.

The Ottawa Defence is deep and solid.
Phillips has gone all Anakin Skywalker and decided to use his skating ability for evil and his shut down partner Anton Volchenkov has blocked more shots than Leaf starting goaltender Andrew Raycroft.
Joe (Who?) Corvo has found the mark and his 4.8 shooting percentage on forty three shots on goal in the playoffs has nowhere to go but up. His partner Tom Preissing is the invisible man in these playoffs; he hasn’t made any mistakes and he hasn’t made any noticeable plays. The third pairing is Wade Redden and Andrei Meszaros.
The third pairing.
Redden and Meszaros.
That’s really really deep.
The Ottawa defensemen all average about 20 minutes a game.

Who has the edge? The depth and consistency of Ottawa or the Norris Trophy pair on Anaheim. Well Anaheim has two players who can play at a level that Ottawa just can’t match.

Edge: Anaheim

Forwards

Everyone knows about Ottawa’s big line. The Heatly/Spezza/Alfredsson line is playing as well as any line in recent playoff history. Heatly is flying right now, and is using his size to get scoring opportunities – lord knows he isn’t using his size to check anyone.. – and his finishing ability is only matched by Jason Spezza’s set up skills and on ice vision. Add to this Daniel Alfredsson who is playing like a man possessed and you have a solid playoff fact.

This line can’t be stopped.

That wasn’t easy for me to say believe me, (I think I threw up a little in my mouth),
but the facts are there.
You can’t stop this line.
You can only hope to contain them.

They have gone from impressive to unstoppable in these playoffs. They will get three to four quality scoring chances every game while they are playing at this level – and they have been converting those chances at about a 75% clip so far. Not even the menacing Chris Pronger will be able to shut them down. The only guy who can shut down the HAS line – HAS? ASH? SHA? I got nothing here people… - is Jean Sebastian……more on that in a minute.

As well as the HAS line is playing, the rest of the Ottawa forwards have to be given credit also. I hate the sight of them, but Fisher, McAmmond, Sheaffer, and Kelly are like buzzing bees that keep a hard fore check on the opposition and pot the occasional goal. I forsee the Ottawa irritants dumping the puck into Prongers corner in an attempt to wear him down. The series will hinge in part on this. If the Ottawa irritants – basically any forward not on the HAS line – can take a few good runs at Pronger and get him off the ice or off his game then it’s parade time in the nations capital.

The Duck forwards aren’t as celebrated, but they are something that Ottawa hasn’t seen yet this playoff season and that is they are BIG.
And they play big.
No Eric Daze softies here, these guys were running through that depleted Red Wing Defence as if they weren’t there. Getzlaf, Moen, Perry, and Rob Niedermeyer are integral parts of the Anaheim attack. They are young, fast, strong, and BIG. These four average 6’2” 208lbs with skating skills. The Ottawa Defence won’t be able to feast on this group like they did with the munchkin courage deficient forwards from Buffalo and Pittsburgh. Even New Jersey doesn’t have forwards with this kind of jam.

Add in the venerable Teemu Selanne, and Andy McDonald and you have a team that is a solid three lines deep. Problem for The Ducks is that Ottawa is Four lines deep and the top line is unstoppable.

Edge: Ottawa

And finally we get to goaltending.
As always in the new NHL, the final tournament seems to hinge on the play of the goalkeeper. And no goal keeper has played better this spring than……Ray Emery.

Yes Ray Emery.

He has played every minute in goal for the Senators and comes out with a sparkling .919 save percentage. Emery will give up the occasional early bad goal. He will let a big rebound out from time to time, but like that other famous money goalie Grant Fuhr, Emery has been money during crunch time. He won’t be swayed by the big Anaheim forwards crashing the net, in fact I predict an Emery / Coery Perry/ Rob Niedermeyer fight sometime in the first two games.

JS Giguere just knocked off the Dominator, so how can I pick Ray Emery over Jean Sebastian who even boasts Stanley Cup Final experience. Well, JS has been knocked out of a few games this spring and if anyone is going to get a goalie all twisted up and left with a shattered psyche it is the Ottawa Senators and their big HAS line.

So saying that, it is with full nausea and personal disgust that I have to pick the Ottawa Senators over the Anaheim Ducks in six bone crushing, rock-em-sock-em playoff hockey games.

I really hate the Leafs right now……

When did the Spurs become thugs?

When did they cross the line from gritty, hard nosed perennial favorites to elbow throwing, groin kneeing body checkers? They have thrown some cheap shots at the Suns that would make Tie Domi proud. The cheap shot is the last resort for those who have had their egos bruised. It is the hiding place for cowards or (as in Bertuzzi’s case) the momentarily insane. That is what makes the recent actions of the San Antonio Spurs so strange. It is a franchise that has been a model of good sportsmenship led by a true gentleman player (Tim Duncan) and a coach that believes that good character is more important than a good jumper.

Confucius once said “you can teach a pimp a jump shot but you can’t teach him how to keep his hoes in line”…..it’s true, look it up…it’s under his lesser know writings called “Deep thoughts from the opium den”. Point is I didn’t expect this from the Spurs and I don’t think Nash did either.

Are they scared? Are they worried that they have finally lost a step and can’t keep up when the Suns go into overdrive? I am not sure what it is but it is getting worse and it is great to watch. I hope they let everyone play in game 5 - well maybe not Horry, that was a pretty good body check with a solid forearm thrown in.

I think one of the ESPN guys made the excellent point that this is the only good series in the second round and if they suspend a bunch of the star players the league will be robbing us of the only entertaining match up they have to offer. David Stern knows that the NBA needs new rivalries and letting this series play itself out is good business sense. So look forward to fireworks on Wednesday and watch Nash come back with a huge game. GO KID CANADA!

Salt on Monday

We here at Salt on Monday would like to express our deepest appreciation for the opportunity that the Torontosportsblog has given us to express our sporting opinions to the five people who constitute the regular readership of this august online publication.

Although we appreciate the confidence shown to us, we feel that there is another opportunity with national implications calling us that we must answer.
That said, I would like to officially announce my candidacy for the position of leader of the Partie Quebecois and help to return the dream of a sovereign Quebec to the noble masses of the Nation of Quebec.

..what’s that? I am running twenty points BEHIND Pauline Marois!!!!

On second though, I would like to retract the previous two paragraphs.
Keep on moving along people, nothing to see here. Hey, I ‘m happy in Ottawa!! I just changed my mind alright??
….I digress.




Love You Some Barry.

Listen folks, I’m not immune to the fact that racism exists and permeates life in North America at an elemental level. I know that this fact makes it easy to elevate St Louis Cardinal pitcher Josh Hancock to sainthood after dying in a car crash while driving drunk, with marijuana in his possession, and talking on his cell phone – ostensibly to set up a ‘booty call’.

Now we all know if his name was LeTrelle Jones and his cornrowed ass died in a drunk driving accident while he was trying to set up a nighttime rendezvous, we would not be seeing the #32 memorial patches on the sleeves of the Cardinal players.

So it is with this in mind I turn my sights to one Barry Lamar Bonds. (Interesting that his middle name and Vince Carters middle names are the same? Maybe Ms Carter had a thing for athletes before Vince was born…)
Barry Bonds has become the poster child for ‘everything that is wrong with professional sports!’
Really, all Barry did was to do the same thing Brady Anderson, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Jose Conseco, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Kenny Rogers, and the hundreds of baseball players who improved and extended their careers and paychecks by taking supplements that were not contrary to baseball rules at the time.
Sportswriters hate Barry Bonds because he is an ass. They hate him because he treats them with disdain, and basically cause he is that guy that all the kids hate to play with but has all the best toys.




So don’t hate Barry. He had two MVP’s before he started washing his nuts in ‘the clear’.

He is gong to break the home run record and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. Oh you can ignore it.
You can ignore the fact that he is the best baseball player that anyone under the age of 60 has seen with their own eyes.
You can ignore the fact that he doesn’t care that Bud Selig and Hank Aaron won’t be there the day he beats the Home Run record.

I just wonder if you will be able to ignore the truth when your favorite 6’6” 320lb Offensive Lineman with 4.9/40 speed turns the corner and pancakes the Linebacker to lead your Running Back into the endzone and give your favorite team a two score lead late in the fourth quarter. Or when your fav hockey player comes back from knee surgery in less time than you thought possible.

How does Barry look now?

PLAYOFF UPDATE

Brad, I would like my winnings paid in beer thanks....

Some thoughts

The Bulls are pretenders. They went out, signed what they thought was the heart and soul of the Pistons only to get crushed by them in the playoffs. Someone needs to tell John Paxson that the other Wallace is the guy you want. Rasheed might be the most underrated player in the league. He defense is stifling (ask Bosh) and he can work the ball on the inside and outside. He is taking Tyrus Thomas to school in this series. The screaming, pumped up, testosterone rage rookie that stalked the court against the Heat now looks confused and out classes in the mere 9 minutes he was given last night. The Pistons are going to kill any team in the East and are as good a bet as any to win the Championships.

Lebron is amazing. The Cavs ran the same play for the final 6 minutes of the game and Lebron picked the Nets apart. It isn’t his year yet but he is getting close. He also seems to be mastering the art of knowing when to play his hardest. He looks like a completely different player than the guy whose numbers were down during the first half of the season. I think he has sufficiently silenced the people who wondered if he was plateauing, now he will have to deal with the people who accuse him of taking stretches the season off.

Senators 5 Sabres 3….you stink Brad.

Deron Williams vs. Baron Davis….Williams is just too good and the Jazz aren’t going to be fooled into playing Nellie ball. I really like the Jazz. Williams and Boozer are going to be very good for a long time, the question is will they ever exceed the accomplishments of Stockton and Malone?

I recently traded away Brian Giles for perennial 40+ home run man Adam Dunn. What a trade, it has rocketed my team into the top 3 of the league and promises to continue to pay dividends throughout the season. Who is the mook who accepted that trade you ask? None other than “Salt on Monday” (sometimes Wednesday) writer; Alan. Someone should remind him that friends don’t let friends go to Bishops, it is bad for the moral fiber and clear stunted his ability to properly analyze trades.

Have a good weekend and get ready to watch the Wings mash the Ducks.

Salt on Monday, Tuesday edition..

I don’t want to bore you, but this column needs a little run up before we get to this weeks Salt.

After I graduated from Bishops University and Gentlemen’s Club, I decided – quite sensibly in fact – that a 9-5 existence wasn't going to happen for me as I was more used to waking up on my bedroom floor with a half drunk quart of Labatt Cinquant within arms reach, than I was to doing anything constructive that required discipline. (Folks, the god’s honest truth is that I went to Bishops for University because the bars closed at 3:00 a.m. I have NO idea how I convinced my mother otherwise…)

So upon my inglorious return to Toronto (and we’ll save that last-day-in-Lennoxville story for another time. Not to tease, but it involves hallucinogens, two ex-girlfriends, a funnel, and enough beer to drown a giraffe), I chose a career that would indulge me my vices AND earn some money. So that’s how I spent twelve years in the Nightclub industry in a sort of Woodersonian Time Vacuum where I got older and they all stayed the same age.

As a consequence, a lot of my friends are ten to twelve years younger than me and gaze upon my wizened visage with an awe usually reserved for Kings or Heads of State. That, or they can’t believe that their future will look as desperate as I do..
Po–tay-to/Po–tat-to.


As a consequence, a lot of my wit is lost on this generation of text messaging wizards. What I am leading up to here, is that on my fantasy team ‘FREEPETEROSE’ , I picked up J.J. Hardy – shortstop and MVP in waiting for the Milwaukee Brewers – and I let spew a tirade of 70’s inspired comedy. (C’mon it’s a natural!! J.J? In Milwaukee!! Good Times!?! Dy-No-Mite!! Ain’t we lucky we got em!! Schlemiel!, Schmozzle! Hosenfeffer Incorporated!! Anybody? Anyone?)

So my humor went largely ignored and misunderstood by the youths. And if you can’t mock the other teams in a fantasy league, then you are getting way too serious about it and it becomes almost as embarrassing as being a member of a Dungeons and Dragons message board.

On to some Salt.

I see where fellow blogger Brad, has decided that the Detroit Red Wings are going to win the Stanley Cup, and the Buffalo Sabres are going to demolish the Senators. I disagree Sir Bradley. I went three for four in the Conference semi finals – and if Detroit didn’t have Dominick Hasek sleeping in a tub of ‘the clear’ I would have gone four for four – so I think I know whereof I speak.



before....

after....










Buffalo vs Ottawa

I’m not going to say this again.
This isn’t the same old Senator team.
Just look at their Captain and on ice leader, Daniel Alfredsson. I can remember laughing at the sight of his curly blonde locks peeking out of his helmet as he danced his way down the ice. The Leafs laughed too and pummeled the Sens every time they met them in the post season.

Take a look at Alfie now. He looks like a paroled bank robber. No one is confusing him with a Swedish Captain that can’t deliver when it counts – cough, cough, Sundin! cough, cough – he is the leader of a bunch of hard nosed muhfuckers and Buffalo is going to get smushed.

( I said in an earlier post that I was wrong when said that I thought that Buffalo was an hinterland outpost where players with bad agents got sent. I wasn’t wrong, all that happened is that the league rules changed so that this collection of softies and two-apples-high speedsters became coveted players in the new no-touch league. This Buffalo team looked like this before the lockout and the rule changes. )

People of Toronto, brace yourselves: The Ottawa Senators are going to the Stanley Cup finals.

Ottawa in 5.


Anaheim vs Detroit

I watched the first two periods of game six in the Detroit/San Jose series. I predicted that San Jose would knock off Detroit cause the Wings didn’t have any grit/glue players on their roster anymore. Well, let me be the first to say that I was wrong and this Detroit team is philthy with talent. I want to know what the other 29 GM’s were doing while Detroit put together a European All Star team. Who let Zetterberg, Lang, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, and Samuelsson be put under contract on the same team? And is there a drop of liquid left in the fountain of youth after Chelios and Hasek have sucked it dry? You can’t intimidate this team because you can’t catch them!!!!!!

All this and Nicklas Lidstrom making any play look simple, and you have to wonder who could stand up to this juggernaut.

If anyone could beat this stacked team that is hitting it’s stride, it is Anaheim. If Lidstrom is the best defenseman in the league then Pronger and Niedermayer are numbers 2 and 3. The problem is that you can’t stack up the forwards the same way. Do the names Getzlaf, McDonald, and Pahlsson strike fear in anyone’s heart? The Red Wings have come to life and nothing that doesn’t play near the Ottawa River can stop them.


Wings in 5

Conference Finals Predictions

And now for some ballsy predictions.

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

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

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

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

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

I had a dream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some dream, huh?


Brought to you by Kevin

Salt on Monday

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

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

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

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

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



Lets Go Raptors!

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

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