The Weekend That Was

It is too bad that the weekend produced nothing to talk about around the water cooler today, a rare miss for the sports world. Unless you count; Game 1 of the Stanley Cup that was a game full of mistakes but was by all accounts a very open game that, if you are a fan of goals you loved this game. 6-5 is not what anyone expected going into the game. You would have thought that with all the time between the Conference Finals and the finals you would have thought that there would be some rust on the teams, or at the very least some close checking as the teams felt each other out...Not So. It was high flying and high scoring, maybe game 2 will settle things down but if the goals still are netted at the rate they were in game one, however and whom ever wins the games will be sure to be great.

Oh, then there was game 6 of the NBA Western Conference Finals where the good Canadian Steve Nash all but guaranteed that the Suns would take Game 6 and force the Series back to LA. That did not sit well with the Lakers as a team but perhaps more importantly Kobe Bryant. He was not going to allow that kind of talk to come true, not on his watch. Kobe dropped 37 points in guiding his team to a road victory to clinch the West and set up a match up versus the Boston Celtics. When your teammates say things like teammate Lamar Odom said; "Kobe’s so good," "He makes incredible normal for us." It is hard to argue that he is the straw that stirs the drink in the City of Angles. The Black Mamba may once again be on the loose and have his eyes set on the Celtics.

Not enough drama yet? Ok, lets factor in former Ace of the Blue Jays staff, Roy Halladay. We all know that he was one of the best pitchers in the game, a horse, a guy you want on the mound for you. This guy eats up innings as well as opposing batters. It is only fitting that he of all people secured his place in history as one of the greatest by throwing only the 20th Perfect game in Major League history. Zero Hits, Zero runs, Zero Errors and Zero base runners...he faced the minimum 27 batters and none reached first base. Thankfully the currently offensively struggling Phillies managed to put up 1 run for their teammate and even it was on a misplay by the Marlins defence. After all the years in Toronto I guess Doc Halladay learned that without a lot of run support, sometimes you have to do things yourself, and he did! Well done!

Sticking with baseball. Most of us when we were kids imagined being up in the ninth inning with the bases loads looking for a chance to win the game with a walk off - just imagine that dream coming true as a major leaguer. Wouldn’t it be awesome, wouldn’t it feel great!? You bet it would, unless you are Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim first baseman Kendry Morales (not to be confused with Esai or Bob Morales) who, after hitting his first career grand slam, fractured his lower left leg, landing awkwardly on home plate while being mobbed by teammates. Maybe this will change the dog pile mentality that teams have after teammates do something to win a game. Maybe stick with the high 5 and not "Jump Around" like they are featured in a House of Pain Video!

The potential for a tragedy was nearly avoided in the Indy 500 when Mike Conway was flown to an Indianapolis hospital for evaluation following a horrific crash at the end of the Indy 500. Conway was battling Ryan Hunter-Reay for position between turns three and four when the two collided. The 24 car flew up into the catch fence then fell back toward the track the car disintegrated while he was strapped into the "fuselage" and managed just a leg injury. It was horrible looking and for the car that drove under the air born 24 nearly taking out that drivers head. It is a wonder that there was no fatalities after this crash.

Battle For The Cup

The Stanley Cup is set to begin on Saturday night..novel idea I know! After a long layoff things are getting set to begin, and better yet, all the games are slated to be played at 8pm Eastern - no afternoon games!

Philadelphia will take on Chicago in a battle that on paper looks to be a very good match up. Throw out the fact that the Flyers are a 7th seed the teams seem to stack up well versus each other. Both are deep teams but Chicago looks like they may have just a little deeper skilled bench. What the Flyers may not have in speed they make up for in tough physical play. The Blackhawks have a lot of skill and speed and will need every bit of it to get away from the bruising attack from Philly. The showdown between the two young star captains Mike Richards and Jonathan Toews should be epic. One of these guys is going to complete a good year captaining their team to a championship and going home to polish the Olympic Gold Medal that they both have from the Vancouver Games...not too bad for 2 guys in their early 20’s.

There will be plenty to watch with all the little battles between players and lines. There will be some great match ups on the ice and the team that does better in those situations will likely take the Cup.

I am looking for Chicago to take it in 5 or 6 very close games. After 2 years of game 7’s I don’t think that we will see that again and despite both teams having questions in net, I think the Chicago bench may be a little more talented 1 thru 6.

Also in a less important factor but one that needs to be mentioned It would be best for Chicago to win as an original 6 team, a team that has not won since 1961 and most importantly the team with probably the best Ice Crew in the game. I think that those lovely ladies should get the chance to celebrate a championship!

Around The Horn

The NCAA Tournament is Awesome! Regular Basketball is good to watch. Playoff Basketball is even better, but if they are not careful they will alienate their fans and drive away viewers by trying to accommodate the TV networks. Ironic as it may be, it is funny that postponing the starts of series to fit the TV lineups better there are large gaps in the time between the end of one series and the beginning of another. Granted, when a team sweeps and the other series goes 7 there is going to be a long layoff, that can’t be helped. For instance Orlando is waiting for the winner of the Celtics and the Cavs (2-2) but the Lakers and Suns are both done and ready for the Conference Finals but that doesn’t begin until next Monday, a 6 day layoff. That is a lot of time for rust and a long time for fans to stay interested. Especially when the weather is starting to get nice. The NBA is playing with fire and does so every year.

3 teams have been down this round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs 3-0 or 3-1. 2 of the 3 series are still going on and in each one it is/ or was very conceivably the team that moves onuntil last night when the Canucks failed to show up and got blown out 5-1. The Canadiens, Canucks and Flyers have all been on the brink of elimination but now 2 of the 3 have a legitimate chance in making the improbable comeback. At the very least they are ensuring that we get to see some more games, but they are also adding to the excitement of an already great playoffs so far. The first round was good, and the second is holding serve and keeping the quality and entertainment level high.

Just when you think that they are starting to do things right the Bengals make a questionable move to bring in Pacman Jones. The team was bad on the field for a long time. Then they got better on the field, then a bunch of players started to get arrested. At one point it was like you couldn’t go a couple of days without hearing about a player in some hot water. Production began to drop on the field and now it is like they are just looking for players with checked pasts to fill out the lineup. The thinking in Cincinnati is anyone’s guess. If Michigan plays in the Big House I guess that the Cincinnati Bengals play in the Half Way House.

A New Zealander gave new meaning to the golfing term ‘hazard’ when he fell from a cliff while searching for his ball. The 66-year-old sustained serious injuries but was in a stable condition. The man fell 30 metres onto seaside boulders and was only discovered a good time later after his golf cart was noticed. The man was playing alone at the time. Between cliff’s in New Zealand and Gators in Florida nobody can say that golf is not a dangerous game.

Pen-Sational

I will give credit where credit is due and congratulate the youngest captain to win the cup in Sidney Crosby and the rest of Pittsburgh Penguins on winning the Stanley Cup. Also the fact that he grabbed the Conference Trophy and was not concerned with avoiding it or some sort of voodoo thing was good to see. In one of the best post seasons for the NHL in many, many years and for the game to go to a 7th game that was decided by 1 goal, even a Red Wings fan must admit it was a good series. Perhaps they aren't happy with the outcome (and who could blame them) but as a hockey fan and a fan of the league nobody could have asked for more.

With that said there are a few things that have come up that have, i don’t want to say tainted but as shed a bit of a bad light on the whole thing. The fact that the Red Wings feel that Crosby snubbed Nick Lidstrom in shaking his hand is a bit of a concern. I will give Sid the benefit of the doubt it was his first time raising the cup he is still young one can forgive him for being a little excited and maybe not being as prompt with protocol as perhaps he should have been but this is pretty minor. No real harm, no real foul. What is more of a concern is the poor officiating that took place. The whistles went away and the standard that was supposed to be set was thrown out the window. This is one good reason why the Pens may have had a bit of an advantage because their less mobile players had an advantage when it came to interference, plus the fact that the Jonathan Ericsson penalty that was called for interference was only called once and turned out to be a turning point in the series. It also goes the other way where Johan Franzen’s hit on Crosby in the 2nd period of game 7 was interference and it tweaked Crosby’s knee and essentially knocked him out of the game and could have become a big deal had Pittsburgh lost. The NHL has got to decide on rules and stick with them...pass interference in the first quarter of a pre-season game in the NFL is also a pass interference in the 4th quarter of the Super bowl. Nobody wants it to go back to the way it was in the mid 90’s (except maybe the New Jersey Devils)

Rodney Dangerfield Gets More Respect Then The NHL

Could you ask for any less respect then what NBC is giving/has given to the NHL and the Stanley Cup Playoffs? They force the league to play 2 games back to back for the first time since the 1950’s. They have them start the series with virtually no rest for the teams who earned the right to play for the cup. They only show the first 2 games at which point they decide to hand over the broadcast to Versus for games 3 and 4. These are usually critical games when trying to decide a champion so one would think they would want to show that. Being on Versus where all year they struggled to get people to tune in. 1) because it was hard to find and 2) because it was so limited to how many subscribers actually had access to the channel through their cable or satellite providers.

While game 3 was being played, somewhere in the states on a channel nobody knows exists NBC was airing an episode of "I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" and a non time sensitive special on Inside the Obama White House. NBC can not claim that it had any better programming that forced the games out of a prime time network time slot, there was no need for these shows to be on instead. They caught a break that Pittsburgh won game 3 and prolonged the series at lest enough for one more weekend broadcast.

Can you imagine if FOX decided to put the World Series on FX because they wanted to show an episode of "I Want To Mary A Millionaire" and an old rerun episode of the X-files. People would be up in arms. Maybe if CBS decided to put the Super Bowl on the Food Network instead (football... tail gating it is a perfect mix). It would never happen. Partly because the leagues wouldn’t bend over like the NHL does, actually respects the league and the game and because they actually pay to broadcast these games where as the NHL gets virtually no money and little or no exposure from NBC and Versus coverage. For the greater good it looks like the league needs to go crawling back to ESPN and pray that they can get something...anything and not come out looking like amateurs.

On the WINGS not a Prayer

The Detroit Red Wings may be considered as a modern day version of a dynasty. Now I am not handing the Championship to them and I may not be a big fan of the them and I am far from wishing or rooting for a victory but I am about giving credit where credit is due. They are looking like the NHL’s version of the New England Patriots, not only for the titles but the way they do business. If you look at New England they keep loosing players not only due to salary cap reasons but also due to injuries. What happens when top players get hurt? They plug in someone that you have never heard of before and then all of a sudden that person doesn’t skip a beat and there is a seamless transition from backup to starter. It happened when Tom Brady came in for an injured Drew Bledsoe it happened when nearly their entire secondary went down and they even had to turn to a wide receiver to play cornerback and he was as good or better then what half the teams had as starters.

That is the same deal in the Motor City (that was not a shot at GM, that isn’t good for anybody...back to sports) You lose your captain and one of the best defencemen of all time for a few games, just throw out a 45+ year old Chris Chelios or Jonathan Ericsson fresh off of an appendectomy 3 days prior to going back into the lineup to eat some minutes, Without a grinding forward like Kris Draper, lets throw rookie Justin Abdelkader into the fire after like 3 game played in the NHL regular season. Hey a potential MVP candidate in the past and one of the best 2 way forwards in the game Pavel Datsyuk hurts his foot and can’t play...OK that is just too much to overcome. Oooppps nope ... we will put the speedy firecracker Darren Helm out and have him play huge minutes in key situations. Helm could walk into camp next season with 2 Stanley cup Rings and still be up for the Calder trophy for Rookie of the Year. Sic.

It is with that kind of depth and incredible team standards they are by far the best run club right now. Sure that doesn’t make them a lock to win the cup, far from it, but it does put them head and shoulders above any other club in the NHL right now from the ice to the front office.

Best and Worst of the Weekend

BEST
The Montreal Canadians have decided on a new coach and it is former Sens bench boss Jacques Martin. This is a great decision for the Sens. That’s right the Sens, maybe not so much for the Habs. Since there are rarely trades among division rivals and Martin is no longer GM in Florida where he never seemed warm to dealings with Ottawa after he was relieved of duty here. Now maybe that opens up another trading partner for Bryan Murray

Worst
Detroit won the first 2 games at home in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is only bad for 2 reasons:
a) There are only a possible 5 more game maximum left before the season is done.
b) If Pittsburgh doesn’t win Tuesday night then it is very likely that there will only be 2 more games and a sweep for Detroit....meaning even less hockey.
The first 2 games have been played at a high pace with great physical play. Maybe a few penalties could be called, a penalty in game 30 should still be a penalty in the Championship Finals.

BEST
Orlando upset Cleveland in the NBA Conference finals knocking out LeBron James and taking away a Kobe-LeBron showdown. This is far from the best for David Stern and the league as far as ratings go but it was funny to see LeBron walk off the court-not shake hands-ditch the media and walk out to the bus with his headphones on.
Also, the chance for Kobe to win a championship without Shaq and get the "taste of ass" out of his mouth.

WORST

Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak’sr run at the French Open ended on a loss to second-seeded Serena Williams. Since I have little or no use for Serena I would have loved to see that upset. I have no problem with sister Venus but Serena just seems to complain a lot and comes off a little snarky.
BEST
Earlier in march there was an epic basketball game with Syracuse and UCONN that went to 6 over times. When I was down there on Campus a week or so later everyone was wearing Marathon Men Shirts. Well as it turns out they may have to forfeit their crown to the Texas Longhorns baseball team. The Longhorns ended up on the winning end of a 25 inning game versus the Boston College Golden Eagles in the College World Series. The final was 3-2 and was the longest game ever played in NCAA history. I guess that would be considered a pitchers dual. The game started at 6:02 p.m. Saturday and ended 7 hours and 3 minutes later at 1:05 am Sunday. The crowd observed three 7th inning stretches. Texas reliever Austin Wood went 12 1/3 innings without allowing a hit - his pitch count was 169, including 120 strikes.

WORST
Footy, aka Kickball, aka Soccer was played somewhere and it was televised, some people actually watched.