Friday, April 24, 2009
A Shout Out
I don't typically do "shout outs" to the blogs of friends, but Jackson made a great post on his blog concerning the recent torture "debate" and I could not hold myself back. I usually like to make blog posts with some of my own thoughts, but this time you can find what I think in the comment thread to Jackson's post.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Epic
Brodeur had a legitimate case based on the murky history of the crease-crashing and goal-front traffic goals (or no goals), but I think it was a good "no call." Marty was way out of the crease and the incidental contact is excusable. If the Carolina player had gone out of his way and deliberately interfered, I would be upset.
This series and the Chicago-Calgary series have turned out to be fantastic match-ups.
On a less epic note, Montreal fans are apparently the type of fans that boo national anthems. I expect this kind of thing from Philadelphia fans, but I always thought that Montreal fans were lacking those Cro-Magnon tendencies. On the other hand, those French-Canadians are not your proto-typical well-behaved Canadians. Unfortunately for Canadiens fans, they also booed their team to a disappointing first round elimination in four straight games at the hand of Original Six rival Boston.
Monday, April 13, 2009
It's that Time Again!
On Wednesday, the second NHL season begins. In a previous blog post I talked about those magical times of the year when sports' seasons coincide into an entertaining and exhilarating spectacle. This is one of those times. The NHL is wrapping up the regular season, NCAA hockey has the Frozen Four and the baseball season opens.
Starting with the amateurs, the NCAA hockey tournament was somewhat unusual this year. A heavy dose of upsets and over-performing teams made this tournament very unpredictable. Two of the big favorites, Michigan and Notre Dame, lost early in the tournament to Air Force and Bemidji State, respectively. Along the way there were a number of really entertaining games. Fortunately for me, the two games that I got a chance to see were both really exciting. The first game I saw was the New Hampshire-North Dakota game. After watching this game, my belief that hockey is the greatest sport was affirmed once more. Lots of exciting end-to-end action and a couple of hard-working squads made it possible. The other game I watched was the championship game between Miami (Ohio) and Boston U. Miami had never won a national championship in any sport and they had a very good chance to get their first. As long as you were a big Miami fan, this was another amazing game with an epic comeback wrapped up with a heart-breaking conclusion. Congratulations to Boston University's hockey team!
Now, onto the professional ranks. Here are your playoff matchups for the first round:
Eastern Conference
(1) Boston vs. (8) Montreal
(2) Washington vs. (7) New York
(3) New Jersey vs. (6) Carolina
(4) Pittsburgh vs. (5) Philadelphia
Western Conference
(1) San Jose vs. (8) Anaheim
(2) Detroit vs. (7) Columbus
(3) Vancouver vs. (6) St. Louis
(4) Chicago vs. (5) Calgary
I'm not going to go into a massive breakdown of each series since both SI.com and ESPN.com have done a great job. Instead, I'm going to just toss out some random thoughts, predictions and recommendations.
In both the East and West, the #3 and #6 teams are silent threats to every other team in the bracket. All four squads enter the playoffs on hot streaks and with great goaltending. If you want to see the best of gritty, passionate playoff hockey, keep an eye on the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia and San Jose-Anaheim matchups. These teams are regional rivals and have a general dislike for each other. Furthermore, Philadelphia and Anaheim are the reigning thug teams of the NHL, so we can expect some tight checking. If you want to see the archetypal sporting matchup of tremendous offense vs. crushing defense, tune into the Washington-New York series. Washington's Alex Ovechkin is reason enough to watch this series, as this highlight will confirm:
Now that I've paid my lip service to the rest of the league, it's time to talk about my Red Wings. St. Louis did the Wings a huge favor by winning their last game which pushed Anaheim out of 7th place. Columbus is a team that a second seeded Detroit team should be able to easily handle. However, Detroit needs to tread with caution. The Wings closed their season very weakly, winning only 3 of their last 10 games. Everyone knows that you can't just flip a switch and start playing like a contender, but the Wings are probably the team closest to having that capability. A lot of commentators say that goaltending is the biggest concern for Detroit and after this season, it's hard to argue with that. However, I will. Goaltending has been weak this year, but starting goalie Chris Osgood has shown marked improvement in the last few weeks and has back-stopped two Stanley Cup championship teams (including a dominating performance in last years championship run). The biggest concern for the Wings is overall defense competency. They have consistently shot themselves in the feet this season by making poor defensive-zone plays and leaving their goaltenders in impossible situations.
I expect the Wings will win the series in five or six games, but I will not be surprised if Columbus gets a win or two early in the series.
Getting a pulse on who is going to do well this year is tough. There are a ton of x-factors on every team this year and I don't think anyone has an early advantage. Will Boston be able to keep a lid on their emotions? Can the Rangers score goals? Is Martin Brodeur ready for the playoffs after a long injury recovery? Can San Jose finally transfer their regular season success into playoff success? How many games will it take for the Red Wings to get back into form? Can Roberto Luongo play up to the high level of Hart Trophy dark horse Chris Mason?
Starting with the amateurs, the NCAA hockey tournament was somewhat unusual this year. A heavy dose of upsets and over-performing teams made this tournament very unpredictable. Two of the big favorites, Michigan and Notre Dame, lost early in the tournament to Air Force and Bemidji State, respectively. Along the way there were a number of really entertaining games. Fortunately for me, the two games that I got a chance to see were both really exciting. The first game I saw was the New Hampshire-North Dakota game. After watching this game, my belief that hockey is the greatest sport was affirmed once more. Lots of exciting end-to-end action and a couple of hard-working squads made it possible. The other game I watched was the championship game between Miami (Ohio) and Boston U. Miami had never won a national championship in any sport and they had a very good chance to get their first. As long as you were a big Miami fan, this was another amazing game with an epic comeback wrapped up with a heart-breaking conclusion. Congratulations to Boston University's hockey team!
Now, onto the professional ranks. Here are your playoff matchups for the first round:
Eastern Conference
(1) Boston vs. (8) Montreal
(2) Washington vs. (7) New York
(3) New Jersey vs. (6) Carolina
(4) Pittsburgh vs. (5) Philadelphia
Western Conference
(1) San Jose vs. (8) Anaheim
(2) Detroit vs. (7) Columbus
(3) Vancouver vs. (6) St. Louis
(4) Chicago vs. (5) Calgary
I'm not going to go into a massive breakdown of each series since both SI.com and ESPN.com have done a great job. Instead, I'm going to just toss out some random thoughts, predictions and recommendations.
In both the East and West, the #3 and #6 teams are silent threats to every other team in the bracket. All four squads enter the playoffs on hot streaks and with great goaltending. If you want to see the best of gritty, passionate playoff hockey, keep an eye on the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia and San Jose-Anaheim matchups. These teams are regional rivals and have a general dislike for each other. Furthermore, Philadelphia and Anaheim are the reigning thug teams of the NHL, so we can expect some tight checking. If you want to see the archetypal sporting matchup of tremendous offense vs. crushing defense, tune into the Washington-New York series. Washington's Alex Ovechkin is reason enough to watch this series, as this highlight will confirm:
Now that I've paid my lip service to the rest of the league, it's time to talk about my Red Wings. St. Louis did the Wings a huge favor by winning their last game which pushed Anaheim out of 7th place. Columbus is a team that a second seeded Detroit team should be able to easily handle. However, Detroit needs to tread with caution. The Wings closed their season very weakly, winning only 3 of their last 10 games. Everyone knows that you can't just flip a switch and start playing like a contender, but the Wings are probably the team closest to having that capability. A lot of commentators say that goaltending is the biggest concern for Detroit and after this season, it's hard to argue with that. However, I will. Goaltending has been weak this year, but starting goalie Chris Osgood has shown marked improvement in the last few weeks and has back-stopped two Stanley Cup championship teams (including a dominating performance in last years championship run). The biggest concern for the Wings is overall defense competency. They have consistently shot themselves in the feet this season by making poor defensive-zone plays and leaving their goaltenders in impossible situations.
I expect the Wings will win the series in five or six games, but I will not be surprised if Columbus gets a win or two early in the series.
Getting a pulse on who is going to do well this year is tough. There are a ton of x-factors on every team this year and I don't think anyone has an early advantage. Will Boston be able to keep a lid on their emotions? Can the Rangers score goals? Is Martin Brodeur ready for the playoffs after a long injury recovery? Can San Jose finally transfer their regular season success into playoff success? How many games will it take for the Red Wings to get back into form? Can Roberto Luongo play up to the high level of Hart Trophy dark horse Chris Mason?
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Serious Business
I found an interesting video clip this morning.
From what I can tell, it's a video of President Obama interacting with some of the G20 protesters during his travels around London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4
Note for archive browsers: Sony, in its infinite wisdom and reach, has decided to remove the soundtrack of this video. Strangely enough, the audio portion of the video can still be found here, but it completely ruins the intention of this blog post. Needless to say, I am inconsolable.
To be honest, I feel bad for the G20 protesters. Though I may disagree with some of their political viewpoints, a vast majority of them are there to peacefully express discontent at the way things are going. The vociferous, violent and occasionally drunk minority give a legitimate protest a bad reputation.
From what I can tell, it's a video of President Obama interacting with some of the G20 protesters during his travels around London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4
Note for archive browsers: Sony, in its infinite wisdom and reach, has decided to remove the soundtrack of this video. Strangely enough, the audio portion of the video can still be found here, but it completely ruins the intention of this blog post. Needless to say, I am inconsolable.
To be honest, I feel bad for the G20 protesters. Though I may disagree with some of their political viewpoints, a vast majority of them are there to peacefully express discontent at the way things are going. The vociferous, violent and occasionally drunk minority give a legitimate protest a bad reputation.
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