Ducks and Hawks and Penguins

Ok, so "Hawks" is technically short for the Blackhawk tribe of Native Americans, but I'm sure the Anglicized tribe name comes from the bird.

Anyway, I write this blog post to inform everyone that my regular blogging will resume sometime next week. Just so this entire post doesn't turn into a non sequitur, I'm waiting for the conclusion of NHL playoffs and the three aforementioned avian species are also the mascots of the three most recent teams the Red Wings have faced in the playoffs.

Topics I hope to hit upon resumption of regular blogging: North Korea, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Electronic Arts marketing division.

Edit:

Ok, maybe I will add something of substance, but it's more hockey, so forgive me.

Again, I hold the management of the NHL in utter contempt for the current state of the game. Hockey is an amazing sport and quite possibly the most dynamic and exciting, but the national respect for the game is at an all-time low.

It's very, very easy to criticize TV networks like NBC, Fox, and Versus for their questionable marketing choices, but the onus is on the league management to make deals that are best for the sport. The NHL front office has done a great disservice to hockey in its business dealings. Here's the situation: in 2005 the NHL is about to emerge from another lockout season and looks for television deals. ESPN and Outdoor Life Network place bids on broadcast rights. ESPN has a history of responsible and reliable NHL coverage/analysis - Outdoor Life Network is a cable channel dedicated to fringe sports like fishing, hunting and bull riding (probably competitive woodcutting, too). OLN submits a higher bid and the NHL bites and the writers at Disney/ABC/ESPN begin drafting subtle jabs at the NHL to fill the airtime usually dedicated to highlight shows.

As the article states, NBC (the Notre Dame Broadcasting Channel one part of the year, Nothing But Crosby channel at another) also holds broadcasting rights for occasional weekend and playoff games (supposedly the rights for EVERY game of the Stanley Cup Finals, article explains why not this time around). However, NBC doesn't pay the NHL for these broadcasting rights! What a deal!

So, games three and four of the Stanley Cup Finals will only be available on a fringe cable channel. You don't need to be a NHL fan to realize that games three and four in a series with one team up 2-0 are truly pivotal contests. It is a shame that another terrible reality series takes precedence over one of the greatest sporting events of the year and every quantum of that shame lies squarely on the NHL front office.

Where the Coyotes Roam

All I have done over the past few weeks is watch hockey. Therefore, the content of this blog post will be more hockey (sorry to the folks expecting something different).

Anyone who is following the playoffs (the one with ice, not with hoops), knows how the Red Wings got completely hosed on a no-goal call at the end of game 3 which cost them the game. I'm going to avoid that minefield: the referee was following proper procedure, but it was still a god-awful call.

In my opinion, the big NHL news of the week concerns the Phoenix Coyotes franchise. The team owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after multiple seasons of poor teams and shoddy attendance. NHL followers are probably not terribly surprised by this development. Phoenix is one of those new-market franchises pioneered by Commissioner Gary Bettman. My dislike for Gary Bettman has been stated before along with my doubt in the southern expansion. However, the next part of the tale is where it gets interesting.

Commissioner Gary Bettman impressions: the less evil, more incompetent 20th century mustache dictator

Businessman Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Blackberry, quickly threw in a bid for the ailing franchise. Again, those who follow the NHL will recognize this name from a few years ago when he tried to buy the faltering Nashville Predators. Balsillie's $212.5 million bid includes a clause to move the team to Ontario, Canada. This is where Balsillie and Bettman are at odds. I'm neither opposed or supportive of a new team in Ontario. Instead, this serves as another opportunity for Mr. Bettman to embarass himself and the league.

Bettman was quoted, "We don't run out on cities."

Now Mr. Bettman, you may not have run out on Ottawa, Nashville, Buffalo and Pittsburgh, but what about Hartford, Winnipeg, Minneapolis and Quebec City? Didn't the NHL run out of those cities? It might have been the right move to pull the NHL franchises out of those markets, but would this be the wrong move in Phoenix?

Now here's an idea that will rock the world: close the franchise and do a mini-contraction. Give Jim Balsillie a call in five years when the financial situation hopefully improves then give him a franchise.

Red Wings-Ducks game four tonight! Let's hope the Wings and the refs bring their A-game, for a change.

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.

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?

Through the Looking Glass

Since my attempt at delivering a semi-accurate prediction of the NHL trade deadline turned out not-so-good, I'm going to move onto something else. Though, the moves made by Pittsburgh and Calgary are hardly unprecedented and are fairly typical for teams in their position. Calgary added some good talent at center and defense where they needed help. Calgary is now in a much stronger position to compete for the Western Conference title. Pittsburgh added the classic NHL rental player, Bill Guerin. Don't get me wrong, he is a great player with good playoff experience, but don't waste $150 on a Guerin sweater if you are a Pittsburgh fan, he'll be gone in 3 years or less.

Now, on to business.

On Friday (tomorrow!), NASA will be launching the Kepler Space Telescope! Its mission is to spend the next three or so years surveying a portion of the cosmos for exoplanets. Kepler will do so by detecting the minute changes in the brightness of stars as planets travel between the star and the observatory. This is some really cool stuff, but I wonder about the effectiveness of this detection method. If I interpret Kepler's functionality correctly, it will only be able to detect exoplanets when they cross directly between the star and the telescope. I can only assume (there are billions of stars out there - statistically, I doubt they are all oriented the same way) that a majority of other solar systems do not have orbital planes that make this kind of observation possible. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing what Kepler is capable of.

Another cool factoid about Kepler: it will be one of the few spacecraft that do not orbit the Earth. Kepler will be placed in a heliocentric orbit (it orbits the Sun). This orbit allows it to make better observation for some technical reasons that I lack the training and education to fully explain, let alone understand. There's a good explanation of Kepler's orbit here.

Supposedly, NASA will be broadcasting the launch live on the NASA TV network and probably somewhere on their website, too. Keep your fingers crossed!

Trade Deadline Primer

I can't say that the NHL trade deadline is the most exciting moment of the season. However, there is always a glimmer of intrigue to be found between the hedge-betting and last-ditch reinforcing.

The two top teams in the West, San Jose and Detroit, are not expected to make any major moves tomorrow. Both clubs are loaded and ready for long playoff runs. Many hockey analysts have suggested that Detroit is in desperate need of a "star" goaltender. I tend to think that the goalie situation in Detroit has been blown out of proportion. Even if Detroit needed some shoring up between the pipes, they lack the cap space to deal without sacrificing at least a decent 2nd or 3rd line forward.

Looking down the Western Conference standings, I expect that Anaheim will be active tomorrow. As I write this, they are barely out of the playoffs in the massive logjam for the 4-8 seeds. However, they were recently involved in a big deal with Pittsburgh. Anaheim gained a solid defenseman for a winger, which Pittsburgh needed to complement Crosby's line. Now Anaheim has Niedermayer, Pronger and Whitney on their blue-line. Anaheim will probably ship out Pronger to either St. Louis or Boston.

Speaking of Boston, they will have a scary defensive pair if they acquire Pronger. Pronger at 6'6" 213lbs and Zdeno Chara at 6'9" 250lbs, and they both know how to throw around those massive frames.





In the East, things will probably be a bit quieter. Toronto will, once again, probably be a seller. It's sad to see a great franchise like Toronto wallow in mediocrity for so long. Hopefully, they can turn it around next season.

My favorite story in hockey last week was the return of Martin Brodeur. In his first three games back from an extended injury absence, Marty has three wins and two shutouts. I had my doubts, but I think he stands a good chance at breaking some of those amazing Patrick Roy records. Crazy French-Canadian goalies...