Category: Sports

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Guest Post: NHL Playoffs Preview

If I need hockey news from someone I know personally, it is usually down to three people and two of which I went to high school with. One of those two has written a guest post on the upcoming NHL playoffs that get underway on Wednesday with 3 Eastern Conference series and 1 from the Western Conference.

I have bolded his series predictions below and added mine [in blue]. I think it just might be a nice contest throughout the playoffs to see who predicts the series more accurately.

Here is an analysis from Rusty Moke who is an avid hockey fan since as long as I can remember and has been in attendance for more hockey games this year alone than I even I got to watch:

The NHL playoffs are finally upon us; if 82 games weren’t enough get ready for a couple more.  Now, I’m no NHL scout or hockey analyst, (just an old high school buddy of a specific angry brown guy, who I’d like to thank for making room for me in his intelligent blog) but as an avid hockey fan/player you might be able to find a morsel or two of decent predictions among all of my ranting.

There are 8 different matchups, so I’ll make it short and sweet for each one.

(8) Montreal vs (1) Boston – The Bruins have surged forward this season, from 8th playoff seed last year to 1st this year.  The Canadiens have limped down the stretch, Markov is injured, and Price needs another year or two to become an outstanding goaltender.  Although I believe Boston is overrated and Tim Thomas is garbage, I’ll say Boston wins the series 4-1. [Boston – 4-2]

(7) New York (R) vs (2) Washington – My hatred of the Rangers aside, they are going to have a tough time with the Caps.  Washington has too much firepower for Lundqvist to handle between Ovie, Semin, Green, and Backstrom.  Theodore is Washington’s weak point, but the Rangers season long scoring problems shouldn’t give him much of a problem.  Having the #1 penalty kill in the league doesn’t win games.  Washington sweeps 4-0. [Washington – 4-2]

(6) Carolina vs (3) New Jersey – I’m obviously going to be biased towards the Devils.  Yes, we’ve had problems with the Canes all season long.  Yes, since Marty broke the record he hasn’t been at the top of his game.  But, Marty finally has rest and we have too much history with Carolina to drop this game.  Keep an eye on Babchuk, he’ll make things interesting.  NJ wins in 7. [Carolina – 4-3]

(5) Philadelphia vs (4) Pittsburgh – Not much to say here.  Since the coaching change Pittsburgh has been nearly unstoppable.  Everyone recognizes the names Crosby and Malkin.  Philadelphia has always been an unpredictable team, I don’t think they can hold onto this series, Biron isn’t very reliable.  Pittsburgh wins 4-1. [Pittsburgh – 4-2]

(8) Anaheim vs (1) San Jose– Not much to say here, get out your brooms.  Keep an eye on Cheechoo.  San Jose in 4. [San Jose – 4-1]

(7) Columbus vs (2) Detroit – Look no further for an upset.  Columbus has fought too hard to lose to the Wings in their first post season appearance.  Osgood isn’t as good as he is made out to be, Nash’s leadership is better than Datsyuk’s.  Mason isn’t done with shutouts this season.  Columbus in 7. [Detroit – 4-1]

(6) St. Louis vs (3) Vancouver – The Canucks faltered during the middle of the season, they won’t during the playoffs.  Congrats to the Blues for making it to the playoffs, they better enjoy it while it lasts.  Luongo has this one.  Vancouver wins 4-2. [St. Louis 4-2]

(5) Calgary vs (4) Chicago – Another close series.  Chicago has youth; they can make a run at the cup next year.  Calgary’s trades this year were invaluable.  Calgary wins 4-3. [Calgary 4-1]

Don’t go placing bets on my predictions, but then again who knows.  The playoffs always find some way to keep things interesting.  My cup prediction:  New Jersey vs Calgary.  That’s probably biased, but I’ve seen it all season.

I will probably add my own analysis tomorrow but once again big time appreciation and thanks to Rusty for some fantastic analysis. Once again, if any of you wanna jump in and add your predicitions, feel free to comment below and just let either me or Rusty know wha you think of the guest post.

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Is It Baseball Season Yet?

I was gonna write this up last night but got lazy and then after hearing Mike complain on Mike’d Up and getting notified that I had more John McCain related posts than Yankees, I decided to got procrastinating. I have usually made a couple of trips to the stadium each year since 2004 with the exception of last year. Hopefully I’ll pick up at least a game this year, probably a Blue Jays or Rays game in the summer but it seems more and more likely that it might be more of an economically suitable option to go watch a Major League game at Citi Field instead.

Yankees opened up single game tickets yesterday to the public at around 10 in the morning and due to class I didn’t get around to it until the middle of the afternoon. I wasn’t going in expecting there would be many tickets (reasonably priced anyways) available and that’s exactly the case that I found. I can’t find anything available under $100 each for a pair of tickets yet tickets right behind home plate are still available at the very cheap price of $2,625 each. I have been trying to purchase those $5 ticket for specially marked games but I guess it is safe to say those are probably sold out since it keeps coming up as unavailable or marked as regular price.

As for pre-season predictions and over/under numbers, expect a post on it before the end of the month or first few days of April at the latest.

P.S. 10 days until Major League Baseball 2009 Opening Night.

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An Old Friend Stands Out

I usually don’t like posting very much about the Devils since I despise them with pretty much every ounce blood in me but there was something yesterday that I just couldn’t pass up. So here is an old friend of mine from high school who has gone to more New Jersey Devils games than anyone else I know. Just turns out that all that paid off yesterday as he was in attendance for Martin Brodeur’s return in which he blanked the Colorado Avalanche 4-0.

Brodeur’s win which his seven of the season now puts him at 545 for his spectacular career, leaving him just six shy of Patrick Roy’s NHL record of 551. He also recorded his third shutout of the season and 99th of his career, which puts him four short of Terry Sawchuk’s all-time NHL mark of 103.

rusty

Congrats Rusty, he seemed in pretty good form for being out how ever many months he was out.

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Sportswriter Admits Steroids Use

I had been waiting for someone to transcribe this from this past weekend’s The Sports Reporters where Tony Kornheiser aimed his parting shots towards Alex Rodriguez and his A-Fraud story. If someone can find the video for this that would be great but so far it is only the transcript from Watchdog.

When I was young, all I ever wanted to be was a sportswriter. I had a cousin who wanted to be an investigative reporter. So to get ahead of people who had the same dreams, we began shooting up drugs.

We were young and stupid. Didn’t know what we were doing. Strictly amateur hour. I can’t believe it worked. I didn’t even know what we were taking!

But I got sportswriter jobs at Newsday, The New York Times and the Washington Post. I had my best year in 1997. I was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I still didn’t know what drugs I was using. I thought maybe it was actually Tic-Tacs, because people let me get so close to them during interviews.

I wasn’t young and stupid anymore. Now I was middle-aged and stupid. And naive. Then I got hired by ESPN and they put me on ‘Monday Night Football.’ Well, I really felt the need to keep taking drugs to prove they were right in picking me.

By now I was old and stupid. Old, naive, stupid and very, very rich – dating Madonna on the side. If you want to know why I secretly took drugs, it’s because it made me better than I was naturally. And by the way, I lied about my cousin. I don’t even have a cousin.

Like almost everybody else, I was shooting up with Jose Canseco.

 

Also if you don’t watch Pardon The Interruption regularly, you are definitely missing out on a good sports issue debate show… so go watch fools.