I took the Hawks to win the Stanley Cup. A lot of people took Chicago to win the Stanley Cup. Everyone who took Chicago took them knowing they had shaky goaltending. Shaky may be a compliment. Antti Niemi was the goat as the Hawks were beaten 4-1 by Nashville to get that series started. With Chicago up 1-0, Niemi did what goalies simply can't do--especially in the playoffs.
That just re-defines greasy. You gotta think Chicago coach Joel Quenneville has already told Cristobal Huet to get ready for Sunday.
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No doubt about it, the player of the night was Sidney Crosby. Sid had one helluva shift as he set up Kris Letang with the game-winner in a 2-1 victory to even that series up.
Really, what more could Jason Spezza do. Yeah, he could have taken a penalty and hoped for the best, but you have to give Sid credit on this one. Crosby is also getting a lot of praise for sweeping a puck away from the goal-line earlier in the 3rd. Yeah, but it looked to me as if the puck had stopped and wasn't going in. Did you see the Andy Sutton hit on Jordan Leopold. I thought it was clean. Did you?
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Devin Setoguchi may have gotten the biggest goal of the year for the San Jose Sharks. Correction....Devin Setoguchi got the biggest goal of the season for the Sharks. They were 30 seconds away from going down 2-0 in the series, but they got a goal to send it into overtime leading to Setoguchi's heroics on the powerplay as San Jose takes it 6-5. If San Jose loses that game, they are done! While his team won, Evgeni Nabokov really has to play better if the Sharks are going to win this series. In fact, if San Jose would have lost Game 2, I would have gone with Thomas Greiss in Game 3.
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Detroit and Phoenix gave us an entertaining Game 2 with the Wings prevailing 7-4 much to the delight of those who have Wings and Coyotes in their draft. New Jersey gets even in their series with Philly with a hard fought 5-3 win.
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Memo to the Phoenix Coyotes. The Winnipeg Jets used the white-out. That is their promotion. That didn't go with you to the desert, and if you are going to use a white-out then have your team wearing white instead of red! Dumb!
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The road teams take Game 1 of the WHL divisional finals as both Brandon and Vancouver win. Of course a Wheaties win over Calgary and the winner of the Western series will also be off to the Mem Cup since Brandon is the host.
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I heard Rob Vanstone blathering on Jamie Nye's show last night about why the CFL should scrap the convert and force teams to go for two every time they score a touchdown whether it be in the 1st quarter or overtime. Nye says that would be too "gimmicky". Nye is correct! Getting rid of the convert is stupid. I don't care if its automatic or not. If you want to get rid of something, get rid of the rouge. The single point on punts and missed field goals should be eradicated from the game. That is what's stupid. If Rob wants the traditional convert to be scrapped, I wonder if he thinks field goals from beyond the 40 should be worth four points and if its past 50, they should be 5.
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Final preparations are being made for the Esso Cup. The 2nd ever national womens midget hockey championship go at the Co-Operators Centre in Regina starting Sunday. I don't know how ticket sales are going, but it would be nice to see some solid crowds at the COC---especially when the host Rebels are playing.
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A majority of Regina residents say they are satisfied with their quality of life. No one's life is perfect, but I have no major problems. Do you?
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Canada's soccer team is going to play Argentina in Buenos Aires just weeks before the World Cup. This is like the University of Alabama taking on the Saskatoon Hilltops or the Regina Thunder. It won't be pretty! Losing by 3 or less would be considered complimentary.
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The NBA playoffs begin today. A lot of people believe the Lakers can make it two straight. I'm not one of them. I'm going with Orlando to win the final and I'm going out on a limb by saying Orlando will play Denver in the final. Yeah, I'll be shocked if that actually happens.
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What will garner more attention in Toronto over the next few weeks? The rebuilding of the Leafs, the play of the Jays, or Chris Bosh leaving in free-agency. Don't be surprised if its the latter.
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Sportsnet has a great poll question. The question is who had the best hockey hair? The choices are Barry Melrose, Jaromir Jagr, Al Iafrate and Mike Ricci. Where's Ron Duguay?
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Time to hit the pillow. Have a good weekend!
7 comments:
i wouldn't be horribly opposed to teams having the option of going for a one point convert from the 2 and a 1/2 yard line or a two point convert from the 5...and i'm with you on eliminating the rouge but only on missed field goals...why give 33 per cent of the points for failing...but punts or kicks into the end zone for a point are good strategy as long as they stay in bounds...
i always liked rugby's rule on kicking converts...the kicker has to place the ball directly in line with where the ball was touched in the end zone...you get some pretty funky angles which can be quite challenging...not always a sure thing converts in rugby...
mongo
A Murray Bannerman reference! Nice! I was a big Bannerman fan growing up. That play by Niemi is one that could really be a series-changer; remember Cloutier on Lidstrom a few years ago. I hope not!
If Colorado wins, your next poll question could have been where will Nabokov, Marleau and Thronton be playing next season.
Someone needs to tell Vanstone to take his head out of his ass. Eliminating the convert, c'mon Rob!
Brent
Where's Jocelyn Thibault?
Sid's puck control can be just obscene at times. That was amazing!
I bet Chicago is kicking themselves for not getting a goaltender for the playoff run. Yep, if San Jose loses in round one, the three boys WON'T be back...the fans would linch them
I'm a Pittsburgh fan, and I say the hit was a clean one. Too bad for Leopold, but that's the way it is. If they take hits like that out of the game, they might as well just take checking out of the game.
Field goal values? I'm the opposite to you. There's no way you should get half a touchdown if your drive stalls on the 40 yard line and you kick a 47 yarder. I believe field goals from inside the 25 should be worth 3 points from 25-40 yards they're worth 2 points and from further out just a point. Imagine the second down plays this would set up trying to get the ball into the middle of the field plus far enough ahead to turn a 1 pointer into a duce or a 2 pointer into a triple.
the Mayer
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