Hump Day Trio

The first weekend of March Madness didn't treat me well. After a blazing 16 of 16 start on Thursday, my bracket fell apart in the late games on Friday and then proceeded to have a crappy Sunday as well. When it was all said and done, I had 26 of 32 in round one and just 11 of 16 in round two. The bright side though, is that I've still got all of my Elite Eight picks hanging around, so there's a chance I could go on a real run and come back in the pool!

Now, onto today's Three-fer ...

1. Goalie Trouble in Detroit - I had the (mis)fortune of seeing the Wings games televised the last two nights. While Conklin filled in admirably when called upon, I've got to admit to being more than a little worried at how bad Osgood looked in the first 26 minutes against Calgary. This is supposed to be the Wings starter through the playoffs and he was letting in softies that even I could have stopped. Once three easy ones were past him, the team spent the rest of the second period playing pretty dejected hockey before mounting an unsuccessful surge in the third. Ozzie is going to have to be better or Detroit will go down early in one of their patented "outplay the other team and get killed by the goaltending matchup" upsets.
2. Robo-Lance - With a bad fall in Italy on Monday, Lance Armstrong has suffered his first real setback ever in preparing for the Tour. It will be interesting to see how his 37-year old body responds to not being able to stay on plan all the way through July. The most recent updates today are that he's had a five inch plate and a dozen screws installed in his shattered collarbone! I'd say his hopes of riding in yellow, while already slim with advancing age and competition, might just be dashed.
3. Tigers vs. Catholics - there's another big furor in Detroit today with the release of the Tiger's opening day schedule. It seems that the game is going to be on Good Friday with a 1:05 start. Catholics are up in arms because of the traditional belief that Jesus hung on the cross from noon to 3 pm, and thus most services take place at that time. Says local Rev. Ed Vilkauskas, "Nobody is saying baseball isn't big, but Good Friday is really big. It's 2000 years old." I think the Rev. is just upset that he's going to have to try to sell his tickets in a depressed market.
   

Who's In Your Lineup?

Compare these NHL stat lines:

Which player would you pick for your team? I'll take the one who is 25 points better in the defensive zone and stays out of the penalty box. But give this a read ...

That first guy is Sidney Crosby, the all-everything player that every team was dying to get when the league pulled the lottery balls for the 2005 draft. He is argued as one of the best players in the league and every episode of Sportscentre shows off his talents. The other guy? He's also an other-worldly talent. Some real hockey insiders recognize him as the best puck-handler in the game and he shows up on the highlight reel from time to time, but certainly doesn't get the notoriety that Sid does. Oh yeah, and he was drafted 171st overall back in 1998. Every team in the league could have had him. Who is he? Check this out ...

Three For Hump Day

In today's top stories ...

1. Does the NHL's Pacific Division ever suck?! - San Jose has already clinched the division with 13 games left in the season. The closest team to them is Dallas who currently aren't even a playoff team. This is a reminder of the fluidity in the NHL standings when SJ, Dallas, and Anaheim have been playoff regulars for several years while the Central Division has had the bottom feeders in Columbus, St. Louis, Chicago, and Nashville. Two of those four are locks for the postseason and St. Louis is making a run. You just never know from year to year I guess.
2. 21 Years and Counting - With their come from behind win over the Flyers last night, the Red Wings now haven't lost a game to Philly at Joe Louis Arena since November 4, 1988! If Detroit advances out of the Western Conference this year, can someone please line up the Flyers to win the East?
3. I'm already 0-for-1 in March Madness - I picked Alabama State to beat Morehead State in the play-in game last night and got that clearly wrong as the Hornets barely managed to put 40 points on the board. I didn't know anything about either team, so my pick was based entirely on the hope that Alabama State's big man would become the best name in the history of the tournament -- Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims.
   

Red Wings Update

I was very pleased to read today that Detroit is going to really step outside the box to try to get Chris Osgood's game straightened out. Rather than try to have him play it out or simply sit him on the bench and hope for the best, they are taking their supposed number 1 guy and giving him a couple of days of not even dressing for games. He is to work strictly with goalie coach Jim Bedard and take some time to get his head straight. They've called Jimmy Howard up from the minors to back up Conklin in tonight's game against Anaheim and they're going to give Howard an opportunity to start against Minnesota on the weekend.

I think this is great from a whole bunch of standpoints. Osgood has clearly not been himself this year and his play recently has been even worse. He's given up bad goals with bad timing and needs to figure things out. This could be a great opportunity to really bear down and focus on what's been the problem and how he can get right again. In the meantime, they're taking a guy who is supposed to be their goalie of the future and giving him some real time experience. The Wings are in a very fortunate position of not absolutely needing wins right now to make the playoffs or lock up position. A game here and there isn't going to cost them anything, but the upside of giving Howard big time experience is priceless in his development process.

This is just another example of how well the Wings organization is run. Great coaching and management over the last ten years is why they've seen so much success. Now we just need to hope that Ozzie can get rolling so that they've got two guys they can trust heading into the playoffs.

Catching Up

Clearly I abandoned posting on this blog when life got crazy. A trip to Chicago, a jaunt to Victoria, a Super Bowl bash, and another week later, here I am again! Obviously, a lot happened and I'm going to wax nostalgic on a few points from the weeks gone by.

First, the Super Bowl. What a fantastic game it turned out to be! With Fitzgerald completely non-existent for the first three quarters, he suddenly exploded into the un-defensible wideout for the fourth giving Arizona a chance. Then it was Big Ben's turn to pull off some final two minute magic driving for what turned out to be the winning TD. I still think that the fumble with four seconds left should have been reviewed and overturned leading to one last desperate heave to the end zone, but overall it was great entertainment and it made for a great party!

The NHL All-Star game happened a few weeks ago too. That turned into a ridiculous 12-11 shootout win for the East, which is so many goals that it can't have even been entertaining. I'm glad that I spent most of that game on an airplane and missed all but the last few minutes. In other NHL news, Detroit went through their traditional February skid losing five games in a row, and seem to be turning it around. In solid wins against Edmonton and Pittsburgh this past weekend, the Wings finally showed a little more gumption on defence (if you ignore the third period against the Oilers after they had a 6-0 lead). I'm still a little worried that Osgood continues to struggle so much, but I'm really pleased to see that Conklin has been such a capable backup this year. Hopefully with a little more time to pull himself together, Ozzie will come through when the chips are down late in the season and into the playoffs.

I suppose the most recent news is the revelation that A-Rod was juicing up for a few years when he played for the Texas Rangers. While it comes as a bit of a surprise since he was being held as the hope to clean up the career home run record, eventually passing Bonds' mark, I don't think anyone can be too surprised that another star in Major League Baseball was playing dirty at the turn of the century. Clearly the entire era was a disaster for league and there's still a lot of cleaning up they need to do before all the skeletons are out of their closet. That said, I think I'm of mixed opinion on evaluating the players of the "steroid era" as they fit into baseball history. On one hand, obviously, these guys were cheating and all of their accomplishments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, games change over time, which makes comparison from one generation to the next increasingly difficult anyway. If you look at baseball, the distance of the fences have evolved over time and are now totally inconsistent around the league. Equipment has evolved to some degree as well, with lighter, easier-swinging bats and livelier balls being used. Pitching technique has pitcher use as also evolved, with batters now facing more pitchers each game as specialists and revolving bullpens becoming the norm. If you then also account for pitchers being on steroids and throwing harder, it seems hard to me to compare any statistics from this generation to the past.

The only thing I need to clarify is why I don't feel as strongly against A-Rod as I do against Bonds. I think that the reality of it is that while A-Rod cheated for a few years, he has at least come out and said, "Yeah, I screwed up." Bonds still insists that he did so cluelessly and I just can't buy that. I guess I've managed to discover my moral line ... cheating - okay; lying - not okay. Who knew?!

Wings Analysis and More

I've been slacking off again in my writing. First I let the weekend go by and didn't even bother to predict that Arizona would have their hinds handed to them by Carolina. Turns out it was better that I keep my mouth shut. I didn't offer any commentary on the BCS Championship Game last week either because really, it just would have been a rant about my belief that Utah deserved a shot at the title but can never get it in the current system. And no matter how flawed and archaic the college football championship system is, I've learned enough about it to know that it isn't going to change any time soon, so I might as well just start wishing that Michigan could hang on to their recruits and field a team that doesn't suck next year. Perhaps one that can sustain the competitive level that saw them take that undefeated Utah team down to the wire in the first game of the season.

What I'm finally back on here to talk about today though, is the Wings game last night. Detroit has been playing pretty well lately with that six game winning streak riding into last night. I was pleased to see that TSN2 picked up the Versus broadcast from Dallas and allowed me to watch on what would have been an otherwise eventless evening. So tune in I did, only to see that the Wings also decided that they would just watch for the evening, as the Stars threw almost 50 shots at Osgood! Despite Ozzy playing fantastic and Datsyuk trying to win the game all by himself (check out the three links below), the rest of the boys had about the worst defensive game I've seen them play this year (and that's saying something because there's been a few bad ones). When Steve Ott potted the tieing goal, I had a pretty strong sense that the Wings were not going to leave with that win streak intact. Sure enough, another defensive breakdown in OT and the puck was in the back of the net before you could blink.

Datsyuk setting up Holmstrom's goal

Datsyuk burning Niskanen and roofing it on Turco

And for good measure ... Datsyuk beating Nashville's Vokoun in a shootout a while back

What I find most curious coming out of the loss last night is Detroit's struggles in four-on-four situations this year. The commentators (who were absolutely terrible, btw ... no wonder nobody watches Versus) postulated that the Wings' talent is struggling with too much ice, because it negates some of the advantage they typically have using their skills in tight spaces. I suppose that's a possibility, but what I'm seeing is a lack of discipline and effort in those 4-on-4 situations. The defense are moving the puck up ice just a little bit slower, probably thinking they have more time, and it's taking away the speed advantage that the Wings have over a lot of opponents. Since Detroit is a puck possesion team, the slow exit from their own zone is causing their rythym to break down as they enter the offensive zone and the counterattacks are leaving one or two guys caught up ice. Last night in OT, the situation was compounded by Brad Stuart losing his stick and then having to use Dan Cleary's, which is about six inches shorter than his own. When Stuart failed on a clearing attempt with the short stick, the counterattack took about five seconds to wind up in the Detroit net and the game was over.

So Much Sports!

I've been MIA this week mostly because I've been avoiding spending time at a computer, but also because there's just so much going on! From the Winter Classic, to an endless stream of bowl games, to the upcoming NFL playoffs, to the World Junior Hockey tournament, it's been fun and exciting to stay in and watch sports!

Where to begin? How about with the World Junior game between Canada and the USA on new years eve? I managed to turn the game on with the US ahead 1-0 and just about to double their lead. A short time later they made it 3-0 and I thought the Canadians were cooked. But instead of tighten up their defense and move on to the semis, the American kids skated by the Canadian bench taunting them, giving Pat Quinn a rallying cry for the troops. What followed was the most exciting 20 minutes of hockey I recall seeing in a long time as Canada popped three quick ones to tie it, then took the lead with another just 37 seconds into the second period. After the US tied it up again, Canada managed a fifth goal before the middle of the second to lead 5-4. That lead would hold up the rest of the way until Tavares and Ennis added empty net goals in the final minute. The win sends Canada to the semifinals where they await the winner of tonight's Russia-Czech Republic game. Meanwhile, the US have just lost to the Slovaks in the other quarterfinal match. I was interested in watching the US goalie this week since he's property of the Red Wings. While you can't put too much weight on just a couple of games, he didn't look overly impressive against Canada and he gave up three goals on the first seven shots against the Slovaks. That certainly wasn't enough to help his team win or to get me excited about the prospect of seeing him in a Detroit jersey anytime soon.

In bowl game news, I haven't actually watched much, but was disappointed in watching another USC blowout in the Rose Bowl yesterday. It's hard to believe that was the same team that blew its season by losing to Oregon State back in October (the same OSU who beat Pitt 3-0 in a boring Sun Bowl). If USC hadn't had a remarkably terrible first half in Corvallis, they would have gotten through the season undefeated and looked like odds on favourites to win the championship. Instead, because of 30 bad minutes of play three months ago, they have no opportunity to be the national champs. I can certainly understand why Pete Carroll is becoming an advocate for a playoff. His teams seem to be the best every January, but blow one early each year. After that performance yesterday, I think they could beat Florida or Oklahoma who will face each other next Thursday.

The Winter Classic in Chicago yesterday morning was definitely a game worth getting up early for, despite the previous evening of too much wine. It was fun to watch Wrigley Field transformed into a hockey environment and to watch an up and coming Blackhawks team try to face down the Red Wings. After getting out to a quick 3-1 start though, the Hawks looked terribly overmatched as Detroit piled on with five straight goals, one of which was a beautiful rush between the defense by Datsyuk. In the few games I've gotten to watch this year, it was the first time Datsyuk looked to me like the unstoppable force he was through the playoffs last year. While I'm a little concerned about how laid back Detroit's play has been at times this year, when they've had to play big like in divisional games with Chicago, or the game against San Jose two weeks ago, they've stepped it up and been the better team on the ice each time. I just hope they continue to find that next level as the season winds down and they head into the playoffs in April.

Finally, the NFL playoffs begin this weekend with four games the will put the "wild" into Wild Card weekend. I don't think there has ever been a time when none of the home teams were favoured in this round of the playoffs, yet as I look through the matchups, I see all four home teams going down. Saturday will kick off with Atlanta going into Arizona where they should have no trouble beating a Cardinals team that just doesn't belong in the playoffs. The late game Saturday will be Peyton Manning and Co. trying to win in San Diego for the second time this year and I believe that he'll be successful. Sunday will begin with the Baltimore Ravens travelling to Miami and beating an overachieving Dolphins team. And Sunday will wrap up with the Eagles knocking off a Minnesota team who haven't even managed to sell enough tickets to avoid a local TV blackout. It seems that they're fans don't have a lot of hope of victory either!

Welcome to 2009! It's a fun time to be a sports fan.

Embarrassed by the Lions

I hate that I like the Lions. How can I not feel embarrassed about being a fan of this team? After they lose in Green Bay this week (and who are we kidding ... they will ... they haven't won there in 17 years), it's going to go down as the worst season any professional sports team has ever had. Winless. Not even competitive. They were outscored in eight games at home by 176 points. That breaks the NFL record by 30! They have the 30th ranked offense in yards, 27th ranked offense in points, and the 32nd ranked defense in both points and yards. That's 27th, 30th, and 32nd out of 32 teams in the four most important statistics to winning and losing. It's no wonder that the season has come to this.

But they're doing more than losing. They're doing it in a league that prides itself on parity. It's a league with a very restrictive salary cap designed to make sure that you can't end up with a "Yankees" type team buying up all the free agent talent. They're losing while teams with historically terrible management still manage to win three or four games a year (see: Raiders, Browns, Bengals).

And yet what do the fans get for their patronage? We get seven and a half years of being managed by Matt Millen. Under his guidance, the personnel department built a team that went 31-84 (a 0.270 winning percentage). Upon his firing, the Ford family, who own the team, promoted two guys from the management team that Millen had in place to act as co-GM's. And while they have can hardly take all the blame for this year because they couldn't make many personnel moves through the season, I hardly think that anyone from Millen's tenure should be given the benefit of the doubt and more time. But more time is exactly what they'll get as Ford announced this week that they'll be in place again next year.

I want to give up on them. I really do. I want to pick one of the exciting young teams out there like Atlanta or Baltimore with rookie QB's and rookie coaches and watch them rise up and get me excited. I want to stop caring about this hopeless waste of energy in Detroit. But I'm not a bandwagon jumper. I have to have some faith that with new ownership (see: Ford bankruptcy?), and top to bottom firings, and some time to evolve, I might get to cheer for a winner. After all, I was cheering for the Red Wings back in the '80's when they were the Dead Things, and look where that's gotten me now!

The Buzz in Hockeytown

Finally! I watched a Wings game and they won! It took a lot more than it should have playing against a Calgary team that only arrived in Detroit at 4 am though. Calgary came out a lot harder than Detroit and won almost all of the battles for the first period, taking a 2-0 lead. After the first frame though, the game was all Detroit and with the Wings still trailing 3-1 half way through the third, the defending champs managed to really pick it up a notch and take over. Two goals in four minutes tied it up and Lidstrom managed to bury the winner in OT. As well as Detroit played in the second and, especially, the third periods, they need to do that from the opening faceoff a little more often to avoid giving up three every game. In net at the other end, it was Curtis McElhinney getting a rare start and absolutely standing on his head on a night where Detroit could have gotten 6 or 7 with all of the quality chances they had.

One last comment about the hockey game last night ... the refs did a decent job, but there were three penalties that follow a pattern I've been disturbed by this season. I realize that the league wants to open up the offense and eliminate the clutching and grabbing. However, there has been a rash of hooking, holding, and interference penalties that I think go too far. Rather than use judgment as to whether or not the player was inhibited from being able to make a play, the refs have been instructed to just call it as soon as a stick touches an opponent above waist level. Calgary got called for a phantom hold in the first period and Detroit was called for phantom hooks in the first and second. I know that by the rule book they were all the right calls. I just have visions of important games getting decided by power play goals on penalties that were really marginal in the level of interference run.

Onwards to tonight's New Orleans - Chicago game at Soldier Field. The weather is supposed to be cold and a bit breezy, but without snow or anything too severe. While I would imagine that the Saints will struggle a bit in the elements, and because they have gone win one, lose one most of the year, I don't trust the Bears to defeat any strong opponents. Chicago had a couple of strong wins in the early going against Indy and Philly, but that was before either of those teams started playing well. Since their bye week, the Bears only wins have been against the real weaklings of the league in Detroit, St. Louis and Jacksonville. So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Drew Brees will do enough to get New Orleans a couple of TD's and the Saints will win a tight one.

Tune in tomorrow for the rest of my picks for the weekend!

NFL Week 14

Hard to say what's wrong with the Red Wings defensively these days. But beating the Canucks 6-5 last night brought me back to the early 90's days where Detroit would win wild shootouts all season long and then bow out quickly in the playoffs when every team tightens up and scores come down. This team is fundamentally unchanged from last season though, so hopefully they can pull themselves together and stop giving up so many. At least for now they've got the firepower to hang in while they get things fixed.

Now, on to the weekend to come. While college football has Championship weekend in the SEC and Big 12 to figure out who's going to play for the National Championship, pundits will continue to spout off about what a farce the BCS is and why we still can't get a playoff. But the facts remain, the BCS is run by conferences with their own financial interests in mind, and the current BCS does a better job of distributing the millions than a playoff would. Good luck convincing them to change their minds on multi-million dollar payouts every year!

While I didn't manage to post my pick for last night's game, I see that San Diego very expectedly put a beatdown on the Raiders. Everyone put your hand up if you didn't see that coming. No hands? Okay. We'll move on then.

Bears over Jaguars - What a colossal disappointment Jacksonville has been this year. I watched that Monday night game start to finish and they were just dreadful in every aspect.

Vikings over Lions - this is the only hope to avoid 0-16 really. It's entirely possible that the Leos could pull the upset, but I don't see it. Detroit got gashed by the Titans running game badly last week. Does anyone really think they'll do better against A. Pete, the best back in the league?

Packers over Texans - While Houston looked pretty good Monday night, they don't travel very well and I especially don't hold much hope for them travelling to the frozen tundra on a short week.

Titans over Browns - Tennessee really has had a pretty easy schedule, haven't they? They've only had to play four teams that are above .500 and they'll only have two more the rest of the way. That means they got nearly a third of their season against garbage teams with no playoff hopes. I'm not convinced that they're going to be prepared for football in January.

Colts over Bengals - With the Bengals, Lions, and Jags on the schedule, Indy is going to go from a 3-4 start to their last game against Tennessee at 11-4. That's an impressive run and should make them a scary wild card team to face in the first round of the playoffs!

Falcons over Saints - sounds like the Saints might not lose a bunch of guys to suspension with the legal battle ensuing, but since they can't seem to play with any consistency, I think Matt Ryan will do enough to keep Atlanta's playoff hopes alive.

Giants over Eagles - NY will battle hard to show that all this Plax mess isn't going to distract them. With the best offensive and defensive lines, I think they'll have no trouble. Besides, McNabb isn't going to put up great numbers against the G-Men the way he did against the Cardinals wobbly defense.

Ravens over Redskins - Washington seems to be sliding backwards lately and is going to leave a disappointed fan base after appearing to be a competitor at the start of the season. Baltimore is really starting to roll as they open up the playbook for Flacco.

Dolphins over Bills - How's this for good fortune? Instead of going to freezing cold, windy, probably snowy Buffalo for their road game, Miami gets to travel to Toronto for a game inside the cozy Skydome, er - Roger's Centre.

Broncos over Chiefs - Would the real Denver Broncos please stand up? Which team will it be this weekend? They lost to the Raiders, so it's entirely possible that they could lose this one. But I don't they'll get caught napping again.

Jets over 49ers - New York got humbled at home last week in a game they never should have lost. Now they've got a tough cross country trip to make. It's their good fortune, though, that they only have to face the Niners. And even though San Francisco is playing better these days, it shouldn't be enough to knock off a Jets team that needs to bounce back.

Cardinals over Rams - speaking of playoff teams who haven't really beaten anyone (see: Titans, above), the Cards are going to roll into January and we'll all be totally clueless as to whether they have any chance to win a playoff game. They're just fortunate to play in the crappy NFC West, where one more win will lock up the division title.

Steelers over Cowboys - this should be the best game of Sunday. Pittsburgh is riding high after destroying the Pats and the Cowboys are picking up after a mid-season slump with guys returning from injuries. The pick here is a bit of a toss-up, but the way the Steelers played last week and with this one being played in the Ketchup Bottle, I've got to go with Pittsburgh.

Patriots over Seahawks - New England is lucky to face a bad Seattle team to try to bounce back from that loss to the Steelers. They'll be in tougher than they might think though against the Seahawks at home. Hasselbeck is getting back into the groove and this one should at least be competitive.

Bucs over Panthers - Despite a 9-3 record, I still don't have a lot of faith in Carolina. I think that Tampa is just the better team here and I look for them to prove it and take a huge step towards the division title Monday night.

NFL Week 11 and NHL Conspiracy Theories

It was a fantastic game last night, even if my pick turned out wrong. Favre took care of the ball better than I said he would. Belichick's boys got completely outschemed on defense and couldn't come up with key stops when the Jets stopped playing not to lose and started playing to win in the fourth quarter and OT. And despite last minute heroics from Cassel and finally a big play from Moss, New England simply made too many costly mistakes (dropped balls, dumb penalties, gave up kickoff return for TD) to come away with a W. I think both of these teams have some fundamental flaws on defense right now, but they're operating awfully well on the other side of the ball. With both teams having some very winable games down the stretch, a repeat of last night in the playoffs could be something to look forward to!

And now for the rest of my thoughts on the games this weekend. I feel like there are a lot of pretty straightforward picks, so I'm probably going to get trounced by upsets. But here we go anyways ...

Falcons over Broncos - Every week I wait for Matt Ryan and this young Falcons team to crash back to earth and every week they prove me wrong. I'll take them and hope for the best against a very flawed Broncos team.

Eagles over Bengals - The Bengals have lost coming out of their bye seemingly every year for the last decade. Philly played a close one against the Giants last week and is without question the better team here. They should win easily.

Bears over Packers - The QB situation in Chicago is still a question mark this week, but Green Bay just played so terribly against Minnesota last week that I can't overlook it. They should be well motivated here, but I like the Bears to get a boost out of having hung so tough against the unbeaten Titans last Sunday. Bears in a close one.

Colts over Texans - Peyton is finally in a groove and Houston can't seem to win on the road, so this pick doesn't seem too hard. Indy has tended to make life difficult this year though and they didn't deserve to win the first matchup between the two this year. It could be close, but I can't go against Peyton at home.

Saints over Chiefs - I really want to pick KC here. New Orleans has been completely unpredictable with Brees putting up passing records but still failing to win and the Chiefs have been right in their last couple of games with chances to win in the final moments. But still, it's the 1-8 Chiefs and I can't overlook the fact that they just can't seem to get it done.

Dolphins over Raiders - How did Oakland get two wins this year? And Detroit can't get one? Bizarre ... too bad Oakland isn't on the Lions' schedule. Give this one to Miami in a walk.

Giants over Ravens - Just like with the Falcons and Matt Ryan, I keep waiting for reality to set in for the rookie QB - rookie coach tandem in Baltimore. Yet every week they show up and do enough to win with the defense playing exceptionally. I think they might meet their match this week though with NY forcing a turnover or two that will change the game.

Steelers over Chargers - I never would have believed that San Diego would struggle so badly to be a .500 team this year. What's even harder to believe is that it's very conceivable for both them and Denver to enter week 17 against each other at 7-8, playing for the division title and a playoff berth. That's one sad division.

49ers over Rams - Mike Singletary gets his first win here! The Rams continue to suck. Nobody cares. Let's move on.

Seahawks over Cardinals - Yes, I know. This pick is asking for trouble. 2-7 to beat 6-3 you ask? Yup. Seattle would have won last week with a moderately adequate performance from the QB and this week they get Hasselbeck back from injury. And Arizona? They had no right winning that game on Monday and wouldn't have if SF wasn't completely inept in managing the clock. I'm calling for the upset because it's up here in the rainy northwest.

Bucs over Vikings - Tampa is going to have to find some way to slow down Adrian Peterson here. If they can, I don't give any chance to Gus Frerotte to beat them on his own. It occurs to me that I'd like to pick the NFC North to lose every game, but I can't since the Bears and Packers are playing each other.

Redskins over Cowboys - Even if Romo can go, his throws can't possibly have everything on them with the still not completely recovered busted finger. Dallas' leaky offensive line won't give him a lot time to shake the rust off either.

Panthers over Lions - unfortunately for Detroit, they come up against another team who played a lousy game last Sunday and should be out for redemption. Moving to 0-10, the Lions will further enhance their position as the laughingstock of the league.

Titans over Jaguars - After facing the Bengals and the Lions, Jacksonville cannot possibly be prepared to face a team as strong as Tennessee this week. The Jags are struggling to run the ball and the Titans aren't going to make things any easier for them. Obviously it's tough to remain undefeated, but I have a hard time calling for the upset here.

Bills over Browns - This could be a real stinker of a Monday Night game. Buffalo will look for some redemption after losing to their entire division and Cleveland has given up 71 points in the last two weeks. I think Buffalo will get back on track, and with upcoming games against the Chiefs and Niners, that could mean 8-4 going into the last four weeks.

One final note for this post is that the Red Wings got back to winning last night with a 4-3 victory in Tampa. It's good to see them win, but it's upsetting to see them give up another three goals again. Of interest to me though, were the comments from a few of the guys after Tuesday's loss that the league seems to be giving 5 on 3 advantages to a team that goes down by three goals at every opportunity this year. Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory and I don't buy into them much, but those sure were two ticky-tack calls half way through the third period and it didn't get paid back when Staal put the same kind of hook on Datsyuk in OT. Not saying it was all the refs fault, but the zebras sure didn't hurt Pittsburgh's chances to win.

Wings - Pens, the Rematch

It was a crazy hockey game in Detroit tonight. While the first 45 minutes of play were almost all dominated by Detroit, two chintzy penalty calls in a span of 6 seconds completely turned the tide. Pittsburgh scored on the 5 on 3 and then popped a bunch more when all of the momentum went their way. Finally, with the net empty, and eerily similar to game 5 of last year's finals, Staal netted another one to tie it up and send it to OT. Half way through overtime, Datsyuk turned the puck over (after Staal gave him a little uncalled hook) and the Pens scored again on the break the other way.

I would love to blame the refs for turning the momentum with two bad calls and then missing the one in OT, but no amount of bad calls should have resulted in the Wings giving up five goals in less than fifteen minutes of play. That performance was absolutely pathetic and had better act as a wake up call as they start another tough road trip. I trust Babcock to ride the guys for this one. It was a bad loss.

Pretty Solid Picks!

11 out of 13 wasn't too bad for the weekend, and if the refs hadn't screwed up the illegal forward pass call that went against the Packers for a safety yesterday, I'd have had 12 out 13! That's two pretty good weeks in a row now. Perhaps I'm starting to get a handle on how these games are going to play out. Or maybe I just got lucky.

Tonight's game shouldn't exactly be a monumental event with an average Arizona team playing a crappy San Francisco team. So I move my attention to tomorrow's Stanley Cup rematch with Detroit hosting the Penguins. Obviously it's a new season and at this early stage, it's difficult to draw many conclusions, but both teams seem to be playing well and poised for another deep run. The game should be another exciting one between the two. Hopefully the Red Wings can continue to give the city a bit of hope in the doom and gloom that otherwise surrounds it.

Weekend Fun

Another interesting weekend in sports, wrapped up with a great hockey game here in Van City last night.

I'll begin with the Lions, who after the Bengals win are now the only winless team in the NFL. After last year's 6-2 opening half of the season, Detroit is now 1-15 in their last 16 games with the only win being against fellow doormat Kansas City in a meaningless late December game. Detroit was marginally better this week and kept it close, as I predicted, with a big 23 point second quarter. Unfortunately, those were their only points and not enough to support such a lousy defense. There's a chance for that first win this coming week though as Detroit faces the Jacksonville team who just gave Cincinatti their first win of the year. however, if I were a betting man I would guess that the Cincy loss will act as a wake up call for the Jags and they'll take Detroit a lot more seriously than they may have otherwise.

As for the rest of my NFL picks, tonight's game finally gives me a shot at double digit correct picks for just the second time all season. I'm a little worried though. You'll recall that I picked the Skins. While I'd like to be right, I'm afraid of the political outcome that that result might bring. You see, Washington's final home game prior to an election has almost perfect correlation with predicting the outcome of the election. If the Skins win, the incumbent party wins. If the Skins lose, the incumbent party loses. This predictor is 17-1 all time. Clearly, the Obama faithful will be cheering for the Steelers tonight.

Finally, the Red Wings finished off their road trip with a solid victory here in Vancouver last night. Special teams did the trick with the Wings cashing in on the PP three times and killing off all seven penalties that they took. While I'm pleased with the win, especially against the local guys, I wasn't terribly impressed with their play last night. The seven penalty kills were too many by far and it meant that Osgood had to have one of his best games of the year for Detroit. There were brief flashes where Detroit looked dominant, but Vancouver played them tougher than I would have liked to see. That said, the Wings came out of a really tough West Coast road trip, with five games in just over a week, and went 3-1-1 for 7 out of 10 possible points. A few days off will do them some good now before hosting the Devils (possibly without Brodeur) and then a Stanley Cup Final rematch next Tuesday.

Sad Sack Lions

Apparently, I'm not the only one thinking about the ignominy of 0-16 this year. Don Banks is grateful that among all of the parity and unpredictability in the NFL these days, the one thing we can count on is the Lions total ineptitude. Check it out in this article.

At least Detroit has the Red Wings to cheer for.

Slackers

It was a pretty pathetic performance put in by the Red Wings last night. Uncharacteristic giveaways time after time ultimately cost them the Leafs' third goal, but the turnovers did a lot more to derail Detroit's offense than anything else. They didn't win the battles for the puck and they got outskated.

Hopefully they will learn from last night's game that having a lot more talent than the other guys isn't going to be enough this year. The work ethic has to be there too. Win the races. Battle like they did in the playoffs last year. And take advantage of opportunities. That's what it's going to take.

On the other side of the game last night, I think the Leafs are going to be able to hang around in more games than anyone expects. Ron Wilson has them playing hard and buying into the system. The trap is going to make them horribly boring to watch all year, but if Wilson can keep their effort levels up, they might have some hope at seeing the playoffs again.

Raising the Banner

Big night in Detroit tonight. Put on your jersey and break out the wing nut

Tonight we celebrate this ...

By beating up on this ...

Can't wait to check it out! LET'S GO RED WINGS!!!!!

Random Musings of a Lions Fan

At least there's one Lions team that can go out and win football games. The BC Lions are on a roll these days. After a pathetic start, they've rattled off four straight wins to climb into second place in the Western Conference with just five games to play, two of which are against a below-500 Argos team and two more against Edmonton who they've split the season series with so far.

In a nice change in the NFL this past week, the Detroit Lions also managed not to lose. Of course, the only way they managed that was to not play. From here on out, I don't see anyone on their schedule who shouldn't be favoured to beat them. Rest assured though, one of these weeks they'll come out and play a remarkably strong game and make everyone wonder why they haven't been able to win all year. The Bucs perfect season from 1976 (who can forget their 0-14 record?) will not be in jeopardy ... do you think they'll celebrate like the '72 Dolphins?

With the Leos on the sidelines this weekend, it turned out to be a tough slate of games to pick. Raise your hands all those who had the Chiefs winning a game. Chirping crickets ... it's all I hear. Skins over the Cowboys? Anyone? What about Bears over the Eagles? No one, eh? Oh well ... I'd like to thing that this coming week will make things easier, but as I look at the week 5 score board I grow timid ...

Skins at Philly - is Washington as good as they looked against Dallas?
Falcons at Green Bay - how bad is that shoulder of Aaron Rodgers'?
Titans at Ravens - both giving up nothing on D ... will either be able to score?

It just keeps going on. I think there's about 7 games that I'm tossing a coin on and I'm sure that won't work out well for me.

In brighter news, the NHL preseason has kicked into full swing and we're less than a week away from the regular season starting up. I'm looking forward to seeing the Wings try to defend their territory this year and to seeing how they hold up as a favourite when the favourites seem to collapse like a flan in the cupboard every year. The MLB playoffs are also set to begin, though we need an extra game this evening to decide who will win the AL Central since the Tigers stunk it up in their bid to eliminate the White Sox yesterday. It figures, of course, that the Tigers would finish dead last in the season when everyone picked them to win the World Series. I'm nto bitter about that at all. Of course, it could be worse ... I could be a Mets fan!

That was an interesting three weeks!

It's been a very long time since I've chimed in here. I've been busy with real life getting in the way. And mostly I've been lazy when I've actually had time. But I certainly haven't stopped paying attention to all of the amazing things that have happened in the sports world over the last three weeks.

I didn't get down my thoughts when the Red Wings finally clinched the Cup in game 6. I was too busy celebrating! The Wings should be proud of the way they bounced back from the triple overtime loss in game five and, despite everyone saying their "old" legs wouldn't bounce back as quickly as the Pens, they went into Pittsburgh and played a dominant game to put the finishing touches on a masterful season. Aside from those hectic final two minutes, Detroit was thoroughly the better team and a deserving champion. It's scary to see how much talent they've got coming back next year and it's going to be fun watching some of the young guys develop further. As for Pittsburgh, I'm not sure that they're going to be back as soon as everyone thinks. It looks like Shero is going to struggle to keep that team intact, so he's going to have some work to do to make sure the supporting cast is solid enough to make them more than a one-line team in the years to come. They should hold hope though in that as Crosby and Malkin develop further, they'll start being able to take more penalty kill and defensive time that will make them the complete players that Datsyuk and Zetterberg showed themselves to be for Detroit.

The NBA finals happened too ... but that pretty much sucked. The most interesting thing during the finals was the assertion by disgraced ref Tim Donaghy that the league has conspired with the refs for years to fix games and extend series. I would normally laugh off a conspiracy theory like this one (especially when the ref has been found criminally guilty of gambling and fixing games), but this one sticks a little bit better since people have been questioning the reputation of the NBA for years. The refereeing during the 2002 series that Donaghy specifically referenced in his accusation has been called some of the worst in the history of the league ... maybe there's something to this story!

The US Open was a much more thrilling event than the NBA finals at least. All of the old Maple Leafs fans still clinging to Bobby Baun winning the Stanley Cup on a broken leg (it was just a hairline crack in the ankle ... and his goal wasn't even in game 7) can now look at a new hero. Tiger, playing on a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his tibia managed to still lap the field except for Rocco. Mediate put up an incredible fight and hung in better than anyone could have ever expected him to, but Woods was simply too much. The guy just has an uncanny ability to find a way, any way, to get the ball in the hole when he absolutely has to. How did he make the 80 footer for eagle on 13 on Saturday? Or the 40 footer for eagle on 18 that same day? Or that final putt on Sunday? And then again to birdie 18 when he had to in the playoff and hang on long enough for Rocco to finally make a mistake. It was just an amazing performance that was made even more incredible when we found out how badly injured he really is. I'm not suggesting that he made the right decision to play through his leg problems (in fact, I think it was a mistake), but it sure made for good theater!

And speaking of amazing Tigers, how about those fellas from Detroit?! Winners of 12 of their last 14 games! I'm not going to suggest yet that they can climb all the way back in this, but looking forward at the rest of the season all they have to do is average wins in 2 out of each 3 games to get to 95 wins. 95 wins usually gets them in the playoffs and with the hitting they have (they've started to not suck at the plate any more) and the pitching staff figuring out how to limit the damage each game (giving up less than 3.5 runs per game during this stretch), this team offers some hope to live up to the expectations that everyone had at the start of the year!

Unfortunately, the sports world is now pretty quiet for a while. The summer will bring a few interesting golf tournaments, but without Tiger I think I might be the only one watching. Training camps for football are still a little more than a month away. The middle of the baseball season? Well, one game sort of runs into the next when they play so many. I think it might finally be time for me to break out some posts about the sports that no one follows. There will be posts about triathlon (perhaps a recap soon of the World Championships and later this summer, some talk about Ironman Canada) and in seven weeks, I'll certainly get into the Olympics! Look out for Greco Roman Wrestling! (not really ... even I don't know anything about GRW)

The one that got away

There was Hank, skating up ice with about 45 seconds left, empty net at the end. Instead of making the smart play and just dumping it down though, he tried to get cute for a chance at the sealing goal. Unfortunately, that led to a giveaway, which led to the puck in Detroit's end, which led to a second giveaway by Franzen and the puck was in the back of the net. Bring on the OT.

But it never should have gotten that far. Detroit was so dominant for the greater portion of this game that Pittsburgh didn't deserve to be in it with 35 seconds left. Add to that the Penguins getting an awful lot of help from the refs throughout the game and you have to start questioning how much impact all of Michelle Theriens whining early in the series has paid off for them. I'm not going to argue with the penalty that finally decided it because there wasn't really anything the refs could do when Hudler got reckless with his stick. However, Pittsburgh got away with murder all night and I still can't believe that the Pens weren't called for too many men on the ice in the second period when their sixth skater jumped on the ice and played the puck right in front of the ref. I'm generally fairly calm and rational, but sitting in my living room watching the game last night I found myself yelling a profanity laced sentence that threatened the hunting down of and physical violence against the ref after the second goalie interference call in OT. It's just dreadful to watch the refs have the opportunity to effect the outcome the way they did, even if the winning goal wasn't scored on the bad calls. The last straw of course, was that on the winning goal, the puck was bouncing out to the Wings penalty killer until it hit the ref in the ass and bounced back to Malkin so that he could set up the goal. It was like I told the Pants after the second goal was a clearing attempt that just hit Hall's skate, then the crossbar and still managed to go in ... sometimes when it bounces this way, you just know it's not your night.

One final mistake by all of the folks on TV and at the arena ... when they selected the stars of the game, Fleury shouldn't have just been the number one star. He should have gotten all three. Without him, Pittsburgh loses that game 5 or 6 to 2 and all of Detroit is celebrating this morning. Instead, they're heading back to Pittsburgh for game six where Detroit can make that prediction of mine come true. Wings in six. I still believe.