Maggie the Monkey went 3-1 in the 2nd round, only getting the Ottawa over Sabres pick wrong and leads all the TSN experts throughout the playoffs (7-5). For the conference championship round, Maggie takes Carolina and Edmonton. So far so good for Edmonton but the Carolina pick might be in trouble.
Good luck, Maggie. We got $5 on you.
Links:
[TSN.ca]: Monkey Business 2006
1st horseman of the sportspocalypse: Red Sox win the World Series. 2nd horseman: White Sox win the World Series. Now the WNBA is drawing more viewers than the NHL. ESPN is reporting that more people watched the WNBA on ESPN2 last year than the NHL on OLN this year. When the United States wins the World Cup, it will be the end of sports days.
We have to point out two things. First, OLN has a much lower subscriber base (21 million less) than ESPN as well as lack of ratings for other programming to shove the WNBA down our throats…er.. promote other shows. As a matter of fact, when ESPN had hockey, they drew 300,000 more viewers on average. (416,000 vs 117,000.)
Second, hockey has always been an in-person draw. Hockey fans understand that the game is much better on ice than on TV, as opposed to football. The average attendance at NHL games was double that of the WNBA (17,000 vs 8,500), setting a record for attendance.
Let’s not forget that ESPN has a vested interest in justifying their decision to drop the NHL by pointing out the mediocre ratings of hockey on OLN and NBC. NBC has countered that ratings are “in the ballpark” of what they expected and they will be profitable in year 1 of the deal. It’s a shame when these kind of statistics come out. When the casual fan sees these stories, they will think, “I guess the NHL is boring now… I’ll watch another rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond.” And that is how we lost Arrested Development.
Links:
[ESPN]: Great hockey, yes, but is anyone watching?
Welcome to another episode of the Sportscolumn podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) or you want to suggest a topic, drop me a line at [email protected].
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Listen up Sharks fans. It’s not OK to boo the Canadian national anthem. What are you, a bunch of rednecks? What exactly has Canada ever done that deserves booing? Sure, they unleashed Celine Dion on the world but they make up for that by giving us good hockey players, good beer, and Rush.
You should be booing either Joe Thornton or the post…clang. Let’s recap. It’s game 4 and the Sharks are up 3-1. On a shorthanded attempt, Thornton hits the post. An inch (or a couple centimeters for you Canadians) lower and the game is 4-1 and the Sharks go home up 3-1 in the series in position to wrap it up. Instead, the Oilers score the next 5 goals and tie up the series. Maybe that’s why you were so angry Sunday night. But enough of a trip down memory lane.
So now, in a pivotal game 5, the usually good fans at the Shark Tank decide to boo the Canadian national anthem. Not exactly smart with 10 of your players being from Canada. The Sharks go on to lose the game in the third period with stupidity and misplaced agression. Kinda like the hometown fans. Karma is a bitch.
Links:
[San Jose Mercury News]: Canadian anthem booed; players upset
Welcome to another episode of the Sportscolumn podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) or you want to suggest a topic, drop me a line at [email protected].
You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 35 mins) or subscribe to the feed.
If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care of the rest.
This week’s topics include:
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Maggie the Monkey didn’t do too well in the first round of the NHL playoffs but since all of the top seeds in the Western conference were upended, neither did anyone else. With a respectable 4-4 showing (only 1 out of first place), Maggie is back for the second round. Frankly, with the way the NHL playoffs have gone, you could paint rats with team colors and race em for your predictions. Oh right, every team in the Eastern conference wears black, red and white. Well, you get the idea.
Anyway… in round 2, Maggie picks:
Ottawa over Buffalo
Carolina over New Jersey
Edmonton over San Jose
Anaheim over Colorado
Frankly, those aren’t bad. We would’ve taken NJ over Carolina and San Jose over Edmonton. But then again, we picked the Red Wings to win it all. Ooops.
Links:
[TSN.ca]: Monkey Business 2006
The last of the top rated western conference seeds went down yesterday as the Ducks dropped the Flames 3-0 in Calgary. Watching the game on OLN, the Pengrowth Saddledome (what an awkward name) was dead silent when Salei scored to make it 2-0. Flames fans knew that a comeback was highly unlikely they way Ducks goaltender Bryzgalov was playing.
At the end of the game, they showed a Flames fan offering congratulations to a Ducks fan in the stands. Dare we say that if this was Philly, that would never have happened, unless the handshake was a ploy to drag the opposing fan closer for a punch in the face. We were rooting hard for the Flames too. Not because we have an interest in the club, but we imagine that a run through the Stanley Cup playoffs would have brought us more pictures like these. Ahhh… missed opportunities.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, the Pistons felt they had had enough of the Bucks and blew them out to clinch their series. With the other series going 6 or 7 games, the Pistons will get some rest as they await their next opponent.
First, let’s talk about the Canadiens. They came out and gave the #2 seed quite a scare by beating them twice on the Carolina home ice. But ultimately, Carolina righted their ship and won the next four to send the Habs packing. Good season, Canadiens, no shame in losing to the Huricanes.
Next, we have the Flyers. A team that came out and showed no heart whatsoever in a home elimination game. After being down 5-0, they ultimately whimpered into the summer with a 7-1 defeat.
Like clockwork, the Flyers fold in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And, like clockwork, Flyers fans melt down about it. Here are some of the best quotes from Flyersphans.com. Not for the easily offended.
bryboy7:”If anyone ever sees Petr Nedved in person………Kick him in the balls. As hard as you can. Just to see if he has any.”
Luzinski’s Gut: “Bunch of f*cking ****** ass ***** c*cksuckers. Dead men have more heart than these mouthbreathing sh*tf*cks.”
nitz: “They should have come out in short skirts and fishnets, because they’ve played like a buch of bit**es.”
nitz: “F**k this team. I’m going to go downloading porn. If I want to see someone get f***ed, I at least want it to be sexy.”
Man, we love meltdowns.
Welcome to another episode of the Sportscolumn podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) or you want to suggest a topic, drop us a line at [email protected].
You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 42 mins) or subscribe to the feed.
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Memphis Grizzlies: The poor Grizzlies. They have a superstar that’s not really marketable. They are survivors from a terrible situation in Vancouver. And they still haven’t won a playoff game in 12 tries. This is the third straight sweep. This time at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks. Just think, if they’d have lost that (now meaningful) last game against the Clippers, they would’ve gotten the Nuggets who were soft as can be.
Denver Nuggets: Speaking of the Nuggets, they didn’t put up any resistence in the elimination game last night. After averaging slightly over 100 points in the regular season, the Nugs averaged only 87 points against the Clippers. Meanwhile, Carmello Anthony’s scoring average dropped 5.5 points from the regular season to the playoffs. Way to step it up in crunch time, Melo. Oh, and don’t even mention Kenyon Martin.
Congratulations to the Clippers, who ended a 30 year playoff drought to advance to the second round.
Detroit Red Wings: Finally, we have the Red Wings. The #1 seed in the Western Conference. (That’s NHL if you aren’t paying attention.) So how did they lose to the Edmonton Oilers, a team that they beat in the standings by 29 points! The Red Wings gave up 4 goals and blew 2 leads in the third period. This Detroit fan is pretty calm considering what happened to his team. While this guy takes it in stride because they wouldn’t have beaten Calgary or New Jersey anyway. Interesting way to look at it. But it doesn’t take away the shame of losing to an 8 seed.
Congratulations to the Oilers and their fans. It was a surreal sight at the Rexall Center last night and we always pull for the underdogs.