Tag: NHL

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NHL General

Odds and Ends: Overtime hockey bumped by horse interviews



Glass completely empty

Everyone sort of agrees that even if you don’t like hockey very much that playoff hockey is exciting as hell. And overtime playoff hockey is basically the tits and/or ass. So how could it be possible that NBC decided to dump their hockey coverage of the Sabres/Senators in overtime to go to their coverage of the Preakness two hours before the actual race?

This makes absolutely no sense to us and we think it’s a travesty that the NHL has so little pull/cache that interviewing a bunch of rich jackasses about their horses takes precedence over an exciting sport where there are actual athletes.

In other news…

[Sports By Brooks]: If Reggie Bush loses out to this guy, the world might explode

[BBC Sports]: Soccer manager hired on Thursday, fired on Monday.

[The Offside]: These fans need some tutelage from Eagles fans — their aim is terrible

[Basketbawful]: Uhh… why is this news?

[Miami Herald]: Catching eggs makes more sense than catching bricks

And finally, a really fascinating look at how the NBA Draft became a lottery.

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NHL General

Wednesday Morning NHL Roundup



And you thought that Steve Nash took a nasty
check!

Red Wings 5, Ducks 0
The postseason in both sports currently experiencing it can get many titles – “Not that interesting” and “Lacking Individual Stars” come to mind – but here’s one I’d like to go with: “Men Behaving Badly.”

Nary a night after Robert Horry made Suns vs. Spurs Game 4 look like a hockey game, Chris Pronger whips out a nasty hit in the middle of Anaheim just getting laughed off their own ice in Game 3. Now the Wings are up 2-1, Pronger could get some type of disciplinary action, and here’s the aftermath for you, dear fan: out of all the potentially interesting Cup Finals Matchups – say, Buffalo vs. Detroit (Hasek), or Anaheim vs. Buffalo (two really good teams) – we’re likely going to get Ottawa vs. Detroit.

Now, I have no problem with this, per se: Ottawa’s first line is redonkeyballs, and there’s some good storylines there within. But, can the brothers on the ice and the hardwood just start being civil so that we can play these games full strength and see who really deserves a shot to lift the hardware? I hate tainted outcomes, unless I’m the one that cheated and did so successfully. But that was once – third grade dodgeball – and never again.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

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Ottawa Senators

Another stupid song takes a city by storm

Every time the playoffs come rolling around in any sport, it can only mean one thing: it’s time for some opportunistic musician to exploit the occasion by making a crummy song about some team that attempts to unify a city’s dreams. In Ottawa that opportunistic musician is local rapper Belly and that crummy song is cleverly entitled “Go Sens Go.”

I’m a Sens fan like everybody else,” Belly says. “I just wanted to get the team hyped every time they got out on the ice.

We don’t know if the song is actually hyping up the players necessarily since it has only been played inside the arena once, which was during Monday night’s win in Ottawa that gave the team a 3-0 lead in the East finals, but it certainly appears to be mesmerizing the locals. Since debuting the song last Thursday, as many as 50 calls per hour have been flooding the Hot 89.9 station. So, without further ado, we give to you “Go Sens Go;” crappy voiceover by Ray Emery at the beginning and all.

Did we just see Snoop sporting a Senators jersey? Damn, talk about a jumping on the bandwagon! Last month Snoopy was rooting for the Ducks and now this. And what ever happened to being purple and gold through and through? This guy jumped on The City’s postseason wagon as well. What’s next? Are we going to start seeing The Dogfather in the stands in Salt Lake City during the West finals?

Links:

[Canada.com]: Rapper psyched for Sens

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends: Maybe OJ was just looking for the real killer?


Jeff Ruby, the owner of an upscale steakhouse in Louisville, KY told OJ Simpson that he was not going to serve him and that he should leave. According to Ruby, Simpson said he understood and gathered up his dinner party and left.

However, the story doesn’t stop there. Simpson’s attorney said the incident was about race and he wanted to pursue the matter and get the restuarant’s liquor license revoked. Wait a second here. We’re pretty sure that this isn’t like the Barry Bonds poll, everybody thinks Simpson did it. Ruby said he’s gotten about a hundred positive emails regarding the incident.

In other news…

[KDSK]: Chicago Bears are the Super Bowl Champs in Africa

[FireBettman.com]: Apparently, some people aren’t happy about NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s performance

[Indy Star]: Shocker: Greg Oden selects Mike Conley Sr as his agent

[Denver ost]: Freddy Adu, the Next in soccer is making more headlines in golf

[The Big Lead]: Gia Allemand hits Maxim

[WBRS Sports]: Isn’t denying him sex for the playoffs an incentive for Tony Parker to throw games?

And finally, we weren’t sure whether to jump on this blogger celebrity but… what the hell, she’s 18. Picture of high school pole vaulter hottie after the jump.

Continue reading “Odds and Ends: Maybe OJ was just looking for the real killer?”

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NHL General

Monday Morning NHL Roundup


Sabres 5, Rangers 4
First, because – in the words of Fiddy – this is “how I do,” here’s a personal anecdote from this game: I had just played a spirited contest of touch football, and after said game, I had returned to the same house at which I imbibed on Cinco De Mayo. We still had a large quantity of beer and some meats to grill, so we got all tossed up on a Sunday afternoon for no reason. The boyfriend of the hostess, an amiable young Rangers fan, kept departing for long stretches of time. Finally, as the event was nearing its conclusion anyway, he came outside to the back – where I was polishing off my fourth Harpoon – and said, “Yo, last 2 minutes. Come check this out.”

Sure enough, the Rangers were down 1 at The Garden – the same place where so much magic has happened, and yet, so much defeat has been wrought – and across the final 2 minutes, they got about 9 looks at Ryan Miller. The problem was, none of the looks was actually legitimate; he stoned them on every ill-conceived shot along the way. However, with about five seconds left – as my friend’s boyfriend screamed “This is it, gentleman! This is your season!” – Miller was sweating profusely, reminding me of Game 7 of the Eastern Finals last year.

Speaking of the Eastern Finals, this year’s edition has a chance to be the series that “saves hockey,” in much the same way that De La Hoya vs. Mayweather was supposed to “save boxing,” or this past weekend’s Nationals vs. Cubs series could have “saved Washington, DC sports.” Uh, scratch that last one. The Senators and Sabres friggin’ hate each other. This series will go seven – mark my words – and there’s a good chance Chris Drury, the Golden Boy of the entire thing, may not make it through unscathed. These two teams had the most epic NHL brawl of the past five years in February of this season, and Lindy Ruff – who is certifiably insane – has delivered so much venom at the Senators in post-game pressers over the years, you’d think a holy war was about to break out. Also, the fact that it’s two cities a geography major might not be able to explain the relevance of makes it even more interesting; it’s literally a battle for redemption, and there’s gonna be a lot of red on that ice.

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NHL General

Friday Morning NHL Roundup


Ducks 2, Canucks 1
In the irony of all ironies to end this one, a team that was based on a brother duo – the Sedins – for most of the season (hell, the Sedins ended that 4OT game in the Dallas series) gets run out of the playoffs for good by another, less-heralded-overall brother duo. Rob Niedermayer deflected a puck in the second overtime over to his brother, Scott, who poked it through Roberto Luongo to end another overtime battle between these guys.

Even though the series ended up 4-1 Ducks – they’re headed to the Western Conference Finals, awaiting the winner of Red Wings vs. Sharks – it was actually closer than it appeared. This makes us sad, when cities with one professional team of record get bounced. Look, I mean it sucks to be in Dallas right now (Tony Romo can’t hold snaps, Dirk is growing a man-gina, the Rangers haven’t been relevant since – well, ever, and the Stars lost to Vancouver itself in the first round of the NHL playoffs). But it might suck to be in Vancouver, because now you have nothing, unless you’re fans of the Warriors because the Sonics have ceased to be relevant, and, you know, well, the Grizzlies kind of left and all.

We’ll say this much: at least Luongo got his first-round win, right? At the very least, that happened. And Ducks vs. Sharks, if it happens – the battle for Paul Kariya’s Metaphysical Soul – is going to be a barn burner.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

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NHL General

Thursday Morning NHL Roundup


Senators 3, Devils 2
As the Senators take a 3-1 lead in this series en route to their likely bloodbath with Buffalo in the Conference Finals, I don’t think the whole “What’s happening to Martin Brodeur?” point can be belabored enough. He won his first-round series against the Lightning, sure; but Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier pretty much scored on him at will; the only reason Tampa didn’t win that series is because no one else could score (kinda reminds me of how the Houston Rockets play sometimes, no?). Last night he got smoked again by a team of very quick shooting attackmen, and the Devils are on the brink, much like Tony Soprano in his final season. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it sounded kinda cool.

Red Wings 3, Sharks 2
Two games, one night, one identical final. Spooky. But – they were quite different. See, I was at a bar last night (uh..), and right before I looked up, and Whoopi Goldberg was, for some reason, being interviewed by Michael Kay. Regardless of that image, the ticker on YES revealed Sharks 2, Red Wings 1 with about 17:00 left. I felt confident in that outcome – and the more pressing game in front of me, Phoenix vs. LA in hoops, wasn’t over yet, so I had to get home to watch that one. I wake up this morning, and what to my puck wondering eyes should appear but this outcome. Apparently, the Wings scored with 33 seconds left in regulation, then in OT to win this puppy. Series is 2-2, headed back to “The Joe” on Saturday. Remember when Hogan vs. Flair headlined Halloween Havoc ’94 at The Joe? I do. Hogan vs. Flair is, in many ways, an apt analogy for this series – both these squads have been around the block a few times postseason-wise. Hogan is probably the Wings – more glory in the past in the form of “world titles.” While Flair actually had more titles than Hogan, no one really gave a crap about that Crockett promotion, so his victories – like the Sharks’ – seemed less significant. If you’re scoring at home, please note I spent 3/4 of this post discussing MLB (Kay), NBA (Suns), and WWF/WCW, and about 1/4 discussing hockey. It’s a good thing Sportscolumn isn’t paying me.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

Categories
NHL General

Wed Morning NHL roundup


Rangers 2, Sabres 1
Is it just me, or is this whole “Upstate vs. Downstate New York” battle starting to look a little like Scott Norwood might come hopping onto the ice? The Sabres are falling apart a little, and doing so in creative ways they haven’t collapsed since the late 1990s. On Tuesday, Daniel Briere appeared to score a game-tying goal with 17 seconds left, but it was disallowed when it was ruled Lundqvist stopped it before it crossed the line. Somewhere, Brett Hull snickered and said “Buffalo… HA” under his breath before continuing to make out with a supermodel. The series is 2-2. You know Mike Bloomberg wants to make that bet now with the Buffalo Mayor.

Ducks 3, Canucks 2 (1 OT)
These guys don’t like to play just an entire regulation game, apparently. The Ducks took a 3-1 lead – they might wrap it up Thursday at home – when Travis Moen netted one 2:07 into overtime. Roberto Luongo has to be thinking that first round was a glorious dream at this point. Honestly, though, you should be pretty hyped about a potential San Jose vs. Anaheim Western Finals; that might take you back to the Avs vs. Red Wings days, i.e. “When hockey was once relevant.”

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

Categories
NHL General

Satuday Morning NHL Roundup


Canucks 2, Ducks 1
Here’s an interesting piece of irony: one of the guest bloggers for the NHL playoffs over at their website is the band Emerson Drive. Ironic, you say? But why? Their most notable single is “I Should be Sleeping,” which pretty much summarizes every game the Canucks play this postseason. No, no – they’re not boring. Rather, they start late (I mean, it is the Pacific Northwest) and they end even later. They went 4 OT with the Stars already these playoffs, and last night, they went 2 OT with the Ducks before winning to even the series. We assume Luongo is hitting the bottle pretty hard these days, nerves shaking and all. That water bottle atop the goal might just have a smidge of Irish Coffee in there.

Sabres 3, Rangers 2
In Buffalo’s City Hall, there’s a poster showing some magazine survey that ranked Buffalo “one of the 20 best American cities” (I have no idea what magazine would justifiably print that). Next to it, there’s a poster the Mayor put in there himself. It shows two pictures: Lord Stanley and the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Under it, it reads, “Need these.” Indeed they do. They’re another step closer – to a rematch with their arch nemesis Senators, nonetheless. Lindy Ruff has the boxing gloves ready.

[Ted Bauer will be covering the NHL playoffs for us this year. You can find more of Ted’s work at A Price Above Bip Roberts.]

Categories
NHL General

Maggie the Monkey better step it up


You know why we love Maggie the Monkey? Because she proved that a monkey spinning a wheel was just as good at picking games as a bunch of experts. Well, this year, she is totally letting us down. Going only 4-4 in the first round, Maggie is a disgrace. Hell, even Jeremy Roenick went 6-2. If she doesn’t improve her picks in the second round… well, there’s gotta be a hungry lion at the Zoo.

Here are Maggie’s picks for the second round of the 2007 NHL playoffs:

Detroit over San Jose
Vancouver over Anaheim (oooooh! upset special)
Buffalo over NY Rangers
Ottawa over New Jersey

Maggie is going out on a limb here with the Canucks but at least she’s not just betting the chalk.

Those of you with way too much time on your hands can watch video of Maggie making her picks. It’s actually fairly amusing.

And for one final random piece of NHL news, the mayor of NY declined to do the traditional friendly “we’ll send you our famous food, you send us a case of beer” wager with the mayor of Buffalo. Bloomberg must not like the Rangers chances.

Links:
[TSN]: NHL Playoff Picks