Evander Kane My New Favorite Player

Karma is a beautiful force of nature that keeps people like Matt Cooke in check. Roughly a month ago Matt Cooke knocked out Marc Savard on a blatant cheap shot.  This got the big wigs in the NHL talking about imposing new rules on hitting, but of course this amounted to nothing.  In fact, Cooke barely recieved a slap on the wrist for ending Savard’s season early.  This wasn’t the first time he did something like this…anyways I differ from the point of this post.

I’ve been watching hockey my whole life and NEVER, I mean NEVER have seen someone get laid out as quick as Cooke did by Evander Kane.  I mean they are jawing each other for a while, gloved come off, little scuffle, then BAM freight train to Cooke’s dome and he’s looking for a license plate number to take down. Life is great.  Thanks to HockeyFights.com for the video (an awesome blog if you don’t know already).

In other news: the playoffs are all set.  Here are the matchups:

EAST:

Washington (1) v. Montreal (8)

New Jersey (2) v. Philadelphia (7)

Buffalo (3) v. Boston (6)

Pittsburgh (4) v. Ottawa (5)

WEST:

San Jose (1) v. Colorado (8)

Chicago (2) v. Nashville (7)

Vancouver (3) v. Los Angeles (6)

Phoenix (4) v. Detroit (5)

The Prized 8 Spot

Rangers won 6 of their last 8 games

With the NHL regular season coming to a close this Sunday, its crunch time for the the last playoff slots. The West is already set and has been for quite sometime, but it’s the East that real puckheads have been keeping their eyes on recently.

A big 3-1 win for the Bruins over the Sabres last night (thanks to some incredible net-minding by Tuukka Rask), help the B’s escalating them two spots in the standings over Philadelphia and rival Montreal, into 6th.  The New York Rangers currently are at the doorstep, but can’t get into the party.  With 84 points, they trail 7th place Philly by 2 points.  But wait! There’s more!  The Rangers and Flyers are playing each other twice for their final two games of the season. Wow. Couldn’t have asked for a better finish.  This pretty much means win or go home for each team.  If the Bruins can beat the Hurricanes Saturday afternoon or the Rangers lose tonight’s game, the B’s are a lock for the playoffs.  Final seeding wont be set until Sunday when the regular season ends.

Get it? Got it! Good! Now strap in and get ready for a wild weekend of hockey.

Could Jeff Carter be the push Philly needs?

The Masters is Underway

Jack Nailing Putts

Today is the start of the Masters…well technically not the start because of the annual par 3 contest. But today is when the actual competition begins.   I don’t claim myself to be a golf expert nor a huge golf fan, but the Masters is absolutely one of my top three sporting events to watch.  Thanks to Tiger Woods sexcapades this is expected to be the most watched Masters of all time.

You want my honest opinion?  I hate Tiger, always have and probably always will.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have respect for the man.  He’s one of the most dominant athletes of all-time, he’s near perfect.  But we all have our flaws, for most of us it’s on the course for him it’s off the course.  My respect level for the man has gone up since he was revealed as not a demi-god.   Hear me out, he’s a terrible human being for doing all he did to his family and should be scorned as such.  As an athlete and public figure I have a new respect for the man.  He coming out to the biggest tournament after going through family issues, press conferences, interviews, therapy, etc.  Where does he have time fit in the golf?  He doesn’t.  He could have waited it out till the waters died down a bit and played some minor tournaments.  But no, he goes in swinging (no pun intended).  Oh yeah, he has a new Nike ad with his deceased father, not tasteful.  I don’t like it one bit.

There are few other golfers out there playing too I guess, but as much as I hate to admit this he will be front and center of everything that goes on in these next few days.  I need my main man Jim Furyk to come up big and start winning.  No reason why, I just like the guy and his crazy-ass caddie.

Woods is slated to tee of around 1:42 pm with Matt Kuchar and K.J. Choi.

Angels Fans are Huge Dorks

Image from Yahoo Sports

I was at work last night, in the postgame of the basketball game I was broadcasting, channel surfing when I stumbled upon a countdown during the Twins/Angels games.  Next to said countdown it read “Guinness Book of World Records.” Curious on what the record may be I watched.  Reminder: This was without sound, as I generally do while working.  The countdown had only a minute or so left, so I turned the sound up to figure what the hell these LA folks were up to. 5…4…3…2…1 “Congratulations fans! We have set the world record for people wearing fleece blankets!”  Pan to the crowd and everyone is taking off Snuggies! Ridiculous.

“Fans in a sellout crowd of 43,510 in Angel Stadium on Tuesday night set a Guinness Book of World Records mark for number of people wearing fleece blankets, breaking the previous record of 17,758, set by the Cleveland Cavaliers.” –LA Times

Now if this were the Pirates or Royals, I understand the attempt to get fans in the park and get on national news, or maybe even the Twins for opening up their new outdoor park in the bitter cold that is Minnesota, but the Angels?  They’ve got one of the most successful franchises in baseball, they have nothing to worry about with revenue and it’s like 80 degrees in California.  Who in their right mind thought making fans wear Snuggies would be a good idea?  I can’t believe a front office executive got paid to think of this idea.

In actual sports related news, the Angels lost this game. Joe Saunders was off his game, letting up three homeruns to Mauer (a three run shot), Morneau and Hardy.  On a good note for Twins fans, Jon Rauch came in to close the game and pitched lights out, picking up his first save in a Twinkies uniform.  He’s got some big shoes to fill with the loss of stud closer Joe Nathan.

And So It Begins…

Thanks to Boston Globe for the image

No, not the about-to-be-very-short career of Nomar at ESPN, nor the Sox/Yanks fabled rivalry, but the START OF THE 2010 MLB REGULAR SEASON!  Sunday’s game between New York and Boston could be a glimpse of what is come in the AL East this season.  If you missed it here’s how it went down:  Sox down 5-1, rally back to tie it up, almost throw it away, then thank to clutch hitting by Dustin Pedroia and off-season acquisition Adrian Beltre, they pull out the win somehow.  Sound a little familiar?  It sure does to me.

Besides the fireworks on Sunday night, opening DAY was not that interesting to most baseball fans.  The marquee match up between Tim Lincecum and Roy Oswalt, didn’t really pan out  like everyone expected. Instead it was sheer domination by Lincecum, 7 scoreless with only 4 hits and 7 K’s.

The only other game of some interest was the Rangers and Jays.  Toronto’s ace Shauwn Marcum (Ace? Ouch, another long season ahead for our north of the border friends) pitches 7 without a single hit.  Then Marcum misses one pitch  and his second hit allowed of the game is a three run shot to Nelson Cruz. Cruz goes on to knock in the game tying run in the 9th, where Jarrod Saltalamouthfull bangs in the game winning run.  Who knows maybe the AL West will be interesting this year….maybe, there’s still 161 games to play boys and girls.

Quick predictions:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East: New York

Central: Chicago

West: Angels

NATIONAL LEAGUE

East: Phillies

Central: St. Louis

West: San Fransisco

Wild Cards: NL- Atlanta AL-Tampa

Welcome to the Hall: Scottie, Mailman, D.J. and The 1992 “Dream Team”

The NBA Hall of Fame inductees were announced today and among them were Karl “The Mailman” Malone, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Johnson. The 1992 USA Baketball Olympic team will also be inducted as well. Karl Malone spent his most of his career on the Utah Jazz (’85-’03). Karl Malone was named one of the “50 Greatest NBA Players of All-Time” at the 1997 NBA All-star game. That same year he was also named Reguler Season MVP as well.
Is he deserving? If you tell Karl he’s not, he will throw you a big elbow and change your tune. Malone was a power forward who avereged 25 points per game and 10 rebounds per game.  He spent his final season with the Los Angeles  Lakers yearning for a championship, but Big Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups and company ended his final shot at championship glory.  Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen ended his first two runs at the title.  He will join his partner in crime John Stockton in the Hall in December.

If you give Michael Jordan all of the credit for the Bulls six NBA titles in the 1990’s, than obviously you don’t know anything about the NBA.  Jordan may have been the front man, but Scottie Pippen was just as important and helpful in winning those titles.  A ferocious small forward and enforcer, Pippen got in everyones faces and attacked the big men with full force.  One specific memory of Scottie Pippen that still blows my mind is from game six of the 1994 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals between the  Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks, where Scottie Pippen dunked on Patrick Ewing, knocking him to the ground, and then stood over Ewing and said something to him and then walked over to an enraged Spike Lee on the sideline and told him to sit down in his seat.  See for yourself:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhd0ZFrb7y0 (Thank you to Youtube.com for this clip).  He avereged over 16 points per game and 2 steals per game as well.  Scottie won six NBA titles while on the Bulls and is also very deserving of this honor of being inducted into the Hall this September.
Some might remember Dennis Johnson as D.J., others might remember him as 1979 NBA Finals MVP, but I remember him for the guy who made a constant impact in games while standing along side Bird, Parish and McHale. His high NBA I.Q, crisp passes and the guy who consistantly made NBA All-defensive 1st and 2nd team’s throughout his entire career. One play that stands out of his is from the 1987 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals when Bird stole an inbounds pass from Isaiah Thomas and threw it to a cutting D.J. who made the lay up with one second to go. The three time NBA champion passed away in 2007 but what a way to end his career.
Oh!, let’s not forget about the 1992 U.S.A. Olympic “Dream” Team. Need I say more?

-Fensty

This is Sports Jive!

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