2009/10 Predictions!

What else can be said? We pretty much like the chances of the Western Canadian teams of making the playoffs and the Eastern ones not. More on these picks and why in the weeks ahead. YAY! HOCKEY IS BACK!!!

Eastern Conference
1. Philadelphia*
2. Boston*
3. Washington*
4. Pittsburgh
5. Carolina
6. New Jersey
7. New York Rangers
8.  Buffalo
9. Tampa Bay
10. Ottawa
11. Montreal
12. Toronto
13. Atlanta
14. Florida
15. NY Islanders

Western Conference
1. Detroit*
2. Anaheim*
3. Calgary*
4. St. Louis
5. Chicago
6. Vancouver
7.  Minnesota
8.  Edmonton
9.  San Jose
10. Dallas
11. Columbus
12. Nashville
13. Colorado
14. Phoenix
15. Los Angeles

Worth a Gamble?

With all eyes fixed on a Phoenix courtroom today, we thought why not write about something completely unrelated. Sure we’d be overjoyed to see the Coyotes move to Hamilton or anywhere else in Canada. Its just that this saga won’t end today and we’re tired of it. Once the courts get involved, the wheels turn slowly… oh so slowly…and the draggin’ is getting to us. Today will be a big day in the history of the franchise no doubt but a final solution will be far from decided today.
So we thought we’d share a story about one of our pastimes. Something that we use as a diversion.Online poker.

We started playing a year or so ago.  Got the hang of the rules etc.  Then we put it aside for awhile.  But since we got the netbook with the internet stick, its back with a vengeance.  Its a great time killer at our job and when waiting for everyday stuff to happen.  The internet stick is great so far.  Sure Canada’s “most reliable network” has its flaws and it drops its connection every so often but its a lot better than what South Africa has.  We wonder how the news of the upcoming World Cup will be delivered if a pigeon (wtg Winston!) is faster than the country’s number internet service.  The beautiful game will sure become a lot slower!

But we digress, the internet stick has made online poker very portable and convenient for us and the interaction with other players, and the drama of Hold ‘Em keeps us lightly interested/amused. We are far from experts at it and you can play for free.  The challenge to win is there and when you do win, its great.  When you lose, there’s always another hand. Not a bad game if we do say so ourselves.  If we ever get stuck somewhere with nothing to do, at least there is always poker.

If we were in a certain Phoenix courtroom today, we’d be playing it for sure.

Our Lead Story is…

We will admit that if we lived in Calgary, the lure to see all of Canada’s best hockey players on the same sheet of ice would be too much for us to bear.  Especially for a mere 20 bucks!  Even if it was just a public scrimmage match.  The Red vs. White game would have been great to be there for but making it the lead story in print, radio and tv media today is beyond ridiculous.

We’ve never understood why a “practice” for a sport would ever be more important than results of a sport that was actually “played“. No matter how popular the sport, it was just a practice.  Great to witness in person.  Not lead story material.

Note to media:

Sports fans #1 need is for scores/results of actual games played.

Then everything else.  No matter what the news of the day is.

Even as we write this, Michael Vick’s return to a preseason “practice” game is ahead in the tv highlights shows this morning than actual “real” games played.  Great to see he can throw but where are the pennant race scores and higlights???

PS: kudos to Nick Green of the Boston Red Sox.  The shortstop pitched 2 scoreless innings in last nights game!  He didn’t even look out of place doing it!  We love it when things like this happen in games!  Why isn’t this the lead story???

Some of the Best Deals are the Ones that Never get Done

Another NHL trade deadline is almost upon us.  Like a dark cloud in the distance, we watch and wait for the inevitable storm.  Who’s gonna go, who’s gonna stay?

Some of the best deals are the ones that never get done.

Whoever said that first must be rolling in laughter every time it gets used.  Another great example of a sports cliche that pretends to say something but really means nothing.  We guess that is the beauty of it.  Seriously, we can think of a 100 great deals that will never get done in about 10 minutes.  So the saying is rather pointless.  Yeah, Luke Schenn for Sidney Crosby would be a great deal.  Too bad its not going to get done.  Therefore the saying works.  Ridiculous.

So we wait for the storm.  The eye of the day will be that it’ll be televised like no other in history.  Every player that gets traded will say:

• I hate to go
• Looking forward to a new challenge

In order to avoid the worst of the storm we are going to do things differently this deadline.  We’ll pass on the pretentious tv coverage, the interviews with the guys that really know nothing of any importance and the eversopainful2watch analysis.  For us, it marks the first of many that we’ll be following solely on the web.  We’ve never done that before and we are willing to give it a whirl.  At the end of the day, will we be just as informed?  Most likely and we’ll have avoided the mind numbing coverage of the networks.  A risk well worth the plunge.

NHL 2009 Trade Bits & Bites #1

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ll more than likely know already that the NHL trade deadline is fast approaching.  Here’s some food for thought that weve been chewing on of late:

• The Pittsburgh Penguins need a Scoring Left Winger Badly.  Ever since Ruslan Fedotenko went down with an injury they’ve had ziltch for scoring from that position.
• The Vancouver Canucks are looking at having a lot of UFA’s leaving their roster come the summer.  Look to see a couple of moves made.
• The Ottawa Senators still need a number 1 goalie.  If they can trade Spezza for one on at least a 2 year deal, jump on it!
• Yes Virginia, Dominic Moore (unless he signs a long term deal) and Nik Antropov’s days as Maple Leafs are numbered.

More Trade Talk to come!

CBJ vs. Sens Recrap

We sat down and watched the Ottawa Senators vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets last night.  OK, don’t ask us why.  We just did ok?

What a snoozer of a match!  Auld got the start for the Sens and was ok.  He didn’t play bad which we think is a good thing if you are a Sens Fan.  Auld needs to be the number One Goalie in Ottawa for his confidence’s sake but he also can’t play every night.  He’s never been the best goalie endurance wise so giving him 60-70% of the starts is the perfect way to go.  Lets hope Hartsburg keeps him fresh.  At the other end, Steve Mason made some key saves late but was otherwise untested in this 1-0 shutout.  His surprising 7th of the season.  Whether it was Ottawa’s sputtering offence or the Hitchock inspired defensive plan that made this game so boring is up for debate.  It took the Sens half the first period to muster a shot on net and the most exciting thing to happen was Chris Neil got sent off with a game match penalty for being the 3rd man in during a silly scrum.  The following PP resulted in what was the only goal of the night. Onwards to 2nite’s games that feature the Pens vs. Leafs and Minny vs. Nucks! We predict 4-3 Pens and 5-3 Minny. AV’s last game as coach? We’ll keep hoping!

You Can’t Say Enough About Him

We are glad Avery is seeking professional help.  If we were the commish, he wouldn’t play until he’d finished a program (a la Theo Fleury).  But a 6 game suspension is a slap in the face to every player who ever got hit from behind, received a concussion, was intentionally injured, and/or nearly died on the ice.  Recently those kinds of infractions got the offenders less of a suspension than Avery.  What is the message the NHL is sending out here?  That it is not ok to insult?  But go ahead and maim all you want?  Both are bad.  Both need to be treated seriously and obviously one is not.   This story is far from over and another case of Does the Punishment Fit the Crime.

In other news, tonight’s sked is a great one if you are at all a fan of the Northwest division.  Should be a dandy night in a division so tight!  Can’t wait! The beers are already chillin’!

Plus ever need help figurin’ out the NHL cap?  Check this site out!

This Win is 4 All the Fans

Time to wrap what we’ve taken notice of the past few days:

• Today is American Thanksgiving.  Think football is number one on the menu?  Not a chance!  This “game” is number one without a doubt!
• Robert Müller’s tale is far from over but is already inspirational!
• Congrats to Kid Poker for winning the BC championships!
• Also coming out on top was the Columbus Crew, who won the MLS cup!  Now if the MLS could only fix how the cup is won and bring it more in tune with what happens overseas.  No matter, a win is a win!
• and lastly, congrats to the Calgary Stampeders for winning the Grey Cup.   It doesn’t matter if the main event was lack luster.  A win is still a win!  Is there an echo in here?

A 20 Second Timeout 2 Boast

Awhile back we predicted the Canucks would be 11-6 by mid November.  Now they sit at 14-6.  Can’t complain about that! 

Tip of the hat to Some Canadian guys writing about Soccer who have added us to their links!  Much appreciated!  Check out their site often!

Weekend Fantasy Moves

Yahoo Football:

HUGE battle this weekend as our 7-2 team takes on the second place team that is 6-2-1. First place is on the line and we rolled the dice Thursday night inserting Denver’s WR Brandon Marshall over St. Louis’ Torry Holt and Minnesota’s Bernard Berrian. We’ll update you on Tuesday how the move went.

Yahoo Hockey:

Mathieu Schneider is under-performing for a power-play specialist D-man in Atlanta and now nursing an injury.  Zubov is coming off the IR and is a fantasy stud when healthy. We were actually surprised Sergei Zubov was available in one of our leagues!

Yahoo Basketball:

Massive moves to sure up the teams, We’ve allowed for the draft dust to settle and some time for the league to get moving. There’s still a lot out on the free agent markets so we tried to pick up what we could while we still could.  All these moves are upgrades IMHO.

• ^{Added Rudy Fernandez (Por – PG,SG) – Dropped Rafer Alston (Hou – PG)}
• ^{Added Luis Scola (Hou – PF,C) – Dropped Matt Barnes (Pho – SF)}
• ^{Added Nate Robinson (NY – PG,SG) – Dropped Earl Watson (OKC – PG)}
• ^{Added Gilbert ArenasINJ (Was – PG) – Dropped Antonio McDyess (Den – PF)}

• ^{Added Zaza Pachulia (Atl – PF,C) – Dropped Rasho NesterovicINJ (Ind – C)}

• ^{Added Kyle Lowry (Mem – PG,SG) – Dropped Stephon Marbury (NY – PG)}