Hockey Prediction Update!

With the NHL nearing the 50 game pole and having just celebrated the All-Star Break, we thought it would be a swell time to review the NHL predictions we made way back in October. We love making predictions!

Current Spot Holder = Bold
Woodpeck Prediction = Italic

Eastern Conference

1. Boston Philadelphia*
2. Washington Boston*
3. NJ Tampa Bay*
4. NYR Washington
5. Montreal Pittsburgh
6. Philadelphia Buffalo
7. Buffalo New York Rangers
8. Florida New Jersey

9. Carolina Carolina
10. Pittsburgh Ottawa
11. Tampa Bay Montreal
12. Toronto Toronto
13. Ottawa NY Islanders
14. Atlanta Florida
15. NY Islanders Atlanta

Western Conference

1. San Jose Detroit*
2. Detroit Dallas*
3. Calgary Edmonton*
4. Chicago San Jose
5. Phoenix Phoenix
6. Anaheim Chicago
7. Edmonton Colorado
8. Minnesota Vancouver

9. Columbus St. Louis
10. Vancouver Calgary
11. Dallas Minnesota
12. Colorado Columbus
13. Los Angeles Anaheim
14. Nashville Nashville
15. St. Louis Los Angeles

* denotes Division Winner

Even though its still not the end of the season, the standings are already full of surprises! 

The West Predictions were hard to make and it shows.  Not only has Calgary replaced Edmonton but Anaheim has proven that this year is not a rebuilding year and Colorado has shockingly tanked. Despite our best negative vibes, Minny continues to hold onto a playoff spot.  Who knows how but there they be!

Over in the East, Tampa Bay has swapped with Montreal and Pittsburgh has fallen further than we thought they would.  We thought TB’s patchwork roster of stars would do better while the pressure of Montreal would finally get to this young team.  Both are proving wrong on our parts.  Florida in the playoffs as of today?  What is up with that?

Of course, there’s still 30 some odd games left so the final picture is still not set but it is still noteworthy to see where things stand at the moment.  So far our darkhorse picks of Phoenix and Boston are proving us brilliant and we’ll take what we can get!

PS: Arizona 21, Pittsburgh 20 in the Super Bore.  That is based solely on their performances on Media Day.  Lick it, stick it, stamp it!

This Week in Under 300 Words

Well, we’ve been busy at Nowpublic.com trying to kick start some sports debate on their site. Whether or not that happens, time will tell. Check out what we’ve been saying here and join in on the debate.  Just one word of advice.  Make sure you are using Firefox since IE seems to bog down on their site.  Firefox will avoid any lags and a ton of frustration.  We’ve even attempted a debate on fighting in hockey!  We must be nuts!

In other news:

• Sundin’s Debut was a bit of a bore.  At least he didn’t suffer the ever popular “groin” injury that most vets attain when they rush back info action!  I’m sure he’ll tally something by the end of the weekend.
• We’re trying to get to Montreal’s QV match in February.  More news on that in the weeks ahead.
• Road trip already planned for some Vancouver games in February! YAY!
• Can you  imagine getting a lashing from your coach in front of your fans?  Hull can.  Hope it helps their season and proves to be an effective one-off for the manager.  Talk about last resorts!  Didn’t Paul Maurice do that just b4 he was canned by the Leafs last year?
• Canada gets a D for fitness.  C’mon and get off the couch!  Who cares if its cold out?
• NFL pîcks this weekend are Giants, Carolina, Tennessee, Pittsburgh.  Yeah, its a bit of a stretch!
• and finally… somehow we were asleep at the wheel when this first came out but damn, the irony that …
  

  Steve Francis is a Grizzly again!

is beyond just being slightly funny! LOL!

Snow Job

We are snowed in.  What does that mean?  More posts of course! 

Here’s an update on what we found curious of late:

• TFC has Sold OUT its allotment of season seats (16,000) for 2009.
• We were excited about the De Rosario deal to TFC.  Here’s the Dynamo take.
• Ernie Whitt gets to take the Team Canada helm.
• VanOC is already dropping the ball for 2010.
• Sigi is the man in Seattle.  Talk about starting with the top coach on the market!
• One man’s journey at the Bills in Toronto game!  Check out the Hilites and Lo-lites!

We welcome Beer, Beats and Bites to our linkages!  Eat, drink and be merry!  Who could you ask for more in a blog?

Note to NHL: Time to Polish Up the Product or Remain a Poor Cousin

Here’s the thought of the day:

The NFL is widely regarded as the number one professional league in North America if not the world.  The EPL or any other Euro soccer league might have something to say about that last one.  But this thought of the day might well be applicable to them as well.  Regardless, the NFL product is top notch and why is that?   Well it dawned on us during the Debacle in Toronto this past Sunday what that reason might be:

•  Their game looks so darn good on TV. 

Its that simple.  The game looks great on TV.  From the cheerleaders to coaches to fans to the players themselves, everything looks so shinny, glossy, clean and crisp and that makes for great TV.  The NFL does not play in dingy arenas with poor lighting (ie: Leafs vs. Coyotes last week).  That happens all too often in the NHL.  We’ve seen the Roger’s Centre in Toronto look bad for CFL/Jays games for years but the NFL came into town the place looked great and the NFL cameras ate it up.  Even the outdoor NFL games looks great on TV.  We dunno how they do it but if the NHL weren’t run by Pinheads, they’d be smart and get a man on the NFL broadcasts to take notes.  What they’ve done to make the on field product look so good has got to be able to be duplicated.  Whether its just one simple thing or a contribution of many factors, its got to be replicated.  Its time to raise the standard of what an NHL game looks like on TV.  If all the arenas are now built to the same regulation size, it can’t be that hard to get them to all look the same on TV. If the game looks great on TV all the time, that can only help market the game and improve its image.  If it looks like a million bucks, the ratings and revenue will follow.

They’re Looking at 3rd Down & Forever

Prediction time!

This will be the Buffalo Bills coach’s last season.  Only a Super Bowl win can save Dick Jauron now.  The Bills in Toronto Debacle won’t be his last game no matter what the outcome.   Jauron will last the season but he won’t be back.  Speaking of Bills and blogs, why even bother with an official Blog for the Bills in Toronto if you don’t even bother writing in it during the week of?  (as we write, the last post was on Nov. 30th meaning 3 days away from the BIG game, the last post was on the last game day for the Buffalo Bills).  Honestly, if this was a big deal (we believe it is) , the blog should have daily if not, multiple daily posts counting down to the main event.  There’s more than enough story lines and material out there for the Historic NFL Event.  Talk about dropping the ball in the Red Zone!  Its the first NFL game ever in Canada!  Blog like the event deserves!

Things we’ve found interesting of late:

• Bryan Berard likes playing the in KHL. Whaaatttt?
• Six NBA games to watch in December is a good read.  Mark Christmas day down!
• The NHL was wrong to suspend Avery. 
• Avery is done in Dallas.  Hello Atlanta Thrashers!  They sure could use the profile!
• This Star article explains the reasoning for legalizing gambling which oddly echoes the same reasons for legalizing pot. Does this mean the paper will be coming out in favour of pot legalization too? When reading the article substitute the word “gambling” with ”marijuana” and you’ll see what we mean.
• Ted Rogers legacy will be long and lasting and he’ll still have an effect on the landscape moving forwards.  The 2010 Olympics will be considered the Cell Phone Games.  I can’t wait to watch it on my phone.  Whodathunkit?  Ah, Ted did and years ago.  Tuesday was a sad day indeed.

This Game has Gone Country

As a blogger, you depend on a lot of third hand info.  Since you can’t always be at the game or even watching it on the tube, you tend to rely on other sources for your info.  Recently, we had the opportunity to personally visit Nashville, TN. Home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and the NHL’s Nashville Predators. The Titans’ home field and stadium was impressive. A 69,000 seat monster on the shores on of the river across from the downtown and entertainment core. It was expected that we would see many Titans’ fans and paraphernalia… and we did. What was not expected was the equal amount of Predators stuff we saw. Rumours were that the town and folk supported the Preds even though the ownership and future of the franchise continue to be in flux and unstable. Yeah, whatever we thought… we’d heard that kind of stuff from the PR dept. of the NHL before. The Pred’s Sommet Center is in the shadow of LP Field but the inequality ended there. Really does size matter? Ok, don’t answer that… but Preds fans were everywhere downtown and the support in the core (which is where everyone visiting Nashville goes) could be seen in all the shops, bars and on the streets. It totally blew us away that hockey was so widely accepted and ppl knew the team and game well!

The sights left us with hope for the game in the US. That in some of the newer markets, it can succeed. Lets hope that this is one town the NHL will never leave and they can sort out their off-ice mess. With the kind of fan support we witnessed it would truly be a sad day for the league if they ever did leave. The fans deserve better than what they are getting and kudos to them for still supporting the team in these uncertain times. Perhaps this is once the PR machine got it right. Until we saw it with our own eyes, we thought it was all a myth.

PS: We found the only Timmy’s in Kentucky and it sucked. Avoid at all costs. Its not like our homebrew and the doughnuts were….well, how can we put this nicely… uh, horrid!

PPS: We will post some Nashville pics on our flickr site once we can spare a few minutes.

Shouts from the Top of the Hill!

Here’s some stuff we’re chewing on:

• Now that baseball is done, what is there on TV to fall asleep to?
• Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment employs 3 professional coaches in the Major leagues. Sam Mitchell (NBA Raptors), Ron Wilson (NHL Leafs), John Carver (MLS TFC). All cut from the same cloth? You can argue that all are no-nonsense, matter-of-fact, tempermental, tell-it-like-it-is coaches. A theme by MLSE? We think so. Discuss.
• Seriously, the Tennessee Titans need to make embattled QB Vince Young a running back. Its what he does best. They would win the Super Bowl with him in the equation.  Hands down.
• The Canada Sports Hall of Fame is granted to Calgary and is going to cost $50 Million. Meanwhile, Canadian Olympic athletes are beggin’ for private sector funding and recent polls seem to indicate that the populace supports more public funding for athletes. In these uncertain financial times do you support the past or the future or both or neither? We doubt there’s enough cash out there for everything so we’d choose to support athletes now. There’s always time for the HoF later.  Invest in the future!
• OMG! Tomorrow is Hallowe’en… Need a costume?

Bills vs Miami Letdown

Woodpeck is not a big follower of the NFL.  I’d say we’d be considered “casual fans”.  There’s maybe 3 or 4 games a year that are worth watching but we’ll never go out of our way to see them.  They are:

1. The Super Bowl
2. The Conference finals
3. The Bills in the playoffs if it happens
4. Buffalo vs. Miami

Now, its uncertain how #4 got into the mix.  Perhaps it is because these 2 teams have a unique rivalry that is not based on geography or proximity and just plain ol’ history and dislike.  Now that’s intriguing!  I know that once upon a time these 2 teams we’re the cats meow of the NFL (or at least that’s when I started watching this match up) and since then the rivalry has gone on.  No matter how good or bad each team is on a yearly basis, they bring their best possible game, passion, and performance to the field and try to embarass the other.  That way, no matter what the final season record is the other can at least claim to have beaten the other.  The Bills have been dominating the rivalry of late and its recapped here.   Those reasons are why yesterday’s lacklustre, penalty filled, sloppy affair was such a letdown.   At least as a Bill’s fan, I hope they can recover and learn from this mistake prone affair of a football game.  The Dolphins brought more passion yesterday and the Bills didn’t have enough passion or concentration it seemed.  I kept waiting for the Bills to turn it up a notch and it just never happened.  That was the game in the nutshell.  What will happen when the rematch is in Toronto?  Will both teams show up?  Mentally and physically?  Hopefully it’ll be a more interesting affair than this past one was and it’ll be another notable chapter in the storied history of these 2 teams.