Pretty good series... the best team won!

Red Wings 3, Penguins 2 - Penguins Raise Scare, but Red Wings Raise Cup

For a moment there, I thought that the Penguins might pull it off; but Detroit hung on last night and took the Cup.
If you look at the stats for the series (or if you watched the games), it is fairly safe to say that the Red Wings outplayed the Penguins by a wide margin; but Messrs. Crosby and Company kept coming back to life when you least expected it; and it made for some fabulous hockey along the way. The Wings certainly deserved this win, and Pittsburgh should be proud of the way they responded - if they can keep their team together for a year or two (very questionable since they have 7 players headed for free-agency) they should have some Sterling of their own.

They were not good enough...

The End Comes Hard

Yesterday's Ranger game was pretty much an encapsulation of their entire season - they fell behind in a desperate situation, found a way to come back, and then found yet another way to lose. The piss-poor refereeing aside, the Rangers were pretty much over-matched against a Pittsburgh team with perhaps the best collection of offensive weapons in the NHL, and a bad case of the nasties.

Playoff hockey requires a snarl that the Rangers seemed incapable of. Their defense was far too well-mannered in front of their own net; and, especially yesterday, they allowed the Penguins to take far too many liberties with Jagr (who did not have a single shot on net). Did anyone besides me notice how Malkin physically mistreated Paul Mara after he scored his incredible backhand goal? All this, plus a few other mental and physical mistakes made it virtually impossible for the Blue Shirts to prevail.

There is much needed to be done for next year. For now, all I can say is "So it goes..."

A crushing defeat (for me, too)

Its Notre Dame vs. B.C. for the Title

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, the only four seed to make the Frozen Four, beat top-rated Michigan in an overtime thriller on Thursday to advance to the NCAA championship game. The Irish will play Boston College on Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Calle Ridderwall, who opened the scoring, finished it, too, getting the winner for the Irish at 5:44 of overtime. A Notre Dame point shot rebounded high in the slot to Ridderwall, who fired it by freshman goalie Bryan Hogan.

I fell asleep for the last half of the third period, and missed the overtime too. And then I yelled (scaring the heck out of my poor wife) when I checked my iPhone at 7 this morning when I saw the news. It was tied 3-3 when I conked-out; and I figured that in erasing a 3-0 deficit the Wolverines were in great shape to overcome the horrendous goaltending from Billy Sauer (sorry, Billy, you know it's true) and take their rightful place in the final against B.C. It was not to be.

Anything can happen in OT; and obviously it did. This was a great Michigan hockey team. All season they played a confident, aggressive game; and even though they only has 2 seniors, their inexperience was turned into a positive the whole year. It's a shame that Sauer folded, because it was his play (especially in the first half of the season) that gave them the confidence to play the way they did. But for the last month you could see that Billy was not just the same goaltender; and I worried about the tournament because of it. There is no way they should have lost to Notre Dame; and I predict now that BC will crush them in the final - Michigan was the only team that stood a chance against the BC juggernaut that is seeking revenge for losing in the last 2 finals.

There goes part of my Dream Weekend... Oh well. Go Tiger! Go Rangers! Go Mets?

This is My Time....

The Morning Skate: For Whom The Bell Tolls

The sun rises this morning and 16 teams survive. For them and their fans it is cause for celebration. The playoffs are upon us, a chance for renewal, for rebirth, for optimism. Yes, thrills await. Passions ignite. Suspense hangs in the air. It’s another opportunity for players to make their mark on the season — and for fans to invade the nearest supermarket and buy all the aluminum foil in sight (a couple of those heavy duty 200 foot rolls should do) so they can construct Stanley Cups.

Nothing gets my engine running like the hockey playoffs. This weekend alone is a trifecta of almost epic proportions: The Frozen Four (if you have to ask, don't bother) starts Thursday evening and ends Saturday night; the Stanley Cup playoffs start Wednesday and go for two months (way too long, but that's another discussion); and it is Masters Weekend. I will be bathed in Hi-Def glory all weekend; and if the freaking TV breaks down again (just returned from the shop today) I'm throwing my remote through it.

Go Rangers! Go Tiger! Go Blue! It doesn't get much better than this for total frivolity - unless I make some steaks to go with. Hmmmm.....

Just don't use the term "bitches"

Sometimes, the Dogs Just Don’t Like the Dog Food:

"Women’s college basketball (and for that matter, the WNBA) has been given every possible opportunity to succeed. Where it doesn’t get the attention men’s basketball does, Brennan sees sexism. I see a game that just isn’t very entertaining to watch."

Once again, the forces of "equality" are determined to make sure that you and I think just like they do - whether we want to or not. The other thing you can be sure of - if Donna Shalala is in favor of it, it has got to be a Nanny State bunch of bullshit.

Vague recollections of "A Clockwork Orange"...

Who woudda' thunk?

Nails Never Fails
As unlikely a success story as you will ever find....

And he got time on Real Sports, too. A great and funny piece with Bernard Goldberg.

An odd piece of football trivia...

LAST U.S.F.L. PLAYER RETIRES Sean Landeta, the last active player from the United States Football League, officially retired from football. The retirement coincides with the 25th anniversary of his first professional game.

Landeta, 46, spent one game on the Giants’ roster in 2006, the season after Doug Flutie retired. Flutie was his competitor for the longest-tenured U.S.F.L. player.

Landeta, who played for Jim Mora on the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars of the U.S.F.L., is best known for his nine seasons with the Giants, which included Super Bowl championship teams in 1986 and 1990.

Amazing how this works....

Yesterday, during the Indiana/Michigan St. basketball game, the big topic of discussion was the fate of Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson. The ever obnoxious, loud and annoying Dick Vitale spent the entire game calling for Sampson's dismissal. But, by the time the game was over, and Indiana had put on a wonderful display of basketball (and a huge woopin' on the Spartans), I couldn't help but wonder if Sampson had found the ultimate weapon to avoid the inevitable - winning.

Confirming that and more, Bill Rhoden in today's NY Times becomes a Sampson apologist:

Let me make the case for Sampson to remain at Indiana. One more chance. He has clearly blundered — maybe twice. Once at the University of Oklahoma and now, according to an N.C.A.A. report, at Indiana, which hired him in 2006. In pursuit of players, Sampson cannot seem to keep his fingers off speed dial.

I guess that we shouldn't be all that surprised to see this. Winning makes up for a lot of faults, especially in collegiate athletics. But Rhoden's complete lack of transparency here is so glaring as to make me want to throw-up. Just a couple of days ago, he called for the immediate lynching (yes, I'll use the word here, it's perfect) of Roger Clemens even though there is a lack of corroborating evidence.

But Sampson is Native-American, and Rhoden is black, so maybe the rules are different, even though Sampson has clearly been caught with his hand in the till for the second time after being warned by his superiors before he even took the Indiana job! Again, blatant journalistic dishonesty at the Times rears its ugly head; or is Rhoden just part of the cult of winning? Either way, I'm not impressed.....Hoops, anyone?

A good weekend against my alma mater...

Wolverines are back at #1:

"Kolarik tallied a goal and three assists for the No. 2 Wolverines, who won and tied at No. 1 Miami this past weekend (Feb. 8-9) to take over first place in the CCHA and most likely the nation's top ranking when the weekly polls are released. Pacioretty led all U-M players with three goals in the series. He also added an assist.

On Friday (Feb. 8), Kolarik tied his season high with two assists, one of which came on U-M's game-winning goal in the 4-2 triumph. On Saturday (Feb. 9), Kolarik scored his 20th goal of the season, which tied him for fifth nationally, and later added an assist as the Wolverines tied the RedHawks 5-5."

You Gotta Believe!!!

Mets Sign Man, dies at 83

Farewell to the man who made a lot of old Met games worth watching...

Just doesn't seem right....

Fans Throng Lower Manhattan for Giants Parade:

"On behalf of the team, I just want to tell you all how proud we are to be able to bring a championship back to New York City,” Mr. Manning told the cheering fans. “I believe that we play football for the greatest city in the world, and all of you all deserve to have the greatest football team in the world. It’s been an honor to play with this group of guys, who have such character, such closeness amongst us, coaches who prepare us for every game. We’ve had our ups, we’ve had our downs, but everything we’ve gone through this season has made it so special."

Now I'm pissed...As an original AFL fan and a Jets fan I had to sit through the Super Bowl with 4 Giants fans trying my best not to show my disappointment at the outcome. I know the Giants deserved to win the game (I'm not that stupid); but I really did want the Pats to make history, and the sense of what they lost is almost too much to grasp.

The other thing that REALLY bothers me is watching all these supposedly New York fans rooting for a team that lives and works in (blechh) New Jersey, that God-forsaken asshole of a place that no self-respecting New Yorker would ever move to (hats-off to Archie Bunker). That doesn't really excuse me rooting for the Jets, does it? But we did give up our Jet tickets as soon as they moved; and I live and breathe the fact Super Bowl III is probably the beginning and end of this team's success. No harm, no foul....

Well Deserved

Leetch’s No. 2 to Assume a Lofty Perch at the Garden:

"Leetch, 39, vividly recalled his debut. He had arrived from the Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, knowing no one on the team. Before he took the ice, the Garden crowd was chanting, “U.S.A., U.S.A.” and right after the opening face-off, his teammate Chris Nilan got into a fight with a St. Louis player."

I just finished watching the ceremony at home (my son took the tickets for the evening). Better and shorter than the one for Messier, and a bit too staged - there is a lack of spontaneity in these buildings nowadays; but nobody deserved this more. Only the second player ever to receive the Calder, Norris and Con Smythe trophies during his career (Bobby Orr); and, for me, the only other guy would could wear Brad Park's #2 on his back.

An unbelievable career marred only by the way he was traded from the team in 2004, and a captaincy that he never handled very well after Messier's departure in 1997. Maybe the greatest American born player ever; and maybe more than any other Ranger - the team never recovered from his loss.

Rangers can't get out of their own way....

As a 40+ year Ranger season ticket holder, I guess that I should be used to this by now, but it's hard to watch as your favorite team (to which you have devoted literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to support, and watch every game without fail - sometimes twice) tanks its way through the mid-season.
The All-Star break cannot come too soon for this team. They need a rest from themselves; and most of the players need to think very hard about how expendable they are.
Prucha, Hossa, Malik, and more - gone.......The trading deadline awaits.

Happily, I blew this prediction....

So I was wrong about the Giants. I got half the predictions right, and they will be meeting the Patriots in Super Bowl 42 (I hate the damn Roman numerals) two very long weeks from yesterday.
Great game!!!! And you had to feel for the poor kicker until he finally got the job done in OT. It ought to be a doozie in Arizona, though - indoors, real turf, no wind or cold to get in the way. Predictions to follow...

Sunday Prediction...

Rooting for the Giants, but it will be Packers - Pats in Super bowl 42 (42? Oh my God, I've seen them ALL!)

We'll talk about the results later....

Weekend sweep on Notre Dame...

The No. 1-ranked University of Michigan hockey team completed a weekend sweep of No. 8 Notre Dame by a 5-1 count at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The victory extends U-M's winning streak to nine games and gives the Wolverines their best-ever record through 24 games (22-2-0). Billy Sauer (Walworth, N.Y.) stopped 32 shots for the victory, while five forwards tallied a goal apiece. Kevin Porter (Northville, Mich.) earned his third game-winning goal of the season with a tally late in the first period.

Still #1...Go Blue!

AnnArbor, Mich:

The top-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team rebounded from a two-goal deficit to pull out a 3-2 victory over No. 8 Notre Dame Friday (Jan. 18) at Yost Ice Arena. In front of 6,984 fans -- the second-largest crowd since Yost's renovation in 1996-97 -- Louie Caporusso (Woodbridge, Ontario) sealed the U-M win with just 20.3 seconds remaining in the game.

This is just a great team to watch. They are fast, skilled and very snarly - I wish the Rangers showed this kind of passion. With only 2 seniors on the squad, nobody, even the coach, thought they would be this good. In 2 weeks they go up against #2 Miami, Ohio - my alma mater - for a home and home weekend. It should be a doozie.

What's good for the noose....

Golfweek Fires Editor Over Noose Cover

Golfweek magazine, which published a cover with a noose set against a purplish sky to illustrate its coverage of a controversial comment about Tiger Woods, announced Friday that it had fired Dave Seanor, the editor who approved the cover.

I can't say I'm sorry about this (except people loosing their livelihoods is never a good thing); and you can bet your booties that Golfweek's intention was to get Tilghmen fired anyways. What I cannot understand for the life of me, though, is why something like this has to drag out when all parties concerned were satisfied that it had been resolved. It's not like Tilghman or anyone connected with the Golf Channel are Klan members; or that Tiger wanted his pound of flesh from the incident. Al Sharpton wanted her fired - who cares?

I don't buy it - yet...

Manning Appears to Be Evolving Into the Special One

"And the Giants are left to wonder whether Manning has turned some invisible corner and sent a rather disappointing career in a new direction, or whether such a corner even exists."

Eli is going to have to do a lot more than he's done in order to convince me he's as good as his brother. And, judging by the fact that his own coaches wouldn't let him throw the ball on the Giants' last 2 possessions of the Dallas game, I'm not the only one of this opinion. When he's done playing this weekend in the lousy Green Bay weather, I think we will all have a much better idea of who he really is.

For Congress, It’s Steroid To Heaven

So I'm in the gym a little while ago; and I turn on ESPN for a little mindless entertainment while I try desperately to get my heart rate above the DOA level. What I get is these two jokers blathering away at our expense to a bunch of self-important, useless legislators.

You would think they had a few more important things on their minds, eh? Extreme Mortman gives 'em the needle:

"So what’s Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives up to today?Would you believe, holding a hearing on baseball and steroids? Why yes, yes they are."

Miguel Tejada probably agrees