24 posts tagged “nhl”

I've been somewhat neglectful again of updating this blog on a consistent basis. The reason? Real life interferes.

But hopefully I'll find a little more time between all the sports action going on with the Mets and Angels, and other baseball playoff matchups, college football season now underway, and the NHL season starting in October.

So, with that out of the way, let's briefly talk about the New York Mets.

Through 143 games played, the Mets are 63-80. There are 19 games remaining in the season, so the chances of going 81-81 are virtually impossible unless the club goes 18-1. Now it's a matter of 70 wins instead of 81. Can they get there?

Back on August 6, I predicted that the Mets were going to end up with a final record of 77-85. However, even that seems unlikely unless they can go 14-5 to finish out the season. Possible, still not very probable, especially considering how the club has played over the past month.

Now, at best, the Mets are in the role of potentially playing spoilers to the rest of the NL East as they'll be playing Atlanta, Florida and Washington the rest of the way. None of them are in a strong position to take the NL Wild Card away from either the Colorado Rockies or Los Angeles Dodgers, although mathematically, Atlanta and Florida are still in the hunt.

As for 2010, there's going to be a LOT of talk going into the offseason as to what this Mets organization needs to do in order to rebound. The desperate need for a power-hitting leftfielder. How will the team fill holes at catcher, 1B, and the starting rotation? Will the bullpen undergo another overhaul outside of Frankie and Feliciano? That will all be covered in due time.

Right now, the Met players that are still healthy simply need to focus upon doing the best they can on the field. For many of them, this is an audition for a spot in the majors come 2010, never mind the Mets.

If you believed in hexes or curses, one could certainly understand the troubled case of the 2009 New York Mets.

Wow, what a fuckin game!

The Ducks, faced with elimination down 3 games to 2 against the Detroit Red Wings, played the way they needed to play after looking terrible in games 4 and 5.

The Ducks were careful about not taking too many penalties (each team had 4 on the game until after the game, where tons of penalties were handed out), finishing through with some superb hits, and playing a strong defense in front of goaltender Jonas Hiller. Hiller didn't let any goals through until a late power play goal by the evil Johan Franzen at 17:35 of the 3rd period.

At that point, the score was 2-1, and the Ducks had to hold on for dear life for the final 3 and a half minutes. And they did just that, with Jonas Hiller making a desperation save off Pavel Datsyuk at 19:57.

The Ducks have improved their "elimination" game record with the Game 6 win,

Best Record in Elimination Games (All-Time)              

Team                           Record            Win Percentage

Minnesota                   7-3                    .700

Anaheim                     8-5                    .615

NY Islanders               26-17                 .605 (WOO-HOO!)

Colorado                     9-18                  .514

So now the Ducks are going to play their 4th postseason Game 7 in franchise history. They are 2-1 so far, with the 1 loss coming in the 2002-2003 Stanley Cup Finals to the New Jersey Devils in East Rutherford. The two wins? The 1997 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Phoenix Coyotes, and the 2006 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Calgary Flames.

The Ducks are absolutely unquestionably capable of beating the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. But they've gotta play smart, not allow the Red Wings to dictate the pace of the puck nor game, and pressure Osgood. They don't have to outshoot Detroit, but they can't get completely outshot by Detroit either. Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller has to be a wall and not let Detroit get the first goal. Bobby Ryan has got to find a way to step up and produce. He hasn't scored a goal since Game 4 of the San Jose series and he has been -4 during the series with two assists.

If that Ducks team shows up in Michigan on Thursday, they'll be meeting the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference Finals.

First, we'll go over my 1st round predictions. Surprisingly, I got all of the right teams correct except for one. And that's the one I am most happy to be wrong about.

Eastern Conference:
Boston Bruins (1 seed) vs. Montreal Canadiens (8 seed)

My pick: Boston sweeps in 4 games.
Reality: Boston sweeps in 4 games.

This was pretty straight-forward. Boston was way too much for the Canadiens to handle.

Washington Capitals (2 seed) vs. New York Rangers (7 seed)

My pick: Washington Capitals in 5 games.
Reality: Washington Capitals in 7 games.

Because I loathe the Rangers so much, I was extremely happy that Washington came back from a 3-1 series deficit to win this. One wonders if John Tortorella hadn't lost his mind during game 5 by throwing water on fans behind the Rangers' bench who were apparently verbally harassing him and the team, something that goes on at Madison Square Garden every single game by Ranger fans, if the Rangers may have still been able to win the series instead of fall apart.

Tortorella got suspended for Game 6, and the Rangers got wrecked 5-3 to the point that "King Henrik" was replaced late in the game. Game 7 from what I've seen, was a much tougher contest that the Capitals simply came out the victors. And that's a great thing. Fuck the Rangers.

New Jersey Devils (3 seed) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6 seed)

My Pick: Carolina in 6 games.
Reality: Carolina in 7 games.

This was perhaps a bigger loss for New Jersey than it was a win for Carolina. The Devils were up 3-2 in Game 7 with less than 2 mins to go. And all of a sudden, the Hurricanes scored a tying goal with 90 seconds left. And one minute later, the game-winner with around 30 seconds left. This was all done on Jersey's home ice in Newark, and had to be one of the, if not the worst playoff loss in Devils' history.

You simply don't expect that Martin Brodeur, or his defense for that matter, would allow an entire series to slip away in such a fashion, but so is the greatness of the game of hockey. Only magnified in a game 7.

Pittsburgh Penguins (4 seed) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (5 seed)

My Pick: Pittsburgh in 6 games.
Reality: Pittsburgh in 6 games.

I didn't get to see any of this series, but the end result is obviously of no surprise to me.

Western Conference:
San Jose Sharks (1 seed) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8 seed)

My Pick: San Jose in 6 games.
Reality: Anaheim in 6 games.

SOOOOO happy to have picked the wrong team here. Hiller is an extremely hot goaltender, and despite the Sharks outshooting the Ducks the entire series, the Ducks still won despite the home ice advantage that San Jose had.

Detroit Red Wings (2 seed) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (7 seed)

My Pick: Detroit in 5 games.
Reality: Detroit in 4 games.

I figured that the Jackets might at least win one in this series but Detroit was just a ridiculous juggernaut in this sweep. The Red Wings scored 18 goals in 4 games, compared to the 7 by Columbus, and 5 of those 7 goals were scored in the game 4 loss.

Vancouver Canucks (3 seed) vs. St. Louis Blues (6 seed)

My Pick: Vancouver Canucks in 5 games.
Reality: Vancouver Canucks in 4 games.

I didn't get to see any of these games either, but from what I gather, Roberto Luongo was the goaltender Vancouver needed. He recorded a 3-0 shutout in Game 2. The Blues didn't even make this into a series.

Chicago Blackhawks (4 seed) vs. Calgary Flames (5 seed)

My Pick: Chicago Blackhawks in 7 games.
Reality: Chicago Blackhawks in 6 games.

Khabibulin was back in 2003 form, and the youth of the Blackhawks was too much for the Flames.

So I go 7-1 in overall team predictions, with two of the predictions being correct on both team and number of games. Not too bad considering I've been awful at this in years past.

Moving onto Round 2, the predictions for the conference semifinals:

Eastern Conference Semi-Finals:
Boston Bruins (1 seed) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6 seed)

I know that people keep expecting the Hurricanes to continue to play tough hockey, and that goalie Cam Ward is going to make a huge impact. I don't see that happening. Boston is on another level this season and I just don't see anyone in the East beating them. Certainly not Carolina unless somehow half of the Bruins go down with injury.

My prediction: Boston Bruins in 5 games.

Washington Capitals (2 seed) vs. PIttsburgh Penguins (4 seed)

This is the "Dream matchup" that the NHL wanted. Ovechkin and Semin vs Malkin and Crosby. Varlamov vs. Fleury.
The Capitals fought a tough 7-game series against the Rangers, and rallied from being down 3-1 in the series.

But that's the problem. The Capitals should never have been in that position in the first place, and the Penguins are a better team than the Rangers.

So, I gotta give the edge to Pittsburgh here unless Ovechkin can somehow carry the club. I don't see that happening here.

My prediction: Pittsburgh in 5 games

Western Conference Semi-Finals:
Detroit Red Wings (2 seed) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8 seed)

Wow. This is going to be a tough one. Just like the Ducks-Sharks series, this SHOULD be dominated by Detroit with ease. But San Jose couldn't get past Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller too much.

Plus, as good a team as San Jose was during the regular season, they are known for failing in the playoffs consistently. Detroit, not so much.

Is this Ducks team as good as the 2007 club? I don't believe so, but if Hiller stays hot, one never knows what can happen. Surely if the Ducks ARE able to get past Detroit, I would imagine they'd be a lock to beat either Vancouver or Chicago in the Conference Finals.

But... Osgood in goal for Detroit in the postseason is a different man. Detroit is a juggernaut, and they have home ice advantage. Maybe picking Detroit will help Anaheim win? But I really believe that the Ducks aren't getting past them though I hope to be wrong again...

My prediction: Detroit in 6 games

Vancouver Canucks (3 seed) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (4 seed)

This is going to be an interesting battle of goaltenders and really rough physical hockey. I see the edge going to Luongo in goal, and the Canucks have greater depth on the club. But this will probably be the most exciting series to actually watch, even if I really could give a shit who wins.

My prediction: Vancouver Canucks in 7 games.

What a sports-intensive weekend. Unlike a lot of American men, I don't spend my Sundays worshipping the TV when it's time for the NFL season. I prefer college football, but even then, I can only watch so many college football games on a Saturday before my brain fries.

But April is a great month for sports, which would be a lot better if the NBA wasn't part of it. Basketball is truly the most...boring...sport....ever. Yes, I'd rather watch toddler bowling.

However, we got baseball, and we got hockey playoffs galore. And then there's always a plethora of MMA to be found.

I won't get into too much detail about all of the games, considering a lot of it is old news at the point I'm writing this, so a brief summary should suffice.

So, this weekend began on:

Friday, April 24:
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium

Shane Loux took the mound for the pitching-decimated Angels against Mariners ace Erik Bedard.

Loux pitched pretty well for 4 innings, only getting stung by a Russell Branyan solo blast in the 2nd inning.
Then the 5th inning came, and Loux just died. Ichiro led off with a single. Endy Chavez, single. Griffey, single. Beltre just missed a grand slam with a double off the left-centerfield wall, scoring Ichiro and Chavez. Russell Branyan then walked to load the bases. Jose Lopez hit a chopper towards 3rd for a single, scoring another run.

By this point, it was 5-0, there were no outs, and Loux had come apart. Manager Mike Scioscia went to the bullpen, but another 2 runs scored before the Angels could get out of the inning.

Erik Bedard pitched fantastic for Seattle, only giving up 1 hit in the first 4 innings, a double to Erick Aybar which was also the Angels' sole baserunner. He gave up a dinger to Mike Napoli in the 5th, and the Angels scored twice more in the frame to bring the score to 7-3, but Bedard still had a healthy lead and pitched into the 7th inning before Shawn Kelley finished out the game for the Mariners.

So the Angels lost by a score of 8-3, and here are some photos from my less-than-good seats in the rightfield loge.

AngelsvsMariners042409_1

AngelsvsMariners042409_2

AngelsvsMariners042409_3

AngelsvsMariners042409_4

AngelsvsMariners042409_fireworks1

What was supposed to be a pitchers duel was anything but. But what a wild exciting game. The Yankees sent AJ Burnett to face Boston's Josh Beckett, and this was one of those games you figured would be a low-scoring affair. If only.

The Yankees went up 6-0 on Boston by the time the 4th inning was over, and there was no reason to think that the fairly solid AJ Burnett would surrender this lead. Then Boston began their comeback, scoring 5 runs in the bottom 4, with 4 of those runs coming off a Jason Varitek GRAND SALAMI.

But this game was only getting started. In the 6th, Boston scored 3 runs going up 8-6 on the Skanks.

Then in the next inning, Johnny Damon hit a 2-run homer to tie the game at 8.

Boston then goes ahead 9-8 in the bottom of the 6th.

And then the lead switched AGAIN in the top of the 7th when the Yankees went up 10-9.

With all the back and forth in this ballgame, it was just super fun to watch. Mind you, I love a pitcher's duel more than anything. The best games are the 0-0 games that go into extra innings, but when both teams score a bunch of runs back and forth in every inning, that's pretty damn exciting as well.

When it was all said and done with, Boston outslugged the Yankees by a final of 16-11. There were 28 hits in the game, 6 of them home runs (3 for each team).

NHL Playoffs:
Game 5: Anaheim Ducks vs. San Jose Sharks

With the Ducks already possessing a 3-1 lead in this best of 7 series, every game was now a "must-win" for the Sharks, and with their backs to the wall at home in the HP Pavilion (aka: Shark Tank), the Sharks put up the early 1-0 goal at 7:25 in the 1st from Co-Captain Joe Thornton. The Sharks went up 2-0 in the 2nd.

But hold on, the Ducks came back with 2 of their own in the 3rd period thanks to Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and the game went into OT.

The Sharks stayed alive in the series when Co-Captain Patrick Marleau jabbed in a goal past Anaheim goaltender phenom Jonas Hiller at 6:02 of the first OT period to win the game 3-2.  Even still, the winning goal was ultimately pushed past the goal line by the leg/skate of Hiller. Unfortunate, but so it goes.

This was another great game in what has been a thrilling series, thanks to the unlikely 8th seed Ducks taking it to the team that had the best record in the NHL regular season.

Sunday, April 26th, 2009
NHL Playoffs:
Game 6: New York Rangers vs. Washington Capitals

With the Rangers up 3-1 in this series, they didn't have Coach John Tortorella on the bench because he was serving a one-game suspension for losing his mind and throwing water at Capitals fans behind the Rangers bench.

What followed from Rangers' GM Glen Sather was one of the most laughable reactions in the history of the sport. Sather complained that Washington Capitals security should be disciplined. Why? Because Washington Capitals fans were verbally harassing/abusing the Rangers bench from their seats, and CHILDREN were able to hear this.

Apparently Sather has never been to one of his own team's games, or at least never sitting in the MSG seats, where this kind of behavior, and FAR worse, occurs every single game. The Rangers proved themselves to be a classless organization from top to bottom. A coach who benches Sean Avery (the scummiest player in all the league) because he wanted to set an example about keeping your emotions in check during the game, loses his cool because of the verbal taunts from Capitals fans. Sean Avery may be a giant piece of shit, but he can be pretty effective when he's able to taunt and agitate the opposition into taking stupid penalties, so as long as Avery doesn't take them himself. In Game 4, he did. But for Tortorella to go after Caps fans, who never threw any objects at the Rangers bench or did anything PHYSICAL to provoke Torts, proves he's as big of a dick as Avery. And then Sather's letter, hoo hee! Whattalaff!!!!

I hope the Capital fans rip the Rangers bench (verbally, of course) even moreso during Game 7 so they can make Tortorella's head literally explode.

The Rangers got destroyed on MSG ice this game by a final of 5-3, and while the final score sounds close, it's misleading. The Capitals made Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist look very very mortal, going up 3-1 in the first. 5-1 in the 2nd, and held on to a 5-2 lead until a 3rd Rangers goal scored with 6 seconds remaining in the game.

I can't wait until Game 7, even if I won't be able to actually watch it. The Capitals will have home ice, and they're not losing to this joke of a Rangers team, who should never have won 3 games in this series to begin with.

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

This ESPN Night game was actually the pitcher's duel that we were supposed to get on Saturday between Beckett and Burnett. This time it was Andy Pettite against Justin Masterson. Masterson, normally a reliever for the Red Sox, pitched a second start for Boston in place of Daisuke Matsuzaka. And he pitched brilliantly.

Masterson scattered 6 hits over 5.1 IP, walking 1, striking out 4, and giving up 1 earned run off a Hideki Matsui sac fly.
Boston's bullpen of Hunter Jones, Michael Bowden and Takashi Saito (pitching in place of closer Jonathan Papelbon, who needed some rest) stymied the Yankees for the rest of the game.

But the real story of this game?
Jacoby Ellsbury STOLE HOME! I would put the video up here but MLB will just yank it off YouTube, so... you should be able to find it quite easily in other places. :-)

In any case, with a 2-1 score in the bottom of the 5th, Andy Pettite pitching to J.D. Drew with a 1-0 count and bases loaded, Ellsbury stole home in what has to be one of the craziest plays in this early season. But Ellsbury is so fast, Pettite is a lefty pitching from the stretch, third-baseman Angel Berroa wasn't holding Ellsbury on, and the Yankees were caught completely off-guard. Posada made the tag on Ellsbury just after he had touched the plate, and the Red Sox went up 3-1.

J.D. Drew then doubled to rightfield, scoring David Ortiz, and that was all the offense the Sox needed to SAHHHHWEEEP the New York Yankees in 3 games.

With the Rangers and Yankees losing, Sunday was a very very very good day.

And finally, to top it off:
Monday, April 27, 2009
NHL Playoffs:
Game 6: Anaheim Ducks vs. San Jose Sharks

Hiller if ya hear me!! The Ducks won by a final score of 4-1, taking the series from the NHL-best San Jose Sharks in 6 games, and most importantly, doing it on home ice in front of a rabid crowd at the Honda Center (aka: The Pond).

You knew this was going to be a helluva physical game when 2 seconds into the game, immediately after the puck was dropped, centers Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton went at each other in a fight. Thornton may have won that fight, but he did not win the war.

The Sharks took the 1-0 lead in the middle of the 1st period, making one wonder if Hiller was going to be ok this game. Luckily, that was the only goal that Jonas Hiller let in. Hiller outclassed San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov during the entire series. In this game, he stopped 36 of 37 shots. While Hiller has emerged as the top goalie on the Ducks team, with J.S. Giguere now serving as his backup, Nabokov still had far superior statistics with the Sharks during the regular season.

But finally with this 1st round series of the postseason, Jonas Hiller proved that a hot goaltender with a defense that has never looked better (Pronger, Niedermayer, Whitney, Beauchemin, Wisniewski), is going to be able to stop a high-powered offense that outshot Anaheim the entire series by a ridiculous amount.

Despite all that, Jonas Hiller posted two shutouts during the 6 game series.

A fantastic series, a huge upset, and perhaps a sign of things to come. Still, the Ducks have a tough road ahead of them as they'll face the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference semis. The Red Wings are well-rested, having easily swept the Columbus Blue Jackets in 4 straight games. But the Ducks could just be the Cinderella team once again.

I've never been a big fan of a playoff system that allows more than half of the teams in any league to make the playoffs. 16 out of 30 teams to be exact. But, more games = more revenues for the NHL. Even though it is really kinda ridiculous.

It really SHOULD be limited to the top 4 teams in the East and West, which would eliminate 1 round from the NHL playoffs. I blame the NBA for setting this silly precedent.

Regardless, here are my predictions for the 1st round of the NHL playoffs...

Eastern Conference:
Boston Bruins (1 seed) vs. Montreal Canadiens (8 seed)

8 seeds rarely do well in th NHL playoffs, because you know, they're not nearly as good as the top team in the conference? This matchup will be no different. Plus with Bruins goalie Tim Thomas possessing the best goalie save percentage and GAA numbers in the league this season, Montreal is going to have a helluva time scoring goals against Boston.

My pick: Boston sweeps in 4 games.

Washington Capitals (2 seed) vs. New York Rangers (7 seed)
The Rangers only have one hope of winning this series. And his name is Hendrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist has been a fantastic goalie for the Rangers this season, even though his team has struggled mightily on offense most of the season. Players like Markus Naslund and Chris Drury have failed to produce at top-tier levels. But you know who has?
That Alexander Ovechkin fella.

Speaking of Ovechkin, I love this:
Ovechkin said following the Caps' practice Tuesday to the NY Daily News: "I like playing over there. Sometimes the ice is no good over there because (of) lots of concerts, lots of dog shows, something like that coming over there. It kind of smells no good over there sometimes."

The truth is, it's the stank of Ranger fans.

My pick: Washington Capitals in 5 games.

New Jersey Devils (3 seed) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (6 seed)

This is actually one of the more intriguing matchups of the 1st round, as it's not as cut and dry an end result as the aforementioned series.  The Devils are not as strong as they have been in recent years, and the Hurricanes have had a very strong finish to the regular season going 13-3-2 over the final 18. Goalie Cam Ward has been extremely solid for Carolina in goal. When New Jersey dominates the regular season, they're a strong favorite to win it all. But the Devils weren't the best team in the East this year, even though they won the Atlantic division.

I'm leaning towards the upset here, so...
My Pick: Carolina in 6 games.

Pittsburgh Penguins (4 seed) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (5 seed)

Malkin, Crosby, Bylsma, Fleury. The Flyers? Uhhhh, Carter? Yeah, the battle for Pennsylvania is going to Pittsburgh, again. Philly will put up a fight and make it interesting, but a series win is not in their future.

My Pick: Pittsburgh in 6 games.

Western Conference:
San Jose Sharks (1 seed) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8 seed)

Full disclosure: I'm an Anaheim Ducks fan.

The knock against San Jose is that despite them making the playoffs every year for a decade now, they can't get to the Cup Finals and only once got to the Western Conference finals in 2003-2004 when they lost to Calgary.

But in goal, Evgeni Nabokov is far more dependable this season than either Jonas Hiller, and certainly better than the shaky J.S. Giguere, who hasn't been himself this season at all. While Giguere has the postseason experience and may start a game or two, the Ducks have to depend on Hiller this time out. The Sharks were a little shaky towards the end of the season, and the Ducks finished strong enough to just squeak into the 8th seed.

Ultimately though, San Jose was the best team in the NHL winning the Presidents' trophy, and they're not losing in the 1st round. Much as it pains me...

My Pick: San Jose in 6 games.

Detroit Red Wings (2 seed) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (7 seed)

Congratulations to the Blue Jackets for making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. A big part of that success is due to outstanding rookie goaltender Steve Mason, who recorded 10 shutouts this season to lead the NHL, along with the 2nd best GAA numbers in the league behind Boston's Tim Thomas.

But Detroit has Osgood and Conklin, both very good goaltenders in their own right. Heck, Osgood is one of the best goaltenders of all-time and has a ton of postseason experience, even if Ozzie's regular season numbers were terrible.

The bottom line is that no matter how strong Steve Mason has been this season, Detroit's offense (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa) is a big red machine of huge proportions.

While this may be the NHL's equivalent of Michigan vs. Ohio State, Columbus is at a huge disadvantage this time around. Even though they split the season series 3-3, the Red Wings are too dominant not to heavily favor.

My Pick:
Detroit in 5 games.

Vancouver Canucks (3 seed) vs. St. Louis Blues (6 seed)

Two Western Conference teams that had excellent second halves. Vancouver gets home ice, and they have Roberto Luongo healthy. The Blues still have too many of their better players injured and they won't be playing in the series.

My Pick: Vancouver Canucks in 5 games.

Chicago Blackhawks (4 seed) vs. Calgary Flames (5 seed)

Blackhawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin has a  career record of 22-5-2 against Calgary. That's pure pwnage.
And Chicago won all 4 games this season from Calgary. The Flames should however, put up a tough fight, but the youth of Chicago combined with the resurgence of the Bulin Wall, should get Chicago past the 1st round.

My Pick: Chicago Blackhawks in 7 games.

Sean Avery put on waivers

Last night, from the third period onward, I watched the Dallas Stars vs San Jose Sharks Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

The score at the end of 3 regulation periods, was 1-1. If the San Jose Sharks won, they'd force a game 7, having come back from a 3-0 game deficit. This would also return the series to San Jose for the finale.

Only two times in NHL playoff history has a team come back down 3-0 to win a game 7.

Instead, we got 4 OVERTIME periods of phenomenal saves, exciting plays, momentum turns, and superb drama. Not to mention one of the most insane (and legal) hits you'll ever see with Dallas' Brenden Morrow leveling Shark Milan Michalek.

Michalek was gone for the rest of the game with what was likely a concussion, as well as some sort of arm injury.

But even this amazing hit soon became old news watching both goaltenders Marty Turco and Evgeni Nabokov make superhuman saves to keep their team in the game.

I'll have another blog entry on my absolutely laughable MLB division series predictions once the ALDS are over, cause I'm REALLY doing badly on that front.

But there's been a lot of sports action over the last 24 hours, so I'll just lump them into two areas.

Things that make me very unhappy:
In what was an unbelievably great game, until the finish, Manny Ramirez' walk-off HR blast on Friday night off off Frankie Rodriguez in Game 2 of the ALDS.

The Arizona Diamondbacks made mince meat of the Chicago Cubs by not only sweeping them, but making them look very bad in the process. Clearly the Diamondbacks are for real and they've got the numbers to prove it.

I didn't see the game, due to the baseball action going on, but the Anaheim Ducks have lost their third game in this early NHL season, this time to the Pittsburgh Penguins. I hope when they finally return to playing at Honda Center, things change.

Things that make me happy happy joy joy!
The Colorado Rockies swept the Philadelphia Phillies. If you think Arizona is for real, Colorado has now won 17 of their last 18 games. Can ANYONE stop them? As hot as Philly was in September when they were finally able to take first place of the NL East from the Mets, they then played a team which is clearly even hotter and destroyed them. EN FUEGO MARICON!

The Cleveland Indians have gone up 2 games to none over the New York Skankees, bugs and all. Joba rules! Except when "midges" are all over him. Bring the brooms to Skankee Stadium on Sunday night!

The fairly-shitty Northwestern Wildcats football team somewhat avenged last season's historically-embarrassing defeat to Michigan State, by winning an offensive battle in Lansing by a final score of 48-41 in OT, at Lansing. Northwestern's next two games are against Minnesota and Eastern Michigan, two teams that the Wildcats SHOULD be able to beat.

In what might be the biggest upset of this year's college football season, USC lost to Stanford 24-23 at the L.A. Coliseum. YES YES YES, FUCK YOU TROJANS!!!

The New York Islanders beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in a home-and-home (in Buffalo Friday night, in Uniondale Saturday night) series. If only the Isles could've had these wins in last year's playoffs. Then again, this year's Sabres don't have Daniel Briere nor Chris Drury, and the Sabres may be lucky to escape the basement of the Northeast division. To be fair, everyone (including yours truly) expects the Islanders to finish in the basement of the Atlantic division. Still, it's nice to see them off to a 2-0 start. Now they just have to play this well against the better teams of the NHL. Especially the fucking Rangers.

I really wanted to watch the Mets-Marlins game today, but I could not.
I really wanted to watch the Northwestern-Michigan game today, but I could not.
Neither of them were on TV in Southern California.

So I settled this morning for the NHL season opener from Hockeytown UK! That's right, the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings played at the O2 arena in London, England to open the regular season. The Kings won 4-1 in the debut of Kings 19-year old rookie goaltender Jonathan Bernier who was very impressive in goal. The defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, without retired Teemu Selanne and probably-retired-but-he-can't-decide Scott Niedermayer, didn't look all that together, but it's reallllly early in the season, and tomorrow is another day. Another day in which the teams will play in the O2 arena, this time with the Ducks on "home ice."

How do they create "home ice" in London? Well, it's based on graphics, and the production you would get at the local arena. For example, when the Kings scored a goal, you got to hear Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." Tomorrow when the Ducks score a goal, you will hear the huge foghorn and maybe even the Pennywise theme song during the intros.

But enough about hockey, for now.

Oh yeah, Northwestern made things interesting in the game against Michigan, leading 16-7 going into the half, but then the Wildcats couldn't score again, ultimately losing 28-16.

And then, baseball.

The great news is that the Mets won. John Maine pitched the game of his fucking life, taking a no-hitter into the 8th inning before having it broken up by an infield squibber down the third-base line. It was the only hit of the game for the Marlins. Meanwhile, the Mets brutalized the opposition 13-0 on 19 hits.

And still no Mets pitcher has ever thrown a no-no in franchise history. So many come close, but none have succeeded.

So then, the FOX affiliate in L.A. showed us the Cubs vs Reds gamea. Now, I am a Cubs fan, I am very happy to see them in the postseason. But this game had absolutely zero bearing on anything in the postseason. The Cubs have already won their division, they're just playing to play. The Reds, LOL. So I'm screaming a tirade of profanity and anger at my TV, wondering why they aren't showing the Phillies-Nationals game, a game with HUGE playoff implications. After maybe a half-inning, someone at FOX must have realized that they should switch to a game that actually matters, and they went to Philadelphia.

After about 4-5 innings of that game, they then switched us over to the Milwaukee Brewers vs San Diego Padres game, which I could at least understand, even if I wasn't happy about it. After all, San Diego is in the playoff picture, they're on the West Coast, and they're fighting for a playoff spot as well. Plus it was a pretty good game.

The Brewers, down 3-2 in the 9th inning with 2 out and a man on 2nd, had to face all-time saves leader and future HOFer Trevor Hoffman. In perhaps a nice twist of irony, Hoffman was facing Tony Gwynn Jr. If the Padres won the game, they were guaranteed the wild card and no one could take it from them.

Gwynn Jr. tripled down the rightfield line to tie the game 3-3. They game went into extra innings, and the Brewers ultimately won the game 4-3 in 11 innings.

And in the most important news of the day, the Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2, which put the Mets and Phillies in a tie for first place of the NL East with identical records of 88-73.

It all comes down to Sunday, and someone is going to choke, even if it goes to Monday.

If the Mets win and the Phillies lose, the Mets win the NL East.
If the Mets lose and the Phillies win, the Phillies win the NL East.
If both teams win OR both teams lose, there will be a one-game tiebreaker played on Monday between the two teams in Philadelphia. Considering the ass-whupping that the Phils have put on the Metropolitans over the course of the 2006 regular season, this is an extremely undesirable outcome. But at least the Mets will have a chance. Plus they do play better on the road.

One thing is for certain, Sunday is going to be super-dramatic. And fuck FOX for putting NFL games on instead of MAJOR baseball games with dire consequences.