Sports by Randy Charles Morin.
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Copyright 2005-10 Randy Charles Morin
Owned by Rapid Spiral Development Inc.
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A series by series predictions for the 1st round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and a glimpse into the next 3 rounds. The NHL playoffs since the 2004-05 lockout has been a unpredictable beast. You make the playoffs on the last day of the regular season and you find your way to the Stanley Cup finals. What makes a good regular season team is clearly not what makes a good playoff team. Here's my sense of what might happen this playoff season.
The Minnesota Wild have badly underperformed and scratched their way into a playoff spot. That said, a hot goalie and some timely scoring might give them a chance. But goaltending and scoring have not been their forte this season. They do have some grit with Cal Clutterbuck, but on the whole this team is soft. Not a recipe for winning the Lord Stanley's mug. An underdog to win a series and a longshot to win it all.
And the Wild are playing the recent Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks are loaded with talent; Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane. Their was the question of goaltending at the start of the season, but Corey Crawford has been great. The consensus is that the Hawks are the team to beat in the West.
Winner: Blackhawks
This isn't the Red Wings we knew in years past. There's no Nicklas Lidstrom. End of story. It's just not the same team.
The Ducks have been an off-and-on team for years with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. They even won a Stanley Cup a few years back. I don't think this team has the depth to make it far in the playoffs, but I do think they have enough to handle the Wings. Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne are getting older by the day.
Winner: Ducks
For the 1st time in a long while, the Sharks aren't expected to do anything this playoff. They're suppose to boy out to the much better Canucks. And with perenial non-playoff performers like Joe Thornton, they have every excuse. But remember, they are very deep in talent and someday, if Joe is willing, they might surprise in the playoffs. And don't forget, that's a Cup winning goalie between the pipes; Anti Niemi.
The Canucks are very much like the Sharks of a few years ago. Some playoff success, but everybody expected so much more. And because of injury, they'll be starting the playoffs with long-time playoff disappointment Roberto Luongo in net. Whichever team loses this series, will cement their reputation as playoff losers.
Winner: Canucks
An extremely talented team that should have little problem taking care of the Blues. But I'm not sure a team led by the party boys (Jeff Carter and Mike Richards) can make it two years in a row. I'm thinking the hangover from last summer hasn't quite warn off yet.
The Blues are... well... a blue colar team. No stars and a lot of names even I don't recognize. Just a lot of hard work. Their goaltending load was split between three goalies. It's very rare that teams with no talent advance in the playoffs.
Winner: Kings
The worst run organization in the NHL made the playoffs on the back of their one superstar John Tavares. That's about as far as they'll get. I doubt they could handle an injury riddled Penguins lineup in a seven game series. And the Pens are getting healthy.
If Sidney Crosby returns to the form he displayed early this year, then we might see a 16 game winning streak. Unless... remember last year... total collapse of the flower.
Winner: Penguins
Senators played way over their heads all year. Now they have a healthy Erik Karlsson and Craig Anderson. They can steal a round, at most.
The Canadiens are looking back between the pipes and putting their faith in Carey Price. A career 8-15 playoff record. This might be Price's last chance. If he falters again, then the fans in Montreal might start calling for a change.
Winner: Canadiens
I really liked the makeup of the Rangers at the start of the season. Things didn't go as expect and the team was rebuilt mid-season. Mid-season of an already short season. Henrik Lundqvist could put the team on his back lead them thru a few playoff rounds, but I doubt it. Teams rebuilt mid-season rarely go anywhere in the playoffs.
Alex Ovechkin is on fire and we're heading into the playoffs. This team is gonna live and die on his stick. I don't see much problem dispensing the Rangers. Then... in the 2nd round, it's OV time or bust.
Winner: Capitals
As a long-time Leafs fan, what a relief. Playoff games. Everything sits on James Reimer's shoulders. They're a tough and fast team that can score. Can they keep the puck out of the net? Reimer did it all year.
The Bruins are either the toughest team in the playoffs or the 2nd toughest. And the Leafs are either the toughest or 2nd. Expect a lot of hitting. Fighting. Injuries. Whomever wins is likely gonna get beat the next round anyway. This is war.
Winner: Bruins
Over the next few months, Talk-Sports is gonna name the Baseball Chicks of the Web. Fans can submit videos on YouTube showing us that you are a baseball chick. Include the words talksportsnet baseballchick (baseballchick is one word) in the title or description of the video to be eligible for selection (actually... so we can easily find them).
Here are some ideas for your videos.
We will select 2 to 10 baseball chicks, depending on how many videos we get. Those selected will be official Talk-Sports Baseball Chicks and they will be featured on the Talk-Sports website. The Baseball Chicks will then compete online to become the Ultimate Baseball Chick.
All selected Baseball Chicks will receive free bronze memberships on Talk-Sports. The Ultimate Baseball Chick will receive 2 tickets to a baseball game at their local MLB ballpark. If you would like to co-sponsor this contest by adding to our prize pool, then please contact us at webmaster@talk-sports.net.
This week, my son and I attended the Blue Jays v Royals Blackberry Tweeting Tuesday game. Every Tuesday is Tweeting Tuesday. We sat 11 rows back down the 3rd base line. The tickets were less than $90 for both of us.
Driving there was a nightmare as I stupidly drove right thru the Exhibition grounds, where the annual Canadian Exhibition was being held. Still had to buy tix. Lucky I was way early and we still caught the 1st pitch. The walk up crowd was big, but they still only had 20,000 fans at the game.
First inning, we bought two required hotdogs. Mmmmm. Ketchup for the son. Mustard for me.
Later in the game, my son wanted a poutines. Very disappointing. The gravy was so thin that it simply runs to the bottom of the container forming a gravy soup. Rogers Centre needs to learn how to make a poutine.
The CN tower view from inside the Rogers Centre.
Two fans stormed the field and were tackled by security and escorted by police. The police shown took forever. The 1st cop had his guy off the field before this guy finished his donut. LOL
Night view of the CN tower after the fame.
Downtown Toronto.
The Blue Jays always lose when we go. They were down 6-0 in the 5th. Lost 6-4. Escobar hit a 3 run homer, which was the highlight of the game.
Nic Harris of the NFL Carolina Panthers sent us a video acknowledging his Talk-Sports fans, which we used to replace his girlfriend forum.
http://www.talk-sports.net/nfl/girlfriend.aspx/Nic_Harris
This is part of a program where we replace the girlfriend forums for players who are concerned about the content on their girlfriend forums. Please see the link for more details.
Bruins v Habs (0-2)
The biggest surprise of the playoffs is the Bruins complete lack of offense; one goal in two games. This is due to three reasons; solid play from the Canadians defense (Gill, Subban, Sopel, Spacek, Hamrlik, Wisniewski and forwards Moen, Plekanec), good goaltending from Carey Price and weak shoots from the Bruins. As much as Carey Price has made the saves, the shot difficult is making Price look even better. Down 2-0 and going to Montreal, this series could be over quickly.
Pens v Lightning (1-1)
Not a surprise, without Crosby and Malkin, the Pens will be hard pressed to win this series. One great goaltending performance by Fleury has kept this team in the series. Interesting side note; Craig Adams has 6 goals in the last 3 regular seasons (207 games) and 6 goals in the last 3 playoffs (39 games). If Crosby comes back, then they still have a chance, but I see the Lightning taking this now that they have home ice advantage.
Caps v Rangers (2-0)
I didn't expect the Rangers to be able to keep up with the Capitals and they haven't. Only Matt Gilroy has scored for the Rangers. Lundqvist is gonna have to steal a game or two to get this team back in the series. Looks like a Capitals sweep is possible.
Flyers v Sabres (1-1)
Miller stole game one but the Flyers offense was too much in game two. With Miller injured, I didn't think the Sabres had much of a chance, but stole home ice advantage. The biggest difference in this series may turn out to be the lack of Chris Pronger. Normally, Pronger would be wearing down the Sabres forwards. Add something redundant about Flyers goaltending here. This looks like a 7 gamer. Then flip a coin.
Wings v Yotes (2-0)
It's called the Pavel Datsyuk show. Even without Henrik Zetterberg, the Wings are simply too much for the Yotes. Bryzgalov hasn't been at his best. He really needs to step it up at home and steal both games for his team or it's over. I doubt the Wings will sweep and that's all I got for the Coyotes' fans.
Sharks v Kings (1-1)
There's no reason the Kopitar-less Kings should be in this series. Well, except that Joe Thornton is up to his playoff disappearing act once again. In game 2 on the power play, Big Joe was fed the puck in the slot. He didn't even try to shoot. He skated behind the net, then out to the half boards and shot from there. Going the other way, Drew Doughty scored 4 pts giving him 11 points in 8 career playoff games. I see this going 7 games.
Canucks v Hawks (2-0)
Kane, Toews, Sharp and Hossa have combined for 1 assist in the 1st two games of this series. It might simply be fatigue. All four players have played an enormous amounts of hockey over the last 2-3 yrs. The Canucks look like he team to beat. Three lines are contributing and six d-men. And they have a pretty good goalie. Unless the Hawks win both at home, they could be done in 5.
Ducks v Preds (1-1)
Mike Fisher stole game 1 for the Preds and now they have home ice advantage in this series. The Ducks Big 4 (Selanne, Ryan, Perry and Getzlaf) showed up big time in game 2, each scoring a goal. This series is gonna be a showdown between the big 4 and Pekka Rinne. The series should go 6 or 7 games.
Who won? Lot's of team. Forget all the small trades, let's go thru the big ones. I'm only going to discuss those made on trade day.
Otherall winner is Florida. Picking up Evan Oberg, Samsonov, Hauswirth, Bergfors, Rissmiller, Kennedy and three 3rds. No blue chip prospects, but a lot of them. Unloaded salary and they are gonna suck for the next 20 games. Sign players in the off-season and start all over. I like it. Fans aren't gonna like the remainder of the season. But this is how you build. Brian Burke?
Summer Vacation, Day 23, July 31st 2010.
The Saturday of the Pocono weekend was the 1st Camping World Truck race held there. Big day. But let's start with breakfast. Like my setup? That's my propane grill on top of my mounted dual purpose firepit-charcoal grill. I have it all.
I refer to my kids as ABC (their 1st initials), so when we say ABC hashbrowns, we bought in.
Gotta love this bar slash golf cart. NASCAR fans have the greatest golf carts.
View from the rooftops. Some of these rooftop contraptions are amazing.
Let's go truck race.
My tat. LOL! Temp. Lame. FAIL!
Awesome M&M golf carts.
The neighbors on the corner had the Nationwide race on TV for all to watch. My kids took advantage. These neighbors always occupy the same spot opposite fenceline site #1.
They also host beer pong and flip cup games. I rock at flip cup. After the guys lost about six games in-a-row, I showed them a couple tricks, joined in and we kicked the girls asses. I hit my 1st and only flip. I'm king of flip cup. I would've played longer, but I had the three kids.
Pics of all the Spring Cup favs during practice earlier in the day.
Possibly Cody Hodgson's last salute to the fans of the Brampton Battalion. He was 3rd star in the fourth game of the Colts sweep of the Battalion.
Fans salute Mike Modano.
Thanks to one of our premier users, we were just informed that there's a lawsuit against Talk-Sports. Fortunate that you user informed us, because we've never heard of the lawsuit. The suppose lawsuit relates to comments posted on the Sidney Crosby forums about his supposed girlfriend Marketa Linden. We have received two abuse complaints from Marketa, but they were entirely exaggerated. This appears to be Marketa's blog. See the link below.
Darian Durant left a message for his Talk-Sports fans. Check it out!
http://www.talk-sports.net/cfl/girlfriend.aspx/Darian_Durant
Majic Dorsey became the 4th athlete to take us up on our latest program to shut down his girlfriend blog. Check out the message he left for his Talk-Sports fans.
http://www.talk-sports.net/nbdl/girlfriend.aspx/Majic_Dorsey
On the other hand, with Toews and Kane, they'll be competitive for years to come. Better than the Leafs or Isles or Canes.
Phil Disher became the 3rd athlete to take us up on our latest program to shut down his girlfriend blog. Check out the message he left for his Talk-Sports fans.
