Showing posts with label NHL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHL. Show all posts

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Thursday night ramblings

A busy Thursday in the world of sports, here's a look...

- I start tonight with the stupidity of Bears WR Sam Hurd. Hurd was arrested and remains in jail tonight after he allegedly attempted to buy over half a million dollars in cocaine and marijuana from a supplier in North Texas. Words can't even start to explain how dumb you would have to be to do that, if Hurd did. Any pro athlete who would pull something like that needs an one-way ticket out of the league.
- I move on now to the world of IndyCar where the accident that killed Dan Wheldon to end last season was a "perfect storm". Wheldon hit his head on a pole that held the fencing up around the track. A very sad story and a great example of why race car driving is always a dangerous thing to do.
- A concussion has once again ended a season early for a NHL player as Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger will sit out the rest of the season with post-concussion symptoms. Hockey is a violent sport in its nature and big-time hits are a part of the game but when a lot of your major names are sitting on the bench, it hurts the game. I've talked about Sidney Crosby in the past, don't know what to fix but something has to.
- A commentary on Los Angeles pro basketball and things that may be happening. Rumors are swirling now that Kobe Bryant is upset over recent events with the Lakers and may want out. The Clippers have got a lot better with Chris Paul but are still not a dominant team with just two stars. Will the battles at the Staples Center be better? Yes but I don't think Kobe has anything to worry about.
- With the recent warmer weather in the country, thoughts head toward baseball and that spring training is only 2 months away. It appears one team is trying real hard to get their fans back on board. The Cubs put in a claim on Yu Darvish and reports state they are about to go hard after Prince Fielder. If both happen, I don't see any reason why the North Siders don't win the NL Central.
- Last a reminder that college bowl season starts this Saturday with three games. I will have predictions the day of each game for you if you want to use them for your bowl pool in your office or wherever you are playing at.

That's it for tonight, more in the morning.....

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Time to open up Tuesday

A look at what is up this morning....

- There were thoughts that a preliminary hearing would expose us to some of the accusers of former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky today but Sandusky decided to waive his hearing and move everything straight to trial. This is going to be a very long, painful case for the public to go through depending on how much we hear about it or don't want to hear about it. If he's guilty though, put him away for as long as possible.
- One thing that was thought to come out of the Penn State scandal was will the current recruits stay committed? Well, the Nittany Lions' top recruit has decided to go elsewhere as Tommy Schutt from the suburbs of Chicago changed his commitment to Ohio State over the weekend. Whoever takes over this program is going to have a TON of work to do to make it revelant in a good way again.
- In more positive college football news, the Mountain West Conference will ask for an automatic qualifier for the BCS for the 2012 and 2013 season. This is an obvious move to me as Boise State, which finished 7th in the BCS standings is not in one of those bowls while Michigan (13th), Clemson (15th) and West Virginia (23rd) are in. The conference champion route isn't working because if Alabama beats LSU, then the Crimson Tide will win the national title without even winning a conference title. Playoff, anyone?
- NFL-wise, the Seahawks destroyed the Rams on Monday night and are still in playoff contention with three weeks to play. Even though the 49ers have clinched the NFL West, Seattle and the Arizona Cardinals have each rallied to go to 6-7 on the year and are two games behind Detroit and Atlanta for the final playoff spot. Always good to keep hope up as long as possible and remember Seattle made the playoffs last season with a losing record and upset New Orleans in the playoffs.
- The firing train made a move to the NHL Monday with the firing of Los Angeles Kings coach Terry Murray. One problem with this....Murray led the Kings to the highest winning percentage of any coach in team history, back-to-back playoff appearances and because of a slow start, he gets fired? Come on now, give the guy some credit here but no time for waiting we all see.
- More hockey this morning as Sidney Crosby is out again with concussion-like symptoms. This is something that is truly scary and I think Crosby needs to take a good, hard look if he wants to continue playing or not. We've seen with a lot of the old-time NFL players what the damage can be from multiple concussions. Yes, Crosby is only 24 but this is something he should really consider.

That's all for now, more analysis tonight and trivia coming up in the midday.....

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Spinning Wheel

Welcome back into the Manager's office, here is the latest...

- The revolving door of coaching in the NHL continues to spin as the Ducks fired Randy Carlyle to hire just fired coach Bruce Boudreau. Are all the teams just going to fire their coaches next and shuffle them around the league?
- Speaking of coaches, Mike Leach is back and this time he's at Washington State. I'm sure Leach will bring his high-powered pass-first offense to the Great Northwest but there is one slight issue especially in that region....what happens when it rains like it does a lot there? Think about it.
- How about the Big Ten in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, winning 8 of the 12 games? This is a shift that has been happening for some time now, Big Ten basketball is getting better and while the ACC is always going to be good with Duke and North Carolina....the Big Ten has made strides.
- Football on the slate tonight as the Eagles go to Seattle to face the Seahawks? Philly has been a MAJOR disappointment this season but the Hawks have lost Sidney Rice for the season now with a concussion. I see the Eagles getting through this one, 24-10.

Short and sweet to start the day, more later.....