Sports commentariat meme of idiocy

This year in NBA playoff action, the youthful Atlanta Hawks surprised most folks by taking the top-seeded Boston Celtics to seven games in their first round series. Much on-air guffawing could be heard several times throughout that series:

These young [Atlanta] players don’t know any better, heh heh, they don’t know they’re supposed to lose!

Meanwhile, in NHL playoff action, the New York Rangers were facing elimination against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They were down 2-0 in the third period of game 5 when two Ranger rookies scored and sent the game to OT. Between periods, the talking monkeys in the studios of Versus chuckled,

These young [Ranger] players! They don’t know any better! har har har!

Well, I guess that explains why playoff-bound teams always trade for rookies at the trading deadline.

 

Goalie love

I love hockey goalies and their quirks. I love trying to see what’s painted on their masks. I love watching what different goalies do before the first period begins – and I don’t just mean the stretching. I love watching how they scuff up their creases, what little mini-drills they do, and so on. So I NEED to see this (bold emphasis is mine):

The [Calgary Hitmen] freshman [goaltender Juha Metsola], who dances in his crease prior to every game, kicked out the right pad twice to rob T.J. Galiardi and then Brandon Kozun on the rebound.

If/when the Thunderbirds host the Hitmen next season, I am so. there.

 

Versus = b*stards

On Monday I wanted to watch game 6 of the PHL-WAS playoff series. I recorded it, because only suckers watch sports live with commercials, right? And besides, I was making chicken stock, and baking muffins, and weeding the lawn, and had book club, etc. Hey, I’m unemployed but I’m leading a Very Full Life.

Well, I don’t know if Versus decided last-minute to change which game they’d carry or what, but instead of PHL-WAS as advertised, I got game 7 of BOS-MON. Which was a good game, sure, and Cary “Jesus” Price played great. But it is not the game I wanted to see. Grrrr. On the plus side, I didn’t have to witness Philadelphia blow a 2-0 lead and lose 4-2. Now they’ll have to play a game 7 in Washington :-(

 

That’s dedication

Casually tucked into a section of odds and ends at the bottom of this write-up of Tuesday’s Flyers-Caps game was this little note:

Flyers forward Patrick Thoresen was on the fourth line four days after a puck to the groin sent him to the hospital and nearly cost him a testicle

 

Postponing the inevitable

Well, the T-birds’ season ended on Friday in Tri-cities as I feared. I mentioned that I’ve been in denial about their move 25 miles south to Kent. Well, it turns out there is a small speck of good news:

The T-Birds will leave Key- Arena, their home since the 1989-90 season, in favor of the more hockey-friendly Kent Events Center during the 2008-09 season. The arena is scheduled to open in January 2009, so the team expects to play some games at KeyArena while construction on the 6,025-seat Kent arena is completed.

I’ll take it!

 

Tri-cities 3, T-birds 2 (OT)

Rats. This game was a lot like game 3: the T-birds scored first, then the Americans scored two goals, then the T-birds tied it up. They worked hard, and took more shots than in game 3. Still, the Americans are impressively strong on defense. Very frustrating.

Unfortunately, the T-birds were penalized near the end of the third period, so Tri-cities had a power play in OT. They scored the winning goal just 45 seconds into the overtime period.  

I hope this isn’t the last game we’ll ever see at the Key. If they lose game 5 Friday, the season’s over. I’ve been in denial a bit about the T-birds moving to Kent next year.

p.s. Scott Jackson: UR DOIN IT WRONG.

p.p.s. Wendy posted her impressions of Tuesday’s game, complete with photos. Cool!

 

Tri-cities 3, T-birds 2

After splitting the first two games away (T-birds won 7-1 in game 1, but were shut out 4-0 in game 2), the series moved back to Seattle. Last night, the T-birds scored first on a very nice goal by Jim O’Brien, but the game was tied 2-2 heading into the third period.

The game was pretty good, but the Tri-City Americans definitely outworked us with tighter forechecking,winning the battles for loose pucks, and taking many more shots on goal. After having an amazing 30% conversion on their power play in the first round, the Birds failed to make use of any man-advantage situations last night while giving up two power play goals themselves. And losing Hickey to a concussion in game 1 is bad news indeed. Hopefully tonight’s game will be more successful.

The disappointing outcome was made more tolerable by the presence of Wendy, however!

 

How cool is THIS!

Lists like this are generally kind of silly; still it’s great to see a female hockey player getting recognized like this:

Canadian women’s hockey superstar Hayley Wickenheiser is one tough customer — the 20th-toughest customer, to be exact.

This, according to a new top 25 ranking of the world’s toughest athletes posted on Sports Illustrated’s website Tuesday.

Oh, and don’t tell Comcast, but it seems we might suddenly be receiving the NHL Center Ice package at our house. We aren’t supposed to be getting all the regional FSN channels as far as I know. Score!

 

T-birds 4, Kelowna 2

Yeah!! The Thunderbirds didn’t close the deal in game 6 in Kelowna – losing in overtime. But they delivered in game 7. Second round starts in Tri-City this weekend, with games 3 and 4 at the Key next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gotta give the boys tons of credit. They fought off a LOT of penalties during the game, including a 5-on-3 for nearly two minutes, and nearly six consecutive minutes of 5-on-4. The crowd was really into the penalty killing, cheering like mad whenever the T-birds cleared the puck.

Kelowna cut the lead to one goal late in the 3rd period, and pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. Still the T-birds did a great job, winning battles, and Greg Scott put away an empty net goal to raise the score to 4-2, which is how the game ended.

No doubt Tri-City will be an even more formidable opponent – they were the top team in the league this season. In fact, the top three teams in the Western conference (Tri-City, Vancouver, Spokane) were the top three teams in the league, so… yikes.

 

T-birds 6, Kelowna 2

WOOO! The T-birds, after going down 2 games to none, have won 3 straight. Game 5 on Thursday night was an exciting game in which they did just about everything right. On one of Kelowna’s power plays, Jan Eberle was a one-man penalty kill, seeming to defend against three guys at once, in their own end! It was just that kind of night.

Let’s hope they win Saturday in Kelowna and close this thing out! GO T-BIRDS!