The View From Wisconsin

Just a random set of rants from a Sports Fan from Wisconsin.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Dreary Sunday

It's scary when you find out that your last name was the name of a Polish post-grunge metal band that disbanded in 2003 - via Google search.

Anyways:
Thought of the day: "Life is what happens to us between hockey games." - Fred Shero.

My personal observation: "I'd really prefer if I didn't have much of a life after tomorrow." (Admirals and Predators are both in elimination games tomorrow evening...)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

If you're not the lead dog...

I have come to an agonizing conclusion in the sports world:

If you're not in New York, Boston, DC, Chicago, Dallas or LA, the only way anyone who cares about sports is going to give you the time of day is if you win a championship. Otherwise, they'll give you thirty seconds of airtime, then move on to something else.

Case in point - today's Nashville/Chicago playoff game on NBC. Doc Emmerick and Eddie Olczyk spent maybe about 30 seconds analyzing David Legwand's first goal of the game, with maybe one or two replays. When Andrew Ladd scored a few minutes later - BAM! About a dozen different angles, and about a good minute or two droning on about how Ladd got left all alone, how the play was set up, blah blah blah.

For all the times that Emmerick dropped Shea Weber and Ryan Suter's names on the Olympic hockey telecasts, you'd think they might have spent a little less time analyzing a game-tying goal. But no - because the goal was scored by the home team, the one who plays in the Big City, you gotta spend countless minutes analyzing how the light reflecting off of Jonathan Toews' skate blades blinded the hapless defender just long enough to cause a turnover that led to a goal... Oy.

There are times when I would wish nothing more than for all four major league team sports to not have a single team from any of the Big Six cities in their post-season dances. But the odds are too good that they will have at least one.

Monday, April 19, 2010

2010 NHL Goals Created All-Stars

2010 FINAL NATIONAL LEAGUE GOALS CREATED/HART/VEZINA POINTS ALL-STARS

NHL GOALS CREATED TOP 10
_Player____________Tm_Pos_GP__G__A_PTS_+/-_PM_ATOI___GC__
Alex Ovechkin......WAS LW 72 50 59 109 +45 89 21.80 149.2
Henrik Sedin.......VAN CE 82 29 83 112
+35 48 19.65 144.4
Nicklas Backstrom..WAS CE 82 33 68 101
+37 50 20.45 135.3
Sidney Crosby......PIT CE 81 51 58 109
+15 71 21.95 120.2
Daniel Sedin
.......VAN LW 63 29 56 .85 +36 28 19.08 119.5
Alexander Semin....WAS LW 73 40 44 .84
+36 66 19.12 116.5
Mike Green
.........WAS DF 75 19 57 .76 +39 54 25.48 112.1
Zach Parise
........NJD LW 81 38 44 .82 +24 32 19.77 104.3
Joe Thornton
.......SAN CE 79 20 69 .89 +17 54 19.85 103.1
Patrick Kane
.......CHI RW 82 30 58 .88 +16 20 19.20 102.9

HART TROPHY ALL-STARS
EASTERN CONFERENCE

C - Sidney Crosby, PIT (81 GP, 120.2 GC, 167.1 FPTS, 105.1 HART)
LW - Alex Ovechkin, WAS (72 GP, 149.2 GC, 201.5 FPTS*, 127.4 HART*)
RW - Marian Gaborik, NYR (76 GP, 99.0 GC, 137.9 FPTS, 83.9 HART)
D - Mike Green, WAS (75 GP, 112.1 GC, 148.0 FPTS, 110.5 HART)
D - Chris Pronger, PHI (82 GP, 72.8 GC, 106.0 FPTS, 77.3 HART)
G - Martin Brodeur, NJD (77 GP, 187.25 FPTS, 56.98 HART*, 134.11 VZNA)
G - Ryan Miller, BUF (69 GP, 177.36 FPTS, 49.19 HART, 131.47 VZNA)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

C - Henrik Sedin, VAN (82 GP, 144.4 GC, 166.6 FPTS, 101.8 HART)
LW - Daniel Sedin, VAN (63 GP, 119.5 GC, 143.8 FPTS, 83.7 HART)
RW - Patrick Kane, CHI (82 GP, 102.9 GC, 126.8 FPTS, 73.5 HART)
D - Duncan Keith, CHI (82 GP, 87.3 GC, 108.3 FPTS, 86.7 HART)
D - Drew Doughty, LOS (82 GP, 76.1 GC, 110.0 FPTS, 77.5 HART)
G - Evgeni Nabokov, SAN (71 GP, 182.35 FPTS, 52.58 HART, 135.72 VZNA*)
G - Craig Anderson, COL (71 GP, 177.21 FPTS, 52.42 HART, 131.53 VZNA)
G - Ilya Bryzgalov, PHX (69 GP, 182.21 FPTS, 51.32 HART, 134.94 VZNA)

THE ALL-ROOKIE TEAM

C - Matt Duchene, COL (81 GP, 55.1 GC, 79.9 FPTS, 39.9 HART)
C - John Tavares, NYI (82 GP, 37.8 GC, 66.6 FPTS, 31.2 HART)
LW - T.J. Galiardi, COL (70 GP, 43.5 GC, 55.8 FPTS, 30.1 HART)
RW - Niclas Bergfors, NJD/ATL (81 GP, 33.5 GC, 54.4 FPTS, 22.6 HART)
D - Tyler Myers, BUF (82 GP, 59.3 GC, 74.7 FPTS, 53.0 HART**)
D - Ryan Wilson, COL (61 GP, 32.1 GC, 42.7 FPTS, 20.3 HART)
D - Cody Franson, NAS (61 GP, 35.1 GC, 41.9 FPTS, 18.2 HART)
G - Jimmy Howard, DET (63 GP, 156.88 FPTS, 43.43 HART, 123.52 VZNA)
G - Tuukka Rask, BOS (45 GP, 110.33 FPTS, 22.87 HART, 93.54 VZNA)

THE NO-STAR TEAM

C - Rod Brind'Amour, CAR (80 GP, -11.9 GC, 2.7 FPTS, -2.0 HART)
LW - Kyle Calder, ANA (14 GP, -5.4 GC, -3.1 FPTS, -2.0 HART)
RW - Fernando Pisani, EDM (40 GP, -8.5 GC, -5.6 FPTS, -3.4 HART)
D - Steve Staios, EDM/CGY (58 GP, -21.0 GC*, 3.1 FPTS, -5.6 HART)
D - Taylor Corney, EDM (42 GP, -18.6 GC, -15.1 FPTS#, -9.8 HART#)
G - Patrick Lalime, BUF (16 GP, 14.08 FPTS, 2.76 HART, 35.04 VZNA)
G - Devan Dubnyk, EDM (19 GP, 15.75 FPTS, 3.76 HART, 37.81 VZNA)
G - Yan Danis, NJD (12 GP, 12.55 FPTS#, 0.97 HART#, 22.41 VZNA#)

* - League Leader. ** - Leading Rookie. # - Worst in league (VZNA based on 10 GP minimum).

Thursday, April 01, 2010

RED WINGS SOLD TO BALSILLIE!

According to a news article posted on Topeka, Research In Motion magnate Jim Balsillie purchased the Detroit Red Wings from Little Caesar's Pizza honcho Mike Illitch.

Details were sketchy, but it's believed that Balsillie will move the team to Hamilton, Ontario for the 2010-11 season.

A press conference was scheduled for today at 4:01 PM.

No word as of yet from the NHL about the sale.

(If you can't guess by the reference to "Topeka" that this is a joke, you're obviously too far gone.)