I have written here many times that there is nothing better than Game 7 hockey, and we will get two of those games tomorrow night (with a chance of more depending on what happens in games tonight).
The Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres face off early tomorrow night in Philly, with the winner moving on. I admit that I was hoping that the Sabres could have ousted the Flyers yesterday in Game 6 in New York State. Like most people outside of Philadelphia, I have no great love of the Flyers, especially after the way they played against the Blackhawks in last year’s Stanley Cup finals.
Speaking of the defending champions, long time readers know that I was ready to write them off when they almost didn’t make the playoffs, and people who work with me thought I was ready to write them off again when they fell down 3-0 against the now hated Vancouver Canucks, but I was mostly sad – not because they were down, but because they had showed so little fire in those three games, and like they had done all year, built themselves a deep hole.
But they have crawled back to tie the series and what I said could doom Vancouver has occurred. The Blackhawks have spooked Canuck goalie Roberto Luongo so badly, that if someone in an Indianhead sweater said “boo” he would jump 5 feet. It’s funny how fragile goalies’ psyches can be.
The bigger point is that even if the Canucks win tomorrow night, the team has said that they don’t have faith in him when they benched him last night for game 6. Add to that the fact that the President’s Cup winner, the team with the most regular season points, which was won by the Canucks this season, have won Lord Stanley’s Cup only 29% of the time since 1985. So, I’m picking the Hawks tomorrow night in British Columbia and then the uphill battle continues, becasue we would face the dreaded hated Detroit Red Wings.
Tonight, the Lightning and Kings have home games hoping to send their series to Game 7s against the Penguins and Sharks respectively. Personally, I am amazed with Pittsburgh, having finished near the top of the league without their superstar Sidney Crosby who went out with a concussion in February and has yet to return.
And speaking of potential chokes, no team in the NHL and perhaps in all of professional sports has had a Tin Man-like need for a heart more that San Jose. They finish at or near the top of the standings every year, but they either lose in the first round, or, if they do advance, reach a point when they seem to just pack it in. They did that last season against Chicago – they fell behind the eventual champions and they folded like a house of cards.
And let us not forget the Original Six showdown in Montreal tomorrow night as the Habs face the Boston Bruins in Game 6. Until game 5 yesterday when the Bruins defeated the Canadians in two overtimes 2-1, no home team had won yet in the first four games.
No matter the outcome, the Stanley Cup playoffs are the best!

I know that I have two children named after female British monarchs, and I love James Bond, Doctor Who and Monty Python, so I’m an Anglophile. However, I was able to avoid the pomp and pageantry when Prince Charles married Diana 30 years ago, and I will not pay much attention to their son William and his marriage to Kate Middleton Friday morning at 3:00 AM Eastern Time.
BBC America is showing the wedding live, and has dedicated a great deal of its programming this week to all things royal – movies, docudramas, documentaries on the current and past royals. That’s all fine – I’ve seen Elizabeth II twice as she went by in a carriage once and a car another time. I have a great picture of the late Princess Diana, and while she was as nutty as any of the other royals, she was very pretty, and I did like to look at her.
But I won’t be getting up for this one, and I won’t be buying any plates, action figures, or any of the other assorted knick knacks that come along with this one. I hope Ms. Middleton is ready for what she has coming – that is a wacky family. Inbreeding is one thing, but they are also crazy. I do however wish them luck, like every other couple getting married.

One thing that I didn’t write on last week, but the mainstream media made a big thing out of was the status of the NFL Lockout. A lot has been made of Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s suggestion that the sides continue to negotiate while she finalizes her ruling on the player’s lawsuit to end the lockout, but really, not much was going to be done until the Judge’s ruling comes in, because that is when we determine which side has leverage and momentum.
If Judge Nelson rules with the players (which I suspect will occur), the lockout will be lifted and the owners will lose their strongest tactic. If the judge rules for the owners, the lockout can continue, and the fissures that have developed among groups of players will grow. At that point, the owners can “starve out” the players; meaning as players need paychecks, they will become more desperate for an agreement.
So, both sides are waiting (as are we). The beneficiaries will be those college players entering the league in this week’s draft. Without free agency, teams couldn’t bid on current players and address needs that way. A lot of linemen, linebackers, and secondary players will get drafted higher than they would have otherwise, and they stand to make more money because team GMs don’t know the status of potential free agent players.
As in most years, the NFL Draft will be interesting and good television, but the 8-billion pound gorilla will be hanging over the draft like a shroud.

I guess the NCAA isn’t just going to let Ohio State punish football coach Jim Tressel with a five game suspension next season. The NCAA seems a little pissed off. In a “notice of allegations” sent to the school, the organization said that the alleged violations relating to the coach are considered “potential major violations,” because Tressel “falsely attested” that he reported all knowledge of NCAA violations to the school.
Tressel admitted that he knew in April 2010 that some of his players including quarterback Terrell Pryor were involved with a local tattoo-parlor owner and were trading memorabilia for cash and tattoos. The players were suspended in December of 2010 for the first five games this fall, as was Tressel, which caused a controversy since the players were allowed to play in OSU’s bowl game.
Ohio State must go before the NCAA’s committee on infractions Aug. 12 and it may not be pretty.

One can only be saddened about the situation between Miami Dolphins receiver Brandon Marshall and his wife. Last Friday afternoon, authorities say Michi Nogami-Marshall stabbed her husband in the abdomen with a kitchen knife. She is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and is free on $7,500 bail. Ms. Nogami-Marshall told investigators she acted in self-defense. Marshall was released from the hospital Saturday and is expected to fully recover.
All too often, we hear about athletes and domestic abuse, mostly as perpetrators, but sometimes as in this instance, as victims. As I’ve said too many times here, I feel sorry for professional athletes, especially football players. Can the athlete completely trust any woman who wants to marry him because is she there for him or for his money and notoriety? At the same time, he has many opportunities to stray – lots of women who want to sleep with him, again for money or notoriety.
Even though there is no evidence to suggest that this has any relevance in this case, from the outside, we have to wonder if performance enhancing drugs are involved. “’Roid rage” could explain the possibility that Marshall attacked his wife and she stabbed him to defend herself. On the other hand, there are crazy wives out there too, like Dwayne Wade’s ex-wife.
These situations are sad, as are the suggestions that we have to make as fans watching through the media.

As soon as I read about this, I went into a full borne monster testosterone fit. My alma mater Northwestern has scheduled a home-and-home football series against Notre Dame. You must understand – other than the births of the Indignant Children; and marrying the Indignant Wife, the greatest day of my life was September 2, 1995 when NU defeated ND 17-15 at Notre Dame Stadium.
Among the “I Hates” at the top of this site, none is stronger than my hatred for Notre Dame. A 1,000 year losing streak would be a good start. Why? When I was growing up, they were white America’s college football team. They had few black players and the ones they did were squeaky clean. Add to that the fact that with the exception of two ND alums I’ve known, most of them are a$$holes who expect the team to compete for the national championship every year as if by imperial fiat.
Even worse than the alums are the fans, especially plentiful on the South Side of Chicago who couldn’t get into Notre Dame if they were spotted 1,500 SAT points. These people are rooting for “the Irish” even though few players anymore are Irish, Catholic, or white for that matter.
So, I will be looking for a 70-0 pasting on Nov. 15, 2014 at Notre Dame Stadium, and hope for an even worse beating of The Irish at Ryan Field in 2018.

A Major League Baseball player that hits .750 would be the best player on the planet, and a case can now be made that Barry Bonds, already the sport’s all time home run king is truly Hall of fame material after being convicted of only 1 of the 4 counts against him in Federal Court.
Years after the allegations first surfaced, the trial of Barry Bonds has finally come to an end and to some observers, the only way it could. Without the testimony of Bonds’ trainer Gregg Anderson, the case that Bonds lied about taking steroids is hearsay and, as expected, those charges deadlocked the jury and ended in mistrial. There was little doubt that Bonds obstructed justice, and that’s what he was found guilty of.
Now comes the question, does the prosecution spend million more dollars on retrying Bonds on the perjury charges, knowing that any subsequent trial would more than likely remain in San Francisco, where Bonds was an icon to baseball fans. Most pundits are saying that despite the guilty verdict calling for 15 to 18 months in prison, Bonds won’t do any time.
The biggest winners could be Roger Clemens and Lance Armstrong, also awaiting trial on cases of lying about taking performance enhancing substances. Is the evidence against them any more solid than against Bonds?
Meanwhile, MLB Commissioner continues in his bunker hoping that the whole storm will blow over even as Marry Ramirez retires rather than face a 100 game suspension. Bonds, Ramirez, Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark MacGwire and many others are probably never going to make the Baseball Hall of Fame. Is that punishment enough?