NHL Hockey: Concentrate on Winning the Second Half

As Bear Bryant once famously said, "Don't give up at halftime, concentrate on winning the second half." And that's pretty much all that hockey players and fans can do at this point. With only 48 games to play in the season left from the lockout, the NHL teams have half the time to work for that three and a half foot trophy that is the oldest in North American sports; The Stanley Cup.

The Blackhawks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions

26 teams played today, for a total of 13 games sure to keep most (if not all) hockey fans content with their lives.

Games included:

NJ-NYI 2-1
PIT-PHI 3-1
COL-MIN 2-4
OTT-WPG 4-1
CHI-LA 5-2
NYR-BOS 1-3
TOR-MTL 2-1
WSH-TB 3-6
CAR-FLA 1-5
DET-STL 0-6
CBJ-NSH 3-2
PHX-DAL 3-4
ANA-VAN 7-3

Aging Martin Brodeur picked up a key win in today's game versus the Islanders

Now anyone who even knows a moderate amount notices that some of those scores are not what is normally predictable. St. Louis shutting out Detroit? Toronto beating Montreal? Anaheim crushing Vancouver? And these are not pre-season games, sparing fans the pain of how terrible their 3rd and 4th lines are. These are the big games, with the starting lineups.

With the depart of Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit was still expected to be a superior performance in this season, while the New Jersey Devils were expected to fall with the elderly Martin Brodeur in the crease. Pittsburgh defeated Philadelphia with the return of Wunderkid Sidney Crosby. Philadelphia appears to still have some goaltending problems in the way of Ilya Bryzgalov.

Detroit suffered a surprising shut out versus St. Louis; conference rivals

In perhaps the biggest upset of the day, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings, possibly showing their prowess to obtain the Cup once again in the 2000s. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, as well as Marian Hossa and goalie Corey Crawford showed true teamwork and offensive talent, enough to take on the league for the remainder of the 47 games.

Once again, the favorites to win the Cup include San Jose, Vancouver, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Boston. The West could come away with the trophy again, but as everyone knows, game 1 is far to early to be making predictions, regardless of the lack of games.

It's a Great Day for Hockey.

Down But Not Out: NHL Hockey Has Returned

Hockey is Home boys! 

Welcome home hockey fans. Brian Burke was finally fired, the Southeast teams are getting more dangerous, and Gary Bettman uttered his third apology for an NHL lockout. But, as any hockey fan can attest, the NHL is back, and better than ever. With a 10 year contract and 8 year opt-out, it will be a long, good while before fans have to deal without their beloved sport again.

Because in all honesty, 3 lockouts in a hockey fans lifetime is really ridiculous. Kids born in the early nineties raised off of their parents gushing about the likes of Gretzky and Lemieux and Yzerman and Howe became huge hockey fans, and have had to suffer 3 lockouts.

Let's put this into perspective, for those fans outside of hockey.

In the past 40 years there have been a total of 16 strikes and lockouts among the four major sports. This includes eight in Major League Baseball , three in the National Hockey League, three in the National Football League and two in the National Basketball Association.

Now, before all the baseball fans come bitching out of the woodwork, there was only one time a season was cancelled, and that was the 2004-2005 NHL lockout. True, the MLB lost a World Series, and the NFL lost  all but 9 games in 1982. See, the sympathy is available, but for hockey fans, it's just not acceptable. Three lockouts in a lifetime, including the loss of an entire season is just unimaginable. 

However, now the 2012-2013 NHL season is on. All of the planes for the next week or so will be filled with Russians, Finns, Americans, Canadians, and Swedes alike, coming back to the league that matters. (Although the KHL was pretty entertaining, and I feel bad for all the Russians with KHL season tickets who will show up to a team with just Ilya Kovalchuk.) Gary Bettman is the most hated man in hockey, Zach Parise is back in Minnesota, and the NHL still gets to bask in the glory of Martin Brodeur for one more season. 

Hockey is back, fans, so turn of that NFL 32, and pull out those dusty jerseys from the closet. 

The Luck Of The Irish Ends With Sweet Home Alabama

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Roll Tide, America. Alabama hasn't beat anyone this badly since the Civil Rights Movement. They embarrassed Notre Dame 42-12 for their third BSC Championship in four years, proving that the Irish's undefeated season wasn't enough to kick the SEC out of the NCAA Championship position for the 7th time in a row.

But, that is assuming Notre Dame played well enough to consider it a game. Not only did Bama have a 35 point unanswered shutout by the middle of the third quarter, Notre Dame failed to generate any kind of offense or defense. If anyone thought the BCS fans were insufferable before, wait until Notre Dame's fan base starts to make excuses for the inability for the defense to tackle anyone or anything for the first 3 quarters.

Let's be honest here, Notre Dame didn't even get off the bus. They got out classed, like a bunch of pee wee players who didn't know how to play football. It's just a shame that the time they showed this was the BCS Champion stage. Because, ignoring what PTI and ESPN say, Notre Dame football is back. Regardless of the complexity of their season, the difficulty, they were still undefeated. Through Michigan, and BYU, and Stanford and the horror of Pittsburgh, Notre Dame football was undefeated. And that itself will start a new era. It can't get any worse than it was in the late 90s and the early start of the 21st century.

So while Alabama can bask in it's College Championship glory for the time being, Notre Dame football is back, so from now on, Beware The Fighting Irish!

200 Million Dollar Mistakes: How the Yankees Failed the Bank

DETROIT- In an upset that landed them on the front page of the New York Times, the Detroit Tigers swept the New York Yankees for the American League Championship. The Yankees were the heavy favorites, with odds of almost 19-6 over the Tigers, posting stats like 804 runs and 245 home runs, but just couldn't pull it out, going 0-20 and 3-39 against Detroit in the series.

However, in all honesty, it's not that surprising. For years now the sports world has known that the accumulation of money and all-stars does not equal championships. Defense, teamwork and determination lead to championships, and it was blatantly obvious in this series that New York lacked all of the above.

In a surprising move, the Yankees benched Alex Rodriguez (left)

 

 

 

It's one of the criticisms of the Cap Hit in baseball, or lack-thereof: Building a team of multimillionaires is not only a waste of money, it's a waste of time and of distributable talent. Now, this is not saying the Yankees are without talent, quite the contrary. Between Derek Jeter and A-Rod alone, they have enough for a good team with pieces around them that don't cost 200 million dollars, but these talents cannot work together as a
functioning whole worthy of winning the World Series.

The series showed that even against opponents they had an advantage on, their more than impressive personal stats meant nothing. If 245 home runs can only generate 3 runs in 39 innings, there is an issue. Despite this payroll that would make Mitt Romney blush, the Yankees are keeping with a very disappointing post season performance, failing to win 11 of the last 12 championships, making it to the World Series only three of those seasons. And, with Derek Jeter's broken ankle that could possibly take four to five months to heal, plus Granderson and Swisher's less than average performances, the Yankees troubles could definitely follow them into the next season.

If anything, the lesson to be learned is that money can't buy a baseball team, and the Yankees had to learn that the hard way.

Bringing the Heat, Battle of the Bay is Inevitable

Buster Posey hits a Grand Slam off Mat Latos in the Fifth Inning 

(Photo: Andrew Weber, US PRESSWIRE)

With the Giant's unlikely comeback against the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Division Series, it looks like the first Bay Bridge Series since 1989 is upon us. In the first few days, it appeared that the Giants would have a mediocre series, and be swept by the Cincinnati Reds, ending the supposed dynasty by the Bay Area. But the numbers are completely against that hypothesis now. What was a 5-2 and 9-0 loss to the Reds, is now a 2-1 and 8-3 tie, with a victory in the 5th game almost unavoidable.

While the Giants' scores aren't as powerful as Cincinnati's 9-0 shut out, the San Francisco's pitching finally overcame it's plateau that was shadowing the team for pretty much the entire 2012 season. Matt Cain regained his footing, and Kontos is proving himself along with Affelt. The team is also hopeful of  Lincecum in the following season. But no one has shined more in this series than catcher Buster Posey. With two home runs, one of which being a Grand Slam (the third by a catcher in MLB history), Posey has cemented himself as the National League's rookie of the year, carrying the Giants for scoring.

Jarrod Parker's pitching could challenge Verlander in Game 5

 Photo: AP/Ben Margot

On the other side of the bridge, the A's are slowly putting the Tigers in their place. Although Verlander is starting, who is 3-0 with a 0.90 ERA in three starts against the Athletics this year, Jarrod Parker is heating up on the mound. 0-1 with a 2.84 ERA, Parker doesn't seem like a force to be reckoned with, but went 0-5 with one walk on Detroit's sluggers Cabrera and Fielder.

The series is tied 2-2, with the final game deciding the winner at 9:37 pm ET, another Bay Bridge Series is all with in the realm of possibility.