NHL - State of the Eastern Conference - Part 2

In Part 1 we examined the teams that went from top to bottom. Now it's time to look at the ones who have fallen from grace.


Obviously the most noticeable team is the Washington Capitals. A coach that couldn’t get his message across to his team anymore is not a good start. So they fire him. Now they bring in one of the franchises most famous players to pick up the pieces. Tough spot for a rookie to the NHL coaching ranks. Dale Hunter brings a hard nosed approach that could pay dividends if the team wasn’t full of massive egos. Ovechkin and Semin being the most notable of the bunch. Both have it set in their head that the way they play will lead to a Stanley Cup, and anyone who disagrees should leave town. No matter how many veterans the Caps add, nothing will change until the two most talented players put aside their private agendas and trust their coach and teammates. When your leading scorer is a 3rd line grinder that nobody knows, you need to realize you what you’re doing isn’t working.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres have also struggled a bit this year. Both teams have talent, youth, and experience as winners. So far, they have little to show for it. At this point of the season, both teams sit in the middle of the NHL in goals per game, and towards the top with goals against. It is easy to blame certain players for these numbers, but the Sabres have arguably the best goalie in the game with Ryan Miller and the Lightning have a top end scorers with Steven Stamkos, Vinny Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. Whatever the case, both teams have issues that need to be solved, and quickly.

While all of this movement in the standings deserves more attention than it has gotten so far, it is still early and the All-Star break is still weeks away. Teams may work out all their kinks in the near future. The traditional powers may again ascend to their greatness and the overachievers could lose steam as the season progresses. Who knows? But the trade deadline and playoff run will be more interesting than usual for the Eastern Conference this season and hopefully help hockey again peak the interest of a national audience.

Mike Bouchard

NHL - State of the Eastern Conference - Part 1

Can somebody please explain to me what is going on? The Eastern Conference standings look nothing like we expected them to be at this point of the season. Of course you have the perennial leaders such as the Penguins, Flyers, and Boston sitting pretty. No shock there. But when bottom dwellers become legitimate contenders for in the playoff hunt and early favorites look like a shell of themselves? We may have a heated end to the regular season.


Let us begin with the teams that were lucky to finish were lucky to finish with a winning record. Toronto, Ottawa, and Florida all finished in the bottom half of the standings last season, yet appear to be worth national attention at this point of the year.

The Toronto Maple Leafs ended last season just above the .500 mark with a lot of questions. The young goalie with a lot of hype from his time overseas looked to be a major question mark, the depth of the team as a whole was debatable, and trading for a young Phil Kessel was being discussed as a completely one sided trade in Boston’s favor. All of those issues seem to have worked themselves out thus far. Their goalie situation has held its own with Gustavsson playing fairly well and the young buck James Reimer posting a goals against average of 2.81 and a save percentage of .906. Adding defenseman John-Michael Liles over the offseason has added some offensive talent to their blue line. Pair that with Joffrey Lupul and Dion Phaneuf finding their old form, the team’s depth has vastly improved with both being near the top point getters for the Leafs. But the biggest issue was Phil Kessel, who is finally making GM Brian Burke look like he may have knew what he was doing by trading high end draft picks in order to get the franchise forward. Kessel is leading the Leafs in not only goals, but total points as well. He may be reaching the potential that many experts projected him to have. Doesn’t hurt that Toronto received top prospect Joe Colbourne in the deal as well.

The Ottawa Senators looked bad last year. Losing record and veterans passing their prime is the recipe for success right? Well apparently things changed over the offseason. Jason Spezza leads the team in points, Milan Michalek has 19 goals, and Danny Alfredsson and Sergei Gonchar appear to sipped from the fountain of youth. Whatever is going on in Ottawa, teams may want to take notice. The veterans that may have seemed to have less talent than in years past have become the strength of the team, both statistically and emotionally. Veteran teams with the right young talent can make deep runs come playoff time.

Now how about those Panthers from the great hockey market of Florida. Who saw the worst team in the East last year putting together this kind of season. Apparently taking a chance on mediocre players from winning teams can help you turn a franchise around. Kris Versteeg, Brian Campbell, Tomas Fleischmann, and Joe Theodore have all have achieved newfound success with a fresh start. All have played for winning franchises over the past few years. Versteeg and Campbell spending time with Chicago, and Fleischmann and Theodore with Washington. Sure there are more factors that are involved with a turn around of this magnitude, but for argument’s sake I’ll oversimplify it into taking yesterday’s news and offering them a new chance.

All three teams have started out strong and have emerged as legitimate contenders. Could it be the coaching, the chemistry or players coming into their own? Whatever it is, these teams have turned some heads and deserve some much needed recognition.

Mike Bouchard

Tebow time-- with some choice videos

Well worth your time

Drew Brees Breaks Dan Marino's Passing Record

Last night Drew Brees broke the long standing single season passing record
held by Dan Marino for 27 years.
Wow.
Personal computers hardly existed then.
The Compact Disc was just becoming mainstream.
My dad probably had hair back then, although highly debatable.
Regardless, a record that old means it is an extremely difficult feat
and DrewB9 has made it look effortless.

Also tying an NFL record for 6 straight 300 yard passing games,
(and 12 total in a season)
Drew Brees has thrown for 5,087 yards with still one game in the season
and has quietly solidified himself as one of the elite quarterbacks of this era.

I admit that I often forget about #9 in the talk of top quarterbacks,
often citing Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, etc..
But Superbowl winner and now record setter Drew Brees
should remain among the top of all those lists.
Congrats to a great competitor.

Basketball's Finest

Thank goodness the NBA season is here--

otherwise ESPN would have been filled with mullets and "oots" and "aboots."

(no offense, Barry)

Here are my top 5 teams for the Eastern and Western Conference for this season.

(you'll learn that all my predictions are based on zero knowledge and are entirely premature)

As I was saying......

Eastern Conference Western Conference

1. Miami Heat 1. Oklahoma City Thunder

2. Chicago Bulls 2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Boston Celtics 3. San Antonio Spurs

4. New York Knicks 4. L.A. Lakers

5. Orlando Magic 5. L.A. Clippers

Things to expect:

--Tons of highlights from the Clippers

--Superman Dwight Howard to not be in Orlando come March

--Talk about firing new Laker head coach Mike Brown

--Wizards lose 40+ games (66 game season)

NCAA Bowl Season..... and its flaws...

The NCAA Bowl Season could be some much better.

Let me reflect on some of sports' greatest attractions....

NFL Playoffs and the Superbowl- the champ is usually the team that is peaking at the right time- rarely the top seeds.

The World Cup- where teams and players are immortalized for victory.

March Madness- one shot by the little guy thats changes the whole course of the tournament.

In one word-- Playoffs!!

I think the only way to decide which team is the best is by repeated do-or-die games, repeated pressure, and repeated execution (which is actually why I like the LSU vs. Alabama match up).

But because the NCAA seems to be oblivious that there is a reason why every sporting season ends in a playoff, we are forced to endure an dissatisfying NCAA Bowl Season.

(Just rearrange the letters to NCAA Blow Season)

Boise St. is up 28-3 over unranked Arizona St (at halftime, not surprisingly),

Baylor and Heisman winner RG3 is playing a five loss Washington team,

and countless other sloppy match ups.

Seriously?! With 200+ teams in the league,

the NCAA can only come up with 4, maybe 5 good match ups?

Why not guarantee that all ranked teams play each other?

12 good games right there.

Another suggestion,

INSTEAD OF HAVING A 5 WEEK GAP TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

why not gather the top 8 teams and have a 3 week playoff.

There would still be room for 2 weeks off,

and finally all the best teams would have a chance to play.

Kansas St. and Boise St could have a shot.

OSU, Stanford, Arkansas and Oregon too.

And LSU and Alabama could further prove their dominance.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!

Our best friend Jimmer

Remember how Jimmer could be seen around campus at BYU?

I remember seeing him as some dessert party at my complex,

I almost jokingly asked him to play me 1 on 1-

this was before his senior season, so he wasn't THAT big a of a deal...yet.

Well now its being reported that the BYU prodigy is making $2.3 million this season...

visit here for details: http://www.spotrac.com/nba/sacramento-kings/jimmer-fredette/

At first it may sound like, "eh, 2.3.. what's the big deal?! Relative to stardom, or the NBA that's not that much. Also sounds like the average GPA of NBA stars."

But here's some perspective--

if the NBA pays on a normal 2 week basis throughout the year... the boy's paycheck would be about $96K before taxes, insurance, etc. Woah!

if the NBA pays on a per game schedule (only 66 games this year, btw) that would be about $35k per game! If he averages 7 points per game, that's like $10,000 per bucket!

(as I write this I am furiously practicing basketball ........ .....if I could only master my free throws.........then that could be like $5,0.......nevermind)

In summary- The Jimmer has done well

and should be saving much faster than all of us.

A Great Year for Sports

Does it seem that every year is a great year for sports?

2011 sure has had some amazing moments...

....and I expect that 2012 will be even better.

Heck, we've gotten all the crap out of the way

(i.e. NFL and NBA lockouts)

(a.k.a. the "walkout" by my wife)

so we won't need to worry about that for another 10 years.

Also, the MLB extended its collective bargaining agreement until 2016.

Amazing how no one hears about it when people aren't fighting over it.

Bud Selig (kind of reminds me of Monty Burns) has finally agreed to extend the reach of replay.

I hear he may consider testing for PEDs,

but some argue that it would take away from the tradition of the game.

I wonder what they will decide.

Enough jibber jabber though- let's talk sports.

This is Sports Talk City after all!

Here are my picks for this year's major sports winners:

NFL: Packers.....Cause zero losses is infinitely better than the next best team.

NBA: Hate....-that was a trick-....Heat. I see the big 2 & co having an unstoppable year.

Good for them- seriously.

MLB: Angels.....why not? Obviously it's a flavor of the week pick... But I remember watching "Angels in the Outfield" 3 times in one afternoon when I was younger (insert waving arms).

PGA: Adam Scott.....It's almost impossible to pick an overall winner on the PGA Tour,

but with his new caddie and coming off a pretty good year, I like my chances.

Coming soon: More discussion on this year's top teams

NCAA Bowl Game Outlook