Monthly Archives: January 2015

Monday Morning Coffee

Kobe shoulder injury

January 26th, 2015

Sometimes the universe just tries to subtly send us messages.  I’m still a little unsure what message the universe was trying to tell me when Kim Kardashian showed her ass on a magazine a few weeks back, but in Kobe Bryant’s case, I think the message is much more clear.  He needs to retire.  This is why guards don’t usually play twenty years.  Their bodies can’t take it.  In addition to all of Kobe’s other ailments, now he’s got a torn rotator cuff, which will probably shut him down for the rest of the season and require surgery.  I realize that Kobe wants to go out on his own terms, but if he tries to come back again next year, the chances of another significant injury only go up, being another year older.  There’s also no big time free agent that would sign with the Lakers, knowing that Kobe could break any second.  Shut it down Kobe.  Do it for yourself and the Lakers, who will probably suck next year too.  By Thursday night, the Lakers might equal the longest losing streak in the history of the franchise.  The good news…..the Knicks are coming to town after that to prevent themselves from new levels of suckage.

As for the Clippers, they haven’t been so bad of late.  Winners of 4 straight, and now 8-4 against the top 8 teams in the West.  However, the interesting question of the week is whether or not  Chris Paul is going to make the Western Conference all-star team.  Paul deserves to be an all-star.  However, the Western Conference is stacked at the guard position.  I’m thinking James Harden, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, Lamarcus Aldridge, and Tim Duncan are guaranteed to make the team.   That leaves two more spots between CP3, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, and Demarcus Cousins.  Even though he should be given the nod over most of those players who haven’t played as many games as him, or who are on teams lower in the standings, it won’t surprise me at all if he gets left off the squad.  The only thing that might help a few guys is the fact that Kobe is injured and will need to be replaced.

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.  The Golden State Warriors have gotta be thinking that right now, after hanging on to Klay Thompson instead of trading him and David Lee for Kevin Love.  In case you missed it, Thompson scored 37 points over the weekend…..IN THE 3RD QUARTER!  It was an NBA record for most points in a quarter.  Suddenly, Thompson looks like he could be more than just a solid role player, and on the verge of being an NBA star.  However, if there are any Laker executives reading this today, the best trades are the ones that involve sending Jeremy Lin to another planet.  Here’s Oracle before and after Thompson’s shooting night….

Oracle Before

What would you football lovers have done all week without “Deflate Gate”?  We would have had absolutely nothing to talk about.  However, this whole drama brings up several key issues.  Why the hell does the NFL let teams provide their own footballs? That’s just asking for trouble.  Once again, the NFL has completely mishandled this issue from a PR standpoint, just like they mishandled the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson situations.  Roger Goodell has been so incompetent, it’s like he’s preparing to be the next Presidential candidate for the Democrats.  The longer the league goes without saying anything, the less we really know what happened.  As for the Patriots, it really doesn’t matter whether they played with pebbles or footballs in the AFC Championship game, because they still would have kicked the Colts asses.  Still, it doesn’t really change the fact that these guys have historically been cheaters, which we saw from “Spy Gate”, so why would we think anything has changed?  Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves…..

Brady Balls

On to college basketball we go.  That was a cute little run by UCLA for a week or so.  They went back to playing crappy basketball against the Oregon schools this weekend.  Oregon State locked them down with their zone defense, and Oregon blew them off the floor two days later.  We already knew the Bruins played no defense, and now they can’t even throw the ball in the ocean when they face some junk defense.  They also have no depth, and are sinking like the Titanic at the most critical point in the season.  I’m pretty sure most of those problems have been cause by Steve Alford.

I cannot believe how horrendous the NHL All-Star weekend was.  The weekend started out somewhat interesting during the selecting of players in a pick-up style process.  We got to see Drew Doughty, and many other players actually show some personality, and even talk some trash on other players.  That was something the league needed.  Except once we got to the skills challenge on Saturday night, it was pathetic.  The fastest skater contest had no flare to it like it did years ago.  The breakaway challenge is stupid, and includes all the negative qualities of a slam dunk contest.  The All-Star game was even worse, with very little competitiveness, and was simply hard to watch.  I think Jeremy Roenick was drunk during the telecast.  Luc Robitaille probably watched the speed of that game and felt like he could make a comeback.  Also, the only thing more embarrassing than having Fall Out Boy perform, is having your favorite NHL player come out during the intermission to listen to them.  Drew Doughty did grab Jonathan Toews balls, but I think there’s been enough jokes about grabbing balls in this edition of MMC, so I’m just going to leave that one alone.

One interesting development that did come out of the All-Star weekend was the fact that the NHL announced it was going to have a World Cup of Hockey starting in 2016.  Ugh….another league trying to go to a World Cup format, and possibly ditch participation in the Olympics.  Baseball did it.  The NHL is doing it.  and the NBA wants to do it.  The reality of it is it’s stupid.  You can’t duplicate the World Cup of Soccer.  When it comes to hockey, the players love playing in the Winter Olympics, and it’s very important to them.  Creating a World Cup minimizes the significance of international play, and the only reason it’s being done is because the NHL wants to profit.  These leagues need to go to the IOC, and work out a revenue sharing plan to keep their players involved.  It’s good for the Olympics and it’s good for the global marketing of their leagues.  We don’t need some fake tournament crowning the “World Champion”.  The Olympics are what its all about for the international stage.

Andy Dalton is so bad in the post season that he even finds a way to lose in the Pro Bowl  The only thing worse than the Pro-Bowl was listening to ESPN justify its existence in the pregame and post game show.  Just kill it already!

Monday Morning Coffee

 

Last Kobe vs Lebron

January 19th, 2015

Time to face the facts folks.  Kobe may be retiring even sooner than we thought.  Thursday’s Kobe-Lebron showdown was fun for everyone involved, but it felt like it might have been the last time we will ever see it.  After the game, Kobe was asked by LA Times writer Bill Plaschke if he has considered retiring at the end of this season.  He replied  “I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t crossed my mind.  Right now I doubt it … but anything’s possible.”  With the growing possibility that the Lakers will shut Kobe down for the season by March, that means you might have just over a month to enjoy what’s left of his career.  How can you blame him?  The team around him stinks, and it’s not even worth it for him to put his body through hell for a team that isn’t going anywhere.  He is ailing so badly, and his minutes have been managed worse than U.S. foreign policy, that he went from playing 36 minutes every game to missing 7 of the last 14 games just to rest.  As great as he was on Thursday night, I don’t want to see Kobe finish his career with a bunch of sub 40% shooting nights like his previous two games.  It was a great run, and he’s one of the greatest ever, but it’s time to hang ’em up.    

Speaking of “hanging ’em up”, it might be time for Doc Rivers to hang ’em up as a General Manager after the stupid trade he pulled off last week.  Let’s review shall we.  The Clippers have desperately needed a wing player since the beginning of the season.  They traded Jared Dudley to Milwaukee, who became more productive, along with a 1st round pick.  Then Doc Rivers proceeded to trade two more wings in Reggie Bullock, Chris Douglass Roberts, and a draft pick, for his son, Austin Rivers, who isn’t even a wing!  I actually like Austin Rivers and think he can still be a decent player in this league, but Doc just wasted three assets to coach his son, who might not even be playing in the NBA next year.  That topped off what was another mediocre week for the Clippers.  They get an impressive road victory in Portland, only to blow it at home against Miami and Cleveland.  I was beginning to have some questions about Doc Rivers the head coach.  Now I’m beginning to have even more questions about him as a General Manager, which could be the biggest problem of all in Clipper Land.  Turns out Doc and Austin are the first father and son to be on the same team since Lebron James and Delonte West were in Cleveland.

Dodger fans without Time Warner Cable….are you prepared to go another season without watching your team on TV?  The FCC is dragging their feet on approving mergers between Time Warner Cable and Comcast, as well as the merger between DirecTV and AT&T.  Even Stan Kasten says he’s “very worried” about a deal getting done before the season starts.  Look, I have Time Warner Cable only because of the Dodgers, and I absolutely despise it.  However, I don’t begrudge the Dodgers for taking that crazy TV deal because it’s putting money in their pockets and helping them put a competitive team on the field.  Uh….let’s me rephrase that.  It helped them put a a competitive team on the field until they hired Andy Friedman and those small market losers to blow up a championship contending team.

Saturday night at Staples Center was another great game between the Kings and Ducks, and a nice retirement ceremony for Rob Blake.  Let me start with Blake.  I get it.  You can’t deny that he is the greatest defenseman the Kings have ever had, and it’s hard not to put his jersey in the rafters just for that.  King fans don’t have to boo him anymore.  However, his legacy with the Kings will always have at least a little stain for taking off the C, and stepping down as captain.  I don’t even have a problem with him going to another city to win a Stanley Cup or wanting more money than the Kings could afford.  However, taking off that C is downright shameful in hockey.  Nevertheless, the ceremony was very nicely done by the Kings.

As for the hockey game, when it comes to shootouts, the Kings have had more trouble scoring than Screech Powers in Saved By The Bell.  LA has not scored in its last 22 shootout attempts, and has a record of 1-7 in shootouts after losing to the Ducks.  The Kings have played like a team with ADD for the first half of the season, not paying attention to the little details at the defensive end, which has cost them.  Darryl Sutter better kick these guys in the ass, because they are putting themselves dangerously close to missing the playoffs.  As for the Ducks, just like this time last year, they look like they’ve already wrapped up a division title.  Once again, the regular season is never the problem.  They look good now, but we’ll see if their goaltending can hold up during the playoffs.  It’s too bad Corey Perry was an all-star snub.  He’s had a great season, and I hate the rule of having all 30 teams having a representative.

You guys don’t actually think UCLA basketball has suddenly “turned the corner” after beating USC and those mediocre Bay Area basketball schools do you? The Bruins haven’t lost total confidence in themselves, which was the case two weeks ago.  However, this team is still a long shot to make the NCAA tournament.  They would need to go 9-4 in their next 13 games, just to get to twenty wins.  Even then, they will be hard pressed to get an at large bid for the tournament, unless they can somehow beat Utah and Arizona.   Not only that, Bruin and Trojan basketball is becoming more irrelevant in this town by the day, especially with the limited distribution of the Pac-12 Network.  The only thing remotely interesting about that game was Iggy Azalea and Nick Young making out on the kiss cam at the Galen Center.

Iggy - Swaggy

That College Football National Championship game was really something.  I learned that Ducks are really versatile.  They can waddle, run, swim, and fly.  They can also lay some huge eggs, like Oregon did vs Ohio State.  How many years have we seen Oregon dominate the Pac 12, only to get exposed as a soft undisciplined team come bowl season?  I hope somebody else in the conference can overtake these guys (are you listening UCLA???), because they are giving the conference a bad name when it matters most.  Everybody was so happy when Alabama lost to Ohio State, but Ohio State isn’t that much better character wise than Alabama.  Urban Meyer runs a completely undisciplined program, with kids that are practically criminals.  Then you actually see Ohio State fans on TV, and that does it for you……no way you are cheering for these guys.  As for Cardale Jones, and his decision to return to school, he admitted to friends “I’d rather pour gasoline on myself and light a match than become a New York Jet.”

Bill Buckner called.  Even he thinks the Green Bay Packers choked yesterday.  I can’t believe what a terrible coaching job Mike McCarthy did for the Pack.  He was extremely conservative throughout, kicking field goal after field when he could have put some serious distance between his team and the banged up Seahawks.  It was like watching someone try to win a fight by delivering one-thousand paper cuts instead of one deadly blow.  At one point if you had looked up Russell Wilson’s QBR, it would have read “Jamarcus Russell”.  Ha Ha Clinton-Dix had the biggest moment for Clinton-Dix since Monica Lewinsky.  None of it mattered.  The Seahawks have championship pedigree, and they played like it when it mattered most.  Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, and the rest of the Seahawks may be very boring to watch.  But they have a hell of a lot of physical and mental toughness, and they get a well-deserved 2nd trip to the Super Bowl.  Sorry Packer fans.  This is probably how you feel right now……

Packer Fan upset

As for the AFC Championship game, that was a joke.  Andrew Luck is going to be the next best quarterback in the NFL, but he wasn’t that yesterday.  He was Andrew “Suck” instead.  The only chance the Colts had of winning that game was if the Patriots somehow became the Packers.  Amazing how at the beginning of the season, everyone was talking about how old Tom Brady was, and how New England was finished.  They’ve looked as dominant as they ever have been since that time.  Is anybody outside of Boston really happy to see them in the Super Bowl though?  Probably not.  However, the Patriots play a far more exciting style than the Seahawks, although neither team is all that likable.  Sounds like a bad matchup for New England given how tough the Seattle defense is.  I’m taking the Hawks.

Monday Morning Coffee

City of Champions Image

January 12th, 2015

Let’s start with some football, and this idea that the Rams are moving back to LA.  We’ve been hearing this crap for years.  We heard the Rams are moving back here.  We heard Chargers are moving back here.  We heard Raiders are moving back here.  These teams have been trying to get a stadium in their current cities for years, yet they still haven’t moved.  Why should this be any different?  I know….I know.  You all think that because Stan Kroenke actually owns part of the land at Hollywood Park, the Rams are actually coming.  It was just a few days ago that the city of St. Louis unveiled their plan for a new $900 million stadium to keep the Rams.  If Kroenke moves the Rams now, it will look like he isn’t negotiating in good faith, which the league won’t be happy about.        I won’t actually believe LA will have a team until I see the kickoff of the first game.  Besides, the league wants LA to have a team more than the people in LA.

As for the divisional games over the weekend, Peyton Manning tried to pass the torch to Andrew Luck yesterday, except it landed at his feet when he tossed it.  Where are all the Colts fans who were bitching a few years ago when they got rid of Peyton in favor of Andrew Luck?  Manning had 152 yards passing yesterday.  Somewhere, Tim Tebow is having a good laugh.  The Colts made the right move, and they aren’t too far away from being in Super Bowl.    Here’s a look at Peyton trying to get into an ice bath after the game…..

In Green Bay, the football gods definitely evened the score with that late call against Dez Bryant and the Cowboys.  There’s no doubt that was a catch.  Bryant held onto that football longer than the Steelers were in the playoffs.  He was simply reaching for the end zone.  Was the call correct?  Probably, but the rule is horse crap and needs to be changed.  I’m sure all the Detroit Lions players were screaming that what we saw was sweet justice, since they got screwed last week.  I guess Jerry Jones Visa Black Card was denied upon further review.  It would have been way more entertaining to see a Cowboys vs Seahawks game next week, instead of a Packers game.  The Packers didn’t look like they had much of a chance the last two times they played Seattle.

In Seattle, not much to say about that Panthers vs Seahawks game.  Seattle dominated, in completely unsurprising fashion.  I could sit here and talk about Marshawn Lynch’s crotch grabbing on Kam Chancellor’s touchdown, but instead, i’ll just remind you how sick Chancellor is…..
   

The Patriots had to have been a little nervous early on against the Ravens.  Steve Smith had himself a Pina Colada on Revis Island, and Baltimore looked like they were gonna pull off an upset.    However, in the end Tom Brady made clutch plays, and even Julian Edelman proved that he is a better playoff quarterback than Andy Dalton.  Next week Andrew Luck could make it interesting, but I don’t think it’s his time yet, and the Patriots prevail.  Here’s a look at Joe Flacco’s text inbox after yesterday’s game…..

Flacco Text Inbox

How the hell did the US Olympic Committee select Boston over Los Angeles to represent our country during the next international bid?  We could have actually had a very profitable Olympics had LA been chosen for 2024.  We have the existing infrastructure, and don’t need to spend billions of dollars on stadiums and venues.  The Olympics were wildly successful in 1984 in LA, and our freeway system is that much better now.  Of the 11 members of the committee with votes, three went to college in Boston and 2 live there.  Obviously none of them went to Harvard or MIT,   because those morons just chose a city that recently experienced a terrorist attack during a major sporting event.  Boston’s pitch is that all the events will be within walking distance of each other.  Perfect, that way a terrorist can take out the entire Olympics with one bomb.

Let’s talk some hoops.  Last week was the first week in a long time where there was something to get excited about as a Laker fan.  Young, athletic players, developing on the court.  Tarik Black and Jordan Clarkson actually got some playing time and they looked very promising.   In case you haven’t noticed, and apparently the Laker front office hasn’t, LA has no chance of making the playoffs this season.  They should take the opportunity to develop these players, while simultaneously losing games to insure they keep this year’s 1st round pick, and ultimately, speed up the rebuilding process.  Why would Byron Scott insist on playing useless veterans like Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin, when they probably won’t even be with the team next season?  Show the fans the future, because we are done living in the past.  By the way, I think Damian Lillard is going to be the next starting point for the US Olympic Team in 2016.  This was just mean…..

Then there’s the Clippers.  Even as I watched them beat up on the Lakers last week, I came to a solid conclusion: the Lakers are closer to winning a championship than the Clippers.  The Lakers are much closer to hitting the bottom and bouncing right back.  The Clipps are consistently inconsistent, and its becoming obvious they won’t be able to win a title as currently constructed.  They need a major move to be a serious contender, and this talk of acquiring Austin Rivers, isn’t exactly what’s going to put them over the top.  Austin being coached by his dad sounds cool, but for a team that is looking to win now, I don’t see how the Clippers are in a situation for him to develop.  I guess that tells you what the Clipps really think of Jordan Farmar.  At least the Clippers have Steve Ballmer’s “dance moves”….

Should we really be excited that the Bruins actually won 2 in a row?  I liked it more when Steve Alford was closer to getting fired.  Cal stinks, although I suppose Stanford is playing decent ball.  Funny how much better the Bruins played once Bryce Alford fouled out.  Maybe his dad should try reducing his minutes, and he might see how much more competitive the team would be?  If the Bruins lose to USC this week it’s going to be downright shameful.  Dan Guerrero should make Steve Alford walk home from downtown LA if that happens.

Let’s go to the ice, where the LA Kings are starting to remind of the Shaq and Kobe Lakers of the early 2000’s.  This team thinks they can just “flip the switch” whenever they want, and start winning games when it matters.  That’s a dangerous way to play in hockey, and they are running the risk of missing the playoffs by doing it.  To make matters worse, the Kings are 0-2 since Jim Fox tweeted pictures of the inside of his butt, Tanner Pearson is going to miss a couple of months with a broken leg, and Tyler Toffoli got mono from making out with too many chicks in LA.  General Manager Dean Lombardi said he’s also operating under the assumption that defenseman Slava Voynov will be cleared of criminal charges and return to the ice this season.  That’s a pretty big gamble to take for a team trying to defend its Stanley Cup Championship, and in danger of missing the playoffs.

Beautiful retirement ceremony last night of Teemu Selanne’s jersey in Anaheim, although it was the longest retirement ceremony I have ever seen.  It was actually a pretty good hockey game as well between Anaheim and Winnipeg.  Wouldn’t it have made more sense though to do the ceremony when the Arizona Coyotes came to town instead of the Winnipeg Jets?  For those of you too young to remember, Selanne played for the Winnipeg Jets until 1996, and then that franchise moved to Phoenix.  The current Winnipeg Jets just moved from Atlanta a few years ago.  In any case, it was good to see Selanne stay throughout the entire ceremony, rather than quit and leave halfway through.

Finally, it would be irresponsible of me to just ignore the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris last week.  Another week of seeing stupid ass comments on cnn.com regarding how horrible Muslims are.  The only way we are ever going to take real steps toward stopping terrorism is when we stop supporting the dictators that actually fund terrorism, and when those countries do more than just “denounce” the terrorists.  The US no longer even needs to depend on Middle East countries for oil anyway, so maybe we can start doing the right thing, and take steps toward getting rid of these jack asses that are giving Islam a bad name.

 

 

 

Monday Morning Coffee

Kobe Posts Pacers

January 5th, 2015

Welcome to 2015, where it’s time to face the cold hard reality.  Not just that the holidays are over, but that basketball in LA sucks.  Last night was a useless victory for the Lakers, against a Pacers team that somehow found a way to execute even more poorly at the end of a game than the Lakers.  LA will probably get blown off the floor tonight against Portland.  I love those of you that say Kobe needs to pass more.  Have you been watching this team?  It doesn’t even matter, they are terrible either way!  I say let him shoot 40 times a game.  That way we’ll at least be entertained.  I guess there were two entertaining parts to the Laker telecast last night.  The first was Kobe’s reaction after the Carlos Boozer fight with Roy Hibbert, then Jordan Hill claiming that he once dated Iggy Izalea…….

Then there’s those of you who might still believe the Clippers are providing us with good basketball in LA.  That’s only true when they play the NBA garbage like Philadelphia, New York, and Utah, whom they beat up on earlier in the week.  They need better defense.  They need better play from their superstars.  They need a small forward.  And they need a better bench.  Oh, but other than that they are just great.  Is this what they really paid Doc Rivers $7 million a year for?  For early playoff exits?  The only thing that can save this group is if Lebron James gets fed up and leaves Cleveland, again, to play with his friend Chris Paul and the Clippers.  I actually took two Clippers tickets to a broker to be sold the other day.  I gave them to the broker, came back two days later and asked him how much we got for them.  He said “How much?  We didn’t sell them, and now you’re stuck with four tickets!”

Then there’s UCLA basketball, which found a way to hit rock bottom again after this weekend.  When the Bruins hired Steve Alford, I thought they had hired Steve Lavin all over again.  I was wrong.  Even Steve Lavin never had his players quit on him like this.  The Bruins scored 39 points yesterday against Utah, which was the fewest amount of points the team has scored in a game since 1967.  UCLA has lost 5 in a row, including its first two conference games, and gone 4 straight games shooting no better than 32%.  This is for a team that has an offensive minded coach.  I’m beginning to think the Bruins won’t even make the NIT Tournament, let alone the NCAA tourney.  Historically bad times call for drastic measures, like firing Steve Alford.  Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen, because AD Dan Guerrero would likely lose his job as well if he had to replace another basketball coach.

The news wasn’t all bad for UCLA athletics this weekend, as the Bruin football team took down Kansas State in the Alamo Bowl.  I’ve gotta admit, I thought UCLA was going to take a beating after seeing how they finished the regular season.  However, Brett Hundley looked determined to finish his college career on a positive note, rushing for nearly 100 yards, and Paul Perkins ran wild as well.  Jim Mora’s brief handshake at the end of the game with Bill Snyder felt like Jim Harbaugh’s slap on the back of Jim Schwartz a few years ago, only this time it was warranted because Snyder’s players tried to take a cheap shot on Hundley late in the game.  This game was simply bittersweet. Great to see the Bruins win against the 11th ranked team in the country, but felt like they should have at least played Oregon for the Pac-12 championship, and not blown it against Utah.   Even with Hundley leaving, the Bruins can still be very good, but Mora needs to get his players to be mentally tougher if he’s going to get the program to the next level.

As for the college football playoff, what does the SEC have to say for itself now?  ESPN must have be losing its mind not being able to talk about SEC teams since ‘Bama got bounced by Ohio State. This is the worst thing to happen to Alabama since incest became a crime.  That’s gotta be tough for a conference full of schools with kids that shouldn’t even make the cut as college students.  Don’t worry Oregon fans!  The Tallahassee police department won’t file assault charges against you either, after what you did to Florida State last week.  I wonder what “discipline” the Oregon Athletic Department will hand out for their players making fun of Jameis Winston….

On to Wild Card Weekend of the NFL.  The Panthers are finally a .500 team!  I feel like the best play the Cardinals ran in the game was one that lost about 30 yards.  Hopefully those of you that played the “take a shot for every play the Cardinals lose yardage” drinking game, took an Uber home safely on Saturday.  The Panthers will be toast next weekend in Seattle.  Costly turnovers for Big Ben and the Steelers against the Ravens.  After all these years, Ben is still trying to force it in the hole.  I don’t think these Ravens can take this Patriot team with a healthy Gronkowski, and a better defense.  There are certain things in life that are guaranteed:  death, taxes, and Andy Dalton losing in the playoffs.  It’s pretty tough to win a game like that without two of your best receivers, but the Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since the Houston Oilers were around.  I don’t think Andrew Luck is quite ready to knock off Peyton and the Broncos…..yet.  It’s exciting that we get a Cowboys @ Packers matchup next weekend, but the referees were awful yesterday in the Lions game, and you’ve gotta think they got screwed.  Roger Goodell had better claim that he never saw the tape.  Looks like Jerry Jones’ check to the referees cleared just in time.

Has anybody told the Kings that it’s not December anymore?  That means they aren’t supposed to suck.  LA does nothing easily anymore.  They pulled off an amazing comeback against Nashville on Saturday, only to lose 7-6 in overtime.  I’m pretty sure there will be better defense played in the NHL All-Star game than what we saw in that game.  Why am I not surprised that we are halfway through the NHL season, and the Ducks are on top of the entire league?  Now if they actually raise the Stanley Cup this summer, then i’ll be surprised.

Finally, much like everyone, I am shocked and saddened by the death of ESPN anchor Stuart Scott.  As a former sports radio broadcaster, Scott was one announcer that I found inspirational while i was in the business, especially since he was really an innovator in the industry with the phrases he would drop during Sports Center.  Today, anytime I watch a highlight, I wanna yell “booya”, or say “cool as the other side of the pillow” because it adds flare.  Great job by ESPN with their tribute to him yesterday.