Monday Morning Mehta 10/3/06
Edition # 178
October 3, 2006
www.mondaymorningmehta.blogspot.com
Eagles
Eagles beat the gunslinger just looking to have fun Brett Favre 31-9 in a sloppy game. Let's go...
Game Positives:
- 2nd half. The team looked much more focused to play in the 2nd half. If you stayed to watch the last few plays, you saw that the defense even held the Packers out of the endzone on a late goal line stand.
- Greg Lewis. This might be his first positive since the Super Bowl. 2 TD's gets you in this space even though it was against a weak secondary. Todd Pinkston could have caught 2 TD's against that offense. Heck, Freddie Mitchell could have caught one.
- Sheldon Brown. I thought Brown finally had a good game. Greg Jennings got some big yards but rarely was Brown out of position as we've seen in the first few weeks.
Game Negatives:
- 1st half. Where do I start? How about the end of the half? That "fake FG" was pathetic. I seriously think Andy Reid had no idea that was coming. What happened to big bad David Akers? That dude on the Packers looked like he could've hit from 65 yards (opposing kickers don't deserve to get his name published in MMM).
- # 22. Another guy who doesn't deserve to be named by name. We have a new Toast Jenkins.
- Fans. Real weak effort last night. I don't blame the fans to be honest. How can you get up for the Packers especially after the loss a few weeks ago. I'm tellin you, this team needs a big win to get everyone back on the bandwagon with all their heart, I'm tellin you. That loss still hurts.
There's been a Hank Baskett sighting.
I'm very worried about what Terry Glenn and Terrell Owens could do against this secondary.
I don't know if this was the first Monday Night game where they used the new introductions (Jon Runyan did the Eagles offense while Trotter "announced" the defense). It was absolutely horrible. Please, stop it. First it was "THEE Ohio St University" then it was "Thee University of Montana" and now more ridiculousness.
Honestly, PLEASE, NO MORE 3rd DOWN PLAY DESIGNED FOR THOMAS TAPEH!! STOP IT!
Around the League
Best Performance: Bears. I'm not going crazy saying this team is a lock for the Super Bowl but after a 4-0 start this team looks like a lock to win the NFC North. Seahwaks were coming off a blowout huge emotional win, and losing Shaun Alexander, a letdown was only obvious. Nonetheless, the Bears had to be the biggest takeaway from Week 4.
Worst Performance: Bengals. This is a playoff team, but won't be a Super Bowl because of the offensive and defensive lines. They were blown off the line against the Steelers and the Pats. And the yapping continues..."I don't know if we were too cocky or too confident, but I know this is a team that we should've beat. Hopefully, well get another shot at them. I know if we play our best football, we can beat them," Carson Palmer said. T.J. Houshmandzadeh added, "They knew they couldn't stop us, but you need the team as a whole to succeed... There aren't any (defensive backs) on that team that can cover us." Uh, OK if you say so...
Worst Game: see first 3 weeks. Anything involving the Dolphins
I don't want to but have to give credit: Ravens. There is definitely some credence to the theory that Steve McNair puts this team, that has traditionally lost many close games, over the hump. McNair's late heroics this weekend was truly spectacular.
Albert Haynesworth: Good job by new commish Roger Goddall by quickly and swiftly punishing Haynesworth for that ridiculous stomp. 5 games is perfect punishment.
Indianapolis may not have "caught their stride" yet, but I'm not impressed. Jets have played well this year.
Should be a quiet week for Terrell Owens and the Eagles.
Huge win of the week has to go to the Redskins. Putting up 36 points against a good Jags defense has got to do wonders for their psyche. The NFC East is looking to be very tough, and I wouldn't be shocked if the Giants got their act together.
Phils 4th annual post-mortem
As usual the calendar turns to October which means watching other teams play and giving you a Phillies post-mortem. What went wrong? I'll break down 5 things I think went wrong, maybe next week I'll give you an offseason plan if I feel like it.
1. Back of the rotation, namely...Scott Mathieson, Gavin Floyd and Jon Lieber. There will be a theme to this section. It's 5 wins. I realize that the Phils finished 3 games out of the wild card but the goal all along has been to find 5-7 wins from the last few years. The Phils ended up at 85 wins this year and have been in the 85-88 range the last 3-4 years. They need to get to the 90-93 win range. Anyway, Mathieson, Floyd and the first 4 months of Lieber cost this team a few wins at the very least. Let's call this one a 3 game swing.
2. Bottom of the order sadness. Sal Fasano/David Bell/Abraham Nunez effect. There's no reason this team should have had Fasano playing. Chris Coste was so good the 2nd half of year it makes me sick to think of that stupid mustache for all those games. The third base situation was ridiculous all year. Nunez improved the last month, but it was too little too late. As for David Bell, let's hope this is the last time I print his name. Somewhere here there's a win that could've been had.
3. Brett Myers situation. Myers was having what was looking like a big year before his stupid actions in Boston changed everything. Let's be honest, 99.9% of the people won't care about that situation if Myers pitches like an ace. If he keeps his hands to himself, he not only acts like a man, but the Phils get another win or two.
Haven't I named like 11 things? Well there's a lot wrong...
4. The Cholly effect (repeat from last year). People pick on the manager too much. It's the trendy thing to second guess every move. But seriously, enough is enough with this guy. He sees everything 2 weeks after the rest of the world. Ryan Howard hit 6th and 7th at times in April. Think about that people! Was his ROY campaign not enough to show you he could hit Cholly? And Arthur Rhodes can't pitch! Was it coincidence that he got hurt and the pen started doing better? Pat Burrell stinks and can't hit behind Howard; only took him 2 months to figure that out. Uncle Cholly had to net at least 2 or 3 more losses.
5. Last but definitely not least....Pat Burrell. {Insert Thanks Einstein here}. I don't even need to explain this just put the wins in the column.
Dishonorable mention: Alex Gonzalez & Julio Santana. Also something that needs to be written is that Scott Graham and Chris Wheeler should be split up next year. They were awful together this year. Vomit inducing.
Baseball Playoff Predictions
San Diego vs. St Louis
St. Louis limps into the postseason struggling mightily especially in the pen. With Chris Carpenter inconsistent the last few weeks, I think Jake Peavy and the Padres can steal game 1. If they do that, this series could be over real quick. You can possibly get away in a short series blowing one game in the late innings, but you can't get away blowing more than 1. Unless Adam Wainright suddenly turns in Bruce Sutter, this team is in trouble. Padres in 4.
Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Flushing Mets aka Subway Series
Speaking of limping into the postseason, the Mets have questions galore. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez's 12-3 postseason record is downright spectacular but that's usually come as a 2nd or 3rd starter. He's now the ace and goes up against Derek Lowe who sports a 2.31 ERA in the LDS. The Mets offense will have to be huge in this series, and it absolutely can. This could be David Wright and Jose Reyes taking over October for years to come. But I give the Dodgers bullpen the edge. Takashi Saito and Jonathan Broxton have been great all year and will be the difference. This is the closest we'll get to a Subway Series. Dodgers in 5.
Yankees vs. Tigers
Starting pitching: Slight advantage to the Tigers (but I like the experience of Mussina and Johnson, who is scheduled to pitch). Bullpen: Mariano factor gives Yanks advantage. For those that have never seen the Tigers, watch Joel Zumaya. He throws like 437 mph. Anyway, my point is, pitching is close, but I'm not sure who is going to get the clutch hits on the Tigers. Guys like Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe have had nice years, but this is Yankee Stadium in October, you need to have brass ones to stand up there and get a hit off of Mariano. A little experience goes a long way too. Yankees in 4.
Twins vs. A's
The low payroll series pits every 1pm game the rest of the week. This is Fox's nightmare. But these teams have some great young players. For the Twins, it's the hitters Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to go along with Johan Santana. For the A's it's Dan Haren and Nick Swisher. Joe Nathan might be the difference here. I gotta go with the hot team once again, Twins in 5.
NHL Week in Review By : Ed Wasser
- Ottawa Senators.....Hear that? Off in the distance? It's the sound of someone grabbing the window of opportunity and getting ready to slam it shut on the Sens. This team is LOADED with talent but year after year in the playoffs they fall apart quicker then a drunk guy carrying 5 beers and nachos to the 700 level. So this year GM John Muckler is trying addition by subtraction. Martin Havlat DEAD!! Dominic Hasek DEAD!! Bryan Smolinski DEAD!! ZDENO CHARA!!! Dead....but they actually wanted to keep him, they just couldn't afford him. This is John Muckler's last chance. The fans have had enough of him and what owner in his right mind would keep a GM around that hasn't won a damn thing for years? Well, there's one owner I can think of that would do that......
- Philadelphia Flyers.....Two words, defensive speed. And the Flyers don't have it. I could just end the preview with that but I get paid by the word so it's really, really, really, really, really important for me to expand on my point. The Flyers had sloooooow defenders which kept them as one of the bottom five penalty killing teams in the whole league pretty much all year. The real problem is the Flyers didn't do anything to address it save for signing Nolan Baumgartner (who?) and showing Chris Therien and Donald Brashear the door. They can score like crazy though which is big but in the playoffs last year the Sabres taught the Flyers a thing or two about speed when they took them to the woodshed and whipped their arses. So we'll see, they have plenty of talent to trade, let's see if they get some help.
- Phoenix Coyotes.....I asked former Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet for some help with this article. He told me that last year the Yotes were 31-6-3 against the spread in games played during the week. And a staggering 20-5 straight up against road mutts. Janet Gretzky told me that if you can get half a puck or more from the Yotes when playing an Eastern Conference team in the desert take it because once those teams leave La La Land and are about to skip the west coast to go home they run into what Stu Feiner (of Stu Feiner DOT COM!!!) calls the "last game of a long road trip jinx". As far as anything else, they'll have a tough time doing anything. They were game below .500 last year and didn't do much to improve except for signing Ed Jovanovski, and they're trying to squeeze the last little bit of life from Jeremy Roenick like he's a 3 week old tube of Colgate.
- Pittsburgh Penguins.....We're off to a bad start here. The Penguins fired their phenomenal Hall of Fame announcer Mike Lange in the off season after 30 years of service. Lange coined phrases like "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shoots, he scores!!", "he beat him like a rented mule!!", (after an empty net goal) "ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building", "he hit him so hard his kids will be born dizzy!!", and "he smoked him like a bad cigar!!" Trust me, if you had the hockey package, Mike Lange would be the only reason to watch the Penguins. So I kind of want the Penguins to do badly because that was a rotten thing to do to the guy. At any rate this team is young but they are the only team I can think of that is home to 3 "saviors"....Mario Lemieux (about to become a former owner), Sidney Crosby (big year last year despite little help), and now Evgeni Malkin (super talented Russian kid who is currently injured). Their defense sucked and Sergei Gonchar was a disappointment but he came on a little in the last 25 games or so. Not too much will change this year. Maybe playoffs, that's about it.
- San José Sharks.....This team only raises their ticket prices when Kiss does a "Farewell Tour" which is to say, annually. That was OK in the beginning but now the fans are starting to have a little thing I like to call "expectations". And now those expectations might be met. They had one major issue last year...penalty killing. So they went and got ex-Sabre Mike Greir, a guy who parlayed beating up the Flyers Whack-A-Mole style into a sweet free agent deal. Plus don't forget they got Joe Thorton from the Bruins in a trade that should have been investigated by the FBI. A solid team all around that could/should make a run.
- St. Louis Blues.....This team is uglier then Rocky Dennis waking up on a bad hair day. The Blues were the worst team in the league last year and it looks like they may be worse this year. They resigned Doug Weight after they rented him to the Canes to win a Cup. Bill Guerin also signed with the Blues in a "let me just steal some dough from these clowns and hopefully get traded to a contender in a deadline deal" move. Who's going to score for this team after Keith Tkachuk? Ahhh...that's not a rhetorical question, I'm really asking. And The Hockey News, who grades on a bigger curve then a Special Olympics gymnastics judge, rated the Blues farm system a C-. Ouch!!
- Tampa Bay Lightning.....They're deep at forward, they got Marc Denis to replace John Grahame and 57 year old Sean Burke in goal, and got Andy Delmore to solidify the defense. But they also signed defenseman Luke Richardson who if woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn't be more surprised then I am that Richardson is still in the league. I dunno know man....they won the Cup in 2004, they struggled last year and got ran over by the Sens in the first round of the playoffs. I'm inclined to think they'll be a decent team with their depth but I'm not sure Marc Denis and Luke Richardson are good enough replacements for Darryl Sydor and Nikolai Khabibulin (I just spelled that without looking it up....I'M A REAL HOCKEY WRITER NOW!!!).
- Toronto Maple Leafs.....Here's how you'll see the Stanley Cup in Toronto this year. Get in a cab, tell him to take you 30 Yonge St., pay the Hockey Hall of Fame admission, and it's in the back. Their big signing was Michael Peca who, for the life of me, I will never ever get the fascination with him. He definitely benefits from the school of thinking that gave former Eagles cornerback Eric McMillian a career. That school is the University of He's a Little Guy That Tries Hard So Let's Blow All Of His Accomplishments, No Matter How Inconsequential, Out Of Proportion. The Leafs claim they will be a young team and they'll be giving a lot of young players a shot but trust me, they'll panic once the natives get restless. Lack of scoring depth will eventually get them I believe. And if Mats Sundin goes down watch out, the fans in Toronto will attack management like they're an ice cream truck driving by Weight Watchers because then the team will really have limited talent and in Toronto that doesn't fly.
- Vancouver Canucks.....In the last 5 years "if we only had a goalie" was heard more often then "can I get a Molson?" in Vancouver. And along comes Roberto Loungo, so the excuses should be over, but there aren't. They let Dancin' Anson Carter go which will leave them weak on the wing and they are a little thin at the blue line. They missed the playoffs last year and they're in the tough Western Conference but I think they should at least make a mini run, maybe
conference finals.
- Washington Capitals.....If there's one thing that the NHL has more of then any other sport it's fair weather fans. But some of those fair weathered fans can become die hards with repeated exposure. That's the real shame about the Capitals. Alex Ovechkin is the best young player to come along in a long, long time, he created tons of well deserved buzz around the league last year and he did it all by his lonesome. The Capitals should have been able to take advantage of it but take that kid away and this team was putting guys like Dainius Zubrus, Jeff Halpern, and Brad Willsie on the ice and asking them to be stars. And I can't really complain about the Capital defense because nobody on the team seemed to play it. Unfortunately the Caps did little to improve themselves, in fact they signed ex-Flyer stiff Donald Brashear which will probably make them worse. Oh well, damn shame.
October 3, 2006
www.mondaymorningmehta.blogspot.com
Eagles
Eagles beat the gunslinger just looking to have fun Brett Favre 31-9 in a sloppy game. Let's go...
Game Positives:
- 2nd half. The team looked much more focused to play in the 2nd half. If you stayed to watch the last few plays, you saw that the defense even held the Packers out of the endzone on a late goal line stand.
- Greg Lewis. This might be his first positive since the Super Bowl. 2 TD's gets you in this space even though it was against a weak secondary. Todd Pinkston could have caught 2 TD's against that offense. Heck, Freddie Mitchell could have caught one.
- Sheldon Brown. I thought Brown finally had a good game. Greg Jennings got some big yards but rarely was Brown out of position as we've seen in the first few weeks.
Game Negatives:
- 1st half. Where do I start? How about the end of the half? That "fake FG" was pathetic. I seriously think Andy Reid had no idea that was coming. What happened to big bad David Akers? That dude on the Packers looked like he could've hit from 65 yards (opposing kickers don't deserve to get his name published in MMM).
- # 22. Another guy who doesn't deserve to be named by name. We have a new Toast Jenkins.
- Fans. Real weak effort last night. I don't blame the fans to be honest. How can you get up for the Packers especially after the loss a few weeks ago. I'm tellin you, this team needs a big win to get everyone back on the bandwagon with all their heart, I'm tellin you. That loss still hurts.
There's been a Hank Baskett sighting.
I'm very worried about what Terry Glenn and Terrell Owens could do against this secondary.
I don't know if this was the first Monday Night game where they used the new introductions (Jon Runyan did the Eagles offense while Trotter "announced" the defense). It was absolutely horrible. Please, stop it. First it was "THEE Ohio St University" then it was "Thee University of Montana" and now more ridiculousness.
Honestly, PLEASE, NO MORE 3rd DOWN PLAY DESIGNED FOR THOMAS TAPEH!! STOP IT!
Around the League
Best Performance: Bears. I'm not going crazy saying this team is a lock for the Super Bowl but after a 4-0 start this team looks like a lock to win the NFC North. Seahwaks were coming off a blowout huge emotional win, and losing Shaun Alexander, a letdown was only obvious. Nonetheless, the Bears had to be the biggest takeaway from Week 4.
Worst Performance: Bengals. This is a playoff team, but won't be a Super Bowl because of the offensive and defensive lines. They were blown off the line against the Steelers and the Pats. And the yapping continues..."I don't know if we were too cocky or too confident, but I know this is a team that we should've beat. Hopefully, well get another shot at them. I know if we play our best football, we can beat them," Carson Palmer said. T.J. Houshmandzadeh added, "They knew they couldn't stop us, but you need the team as a whole to succeed... There aren't any (defensive backs) on that team that can cover us." Uh, OK if you say so...
Worst Game: see first 3 weeks. Anything involving the Dolphins
I don't want to but have to give credit: Ravens. There is definitely some credence to the theory that Steve McNair puts this team, that has traditionally lost many close games, over the hump. McNair's late heroics this weekend was truly spectacular.
Albert Haynesworth: Good job by new commish Roger Goddall by quickly and swiftly punishing Haynesworth for that ridiculous stomp. 5 games is perfect punishment.
Indianapolis may not have "caught their stride" yet, but I'm not impressed. Jets have played well this year.
Should be a quiet week for Terrell Owens and the Eagles.
Huge win of the week has to go to the Redskins. Putting up 36 points against a good Jags defense has got to do wonders for their psyche. The NFC East is looking to be very tough, and I wouldn't be shocked if the Giants got their act together.
Phils 4th annual post-mortem
As usual the calendar turns to October which means watching other teams play and giving you a Phillies post-mortem. What went wrong? I'll break down 5 things I think went wrong, maybe next week I'll give you an offseason plan if I feel like it.
1. Back of the rotation, namely...Scott Mathieson, Gavin Floyd and Jon Lieber. There will be a theme to this section. It's 5 wins. I realize that the Phils finished 3 games out of the wild card but the goal all along has been to find 5-7 wins from the last few years. The Phils ended up at 85 wins this year and have been in the 85-88 range the last 3-4 years. They need to get to the 90-93 win range. Anyway, Mathieson, Floyd and the first 4 months of Lieber cost this team a few wins at the very least. Let's call this one a 3 game swing.
2. Bottom of the order sadness. Sal Fasano/David Bell/Abraham Nunez effect. There's no reason this team should have had Fasano playing. Chris Coste was so good the 2nd half of year it makes me sick to think of that stupid mustache for all those games. The third base situation was ridiculous all year. Nunez improved the last month, but it was too little too late. As for David Bell, let's hope this is the last time I print his name. Somewhere here there's a win that could've been had.
3. Brett Myers situation. Myers was having what was looking like a big year before his stupid actions in Boston changed everything. Let's be honest, 99.9% of the people won't care about that situation if Myers pitches like an ace. If he keeps his hands to himself, he not only acts like a man, but the Phils get another win or two.
Haven't I named like 11 things? Well there's a lot wrong...
4. The Cholly effect (repeat from last year). People pick on the manager too much. It's the trendy thing to second guess every move. But seriously, enough is enough with this guy. He sees everything 2 weeks after the rest of the world. Ryan Howard hit 6th and 7th at times in April. Think about that people! Was his ROY campaign not enough to show you he could hit Cholly? And Arthur Rhodes can't pitch! Was it coincidence that he got hurt and the pen started doing better? Pat Burrell stinks and can't hit behind Howard; only took him 2 months to figure that out. Uncle Cholly had to net at least 2 or 3 more losses.
5. Last but definitely not least....Pat Burrell. {Insert Thanks Einstein here}. I don't even need to explain this just put the wins in the column.
Dishonorable mention: Alex Gonzalez & Julio Santana. Also something that needs to be written is that Scott Graham and Chris Wheeler should be split up next year. They were awful together this year. Vomit inducing.
Baseball Playoff Predictions
San Diego vs. St Louis
St. Louis limps into the postseason struggling mightily especially in the pen. With Chris Carpenter inconsistent the last few weeks, I think Jake Peavy and the Padres can steal game 1. If they do that, this series could be over real quick. You can possibly get away in a short series blowing one game in the late innings, but you can't get away blowing more than 1. Unless Adam Wainright suddenly turns in Bruce Sutter, this team is in trouble. Padres in 4.
Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Flushing Mets aka Subway Series
Speaking of limping into the postseason, the Mets have questions galore. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez's 12-3 postseason record is downright spectacular but that's usually come as a 2nd or 3rd starter. He's now the ace and goes up against Derek Lowe who sports a 2.31 ERA in the LDS. The Mets offense will have to be huge in this series, and it absolutely can. This could be David Wright and Jose Reyes taking over October for years to come. But I give the Dodgers bullpen the edge. Takashi Saito and Jonathan Broxton have been great all year and will be the difference. This is the closest we'll get to a Subway Series. Dodgers in 5.
Yankees vs. Tigers
Starting pitching: Slight advantage to the Tigers (but I like the experience of Mussina and Johnson, who is scheduled to pitch). Bullpen: Mariano factor gives Yanks advantage. For those that have never seen the Tigers, watch Joel Zumaya. He throws like 437 mph. Anyway, my point is, pitching is close, but I'm not sure who is going to get the clutch hits on the Tigers. Guys like Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe have had nice years, but this is Yankee Stadium in October, you need to have brass ones to stand up there and get a hit off of Mariano. A little experience goes a long way too. Yankees in 4.
Twins vs. A's
The low payroll series pits every 1pm game the rest of the week. This is Fox's nightmare. But these teams have some great young players. For the Twins, it's the hitters Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to go along with Johan Santana. For the A's it's Dan Haren and Nick Swisher. Joe Nathan might be the difference here. I gotta go with the hot team once again, Twins in 5.
NHL Week in Review By : Ed Wasser
- Ottawa Senators.....Hear that? Off in the distance? It's the sound of someone grabbing the window of opportunity and getting ready to slam it shut on the Sens. This team is LOADED with talent but year after year in the playoffs they fall apart quicker then a drunk guy carrying 5 beers and nachos to the 700 level. So this year GM John Muckler is trying addition by subtraction. Martin Havlat DEAD!! Dominic Hasek DEAD!! Bryan Smolinski DEAD!! ZDENO CHARA!!! Dead....but they actually wanted to keep him, they just couldn't afford him. This is John Muckler's last chance. The fans have had enough of him and what owner in his right mind would keep a GM around that hasn't won a damn thing for years? Well, there's one owner I can think of that would do that......
- Philadelphia Flyers.....Two words, defensive speed. And the Flyers don't have it. I could just end the preview with that but I get paid by the word so it's really, really, really, really, really important for me to expand on my point. The Flyers had sloooooow defenders which kept them as one of the bottom five penalty killing teams in the whole league pretty much all year. The real problem is the Flyers didn't do anything to address it save for signing Nolan Baumgartner (who?) and showing Chris Therien and Donald Brashear the door. They can score like crazy though which is big but in the playoffs last year the Sabres taught the Flyers a thing or two about speed when they took them to the woodshed and whipped their arses. So we'll see, they have plenty of talent to trade, let's see if they get some help.
- Phoenix Coyotes.....I asked former Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet for some help with this article. He told me that last year the Yotes were 31-6-3 against the spread in games played during the week. And a staggering 20-5 straight up against road mutts. Janet Gretzky told me that if you can get half a puck or more from the Yotes when playing an Eastern Conference team in the desert take it because once those teams leave La La Land and are about to skip the west coast to go home they run into what Stu Feiner (of Stu Feiner DOT COM!!!) calls the "last game of a long road trip jinx". As far as anything else, they'll have a tough time doing anything. They were game below .500 last year and didn't do much to improve except for signing Ed Jovanovski, and they're trying to squeeze the last little bit of life from Jeremy Roenick like he's a 3 week old tube of Colgate.
- Pittsburgh Penguins.....We're off to a bad start here. The Penguins fired their phenomenal Hall of Fame announcer Mike Lange in the off season after 30 years of service. Lange coined phrases like "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee shoots, he scores!!", "he beat him like a rented mule!!", (after an empty net goal) "ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building", "he hit him so hard his kids will be born dizzy!!", and "he smoked him like a bad cigar!!" Trust me, if you had the hockey package, Mike Lange would be the only reason to watch the Penguins. So I kind of want the Penguins to do badly because that was a rotten thing to do to the guy. At any rate this team is young but they are the only team I can think of that is home to 3 "saviors"....Mario Lemieux (about to become a former owner), Sidney Crosby (big year last year despite little help), and now Evgeni Malkin (super talented Russian kid who is currently injured). Their defense sucked and Sergei Gonchar was a disappointment but he came on a little in the last 25 games or so. Not too much will change this year. Maybe playoffs, that's about it.
- San José Sharks.....This team only raises their ticket prices when Kiss does a "Farewell Tour" which is to say, annually. That was OK in the beginning but now the fans are starting to have a little thing I like to call "expectations". And now those expectations might be met. They had one major issue last year...penalty killing. So they went and got ex-Sabre Mike Greir, a guy who parlayed beating up the Flyers Whack-A-Mole style into a sweet free agent deal. Plus don't forget they got Joe Thorton from the Bruins in a trade that should have been investigated by the FBI. A solid team all around that could/should make a run.
- St. Louis Blues.....This team is uglier then Rocky Dennis waking up on a bad hair day. The Blues were the worst team in the league last year and it looks like they may be worse this year. They resigned Doug Weight after they rented him to the Canes to win a Cup. Bill Guerin also signed with the Blues in a "let me just steal some dough from these clowns and hopefully get traded to a contender in a deadline deal" move. Who's going to score for this team after Keith Tkachuk? Ahhh...that's not a rhetorical question, I'm really asking. And The Hockey News, who grades on a bigger curve then a Special Olympics gymnastics judge, rated the Blues farm system a C-. Ouch!!
- Tampa Bay Lightning.....They're deep at forward, they got Marc Denis to replace John Grahame and 57 year old Sean Burke in goal, and got Andy Delmore to solidify the defense. But they also signed defenseman Luke Richardson who if woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn't be more surprised then I am that Richardson is still in the league. I dunno know man....they won the Cup in 2004, they struggled last year and got ran over by the Sens in the first round of the playoffs. I'm inclined to think they'll be a decent team with their depth but I'm not sure Marc Denis and Luke Richardson are good enough replacements for Darryl Sydor and Nikolai Khabibulin (I just spelled that without looking it up....I'M A REAL HOCKEY WRITER NOW!!!).
- Toronto Maple Leafs.....Here's how you'll see the Stanley Cup in Toronto this year. Get in a cab, tell him to take you 30 Yonge St., pay the Hockey Hall of Fame admission, and it's in the back. Their big signing was Michael Peca who, for the life of me, I will never ever get the fascination with him. He definitely benefits from the school of thinking that gave former Eagles cornerback Eric McMillian a career. That school is the University of He's a Little Guy That Tries Hard So Let's Blow All Of His Accomplishments, No Matter How Inconsequential, Out Of Proportion. The Leafs claim they will be a young team and they'll be giving a lot of young players a shot but trust me, they'll panic once the natives get restless. Lack of scoring depth will eventually get them I believe. And if Mats Sundin goes down watch out, the fans in Toronto will attack management like they're an ice cream truck driving by Weight Watchers because then the team will really have limited talent and in Toronto that doesn't fly.
- Vancouver Canucks.....In the last 5 years "if we only had a goalie" was heard more often then "can I get a Molson?" in Vancouver. And along comes Roberto Loungo, so the excuses should be over, but there aren't. They let Dancin' Anson Carter go which will leave them weak on the wing and they are a little thin at the blue line. They missed the playoffs last year and they're in the tough Western Conference but I think they should at least make a mini run, maybe
conference finals.
- Washington Capitals.....If there's one thing that the NHL has more of then any other sport it's fair weather fans. But some of those fair weathered fans can become die hards with repeated exposure. That's the real shame about the Capitals. Alex Ovechkin is the best young player to come along in a long, long time, he created tons of well deserved buzz around the league last year and he did it all by his lonesome. The Capitals should have been able to take advantage of it but take that kid away and this team was putting guys like Dainius Zubrus, Jeff Halpern, and Brad Willsie on the ice and asking them to be stars. And I can't really complain about the Capital defense because nobody on the team seemed to play it. Unfortunately the Caps did little to improve themselves, in fact they signed ex-Flyer stiff Donald Brashear which will probably make them worse. Oh well, damn shame.
posted by Monday Morning Mehta at 9:29 AM
1 Comments:
What the fock. "Didn't find what I was looking for"...who the eff are you!!!
MMM is all about freedom of speech and the first ammendment. If someone wishes to post an advertisement in my comments section - so be it. LET FREEDOM REIGN!!
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