The Stanley Cup finals are here!

With the Stanley Cup finals starting on Monday night —inexplicably skipping over an entire weekend where games could have been played and brought in some ratings money— what better time to run a preview of the series then on this fine weekend? Alright, I could've run it earlier, like when the Western finals ended earlier this week but I figured, "Why?" So let's break down the series in an easy to digest form... match ups!

Goalies: J.S. Giguere vs. Ray Emery.
I don't like Emery, I really don't. I drafted Martin Gerber in my fantasy league because I figured there was no way Emery could take his job. I was wrong and Emery is good; he's playing some great hockey as well. But he's not Jiggy-in-the-playoffs good. That good can be scary at times.
Winner: Ducks

Defense
Can you honestly argue against Pronger and Neidermayer? I thought not. Even if the Sens kept Chara in the off-season I'd still give this match up to the Ducks. No contest here, but the Sens defense shouldn't be too over-looked.
Winner: Ducks

Forwards
While the Ducks play a good, more physical game with a strong checking line and some solid finesse players like Teemu Selanne, Ottawa has the big 3 line that can dominate a game. Heatley, Alfredsson and Spezza are quite the handful and have looked very hard to stop so far. The only way Anaheim might be able to is by throwing the hits at them non-stop. It's going to be a long series for both side of this battle.
Winner: Senators

Coaching
While I'm sure Randy Carlyle is a great coach, it's tough to top the fact that Bryan Murray used to be GM of the Ducks before taking the Sens head coaching post.
Winner: Senators

Intangibles
Hardly anybody in Southern California is going to care about hockey at this time of year while most other hockey fans hate the Senators. Is there a winner here? I don't think so.
Winner: Not the fans

So with a final score of Ducks 2, Senators 2 with one draw, this article is seemingly inconclusive. But I'll have to stick with my pre-playoffs pick that Anaheim will take it all and if it happens, the Intern will have actually been right too. I am stunned.
Pick: Anaheim in 7

What's the opposite of clutch?

Whatever it is, that's what the Cavaliers have been in the first two games of the Eastern conference finals. After Donyell Marshall, usually a dead eye from long range, missed a wide-open three pointer for the win in game one with time dying, Cleveland blew another chance to take a game in Detroit.

With the clock ticking down LeBron drove to the hoop, put up a layup and missed while it looked like he may have been fouled (At least Tim Duncan or Dwayne Wade would've gotten the call). The ball careened out of any Piston's reach and seemingly landed in Larry Hughes' lap. Reacting quickly, he pulled up and attempted a wide open jump shot from about 10 feet away. It's at this point of the post you realize that Larry Hughes missed an open shot that could've won his team the game because if he had hit it, this post would be on an entirely different subject.

Oh, and for good measure Anderson Varejao missed an attempt to tip the Hughes shot's rebound in.

I'm not finished yet: the Cavaliers coach, , then got a technical foul for walking onto the court to yell at the officials for the non-call on Lebron. Including the intentional foul, the Pistons got three free throws, one missed, to end the game 79-76.
The Cavs seriously have to pull it together and get back in this series at home. But more importantly, try running some "time-dying" drills. The last two performances were A-Rod-esque.

Second time’s a charm

Remember all those stories a few months back about the Penguins being bought and subsequently moved? Well they're going to start being rerun again with the name of Nashville Predators being substituted in for the Pittsburgh franchise's.

Yesterday a deal was finalized to sell the club to the owner of the Blackberry mobile computer dealie, Jim Balsillie. Rumours will now start to circulate of a move to a better hockey market and even a small city like Kitchener, Balsillie's home base, could be considered. Winnipeg and Kansas City are also both highly qualified to take on a franchise as well.

Despite putting together a strong team that lead a division that also contained Western Conference finalist Detroit, the Predators lost $15 million over the season and this is a prime reason why the team was sold and may be relocated.

I'm still rooting for a team from any sport in Vegas, but that's just me.

What I missed last night

With the Lost and American Idol season finales on last night, it was good idea by the NBA and NHL to both take an off-day. Me? I was stuck at work not watching the Lost finale due to a minor-league hockey game. Lovely.

One significant event did happen in the Majors last night; the Yankees took out the Red Sox to claim a series victory over the division leader. While they’re still 9 1/2 games back, it’s a good step to win a game against their hated, bitter rivals.

The entire Yanks line up was firing with the exception of Jason Giambi who had a ton going on for him to say the least with more steroid-related stories and admissions cropping up as well a possible failed amphetamines test coming to light.

Yanks starter Andy Pettitte went seven strong innings giving up a lone run while Curt Schilling wasn’t very effective giving up 12 hits and 6 runs.

It’s a long shot for the Yanks to catch up and take the division title from Boston, especially with their current rotation in injury- induced shambles. But this is New York, the Rocket is on his way and anything is possible in the sports world. Hey, Boston came back from down 3-0 didn’t they?

From the “Are you kidding me?” files

Tampa Bay outfielder and borderline psychopath, Elijah Dukes was benched after it came to light that he may have sent his wife a death threat via text message. The message was allegedly accompanied by picture of a gun. The message, which read “You dead, dawg. I ain't even [expletive]. Your kids, too.” was sent on May 2.

Now which is more unbelievable: the fact that someone married someone who is this mentally unbalanced, the fact that the couple has 2 children and that Dukes threatened to kill them as well, or the fact that it took nearly 3 weeks for her to let the authorities know that this happened?

It’s been a while since an athlete has done something this insane, that I can recall at least, but my hat is off for Elijah Dukes who is spectacularly ruining a chance to play professional baseball and earn millions of dollars.

My First draft lottery

I’ll be honest: I’ve never watched the NBA’s draft lottery before; I never really cared to be frank. But this year I’ll be tuned in (and not because I work in the sports department of the paper). The draw for Oden/Durant is the most compelling since that of King LeBron, but I didn’t even bother tuning in for that one either. When the Raptors won the lottery last year, I didn’t know it even happened until reading about it on ESPN.com later that night. There’s too much at stake with these ping-pong balls to miss out.

When everything was said and done, it looks like one franchise might be saved but at the expense of another fan-bases suffering. As the envelopes were opened, the anticipation grew with no real surprises for the first while, until the owner of the fifth pick was announced: the Boston Celtics. The tortured fan base that openly rooted for their team to tank and gain a better draft pick apparently ate it in the karma department and will miss out on a possible saviour. Phoenix also lost out on when Atlanta drew into the top-3 meaning they could keep their pick.

The huge winners, without surprise, are the teams who won the lottery and jumped up into the top two picks. Seattle got into the two-spot, meaning they’ll likely land Kevin Durant who could potentially save their franchise from being moved to a place like Vegas or Oklahoma City. But the kings of the show were the Portland Trailblazers who came in with only a 5% chance to win and walked away at the top of draft chart. While speculation has it that Greg Oden will likely be their choice, Kevin Durant will fit in just as well and either will be a great improvement for the team. This also sets up a good feud between Durant and Oden as the two teams are division rivals and play each other several times over the season.

This lottery will be remembered as Oden/ Durant lottery and as just another time the Celtics got screwed.

Pistons stop LeBron

The Pistons held true to their word and stifled King LeBron last night in their game one victory. James only managed 10 points — a playoff low— on 5-for-15 shooting. He almost managed a triple-double though and could’ve had it on a play that would’ve tied the game with seconds left.

LeBron drove with time winding down before being swarmed when he dished the ball outside to a wide open Donyell Marshall who proceeded to miss the 3-point attempt. It would’ve giving him his tenth assist to go with his 10 points and rebounds.

With the game that close, it’s fairly safe to say that even with all the pressure on the global icon, his team can still play put up a good game against an incredibly tough team. This series could very well be longer than anyone expected.

Goodbye Nash, Hello Finals!

With a win on Friday night the San Antonio Spurs bounced Shawn Marion’s Suns to insure a date with the Utah Jazz in the West finals. This move only decreases my interest in the playoffs because while i do have a certain dislike of Steve Nash, it would’ve been more interesting to watch the high scoring Suns move along rather than the defensive-minded Spurs. I’m also sure that even with a good match like the one we’ve been presented, people won’t tune into watch as much as they would’ve for Phoenix.

Questions should start popping up about why the Suns can’t win in the playoffs as well, seeing how they’ve failed to make the conference finals during Nash’s tenure. While it was fairly certain that the officials were against them during this series, it doesn’t excuse their previous short-comings. This should give some of the critics of the Dirk-over-Nash camp some ammo regarding playoff falters.

In the East, Detroit will have their hands full trying to contain LeBron James who is playing with more fire than I’ve seen before. Their tough defense might have a chance but it may prove more efficient to simply take away everyone else off this Cavs team that isn’t incredibly talented in the depth department.
Yesterday, in game 1 of the West finals, the Spurs did exactly what they’re capable of in beating the Jazz to draw first blood. This series almost seems like a foregone conclusion but the Jazz shouldn’t be counted out for a win or maybe two. I think we’re looking at a Spurs in 5 series win.

Interleague is wrap, for now...

With the marvel known as interleague play in the books after its first round of match ups and first string of “Why do we still have interleague?” articles, we’ve learned a few things.

The Mets are a lot better than the Yankees. Well, in all fairness, we already knew that but it should still be stated. The Yankees also managed to lose another pitcher to injury when Darrell Rasner injured his hand attempting to field a sharply hit ball. At least the Yanks were able to avoid the sweep by winning on Sunday night with another one of their long starters on the hill. Who said the Yankees farm system wasn’t deep?

Oakland is the better side of the bay. But we already knew that as well. They had to be better than the Giants who have turned into a side act for the Barry Bonds show nowadays. Even Barry Zito, who crossed the Bay for a $126 million deal, was shelled by his former club when he started on Saturday. Zito was hit up for 7 runs on 6 hits while walking 7 over four innings. The Giants were able to pick up a win on Sunday to avoid the sweep but it required Matt Morris to throw one hell of a gem to do so. Morris pitched a complete game while k’ing 9 and allowing 2 hits.

“The freeway series” is the worst name of the city series names. And with the Angels taking home the sweep, they can claim to be the kings of the L.A. baseball scene even if both teams are at the tops of their respective western divisions.

When your GM openly calls you embarrassing, you better come back with a win like the White Sox did on Sunday. They may still have lost the series to the Cubs in Wrigley field, but they still salvaged some pride. The thing is that their bullpen’s effort on Friday and Saturday (9 earned runs in 2 1/3 innings) was embarrassing, too bad it’s his job to get the guys to make it right.

Eww... Ottawa advances

Much to the dismay of most hockey fans, the Ottawa Senators went into Buffalo and took game 5, the series and the Prince of Wales trophy home with them. Daniel Alfredsson scored a weak goal 10 minutes into overtime to secure the victory. The shot went through a defenseman’s legs and didn’t give Ryan Miller much time to react.

With the West series still going on, the Sens will have some time to rest up before taking on either the Ducks or Red Wings who will, hopefully stand up a bit tougher than the Senators previous opponents who combined for a total of three wins.

With their overtime win yesterday afternoon the Ducks moved closer to the Stanley cup finals and a shot at taking down the vaunted Sens. The only problem is that despite being down 3-2 the Wings are playing a lot better hockey than Anaheim. It’s apparent when you look at the shot chance totals from the past two games. In fact, Selanne’s OT goal was the result of a careless give away and luck rather than any sort of real effort. With the odds against them, it may be tough for Detroit to advance but i wouldn’t go against them.