Canuckleheads stomp NHL's Chargers.

It had been 10 straight games that the Lightning visited GM Place without a win. Let's decide to make it 11. On a night were I was holding strong on one of my Lenten promises at Danny K's in the beautiful city of Orange, CA (we were there until 9; just missing the guy with the pen name "Beasy Bee"), the Orca came away with a thrilling 2-1 win against the East Coast team with the -36 goal differential from Tampa Bay. 

It only took 11:41 for the hometown fans to get a chance to sing along to "Crowd Chant" by Joe Santriani. Super stud Alex Edler blast a power play goal into the twine with assists from Ryan Kesler and Po Po Demitra (who, by the way, has 14 points in his last 12 games) to get the 'Nucks off to a running start. Steven Stamkos tied the game up at 14:36 of the middle frame in a scrappy garbage goal after the refs prevented Hank's goal from counting just seconds earlier. Damn partial Toronto video review morons. Lucky for Vancouver, however, Quebec City's own (and Karen's favorite) Stevie Bernier loomed large with a garbage goal of his own just under half way into the third period. SB's goal deflected off of a Vinny Lecavalier's skate and into the net for the unlikely game winner. Bernier said it best after the game, "This year has been tough. You score a goal and miss a couple each game and it's tough for momentum. The most important thing is keep working hard every game and if you keep working hard those kinds of goals are going to happen and it's going to help you to build your confidence." Hard to really accept that Steve thinks it has been a tough yet, really. After all, he's easily on pace to break his career high of 15 goals (currently with 13 goals scored and 21 games left to play), and he's been damned impressive to me. 

The three stars as called by the media sparkle as 1) Alex Edler (1 goal), 2) Steve Stamkos (1 goal), and 3) Kevin Bieksa (an odd choice with his best stat being 2 shots on goal). I hope you have your LSF pants on, because here comes the LSF's underrated three stars of the game. 1) Bobby Lu (20 saves on 21 shots, which makes me wonder how he didn't make the "real" list), 2) Steve Bernier (game winning goal doesn't getting you the star?), and 3) Henrik "H-Bomb" Sedin (11 face off wins and a goal that didn't make the stat sheet). Bingo. 

The continued East Coast success has my Blue & Green boys sitting sort of pretty at 31-22-8 (70 points). The Northwest is a sled race with Calgary up 10 points on my guys, with Minnie and Edmonton (-5), and Colorado starving for wins at -13. In the bigger picture, the Orca are still holding the 5 spot down, +1 on #6 Columbus (they're better than you thought, eh?), +3 on #7 Anaheim (I still hate them), and +5 on the #8 spot held by the Wild/Oilers/Stars. Looking up doesn't provide a lot of hope, with Chicago still being wily in #4, +7 on the Canucks. 

As we sit, every LSF team outside of the Maple Leafs (-9 of the #8 Buffalo) is in the playoff hunt. A lot of hockey remains to be played, of course. One of those needing to be played is a Sunday night battle that not many before the season would have been excited about, besides me. The Canucks welcome the #6 Columbus Blue Jackets into the beautiful Pacific Northwest for an intense Western Conference battle. Why will the Canucks win? People love goal differential, right? Well, the Canucks are +9 this year, and the Jacks are -6. So, there you have it. 

A post within a post will update you (and me) on all of my basketball buddies. Thankfully, a pitiful Notre Dame basketball season (outside of the amazing internet win against the Friars) is only two games away from closing out after a 13 point loss to UConn. Only Villanova and St. John's remain, and we may just be lucky enough to escape with two wins on the way out. If so, ND would finish with a conference mark of 9-9 and an overall tally of 18-12. Not quite what the Irish faithful expected out of this team, but hey, the NIT can be fun too. The equally disappointing Gauchos have three games remaining, including tonight's bout against UC Davis (and then games against Riverside and Long Beach). At 12-14 (5-8), UCSB are just barely above our rivals from Cal Poly in the battle for the Big West basement. Thank God it's all about the tournament! Can Chris Devine and company play way above their heads when they come to the Anaheim Convention Center? I sure hope so. And finally, the Austin Celtics (man, I wish) rebounded from the game that shall not be mentioned with a big win against the subpar Pacers. The C's bested the P's 104-99, with Merced, CA native (and friend of Brian Fuentes) Ray Allen leading things at 30 points and a +14 rating. It was a big night for Ray Ray, and he was joined by Glen Davis (18), Paulie Girl (16), and Le0n P0we (14, and check the zeros) in the double digit zone. Big Baby's +9 was the second best rating on the floor. By the way, Austin's newest star, Stephon Marbury, finished the night with 8 points and a -7. He came away saying, "It went the way I was praying for it to go. The whole satisfaction of the whole night for me is that we won." Whole! ESPN.com had way bigger compliments, "In his Celtics debut on Friday night, Stephon Marbury reminded us of the heights he's capable of reaching." Really? 8 points on a -7 night? Step back from the edge Stephon, you're reaching some crazy heights. 

Crazy heights? Blinded by the lights. Dizzy new heights. 

P.S. I think a combination of things has turned me into way more of a NBA fan. Those things are A) Getting excited during the Celts/Clippers game, B) Finding out about the +/- rating in the NBA box scores, and C) deciding that I'm going to pretend that the Celts are from Austin, at least until they actually move there.

Angels beat Sox and A's to go to 2-0.

Wait, you thought I was going to post on the Celtics/Clippers game? Was there a Celtics/Clippers game? I'm not sure I knew that, despite watching the entire thing with the only Clippers fan I know. How do you choke in the greatest rivalry in all of sports? Indeed. Meanwhile, my eyes are focused on the beauty of Arizona, as the Angels have started Spring Training with all the hope of every year before. Winning, even if it is in the preseason, is a whole ton of fun. 

The Halos opened things up with a huge win over the Chicago White Sox, busting a 12-3 win all over the face of Guillen and company. My most hated Angel (yes, again), Mike Napoli, had a two run double in a three run third for a 1 for 2 afternoon. On the pitching side, Scot Shields and Jose Arredondo each pitched a scoreless inning, with Gas Can (yeah, we're all back to the famous LSF nicknames) earning the win in the game. If you can believe it, thanks to a sixth run eighth inning, the up and coming Dominican Rafael Rodriguez earned himself a Spring save in a 9 run ball game. Other notables in the game were SS Hainley Statia going 2 for 3, Hank "Smoke Weed Everyday" Conger went 2 for 3, and Freddy Sandoval who also went 2 for 3. What a way to start things off. 

And then to follow that up with a 3-1 win over the Athletics? Classic stuff. A tight two run win allowed brand new closer Merced, CA native Brian Fuentes to shut the door with a scoreless final inning to earn his first Angels save. Fuentes is off to the World Baseball Classic. Will USA win this whole thing thanks to our new BFF? The story of the game, however, might have been prospect Jordan Walden, who struck out three, allowing just two hits in his first start of the Spring. Walden punched out 141 fools to lead all minor league Halos last season, with a 2.76 ERA in 27 starts (in single-A Cedar Rapids). Our 1B giant Kendry Morales put up with a 2 for 3 day, and was joined by Brandon Wood with a pancake (that's going way back). Kevin Jepsen also did pretty damned well on the mound. Any time we beat the A's, I'm proud. 

The Red Hats (actually I think the hats are blue in the preseason) will continue their fun times in Arizona with games against the Rockies, Brewers, and Royals over the next three days. I know that the preseason means nothing according to you, but I don't really agree. It shows off the young guys, and when the Angels have done well in the pre, they tend to do well in the real thing (or, thang). Let's keep it rolling along, boys. 

The WBC starts next weekend, so I hope you all have your National Pride ready to rock and roll. 

By the way, with Garret Anderson going off to the Atlanta Braves, you obviously have all been waiting to find out who my new "current" favorite Angel is. Of course, Wally Joyner is the best of all time in my opinion, and GA has been my personal Halo fav since 1994, but who will it be from here on out? I always went on record saying that if GA retired/left I'd shift my allegiance to Orlando Cabrera, but it's pretty clear that the option has been taken away from me. So, as we continue our journey to the 2009 season, I'm ready to unveil my new favorite Angel. Are you on the edge of your seat? 

Howie Kendrick. 

Special One, Indeed

No additional commentary necessary. Just click here.

Weekly football post #25.

It is time for the silver anniversary of the football post (well, week-i-versary, but you get the point), and things are really swinging along. Please to enjoy what the rest of the world calls football.

Despite being down to just 10 men on the pitch, my Newcastle boys did me proud with another draw against an obviously weak Everton side. Despite having their coach in the hospital after a triple heart bypass (man, the stress of losing really gets to you), the Boys in Bars held strong to avoid another loss. Goalie Steve Harper came up big twice in the first half to really solidify the clean sheet for himself. Newcastle was able to hold strong despite having basically an attack from the Blue Shirts on Denmark native Peter Lovenkrands. Pete was carried off on a stretcher, and the rough stuff carried on for the remainder of the match. In the end, the Mags and Everton settled for their second draw in recent memory to keep this rivalry going forward. At 6-10-10 (28 points), 'Castle are sitting in the #14 spot, now 5 big points up on the relegation zone and just 4 points back of the middle of the table #10. Next weekend is the match against the #12 Bolton Wanderers, which may see Newcastle jump all the way up to #11 with a win. Hopefully we can point the Wandering Crew in the losing direction. 

A 1-1 draw against Motherwell has most Celtic fans around the World a little tense, as Rangers has pulled into a 57 point draw atop the SPL table. I'm sweating. The Aussie mad man Scott McDonald opened things up with a goal in the 59th minute for Celtic, with a poor grass spot leading to a bobble of the ball over the Motherwell keeper's leg. It was a lucky break, and obviously lucky breaks don't win games. Mother came back with Paul Quinn nailing a late equalizer to tie things up. It was a tough non-win for the Bhoys, as they sit atop the table with Rangers now at 57 points. Suddenly the SPL championship chase heats up between two top LSF rivals. Next week Celtic will battle St. Mirren (#9, 7-12-7, 28 points), and look for a win against a St. Mirren side that can be compared to Newcastle United of the SPL (burn on myself!). I'd also like to point out that my boy Scottie Mac now has 13 goals on the season, just one back from team leading Georgios "Gorgeous Greek" Samaras, who has hit a bit of a cold streak. 

Another draw graced the grass of my Mexican soccer love affair, as Chivas de Guadalajara came up even at 1-1 against Morelia. My dog Sergio Amaury Ponce got a goal just 9 minutes into the match, getting the Red & White to a big, big start. It was looking great even into the second half of the match, until an awful call on a challenge came in the 64th minute, allowing a penalty goal for Morelia to tie things up. Luis Michel did all he could in this match, but when the zebras make a blown call like they did in this game, there was nothing he could do. Of course, a draw against Morelia is much better than the loss to Toluca on Wednesday (despite Ramon Morales netting a large goal in the 73rd that drew things at 1 temporarily in the eventual 1-2 loss). The draw on Saturday has dropped my Goats to third in their group of the FMF, with a 2-2-3 record and just 9 points in 7 games. U.A.G. leads the thing at +1 on Chivas, and Cruz Azul sits in #2 with an even 9 pointer mark. On Wednesday Chivas plays Everton? Everton CD is a squad from Chile that will match up against the Goats in the Copa Libertadores. Keep this in mind, Everton CD is in the same division as the mythical U. Catolica (who are undefeated this season), so hopefully Andrew will strap on his Catolica eBay jersey and go for Chivas in this midweek match. 

Have an enjoyable week, friends. 

Mats makes it a perfect evening.

What a freaking game. Are you kidding me? What a return to Toronto for none other than Mr. Torontonian. The Canucks came back and took the Leafs to overtime on Saturday night, only to come away with a thrilling (official) 3-2 win on a Mats Sundin shootout winner. Andrew's feelings? Well, when I texted him a message asking if he saw the exciting battle, I only received the return text of, "Saw it. Fuck Sundin." I realize that I would feel the same way after a finish like that, but you still love the guy, right?

Jason Blake scored the opening goal on a lengthy slapper that found a way through Lu. El Roberto fell to the ice in disappointment after letting the rubber slip through. One announcer said, "Wow, you never see Luongo fall to the ice in disappointment." Of course, the smarter announcer responded with, "Actually, he does it quite often after allowing a goal." Down 0-1 after 20 minutes, it was comeback time. Sami Salo decided to start it off after a penalty on Dominic Moore, with a slapper to tie things up on his fourth of the year (only?). Luongo would give up another one, however, before the second period would end. Matt Stajan, who I hear is supposedly pretty good but I don't believe it, scored a short handed goal just before it ended. Luongo really should have beat up on his D at that point. Luckily, it would be the Amazin' Alex to the rescue at 16:03 of the final frame. Daniel Sedin sent a puck toward the net, and my man AB deflected the puck in midair with one of the best deflections I've ever seen. He played a little air guitar to celebrate the game tying goal, and we were headed to OT (which most people nowadays realize means we were headed to a shootout). The shootout featured Po Po Demitra doing his thing again, Kyle Wellwood missing on a really terrible attempt. After Lu gave up a goal to Grabovski, it was all on the line for Mats Sundin. Make it, you win in front of all the Leafs fans around the world. Miss it, and their boos are vindicated. Before the game, Toskala said he knew that Mats would fake to the backhand if it came to a shootout. Knowing that didn't help him stop Mats. The move that Toskala predicted was the move our elder statesman used, and he netted one of the more thrilling goals of the season. Yeah, I know. I didn't think I would say a Mats Sundin goal in a shootout would be one of the most exciting goals of this season, but it was, I have to be honest. It was a really nice moment. 

Mats got first star of the game, despite having 0 points and a -1 rating in over 20 minutes on the ice. And, I couldn't agree with the choice more. 

The win was a big one, solidifying the #2 spot in the Northwest for the 30-21-8 (68 points) Canucks. My boys continue to hold in the 5 spot in the Conference, sitting +2 on Columbus, +3 on Dallas, and +5 on #8 Edmonton and #9 Anaheim. Up above, the #4 Blackhawks are still out of reach at +8 of my boys (just like Calgary). Quit being so proud, Jon. Next up is another on the road East Coast battle, this time against the Montreal Canadians. We don't have to think back far to remember to 4-2 win that the Orca got against these fools at the Garage on 2/15. The Twins and AB all had 2 points, and hopefully that stellar new top line will be ready to strike yet again.

Just under 3 days until the first Spring Training game!

Canucks roll through the capital.

Is it just me, or are the Canucks heating up at the right time? After a shooutout win against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday (which saw a nice battle between Alex Burrows and our old pal Todd Bertuzzi), my favorite hockey squad rolled into the Nation's Capital ready to take names. And did they ever. Another clutch money win, a 5-2 beat down of the Ottawa Sens, and the Canucks have nailed down 7 wins in their last 8 (a nice follow up to losing 10 out of 12 in the month of January). This game saw a new line combination of the Twins and Alex Burrows take charge, and the recently hot Senators fall back to their old ways. 

The Orca came out hard in the first period, earning three netters to jump out to a big lead against Canada's version of the Caps. Alex Burrows skated toward the net with Daniel providing a screen, and blasted a wrister right past Elliot and into the net. The new top line would strike again, as Daniel Sedin side stepped the defense and fed a perfect pass to his brother Hank for another easy strike. Kevin Bieksa topped the period off with a blasting slap shot on the power play for his 10th of the year. Either Newmarket, Ontario native Brian Elliot sucks between the pipes (7-4-2, 2.62 GAA), or the Ottawa coach really picked the wrong line to match up with the  new Sedin/Sedin/Burrows line. I guess based on the numbers, it would be answer #2. Of course, the Ottawa coach didn't change the line match ups, and Daniel Sedin would strike again at 8:35 of the second period for his 25th goal of the year. Ottawa would finally get on the scoreboard, with Dany Heatley nailed a power play blast at 12:37, and Mike Fisher scored on a couple of nice passes to beat Lu as Mattias Ohlund came crashing into Luongo to knock them both down. Now, if Vancouver would have lost the game, I would have pointed out that Ohlund was pushed down into Lu and the goal shouldn't have counted. Luckily, that didn't happen, so I didn't have to complain. But I wanted too! But not at the cost of 2 points. All we had left was Pavol Demitra's empty netter that didn't even come on a shot. Po Po just kind of bumped into a Sens player, and the puck slowly drifted toward the net with nobody to stop things. It was a slow, but beautiful 16th goal of the year for Demitra. What an exciting finish. 

The three stars were somewhat amiss. The liberal Ottawa media picked 1) Hank (1 goal and 3 assists) 2) My man AB (1 goal and 2 assists), and somehow 3) Peterborough, Ontario native Mike Fisher (1 goal and being on the home team gets you in the top 3?). On a serious side note, Peterborough, Ontario is the city that my Sligo, Ireland family immigrated to prior to moving to this beautiful Nation. That is the truth. Interesting, eh? The LSF Underrated 3 Stars looks like 1) Hank (they got that right), 2) My man AB (again, they got that right), and 3) Willie Mitchell (an enormous +3 rating in a very underrated evening). That should set things straight. 

The 29-21-8 (66 points) Canucks are marching back toward the top, and now sit just -8 of Calgary. At least we're gaining ground on the Northwest's groundlings: +4 on Edmonton, +6 on Minnie, and a serious +11 on Colorado. Looking at the bigger picture, the Blue & Green are in the #5 spot in the conference. Looking up, we are -8 of Chicago in the 4 hole (just like we are -8 of the division lead, which would put us in the top 3). Looking in the rear view, #6 Columbus is dead even at 66 points, with #7 Dallas -1, and #8 Edmonton at -4. The bottom of the conference has Anaheim at 9th (-5 of Vancouver), Minnie in 10th (-6 of Vancouver), and L.A. in 11th (-7 of Vancouver). Isn't it cool to see Anaheim just outside of the playoff chase after 59 games? Keep a close eye on Dallas (a game in hand against Vancouver) and Minnie (2 games in hand). Chicago also looks good, sitting tied for the least amount of games played in the West. 

The battle against the East continues, as the Canucks take on Andrew Do's Maple Leafs on Saturday, some loser's Canadians on Tuesday for a rematch (we won last Sunday), and the Lightning on next Friday. Can someone say East Coast pummeling? 

Has anyone else noticed that when the Canucks are winning, nobody says anything about a recent lack of production from Mats Sundin? 

Weekly football post #24.

Welcome to the George Washington edition of the weekly football post. Let's get started. 

The Fountain Valley Barons went up against Esperanza for their final match of the year, and it was kind of a microcosm for the season as a whole. The Espy's beat the Barons despite an 8 save effort from Tyler Folkins between the pipes. Eperanza's Michael Hodis nailed the golden goal in the second half to put FVHS away for good here in 2009. With a 6-8-4 finish overall (and a 4-4-1 Sunset record), the Mighty Mighty Barons have plenty of need to grow over the next year. Losing Jordan Gorman (led the team with 7 goals this year) to college won't help, but hopefully Junior Mike Tedesco (a goal scored in three different games this year) will be able to step it up and make a difference. Better luck next year, boys. 

Newcastle got a week off after their 3-2 win against West Brom. I guess that means that the Mags will be well rested for their 2/22 match against the bastards from Everton. Bring it on, Jon. 

Celtic matched up against Rangers in a match that always bring excitement to the world, and the game ended in a 0-0 yawner. It was a scrappy match between the rivals of the Old Firm, but neither team really got a great chance. Scott McDonald has the closest moment of excitement, with a header from 6 yards out, but missed just high and the game would slowly play itself to the nil-nil final. The draw between the Caths and the Protties keeps Celtic 2 points clear of the hated Blue Shirts in the SPL table. The Hoops are 17-3-5 (56 points in 25 matches) so far this campaign, and they look to their next match against #7 Motherwell to try and gain a tad more separation against Andrew's boys. While all of the players and coaches are feeding the fans the BS of being happy with the draw, we as fans obviously wished for more. I do have to, of course, give props to stud Polish man Artur Boruc, for holding strong in the huge battle. 

I actually watched the Chivas match this weekend with a Mexican soccer fan, which was a joy, and Chivas was a disappointment. Nothing until the 88th minute would be something I would call inspired by the Goats. After a 0-0 first half that saw few chances, Santos Laguna came away with goals in the 50th and 59th minute to grab a huge lead. Argentinean legend Daniel Luduena nailed home the first goal for the bad guys with a free kick that got just over the hand of Luis Michel. They must have replayed that shot a million times on Azteca TV, and it just looms in my mind. Even worse, however, was the goal by Carlos "Darwin" Quintero in the 59th minute. A slip by a Red & White defender led to a three on one against Michel. The Chivas pipe man blocked the initial shot, but gave up a fat rebound, which led to the second goal of the game. Not very many chances came for the losing side with the deficit, until the 88th minute when Javier Hernandez Balcazar nailed a nice kick of his own. "El Chicharito" burried the goal on a pretty pass that fooled former Chivas keeper Oswaldo Sanchez. Balcazar picked up the ball, ran it all the way back to the center spot of the field, and clapped his team on in an attempt to tie things up in the final 120 seconds. It wasn't meant to be. Now at 2-1-2, Chivas continues to hold a slight lead in the Clausura Group 2, as they prepare for a home game against Group 3 leader Toluca (3-0-2) on Wednesday and an away game against hot on their tails Morelia (2-2-1) on Saturday. 

Let's not let Ireland's amazing F up of Italy on the 6 Nations rugby pitch go without celebration. The Green & White side trounced the Italians with a 38-9 showing that will help them to remember who rules the roost. Tommy Bowe, Luke Fitgerald, David Wallace, and Brian O'Driscoll all had tries in the match, and the Blue Shirts from Italy went back to their flats drying their eyes. It was an identical Irish side to that which beat up on France last weekend, and it puts Ireland in prime position here in the 6 Nations tourney. Ireland and Wales now sit as the only undefeated teams in the campaign (both at 2-0-0), but the Greens have a significantly better point differential with +38 compared to the Welsh +21. The 6 Nations takes a little time off for now, before getting back to business on 2/28, when the Irish resume their march to the 6 Nations Cup against the hated English. Keep in mind that 3/21 is the biggest battle of the tourney, at least as it stands right now, as the Irish eyes will be ready to battle those amazing Welshers. Game on. 

That seems like enough football for now. Hope you enjoyed the post, and I hope you enjoyed the Canucks gigantic 4-2 win over the Habs last night. GM Place was rocking, and the now 27-21-8 Canucks are sitting in the West's 5th spot with 62 points. Of course, only 2 points separate the fifth spot from the out-of-the-playoffs nine hole. 

I think the people at the Onion hope that this one doesn't come true anytime soon.

6th LSF Predictions Post.

For the first time in LSF history, all LSF writers who chose to predict games had their predictions strike gold. Jon and I went a combined 4-0-0, just to show off the prognosticative abilities of the writers of this fantastic blog. Somehow, UCSB eeked out a 2 point win against the hated Mustangs (thank you Chris Devine) to add to an already celebratory weekend thanks to Ireland completely  embarrassing Italy on the rugby pitch. Meanwhile, Everton stopped Villa to beef up a solid Jon week after the Zags beat out the Dons. Man, are we good or what?

Well, as we welcome the week that starts with the birth of our Nation's first president, it is time to make our predictions yet again. So, if you choose to, toss your weekly calls up on the comments of this post and the battle will rage on. 

Winning streak stopped despite Barbarian.

After getting streak up to four straight games thanks to an impressive come from behind win against Phoenix on Thursday (thank you, Ilya Bryzgalov), my boys from Van-ca-tesh went for a fifth straight in a back to back matchup with Dallas. Prince George, BC native Jason LaBarbera was in the pipes for our captain, and despite some simply mind boggling saves, the Orca dropped the match to the Stars by the final score of 1-2. 

My first thing about this game is that if Joel Lundqvist and Henrik "The Beast" Lundqvist played on the same team, the would have a wicked rivalry with Vancouver: a battle of teams with twins would be so much fun. Of course, Joe hasn't been that good, no goals in the regular season since March 15, 2008; but also of course, he was the man with the plan for the Stars in the battle against the Blue & Green. The game started out all apples for Vancouver, with Taylor Pyatt simply walking in on Turco and taking a hard wrister that went straight through the 5 hole as if there wasn't even a goalie. For TP, it was the seventh goal of the year, and the Canucks would sneak out of the opening frame with a 1-0 lead. The second period wouldn't go quite our way. Loui Eriksson got one on the power play, and that jerk (with a jerk for a twin) from Are, Swede would get what would be the game winner at 16:27 of the middle brick. The rest of the game would have silence in the twine, but it wouldn't have silence around the net. Dallas broke on an unprecedented three on none breakaway, only to be stonewalled by The Barbarian, and would follow that up with another breakaway that ended in the same result. How many times did the 18,532 fans at the American Airlines Center stand up thinking they had a goal, only to clutch their heads in sadness once they realized that LaBarbera had stolen yet another one. The Barber (do I like that better than "Barbarian?") stole the show, and did plenty to keep the 'Nucks close enough to get back into it. Unfortunately, the squad was all scored out after nabbing 21 goals in their previous four tests. On this night, it would be a loss in the crucial race for the top 8. 

I'll also give credit where credit is due. Turco came away with some mighty saves as well, earning himself the first star of the game. The Saul Ste. Marie, Ontario native (for some reason, I always thought he was American) finished with 32 saves, stopping Deuce Deuce 7 times, turning Wellwood away on 6 occasions, and even turning back 5 blasts from the X-Man. Nice work by the enemy keeper (although not as nice as the good guy's goalie). 

Crashing back down to reality after an amazing run (that all started with Chicago, thank you very much), the Fightin' Orca are 26-21-8 (60 points). The #2 spot in the division is -9 of leading Calgary, and only +1 on Minnie and +2 on Edmonton. The Avs are in the lonely basement with 51 messily points. Looking at the bigger picture, the Canucks are in the #7 spot in the West. Looking up, we see Anaheim and the aforementioned Dallas at +1, and Chicago out of reach for now at +8. Looking out down below, we've got Minnie and Columbus on our tail (-1), Edmonton still pressing (-2), and Los Angeles (who have been crazy hot based on the "On The Fly" highlights I've been watching), Nashville, and Phoenix still within reach (-5). The Wild, Jackets, Oilers, Kings, Preds, and Coyots all play tonight. Things will definitely change by 10 pm tonight. 

The Blue & Green will host a Sunday night affair against the East's #5 team in Montreal (66). As a side note, I'm going to take you on a quick trip to explain why we call Montreal the "Habs." In 1924, Madison Squad Garden owner Tex Rickard was falsely told by someone that the "H" in the logo of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team stood for "habitant", a French word that in those days was used to denote the farmers of Quebec. Rickard was told that the French players on the team came from the farms and that they were therefore "habitants" or "habs." At the time, the Canadiens were recognized as the French Canadian team of the Montreal as opposed to the Montreal Maroons, the English Canadian team. In reality, the team logo of the "C" wrapped around the "H" stands for the "Club de Hockey Canadien." In 1917, as the founding of the NHL, the team changed its name to that from the previous. Club Athletique Canadian. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. 

So, will the 'Nucks be able to get back to their winning ways against the Habs? My thought would be that Montreal, Quebec native Roberto Luongo just isn't going to lay an egg against his home town squad. The first round draft pick fro 1997 will be ready to shine, so get ready to come away with nothing, Andrei Kostitsyn, you Belorussian bitch. Whoa, wait. I actually have to kind of like Kostitsyn. He was born on my birthday. No wait, he was born on the same day as me, but three years later! Revert to previous sentiment, you Belorussian bitch!

Bobby F-ing Abreu.

The Angels fired up the hot stove on Wednesday afternoon, and signed soon-to-be 35 year old Aragua, Venezuela native Bobby Abreu to a one year deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million. The left handed slugger will be bringing a powerful bat the the Halo lineup, or at least that's the idea. The Big B.A. hit .296 with 20 jacks and 100 RBI for the Evil Empire last season with a .371 OBP. Over the last 3 seasons, Abreu hit for an average of .296, .283, and .303, and he has pounded out jacks of 20, 16, and 15 (with 24 in 2005). Bobby would have led the Angels in RBI by 9 (Vlad led the squad with 91) in 2008, and he also would have been a different kind of base stealer (his 22 would have ranked 2nd on the squad behind Chone's 34). But the obvious question is: Will this 35 year old former Yankee be able to provide the pop that will shut up the "we need a big bat" red hat fans? Or, will he disrupt what looked like a solid clubhouse, and fizzle on the West Coast?

Even though I just typed all of that, I can't really believe that Bobby Abreu is even on the Angels. Not that I'm so happy that it happened (as I would have been if the Halos got Ken Griffey Jr. back in the year 2000), but more that I'm surprised that a guy like B.A. would all of the sudden be on the squad without me catching a single rumor. By the way, Wikipedia reports that Abreu's nickname is "La Luche", which I think means "the fighter," and that will be his LSF name as well. With a career batting average of .300 even, you have to think that Luche is going to be a big help to the red hats, but in his rising years will he be declining? Let's go with RBI countdown over the years to see what we think. We'll watch from 2000 forward: 79, 110, 85, 101, 105, 102, 107, 101, 100. While there has been a decline of sorts since his 2001 season in Philly (.316/31/110), he's still been holding pretty strong with his 101-105-102-107-101-100 run right now. There isn't much of a reason to believe that he won't get something like .285/15/85, and that is kind of putting it on the conservative end of things, right? He doesn't seem injury prone (making it through 156 games in 2008, 158 games in 2007, 156 games in 2006, and 162 games in 2005), which is a huge plus. 

Of course, it is easy to show that this guy may make a difference, but the next question to explore is: Did we need to drop $5 million + on this guy to be a quality team? Well, he is a right fielder, and we are kind of stocked in the OF slots. We've currently got 6 players on the 40 man roster: Terry Evans, "Vlad Rad", Torii "Big Game", "Most Valuable Junior", "Good ol' JR", and "The Little Reggie That Could." Now we have 7, with La Luche. The everyday OF has to look like JR-Torii-Vlad, with GMJ and Reggie spelling when rest is needed, with Abreu taking hold of the DH position (thus eliminating all of that talk about Mike Napoli playing a grip of DH in 2009...thank God). Abreu could take over for Vlad in RF if needed, but it would be pretty surprising to see him out on the grass because of his declining defense over the recent years. The MLB Network just reported on "Hot Stove" that Mike Scioscia is planning to have Juan Rivera also play a little first base to free up some ABs for Abreu and company to give Kendry Morales a little rest, but then you are taking ABs away from Quinny. While the signing may provide some more pop, it is clear that "Lorii" Scioscia is going to have to be on top of his game (which we know he can't) with shuffling the lineup around to produce. Whoever is hot is in, whoever is not is out, and their can't be any excuses. Other than that, I'll point out that Bobby Abreu has a history (in Philly) of giving away 10,000 tickets to underprivileged fans, calling it "Abreu's Amigos." Seems like a good guy. 

So, while we'll have to see how this whole thing shakes out, it seems as though this Abreu thing will be alright, in my opinion. As long as he decides to go into the Hall of Fame as an Angel, rather than a Yank (oh yeah, I have to remember that this is just for one season). 

MLB Network is also reporting that Garret Anderson may be on the radar of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which would kind of crush me to see my former favorite Angel in a blue hat. Which reminds me, I now not only have to go on the hunt for a new "least favorite" Angels, but I have to search out my new favorite Angel as well. I smell a fun post coming up soon. 

I simply cannot believe that we are just 1 day, 14 hours, and 46 minutes away from the pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training camp. Thank you, Lord.

Canucks stay crazy hot against Blues.

6-4? 6-4!? Where has this offense been all my life? That's 17 goals in the last 3 games for my Vancouver Canucks, and that is no freaking joke. Can you imagine that the Orca have struck so hard this last week? It continued with a ton of offense against the bottom of the barrel St. Louis Blues tonight with a blessed 6-4 victory that improved the February winning streak to all 3 games. 

It certainly didn't start well, with Steve Wagner (18:27) and Brad Boyes (power play at 19:56) getting the Blues off to a 2-0 lead on our boys, but Mats Sundin turned the second period into "The Mr. Torontonian Show" to get the Blue & Green back in the game, and it was a third period explosion that sealed the deal. Master Mats scored his fifth of the season, on the power play, at 3:48 of the middle frame after getting the rebound from a Po Po post shot, and would strike again less than 5 minutes later (after actually hustling to beat the St. Louis defender to the puck) from Kevin Bieksa and Ryan Kesler to pull the Canucks within a single goal (2-3 at the end of the second period) after All-Star Keith Tkachuk scored a power play goal in between the two Mats' netters. Something possessed the 'Nucks in the final period, with Livonia, MI native Ryan Kesler striking gold again at 7:58 on yet another power play. Kesler now has 15. While Andy McDonald got the Blues the lead against just 1:30 later, it would only be temporary. Alex Burrows continued his career season with his 13th goal, and was followed up by former line mate Jannik "Great Dane" Hansen at 15:18. Po Po Demitra got the easy pickins' on the unassisted empty netter to finish things off at 6-4. Luongo held strong enough, despite only stopping 24 of 28 shots (85.714%), and Mats Sundin (deservedly?) earned another first star marker for his big 2 goals. 

So where the hell are the Canucks coming from? Well, the true key to their offensive outburst over the last three games has been the recently nuts power play. The nailed 2 power play goals in tonight's amazing win, 4 power play goals against Chicago in the previous win, and one more for good measure in the win against the 'Canes on my birthday. It is really surprising for a team that holds just an 18.7% power play percentage (#7 out of the 15 Western squads). The other reason for the recent winning streak and scoring outbursts really belongs to two forwards (who, surprisingly have shifted to the same line, with Pavol Demitra rounding out the forwards on the new line). Mats Sundin (and, for some reason, I don't really like to admit it) has started to come on like a drunk guy at Club 634. Mats has four goals in his last three games, and has produced six goals and ten total points over his total 12 games with the Orca on his chest. The second guy responsible for the good stuff is the only forward with a better recent run than Mats, Ryan Kesler. Kes now has six goals in his last four games for Vancouver, and has been first star quality for each of those games. He bring the heat in the interviews when losing teams don't want to talk, and he makes all of us Americans proud with his United States heritage (do I hear Vancouver 2010 for the Red/White/Blue?). Really impressive offense. Good line changes by Coachie V, which is some respect I don't usually dole out. 

The win against the Central's worst team boosts the Canucks to 25-20-8 (58 points) and back into the second spot in the Northwest. The Blue & Green are 8 back on division leading Calgary, just 1 up on Minnie, just 2 up on Edmonton, and a comfortable 7 up on the last place Avs. As we get to this part of the season, though, it is all about checking the ranking in the Top 8, eh? So, the win against the Blues has Van-ca-tesh sitting in the #7 spot in the playoff chase. We've got Minnie in 8th (57 points), Columbus in 9th (also, 57 points), and the Oilers in 10th (56 points). The Kings are also getting closer to the playoffs, with 55 points in the 11 hole, in case your interested. Up above in the table, we're chasing #6 Anaheim (+1 on Vancouver), #5 Dallas (also just +1 on Vancouver), and the hated #4 Blackhawks (+8 on my boys, even after getting blown up last weekend). 

My puck buddies hop a flight to Phoenix for a battle with the Great One and the Coyotes this Thursday in another big battle in the war for the playoffs. Phoenix is 24-25-5, the 13th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference in terms of points, and they have been pretty bad recently with 6 straight losses and 7 in their last 8 games. However, outside of their Saturday night game against Carolina (2-7), the haven't been getting blown out (the five losses prior to that go: 4-5, 1-2, 0-2, 0-2, and 3-7...I guess that last one is pretty bad). The squad, with former Orca Ed "Jovo Cop" Jovanovski, would be considered a possible dangerous team for Vancouver to play, but they will be playing the second game of a back to back when the meet the Canucks (after a Wednesday night tilt with Dallas), and the 'Nucks should be able to keep the winning going thanks to their upcoming rest. 

As we get down to the last two months of the season, things are really getting pretty fun. I say that, now that Vancouver is winning, obviously. 

Weekly football post #23.

Welcome to another exciting round up post from the world of football. The Pro Bowl ended in an awesome revenge win for the NFC, and nobody watched. Did they?

After beating Edison with an impressive 2-1 win on the pitch, the Barons of soccer took to the grass against Los Al, and lost. After a dead even first half at 0-0, Los Al's Josh Dobson netted the game winning goal, and he was assisted in the shutout game by Nick Brady between the pipes. The loss has staked the Blue & Gold to a 6-7-4 record (4-4-1 in the Sunset), and has the whole thing set up for the last game of the season against Esperanza this upcoming weekend. Can FV pull away with a large win to finish at .500? 

No one expected the Hoops Scottish Cup match from this weekend to be so close, but a 2-1 squeaker against Queen's Park has Celtic through to the quarter finals. Stirling, Scottland native Gary Caldwell nailed a header in the first half, and was joined by a header from Scott "A Dingo Ate Your Baby" McDonald to give the boys the 2-0 first half lead. Queen's Park (named, the Spiders) halved the lead in the 65th minute against Boruc. It wouldn't be enough for the unknown side, however, and the Sligo squad is through in the Cup. Of course, the really test comes next week when the Catholic side lines up against Rangers in the biggest game of the season. I'm really, really confident about this Protty matchup. 

Newcaslte won! I don't really even expect that these days, but a giant 3-2 win against West Brom has a smile across my face this morning. All three Magpie goals were scored in the first 45 minutes of the EPL match. With Shay Given long gone, the goaltending was completely a sham on the pitch, as 3 goals were scored overall in the first 10 minutes of the game. How do I not have FSC? This would have been a sweet one to watch. In the end, the Boys in Bars took advantage of more mistakes than the Brommies, as they nailed down goals from Ballyboden's Damien Duff, Peter "Great Dane" Lovenkrands, and Steven "Greenwich Mean Time" Taylor. Steven Harper did just enough to keep the Mags up, and the win is one of the biggest of the season. Of course, next week's win against Everton will be even better! The win has us at 6-10-9 on the year, and those precious 27 points are good enough for #13 in the EPL (4 points up on relegation and 29 points back of Manchester United). Everton is ranked 6th in the league, but a Newcastle win next weekend could move us into the top 10. 

Meanwhile, Chivas de Guadalajara suffered a draw with Necaxa over the weekend 1-1. It was a 64th minute goal by Necaxa's Alfredo Moreno that put the away side out in front, and a thrilling Ramon Morales strike at 83:00 that saved the day for the Goats. It was Ramoncito's first goal of the campaign, which matches up well with his 1 assist on the year. Despite not getting the win, the La Piedad native really saved the day for the Mexican boys in bars. It was really the goaltenders that made all the headlines in this one, however, as a total of 13 shots (7 on goal) came upon them. Luis Michel held strong from the 64th on, and my Mexican side did just enough to earn a point. Still on top of the table at 2-0-2 (8 points), Chivas has to be proud with their undefeated run so far. The Copa Libertadores is up next for the Goats, as they match up with some squad named Lanus, before getting back to FMF play against Santos (0-2-2) next weekend. Love it. 

Not sure if you know this, but rugby is often referred to as "footie", so I figured I could add some 6 Nations action to the football post. As I predicted, Ireland shocked France with a big 30-21 win over France in a see-saw battle that got the 6 Nations tournament underway. 82,000 fans watched Leinster (my favorite rugby team, and of course, arch rivals of Brandon's favorite squad, the Llanelli Scarlets) stud Godron D'Arcy get a vital try after being away from the Irish squad for a year with a lack of fitness, and watched the Green & White triumph over the Tricolor squad. It only took two minutes for the Irish side to take the lead, thanks to a penalty score from (no joke) San Diego, CA native Ronan O'Gara, and then the back and forth battle began, with the Irish squad finishing things off nicely thanks all in all with tries from Gordon D'Arcy, Heaslip, and Brian "B.O.D." O'Driscoll, 3 conversions and 3 penalties from the San Diego Star O'Gara. This Sunday, Ireland continues their run against Italy as they try and march toward the top. And, in case Brandon is interested, Wales beat Scotland 26-13 to open things up. 

So, I guess A-Rod breaking Barry Bond's record isn't really going to make things much better. 

5th LSF Predictions Post

I'm feeling really good about calling games. I completed my first 3-0-0 predictions sweep over the week with the Canucks, UCSB, and Ireland all pulling off giant upsets (well, the Lady Gauchos were kind of expected to kill UCI), and now I'm well clear of the rest in the predictions table. That Pro Bowl really taught Brandon a thing or two, but was it adequate revenge for Larry Fitzgerald on the hated AFC? Probably not. 

So, here we are, with another week upon us. Are you all ready to try and make some calls to catch up to me (or not, if you don't want to)? I hope you all have a good week, and I hope you all make solid picks to make LSF proud. 

Farewell. 

Canucks go Andrew Jackson on Chicago.

Welcome over to our house for the big game, Jon. Now try not to cry on the way home. The Canucks played way over their heads against the American team that just doesn't lose to squads from America Jr. Sweden's very own AE went career-style nuts with a goal and three assists (the youngster's first four point game), Ryan Kesler nailed home two more goals (to give him five in his last three games), and Luongo didn't only gave up one "should have saved" kind of goal (as the other two were a) on a breakaway and b) on the power play) in Vancouver's gigantic 7-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. 

By gigantic win, I mean gigantic. Henrik Sedin opened things up at just 53 seconds in with a sneaky goal passed Huet, Mats Sundin scored (his fourth, by the way, Brandon) on the power play with an open net goal anyone could have scored, and Ryan Kesler notched a really nice power play marker at 13:50. What a start! And, they wouldn't blow it. The second period saw goals from Karen's favorite (Stevie Bernier), Brandon's favorite (Deuce Deuce Sedin), and the media darling (Alex Edler) to jump the Orca out to a 6-0 lead. Fans were sitting at GM Place with a huge grin on their collective face for the first time in a long time. With the Canucks on the power play, Kris Versteeg (it's "Ver-sh-teg", right?) got a breakaway to nail home a shortie at 18:52. The second intermission saw an interview with Ryan Kesler, who was called "second pick" after the Blackhawks refused to engage in any interviews after falling behind 1-6. Just kind of shows what kind of team they are. Honestly, it's weak. Adam "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" Burish and Martin Havlat would chip in two more against El Roberto, but the Canucks were just too much for the Windy City Players, as shown by Ryan Kesler's breakaway goal at 13:09 of the final frame. The box score will say unassisted, but you'd have to give the assist to the Hawk defender who flat fell down, allowing the Livonia, MI native to take the puck at attack the second Chicago keeper of the game. A nice "slam on the breaks and score" kind of finish on the breakaway ended things at 7-3. Kesler is going completely nuts, with 8 points in his last 3 games. I mean, completely nuts. 

I almost completely agree with the three stars (Edler is a yes for #1, Kes is an easy #2, and I'll swallow Mats as the #3, even though I think it's lame that he earns a top 3 marker just for scoring a goal), so let's get right to the reason that the Canucks won this game. Take it away, Mr. Luongo, "I let them score a few in practice to really build up their confidence and it paid off. Sometimes you've got to do that as a good teammate. You know, it's the captain's job to make the boys feel good." There you have it. I'll dish out underrated love to Stevie Bernier. The Quebec City native now has 12 goals and 13 assists on the '08/'09 campaign, and he continues to show that he has what it takes (and, he's just 23!). 

After today's play, the Canucks dropped back down to #3 in the Northwest with their 24-20-8 (56 points) record. As the weekend ends, Van-ca-tesh sits -8 of Calgary (here we come), -1 of the Wild, even with the Oilers, and +5 on the Avs. Looking at the big picture, the recent 2 game winning steak has the Blue & Green in the #8 spot of the Western Conference. With the Oilers equalling our points in the 9 spot, and Columbus (carry the flag!) just 1 point back, the pressure is out. Looking up, we have Minnie (+1) in the 7 spot and the Ducks and Stars (+3) in the 6 and 5 spot respectively. Things are as tight as my Paul Frank jeans after a midnight 3 by 3 and animal fries. Ninja style. 

See you March 29, Jon. 

My 3 reasons.

After watching the Notre Dame Fighting Irish get blown up by UCLA this morning, and now flipping between the Clippers/Hawks game and the Leafs/Habs game, I was somehow inspired to come out with "my 3 reasons." This edition of "my 3 reasons" will (from a Canucks fan's perspective) explore the 3 reasons why the 'Nucks will/will not win tonight's Hockey Night in Canada match against the Chicago Blackhawks.

My 3 reason the Canucks will win tonight:

1) Ryan Kesler is heating up. The Livonia, MI native came away with 1 goal and 2 assists in the win against Carolina, 2 goals in the overtime loss to Minnesota, a +1 in the loss to Nashville. His 5 points in the last 2 games have been wicked huge, including the goal with just ticks remaining to send the Minnie game to overtime with the goalie pulled. This season he has 1 point in 2 games against the Hawks (who are totally getting killed by the Clippers right now), and he is just hot enough (#3 on the team in points) to make you feel like he's ready to bust out tonight. 

2) Pavel Demitra is back and better than ever. After recovering from groin injury, Po Po had two amazing assists in the win against the Canes. He's a Hawk killer too. The Dubnica, Slovakia native has played 45 career games against the Hawks, and has amassed 51 points in that time (24 goals and 27 assists). Is he ready to be the Jon killer?

3) We have been losing so much lately, that one win just isn't going to be all we get. Honestly, Van-ca-tesh dropped 8 straight and 10 out of 11 before their win against the most hated team in the Santa Barbara Roller Hockey League, and a lowly one goal victory against Carolina isn't going to be all that turns this squad around. A win against a fairly solid Central Division team would do just fine, eh?

Just to be fair, here are my 3 reasons the Canucks will lose tonight: 

1) Roberto Luongo just hasn't found his groove since getting back from his injury. I was going to point out that the last time Chicago beat the 'Nucks, we had Sanny in goal, but since Lu has been back the Canucks captain hasn't really looked much better than Manitoba's new #1 (which is Sanny, in case you didn't know). Here is the amount of goals our captain has given up since returning from the DL, in order: 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, and 4. That's 24 goals in his last 6 games! That clearly plays into the hands of the Hawks. 

2) Not only have the Hawks dominated Vancouver this year, but they are rolling at 11-0-0 against all Canadian squads this season. Along the way, the Wrigley's have outscored Canadian franchises 48-17. Talk about American dominance. 

3) Let's face it: the Hawks have dominated Vancouver this season, and that may be the most important factor on this side of "my 3 reasons." Way back on October 19, the Hawks blew the Orca away with a 4-2 win that was worse than it sounds, only to welcome the Blue & Green back to the United Center for another 3-1 drubbing. The more recent game was in the midst of a crazy Chicago winning streak, and currently having four wins in their last five games bodes well for the Native Americans. 

So, thank you to NHL Network for airing the 80th all time meeting between these two squads. The Canucks hold the edge in the franchise battle with the 40-24-15 record, and if you read my 3 reasons like I do, we're looking at win #41 tonight. 

See you for the sake bomb.

The slip heard 'round the world.

When you have to make a last second shot to win the game in overtime, who would say they wouldn't want Ray Allen taking the long bomb from tree land? Well, I guess after last night, I would probably say that. Allen went up for a long bomb with the C's down 109-110 as time ran out in overtime, and air mailed the ball as he slipped during his jump shot. Fans in the stands threw their hands up in disgust, and the Lakers gave their best impression of what winning a championship would look like, and the Purple & Gold broke yet another Green & White winning streak (this time, at twelve games). 

Kentucky Wildcat Rajon Rondo was large and in charge, as usual, with his 16 points, 8 boards, 12 assists, and 1 steal. Despite the fact that UConn's Ray Allen led the C's with 22 points, he will be remembered for his big no bucket at the end of the game. Kobe didn't go crazy, but he did lead the game overall with 26 points, and he added 10 boards to catapult the Lake Show to a five game winning streak. Most fans, including coach Doc Rivers, were asserting that Ray Allen was fouled on his final three point game winning attempt, but there was no call. Of course, even as a C's fan, I don't really think he was fouled, but maybe I should side with the Doc. "I thought it was a hand check; he pushed him the whole way," Rivers said, "The officials say they don't call the game different from the first quarter to the end of the game, and if that's true, Ray should have been on the free throw line." Maybe, but the Celtics really should have had the game in control well before this point. Hello? The tough, and emotional loss, has dropped my Mighty Celtics of the hardwood to a 41-10 record (pretty shitty, eh?), and just a 15.5 game lead over the second place Atlantic squad from Philly. Despite losing to one L.A. team, at least Boston still hold a 30 game lead (by my count) on their arch rivals from L.A., the Clip Show. Time for the Green Beans to step it up and get a win against the 21-27 Knickerbockers tonight at 4:30 pm. Let's rebound...and score points, as well. 

Meanwhile, the continually struggling UCSB Gauchos failed to start their OC road trip on a good note. The Fullerton Titans came away with a 72-65 win against the 'Chos, continuing to send our boys in spiral toward the bottom of the Big West table. The really sad thing about this game was that UCSB led the game 42-23 after the first half, and then laid a fat one in the second half, 23-49. A pathetic finish after a start like that. RSM (and LSF fav due to his OC heritage) native Jaime Serna finished tied for the lead for the losing team (as a freshman, mind you) with 20 large, joined by Huge Country Chris Devine and his 20 (Devine also had 12 boards). Was all of this in the first half, or what? Fullerton also went big with 57.1% from the floor in the second 20 minutes, including an 8 for 13 mark from beyond the arch. Meanwhile, UCSB shot 65%, which while way above the season average, just wasn't good enough. The loss is just another example of the pitiful season we're seeing out of our beloved school this year, as they drop to 8-13 (2-7 in the conference). Next up is a Saturday night battle against UC Irvine (who UCSB just doesn't lose to!), who are 8-14 (5-4) this year. Can Devine and company turn this sinking ship around with 8 games to go to get some positive push heading into the Big West tourney? Last year I was mad that the ticket to the tournament was only given to the Big West tourney winner, because of UCSB's stellar regular season, but with the way things are going now I'm kind of still hopeful. Anything can happen.

Meanwhile, my other college hardwood squad continues to come up empty as well. Notre Dame dropped an 83-93 decision on Wednesday, and continued to show that they aren't good enough to be ranked at all. 6 straight losses has dropped the Irish to 12-9 (3-7), which is really sad after a preseason filled with hope. The loss saw Luuuuuuuuuuuuke Harangody getting 28 points and 14 rebounds, and was joined by "The Island's" Kyle McAlarney's 13 points, and Toledo, OH naitve Hillesland and TJ Jackson's 11. It wouldn't be enough, however, as a 37-37 halftime score was erased by a ten point second half loss to the Bear Cats, and the Irish lost again. Coach Mike Brey could only say, "The beat goes on, baby. We're struggling." Yep, and if you keep it up without turning things around, you'll be out pal. Just think, Cinncy was supposed to be the team that gave the Irish a break before heading out to the West Coast for the first time in ages. Next up for the struggling Leprechauns is a match against the solid UCLA Bruins (18-4, 12-1 at home). The Bruins will be riding a three game winning streak into their Saturday match with Notre Dame. Can Harangody and company defy the odds and get back on the winning track before it's too late? If not, they will be the Big East squad left at home in the month of March. 

On my way out, I'd like to say: Steely McBeam, really?

A birthday win from my puck buddies.

What more could I ask for than a thrilling victory like this one? Alexander Burrows came up ridiculously huge with a shorthanded goal as time ran out in the third period to finally break the evil streak, as the Blue & Green came up with a home win (yeah, you read that right) 4-3 over the recently hot Carolina Hurricanes. AB's burial of the rubber with 1:22 remaining lit Canucks Nation on fire, and gave us hope that we aren't completely destined to be jacked from playoff contention. 

Speaking about the goal, Mats Sundin said, "It seems like when things are not going great it takes a goal like that to get out of a funk." Indeed, and Mats got himself out of a fun as well at 15:10 of the second period. It all started 2:21 into the game, when Kevin Bieksa nailed home a power play slapper that deflected off of Cam Ward's glove and into the net. It was the Grimsby, ON native's seventh goal of the campaign (his 27th point of the season) and it got things off on the right foot in B.C. Of course, lately we are always wary of the Orca blowing it. Ryan Kesler helped us feel a little more in belief of a win with a goal about 10 minutes later. As he fell to his knees (again), he got off a shot that beat the Cam from Alberta yet again, and with Luongo standing tall against nary a challenge, we were up by 2 heading into the initial break. As you know with the recent Canucks play, this would be the time when the Blue & Green are ready to give something up. After a bad high sticking call on Bieksa, Joe Corvo nailed a power play goal, and about 20 seconds later Joni Pitkanen got another one past Lu that evened things up, and made 7th Canucks around both nations a little anxious. There wouldn't be a need to worry at the second intermission, though, as infrequently connecting Mats Sundin got a goal on a pass from Pavol Demitra to grab the lead back at 15:10. "Mr. Torontonian" punched the glass behind the net after the goal, and the reaction of the home fans seemed to say, "All is forgotten...at least until you don't score against the Hawks on Saturday." By the way, Demitra-Sundin-Kesler seemed to do pretty damned well for itself (with 7 points in the game), but I'll still fight against breaking up the Burrows-Kesler-Bernier line no matter how well they do. At 18:43 of the middle frame, Matty Ohlund went off for a high stick, and it would come back to bite Vancouver about a half of an hour later. Eric Staal opened the third period with a pretty goal just 33 seconds in and we were all knotted up. The 'Canes got called for two goaltender interference calls (Bayda at 3 even and LaRose at 8:44), but the Canucks couldn't convert with the man advantage. Then, it was another Mattias Ohlund penalty that would do the trick. As the puck was left sitting near the boards, Kesler rushed toward it against a Canes player and was able to chip the puck out to center ice. It would have been an adequate clearance, but it ended up being so much more. Alex Burrows was streaking toward center ice, received the chip out by Kesler, and was off and skating on a wide open breakaway one on one with Cam Ward. Backhand to forehand to a backhand top shelf shot and it was all over with one glorious horn. 

The media picked the three stars of 1) Sundin, 2) Ryan Kesler, and 3) Alex Burrows, which is close. I'm going with 1) Burrows, 2) Kesler, and 3) Kevin Bieksa (sorry, but I just don't give a grizzled veteran first star because he hasn't scored in a long time and then does.

The win is the first for Vancouver since January 7 (that's right, almost a month), and brings the record that much further away from the .500 mark at 23-20-8 (54 points). In the division, we're sitting -10 of the Flames (still, unbelievable), -1 of the Wild (we're coming to get you!), +1 on Edmonton, and +5 on the lowly Avs. Currently, Van-ca-tesh sits in the #8 spot in the West (let's go playoffs!), but only barely. While the 'Nucks have 54 points (one back of #7 Minnie and #6 Dallas and three back of #5 Anaheim), we also are just above the dreaded nine hole (1 point up on the 9/10/11 trio of Edmonton, Columbus, and Phoenix). Dicey, I know. It is obviously game on this Saturday in a classic LSF battle between my Vancouver Canucks and Jon's Chicago Blackhawks. It hasn't been pretty for the Canucks against the Hawks this year (a 2-4 loss on 10/19 and a 1-3 loss on 12/20), but I have a pretty good feeling that we are going to nail another big one. After about 10 sake bombs, I'll be ready to push play on the DVR and watch the home team prevail (it's in British Columbia, you nerd). 

In case you are a Canucks nerd like me, which you aren't, I'll let you know that the Manitoba Moose are 34-14-0-3 (71 points) and leading their AHL division by a measly one point over the equally solid Grand Rapids (Peter) Griffins. Elder statesman Jason Krog leads the team with 17 goals, 33 assists, and a stellar +15 rating. He's followed by Michel Ouellet (40 points), Mark Cullen (34 points), and Michael Grabner (28 points). Meanwhile, in net, it has been Cory Schneider with an 18-3 record and the recently demoted Curtis Sanford looking sharp at 2-0-1 with a 0.80 GAA. 

Adios, punks.  

Dual Sports Stars

Valentine's Day has come early this year, my friends.

After collectively accomplishing every imaginable feat in the game of tennis, alleged rivals Rafael Nadal (bearing a striking resemblance to "the Machine") and Roger Federer have both quit the sport and taken up pairs figure skating. Yes, with each other. Think The Cutting Edge. Or Dirty Dancing, whichever you prefer.

Weekly football post #22.

Well, the NFL season has officially ended with a pretty exciting finish in the Super Bowl. Of course, it would have been an even better finish should the Arizona defense have actually showed up on the final Pitt drive of the game. Ah well, just more evidence that you shouldn't bet on the underdog (unless, of course, you were getting -7 from Vegas). As far as I'm concerned, the pigskin season ended quite a long time ago, and this weekly football post is all about the round ball.

Let me first just thank OCVarsity.com (aka the OC Register) and MaxPreps.com for not posting the results to the January 30 Marina/FVHS soccer game yet. I sure am glad that we get to watch videos of Mater Dei and JSerra play to a tie, but we can't even get the score of an exciting Sunset League game. You bastards. Update, hopefully, to follow. 

The bad news around St. James Park? Shay Given has signed a deal for an undisclosed amount of money, shipping him off to (guess who?) Manchester City. The Irish National, playing with the Boys in Bars since 1997, is no longer with the Mags (and he was one of the main reasons that I got into the team). Time to move on. And Newcastle did move on. Without their now former keeper, Shola Ameobi struck gold with a game tying goal against Sunderland, which finished the match up at 1 a piece. Sundie scored at 33 minutes in thanks to Cisse, and it would be a struggle back to tie for the team that may also end up losing Charles N'Zogbia to the transfer market (are they serious??). TGI-Ameobi really saved the day for the Magpies, and it was a day that really needed saving with all the farewell news flying around Toon Nation. By the way, my former boy N'Zogbia is headed off to join former Magger Titus Bramble at Wigan. Son of a bitch! All hail Stevie Harper in net! Now at 5-10-9, Newcastle and their 24 points sit squarely in the 15 spot (however, just one point up on relegation). The Given-less and N'Zogbia-less Newcastle will take on West Brom next weekend.

Can the Bhoys from Celtic give me some excitement? No. Inverness and the Celts held squarely at a 0-0 draw in SPL play to watch the Championship lead for the Green & White fall to just 2 points ahead of the Protties from Rangers. The Gorgeous Greek Georgios Samaras had the best chance to score, heading a ball just wide from six yards out in the first half, but other than that, it was all Artur Boruc and whoever the hell the goalie is from Inverness Caledonian Thistle (which is a really gay name for a footie team, by the way). Now at 17-3-4 on the year, Celtic and their 55 points gear up for the biggest game of the season up to this point. After taking a week off (actually, they'll be playing a team called "Queen's Park" in Scottish Cup play), the Hoops will battle the Protties from Rangers on February 15 for the biggest derby game you all have ever seen. Celtic park will be rocking with Sligo faithful, and they'll be ready to cheer on Samaras, Naka, McDonald, and all the rest as we march toward a huge win over the hated Rangers. I'd tell you to set your DVRs, but this game is so crazy, it's not even televised!

I'm watching the Chivas game from my DVR right now, but I'll just spoil it for you and tell you that the Goats beat Monterrey with a 2-1 victory to improve to 2-0-1 (7 points) on the season, and to grab first place over UNAM Pumas. While Monterrey struck in the 19th thanks to a guy named Humberto, Chivas fought back with a goal in the 22nd from Reynosa native Xavier Baez on a strike from outside the box. It was just a straight up blast for his first goal of the season. So sweet. In the second half, Luis Michel would hold strong, and the Red and White (for some reason wearing gray and highlighter green in this game) would get a game winning strike from Javier Hernandez Balcazar (or "JHB" as he is known here around the LSF. JHB's goal was a lucky bounce to him on a ricocheted ball that came to his feet in the box., There was nothing Monterrey's Orozco could do as JHB put it home easily. I mean easily. The defensive player basically passed the ball to him as if he had bet on Chivas in the game. A sweet 2-1 win for my Mexican Boys in Bars. Next week is a match against Necaxa (0-1-2 in Group 3 of the FMF), and just another chance to light up a Goat win on my DVR. 

Here was my favorite Super Bowl commercial, mostly because of the boss saying, "Hey dummy" combined with the koala bear getting punched in the face. Have a nice Monday. 

4th LSF Predictions Post

Welcome to a brand new week, and another chance for us to all make some great predictions (or not, if we choose not to). The LSF Predictions Table had a major shake up this time around, with none other than me floating up to the top thanks to the Steelers (remember, pick the favorites) and the Celtics big three straight wins (they are good, I think). I gave Jon a tie for calling an Everton win that ended in a tie, so I hope you all don't mind that. Brandon falls from first to third thanks to the Chelsea loss, along with UCSB, but is anyone else thoroughly impressed that he nailed the UFC fight? How did you do that? By the way, a lot of fools probably lost money with the Steelers being unable to cover the spread, eh? 

Alright, so pick the games you'd like to, and add those predictions to the comments section. Have a nice opening week of the month, you knuckleheads.  

Canucks get Clutterbucked.

When you start up after the All-Star break with a Hockey Night in Canada game, you have a fan base full of hope. When you play tentatively, barely squeak out enough offense to play even through 60, and give up a heartbreaking power play goal just 1 minute and 52 seconds into overtime, the hope fades. A 3-4 overtime loss to Minnesota, the Canucks eighth straight loss and tenth in the last eleven games, had fans at the Garage and fans at home just feeling simply deflated about their Orca. 

It started out poorly. The Canucks jumped out on the ice and played a slow and tentative match without much of the impressive pressure that 7th Canucks knew they needed to show. Mikko Koivu scored a power play goal at 7:38 after Willie Mitchell got a penalty for punching Cal Clutterbuck in the face (see above photo) and Marc-Andre Bergeron followed that up at 11:38 as the boos rained down for GM Place's rooftop. Alex Burrows got interviewed in the first intermission, and made a call to the Blue & Green to come out strong. And they did. On a power play thanks to an Owen Nolan hook at 1:42, Livonia, MI native Ryan Kesler made good at 3:37 to cut the lead in half. He was skating full tilt toward the net and lost his footing as the puck bounced off his skate blade and into the goal as he went falling beyond the net. Despite Backstrom thinking that the puck was kicked in, the goal was counted (because it wasn't kicked in, you idiot) and Vancouver was back in the thick of things. At 5:50, the thorn in the side of the Canucks Cal Clutterbuck took Alex Burrows hard into the boards. Burrows got cut up on his eye, Clutterbuck got the boarding major and got ejected from the game, and the Canucks got some increased mojo off of the dirty play. Sadly, Van-Ca-Tesh failed to score on the 5 minute man advantage (9 shots that were all stopped), and that was the turning point up to that point. Just 3:03 into the final frame, Hank Sedin fed a pass to Alex Edler, and the Ostersund, Sweden native bombed a huge blue line shot past the Minnie keeper to tie the game up. Man, was I pumped. At 7:46, Eric Belanger scored a goal into a half empty net as Luongo was trying to slide from pipe to pipe. It was a soul crushing goal, but redemption wasn't far away. Minnie's Brent Burns got called for tripping at 18:28, and the Orca had a large chance to save the day. With Luongo pulled, Vancouver had a two man advantage, and Ryan Kesler cored on a rebound from his knees to tie the game at 3 with just 16 seconds to go. Kesler got the shot off, saw it hit the twine, and looked straight up to the sky screaming. I jumped off the couch! This was the turning point we have been waiting for in the Canucks' recent season. Heading into OT, 7th Canucks around both nations knew that it had to be won in OT, thanks to a pathetic shootout record. 52 seconds into the extra 5, however, the refs called Deuce Deuce for a hook on Mikko Koivu. It was a weak call as Henrik was streaking into the zone with the puck. Hank was so pissed that he blasted a slapper after the whistle in disgust. It was a 4-on-3 in the OT, and the game was ended on a slapper from Marc-Andre Bergeron that sent the Canucks to just another B.C. loss. 

GM Place was filled to 101% capacity according to ESPN.com, and all of the fans got to watch B.C. drop to a less than impressive 22-20-8 (52 points) and a sad fourth spot in the Northwest Division. The Canucks sit -12 of Calgary (are the Flames really that hot?), -1 of Minnie and Edmonton, and just +5 on Colorado. The free fall has started rumors around Vancouver that Coach Alain Vigneault may be on the hot seat. However, Alex Burrows is ready to stand up for his leader, "I think [the rumors are] complete bullshit. We've lost seven or eight in a row, but he's not the problem. We've been in some different games where we've had penalty trouble, some other games we haven't been able to score, some others we couldn't keep the puck out of our net. So he's not the problem. He's not why we're losing. We just have to get back to work." Way to stand up for your coach, AB, but a lack of wins equals a coach on the hot seat. That's just the way sports works. Next up is a Tuesday evening bout against the 25-21-5 Carolina Hurricanes (the name-sake of the most hated team in the SB Roller Hockey League), and a game against the lowly East (slam!) may be just what the Blue & Green need to keep a nine game losing streak at bay. 

Congratulations to the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, I guess. I was impressed by the Cards, however. 

Even more difficult to hand out congratulations to my Dad, who cheered his Cal State Northridge Matadors to a game winning shot with just 11.8 seconds to go in the 70-72 loss for UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos will be down in Orange County this week (Fullerton on Thursday and Irvine on Saturday), so let's get our "ole" chant going strong.