Sunday, April 1, 2007

-- Pirate Preview Posted.

-- Penguins vs. Senators in Round 1.

-- Random thoughts.

---Fifth Place---

Essentially, that's what my disjointed analysis arrives at in my latest article for BurghSportsGuys.com. Re-reading it, I don't see much of a problem with Freddy Sanchez's health. I believe that once he returns, the injury will not be a recurring one. And I apparently don't give a rats ass about John Grabow, as I don't mention is status at all.

I left out one interesting link I found, though.

MadduxSports.com thinks that the Pirates will finish 2nd behind the Cardinals in the division.

On one hand, handicapping sights need to be right about things to be taken seriously by those who subscribe.

On the other hand, they do still have Nomar Garciaparra wearing a Red Sox uniform in their banner (I'll forgive them for Allen Iverson in a 76-ers uniform until after this NBA season ends).

Take their projection as you will.


---Ottawa = Destiny---

One nice thing about losing in OT to Toronto last night is that, if neither the Devils, Senators, or Penguins lose another OT game, we won't have to worry about tiebreakers. The Devils trump the Pens, anyway, in that department.

I've been keeping an eye on the Bruins/Devils score this afternoon. 2-1 Devils right now. As I note in my "rambling" audio from yesterday, the Devils have 2 more home games, where they've been every bit as tough as Pittsburgh has been at the Mellon, and their lone remaining road game is at Philadelphia. New Jersey could end up running the table, anyway, relegating the Penguins to a best-of-7 with the Senators.

All that remains to be seen, really, is if the Penguins can win out. Since one of their games is against the Sens, winning their last 3 games would guarantee Pittsburgh home ice for the first round. On the other hand, the Senators are currently the hottest team in the East, gaining 17 points in their last 10 games.

As sports tends to go in cycles, maybe it wouldn't be a terrible thing to see Ottawa finish on a huge tear, only to go cold in the playoffs, and the Penguins have a little hiccup now, since they can finish no lower than 5th, anyway. Such a hiccup may light the necessary fire to sharpen up their game.

Or, maybe, I'm just talking out of my...


---Stuff---

- With last night's embarrassment of UCLA, I think I've lost every single one of the bracket tournaments I've entered. I did not have Ohio State in any of the Championship games, and I think I had Florida winning it all in just one of them. This has just not been my year for prognostication. At least I never offered to eat my laptop.

And this is just a me-thing, I'm sure. Joaquim Noah and Sanjaya Malakar remind me of each other.


I'm alone on this. I know it.

- ESPN still hates hockey. Yahoo! Answers seems to imply that it's strictly a ratings thing (read: ad money), but I'm not completely on board with that. In games I've been able to see on TV, the venues are sold out. Does that just mean that there's no one left to watch TV? Sportscenter doesn't even cover hockey. At least not when I watch it. They'll spend 20 minutes talking about Kobe Bryant's 53 points (when he scored 80+ a while back, that's one thing, but come on...), but not show the general highlights from the hockey games that night.

Do they just not get the footage courtesy of OLN/VS? Or are they still sour over the lockout?

- Cruise was good, thanks. I have 2nd degree sunburn on my shoulders. It hurts, but fortunately, I don't have to type or speak with my shoulders! I took me a whopping 12 hands to lose $40 at blackjack in increments of $5. Still, the trip was quite fun. I just had a lot of reading up to do for my show yesterday. Nevertheless...


Caribbean Sunset was worth it