NHL Conference Semifinals Predictions

Well, I'm off to a reasonable start in these playoffs, picking half of the series thus far correct. Of course, my initial picks for the Stanley Cup, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks, may have been the two teams that looked the worst of any so I suppose you should take this with a grain of salt. But I feel pretty good about this round though so let's get to it.

Western Conference

Eastern Conference

And, again, just for grins and giggles, how I have the rest of the playoffs going now:

Conference Finals

St. Louis over Nashville

New York Rangers over New Jersey

Stanley Cup

St. Louis over New York Rangers

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Penguins Not Dirty, But Should Be

None of the hits by James Neal and Aaron Asham were "dirty." Penalties maybe, but dirty no.

1) James Neal hit Claude Giroux seconds after he had given up the puck and Giroux ducked his head into Neal's path. I'm not saying it was Giroux's fault. I'm saying that's called an ACCIDENT ladies and gents.

2) James Neal "left his feet" and hit Sean Couturier. The puck was headed back into the zone. Neal took a turn back towards the blue line and Couturier was in his path. He only left his feet because he tried to side step Couturier. For people that will defend illegal hits in the NFL because they're split second reactions, it's amazing that you'll all contradict yourself when the same thing happens in hockey.

3) Aaron Asham cross checks Brayden Schenn in the "face." No he didn't. He hit him in the chest. It might have eventually hit him in the face, but the initial contact went to the chest. And let's be VERY clear. Asham should have just dropped the gloves and started wailing on him because he took a run at a player and he left his feet.

If you don't agree with me, that's fine. I mean, there's only visual evidence of every one of these hits, so I guess I could have no idea what I'm talking about.

In any case, it's not looking too great for the Penguins to come out of this series on top. The overwhelming favorites to win it all, the Penguins have laid an egg. I believe the Penguins will fight to the bitter end and, hell, the way the Flyers have looked, would it really shock anyone if the Penguins somehow pulled this off?

But if the Penguins want to win this series, they may need to continue to give the Flyers a taste of their own medicine. Oh come on, you know what I'm talking about. Don't pretend that the same team, that built their entire tradition on thuggery and goonery (Broadstreet Bullies anyone), has all of a sudden become squeaky clean. We know what's going on when the cameras aren't watching. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and especially James Neal, do not start going after players without some antagonizing.

I'm not saying the Penguins should stoop to the Flyers level. It's actually amusing that Flyers fans are reading the articles in Pittsburgh that say Penguins fans are "embarrassed", and completely missing the fact that we're embarrassed because we look like the Flyers. But that doesn't mean that we should start playing gentlemanly hockey. The Penguins need to be rough, but they need to be smart. In a twisted sense of justice, it would make sense for the Penguins to go after and hurt players, the way the Flyers have for years. Personally, I am that twisted, but not at the expense of losing games. The Penguins can win, but dumb penalties aren't going to fly. Roughing guys up away from the officials the way the Flyers have, now that needs to happen.

It's time for the Penguins to play Flyers hockey of the present, not of the past. These Flyers have it together. They're cheap shot artists, but they don't hurt guys, and more importantly, they don't get caught. The Flyers of old tried to kill people. That flew in 1977, but this is 2012. We aren't going to get away with that, but if the Pens aren't going to win, they better make sure the Flyers are bruised and battered. It's time for the Penguins to start playing Flyers' hockey.


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2012 NHL Playoff Predictions

Western Conference

 

Eastern Conference

And just for fun.... The rest of my playoff predictions as of today:

Quarterfinals

Vancouver over Chicago

St. Louis over Nashville

New Jersey over New York Rangers

Pittsburgh over Boston

Conference Finals

Vancouver over St. Louis

Pittsburgh over New Jersey

Stanley Cup

Pittsburgh over Vancouver

2012 MLB Season Predictions

We're a few games into the 2012 season, so I'm not sure if this comes too late with only about 158 games remaining, but hopefully you guys won't mind.

Arena Football Week 4 Roundup: Mustangs Buck Power

Milwaukee Mustangs 63, Pittsburgh Power 40
The Power opened the scoring with a field goal from Collin Wagner and that would be the team's last lead of the game. Milwaukee QB Gino Guidugli paved the way, scoring six touchdowns, three through the air and three with his legs. Even the Mustangs' backup QB, Shane Boyd, got in on the act throwing for two touchdowns himself. Marcus Everett had two interceptions in the game for Milwaukee. There weren't many highlights for the Power, however, Tyre Young had six carries for 41 yards and managed to score his first touchdown with Pittsburgh. Bill Stull left the game with an injury leaving the Power in search of a new quarterback yet again, something they've grown far too accustomed to in their brief existence.

San Antonio Talons 47, Orlando Predators 34
Orlando's offensive woes continued with another low-scoring output. They are averaging just 36 points per game through three games in 2012. On the Talons side, future hall-of-famer Aaron Garcia threw for six touchdowns, four to Carl Moore who added 141 yards, and two to Jason Willis who went for 133 yards.

Arizona Rattlers 56, Kansas City Command 28
Much like Orlando, Kansas City's offense remained completely inept, scoring 28 to lower their season average to just under 32 points per game. Both Kansas City quarterbacks were released after the loss. Nick Davila stayed hot with a seven touchdown performance, throwing three of those to his new favorite target, Maurice Purify.


Tampa Bay Storm 71, Jacksonville Sharks 69
Former Pittsburgh Power quarterback Bernard Morris nearly led the Jacksonville Sharks to a last minute win in his first game back when he threw a 42 yard touchdown pass to Terrance Smith with 4.5 seconds remaining. Unfortunately the Tampa Bay Storm had other plans. Pass interference was called on Jacksonville as time expired and Tampa Bay capitalized with a one yard strike from Stephen Wasil to Prechae Rodriguez on the untimed down. Rodriguez was the star of the game with five receiving touchdowns.

San Jose Sabercats 69, Spokane Shock 35
Mark Grieb had a fine day as usual throwing for seven touchdowns in the game and 315 yards passing and a rushing touchdown to go with it. Ben Nelson accounted for 165 of those yards and three of those touchdowns. Terrance Sanders had 196 kick return yards and a touchdown for Spokane.

Chicago Rush 62, Iowa Barnstormers 61
Rodney Filer's three rushing touchdowns for the Barnstormers just wouldn't be enough as Chicago was able to squeak out a win in a nail-biter in overtime. Iowa's Craig Camay's missed extra point gave Chicago's Mike Salerno the chance to win the game with his own extra point in overtime and he converted. WR Jesse Schmidt also had a big day for Iowa with 154 yards and three touchdowns. Chicago QB Russ Michna threw for seven touchdowns, three to Reggie Gray, and Vic Hall led the way on defense with 15.5 tackles and a fumble recovery.

New Orleans VooDoo 72, Utah Blaze 57
Kurt Rocco had a stellar day throwing for nine touchdowns in the VooDoo win. Greg Ellingson had 11 catches for 167 yards and four touchdowns. Alvin Jackson had a fantastic day on defense with three picks. On Utah's side Mike Lewis ended the game with 2.5 sacks and Ernie Pierce had four receiving touchdowns in the losing effort.

Cleveland Gladiators 68, Philadelphia Soul 62
The Gladiators looked sharp offensively as John Dutton threw for nine touchdowns. Dominick Goodman looked superb going for 121 yards and five touchdowns. Tiger Jones led the charge for the Soul with eight catches for 121 yards.

American Conference

East Division

South Division

National Conference

Central Division

West Division

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Arena Football Week 2&3 Roundup: Philadelphia Takes Soul Out of Power

Philadelphia Soul 84, Pittsburgh Power 59
The Power returned to some semblance of normalcy after their bye week, but it wasn't enough as the Philadelphia Soul turned the amplifiers up late and got a huge win over their division rivals. Bill Stull started at quarterback for the Power after only a few days of practice and looked solid early on, but in the end, the Soul put the clamps on with a few late interceptions. Turnovers killed the Power who had numerous opportunities to win the game after forcing several turnovers of their own.

Week 2 Scores
Georgia Force 47, Tampa Bay Storm 50

Jacksonville Sharks 52, Kansas City Command 28

Spokane Shock 63, San Antonio Talons 60

Utah Blaze 69, Iowa Barnstormers 49

Milwaukee Mustangs 65, Arizona Rattlers 71

Philadelphia Soul 63, New Orleans VooDoo 62


Week 3 Scores
Orlando Predators 49, Chicago Rush 51

Kansas City Command 39, Cleveland Gladiators 49

Milwaukee Mustangs 65, New Orleans VooDoo 42

Georgia Force 69, Jacksonville Sharks 41

San Jose Sabercats 59, Utah Blaze 60

American Conference

East Division

South Division

National Conference

Central Division

West Division

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Chris LeFlore Interview (Audio)

http://wdsr.org/2012/hard-hitting-sports-episode-6/

Interview starts at 42:00 or so.

It's a bit dated since we did the interview on Thursday, but we got to talk to Chris LeFlore about the Power's home opener and what type of advantage he has playing against many of his former teammates.

P.J. Berry Interview (Audio)

http://wdsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/MONO-004.mp3

There is no time on the file, but the interview with Berry starts a little more than halfway in. I'll post the entire transcript later as well.

In the interview Berry discusses, among other things, the players strike and why the fans need to move on.

Enjoy!

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NCAA Tourney Bracket

In Defense of the Pittsburgh Power

As more of the story comes to light, it appears that fans of the Pittsburgh Power are finally starting to realize what the rest of the Arena Football League's fans already know: The debacle that was March 9, 2012 was not the fault of Matt Shaner and/or Lynn Swann. Did they handle everything perfectly? Of course not. But ask yourself this - If you were the owner of a business, any business, how would you handle a situation where your employees are threatening to strike by disrupting a nationally televised event when the people over your head are telling you to fire them or else? It's a long-winded question and rightfully so. It also deserves a long-winded answer; one that most of us couldn't begin to truthfully answer ourselves.

Everyone likes to think it's so cut and dry, but it can't be. Nothing is that easy. Here are the facts based on articles and interviews that we've seen around the web:

•  The AFL's players wanted better working conditions. Mainly, they wanted more money. The owners wouldn't budge.
• Talks continued into Friday, the same night as the league's opening game. As the game neared and no deal was reached, the possibility of a strike scared the league into ordering the removal of all players from the Amway Center in Orlando. The Power then fired all of their players at the team's pregame meal at Olive Garden.
• The game went on with mostly replacements, although nearly half of the Pittsburgh Power ended up playing the game.
• Hours after the game, the strike was officially ended and all players were told to go back to work.
• The players that did not sign new contracts with the Power were stranded in Orlando and forced to find their own way home. Those players were also evicted from team housing, but apparently only until the Pittsburgh police forced the Power to allow these players back into the housing.
• All players were welcomed back to the team with the exception of quarterback Kyle Rowley and kicker Taylor Rowan.
• Kyle Rowley confirms that the firings were likely ordered by the league and the Pittsburgh Power and all of the other teams were pressured into it.
• All players were reinstated by the team and most will be returning.

The Pittsburgh Power had the misfortune of being the road team on opening night during an eight hour strike in which the league probably acted a little rash in their decision making. So the Power have become the scapegoat for something that they ultimately had no control over.

But all people saw was that headline. You know the one from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that read, "Pittsburgh Power fires entire team." That's all that was needed to start a whirlwind of animosity from fans, non-fans that won't even give the game a chance, and even non-fans across the country where people don't even know what arena football really is. That's where all of this craziness started for the Pittsburgh Power, in that headline. How could a whole team be fired? Obviously it's easy to say, "Wow what jerks the Power owners must be," and trust me, every non-Power fan is still saying that even now. And it's wrong. Those that know nothing should not judge. Those that have judged, are quickly learning that they were mistaken in their original judgements.

The ones that refuse to admit they're wrong continue to point fingers at the owners saying they should have done things differently. That's probably true. However, I also know for a fact that hindsight is 20-20 and a lot of people surprisingly have that capability. Some have even threatened to not attend games, calling the Power ownership classless, frugal, and saying that they won't attend anymore games. What was classless? Firing the players as the league suggested, or maybe even forced them to do. The owners are frugal? That may be true, but there are league rules that say you can only pay a player so much. Threatening to not attend games? That's ingenious. Let's all stand together and protest the Power until the team doesn't exist. Forget about the fact that the Power folding would again put the players out of work. But hey, at least we wouldn't have to worry about how much they're getting paid when they're working at Office Depot.

It's such a shame that most people will never know the true story. Many will start to think the AFL is a bigger joke than they already thought. The majority will only read the Trib's headline and run as fast as they can with it. Almost nobody will ever read this article and find out what actually happened that day. Some continue to comment on the situation like they know what's happening without so much as skimming. And now, the Pittsburgh Power will continue to suffer, maybe eventually to the point of eventual extinction. They'll remain fodder for sports comedy for probably quite some time. But hopefully, when the team as we expected to see it returns to the field next Friday against Philadelphia, normalcy will return and we can just get back to enjoying the game that too little of us care about.

Arena Football Week 1 Roundup: Power Prey on Predators

 

Pittsburgh Power 40, Orlando Predators 26

It was an incredibly long day for the Pittsburgh Power, having to fire their team because of threat of a strike, only to have half of the team play anyway in what would become somewhat of a national disgrace. Viewers that tuned in saw a pathetic first half and probably turned their channels before seeing a somewhat tolerable second half. In any event, the Power came out on top thanks to a six touchdown performance from QB Andrico Hines and WR Mike Washington's four touchdown day.

Utah Blaze 48, San Antonio Talons 54

Tampa Bay Storm 48, Chicago Rush 70

Arizona Rattlers 70, San Jose Sabercats 71 (OT)

Cleveland Gladiators 39, Georgia Force 41

Iowa Barnstormers 69, Spokane Shock 63

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