Thursday...

Baseball fans make me chuckle....shoot even baseball writers make me laugh. All I hear or read about in regards to the MLB season, which for the record is a mere one week old, is how the Boston Red Sox are out of playoff contention. Yes, the Red Sox, arguably the best team in baseball are 0 - 6 after being swept by the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians. LISTEN PEOPLE......there are still 156 games left to play and the Red Sox are a staggering six games out of first..OMG....stop the season, burn the stadium and start looking forward to next season. Laughable. While I generally dislike franchises who try to but themselves a pennant, for what the Red Sox spent in the off season, they WILL be there come October. If you want to write off the Red Sox on April 7th, you may as well reserve a spot for the Central leading Kansas City Royals to hang their 2011 World Series banner.

Moving from the boys of summer to the boys of winter, let's start talking NHL and potential Award winners. Before I move on, I love the fact that with today's technology so many people can post their opinions on sports stories on nearly every website. This morning on tsn.ca, somebody, presumably a Canadien's fan stated that without any debate PK Subban should win the Calder this year. Seriously...PK Subban...Rookie of the Year, the same PK Subban who couldn't catch Dustin Penner on a breakaway...the same PK Subban who needs to be told my somebody, in a not so verbal type of way that he needs to earn respect from his fellow players. In my mind, this comes down to two players, neither of which are named PK or play in Montreal, or Canada for that matter. Jeff Skinner of the Hurricanes who last night scored goal number thirty is at or near the top. His competition is a guy who may not win the award because he is stuck playing on Long Island. Micheal Grabner has scored 33 times for the Islanders, who for the record, are a team on the rise. Other than these two, throw names like Logan Couture, PK Subban, Cam Fowler and Jordan Eberle around but when you compare their stats with those of Skinner and Grabner, the latter two seperate themselves significantly.

From the NHL to the WHL, and four days after the season ending for the Moose Jaw Warriors they are now in the market for a head coach. Today, Dave Hunchak was rewarded for a forty win season with a pink slip. How high is the bar set in Moose Jaw when that costs you your job? How does it make sense when this guy has to look elswhere for work, which shouldn't take long, but Curtis Hunt continues as the Head Coach of the Regina Pats. Yes, Regina does have a WHL team, it is just that they have become so irrelevant that usually by Remembrance Day they are out of contention. I guess in the end, this could be a positive for Hunchak as the Warriors have in the past dismissed as their Head Coach the likes of Mike Babcock and Lorne Molleken, who are 'decent' coaches. Who would want the job in Moose Jaw? Seriously, coaching is a fickle job but what more does a guy need to do to maintain his position with the club. This just in....the Washington Capitals have just fired Bruce Boudreau....seems management doesn't think they have enough skilled forwards. Come on Moose Jaw, if you want an organization that will be respected throughout the league, and one that might contend for the League more than once in forty years, you have to stick with what works and the numbers tell me Dave Hunchak worked in Moose Jaw.

The SJHL Final is knotted up at two games a piece after the Yorkton Terriers beat La Ronge 4 - 3 in OT last night. This series looks like it might be worth taking a game or two in. Neither of these teams however could hold a candle to the 96 - 97 Weyburn Red Wings. That team was one of the BEST Junior A teams to not only play in Saskatchewan but all of Canada for that matter. They had something like a nineteen game winning streak. Their top line was ridiculous...how ridiculous? So ridiculous that a guy who the following year scored fifty in fifty was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, and has two Stanley Cup Rings (Mark Hartigan) was the centre on the 2nd line! Their fourth line centre, a little weasel by the name of Bryan Fleck was coming off 200 plus points the previous year in Midget AA and had to fight for every second of ice he got and that kid had a ton of skill. Wow, what a team they were to watch. I will forever curse the name Harlon Hayes...that guy was the goaltender of the Summerside team who hosted the Royal Bank Cup that year. The Wings ran into them in the Semi's...Hayes stands on his head making like 80 saves and the Wings lose in 2OT.

On a side note, I read today that the Sacramento Kings of the NBA want to move to Anaheim. Thinking of teams moving, I sure miss the Hartford Whalers. Geoff Sanderson scoring like a mad man on feeds from John Cullen in those awesome jerseys....oh to have the Whale back.

Oh yeah, Tiger Woods is nowhere near the top after his first round at the Masters....love it!!!!!

Have a good one...