Having neglected the blog over the Christmas season and given the last week of sporting events worth discussing, I feel no better time than to sit down and let my voice be heard on a number of things.
First up...NFL football, namely Wild Card weekend, or as one tweeter tweeted this weekend, Mild Card weekend. What is usually a great weekend of football was for the most part anti - climatic with no real barn burner to watch. My analysis of each is as follows:
I knew if the Bengals were going to beat the Texans their defence would need to be up to the challenge and for the most part they were. What hurt the Bengals was struggles offensively. I didn't expect Andy Dalton, A.J. Green and Co. to light up the scoreboard but I did think they could put on a better show than the one they did Saturday afternoon at Reliant Stadium. I was really rooting for the Bengals to move on as A) I really like the direction that team is heading, B) One of my all time best buds has bled Bengal orange since the debacle that was Ki - Jana Carter and he deserves some play - off success, and C) Let's face it, watching a team move on after seemingly twenty years of irrelevance would have been nice. I can't help but wonder if the Bengal D could have held on had Dalton not overthrown a rather wide open A.J. Green in the endzone late in the 4th quarter. Mark my words though; with the Ravens aging as well as the Steelers, the AFC North is Cincinnati's division to lose next year.
Minnesota had a shot I thought. Even without Christian Ponder, I thought that if one individual could lead his team to a victory this weekend it was more than likely Adrian Peterson. Well the Packers did a pretty good job of containing him and scored enough points against a feisty Viking defence to move on. Minnesota laid a lot on the line the week before in their thrilling win at home to qualify for the dance and to repeat that in Lambeau was going to be a chore. Even though he was unable to run his team into the Divisional Round, Adrian Peterson is a pleasure to watch and he HAS to be the MVP this year. Remarkable considering a year earlier his knee was completely blown out. As they move forward, I have to wonder if this is a team on the rise, or if they simply played over their heads. Peterson is great, but is Christian Ponder the man to help them get to the next level?
The Colts were the Cinderella story of the season. They played for Chuck Pagano, whose battle with leukemia gave them a rallying call all season long. Who would have thought they would have got there, one year removed from a miserable season and the absence of Peyton Manning? Cudos to their accomplishments. The Ravens, largely motivated by the fact that Ray Lewis was playing his final home game in Charm City came out on top. Anquan Boldin was great for the Ravens, particularly in the second half and the Ravens became one of very few teams with at least one play - off win in five straight seasons. Good for them and good for Ray Lewis; their season and #52's career ends this weekend. There is no way they march into Denver and beat the Broncos.
And now onto the Redskins/Seahawks battle late yesterday afternoon. I have been a Redskins fan for years; I even managed to remain loyal during the Heath Shuler era (YUCK!) Their first two drives yesterday were awesome and I thought to myself, they can go a ways if they play this way and then......RGIII banged up his knee late in the second drive and was never the same. He limped rather than ran, was unable to plant his leg making passing the ball an adventure.
A couple of things irk me about yesterday. First off, the defence was porous at times. All too often, Marshawn Lynch ran off one, two even three tackles to gain positive yards. Secondly, Brandon Browner is a huge a&#hole. He was not simply playing bump and run against Pierre Garcon; he was assaulting him on every snap. Sure Pierre Garcon is a man and would not make excuses but I will. Brandon Browner could have been, and should have been flagged numerous times for illegal contact on a reciever. He never was, and to make matters worse the Redskins seemed to have ended a Seahawks drive in the third quarter only to have a first down awarded on a holding call on a reciever which would not have held up my grandmother. I know, one flag doesn't make the difference but that was some serious BS that they allowed to happen for one team all day.
As for the RGIII thing; he stayed in the game and gutted it out when he clearly was in pain. For that I give him credit. However at the same time, how does Mike Shanahan not see that he was entirely inneffective after the first two series? The offence was anemic for the last fifty minutes and when there defence was doing a good job of holding them in and getting stops, they were rewarded with four plays off before having to head right back out there. Kirk Cousins should have been inserted into that game well before RGIII went down. Not saying the Skins win with him but they certainly would not have been any worse and the future of the franchise would not have been in any jeopardy. The win now mentality is always going to be strong in sports, but at what cost does winning now come at? As a fan of the Redskins, RGIII and the NFL, I can only hope Washington didn't mortgage the future on 84 passing yards.
My picks this weekend; the Seahawks, 49ers, Broncos and Patriots. Gethca popcorn ready for next week's AFC Championship; it will be a beauty.
Sticking with football, it seems something is always cooking in Ridernation to stir up the locals. Craig Dickenson's sudden resignation last week followed by his almost equally quick signing on in Winnipeg has some locals steaming. I look at it this way, Craig Dickenson was an employee of the Roughriders, he wasn't married to the franchise. Clearly something took place that he couldn't commit to or didn't agree with and made a decision with his best interests in mind; good for him and I wish him luck in the future. As a Rider fan, rather than vent and sneer about tampering and loyalty, I put my faith in Corey Chamblin to find a comparable, perhaps even better replacement.
Still no news of player contracts from the Riders but I have read on a couple of blogs that announcements are to come in the not too distant future. I have already said who I would like to see back next year but that is my opinion. Brendan Taman doesn't tell me how to teach History so I sure as hell won't get worked up with the moves he makes. Well if he traded Dressler and Durant I would be angry but we all know that is not happening this year.
One final thought on the Riders, well the Grey Cup more for that matter. I was thoroughly disgusted prior to Christmas when I attempted to book a downtown Regina hotel room for Grey Cup weekend only to be told unless I was part of a corporate group I was out of luck. I, like many other season ticket holders do not live in Regina. In fact I put on approximately 700 kilometres round trip to attend home games. Others go further but that is not the point. You would think the Grey Cup Committee would have the common sense to realize that we are vital components of the success of the club and next year's event. While they can't make hotels set rooms aside, you would think they could suggest that some rooms be left aside for ticket holders like us. Sure I can hang my hat at the old man's house but that isn't the point. Maybe I am wrong on this but I am still angry.
And now hockey, and two stories I want to address, the World Junior's and the lockout, or end of now.
The Canadian entry at the WJHC in Ufa was not that good. I am as big a supporter of Hockey Canada as others but this year's team was just lacking in a few areas, and those came to the forefront when it counted. I really felt outside of our top line, the forwards were not overly dangerous. As an opponent I would not be intimidated or fearful of much this team presented aside from the Nuge. For a top three pick, Jonathan Huberdeau was awful in my mind, Mark Scheifle didn't stand out as a seventh overall pick should have and for a guy supposedly being bantered about as a first overall pick, Nathan McKinnon was non - existent except for some undisciplined penalties. I get that he is 17 and played on the third/fourth line but if he was good enough to take overseas and as talented as they claim, he looked average to me. Surely we could have taken a bigger, stronger forward that could have provided us with as much as him.
A lot of people complained about Malcolm Subban. I tell you what, without Malcolm Subban we would have been third in our pool. He stole the round robin game against the American's and played really well against the Russian's in the preliminaries as well. The loss in the semi to the American's is not on him, rather those in front of him who turned the puck over at an alarmingly regular rate. The defence on this team was not up to our regular standards. They lacked that electric offensive, puck moving guy we have had in the past like Ryan Ellis, or Dion Phaneuf even. When you lack offense in the back end, the need to be reliable and solid at home is magnified. This group didn't have that shut down pairing as we are accustomed to. There is always next year in Sweden.
I don't want to seem like I am down on Hockey Canada as it is a thankless job who unless the gold medal is won never get respected. They do a lot of work and put in several hours all year, not simply in the month prior to the event with the invitations, camp and pre - tournament games.
In saying that, we didn't only finish fourth because our team was weaker than in the past, or because they weren't as sharp as they could have been. The rest of the world is simply getting better. And to be honest, I firmly believe a lot of them are using the Canadian model as the backbone of their development programs. We are not deteriorating as a hockey nation, the rest of the world is simply improving. Look no further than Switzerland as your example; four losses in OT to some very good hockey nations was a great showing for them. A bounce here and there and the Swiss would have been playing for a medal.
Lastly, the best team in the tournament won the tournament. The American's were fast, dangerous, solid at home and all that combined with a great performance from netminder John Gibson equated to success for them. Congrats to Phil Housley and all of USA Hockey on a well deserved championship.
I like many other hockey fans became very sour and jaded with the NHL in the past three plus months. The game was as good as it has ever been in many areas aside from simply the actual showing on the ice when labour issues lead to the lockout. That being said, waking up yesterday morning to the news that a tentative agreement was in place and once the deal is raitfied (presumable Wednesday) the puck will once again drop on January 19th was almost better than Christmas for me.
The return of the NHL comes at a great time. The NFL Play - off's will be over in a month which without the NHL meant either watch the NBA or hold out for the beginning of MLB in April or the return of the Riders in June. This really helps to fill in those open schedules, particularly now that I can look forward to putting the kids to bed, hitting the Lazy Boy, cracking a beverage and watching the second half of Hockey Night in Canada, or the Monday night after that always tough first day back being able to sit down with my daughter and son and listen to the soothing sounds of Chris Cuthbert call a game on TSN. I may have talked a big game but it was simply that; talk. I love the NHL and am pleased they will be back soon.
If I have an issue with what transpired yesterday it was Ron Hainsey telling a reporter that it was really the pension issue which served as the hill the players were willing to die on. Are you kidding me, the league minimum is $700, 000 and the average salary is $2.4 million dollars. That means the average player makes in a year what I will make in my career and you are worried about money after you are done? Put 10% away a year, play for ten years and without interest you are sitting on over two million dollars. Come on!
It doesn't matter, it is over, and short of the ratification vote, signed, sealed and delivered.
As for the season that will transpire, a 48 game season will really put the honus on playing every game like it counts. Teams cannot afford to go through a eight to twelve game dry - spell as it will all but doom you. In that sense it will possibly make the game more exciting to watch as it could be very much like play - off hockey for the next five months. At the same time it could very well mean teams who deserve to make the second season won't and those that perhaps shouldn't qualify may very well sneak in.
As an Oiler's fan I really think they are in a good position given that the core of their young talent pool (Eberle, Hall and Schultz) have been playing in the AHL and at a very high level at that. Dubnyk played great at the Spengler Cup and most have been skating or playing some sort of professional hockey during this time. In a shortened season, where it will be a sprint from that start rather than the marathon that it usually becomes, the youth of the organziation could very well see them enter the dance for the Stanley Cup when all is said and done. I don't hold my breath on them being the last team standing, but I do think they get a ticket to the party, or at least hope they do.
Later,
HM
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