Why should we want Roberts back?

He left of his own accord, you realize - and now he wants to come back. And, frankly, I don't want him.

Who is this of whom I speak? Gary Roberts: one of the biggest fan favorites up here in Toronto since the days of Dougie Gilmour, Wendel Clark and Felix "The Cat" Potvin. We all loved him, his gritty play, the fact that he was dependable and was someone that was all over the radio and the TV - and he just left one day, deciding to decline the Leafs offer, as he headed down south with Joe Nieuwendyk to sunny Florida, home of the Panthers - and a new 9 million dollar contract.

Sure, we kinda missed him (and his ads are still on the radio, sometimes, late at night) - but we got over it. We ended up with players like Jeff O'Neill, Eric Lindros and Jason Allison, who pretty much filled the same role that he did - fan favorite who doesn't get more then 50 points a season and will inevitably miss something like 20 games - and last season I didn't miss old Gary in the slightest.

But now he wants to come back - his ex-wife has moved back to Chicago (or whatever) and his daughter is still in boarding school in Toronto, so he wants to go back to where his family is - but the Leafs don't need him anymore. They have no need for a player who is:

a) 40 years old
b) misses a good number of games a year (He only played 56 games last year)
c) Can't score, doesn't throw the body around and hogs up ice time
d) Will take up valuable cap room

It would be stupid to take him back at this point - the guy will not only not help the team this year, but by taking away ice time from the youth movement (as well as cap room) he'll hurt the Leafs in the future. There is no reason, not even sentimentally, for him to be on the Maple Leafs roster. And no matter how much he wants to be a Leaf again, he shouldn't be. It's as simple as that.

Guess who's after the Penguins?

Q: What do Mark Cuban, Dan Marino, the city of Winnipeg and the Isle of Capri have in common?

A: They're all after the Pittsburgh Penguins

For a team that's at the bottom of the league, both in standings and revenue, that's a lot of potential buyers - and that's just the ones who have stated it openly (Frank D'Angelo, for example, have been suprisingly quiet - but nobody would be surprised if tried to buy the team).

So, then... Who will end up with the team? Mario Lemieux has said that he will not sell to anybody who will move the team out of Pittsburgh, but at the same time, the Penguins don't have a new arena on the horizon and are among the least profitable teams in the league - would you blame anyone for wanting to move them?

Either way, I've taken the load to myself and crunched some non-existent numbers to bring you chances that each person/ownership group/city/etc will end up with the Penguins:

Mark Cuban - One would assume that Mark Cuban would like to move the Pens to Texas (Houston, perhaps) where there is better potential for profit. One also assumes that Cuban would prefer to have more control then any other owner would like to have - and that Cuban's odds on charging onto the ice are about 50/50 for any fight at all. But that's not what will happen: At heart, Mark is still a Pittsburgh homer and he wants to keep the team in the P-town and since his running of the Mavericks is a day-to-day thing, I would be surprised if he attends more then a handful of Pens games. Either way, he and his investment group have more then enough assets to keep the team afloat in the short term. I'll say 66%, 75% if he temps Mario with a cashier's check.

Winnipeg, Manitoba - They have the history, a new arena (the MTS Centre) and a devoted fanbase. Plus, under the new CBA Agreements (Salary Cap, Revenue Sharing) they would be able to compete with larger cities again. The one thing they don't have is, er, an ownership group. Other then the GM of the Moose once making an off-hand comment about giving Mario a call, nobody from Winnipeg has proposed moving the team there. So it's about 27% (and that's me being unconditionally generous) until someone steps up.

Quebec City, Quebec - No stadium, no ownership, not much of a fanbase in the first place (even back in the 1980s they had trouble selling tickets) means no chance at all; barely even 0%.

Isle of Capri - One of the more serious bidders, the Isle of Capri (which is not, as you may think, the island that sells pants to Raphael Nadal, but is actually a casino) has not only make repeated offers to buy the team, but to also build a new arena - if the city also allows them to put in slot machines. Will the NHL allow gambling in it's arenas? Thus far, Gary Bettman has been quiet - but I would suspect that after the recent "Operation Slap Shot" by the New Jersey Police Department scandal, the NHL will not be especially keen on the Isle getting full ownership. I'm going to say that if the city of Pittsburgh goes ahead with the Slots, then there's a 75% chance. If they don't, it's not even 0%.

So, then, who will end up with the "Team with the brightest future in hockey"?

Two words: Isiah Thomas.

When he blows his chance with the Knicks (you know this will happen) he'll be looking for the first thing that comes across - and when he hears that the Pens are for sale, he'll immediately enact this three step plan:
- Trade Sidney Crosby and a first round pick for Vincent Lecavalier, Sean Burke and Martin St. Louis
- trade a second round pick and Mark-Andre Fleury for Jean-Sabastien Aubin and the rights to Anson Carter
- Sign free agents Alexandre Daigle, Luke Richardson and Eric Lindros

The Beautiful Game, Part two: English Gretzky

David Beckham - what is there to say that hasn't been said to absurdity already? The guy is known all over the world, from places where football gods have names like Pele, Ronaldinho or George Best and in places where football gods have names like Montana, Sayers or Manning. He doesn't just kick footballs into nets, he bends them past a goalkeeper and a line of players like Pedro Martinez hitting the lower corner with a sinking fastball, only on a scale that Pedro could never do. He runs more then Bo Jackson did, he scores with a better touch then Mario Lemieux and he more dominant then Michael Jordan ever was.

He's pretty much an English Wayne Gretzky.

No other player has dominated his sport on the same level (and for as long) with maybe, maybe, the exception of Jordan. No other player scores like these two do: If they don't deke past you and tuck it in the net, then they just blow it by you before you even notice it heading past you. They're driven, talented to the nth degree and fuelled by a desire to win it all.

Granted, Beckham may not be the greatest single player ever - or even the best player in this year's World Cup. That's fine; after 1986, Gretzky was never the single best player in the playoffs - not after people like Patrick Roy, Mario Lemieux or Pavel Bure came along. But that's fine; Gretzky's job was to win, not to be the best - and he did that in spades. Which is what Beckham has done. After dominating in England, he went off to Spain - where's he's dominated once again.

They're both eponymous with their sport: Just as how Gretzky was the Oilers or the Kings, David Beckham is the face of England's soccer team. He's tied, perhaps moreso then Pele ever was, to soccer - almost to the point where his #7 is at the same level that Gretzky's #99 is to hockey.

It even goes to winning on the World Stage - Gretzky never won a Gold Medal as a player (though he won the Canada Cup in '87, which is sort of counts) just as how Beckham has never won a World Cup. As talented as these two are, they're almost on a different stage then anyone else is - and as a result, they can't play the same game that the rest of the team is.

This could be the year, though, where Beckham passes Gretzky - if he wins England the World Cup, he'll find himself on a stage where very few from any sport are...

The Ballard Impression

I was actually in the shower when I heard the news and I immediately refused to believe it; it was surely just some crazy draft-day rumor. But it was shortly confirmed by Gary Bettman and I quickly let loose a string of words that would make Ozzie Guillen blush. Then I became to foam at the mouth, lose all of my motor skills and passed out, smashing my head on the toilet bowl.

Okay, that last sentence never happened, but it very well could have - and the rest of that paragraph actually did. After all, the Maple Leafs just traded away Tuukka Rask, their first round draft choice from last year, the top goalie in the '05 World Juniors and the first really good goalie prospect the Leafs have had in years (since Felix Potvin, as I see it) for Andrew Raycroft? The guy who was replaced by Tim Thomas? Who, according to Hockeygoalies.org, was replaced 5 times and was involved in 21 losses? Who had a 3.71 GAA, a .879 save percentage and let in 100 goals?

That's worse then Ed Belfour's numbers last year. That's worse then Mikael Tellqvist's. That's much worse then Jean-Sebastien Aubin's. And this guy was worth trading away one of the top prospects in the league?

Really, there's two ways to look at this: One is that the Leafs didn't need Tuukka Rask; they already have a possible starter in Aubin and Justin Pogge is still a few years off, so they need a #2 goalie (and maybe someone that they can platoon with Aubin) now, so they can get Tellqvist some experience in the NHL (It worked for Aubin).
The other is that John Ferguson Junior is doing his best Harold Ballard impression, trading away a valuable young player for a has-been (Remember the Russ Courtnall trade? Or the Vincent Damphousse trade?) who'll stink up the joint - and that's not a direction I want to see the Leafs headed in.

Either way, I think that there's both some good and some bad to this: Perhaps this means that there is some truth to the rumors about Ed Belfour's contract being bought out by the Leafs (Indeed, he is no longer listed on ESPN's depth chart for the Leafs). Perhaps Raycroft will be able to bounce back to his former, pre-lockout form with sparing use as a backup. We won't have to rush Justin Pogge to the NHL before he's ready, even if a starter gets hurt - we now have one goalie (yet to be determined, however) ahead of him. And with the goalie situation now (sort of) resolved, the Leafs can now focus on the more pressing problems on the defensive squad.

Still, at the end of the day, trading away a hot prospect like Rask isn't winning Ferguson any fans. It already seems like the latest questionable move of his (Let's not forget his re-signing of Ed Belfour and Tie Domi, hiring a coach with a sub .500 record in the NHL or signing free agents like Eric Lindros or Jeff O'Neill).

Now that the trade is done and there's nothing really left to be said, I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth: for the first time in ages the Leafs had a hot goalie under 25 waiting in the wings (three hot goalies, actually, if you count Pogge and Aubin, which I'm not sure the Leafs have ever had) and he was traded away for a goalie who isn't living up to his potential. But hey, at least a move away from Boston worked for Joe Thornton, right?

A change for the better?

It seems that for the Knicks, the more things change, the way they stay the same. On Thursday, the New York Knicks fired head coach Larry Brown who had coached the team to a 23 - 59 record last season - and they replaced him with, er, Isiah Thomas.

That's right - the same guy who coached the Pacers to three straight first-round eliminations in the playoffs. The guy who, as GM of the Knicks, had the highest paid roster in the league and finished in the cellar for a few years now. He's the one who hired Larry last summer (not even a year ago, actually) and now he's the one who's supposed to bring the team back into contention.

Sometimes teams need to make a change at the helm to shake things up - no coach, not even Vince Lombardi or Scotty Bowman, can keep a team winning for years - but that doesn't really seem to be the case with Brown. His relationship with Thomas (and the Knicks ownership) was troubled at best. But he is a great coach, although one saddled with a team that under performs at a consistent level. If he had time, perhaps he could have turned the Knicks into a winner, like he did with the Pistons or the 76ers. Maybe not.

Either way, that's all moot now. The Knicks have not only retained one of the worst General Managers they have ever had, but they also made him coach too (or maybe he hired himself as coach. Would he have to fax himself his own resume?) of a team that's been in a pretty steady decline - and he won't be successful.

George Will once wrote that the best coaches (well, the best baseball managers - but the points the same) were the ones that lacked talent and only stuck around for a few years - unlike the Greztky's, the Bird's or the Pete Rose's of the sporting world, they had to learn the game and play it smartly to get to the majors, and as such they already have a bit of the knowledge for coaching (Hence why marginal players like Larry Brown, Billy Beane or Mike Ditka made good coaches). And I think it's the same here: Thomas was a great player, one worthy of the Hall of Fame - but he was not a great coach for the Pacers and he was not a great member of management with the Knicks. And I suspect that he will not be a great coach for the Knicks.

It could have been worse, though; He could have let Rob Babcock take over as GM.

Not going quietly

The season ended not with a bang for the Dallas Mavericks, but with almost no sound at all - Jason Terry missed a 25-foot shot that would have tied the game and that was it. No loud cheering (or at least anymoreso then usual) - just the ball almost falling into the hands of the MVP Dwyane Wade, who promptly tries to throw it into the roof.

But hey - can you blame Jason for trying? What would Larry Bird have done? Or Jordan? Or you? Would you go for the 2 and hope to God you get fouled? Or would you go for the three, the shot that would make you the hero if you win (like Raja Bell against the Clippers) - but makes you look almost like a selfish scapegoat if you lose. He's not the reason the Mavericks lost.

And it doesn't really matter anyway - He could have sank that shot to tie and they still would have lost in overtime. Sure, they managed to score 92 points and come within three - but they blew a huge lead early, shot less then 40% and were never really as close as the score said they were. Sure, they had it close and they were determined to go down fighting.

And that's just what happened - they lost the fight, were never close enough and ended up going down - just not all that quietly. And maybe Mark Cuban had a point the other day when he blew a gasket and yelled at the referees - Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning were able to get away with fouls late in the game that could have changed the outcome of the game.

I'm not a basketball professor; I've been really paying attention to the NBA for something like a year now - but if I can tell that someone is getting fouled and the referee isn't... Well, there's something dreadfully wrong there. But that's enough on that ugly tangent...

One thing was for certain at the end of the game tonight, though: that Dwyane Wade deserved that MVP title. He was dominant when he needed to be, he was huge in the clutch and showed composure beyond his years. Nobody - not Dirk, not Shaq, nobody else - deserved that trophy more then he did this year. And his huge free throws at the end (which could have lost the game for the Heat) only re-enforced that fact. I can't wait for his showdown against Lebron in the playoffs next year (you know it's inevitable).

Everybody's watching game seven

Okay, before I get this thing rolling, I want to make one thing clear: I have not actually watched game seven on Monday night.

But it seemed that everybody else was. After all, it was one of the biggest games all year - and I had to work. So I set my VCR to record the thing.

At about game time (8PM where I live) the supermarket I was at slowed right down. We went from fairly busy to no customers at all. Everybody stopped buying chips, apples, pop or roasted chickens almost right on the dot. You could tell it was game time and everybody was going to be watching.

At about 9pm, I finished my shift and started heading down to City Hall to help out some friends of mine - and on the way I checked my watch. One to nothing, Carolina leading after one period. I called my dad to ask what was going on. "I'd love to stay and chat," he said, "But coach's corner is on."

So I walked down by myself, the only person out on the streets and was passed by just a few cars. When I glanced in the occasional window on my way past a house - or even if I just walked past one that happened to have a window open - I could vaguely follow the score since everyone, it seemed, was watching game seven.

By the time I got to City Hall, the second period was over and Carolina was leading 2 to nothing.

Fast forward a little bit - I've finished helping my friends out and we're heading back to return the truck we're all riding in. We're all quiet and sitting pretty much in the dark listening to the radio feed of the game as it winds down when Jussi Markkanen leaves his net.
(What? Isn't it too early?)
"And Eric Stall picks up the puck..."
(No)
"Up along the boards and he passes up to Williams"
(NO)
"And... Williams scores! An empty net goal and Carolina now leads three goals to one!"
(...)

When I got back I ended up watching the 1990 Stanley Cup (Petr Klima in 3OT) on ESPN Classic. I wasn't up to watching that tape just yet.

******

Give Edmonton what they deserve - they made a damn good series out of what could - and arguably should - have been a blowout. Jussi really picked up the slack and Edmonton learned from it's mistakes in the first few games and they really started moving forward by the end of the series. They pushed a great team right to the very edge and even though they lost, they did so in seven games and by just two goals. They were able to come back from a 3-1 series deficit and beat Carolina on both at home and away and they threatened to take the series.

And yet they just didn't have enough. Maybe they burned out at home on Saturday night, running up the score on Cam Ward. Maybe they just angered Ward enough that he was going to pull out his Dryden impression and make impossible looking saves when they were needed the most. Maybe Edmonton just couldn't stand the weather. Who knows.

But make no mistake - it was Carolina's series to lose, especially after game six, and they came in shining when they needed to the most. Cam Ward deserves that Conn Smythe more then any other player does - on either team. All through the playoffs, whether against Buffalo, Montreal or Edmonton, Ward was making huge saves that kept Carolina going. He was the one who beat the Oilers on Monday night. Hell, if these playoffs deserve to be remembered for any one reason, it should be for the coming out party of Cam Ward - hopefully the start of a hall of fame career.

*****

For the new-look NHL these finals were the best thing they could have wanted. A Classic seven game series with two small market teams playing wide-open hockey. It was fast, fun to watch and never once seemed like a marathon (mostly due to the lack of a 3OT game). If they want to attract viewers, this is the way they're going to do it.

And at the end of another NHL season, I can fully say that the New NHL has been a success. Maybe not on the TV ratings (and with the games on OLN, that's not about to change), but when you finally have hockey that's fun to watch, budding superstars like Ovechkin, Crosby or Staal and the Shootout (so much better then I thought it would be) it finally seems that the NHL is back to where it should be: Making us can't wait for next year.

Roles Reversed

Going into game five, the Carolina Hurricanes were on top of the world: they had just taken a 3-1 series lead against the Edmonton Oilers on foreign ice and were headed back to the RBC Center to wrap up the series.

Going into overtime in game five they must have felt the same way - Eric Staal, who had already scored two goals, was sure to score the winner and write his way into history.

But Fernando Pisani changed all that - and sent the Oilers back to the Rextall Place for game six, where he did it again, scoring the eventual game winner in a 4-0 blowout.

Suddenly the Hurricanes aren't even in control of the series anymore, let alone riding high. Suddenly Cam Ward, who shut out the Oilers in game two, was beaten four time by Edmonton in game six - and has let in eight in the last two Oiler wins. Suddenly they're posed to be the first team since 1971 to lose the Cup on their home ice in a game seven (It was the Montreal Canadiens who won it that year - and it marked the beginning of their lodging there during the 1970s). And suddenly it looks like the Cup is Carolina's to lose. Suddenly - as we head into game seven - it looks like the roles have been reversed.

Edmonton has finally got the momentum here: they're the team that's shooting the puck and scoring, whereas Jussi Markkanen has come out as a fabulous goaltender in the last few games - even when they lost game four (2-1 final score) it was Jussi that kept it close. And now that Pisani has the scoring touch, Raffi Torres is slamming around like a pinball and the rest of the team is starting to gel, I'm starting to think that just maybe Edmonton can do it.

After all - Cam Ward is not looking quite as Ken Dryden-ish as he has been all throughout the playoffs, Eric Staal seems to be the only Hurricane that is still scoring and the Hurricanes are chaotic - they're getting sloppy penalties (Too many men on the ice) at bad times. Sure, they're heading to home ice - but question is no longer when will they win the Cup, but if they can.

Maybe they can - if Cam Ward starts playing at the same level he was before game five; if Rod Brind'Amour and the rest of the offence start scoring to supplement Eric Staal and if Mike Commodore and the rest of the defense go back to confusing the Oilers powerplay and keep the shots to a minimum for Ward. And even if they do all that, it may not be quite enough - Edmonton is looking like the latest winner in what's quickly becoming the year of the upset.

Greatest Game Sixes

In preparation for game six of the Stanley Cup finals, I've compiled what I feel are some of the greatest game sixes in NHL history. They're in no real order and are by no means THE list - I'm sure I missed some games, espically from before 1980. Enjoy!

2004 Stanley Cup Finals - Tampa Bay @ Calgary
In a double Overtime thriller, Martin St. Louis scores the game winning goal against the same team that let him go in 2000. Tampa easily won game seven at home to win their first Stanley Cup

1993 Western Finals - Toronto @ Los Angeles
The classic "no-hit" game, where Doug Gilmour is high-sticked by Wayne Gretzky shortly before Gretzky scores the OT winner - and the hit was missed by Kerry Fraiser and the series moves back to Toronto for game seven (where Gretzky pulls out one of his best games ever to send the Kings to the Finals for their first time)

1980 Stanley Cup Finals - Philadelphia @ New York Islanders
In 1978 the Islander were upset by Toronto in a classic seven-game series; in 1979 they were upset by the Rangers in just six. But in 1980 Bob Nystrom scores in Overtime to give the Islanders their first Stanley Cup win - the first of four in a row.

1987 Stanley Cup Finals - Edmonton @ Philadelphia
In the 1980s the Oilers were the powerhouse scoring team: Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, et al. And in game six, Ron Hextall put on the show of a lifetime (cruelly forgotten in favor of his wild slash on Nielson in game four) to send the series to seven games - But the rest of the team was unable to keep pace in the seventh game and the Oilers won their third cup in four years

1991 Smyth Finals - Calgary @ Edmonton
In the latest - and arguably best - chapter of the Battle of Alberta, Theo Fluery scores the overtime winner to send the series back to Edmonton for game seven, then slides across the ice on his knees in the celebration that every Canadian has seen something like 20 million times.

1999 Stanley Cup Finals - Dallas @ Buffalo
The infamous "No-goal" game, where Brett Hull scores over a sprawling Dominik Hasek - with his foot in the crease, which at the time would have made the goal illegal - in the third overtime, thus giving the Stars their first Stanley Cup.


1964 Stanley Cup Finals - Toronto @ Detroit
Bob Baun scores the Cup winning overtime goal from the blue line - while skating around on a broken leg (he had 'frozen' it with a bucket of ice just minutes before). Need I say more?

Surprise Ending

Last night it seemed that the perfect ending was just about to happen and we'd witness the birth of a new legend in hockey - Eric Staal, who had played superbly all throughout the playoffs, had already scored two goals on Wednesday night when the game went to overtime.

It really seemed like a great story - young kid has a hat trick in the Cup Finals, including the Stanley Cup winning OT goal. It's something that will go down in history and become a staple on ESPN Classic, at the very least.

But someone snuck in a surprise ending.

A few minutes into the extra frame, Fernando Pisani picked off a lazy pass by Cory Stillman and drove into Carolina's zone (and right by Eric Staal, too) all alone and buried a shot into the netting behind Cam Ward - and the very second that Pisani had the puck, almost everybody who was watching knew what was going to happen. This was a bigger twist then the President getting killed on 24 and it came just as far out of left field. The storybook ending that we all thought was going to happen, Staal getting the Conn Smyth; Carolina erupting and the fight over the goaltending duties in Edmonton didn't happen. And now we all have to go through this again on Saturday and maybe one final time on Monday.

Can the Oilers do it once more? Maybe - Cam Ward was showing cracks for the first time last night, letting four Edmonton goals (the most thus far this series) get past him and with the injuries to forward Doug Weight and defenceman Aaron Ward leave considerable holes for Carolina to fill.

Still, Jussi Markkanen is a bit of a wild card for the Oilers. He's been great - and is still getting better - throughout the finals, but this is the same goalie who had just 15 wins this season. And although he's improved (he's gone from letting in five goals in game two to letting in just four in the next two games. But one wonders if he can keep up this level of play against the surging Carolina offence - much like how one wonders if Cam Ward is finally starting to play his age - he let in as many goals on Wednesday as he had in the last three games combined. Granted, both goalies are good, but both also seem to be playing well above their heads and these finals could just go to whatever team has the goalie that doesn't break down first.

Still, Edmonton now has the momentum and is headed to their home arena - and I wouldn't be surprised if this series goes to a game seven.

The New Dominator

He wasn't supposed to dominate the series like he has - not in this, the new NHL. When they changed the rules (everything from the new equipment sizes to the new goalie crease to the elimination of the red line) it was supposed to make the goalie's life all that much more difficult. It was the NHL's equivalent of baseball moving the mound back and taking it down a few inches or football relenting and allowing the forward pass. Suddenly you expect that the offence will take over and run up the score.

But Cam Ward is dominating.

Sure, the Oilers have their problems: they don't shoot on the Powerplay, they're defensive-minded at times; their star goalie's season is done.

But Cam Ward has been dominating all throughout the postseason.

He came in as the a replacement for Martin Gerber in game 2 of the opening round against Montreal and since then he has barely left. He led the Canes back to beat the Canadiens in six, then backstopped them past a stingy New Jersey Devils (he started all five games) and past the surging Buffalo Sabres (where he started all but one of the seven games) - now he's dominating another series, as the Carolina Hurricanes have taken a stranglehold 3-1 series lead against the Edmonton Oilers.

Even in the 'old NHL' he wouldn't have been expected to do this much. He's a rookie that is playing (at worst) far, far above his head. He is, quite simply, The New Dominator.

Even in game four, when the Oilers had pulled their goalie and where pressing, shooting at every chance (even from bad angles) and playing at the Rextall Centre - the mystical venue where Gretzky, Messier, Coffey and Fuhr led the Oilers to five cups in seven years) he was the dominant player on the ice. He bounced back from letting in four goals in game one (still a win for the Canes) to letting in just three over the next three games.

Sure, it's nothing that's going to rewrite the record book: Brodeur had seven shutouts in 2003; Fuhr won 18 games in 1988 and Kipprusoff played over 1600 minutes in 2004 - but for a rookie to be playing at the level that Cam is... well, it's almost unheard of.

Sure, there have been good rookie goaltenders in the playoffs before: Ron Hextall won the Conn Smythe in 1987, for example. But there hasn't been a goalie that has constantly shut down their opponents for as long - and as completely - in over 20 years, since the 1986 playoffs: Patrick Roy.

Is Cam Ward the new Roy, or just a flash in the pan like Hextall was? Only time will tell - but if I had to choose, I'd say that Cam will be around for a long, long time.

Hate to see it end like this

On Monday night, I managed to just miss Dwayne Roloson blow apart his leg and have to leave the series - which is pretty much two seperate senerioes:

- Bob Essensa, 1990: The Winnipeg Jets blow a 3-1 series lead after he is knocked out in game 4 of their quarterfinals against Edmonton

or

- Grant Fuhr, 1990: The Edmonton Oilers win their first cup after Fuhr is suspended for 40 games (and the playoffs) for substance abuse

But after tonights game (A 5-0 shellacking by the Hurricanes) it's pretty appearent that there will be no Bill Ranford on this Oiler team, a goalie that can stand up and win the series for them.

But perhaps it's for the best - these playoffs have been the coming out party for Cam Ward, who has shown himself to be the best playoff rookie since Patrick Roy or Ken Dryden. He's not just making key saves anymore - he's making fantastic saves that are leaving everybody (myself, Ryan Smyth and Harry Neale) stunned... Just where did that glove come from?

Still, I would hate to see the playoffs end like they are: with the Oilers basically blowing an axle en route to their loss. After what's been a good (not great, but still good) postseason, I'd feel just a little ripped off if Carolina takes this series like they took game two.

The Beautiful Game - part one

In just about a week - and the day after the start of the NBA Finals - it begins: The World Cup.

Every four years - the same years as the United States Mid-term elections, now that I think about it - 32 countries send their best athletes to compete in the only truly global tournament out there. Think I'm joking? Try finding a hockey team in Togo, a baseball team in Greece or an American Football team in Japan. You - as far as I care to know, anyway - won't find one, or least one that can compete with their North American counterparts, but you'll all find soccer teams that can play with the best of 'em.

Going into this 2006 World Cup, I'm not even going to try and predict anything at all: I barely know anything at all about soccer and the stuff I do know would not help me out a single bit... In fact, the only times I watch soccer are on occasional Saturday mornings, when I have nothing to watch on TV and don't feel like popping in a DVD... And although I make no claim to being a fan of the sport (Indeed, I'm about as un-fan as you get without being a Jim Rome fan) I'm still going to watch the World Cup.

And why not? It's like the Olympics - I don't now, nor have I ever, watched competitive skiing, bobsled or swimming but I watch 'em all every four years come Olympic time. It doesn't matter if you like the indivdual sports or not, at least to me, since the Olympics almost rises above mere sports: It's people who are under more pressure then most of us will ever be, trying to do their country proud.

The World Cup is the same thing: although it's more akin to March Madness then it is to the Olympics. And if watching these people working themselves almost to the bone (Remember Korea in the 2002 World Cup?) for little other then pride and glory doesn't interest you... Well, the NBA and the NHL both have their finals at about the same time - and there's always PBA Tournaments and the Arena Football championships, too.

But I know what tournament I'm going to be watching...

"Redneck Hockey" - sign seen at Game Seven

As far as Game 7's go, it was nothing special. It didn't have huge amounts of drama attached to it (1985 Smythe Finals: Edmonton vs Calgary), it wasn't especially exciting (1985 Adams Final: Quebec vs Montreal) and it didn't have even have anything that will endure it to showings on ESPN Classic (1993 Western Semi-Finals: Toronto vs LA Kings)... But it was a good game, by modern day NHL Standards, which I guess counts for something.

And it sets up the first WHA-team NHL finals - the former Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes) vs the only team still playing in it's WHA home, the Edmonton Oilers. It's a series that pits two of the smallest NHL markets against each other, and will surely be the most profitable Stanley Cup to date - right?

Why couldn't the NHL have rigged the playoffs? They - if you believe the ugly rumors, anyway - rigged the Western Finals, when Kerry Fraser (under orders from the NHL brass not to have an all-Canadian Finals) overlooked a horrific Wayne Gretzky high stick; or when the Smoking Man manned the Video Replay booth in 1999 and let a goal count despite the fact that Brett Hull was clearly violating a rule that was both pointless and revoked the nest year.

Right - so why not rig it this year? They want people to get into the NHL, so why not have a team that has a following in? Do you know a Carolina fan (who isn't a bandwagon jumper)? Or someone who says "Yes, I cheer for the Edmonton Oilers and I have every year, including the ones where we sucked really bad or managed to blow playoff series' to Calgary, New York or Dallas!"

I don't. And I'm not so sure I'll watch this final series either. (Okay, that's a lie - I'll watch game four on; but if there's a NBA Finals game on, it's getting preferred treatment).

My prediction: Carolina, just because I refuse to type the words "Mike Peca, Stanley Cup MVP candidate" at any point ever again.