Blogs – Page 231 – Keefe To The City

Jan 14, 2011

A Giants Fan For Jets

Jets. Patriots. Someone must win. This really is my nightmare.

There are people that wonder why I despise the Patriots since they play in the AFC, and there are people that wonder why I despise the Jets since they represent New York. Well, let me explain…

I grew up as a Giants fan and therefore it’s a birthright to not like the Jets. I am not a New York fan that likes all New York teams just because they are New York. To me, there is no such thing as having an AL team and an NL team or an AFC team and an NFC team. You have one team and that’s it. And as someone that lived in Boston for five years, in which the Patriots won the Super Bowl and the Red Sox won two World Series, I have a hatred for Boston sports team that runs much deeper than the normal New York fan that dislikes Boston teams.

So now on Sunday, I am forced to sit back and watch as one of the two fan bases I am not a fan of gets to celebrate a trip to the AFC Championship. It’s not as bad as if the Mets and Red Sox were to ever meet in the World Series again, but it’s up there.

Back on December 6, I went to Gillette Stadium for Monday Night Football thinking that I would see a possible AFC Championship preview and what was being hyped up as the “Regular Season Super Bowl.” After about 10 minutes of real time, the “Regular Season Super Bowl” became as painful and boring to watch as Ronnie and Sammi have become. I left Massachusetts thinking, “45-3? Did that really just happen?” and thinking that the Jets might be taking the Tom Coughlin Way To Postseason Elimination: an epic collapse.

When people talk about this Sunday’s game, they talk about that Monday game. No one is bringing up the Jets’ Week 2 win over the Patriots way back in September and no one remembers that there was a time not long ago when Eric Mangini and the Browns dropped a 34 spot on the Patriots. But I guess there is a reason for that. A lot has changed since the Patriots lost to the Jets, and a lot has changed even since November 7 when the Browns embarrassed the Patriots. Mangini isn’t even the coach of the Browns anymore and on Wednesday, he was on ESPN talking about the Browns hiring Pat Shurmur. It was so awkward I had to change the channel.

I think the Jets can win on Sunday. I hope they can. And every time I think, “How do I not take the Jets at +8.5?” I think of sitting in the press box at Gillette Stadium a month ago and wondering if the Patriots would ever punt again this season. I hope that the Jets are able to play the way they did against the Colts and keep the game close, but I keep envisioning Tom Brady completing pass after pass across the middle and Mark Sanchez doing what he usually does in Foxboro: throw interceptions (seven interceptions in two games).

The Jets are playing with house money. They went into Indianapolis as the underdog and won. Now they are going into Foxboro against the No. 1 seed and facing the best head coach/quarterback maybe ever and being asked to win again. The only problem is that the Jets haven’t accepted this underdog role, so they sort of took away the whole “house money” concept. Over the last week they have run their mouths off like the wild teens that go on Maury and end up in boot camp and now no one feels bad for the Jets or views them as an underdog away from the point spread.

The Patriots are the ones in the tough spot. A lot of people believe the Jets-Patriots rivalry is equal to or greater than the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, but any sober person would tell you that’s not the case. The Patriots aren’t the Yankees of the NFL, but they are in the same spot that the Yankees found themselves in every season up until the devastating events of 2004. If the Patriots win, they are supposed to win (whether or not Rex Ryan believes that), and if they lose, it’s catastrophic, as NESN.com’s Jeff Howe told me. Any Yankees fan that enjoys playing the Red Sox in the ALCS is delusional. There is nothing fun about it. There is nothing to gain and everything to lose. And if the Yankees and Red Sox were to meet in the 2011 ALCS, the same standards would hold true even though the Red Sox have won two World Series in the last seven years.

I’m not sure if the Jets will win in Foxboro, but I know that’s it’s a lot better for me personally if they do. Here are five reasons why a Jets’ win on Sunday would be good for me (aside from the obvious fact that the Patriots would be losing):

1. The Chance For Rex Ryan To Get To The Super Bowl

I once saw Dave Attell do stand-up and the show started at midnight, and Dave had already done two shows that night. Saying he was drunk would be like saying Marisa Miller is good looking. But as the show went on and on and a waiter kept delivering drinks to Dave, the show only got better and better. I’m sure the people at the 8:00 show got a good show, but it was definitely not as good as the people who went to the 10:00 show, and their show definitely was not as good the show that I saw at midnight. This is what’s happening with Rex Ryan.

Rex started off talking trash on the first episode of Hard Knocks, it got better once the regular season started and then once the Jets began to play important games. Then the playoffs started and he began to call out anyone that walked by him leading up to this game where he has used material on Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Just think about some of the crazy things that have come out of Rex’s mouth and then think about this: he has NEVER been the head coach for a team in the Super Bowl. Imagine Rex Ryan with two weeks between the AFC Championship (if the Jets can get there) and the Super Bowl? I think only a two-week marathon of The Office or Friday Night Lights could keep me as entertained.

2. Revenge For LaDainian Tomlinson And Antonio Cromartie

I have never been a LaDainian Tomlinson guy since he would always find a way to find the bench during postseason games against the Patriots when he would sit with his helmet still on and tinted visor with the oversized Chargers coat keeping him warm as he kept the bench warm. And I didn’t get why it was such a big deal what the Patriots did after they beat the Chargers in the AFC Championship in 2006 when they celebrated on the Chargers field. Don’t want teams celebrating on your field? Don’t lose at home in the playoffs. It’s pretty simple.

But Tomlinson and Antonio Cromartie have great disrespect for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and the Patriots, and they are just waiting to erupt with trash talk after finally beating the Patriots in the postseason. The kind of trash talk that will show up as “[expletive]” in the papers and with the censored “BEEEEEEEEP” on TV. Tomlinson and Cromartie find things to say to Brady and the Patriots now and they have never been successful against them in their careers. It’s scary to think what they are capable of if they do finally beat them.

3. “We’re only going to score 17 points?”

On December 7, I said, “I should hate Tom Brady. He is a legend and an icon in Boston and has brought immense happiness three times to the sports city I hate more than any other. But everything about Tom Brady says I should like him.”

I still don’t know if I like Tom Brady or not, but I know one thing: I don’t like the way he talks to the media about big games. “We will let our play do the talking on the field.” I think I heard that comment before. Oh, that’s right, I did.

Listen, Antonio Cromartie is in no place to be saying what he did to Tom Brady when he should be worried about not having a repeat performance from that Monday night game. But, it’s always fun to see how uncomfortable Tom Brady gets when someone has choice words for him and to see his reaction.

I have a question for Tom: Is Plax going to play defense?

4. Patriots Fans Dealing With The Ultimate Embarrassment

Patriots fans still can’t believe they lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. They can’t believe that David Tyree made the helmet catch or that Plaxico Burress was as open as he was in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. But what they really can’t believe is that they lost to Eli Manning with the perfect season on the line.

No one in New England gives Eli respect. Then again, no one outside of the tri-state area that doesn’t see him play every game does, so it’s not surprising. But there is a big difference between losing to Eli Manning and Mark Sanchez. A big difference. If you think Patriots fans have a hard time still accepting that the Mannings ended their season in consecutive years, think about the trouble they will have sleeping if Mark Sanchez goes into Foxboro and comes out with a trip to the AFC Championship

5. Daggerrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Since the Patriots’ last Super Bowl win, their season have finished the following ways…

2005: Lost to Broncos in divisional round

2006: Lost to Colts in AFC Championship

2007: Lost to Giants in Super Bowl

2008: Didn’t make playoffs

2009: Lost to Ravens in wild card round

It has been dagger (Champ Bailey) after dagger (Peyton Manning erasing an 18-point deficit) after dagger (Eli to Tyree) after dagger (Brady’s ACL) after dagger (Ray Rice) for the Patriots. A loss at home as the No. 1 seed to their division rival … well, that certainly won’t be easy to get over.

I will never forget watching Super Bowl XLII at my friends’ apartment where the ratio of Patriots fans to Giants fans was about 35 to 5. During the second half, all the Giants went into one of the bedrooms to watch the game, and when Randy Moss caught the go-ahead touchdown pass with 2:42 left, all of the Patriots fans came charging into the room where we were and started prematurely screaming and yelling in our faces. Minutes later we came crashing into the living room where it looked like every Patriots fan at the party had just heard a car had run over their family dog. It was one of the greatest feelings of my life. The look that everyone in the dorm saw on my face when Ruben Sierra grounded out to end Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS had once again found the faces of Boston sports fans.

Part of me wants to go to my friends’ apartment in Boston this Sunday to watch the game for the chance to see that look again. But another part of me knows what it’s like to see the jubilation of winning on Boston fans’ faces, and even if I don’t like the Jets, it will pain me.

On Wednesday, I texted my friend Mike Hurley, a lifelong Patriots fan, and asked him “On a scale of 1-10, how devastating will a loss on Sunday be?” He replied, “16.5.” I have seen that 16.5 before. Actually I saw what was probably a 36.5. I want to see it again.

For the first time and only time in my life … J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS!

Blogs • Rangers

Jan 12, 2011

Random Rangers Thoughts

I miss school for nights like Tuesday night. Nights when the forecast is calling for snow and I spend my entire night watching The Weather Channel and scouring the internet for every last piece of

I miss school for nights like Tuesday night. Nights when the forecast is calling for snow and I spend my entire night watching The Weather Channel and scouring the internet for every last piece of information as if I were an actual meteorologist trying to determine whether or not I’m looking at a school cancellation or a 90-minute delay.

There wasn’t a better feeling than deciding to go all-in on my own forecast and choosing to not do the book report due the following day by gambling that school would in fact be closed. Growing up in Guilford, Conn., I became scary good at knowing the state’s cities and towns in alphabetical order to know how many more schools before “Guilford” would come across the school closings ticker on the bottom of the TV of the local newscast.

Many times I left my grade in the hands of the superintendent hoping they would decide that we would just go an extra day in June when there isn’t any homework and teachers are showing movies rather than showing new ways to find the value of “x.” I was basically the Tom Coughlin of challenging when it came to predicting snow days, and I wasn’t always right, but more often than not I came away with an extra day to work on the book report I had yet to start.

With snow crushing the tri-state area on Tuesday night and all of the talk in the area focused on the J-E-T-S and their divisional playoff game against the Patriots on Sunday, and the Yankees trying to make good with their fans by entertaining the idea of bringing in Justin Duchscherer (I do like this idea), it was just another devastating day in what has become a cold winter for Yankees and Giants fans.

But there’s always the Rangers and Knicks and on Tuesday night the two teams that call the Garden home provided a getaway for any fan who can’t stand the fact that there’s a real chance Sergio Mitre (who probably shouldn’t be in Major League Baseball) might be in the $200 million Yankees rotation, and for anyone that might not be able to take another contradictory and outlandish press conference from Rex Ryan.

I haven’t given enough attention to the Rangers this season. Partially because the Yankees and Giants have already given me enough material to take me through 2011 and we are just 12 days into the year. And partially because the 2010-11 Rangers are exactly like every Rangers team of the last few years: good enough for the No. 5 or 6 or 7 seed, but not good enough to make it out of the second round. If you showed me the standings from 2006-07 and 2010-11 on January 12, I probably couldn’t tell you which year is which given the Rangers place in them. I’m not sure this season is going to end any different than the last few.

Sure it would be nice for a Stanley Cup run this summer, just as the baseball standings are beginning to take shape and just as the Knicks return to the playoffs for what seems like the first time in my lifetime. But when hoping for the Rangers to score three goals in a game becomes as hopeless as asking the Yankees to score runners from third base with less than two outs, I’m not sure a championship run is in the cards.

For nearly six hours on Tuesday night, my TV was on MSG with the Rangers hosting the Canadiens and the Knicks following with a game in Portland. After a long hiatus from talking about the Blueshirts I decided that now is as good a time as any to revisit some familiar issues with the Rangers and bring up some new ones. Here are five things that I thought about at length during and following Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss to the Canadiens.

How good is Henrik Lundqvist and why is he making only his second All-Star Game appearance?

I stand by my belief that Henrik Lundqvist is the best goalie in the NHL and has been for a while now. I am confident that if he was on the 2008-09 Red Wings, they would have won the Cup, and if he was on the Red Wings, they would probably be looking at their fourth in a row and we would be looking at the an unstoppable dynasty. The only problem is that he doesn’t play for the Red Wings. He plays for the Rangers where scoring goals is unheard of and odd-man rushes are as common as Amtrak delays.

On Tuesday, Lundqvist was again spectacular. Two goals against on 38 shots might not seem like much, but we have an Eli Manning situation here where you have to watch Lundqvist every game to understand just how good he is. The one difference is that Lundqvist is better at his position than anyone else, while the same can’t be said for Eli. But if you did watch the Rangers on Tuesday, you would have seen several shorthanded 2-on-1s for the Canadiens and an improbable amount of times when white shirts were able to get behind the defense and crash the net coming into the zone. At one point in the first period, I honestly thought that the Canadiens were playing “Rebound” against Lundqvist.

Lundqvist is the best and most important player on the Rangers and the sole key to deciding how far this team can go this season. I still hold out hope that at some point Glen Sather will make a move or two that will make this team an actual contender, and I hope these moves come before he uses up all of Henrik Lundqvist’s prime and his career. The King deserves better than that.

Is Mats Zuccarello my new favorite player?

My favorite player in the NHL is Brian Gionta though Chris Drury (fellow Connecticut native) and Marian Gaborik (was fastest in the league while with Minnesota) are close in the standings. I have watched Gionta since his days at Boston College when I got to see him play against Yale in New Haven twice when he made a mockery of NCAA hockey with his scoring ability. Listed at 5’7″ (most likely an exaggeration), it was remarkable to see what Gionta was capable of as the smallest player on the ice at all times, and now he is looking at his seventh straight 20-goal season, including the impressive 48-goal season in 2005-06.

I think Mats Zuccarello could be what Brian Gionta has been for me if given the chance. With basically the same build as Gionta and the scoring ability that you have to be born with, Zuccarello brings the same sense of excitement and anticipation as Gionta when he’s on the ice. Tuesday night was just the ninth game of Zuccarello’s NHL career, but you can see how much more comfortable he has gotten with his decision making since his debut, and he is taking shots and chances that he wasn’t taking even a week ago as the new guy in town.

My favorite player title is Mats Zuccarello’s to lose.

Defense?

After six years of campaigning for the Rangers to get rid of Michal Rozsival, they finally did! So, let’s take a minute to celebrate that! But there is still a lot of work to be done with this young defensive group.

After the first period, Mike Sullivan was congratulated for having Marc Staal selected for the All-Star Game, but no one questioned the man in charge of the Rangers defense as to why the Canadiens were dominating below the hash marks and inside the slot for most of the first period. It’s easy for Mike Sullivan to look like he’s doing his job when Henrik Lundqvist is in net.

I’m glad that the average age of the Rangers defense is 24.9 (thanks to Brian Monzo for that fact), but the only problem is that it would be good if Henrik Lundqvist weren’t four years older than that average. Sure it would make for some miserable seasons at the Garden (not like we haven’t seen those before), but I’m scared that by the time the young defensive group becomes an elite unit in the league, Henrik will be on his way out his prime and starting to get benched like Martin Brodeur.

Can we finally fix the NHL All-Star Game for good?

There are few people more excited about the new way the teams will be decided for the NHL All-Star Game than me, but there are probably just a few people in general excited about the 36 players the league’s hockey operations department selected to play in the game. I haven’t decided exactly who I would cut from the roster for the NHL Slightly Above Average Players Game, but I know that having Ales Hemsky and David Backes showcasing their talents isn’t good advertising for the “casual fans” that Gary Bettman has been seeking approval from since the day the lockout ended.

On Tuesday when Brandon Dubinsky scored a pretty goal in the first period when he went around Hal Gill (who hasn’t?), Joe Micheletti jumped to Dubinksy’s side when he nearly blew out the speakers on my TV yelling at Sam Rosen, “He’s upset he didn’t make the All-Star team!” To be fair, Dubinsky is having a career year (17-20), and probably should be on the team over some players that did make it, but I don’t know if even Brandon Dubinsky should be in the “All-Star Game.”

I like the idea that the NHL has made the game more like a pickup game with their captains and picking teams, but any format in which Alex Ovechkin has to be picked by the committee because the fans didn’t vote him in needs some adjusting. Maybe it’s time that the players just picked the rosters since the fans and the league office seem incapable of doing so.

Will Gary Bettman answer my phone call?

Gary Bettman is always looking for ways to increase his fan base. He’s moved cold weather teams to warm weather, he’s added instigator rules and tie downs on jerseys and locked out the league for an entire year. He’s changed the rules to increase scoring, allowed head shots to take place with little consequences and even painted a trapezoid on the ice behind the net to make sure the best goalies can’t use some of the skills that make them the best. OK, so maybe all of his ideas are horrendous, but come on, at least he’s trying! Give the man an “A” for effort!

I might not have the answer to every problem that Gary Bettman has created since he started his mission in 1993 of trying to make sure the NHL is extinct by 2020, but I have one way to increase the interest in the tri-state area for anyone who might have not grown up playing hockey or wouldn’t know what channel to find a Rangers or Devils or Islanders game on if there was a gun to their head.

My proposal is to let Joe Micheletti and Chico Resch call every Rangers-Devils from now on. Sure, it would be devastating to lose the magical voice of Doc Emrick for these special games, but I guarantee that there would be a brawl in the booth within the first five minutes of the game, as the game would sound like it’s being called by a Rangers fan and a Devils fan sitting at a bar with Chico yelling, “Ohhh Joe, what a save by Martyyy there!” and Joe making excuses for the Rangers.

And it doesn’t have to stop there. We can have Joe Micheletti do the color for a Rangers-Bruins game and let Jack Edwards (who still has never seen a Bruin lose a fight) do the play-by-play. I’m an Andy Brickley fan, but I think even Brick would step aside to see the spectacle that Jack and Joe could bring in a game based upon who could be the bigger homer. If regional networks are going to let this type of broadcasting take place then why not let the NHL capitalize on it?

Blogs • NFL

Jan 5, 2011

My Super Bowl Dilemma

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Jan. 11, 2011. I hate football. Not really, but the Giants are giving me no choice. Two weeks ago, I asked for three things for Christmas. I

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on Jan. 11, 2011.

I hate football. Not really, but the Giants are giving me no choice.

Two weeks ago, I asked for three things for Christmas. I asked for the Yankees to produce something that resembles a starting rotation that can compete in the AL East, the Giants to make the playoffs and for the Knicks to land Carmelo Anthony. The Giants were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, and the Yankees are thinking about bringing in Jeff Francis or Jeremy Bonderman to round out their rotation. Carmelo might as well just get traded to the Nets or Bulls now and put me out of my misery.

I wish I could have been in the locker room prior to the Giants-Packers game and delivered the pregame speech for the Giants. It wouldn’t have been like the speech in Rudy when Rudy gets up on the stool and starts with, “We’re gonna go inside, we’re gonna go outside, inside and outside.” It would have been more like the famous Bobby Knight halftime speech (which you can find on YouTube uncensored), highlighted by the line, “You will not put me in that position again!”

Well, the Giants put me in that position again. That position is being on the outside looking in on the NFL playoffs for the second straight year.

Tom Coughlin will return in 2011 in search of a three-peat of collapses to unseat the Mets as the worst late-season team in the city, but hopefully with him, Plaxico Burress will return. I’m not sure what Plaxico can bring at the age of 34 and having not caught a pass in the NFL since Nov. 16, 2008, but I do know that the Giants are 20-18, including their only playoff game, since he last appeared in a game for them.

While Brandon Jacobs was busy packing up his equipment in a trash bag and giving Bruce Boudreau a run for his money with F-bombs as he cursed out photographers, Giants fans are forced to watch the playoffs without a horse in the race … a race that includes the chance for many hated franchises of mine to win it all. I’m forced to sit and watch the NFL playoffs for the second year in a row as a spectator while my Jets fan friends and Patriots fan friends get to actually participate. Good thing there’s beer and point spreads.

Someone will win Super Bowl XLV, but it won’t be the Giants. The scary part is it will likely be a team that I don’t want to see win the Super Bowl. And because the Giants aren’t going to The Dance, I have to sit back and think of which team I would want to take to The Dance with me and which team I would rather leave at the front door waiting for me to pick them up for The Dance.

It wasn’t easy, but I was finally able to sort out the 12 playoff teams from which team I would most like to see win Super Bowl XLV to which team I don’t want to see win at all. Here it is:

1. Colts
I’m a Peyton Manning fan and a year ago I was certain that Peyton Manning was going to win his second Super Bowl and solidify his place as arguably the greatest quarterback ever. Then there was that Pierre Garcon drop, the onside kick and the pick six, and Peyton left Miami with as many rings as his brother.

Peyton is now 34. He isn’t retiring tomorrow, but he also isn’t getting younger and is running out of time in his prime when he will be as dangerous as he now. If he can’t win it this year, it’s just another year closer to retirement for him, and another year with just one Super Bowl to his name, and that will keep him out of the conversation as the greatest ever.

2. Chiefs
It would just be weird if the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, but hey, it’s better than a lot of other options.

A Super Bowl would bring Kansas City some sort of happiness since their baseball team hasn’t for a while and likely won’t for a while. It would be a nice story if Matt Cassel wins and will likely cause crazed sports radio callers in Boston to argue that the Patriots should have never gotten rid of Matt Cassel, no matter how insane that sounds. And if you think I’m kidding, you have never lived in Boston. Go Chiefs!

3. Seahawks
Who knows why Randy Edsall left UConn the way he did? But he’s a college coach and with college coaches, you can’t be surprised when they do sleazy things. Enter, Pete Carroll … the poster boy for sleaze.

Carroll had so many NCAA violations that the NCAA gave USC a two-year bowl ban and eliminated 30 football scholarships from the school. And when Carroll sensed the NCAA closing in to bring the bill, he said he had to go to the bathroom and left USC with the check. I don’t feel bad for USC, but what a stand-up guy Pete Carroll is!

Part of me wants the Seahawks to win it all because it will just be an absolute joke if a 7-9 team wins the Super Bowl. But the bigger part of me wants the Saints to beat them 67-3 to prove how much of a joke it is that a 7-9 team can make the playoffs. And I can’t help but think of Pete Carroll during his postgame press conference on Sunday night saying how proud he is of his team and sounding like Rex Ryan by being ecstatic over an accomplishment that isn’t worth celebrating.

All I know is in Week 9 when the Giants embarrassed the Seahawks in Seattle, I thought Charlie Whitehurst might never watch another football game for the rest of his life let alone play in one that would send the Seahawks to the playoffs. Now he might start a playoff game, and if he wins a playoff game, I think I’m done with football.

4. Falcons
I’m very protective of Eli Manning. I’m like the parent of the kid that all the other kids pick on. And truthfully, you shouldn’t feel that way about your franchise quarterback, but that’s life as a Giants fan.

Matt Ryan hasn’t won a playoff game, but he didn’t bring the Falcons to a 13-3 record this season, and the hype around him rivals the hype around Aaron Rodgers. And there isn’t a non-Giants fan that doesn’t think Ryan is better than Eli. That’s fine, but I hope the Falcons go down because of it.

5. Bears
I promised I wouldn’t say another bad word about Jay Cutler if he beat the Packers in Week 17. So what did he do? Oh, just throw a pick in the red zone and another to end the game. Nothing major.

Here I’m nervous that Lovie Smith might pull the plug on the game and not start Cutler or take him out early and ruin the Giants’ chances. I have never been so angry to not see Todd Collins in a game I needed to win because the way the Bears defense played, I think they would have won the game if anyone other than Cutler started.

When the Bears were 3-0 and the Giants embarrassed them in Week 4 and forced Cutler and Collins out of the game and Caleb Hanie had to take snaps, I thought, “That’s the end of the Bears.” But they somehow managed to win eight more games. But I can’t root for a team the Giants crushed and a team that let the Patriots come to Soldier Field and blow them out by 29 points.

6. Steelers
I have never liked the Steelers in the least bit, and that was before Ben Roethlisberger finally got caught for being such a good role model. There’s no way you can pull for Big Ben if you aren’t from Pittsburgh.

7. Ravens
I’m still not over Super Bowl XXXV. I’m still not over disliking Ray Lewis or Terrell Suggs or Joe Flacco’s unibrown.

8. Saints
Of course the Saints would barely beat the Falcons on the road and then lose to the Buccaneers at home in Week 17 to close the back door to the playoffs for the Giants. Of course.

The Friday before the last Super Bowl, I wrote:

“But should the lasting image of the 2009 NFL season be the visor-wearing Sean Payton embracing Jeremy Shockey? Is seeing New Orleans win its first Super Bowl enough to want Jeremy Shockey to win a Super Bowl? Is the Saints getting their Walt Disney-like win worth knowing that Jerry Reese’s trade of the disgruntled and disrespectful tight end worked out in New Orleans’ favor? No, no and no.”

The same holds true for the 2010 NFL season.

9. Packers
My distaste for Green Bay has grown in recent years and after the embarrassment against the Giants it is at an all-time high. If you combine what the Packers did to the Giants with the national lovefest for Aaron Rodgers, it’s enough to make you sick. How about we let Aaron Rodgers win a playoff game before we put him in the same conversation as Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees?

I’m not really worried about Green Bay winning it all because their running game is just embarrassing. And I know this because after Ryan Grant got hurt, I was forced to pick up Brandon Jackson in fantasy football, and Jackson was so bad that I will never play fantasy football ever again. Aaron Rodgers didn’t need to get a concussion against the Lions, but the Packers kept running the ball against a terrible secondary for some reason, and then why Rodgers tried to run the ball himself, he got popped. It wasn’t until Matt Flynn came into the game that the Packers started to throw the ball, and nearly beat the Lions and then the Patriots because of it.

One question: Do you think FOX will let Joe Buck wear his Aaron Rodgers jersey under his suit for playoff games, or is he only allowed to do that for regular season games?

10. Jets
I don’t like thinking about a Jets parade and J-E-T-S echoing through the city streets. It would be like the Mets winning, and maybe even worse. I have spent a lot of my life despising the Jets and here I’m making a list of the order of which team I want to win the Super Bowl, and they aren’t even last. Richard, what’s happening?

But how fun it would be listening to Joe and Evan after a Jets’ Super Bowl win? Probably fun enough for me to actually pull for them if they play either of the next two teams along the way.

11. Patriots
It was a hard decision to figure out which team I wanted to win less between the Patriots and Eagles, and I nearly turned to my friend’s Magic 8 ball to make the decision for me.

There is no way I want the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. None at all. I would rather walk across the George Washington Bridge naked, during rush hour, while it’s freezing rain than see the Patriots win. But if they do win, I understand. They’re 14-2 and the No. 1 overall seed. They have the best coach and the best quarterback in the league.

However, a Patriots’ championship would put a serious damper on the possibility of adding more chapters to The Last Night of the Patriots Dynasty book that I plan to write with Mike Hurley.

12. Eagles
This is my nightmare!

The Third Annual Eagles Devastate My Life Party was even more of a gongshow than the first and second. 31-10. 8:17 left. Why? Whyyy? Whyyyyy?

There are no redeeming qualities about the Eagles. I’m not a Mike Vick (hat tip to Cris Collinsworth) fan like the rest of the country and there is nothing to like about DeSean Jackson’s Broadway shows in the end zone. I wish Andy Reid had gotten run out of Philly along with Donovan McNabb and there is something that makes me angry when Reid puts up one finger for the extra point when it’s obvious the Eagles wouldn’t be going for two in the situation (I know a lot of coaches do this, but only when Reid does it, does it make me mad).

Before the Packers game I wrote:

“I don’t think you can have your wife cheat on you, take all your money and find out your kids aren’t really your kids and decide to get back out and start dating the following weekend. It just doesn’t work like that. And I don’t know if the Giants can come back from such a devastating defeat and win in Lambeau Field this Sunday no matter what Antrel Rolle says or guarantees.”

And unfortunately, I was right.

Philadelphia already took Cliff Lee away from me. They aren’t going to win the Super Bowl. They can’t.

Blogs

Dec 29, 2010

Year in Review, Part I

It seems like yesterday that it was the morning of January 1, 2010 and I was riding the Metro North from Grand Central to Connecticut with a pounding headache as a result of a hangover,

It seems like yesterday that it was the morning of January 1, 2010 and I was riding the Metro North from Grand Central to Connecticut with a pounding headache as a result of a hangover, looking like I had just relived October 2004. As the train slowly moved through Noroton Heights and Rowayton and every other unnecessary stop on the Metro North route, I probably would have agreed to watch the Yankees blow another 3-0 series lead in exchange for a Gatorade.

At the time of the longest train ride of my life, the Yankees were world champions, the Knicks were as bad as ever, the Giants’ season was over, Rex Ryan had declared the Jets’ season over before the Colts revived it and Mets fans were convinced that Citi Field wouldn’t be a problem for their new $66 million left fielder, Jason Bay. A lot has changed since that day, but most people still don’t care what the Devils, Islanders and Nets are doing.

Outside of the drama and changes in the sports world in 2010, I got to see Gordon Gekko return to Wall Street, a robbery in The Town in front of the laundromat I used in Boston’s North End when I lived there for two years in college and Anne Hathaway naked for about two hours in Love and Other Drugs. I was reminded why Friday Night Lights is the best show on TV in Season 5 and why it’s devastating that there’s only six episodes left in the series. I became addicted to The League, fell for the Jersey Shore again and was happy to see Kenny Powers and Stevie Janowski return to the baseball world.

Even though the Yankees came two wins shy of returning to the World Series and the Giants collapsed for the second season in a row, 2010 was a good year.

I wrote a lot of words during 2010, and my first piece for WFAN.com was “I’m Going To Miss Johnny Damon” on February 1. Now here we are, nearly 11 months later and the Yankees are reportedly having talks about bringing back Damon when he probably should have never left in the first place. As John Sterling would say, “You can’t predict baseball, Suzyn!”

Most of the words I wrote this year were about the Yankees, but at some point I touched on every metro team that matters. When I went back through everything I wrote to come up with something for the end of the year, I thought it only made sense to write about the people that gave me things to write about in the first place. So here it is … The 20 People That Most Influenced My Writing In 2010. I just wish we could have Liev Schreiber from 24/7 narrate it.

20. The Voice of God … Bob Sheppard … The Voice of God
I actually didn’t write very much about Bob Sheppard, but as a Yankees fan he has been a major part of my life even though I never got the chance to meet him. I think when you grow up as a Yankees fan, you dream that one day you will have the chance to hear your name echo across the Bronx sky with perfect diction and pronunciation from Bob Sheppard.
When Sheppard first started missing games, I never really thought he would be gone for good at any point. Even at his age you just felt like he would find a way to get back to the Stadium and be as much a part of it as Monument Park and the facade.

Paul Olden, who is the PA announcer now, is good at his job in my mind, though I don’t know if there is any way to actually measure how good or bad a PA announcer is (but I do know I am not a fan of the Fenway Park announcer). The only problem is that Olden is not Sheppard no matter what he does or how good he is. There are rumors that Danny McBride might take over The Officeonce Steve Carell leaves at the end of this season, but it won’t be the same no matter how good McBride is or how good anyone is that they choose as Carell’s replacement.

It might be unfair to compare Olden to Sheppard or to hold him to that standard, but that’s what happens when your act follows the best there ever was and ever will be.

19. The Boss
In the back of my mind I always liked to think that George Steinbrenner was still in charge of the Yankees even though the last few seasons were filled with stories about the demise of his health.

I remember riding the Metro North and listening to WFAN on October 7, 2007 to the city to meet my friend Redz to go to Game 3 of the ALDS, which was the day that Ian O’Connor’s exclusive interview with George Steinbrenner was printed in The Record. Steinbrenner told O’Connor that Joe Torre’s job was on the line if the Yankees didn’t beat the Indians. I don’t know if anyone outside his immediate family really knew what Steinbrenner was capable of in October 2007, but I liked to believe that he was still calling the shots even if he wasn’t, and this story sure made it seem like the old George was still running the Yankees.

When the Yankees missed out on Cliff Lee, I said, “In the 37 ½ years of his life that he ran the team (I know that number depends on when he technically stopped being in charge and you also have take away the years he was banned), only one ace turned down the Yankees’ money (to my knowledge) and that was Greg Maddux. Steinbrenner has been dead for five months, and the number of pitchers to turn down the Yankees’ money has already matched the total number during Steinbrenner’s 37 ½ years as The Boss.” Then a few days later Kerry Wood signed with the Cubs for $1.5 million when it was reported that the Yankees were offering two years and $10 million.

I don’t know what the future holds for the Yankees with Hal running the team, and Hank to some degree, and Brian Cashman not facing the same pressure and accountability for his actions. I don’t know if the Steinbrenner family is serious when they say that they don’t plan on selling the team, but I do know that we are a couple of days away from 2011 and the Yankees don’t have a fourth or fifth starter.

18. John Tortorella
I haven’t written anything about John Tortorella since the end of last season when I thought he should be fired, and he probably should have been. If the Rangers find a way to not make the playoffs this year, I don’t think there is any chance that Tortorella comes back. Then again, Glen Sather has been able to keep his job with the Dolans for this long, so nothing is out of the question.

So far with the Rangers, Tortorella has blown a 3-1 playoff series lead and missed the postseason, and I am still waiting for him to show me something. Maybe I expect too much from the coaches of my teams, but I think anything other than advancing a couple of rounds in the postseason this year deserves being fired.

Once again Sather has built a team that will most likely end up with the No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the postseason and probably lose in the conference semifinals at best. Everyone is still waiting for the Rangers to have a team that is supposed to win and a team that fans can feel confident about winning. How many years of Henrik Lundqvist’s career are the Rangers going to waste?

17. Amar’e Stoudemire
I was skeptical about the signing of Amar’e Stoudemire at first and I was even more skeptical when I realized that he would be the only big name free agent that the Knicks would come away with in the summer sweepstakes. But Amar’e has been everything and more for the Knicks and has brought back a winning mentality to the Garden and rejuvenated the interest of basketball in New York City.

I still wonder what the Knicks would be like had LeBron James decided that he would rather be the King of New York than the King of South Beach where it’s just not the same. The Knicks aren’t ready to win it all just yet, but with LeBron they could have been, and basketball in the city would have been as big a deal as it has ever been.

What Stoudemire has done in just a couple of months has been inspiring to watch and with Carmelo Anthony only wanting to play in Manhattan, the future of the Knicks finally looks bright for the first time in a long time. We have Amar’e Stoudemire to thank for that.

16. Omar Minaya/Jerry Manuel
I don’t think either of these two are worthy of their own spot, so I put them together since they will be linked together in Mets history.

Sandy Alderson has been the Mets general manager for as many games as me, but just watching how he conducts his business and what his presence feels like from his in-studio interview with Mike Francesa, I think Mets fans should be happy with the future of their team in the hands of Alderson. However, the Phillies rotation likely put a damper on any division title dreams for the Mets for the next five-plus years. But I don’t think any Mets fan has to worry about Sandy Alderson’s friends taking their shirts off and challenging minor league affiliates of the Mets, or get nervous that Sandy is going to blame his team’s public relations mess on media members wanting jobs in the organization.

I am a Willie Randolph fan, and I wasn’t a fan of the way he was let go by the Mets considering he could have done just as bad a job as Jerry did for the last two-plus seasons. But part of me is sad to see Jerry go since it was like seeing Wade Phillips go. Wade Phillips didn’t deserve to be the coach of the Cowboys anymore (he probably never did), but now with a competent person coaching the team, I am scared that the Cowboys might realize their potential and actually win. The Mets aren’t that talented, but they probably could have fared better than they did with Jerry since the middle of 2008.

15. Winter Olympics Hockey
I know that this isn’t a person, but it was an event that dominated the month of February at a time when the sports world is starving for excitement between the Super Bowl and March Madness and Opening Day, and the hockey tournament filled that void after being a disappointment in 2006.

After being embarrassed four years ago in Turin, Italy, Brian Burke put together a worthy Team USA that didn’t lose a game until the gold medal game when they lost to Canada in overtime. Ryan Miller became a household name for three weeks, though I am sure non-hockey fans don’t even know who he is now 10 months later, and for at least a few days this country was engulfed in hockey. I thought the level of interest would carry over into the NHL regular season and I think it did at first, but eventually hockey went back to being the way it has always been: a sport for lifelong fans and not casual fans.

The NHL can keep changing the rules to increase scoring or create better marketing campaigns or even fire Gary Bettman, but I think the NHL will always have that special niche with its fan base, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Maybe if less warm-weather cities had team and more cold-weather cities had teams the game would gain popularity, but maybe just one month every four years is enough for casual fans if it is as good as the 2010 Olympics were.

14. Matt Dodge
I don’t like Matt Dodge because he isn’t a good punter, but I don’t blame any of the Giants’ losses this season on him because since the first day that his punting became a problem, he has proven that he doesn’t deserve to be in the NFL. Tom Coughlin stuck with him for the whole year when he could have gone another route, and at this point watching Dodge take the field is just a joke and I just expect the worst possible scenario when he is waiting for the snap.

The same way that DeSean Jackson and Devin Hester and Dez Bryant bring that sense of excitement and anticipation to special teams, so does Matt Dodge. On any punt attempt, Dodge might drop the snap, fall down, bobble the ball, lose a shoe, kick the ball on a line drive to the returner, kick the ball into the stands or completely whiff on the kick. I am still waiting for him to try and throw a 60-yard touchdown pass instead of punting.

I actually felt bad for Dodge when Coughlin was out on the field ripping into him after the collapse in what was the most uncomfortable TV moment aside from the five nights a week when Jay Leno is introduced on the Tonight Show and audience members awkwardly go up to the stage and give him high fives. I’m pretty sure Matt Dodge didn’t give up the 21 points that tied the game and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the one missing every tackle on Jackson after Jackson muffed the punt. Matt Dodge has become a household name as a punter, and that is as bad as an umpire or referee becoming a household name. You just want to do your job and do a good job because there isn’t a non-die-hard fan that knows the names of good punters or good umpires or referees. Just the bad ones.

13. Rex Ryan
I’m not sure who Rex Ryan wants to be. One day he wants to be an NFL coach and the next day he wants to be friends with the players and a class clown with the media. So far his team has underachieved by the standards he set in Hard Knocks (leading the league in wins), but you would never know that from the way he conducts himself.

I was still on the fence about whether or not I liked Rex Ryan and then on Sunday when he was giving his press conference and found out in the middle of it that the Jets made the playoffs because the Jaguars lost, and he started acting like the Jets had decided their own fate with a convincing win, well it was then that I finally decided Rex isn’t for me.

I don’t agree with everything that Bill Belichick does or how he handles the media, but I get why he acts that way, and at least he is consistent. He gave this interview outside the locker room after losing to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, and had the Patriots won, his postgame interview probably would have been very similar.

Call him smug, or arrogant or pompous, but call him consistent. That is all I ask of Rex. Be consistent. Find a personality and stick with it. Either be an authority figure or a coach that is buddy-buddy with the players. Don’t try to be both because you can’t be both.

12. Joba Chamberlain
Three years ago it was rare if someone reached base against Joba Chamberlain, and it was nearly impossible to score against him. Now he is only in the majors because of the name he built for himself in 2007.

I don’t get Joba Chamberlain. I don’t know how he used to be so dominant and now he is so inconsistent. I think part of it has to do with Brian Cashman’s genius plan to stretch him out to be a starter then to be a reliever then to be a starter then to be a reliever again. And I think the other part of it is that Joba is too cocky to make adjustments to the league after the league clearly made adjustments to him.

I was part of the “Joba should be a starter” party and now I think we are all seeing why. Forget the fact that he was barely given any time to progress as a starter, but let’s look at where the rotation currently stands with a major gap in major league ready arms to fill the voids left by not signing Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte’s indecision. If Joba had remained on the path to be a starter, one of the two rotation spots would be filled right now, and I wouldn’t need to worry about whether A.J. Burnett is going to finally earn his salary or if Andy Pettitte could put his family on hold for another year.

Thanks, Cashman!

11. DeSean Jackson
I didn’t necessarily write about DeSean Jackson, but anything I have written about the Giants enduring another collapse is directly related to DeSean Jackson who has clearly made it his personal mission to rip the hearts out of Giants fans every December.

Last season the Giants needed to beat the Eagles to take over the division lead and make the playoffs, and the Eagles went into East Rutherford and put up 45 points on the Giants and Bill Sheridan. Jackson scored on a 72-yard punt return and a 60-yard pass, catching six passes for 178 yards. He backpedaled into the end zone on the 60-yarder, holding the ball out and laughing as he watched the Giants’ season fall apart.

It was Jackson again who put the dagger in the Giants this season with his punt return that I will have to watch be replayed during every Giants-Eagles game for the rest of my life. And now Jackson has assisted in helping Michael Vick (or Mike Vick according to Cris Collinsworth) be named the Pro Bowl starter in what has been as been as big of a comeback year as Enrique Iglesias’ 2010 has been. Just devastating.

I don’t need any incentives to hate the Eagles or the city of Philadelphia’s sports teams, but DeSean Jackson is a good incentive.

Part II coming on Thursday.

Blogs • NHL

Dec 16, 2010

Must-See TV

The debut of 24/7 Penguins-Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic instantly took over the No. 1 spot on my TV power rankings.

I have a hard time deciding what my favorite show on TV is. There’s The Office, The League, Friday Night Lights and Curb Your Enthusiasm. If I could only watch one, I honestly have no idea which show I would pick. But I think that problem was solved on Wednesday night with the debut of 24/7 Penguins-Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic, which is easily the best show on TV and it instantly took over the No. 1 spot on my TV power rankings.

If you didn’t see it, watch it … now. Stop whatever you’re doing and watch it because it’s that good. And if you did watch it and aren’t more excited for next Wednesday instead of next Friday because of it, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you.

The series is a combination of every 24/7 boxing series and Hard Knocks on steroids. That’s how good it is. I was sold on the show well before Maxine Nightingale’s “Right Back Where We Started From” came on in the middle of the Penguins’ road trip, but as someone who could recite lines from Slapshot before I could recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the incorporation of the song took the show to another level.

Nothing is played up because HBO is there. Those were real F-bombs you heard for 60 minutes, not the overly exaggerated fake F-bombs of Rex Ryan to become to a character on a TV show. And HBO couldn’t have started filming at a better time with the Penguins being the hottest team in the league and only the Islanders playing worse than the Capitals are right now.

I’m sure Penguins fans had a lot of fun reliving their winning streak behind the scenes, and Capitals fans probably took out their emotions on some household items as a result of the team’s slide. But there might not have been a more angry fan base than Bruins fans who had to watch Matt Cooke having fun living life and saying, “There is no easy ice,” when he is on the ice, knowing that Marc Savard is still feeling the side effects of the nasty elbow Cooke gave him last season.

Within the main story line of “Penguins vs. Capitals” and their paths to the Winter Classic are other story lines that, as a fan, help to enhance the show and make you pick a side when watching it. The show isn’t supposed to be about good vs. bad or to sway you in favor of one team, but if you’re not a fan of either team, which I’m not, there are three separate stories embedded into the show that will help you decide which team to pull for in the 2011 Winter Classic.

Sidney Crosby vs. Alexander Ovechkin
These two players will be linked and connected throughout their entire careers, and if you’re a hockey fan, you’re either a Crosby guy or an Ovechkin guy. You can’t be both. You have to pick one. I’m a Crosby guy and have been from Day One, though I am pretty much alone on this among my friends.

When Evgeni Malkin is watching the game against Toronto on TV and laughs while saying, “Sid … Look,” as Crosby joins a scrum in front of the net after a whistle, I couldn’t help, but think of all the cheap shots and slew foots the Penguins committed against the Rangers in the 2006-07 Eastern Conference semifinals. But being able to play that way and get away with it is part of the game and a big part of the Penguins’ game, and it’s what makes them good. And it’s what makes me like them and like watching them play.

Is Crosby chippy and even dirty? Yes. Does he excessively whine to refs and dive? Yes. Does he get into scrums in front of the net after whistles because he knows that he won’t get a penalty and that no one will touch him then? Yes. Is he the best player in the world? Yes.

Capitals assistant coach Dean Evason made it a point to call Ovechkin “the greatest player in the world” during his locker room rant when the Rangers scored more goals against the Capitals than the Jets did points against the Dolphins last Sunday (7-6).

“Our best player is fighting! The greatest player in the world!”

I understand that Evason was trying to make the point that the Capitals were embarrassing themselves and there’s no need for Ovechkin to be fighting when the team is getting shutout, but was it necessary to call Ovechkin “the greatest player in the world?” Sure, that’s Evason’s opinion and he spends every day around Ovechkin, so I would expect his opinion to be skewed, and I’m probably making too big of a deal about nothing, but do you think the Pittsburgh coaching staff is telling Crosby he is the best player in the world? No, because he knows he is.

Ovechkin is the most exciting player in the world, but to me, he isn’t the greatest. (And how about his weird tramp stamp tattoo?) When he’s on the ice you pay attention because he could do something you have never seen before, but that doesn’t make him the best. Sean Avery is also an exciting player because when he’s on the ice he might jump someone or commit an act that forces the NHL to create a new rule overnight, but sadly, being exciting doesn’t make you “the greatest.”

Dan Bylsma vs. Bruce Boudreau
It’s hard to know exactly who Dan Bylsma and Bruce Boudreau are from one episode because Bylsma is in the middle of 12-game winning streak while Boudreau can’t even find a way to beat the Panthers. At the end of the premiere, narrator Liev Schreiber says, “Teams are never as bad as they appear during their lowest points, and never as good as they seem during their highest ones,” but right now, that’s all we have to go off of when evaluating the two head coaches.

There isn’t much to dislike about Dan Bylsma. He seems to have found the perfect medium between being an imposing authoritative figure and still being able to have fun with his players. He isn’t exactly their friend, but he isn’t just a coach. His pregame and intermission speeches are solid, and the little nuances (the clapping for the announcing of the staring lineup) and games (Mustache Boy shootout) he has instituted into the team’s practices and locker room environment are unique and entertaining. The only real downfall for Bylsma in the first episode was watching him take one-timers at practice.

I’m not sure Bruce Boudreau is going to make it through the whole season of 24/7. Once you start making positives out of losses and tell your team to build off a losing effort, well the end can’t be far away. Are the Capitals’ struggles all because of Boudreau? No, but neither are the three straight division titles that HBO seemed to make it sound like. His biggest problem is that he has terrible goaltending. Yet somehow, he has the intestinal fortitude to criticize Henrik Lundqvist and say, “Lundqvist likes to come out of the net” before the game against the Rangers.

I always wonder how NHL coaches are able to keep their emotions in check on the bench and always have the same serious and puzzled face like they’re watching the State of the Union address. Rarely do you ever see NHL coaches clap or fist pump after a goal, and the only time you ever see them talking during a game is when they are trying to sort out a mess of penalty minutes with the ref. The other night the Red Wings lost to the Kings 5-0 and as soon as the game ended the cameras showed Mike Babcock, and after being shutout at home, he looked exactly the same as he would if he had been on the winning end of the shutout. Bruce Boudreau is the exception to the rule.

Between elbowing the glass and freaking out on the bench during his team’s current losing streak, it’s no wonder the Capitals have little to no composure when they are forced to play from behind. In the event of a fire or an emergency, Boudreau is the last guy I would want being in charge of the safety of people’s lives. (That and the fact in one of his Real World-like confessions, he had either ketchup or barbeque sauce all over his face). He appears to be the complete opposite of Bylsma, who probably checks himself in the mirror a dozen times before being on camera, and I’m not sure how many NHL players can take their coach seriously when he shows up to practice in all red Capitals warmup gear with his stomach hanging over his pants like he is going to be Santa Claus at the Penguins’ team Christmas party.

Penguins Not Named Sidney Crosby vs. Capitals Not Named Alexander Ovechkin
It might have something to do with the extreme opposites of where the teams are right now, but the Penguins are a more likable team than the Capitals after one episode.

(On an unrelated side note: I went on a tour of the Verizon Center in D.C. in the summer of 1998 (it was the MCI Center then), the week after the Capitals were swept by the Red Wings in the finals. The building was a year old at that time and the locker rooms were incredible in the state-of-the-art facility. But after seeing what a locker room that was built 13 years ago looks like compared to the Penguins’ new locker room and arena, well there isn’t much of a comparison. The Verizon Center already looks old.)

I guess it’s interesting to see the life changes that a player experiences like Scott Hannan trying to rent a new house after being traded in the final year of his contract, or watching Pascal Dupuis say goodbye to his family before a road trip, but that’s not what people want to see.

Seven and eight years ago, ESPN had a similar show called The Season and one year they followed the Red Wings (when everyone was introduced to a call-up by the name of Sean Avery) and the next year they followed the Avalanche. In the Avalanche season, there is a scene on the plane where Peter Forsberg and some other guys are playing Tiger Woods on their computers against each other, and at the time I thought it was unreal. Then you see the Penguins in 2010 playing what looked to be Call of Duty on PSP and it’s just that much cooler. Sure there are the outcasts like Harvard grad Craig Adams reading a book on the plane while everyone is playing video games or cards, but aside from that, who wouldn’t want to be on the Penguins? Then again, that’s likely the difference between a team that’s winning and a team that’s losing.

The most intriguing Penguin was without a double Max Talbot who showed the stereotypical hockey player combination of being, odd, weird and creepy, and making sure to keep all these qualities balanced. Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury had their moments as well, but in the few minutes that Talbot had the camera on him, he stole the show.

From the Capitals we saw a lot of depression as a result of losing. Mike Green was more upset that the team was in a funk than the fact that he had a sprained MCL and still wanted to play.

The Capitals lost again on Wednesday night in overtime to the Ducks and their losing streak is at seven, but hopefully their weekend road trip to Boston and New Jersey will give them a personality for next week.