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Now What Nashville?
from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN, Shea Weber hugged Pekka Rinne in a somber dressing room, the two stars shaking their heads in disbelief.
Out in the second round against the Phoenix Coyotes? Not how they had envisioned their season ending. Not by a long shot.
“It’s very disappointing. It’s very disappointing,” Nashville Predators GM David Poile told ESPN.com, while making sure to give the Phoenix Coyotes the utmost respect for a series win he felt they certainly deserved.
A critical seasom in the history of the Predators ends in thorough disappointment and invites more questions than answers about their future.
Have Weber and Ryan Suter played their last game as Predators?
continued
Source: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/now_what_nashville/
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Baron Davis' Injury Could Mean the End for the Knicks PG
Perhaps Baron Davis could come back from Sunday's tear of his ACL, MCL, and patella tendon (as initially reported by Brian Mahoney). But I doubt it. He'll be 34 by the time this injury heals and it isn't as though he was playing splendidly prior to it. So this is likely how it ends. On the floor of Madison Square Garden, legs splayed, bearing a grimace that almost looked relaxed.
He's probably the reason I'm writing about hoops for a living--though it's unfair to blame the man for that. I just found the We Believe run so inspiring, improbable, and irreverent. Obviously, regions enjoy when the local team wins, as the Bay Area most certainly did when Golden State beat Dallas. But this phenomenon was different because it transcended winning or losing: It was fun.
The Warriors, as galvanized by Baron, played a brand of basketball that appeared improvised, and only tied into order by the sheer visceral enjoyment of its participants. Joyful, insane, illogical Baron-ball conquered a mighty Mavericks team, while connecting with a region known for its love of hippie-dippy joie de vivre. Knock Davis for not taking the game seriously enough, but this fluid style could only spring from the brain of a supremely talented dabbler.
And of course, there was this:
Even this moment, loved as it is, isn't loved enough. The dunk was the punctuation on a crescendo of increasingly insane layups. Here's an example:
There was much to adore about Baron's career before the Warriors moments. He was a force at UCLA. In Charlotte, he was a canon ball, fired at missile speed. But I'll always cling to We Believe, and lament that I'll probably never see Baron Davis recapture that kind of moment.
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1175553-is-this-the-end-for-baron-davis
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Red Wings at the Worlds, Saturday: Datsyuk scoreless in Russian win; Howard wins barn-burner; Z^2
Updated 7x at 5:19 PM: The biggest Red Wings-related news regarding the World Championships thus far involves Kyle Quincey becoming the 12th Wings player or prospect taking part in the Worlds as Quincey will join Team Canada tomorrow, and as I’m writing this, the U.S. and Canada are facing off in a game which began at 12 PM EDT and will air at 7:30 PM EDT on the NBC Sports Network, and the Swedes will face off against the Czechs at 1:15 2:15 PM.
We’ve been sharing some semi-legal stream links for those of us who are “Geo-blocked” out of the IIHF’s on-demand stuff, and as I write this, Pavel Datsyuk didn’t fare in the scoring but played a strong game in Russia’s 5-2 victory over Latvia, and Jimmy Howard is playing for Team USA, which is tied 1-1 with Canada in the 1st period of their game.
I’ll update this post with news from the Russians’ win, Team USA’s tilt with Canada and the Czech-Sweden game as the day progresses, and just as we’ve been doing in the overnight report, please continue to send in links to solid streams of the game in the comments section.
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Toronto Maple Leafs: Bad Contracts Preventing Leafs from Moving Forward
Quick, name the four players with the worst contracts on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
If you said Mike Komisarek, Tim Connolly, Matthew Lombardi and Colby Armstrong, you win the prize.
Until these four players are sent packing, the Leafs organization will not gain any significant ground in their quest for the Stanley Cup, regardless of what else they do to their roster.
The annual cap hits of the aforementioned players are, respectively: $4.5 million, $4.75 million, $3.5 million and $3 million.
That's $15.75 million in dead weight.
All of them have at least one year left on their respective contracts.
That's at least one more year that the NHL-ready kids in the system will have to wait for a full-time job with the Leafs.
You can sign and trade for all the stars you want, but your future stars will still be languishing in the minors while your useless veterans get paid too much to take up valuable roster space.
If you look at the young players within the Leafs organization, you'll see a number of them who are working hard and perhaps deserving of a full-time gig with the big club.
Youngsters like Nazem Kadri and Matt Frattin have bounced between the NHL and the AHL because of the bad contracts.
Other kids like Jesse Blacker, Joe Colborne and Carter Ashton may be denied a chance to play a meaningful amount of games at the NHL level during the 2012-13 season because of guys like Komisarek and Connolly.
The owners of the Leafs' four worst contracts are either 29 or 30 years old, meaning most of their best hockey is likely behind them.
And if what we've seen from Komisarek, et al. in the last year or two has been their best, there is no point in keeping any of them.
Leafs general manager Brian Burke must get rid of all four players immediately so that developing players like Kadri and Frattin can be inserted into the lineup for good.
One additional move that could push the Leafs over the top would be to bring in a guy like Paul Gaustad.
Connolly and Lombardi can both play centre, but neither of them can win faceoffs. They're also relatively soft players.
If the team brings in a tough, veteran centreman in Gaustad, they'll have four centremen (including Mikhail Grabovski, Tyler Bozak and David Steckel) who range from good to great in the faceoff department.
With the signing of Gaustad and the departure of Komisarek, et al., the Leafs' opening day lineup for the 2012-13 season would look something like this:
Joffrey Lupul - Tyler Bozak - Phil Kessel
Clarke MacArthur - Mikhail Grabovski - Nikolai Kulemin
Nazem Kadri - Paul Gaustad - Matt Frattin
Joey Crabb - David Steckel - Mike Brown
(Extra: Jay Rosehill)
Dion Phaneuf - Carl Gunnarsson
Luke Schenn - John-Michael Liles
Jake Gardiner - Cody Franson
(Extra: Korbinian Holzer or Jesse Blacker)
James Reimer
Jonas Gustavsson
Of course, the Leafs will draft a kid in June who might make the roster out of training camp, but we'll ignore it for the sake of this argument.
The lack of size, toughness and leadership will also need to be addressed over the summer, not to mention the goalie issue.
However, looking at the lineup above, you'll see that the overall quality of the team is actually much improved by dumping the four bad contracts, replacing those players with skilled youngsters and bringing in a veteran.
If it actually happened, it could turn out that getting a legitimate starting goaltender and a top-six forward with size weren't the organization's biggest needs after all.
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These Two 40-Year Olds Both Hit Dramatic Walk-Off Home Runs Yesterday
Chipper Jones and Jason Giambi have combined for 887 career home runs. And at ages 40 and 41, respectively, there can't be too many more left in the bats of these great hitters.
But for one day, both players rediscovered that magic and delivered their teams to victories in dramatic fashion with walk-off home runs. It was the first time in Major League Baseball history that two 40-year olds hit walk-off home runs on the same day.
Here are both blasts...
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Rutgers' New Football Uniforms Are Supposed To Look Like Actual Knights In Shining Armor
Rutgers has unveiled their new football uniforms for the 2012 season.
When talking about the uniforms, athletic director Tim Pernetti said that the school wanted to honor their mascot saying that "Scarlett Knights" is "not just a mascot," and that the school, in conjunction with Nike, wanted to "tell a story" with the uniforms.
Well, we don't know if they succeeded or not, but the helmets sure are shiny.
On the next few pages, we will take a closer look at Rutgers' new armor uniforms.
Here's what the uniforms used to look like
The new uniforms are the latest using Nike's Pro Combat technology
There are three uniforms including home (red), road (white), and a black version that will be worn during their "black-out" game
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Take A Nine-Second Break And Watch This Steeplechase Runner Fall Face-First Into A Water Pit
BYU runner Katy Andrews apparently uploaded this video of herself suffering an epic steeplechase fail over the weekend.
"I was seeing stars but ran 2 more laps afterwards. I smacked my head and my thigh. The head bled; the thigh bruised," she wrote in the description.
Andrew attempted to clear a water jump but instead ran straight into the hurdle and ended up tumbling into the pit.
SB Nation picked it up. It's an effective nine-second brain-clearer to get your through your afternoon.
We recommended rewinding it several times:
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WWE: Is CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan the Start of a Summer-Long Feud?
Daniel Bryan shocked the world on Monday Night RAW, when he became the No. 1 contender for CM Punk's WWE Championship. The former World Heavyweight Champion will get his opportunity at Over the Limit, WWE's next pay-per-view, in three weeks time.
Such a short build-up seems a waste for a potentially classic feud. Could this just be the first step to a summer-long feud or was this a match thrown together to be the proverbial white-out that covers a referee's mistake?
Most fans expected Chris Jericho to have one more shot at CM Punk after their title battle at Extreme Rules, however John Laurinaitis announced a "Beat The Clock" tournament for RAW.
The tournament began with The Miz avenging his United States Championship defeat with a victory over Santino Marella in a time of 4:18. This set up a one-on-one match between Jericho and The Big Show.
The match was down to the last few seconds with both men out of the ring. Big Show went for a high boot, missed and went over the guard rail. This allowed Jericho to roll into the ring and get the referee to count the Big Show out.
Only the buzzer for time up went momentarily before the referee could count to 10. Both the in-ring performers and commentators were unclear on whether Jericho had successfully beaten the clock.
Michael Cole's first reaction was to give Jericho the decision. Describing the situation as being one of referee's discretion. Jerry "The King" Lawler, clearly listening to the voices in his earpiece, floundered around saying very little and the WWE quickly cut to a break.
The situation was reversed when RAW returned to our screens as The Miz was officially in pole position for a WWE title shot. An explanation of video evidence being used to make the decision was quickly made and then the subjected was bypassed in favour of the next segment. No mention to the close nature of those two matches were made again.
Daniel Bryan would eventually defeat Jerry "The King" Lawler in the quickest time to set up the title match with Punk.
This could be seen as a clever creative swerve by WWE officials. Expectations were for Jericho to get back for one last title shot before he leaves to tour with his band Fozzy.
If the WWE management made this decision to take the company in a different direction, then the move has really shocked most wrestling fans. With the abundance of Internet rumours, it is difficult for the WWE to pull this type of switch very often.
The move can also be seen as a distraction away from the potential loss of John Cena and Brock Lesnar. Punk versus Bryan is one of the most sought after rivalries in the WWE right now and should be given head-billing. This will be the case if Cena has to move aside for treatment to an injury and Brock Lesnar takes a few weeks off before getting in a feud with Triple H at SummerSlam.
However, evidence can be presented that makes it look like a hastily put together fix.
One of the key parts of this theory is Daniel Bryan's opponent being commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler. "King" stood out as being a heavily mismatched opponent in a tournament that had been mostly competitive. It also meant the WWE bypassed talent such as Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes and Christian as potential opponents.
Another aspect that was noticeable due to its absence was the title card. This is the screen that has the picture of the two (or more) wrestlers in-front of the PPV's logo. This is normally flashed up on several occasions when a new No. 1 contender is found, but was missing on tonight's RAW.
Whether this is a clever ruse by the WWE or the company covering someone's mistake, Punk versus Bryan could open up great possibilities for the summer. These two men are ideally suited to put on a clever and wrestling-heavy feud across several pay-per-views.
Let's hope the WWE embraces the situation and allows these two talents to do something special.
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Amar'e Stoudemire Injury: Updates on Knicks Star's Hand Injury
Following the New York Knicks' 104-94 loss in Game 2 against the Miami Heat on Monday, Amar'e Stoudemire reportedly suffered a left hand laceration after punching something in the locker room, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.
Isola tweeted after the game:
Knicks confirm that Amar'e suffered a left hand laceration. Team will not reveal details or open locker room. Complete chaos
— Frank Isola (@FisolaNYDN) May 1, 2012
There are conflicting reports as to what Stoudemire punched. Isola said it may have been a wall. Robert Flores of ESPN reported Stoudemire punched a fire extinguisher.
Isola also tweeted that Stoudemire's hand was heavily taped and that his arm was in a sling, saying he didn't think Stoudemire "would play again."
Stoudemire had 18 points, seven rebounds, two steals and one block as the Knicks fell to 0-2 in the series.
The Knicks were considered to have a shot at at least making the series tough for the Heat, given they entered the postseason on a red-hot streak. Both Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony appeared to be playing relatively well together.
It's been an up-and-down season for the Knicks, to say the least. They finished 36-30 in the regular season, not exactly what they had expected when they combined Anthony and Stoudemire. Both Stoudemire and Anthony have had their fair share of struggles, both on and off the court, throughout the season.
It's only fitting that both Stoudemire and Anthony would have good games, only to lose, capped off by Stoudemire injuring his hand. It's been that kind of season for the New York Knicks.
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