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“NHL Playoffs-Toughest Trophy to Get”

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It’s here. You can feel it in the arena. You will feel it if you ever put on the crest in the room. You can sense it from the opening face-off.

Unshaven players.
Cut on bridge of the nose
Stitches on the chin
A Black Eye
Little Blood on the jersey

It’s hockey’s real season. It’s NHL playoff season, and the grind begins with the eight first round series, four beginning on Wednesday, the other four on Thursday.

The survivors will stagger to the 1st week of June when somebody hoists the Stanley Cup. There will be upsets…unsung heroes..red hot goaltending…a few fights….and lots of fireworks.

It won’t be the LA Kings nor the Anaheim Ducks, both of whom finished substandard seasons, that cost both head coaches their jobs, and likely will cost some players their roster spots before the summer and off season is complete.

The Kings face a massive overhaul. Age, injuries, lots of bad contracts. They have had a good run, but now the backside of careers and big dollar signs are staring them right int the face. Somebody leaves as a youth movement begins, maybe goalie Jonathon Quick. The organization has failed in lots of areas.

The Ducks, with a history of good drafting, seem a couple of steps already into transition. They have a fleet of young draft picks, many in San Diego with the Gulls, some in the Canadian junior ranks, poised to make the next step. They are tied down too, to some big contracts with aging stars, but it’s doubtful it will end badly for quality people like Ryan Getzlaf nor Corey Perry. This organization has not let anyone down.

The matchups this spring are awesome. So will be the pressure on lots of people.

TORONTO-BOSTON..The Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967, despite being the richest and biggest heritage franchise in the sport. Mike Babcock has been building towards this, and now we see if John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and others can grind their way thru this Boston Bruins series against a Beantown team that has almost equal firepower, names like Bergeron-Pastrnek-Marchand. You have to be rugged to get thru this..

WASHINGTON-CAROLINA…Washington has Alexander Ovechkin of 50-60 goal fame, but has 7-others who have scored 20-or more goals, plus goalie Braden Holtby. Carolina’s vacation and golf off season will start pretty quickly.

PITTSBURGH-ISLANDERS…Pittsburgh still has Sir Sidney Crosby, but it has been a strange Penguins season. So much more expected from Evegeni Malkin, Phil Kessell and sniper Jake Guenztel. Goalie Matt Murray is hot. Who are these New York Islanders? Coach Barry Trotz and Jordan Eberle and a bunch of no names. It’s not the Mike Bossy led Islanders, but they have had a good season.

TAMPA BAY-COLUMBUS…Tampa Bay makes you love freewheeling hockey. A 61-win season, lots of firepower, with 40-goals scorers Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Brayden Point. They are not a nationwide household name, but they are so good. Pity John Tortorella and the Columbus Blue Jackets goaltending. This will be hard.

WINNIPEG-ST LOUIS….There were issues early in St Louis…and then a solution…the players did it. Coaching issues. Huge losing streak early, and then they fix it. Did they ever. The Blue roll to a (30-10-5) record from Christmas on. Goalie Jordan Bennington is (24-5-1) and everybody scores, led by Vlad Tarasenko and Ryan O’Rielly. Winnipeg is not just the team they were last year, when they became everyone’s darlings. Emotionally something is missing. MIA Patrick Laine has 1-goal in the last 19-games-38 days. How is that possible. It’s just not the same group last year when people marveled at when we saw Little-Scheifele and Wheeler.

LAS VEGAS-SAN JOSE…..San Jose has so much history. Huge goal scorers, firepower, and imposing defense. Las Vegas is doing this for just the second time ever, this post season thing. Freight train collision coming. Joe Thornton, Logan Coture and others, backed by Erik Karlsson and Britt Burns. Can G-Martin Jones keep the Knights big line of Mark Stone-Max Pacioretty-Paul Stasny off the score sheet. Then the Sharks have to deal with the Marchessault-Karlsson line too. Going to be a great series.

CALGARY-COLORADO….Calgary has loads of firepower, and has grown as a team. It’s been fun watching Johnny Hockey-Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan-Matt Tkachuck make this come together on the Red Mile in Calgary. Colorado got into the playoffs, thank you Nathan McKinnon and Phillip Grubaer, but they just don’t seem to have enough.

DALLAS-NASHVILLE…..The Nashville series with Dallas, it’s going to be strange. Will anyone score goals? The Predators are just not the same team from a firepower standpoint, 25th in scoring. Dallas is number one in team defense and 6’7 goalie Ben Bishop is having a monster season.

You can tell it’s that time of the year. The stubble on the chin, the gash on the nose, the black eye, a little blood on the uniform.

All out…every shift…every night. Take no penalties. Take no prisoner.

It’s the best time of the year….the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs about to begin.

Lord Stanley’s goblet…the toughest trophy in sports to get.

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“Virginia-Comeback from a Burden”

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You cannot imagine what the burden must have been like.

The University of Virginia lived with it, not just the challenges of the NCAA tourney, not just the rigors of the so very tough Atlantic Coast Conference, not just the national expectation, and surely not the non-stop questions that followed this team everywhere.

Virginia beat Texas Tech to win the NCAA title on Monday night, grinding their way to an overtime win. They held off the spirited comebacks in both the first half and second half, to finally put the Red Raiders away in overtime.

But it was more than just a 45-minute marathon of tough guy basketball. It was more than withstanding the barrage of 3’s. It was more than the emotional mood swings of seeing a 9-point lead in the opening half, and a 10-point bulge in the second half disappear.

Virginia carried a year long legacy of the worst moment you could ever imagine in March Madness history, losing a year ago to Maryland-Baltimore County. You remember that, a number 1-seed losing to a number 16-seed in a lst round game in 2018.

Oh the disgrace. Oh the despair. Oh how could that happen. It happens the first weekend of each spring, some lower seed rises up and punches the better seeded team in the mouth.

But Virginia had to carry all that around in the pit of their stomach for a full calendar year.

From preseason workouts at University Hall, to the start of the non-conference schedule, thru the meat grinder that is the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, on thru the ACC tourney, and then the last three weekends of this tournament.

The questions of how-why never ceased. The answers were standard. Bad day, bad outing, red hot opponent. We have moved on but have not forgotten.

Never wilted, never gave up, never made excuses, just owned it They lost and they would never forget. They would dedicate every minute of this season to rectify what happened.

And did they ever.

Tony Bennett’s defense. The explosiveness of DeAndre Hunter, the shooting of Ty Jerome, and the spit and shots made by Kevin Guy. It made it all possible on a Monday night in Minneapolis.

Texas Tech was trying to do something that had not been done in the Lone Star State since the 1960s, have a team from that state win the tourney. That was really a long time ago, back in the day, the Texas Western historical win, led by Don Haskins, and 5-black starters, something that had never been done before. Lots of basketball historians respect and do remember “Glory Road”.

They got close, but they couldn’t stop U-Va.

11-straight free throws in overtime. Hunter’s huge baskets at the end of regulation and the start of overtime set the stage for the sprint to the table to get the NCAA trophy.

The albatross of last year has been removed. Replaced by Orange & Blue confetti, championship hats with a “V” on it, V for victory, V for Virginia.

And the best yet, virtually all those starters will return next season.

What a comeback, not just against Texas Tech, but against UVa history.

No one could believe it would happen, but the University of Virginia did, and they got it done.

The believe now not just in Charlottesville, but in Richmond and Williamsburg, Lynchburg to Front Royal, Staunton to Lexington, probably everywhere but maybe Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech.

And to quote Jim Nance and his CBS-TV crew, after all the last second heroics, “how good is this” as they headed to overtime.

Yes Virginia, there is a Christmas. The ghosts of Christmas pasts are gone. It came in April, an NCAA basketball title.
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“NCAA Title Game-Who’s Here?”

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No one could have ever imagined this.

Not when we started the season with all the attention on the ‘Blue Bloods’ of college basketball.

You know, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky etc.

We tracked Zion Williams and his Duke Blue Devils all winter long. Wins, the shoe malfunction, the injury, the tearful loss at the end.

John Calipuri ran out of miracles with McDonald’s All Americans, Kentucky not being what Kentucky was the past four years or so.

North Carolina’s Roy Williams program wilted, maybe under the glare of this lifetime academic fraud probe that resulted in a lot of dirt, but no sanctions.

Kansas and Bill Self had injury issues, eligibility issues.

Louisville and Rick Pitino died a terrible death as a team and career stained by the Adidas slush fund scandal.

Michigan State didn’t get there, beaten at its own game, the one Tom Izzo teaches, defense-defense more defense.

So tonight we tip off with two off the radar schools, Virginia-Texas Tech.

You know Virginia, Ralph Sampson, Thomas Jefferson and all. You know Texas Tech, where Bobby Knight finished up his screaming-stained career.

This will be a very different game tonight. They will scrap, they will beat on each other, they will foul each other, they will wear each other out.

Another way of saying this…they play defense to the hilt, every trip, every possession is like life and death. Every basket becomes a gift after they force you to use all your energy, either getting that shot, and stopping that shot.

It’s just relentless. No french pastry tonight. No showboating. No speed-skill. Just grit-grime-determination, and defense.

There’s nothing sexy about the Cavaliers nor the Red Raiders. It’s clamp down, in your face, body banging, body draining defense. No room to run plays. No room to breathe, it’s so physical.

You’d think someone could figure out what Chris Beard and Texas Tech do on defense, but you just cannot sustain that type of pressure on your guards all night long. Struggle to survive because they are so relentless.

You’d think Virginia would be exhausted from their roller coaster ride of a win over Auburn in the Saturday night grind-it-out affair. Not so, that’s who they are, and you better be ready to deal with 40-minutes of it. It’s a different type of 40-minutes of hell Nolan Richardson-Arkansas used to sell.

Not to say there won’t be some great matchups. The two potential NBA draft picks, Jarrett Culver-DeAndre Hunter, will put on a show on Monday night.

But there is just too much ‘ice water’ in the veins of Kyle Guy and Tyler Jerome of Virginia. Regardless of how you defend them, they get open, get their shots. Drive to the hoop in traffic, step back threes, and explosive jumps out of the corner for stab-you-in the heart baskets.

It mighty wind up 45-42 and who could ever think that possible in this day of sky jumping athletes playing above the rim.

This is not your typical NCAA championship game. Not so much style, but a lot of basketball substance. The blue-bloods of basketball are all at home watching with black eyes, the defense was so red-blooded tough.

Virginia to win over Texas Tech.

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“March Madness-April Ending”

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This will be a very different weekend from what we have seen in years gone by.

This NCAA Final 4-War will be all about coaches, game plans, defense, veteran players and grit.

We won’t be talking about ‘1-and-Done’…shoe companies…or slush-fund-academic scandals.

In a most unlikely month of March, we didn’t have that many Cindarellas. We hardly has any upsets.

We did have 3-of the #1-seeds in the 4-regions sent home.

No Duke. No Coach K. No Zion Williamson. No how many of his kids are filing for the draft. They can watch at home with John Calipuri, Roy Williams, Bill Self and a host of others.

Come Saturday, this will be about Xs and Os…matchups…defenses…3-point shooters and old school basketball.

Virginia plays Auburn in what will be a test of style. UVA just grinds you down. Every opponent possession is like life and death, so hard to score against the Cavaliers. Texas Tech wants to dictate tempo, push the ball, shoot lots of threes.

Bruce Pearl and Tony Bennett are at opposite ends of the personality spectrum. Pearl, flamboyant, in his Orange Ties, with guards Bryce Brown and Jared Harper, and a team that hit 318-shots behind the arc. But they force alot of turnovers too, which is why they run so much.

Tony Bennett demands you play tough at one of the floor, and you play disciplined once you have the ball, yet he’s got shooters in Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome and DJ Harper. You can’t win if you can’t score and the Cavs hold people to 41% shooting in the tourney. And Bennett has had 6-days to prepare for this.

Auburn is no fluke. You don’t get here if you don’t beat Kansas-North Carolina and then Kentucky. They earned this.

Michigan State-Texas Tech is a test of wills. Both teams will beat you up with an in your face defense. These two teams will bang bodies in an endurance test. Somebody might not score 50-in this semifinal game.

Tom Izzo is on a mission, to win his 2nd NCAA title, though he has been part of Final 4-weekends forever coming out of East Lansing.

Chris Beard is now a known commodity for how rugged his defenders are inside and out are with the Red Raiders.

The Spartans can be dynamic with freshman Aaron Harper and his big game ability and with a pretty good inside contingent of Xavier Tillman and Nick Ward.

The Red Raiders go as Jarrett Culver and Cassius Winter go, and they will go get it done inside. Somebody will pound it into the paint, and bet someone gets punched in the paint.

Tech won 3-blowout games, then choked away Gonzaga’s offense in a stunning display of mean street basketball in the tourney..

The Spartans have reeled off a (14-1) spurt including sending Duke home early.

Who wins. I pick Virginia’s style to take out Auburn’s sizzle. I think Izzo’s lifetime of experience is huge against the upstart Beard.

Come Monday night, Thomas Jefferson would be proud. Picking UVA to win over Michigan State in a street fight.

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“Opinions-Here & There on Manny-Ball”

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Thoughts about some of the storylines I am looking at.

MANNY MACHADO….’Reputation precedes you”. Big uproar nationwide about what happened in the Tuesday night incident with Arizona C-John Paul Ryan.

The home plate umpire called him out for interfering with the catcher on a short pop foul ball that drifted down the first base line.

It appears Machado-Murphy may have clicked feet coming out of the batters box. Both were spinning, looking up at the ball. The foot contact seemed incidental to me, but because Machado was out of the batters box, his momentum caused that, there seemed to be the slightest contact.

Murphy didn’t stumble, in fact he took 5-steps down the line tracking the fly ball as both he and Machado looked into the sky.

What happened next was the bigger issue.

Mach ado threw his bat down the first base line and he started to jog to the base. He threw it parallel to the path Murphy was running, and if the wind had blown the ball a bit further, the catcher would have stepped on the bat.

All types of questions now swirl I want you to consider.

The foot contact seemed accidental?.

The bat toss to me seemed intentional didn’t it?

Explain to me why Machado just stood there looking up at the pop up, which started in fair ground, why was he not running it out?

Did the umpire make a mistake prejudging Machado for interference, because the whole world knows his 2-intentional incidents on the base paths in last year’s World Series?

Is Machado wrong for uttering a statement in the clubhouse, ‘it’s just baseball’…the same cop out excuse he used last year after the ugly playoff incidents?

Is he aware he might not be given the ‘benefit of the doubt’ going forward in any type of incidents?

Is he putting himself at risk by this type of style of play, remembering that legendary P-Pedro Martinez had a reputation for dirty play for throwing at hitters regardless of the situation?

Words like cheap stunt…bush league…dirty player…resurfaced almost immediately.

Machado. Great talent-no doubt…tainted personality-maybe?

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You’re a baseball fan, you tell me what you think. Email me thru my website.