2012 NHL Playoffs: Unpatriotic Report And Final Thoughts

(Photo via nhl.com)

I read this week that Bell and Rogers are gunning for the "Hockey Night In Canada" rights, which are up for renewal in 2014. So after 60 years of broadcasting into Canadian homes, there's a chance that the CBC will lose the televised Saturday night tradition. Surprisingly, I'm not upset about this. Not even close. Ask the "10 years younger" version of Paqman and that dude would be raging. "Tradition! Legendary! Institution!" is what he would've said (note to younger Paqman: Chill out homeboy!). All I see today is a sub par product that needs a make over and new talent (I'm talking to you Cole...we cool MacLean. We cool.) I prefer the TSN team right now, and NBC for the Cup Final.

2012 NHL Playoffs: In Which We Analyze The Finals Potential Of The Frozen Four

(Photo via bloguin.com/puckdrunklove)

If you picked the four teams poised to battle it out in this year's edition of the NHL Stanley Cup Conference Finals, you're a better man than me. Not even the pundiest of hockey pundits got this one right. It's been an awesomely odd playoff thus far that gave us several great moments: Giroux's 6 point game, top seeds and perennial contenders dropping like flies, and goaltending dominance by the expected and unexpected. With 2 rounds in the books, we move to the Cup Semis where childhood dreams will be made, or will bust like Fabian Brunnstrom.

Before I jump into this, I need to talk pools. I'm happy to say that thanks to fantastic seasons by Malkin, Giroux, and Spezza, I won my office pool. Brimming with confidence, I jumped into 2 playoff pools: one box and the other draft. My draft pool is already toast. I now have 0 players remaining after Nashville got turfed. My box pool? D.O.A. (calling my box team "Alexandre Daigle" didn't bring the mojo I was looking for!). My strategy for both teams was based on a tried and tested method: I predicted the final four and loaded up my team from those rosters. The teams in question were: Nashville and Vancouver in the West, Pittsburgh and Boston in the East. 3 of those were eliminated in the 1st round, 1 in the 2nd. Moral of this tragic pool story: anything can happen in the Playoffs, but go with your gut. Additionally, watch way more hockey next season.

Moving on to the analysis of the Frozen Four..

Wherein The Ottawa Senators Can't Buy A Goal

Sad Michalek (Photo via sbnation.com)

Silver Seven, hands down my fave Senators blog, beat me to the punch on this one. Alfreddson and Co. cannot score a goal to save their contracts. It's downright shitty timing for a drought with the NHL playoffs around the corner. Ottawa has scored 5 goals in their last 4 games. That's 0.8 goals per game. And that is just not enough. Teams go in and out of these funks throughout a season. I get it. But now is not the time to start falling apart. I've watched these games over the past week and one theme keeps coming up: puck support. As in there isn't any. How do you expect a defensman to pass the puck from his defensive end to his forwards when they are all floating around the offensive blue line? Why are you expecting a pass when your ass is in neutral? Why are you consistently dumping the puck without burning steel to grab it? MacLean stated that he wants the Sens to be a puck possession team, but it looks like they are a puck regression team of late. Instead of pushing the play, they are giving it away. These are terrible habits to get into with the second season on the doorstep.

"Tebowmania" Running Wild as NFL Playoff Action Heats Up

image via bleacherreport.com

The 2011 NFL Playoffs kicked off with its Wild Card matchups in both NFC and AFC conferences last weekend.

Saturday's action included victories by the Houston Texans, who captured their franchise's first ever playoff victory by beating the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10; and the New Orleans Saints took out the Detroit Lions 45-28.

Sunday's early game saw the New York Giants beat down the Atlanta Falcons 24-2 to advance to the divisional semi-final against the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers.

But so far, the real thriller of the tournament was Sunday's other AFC Wild Card game, which saw QB Tim Tebow and the surprising Denver Broncos shock the perrenial powerhouse Pittsburgh Steelers in a thrilling 29-23 overtime victory.