Make of it what you will. This week was a mixed bag. Some exciting things going on in the NHL. The first round in the NBA not as exciting. They are playoffs though. MLB stats and injuries. That seems to be all their is. Really I know there is much more. History made in the first round of the NHL playoffs. That is exactly what the NHL needs at this point. The first round of the NBA has the opposite problem. Not much going on there. Not sure what that means or if it matters. All that and more in The Week That Was.
NFL – Lies and the truth
Not a whole lot of truth going on in the NFL at this point. It is all about keeping the other guy from knowing what you are going to do. I get it. For the most part it is pretty entertaining. It does get a bit tiresome. Of course the networks may be asking the teams to be a bit cryptic as well. They do after all have a show to put on and will need some ratings. For the first time the draft is going to be on ABC. Robin Roberts is going to be the host. Roberts is great as one of the host of GMA. Not sure how good she is going to be on the draft coverage. This will give us three main avenues to watch the draft. Four if you count the full radio coverage. Ok this is looking forward rather than back. Really there was not a whole lot going on last week. The week before the draft is pretty light on NFL news. There are only so many mock drafts you can do before they just get completely ridiculous. I am not opposed to them but at times they are just like they were throwing dart at a cork board with the names on it.
Some of the ones with the trades are really over the top. Sure it is fun but really there is no way that you can predict those. If you do get it right it is pure luck and has nothing to do with the “skill” you have doing mock drafts. Here is what I am pretty sure of. Quinnen Williams, Nick Bosa, Josh Allen, Devin White and Kyler Murray will be taken in the top ten. This is hardly going out on a limb here. I would probably be safe to throw Dwayne Haskins in the mix as well. We talked about the projected drop of Haskins in the draft. He may drop a bit but we are not talking about an Aaron Rodgers or Brady Quinn type of drop here. If Haskins drops it will probably be to 12 at the lowest. Just the way I see it. Thursday we will find out.
MLB – Strange Stats
Make of it what you will. The Seattle Mariners joined the MLB in 1977. That would be 6 year before I graduated from High School. Disco was king. The hair bands of the 80’s were still a ways away. Seattle still had the Sonics and the Frasier TV show was year away. It would also be 42 years before the Cleveland Indians would beat the Seattle Mariners 1 – 0 in a game being played in Seattle. Yes you read that right. How crazy is that. 42 years of the Indians playing the Mariners in Seattle and until this year the Indians had never won a game there 1 – 0. I don’t know how many games that covers. I don’t know if a game had ended the other way with the Mariners winning 1 – 0. Are stats like this interesting? I really can’t answer that question. Maybe they are to the die hard baseball fan. I have to believe that a large number of fans would ask the question. Why are you telling me that? I would answer that with – well Billy the game was really boring so we had to come up with something.
Baseball is a stats filled game. i get that. It is one of the few games if not the only one where it is easy for the fans to score the game as it is going on. It can be fun and make it more interesting. Stats like that just make me go Huh? Since it has happened now. The next time it happens it will be on a different day of the week. The interesting fact will be. That is the first time since the Indians have been playing the Mariners that the Indians won the game 1 – 0 on a Tuesday. Hey I can make fun of baseball all I want but the truth is they make a ton of money. In 2010 the poverty line was just under $27,000 for a family of five. So in one at bat Jeter was above the poverty line. Pretty good work if you can get it.
NHL – Upsets all around
The NHL has been a slew up upsets in the Playoffs. Make of it what you will but it has really made for an exciting start to the post season. The Columbus Blue Jackets took out the Presidents cup winner in the Tampa Bay Lightning. Right after that the Colorado Avalanche took out the Calgary Flames who were the top seed in the west. This is the first time in the Post expansion NHL that both one seeds were knocked out in the first round. Not only were they knocked out but between the two one seeds they only managed to win one game. That is a pretty amazing stat. See we can do crazy stats with the NHL too.
Will the long lay off for the Avalanche and the Blue Jackets help them or hurt them? That is a good question. No way to predict what will happen there. I see both sides of it. Get some rest for players with nagging injuries. That could help. On the other hand there is a lot to be said for momentum. Both teams were on quite the roll. Now they have to wait around to find out who they are going to play and where. Since we know the series won’t start in the home arena of the Jackets or the Avalanche since they were both the eighth seed in their conference. Wow the word eighth is really strange to write out and no matter how many times you look it up. It looks like you have it spelled wrong.
It would be really interesting if the Avalanche and the Blue Jackets made it to the Stanley Cup Final. The NHL is the one league that I could see that happening.
After the Lightning got eliminated in four games. The news for them kept coming. Right after they were booted from the playoffs it was announced that the GM that built their team was leaving. Steve Yzerman was announced at the new GM for the Red Wings. Even though this had been expected for quite some time. I am sure it still stung a bit when the Tampa fans realized the rumors were true and their GM was going home to Detroit where he won three cups. He is the second all time leading scorer for the Wings. He also was the longest tenured captain for the Wings in NHL history. So really not an unexpected announcement.
NBA All Chalk in the first round
The only close series in the first round is the Spurs and the Nuggets. They are tied at 2 – 2. All the other ones are either a sweep or the higher seed has only lost one game. This is hardly a surprise. The suspense in the first round of the NBA playoffs is nothing like the suspense in the NHL Playoffs or the excitement in the NCAA tournament. That is fine. Things will start to get interesting in the second round. It kind of makes you think that maybe too many teams make the playoffs in the NBA. Even though the number is the same as the NHL we just don’t see the same amount of competition. In the long run I really don’t care. I like this number of teams making the playoffs. In the NBA and the NHL 16 team fields just make sense. So its all good. Not too much else to talk about here till we get to the second round.
On the TV the Tube Not You
Other than live sports. There is not much that I watch on ESPN anymore. The cancelled most of the shows that I enjoyed. I can’t handle the Morning Mike Greenberg show. I thought that Mike and Mike which it now Golic and Wingo would be better after Geenberg left. It is not. They turned Wingo into a dumber version of Greenberg. Which is pretty difficult to do. In my area since the other sports talk radio changed its format. I have no other choice now in the morning so I end up listening to it. Not really by choice. The Sports Reporters got cancelled. The Sunday edition of Outside the Lines was taken off. It was replaced by E:60. Which I was not sure I was going to like. It did have a rough start and the do a lot of repeats. But the stories have been getting much better. So this is the last show on ESPN that I choose to watch. This past Sunday they has a story about Tony Mandarich. If you don’t know who he is go read a bit about him. If you do know who he is. Go read some more about him. Then look up the E:60 episode about him. He is known as one of the biggest busts in the NFL. While that may be true for the team that drafted him the Green Bay Packers. It is not true for his life. How he was able to turn his life around is nothing short of amazing.
You can read last weeks post here
I am looking for people that are interested in writing posts on biglakesports.net If you are interested you can send me an email at jbigalke at biglakespots.net and we can go over what I am looking for and see if you are a fit. There would be no pay at this time but you would be able to put your writing out there and could post it on other sites if you wanted to.
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