This article has been submitted by Ian Cass.
Both my second year of university and the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are now in the books. Even though I can’t say the same for my exams, I can’t complain at all about the action we saw in round one. There were nine overtime games, three game sevens, and the Sens got a good old-fashioned ass whooping. There were some great performances and some unlikely heroes, and also some disappointments. To recap the first round, I have put together a list of the “Top 10 Ups” and the “Top 10 Downs” from round one.
More after the jump!
This article has been submitted by Stu Wilkinson.
A lot of people talk about how brutal LeBron’s supporting cast is. For the most part, they wouldn’t be wrong. Let’s check out the three highest paid players on Cleveland this year: Ben Wallace, James, and Wally World Szczerbiak (you can officially forget that he was an All-Star in the 2001-02 season). Not exactly your prototypical group of “triplets.” However, there is one giant of a man on the Cavs that is a valuable piece of what will almost definitely be a puzzle that gets back to the NBA Finals. You guessed it, this man is the often-overlooked Zydrunas Ilgauskas. They call him Big Z, and if he lived in a child’s bedroom he would cause six nightmares per night, compared to only three for Sam Cassell and eighteen for Alex Ovechkin (or the guy from “Jaws” and “Happy Gilmore”).
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This article has been submitted by Alex Jackson.
There’s a lot more to blogging than just mad bling, off-the-hook parties, 18-inch rims and doing lines off of strippers. No, blogging is a hard-knock-life; despite what Blake might have told you, blogging is not glamorous. Honestly, it’s hard. Not everyone is cut out to do it.
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This article has been submitted by Alex Jackson.
I will keep this nice and short. The other day I got an email from an organization affiliated with the Phoenix Suns, Downtown Live. As a “favored member,” this organization alerts me about Suns ticket deals, wishes me happy birthday, gives me access to playoff presales and other perks that I would be all over if, A) I lived in Phoenix and B) I had a job. I’ve been a member for about 10 years now, as I like keeping my pulse on what’s happening in Maricopa County.
The other day, an email from Downtown Live appeared in my inbox. The subject line? “Hey Alex, Wanna Win a Championship Ring?”
With the NBA playoffs on the horizon, I assumed it was a rallying cry for Suns fans, something to get us pumped up. Yes! I want the Suns to win the ‘ship! Damn straight!
I open it up, what do I see?
BLING! BLING! WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP RING!
Yes, the Phoenix Mercury are giving away a WNBA Championship Ring at their home opener. I’m not a great evaluator of “success,” but too me, this seems like an act of desperation. Just thought I’d share…
This article has been submitted by Alex Jackson.
This is going to be a quick one because I moved home from Kingston yesterday and really haven’t gotten settled in or anything yet. Thus, I’m on a junk computer for the time being. Additionally, I’m still unpacking and exhausted from alcohol, and I’m a little too excited for the Raptors game tonight to think about anything else.
Now, that’s a whole lot of excuses for something that’s really not a big deal, so I’ll get into it shortly, but I wanted to make everyone aware: The Raptors can still win this series. Sure, 3-1 is a big hole and at times they’ve looked awful, but I still contend that when the right lineup is on the floor, the Raps are a better team than the Magic. We’ll see tonight, I guess. Speaking of the right lineup…
Big kudos to John Gibbons for being willing to shake the order up. This is actually a benefit of losing Frank Thomas, who can only hit 4th or 5th, because now everyone in our top-7 has the flexibility to hit just about anywhere in the order. I’ve been upset with Gibbons in the past for too many small lineup tweaks (and this is still the case, to a degree), but a wholesale change to try and shake the offense out of a slump is commendable. It worked out, too. More on that in a second.
More after the jump!
This articled has been submitted by the debuting Mostafa “Mo Cash” El Beheiry.
It’s been awhile since the ODC was graced with an update on Europe’s premier club competition, the UEFA Champions League, which is now in its semi-final stages. Four teams have emerged from the last two knockout rounds, some gracefully and some with a bit of luck as they try to prove their claim as Europe’s best soccer club. In the quarter-finals, the English Premier League’s Liverpool FC dispatched league rival Arsenal FC (with a little help from the officials) and meet fellow English club Chelsea FC in the semis, who shakily eliminated Turkish underdogs Fenerbaçhe SK. England has one more semi-final representative in Manchester United who breezed past Italy’s injury plagued AS Roma and go on to face the Catalan giants of FC Barcelona, who were shown too much respect from zee Germans, FC Schalke 04 (founded in 1904 by German school boyz). The first legs of these semi-final matches were played out earlier this week, and here’s what happened.
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This article has been submitted by Chris Pope.
The NHL changed the rules in their game to create more scoring in hope that fans would start watching more hockey. I, for one, love a 7-6 game as much as I love a 1-0 game, with the exception of one thing. Dirty cellys. I’m not talking about the basic hands in the air screaming, I’m talking the celebrations where there is some thought put into it. Alex Ovechkin is a prime example of someone in the league who absolutely loves to score and shows it in his celebrations.
I know Don Cherry doesn’t like when players showboat after they sniped a rocket, bar and in, but I do. I would love to see the same enthusiasm put into celebrations for open net goals that go into celebrations for game winning goals. I would also like to see more controversial celebrations because everyone seems to be doing the fist pump and jumping into the glass. So here are the top-5 forgotten about celebrations that we as hockey fans should be seeing every night in the NHL.
More after the jump!
This article has been submitted by Ian Cass.
