Posts Tagged ‘NHL’

June 23, 2010: What a Day in Sports

June 24th, 2010 BroadStreetHero

Today was an unforgettable day in the world of sports.  Let’s recap the day by looking at the highlights from sports all across the world:

Wimbledon

To start the day (and to end it), John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played 10 hours of tennis at Wimbledon, making it the longest match in history.  Tied at 59 games in the 5th set, play was suspended due to darkness and will resume for the 3rd day tomorrow.  It is by far the longest game ever played in tennis history and it isn’t even over yet.  The last match that I remember being that long and on such a grand stage was last year’s final match between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick at Wimbledon that went to 30 total games in the 5th set at Wimbledon before Federer broke Roddick.  The 5th set of this match, at over 7 hours long, is probably one of the most stunning events in sports history and it is amazing that we can watch it resume tomorrow.

Update: American John Isner finally won the match today with a 5th set score of 70-68.  The match totalled 183 games, far and away the record.

The World Cup

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks you know that the FIFA World Cup is going on in South Africa, and that team USA had high hopes of competing against the world’s best.  At 10am today USA played their third and final match in their group against bottom dweller Algeria.  If they win, they go on to the Round of 16.  Lose and the are out.  Tie and they need some help to get in.  Well, late in the 2nd half England had pulled off their victory and were moving on, so behind by two points,the USA had to win to advance.  Still tied after 90 minutes the refs gave the game 4 minutes of stoppage time.  One minute was all the USA needed.  Landon Donovan followed up the play on a great run and put a wonderful strike into the back of the net, sending the USA into the next round and allowing them to win their group for the first time since 1930.  Donovan’s goal was probably the most important goal in USA Soccer history and could inspire a new generation of soccer players in the United States.

NHL Free Agency

In a (not so) surprising move, the Chicago Blackhawks relieved some of their cap problems by trading Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, and Brent Sopel to the Atlanta Thrashers for a 1st and 2nd round pick, Marty Reasoner, and a prospect.  This shakeup really shows how dire the Blackhawks’ cap situation really is and makes us question their longevity as a team, something that bodes well for the Flyers.  Even though the Thrashers gave up some good picks in the trade, I think that it was a good move for them.  Having seen what Byfuglien can do first hand, I know they got someone who will irritate the other team and be a force in front of the net, and I really can’t stand the fact that I will have to see him twice this season.  Ben Eager is another tough guy who can help a young team with no real leaders and Brent Sopel gives them a veteran on defense.  Overall, this NHL offseason is getting off to an interesting start, and hopefully the Flyers will make another big splash soon.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Henrik Sedin for winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP.  The Sedin’s haven’t gotten the credit they deserve from the mainstream media (probably because they aren’t Crosby and Ovechkin), and hopefully this is the start of their emergence as faces of the league.  Congrats to Ryan Miller as well for winning the Vezina as the league’s best goaltender, to Duncan Keith for winning the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman, and Tyler Myers for winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Around Major League Baseball

Stephen Strasburg continues to show why he signed a record contract as the 1st overall pick last season.  The man is a machine.  Tonight he received his first loss, by a score of 1-0.  Strasburg pitched 6 innings and had 9 more strikeouts, bringing his season total to 41 strikeouts in 25.1 innings.  The rookie continues to break records and is even being considered for a spot on the All Star Game in a few weeks.  If he makes two more starts and gets to 60 strikeouts before the break he has my vote.

Josh Hamilton and the Rangers have also been red hot.  The Rangers have won 10 straight games and are well atop the AL West.  Hamilton has been a man on a mission.  In the month of June the Rangers are 17-4 and Josh is batting .476 with 8 HR and 26 RBI.  Thankfully we don’t play them in interleague play, that’s all I’m saying.

Phillies Baseball

Tonight I was fortunate enough to score some tickets to the Phillies vs. Indians game so I got to see them play first-hand for the first time since Roy Halladay got hit around by the Red Sox.  Well, from a pitching perspective, Kyle Kendrick didn’t have it tonight.  He looked very nervous out there, possibly because he saw J.A. Happ making another rehab start and saw his job on the line.  In the first inning Kendrick allowed a leadoff double and then tossed up a meatball to Shin-Soo Choo who crushed a homer to the upper deck in right field.  Their second time around was like deja vu, with another double by Trevor Crowe and another home run by Choo.  After that, Kendrick’s night was done.  The bullpen actually performed well.  Mike Zagurski, who was recently called up from the minors, did a great job coming out of the pen, getting 5 outs with what looked like zero effort.

The Phillies offense wasn’t too shabby either.  Jimmy Rollins, who was only playing in his 2nd game since being back, didn’t look too sharp during the game, but let’s just say he turned it around later.  Jayson Werth hit another opposite/center field home run and Raul Ibanez had a 2 RBI double to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead.  Brian got off the Schneider (I had to use that sorry) by hitting a homer to right to tie the game at 5.  One person who really hit the ball well tonight was Chase Utley, but that won’t show up on the scorecard.  He ripped two balls foul that were no-doubt-about-it home runs and hit another one to the warning track that needed a great catch to avoid an extra base hit.  All in all, Chase was on top of the ball tonight and I really think he has gotten the confidence to break out of his slump.

Back to Jimmy Rollins.  After the Phillies allowed the Indians to take a 6-5 lead (possibly due to some poor managing by Charlie Manuel who should’ve walked Carlos Santana to load the bases and create force outs at each base with 1 out instead of pitching to him), they were down their last chance, the bottom of the 9th.  Jimmy Rollins, who was 0-4 with two miserable looking strikeouts came to the plate.  Watching him in the batter’s box brought back memories of Game 4 against the Dodgers in the NLCS when Jimmy hit a double in the gap to fuel the Phillies’ comeback.  Me, my brother, and my neighbor were discussing that at bat and getting pumped up, hoping Jimmy could provide some more magic tonight, down one run with a man on.  Just then, Jimmy took a Kerry Wood fastball and deposited into the right field seats at Citizen’s Bank Park, hitting his FIRST ever walk off home run and giving the Phillies the 7-6 victory they really needed!  While giving his post-game interview, Shane Victorino emerged from the dugout and gave Rollins his shaving cream pie to the face, showing us that this team still has the confidence and swagger that we’ve seen for the past few seasons.  At 37-32 the Phillies still have a lot of work to do, but the season isn’t even half over yet and we are only 4 games out.  Let’s go Phils!

Posted in Phillies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3,202 Comments »

Flyers Bolster Defense by Trading for Hamhuis

June 20th, 2010 BroadStreetHero

On Saturday the Flyers announced their plan for the offseason: build a stronger team that has the ability to contend for the Cup yet again through free agency.  With no picks in next week’s NHL Draft until the 3rd round the Flyers knew that free agency was going to be key to their success next season.

After the playoffs it was apparent that there were three holes on this team.  First and foremost, the Flyers need a solid goaltender that can be a #1.  Next, they need to develop James van Reimsdyk and/or bring in another forward who has some scoring potential and who can float between the top three lines.  Finally, after relying on the “Core Four” for the playoffs, the Flyers realized that they need another top defenseman.

Well, we can cross one of the three needs off the list.  The Flyers traded the injury-plagued Ryan Parent for the rights to 6-year veteran Dan Hamhuis.  For the past six seasons, Hamhuis has been the most reliable and consistent defenseman on a Nashville Predators team that has been good, but not good enough in a very skilled Western Conference.  At 27 years old, Hamhuis is set to enter his prime, and is ready to win.  This season the Predators got ousted from the playoffs by the Blackhawks in six games, so he should fit in with this hockey club perfectly.

Hamhuis, who has played 483 out of a possible 492 games in his career, brings more consistency to the Flyers blueline that, though great, definitely felt the strain of a long season.  His 22+ minutes of ice time per game should also help save the legs of Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen, who aren’t getting any younger.

As a Flyers fan the addition of a strong defenseman like Hamhuis has to make you ecstatic for next season.  When they sign Hamhuis the Flyers will have three dangerously good defensive pairings.  The young and ever improving Matt Carle learned a lot from Chris Pronger this season, and the two of them should continue to put a pounding on top lines across the league.  Braydon Coburn, who had a very inconsistent season riddled with mistakes, seemed to have reverted back to his 2008 self when playing with the smart, tactful Kimmo Timonen throughout the playoffs.

Whether these pairings are broken up or not remains a mystery, but the addition of Hamhuis gives the Flyers the flexibility and experience to put any of their defensive lines on the ice against any player in this league.  The young Oskars Bartulis definitely benefitted from all of his play this season, whether it was in the Olympics with his native Latvia or during his play throughout the season and playoffs, so even pairing Dan with Oskars could produce high quality results.

The fact is, the Flyers now have, arguably, the best defense in the NHL due to this acquisition.  Not only does Hamhuis add a strong defensive presence, he was Nashville’s top penalty killer and he even contributed on the scoreboard every now and again.  Now the just need to sign him to a deal.  After swapping rights with the Predators the Flyers now have until July 1st to sign Hamhuis to a contract before he becomes a free agent.  I’m very confident that the Flyers will be able to do this because for once they actually have room under the cap, and since we just made a run to the Finals I’m sure Hamhuis would be pretty happy to play in Philadelphia.

So, for now, the Flyers have solved question #1 on their three part quiz for the summer.  With Jaroslav Halak being traded to the Blues there are less quality goalies on the market, but let’s hope that the Flyers can make a few more big splashes in this already interesting offseason.

Posted in Flyers Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 4,666 Comments »

Dear NHL: Get Your Priorities Straight!

August 5th, 2009 BroadStreetHero
Bettman demonstrating the gap between the NHL and other professional sports leagues

Bettman demonstrating the gap between the NHL and other professional sports leagues

Over the last week I have been grimacing in pain due to getting my wisdom teeth pulled.  It has given me time to sit around, watch television, and live on yogurt, soup, and pudding.  As I’ve waited for the pain to subside I was lucky enough to observe the idiocy that is the NHL front office.  For a league that is struggling to maintain it’s place in the popular sports hierarchy, it doesn’t look like they realize that there is a huge public image problem.

This has been escalated even more by the recent news stating that the NHL is looking into contracts signed by star free agents.  Evidently, they are concerned that teams are front-loading the contracts so the player gets paid the bulk of the money in the earlier years of the deal, providing the team with less of a salary cap hit in the later years of the deal.  For example, defensemen Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers just inked a 7 year deal worth $33.5 million, $28 million of which will be paid in the first 4 years of the contract.  The fishy part about the contract is that Pronger is now 34 years old and will be 35 when the season starts, so the odds of him playing until he is 42 years old is very slim, although NHL defensemen do enjoy long careers.

The problem with the entire contract situation is this:  the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) was designed so that teams would have to abide by a set salary cap.  By front-loading the money in contracts, teams look like they are trying to circumvent the cap hit that would occur should a player retire before playing out his deal, which would mean that a team signed a player and discussed his retirement, something that is forbidden.

The NHL shouldn’t be overly concerned with this issue, and that is why I’m writing a letter to Gary Bettman, the Commissioner of the NHL, telling him exactly what he should do to bring the league back to prominence:


Dear Commissioner Bettman,

Why are you concerning yourself with the ethics behind contracts being signed by your star athletes when there are more pressing matters at hand?  Do you want to see your league take a step back to what it was like during the 2004-05 NHL Lockout?  I sure as hell don’t.  What you need to be focusing on is the promotion and image of the league.  The one good thing that you have going for you: the attendance numbers are extraordinary!  Total attendance throughout all thirty teams totaled 21,495,541 fans, with only the Atlanta Thrashers filling less than 80% of their seats.

Both of these numbers are better than the NBA, which plays the same number of games in front of comparable crowds.  The NBA had 21,398,899 fans come to their games, but seven franchises failed to reach 80% average attendance, with the Memphis Grizzlies bringing up the rear at 70.3%.

To compare the two leagues, in Philadelphia, a strong sports market, you had the Flyers average 19,545 (100.2%) in attendance at the Wachovia Center versus the NBA’s 76ers who averaged 15,802 (79.7%) in the same arena!  The amazing thing is, both teams made the playoffs in 2008-09, but the disparity in attendance heavily favored the NHL team.

So Gary, now that you have brought back the original fan base to the NHL, it is now time to expand the league’s horizons and grab sports fans and casual viewers alike.  How should you do this?  First, focus on obtaining media contracts!  The NHL may as well be in the Stone Age compared to the rest of the major professional sports leagues.  While the NFL has $3+ BILLION in television contracts with CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, ESPN, and NFL Network, the NHL has a measly $70 million per year contract with Versus along with a two year contract to broadcast about 10 games on NBC a year (including the Winter Classic through 2011).

Here is a list of things to do to promote the NHL:

  • Get a deal done with ESPN to broadcast games.  Some of my best memories from when I was younger was watching Gary Thorne do a game on ESPN, then keeping the TV on to watch NHL 2 Night.  ESPN does a great job of promoting the content shown on their station, and with the amount of viewership they get, it will be worth it, this I guarantee.
  • Recognize that you have a great thing going with the NHL Winter Classic.  The event has rejuvenated hockey and is something that the media can jump on board with.  One idea that has been floating around is a possible matchup between rivals Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the middle of the Keystone State at Beaver Stadium at Penn State.  I suggest working as hard as you can to get the Penn State Athletic Department to agree to let you have a Winter Classic there.  The 2009 Winter Classic was the most viewed game in 34 years.  Image the viewership and attendance numbers if the reigning Stanley Cup champion Penguins faced off against the division rival Flyers in a packed stadium of 107,282+ people!  Not only are you competing with College Football Bowl Games on New Year’s Day, but you will have the biggest College Football stadium to host a game in!
  • Promote your star players more effectively.  Other leagues do this very well through community service programs which they advertise during games on television.  For example, the NFL is teamed up with the United Way, the MLB has the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and the NBA has their own NBA Cares program.  What does the NHL have?  Show some of the league’s top stars interacting with people in their communities in a likeable and humorous way.  That should spark more interest in the teams and players around the league.
  • We all know who Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are, but instead of jamming more of them down our throats, why don’t you do something to promote the other stars in the league.  I am a Flyers season ticket holder and know of the accomplishments of Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Simon Gagne, but other hockey fans might not.  Most likely, if fans can’t reach the players on a personal level, then they won’t be as likely to keep watching.  Get the best players in the league in the spotlight and keep them there!  The NHL All Star Game was great this year at doing this, the problem is that not many people saw it.
  • As a fan of all sports, I can probably name the top stars in each league, but none more so than the NFL.  I could probably name the starting QB, RB, and WR as well as top defensive personnel and head coaches for each team.  For the NHL, I could only do this with about half of the league, and I probably only know about 5-10 coaches in the league.  This shows the pathetic job that you are doing in promoting your own people.  When avid hockey fans don’t know the teams around the league then you have to work at getting more people to watch more games.  By changing up the schedule to make it easier for people to watch more games, or by broadcasting more games nationally you have a much better chance at success.

There are a lot of problems with the NHL, but things have gotten much better since the Lockout.  Attendance numbers are great, but what you need to do now is promote the league and it’s image.  The NHL has some of the most talented athletes in the world right now and is dominated by young, exciting stars.  People should know about them!  If you do your job and actively promote the league, no matter how much it costs the league and the owners, you will make the NHL a premier league once again.

Sincerely,

A Hockey Fan Who Cares

Posted in Flyers Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 5,832 Comments »

The Beard: A Sports Phenomenon

July 25th, 2009 BroadStreetHero
Canadians teach the Art of the Beard

Canadians teach the Art of the Beard

What is a beard?  Some might say it’s just facial hair.  Some argue that it symbolizes laziness or lack or direction.  Others just argue that it is annoying and “gets in the way”.  These people, my friends, don’t understand the true meaning of the beard.  Since the dawn of time, men have been growing beards.  From Moses, to Jesus, it seems that the most prolific people to ever walk the earth sported graceful, majestic, scruffy, beards.

In sports, the beard has taken on a meaning unto itself.  Back in the early days of baseball nearly every player wore facial hair.  The earliest proponent of facial hair that sticks out in my mind is Cap Anson, who compiled over 3000 hits in his major league baseball career, all while wearing a very dignified mustache.  On the mound, Rollie Fingers groomed one of the most perfect mustaches ever known to man, and many believe it was one of the main reasons for his success.

Facial hair was prominent throughout the sports world, but the New York Islanders of the early 1980s started a trend that has gone on now for almost 30 years: the Playoff Beard.  The Playoff Beard trend has recently come into popular culture, but most lifelong hockey fans have sworn by it for years now.  The theory goes like this: if your team makes the playoffs, you must not shave until your team wins it all or is bounced from contention.  This past year, the NHL promoted a league-wide Beard-a-Thon, where fans could grow playoff beards for their teams and raise money for charity.

To analyze the playoff beard theory more closely I want to discuss the Stanley Cup Finals.  On one side you had the Detroit Red Wings who sported unbelievable beards.  Unfortunately, they were all topped by Maxim Talbot, Craig Adams, the ageless Bill Guerin, who grew beards majestic that it carried the Penguins to the Cup.  Many people would say Crosby and Malkin were the main catalysts for success, but I beg to differ.  The beards were the difference.

Mike Commodores Beard led the Hurricanes to the Cup in 2006

Mike Commodore's Beard led the Hurricanes to the Cup in 2006

Another Stanley Cup Finals that will forever go down in history is the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Calgary Flames.  I remember the series because I was trying to forget May 22, 2004, when the Lightning ousted the Flyers from the playoffs in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the last game the Flyers would play until after the NHL Lockout.  Anyway, the Flames came in to the series prepared, with possibly the best set of beards ever assembled.  The Flames had many redheads on the team, from Mike Commodore (who’s beard appeared when he was a Hurricane during the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals) to Martin Gelinas, to Mikka Kiprusoff, who has the best beard of any goalie, all time.  In Game 6 of the series with the Flames up 3 games to 2, Martin Gelinas scored what seemed to be the Cup winning goal for the Flames.  The officials reviewed and said that the puck never crossed the goal line.  In my opinion, the puck clearly crossed the line and the Flames should have been 2004 Stanley Cup Champions, thanks in large part to their beards of greatness, but the referees screwed them.

So, what does a beard symbolize?  Beards are a symbol of dedication, toughness, and strength, plus they are downright intimidating if worn by the correct person.  For some reason most professions frown upon the untidy mess of hair that is a beard and instead insist on a clean shave.  This makes no sense.  Some of the best performances of all time have come when people believe in their beards.  The Playoff Beard theory clearly states that if you are on a hot streak you must not do anything to interrupt that streak.  Just look at Eric Gagne during his 84 consecutive saves streak (although HGH may have had something to do with that as well).  Apollo Anton Ohno, the Olympic Gold Medalist in Speed Skating, believed so highly in his soul patch that he wouldn’t dare shave it.  What has it earned him?  5 Olympic medals and 1st place on Dancing with the Stars.  Even Kimbo Slice, a bum who fought on the street, used the beard to his advantage.  Do you think he would’ve made millions of dollars if he looked normal?  That beard of his was so intimidating it forced ESPN to let it grace the cover of their magazine.  The man went from nobody to superstar overnight, and has his beard to thank.  Look at Zach Galifinakas.  Imagine what his image would be like if he shaved his beard.  I bet he doesn’t shave it until he hits a string of 3 or more terrible career moves.

Johnny Damon attends to his beard

Johnny Damon attends to his beard

Take Johnny Damon’s epic 2004 playoff run.  His mane of hair has been enshrined in Cooperstown (as well as the movie Fever Pitch), and most of Red Sox Nation believes that if he had shaved that beard, or if Big Papi changed his facial hair, then the Red Sox would never have broken the Curse of the Bambino.  In 2007, the Red Sox went the opposite route, shaving their heads in the playoffs, and what was the result there?  Another World Series title.  The Tampa Bay Rays, a perennial 100 loss team, sported RayHawks, a form of mohawk, during the 2008 campaign.  It powered them all the way to the World Series, where they eventually lost to my Philadelphia Phillies.

The phenomenon of the beard can apply to other things besides sports.  If you are a salesman and are on a hot streak, don’t shave until you miss a sale.  If your employer tells you to shave, decline.  Tell him or her that you are growing the beard as a commitment to reaching your goals, as well as the goals of the business.  As a fan, I firmly believe in the power of the beard.  Believe me, beards are hard to keep going and take endless commitment.  They are itchy, they get in the way, and they are unpredictable.  I grew my playoff beard for the Phillies last season, and refused to shave it for over a month.  I didn’t even shave until a week after we won the World Series.  During the playoffs I discussed not shaving until after the BCS National Championship because my Penn State Nittany Lions were undefeated at the time.  I decided to shave the playoff beard in the first week of November.  In the second week of November Penn State lost to Iowa, ending the perfect season and a chance to go to the National Championship.  I still feel that I am to blame because I shaved off the beard too soon.

You might be asking, what prompted me to write such a long expose about the art of the beard?  I actually came up the idea while watching Chan Ho Park pitch 3 perfect innings a few nights ago.  His beard is like nothing I have ever seen.  Based on the sheer size of the beard, I estimate that it has been growing since early June.  On June 2nd, Chan Ho Park had a 7.32 ERA with a 1-1 record.  Since then, Chan Ho has been unstoppable.  He is 2-1 in that span with 7 successful holds.  In his last 17 outings, Park has pitched 26.1 innings while allowing only 5 earned runs and racking up 29 strikeouts against 4 walks.  With the bullpen in shambles, it looks like Chan Ho has become the rock that is keeping them steady.

7/31/2009:  To update, after writing this article Chan Ho Park trimmed his beard.  What happened in his next outing?  Well he let up a run of course.  It didn’t cost the Phillies, but it just goes to show how powerful the beard really is.

Posted in Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, The Rest Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5,839 Comments »

The Emery Reign Begins: Biron to Islanders

July 22nd, 2009 BroadStreetHero
Emery and Biron have met before

Emery and Biron have met before

The Martin Biron Era (can you call his time here that?) has come to a close in Philadelphia.  Biron signed a one year deal with the New York Islanders today, joining Rick DiPietro and Dwayne Roloson in the battle for starting goaltender on the NHL’s worst team.  Earlier in free agency Flyers backup goaltender Antero Nittymaki also left the team, opting to play in Tampa Bay next season.

With the departure of these two goalies, the Flyers have put the pressure on recently signed goalie Ray Emery.  Emery, who signed with the Flyers earlier this summer, has been known to be a very skilled goaltender, but his off the ice antics has many people concerned.  Emery led the Ottawa Senators to the Stanley Cup Finals only two years ago, but last season he played for a team in the Russian Hockey League because nobody wanted to deal with his issues.  He left his Moscow based club after getting into a fight with an equipment manager, which was the latest of his off ice crimes (this happened on the bench though).

Emery did make the All Star team in Russia and posted very good numbers in goal, which is one of the factors that went into the reasons for the Flyers signing him.  Throughout his career, Emery has been involved in many incidents, including fighting former Flyer Martin Biron.  He also has been accused of threatening to kill a man while driving in Ottawa, and he earned numerous tickets when driving his Hummer around the city.

Even though there are all of these questions surrounding Ray Emery, I think that he will be a great addition to this Flyers team.  One thing he has is that fire to play, and to play well.  He stated that the reason he gets so mad is because he wants to win, and if he doesn’t win then it upsets him.  Isn’t that the attitude we want in a goalie?  He also knows that playing for the Flyers is his last chance to play in the NHL, and if he messes up again then he is done.  I hope that he makes the most of this opportunity because if he can be a solid #1 goalie, then the odds of the Flyers bringing the Stanley Cup back to Philly get stronger and stronger by the day.

Posted in Flyers Tags: , , , , , , 4,452 Comments »
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