Welcome to my blog. After reading this several times you will come to realize that you are addicted. In fact, you'll probably be coming to the site several times a day just to see if it's been updated. And wait till I get a picture of myself somewhere on the page, then you'll never leave.
Right now I should be studying for a test that I have tomorrow, but instead I'm gonna make my first ever post. But before I do that, let me clarify one thing. I am NOT Beth. Confused?
Don't be. If somebody sent you cookies thru the mail, I think thats reason enough to say they're awesome and name a blog about them.
With Halloween coming up I know that everyone out there is scrambling around trying to find an outfit, so I'm going to give some last minute ideas. Wait no I'm not, that would be way to cliche for a first blog. Today we're talking some hockey.
I don't think people know but hockey season has started. In fact Anaheim is already 10 games in, and they've played that in only 3 weeks. If you put that into context, the Rockies have played 10 games since September 29. But its understandable because baseball is a far more physically intense sport.
Anyway, I wanna take a look at the state of the NHL. I don't mean a team by team preview/review but a holistic view of quite possibly the most robust sport in America.
Ok quiet down, quiet down. And for gosh sakes, stop with the cursing there are kids listening. There is a rational argument to this. Let me clarify a ground rule though. By robust I don't mean in the economic sense or the cultural relevance aspect either. I mean solely from a sports sense.
At this current moment the NHL is the most exciting, explosive and unpredictable sport there is. It takes the best qualities of the other 3 main sports (no Nascar) and brings them to another level.
The NFL is lauded for its parity and unpredictability, but hockey takes it up a notch. Since 2001 there have been six different Stanley Cup Champions, including the Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks last year. Yet there is stability among the teams as well. Unlike the NFL where every year it is Indy, the Pats and who the hell else knows contending, the NHL knows whats its getting from Ottawa, NJ, San Jose, Dallas, Calgary, and up until last year Colorado. Oh and don't let me forget Detroit, which hasn't missed the playoffs since Dominik Hasek was in diapers.
Also, all you masochistic sports fan will love this. The NHL is just as physical and gruesome as football. I'm scared of Shawne Merriman because I know he's on roids. I'm even more scared of Georges Laraque because his diet consists only of raw eggs and steak. I mean the only thing separating the NHL from the NFL is that you can't bet on it. Oh wait! I didn't say that.
What's that I hear from the background? Are those the screams of baseball fans saying that football is a barbaric sport that can't match the tradition and capricious nature of baseball? Why yes it is. And you're right, football can't. But the NHL can.
We all celebrate the fact that the Rockies are in the World Series, having won 21 of their last 22 games, and are perhaps the hottest team of all time in any sport but where is the credit to the Edmonton Oilers of 2005-06. The Oilers barely clinched the eighth seed in the Western Conference, then faced an uphill battle against the best team in the league that year, the Detroit Red Wings. Not only did they beat them in six games, they defeated a team with the MVP and goals leader in the next round and became the first eighth seeded team ever to make it to the conference finals. Then they went another step up and made it to the finals where they would lose the seventh game on away ice.
Now since 1995, the year after the NHL went to its format, there have been four wild card teams to win a World Series, but Edmonton became the first 8 seed to even make it to the conference finals. You tell me which is more impressive.
And I understand that baseball is America's past time, based on tradition and lore. From Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter, and the Yankees' 26 rings. But ask a hockey fan about the Montreal Canadiens and he'll give you 23 reasons to be excited and will show you some jerseys hanging up in the rafters that bare the names of Rocket Richard and Jacques Plante, to the eventual one for Patrick Roy. Go ahead and make all those hockey jokes you want, but Roy probably can't hear you (ask Jeremy Roenick why you shouldn't trash talk Roy).
All thats left now is the NBA. I'm a big basketball fan, a huge NBA fan, and I've bared through a lot with the NY Knicks, so bare with me here. The NBA is game and a league predicated on star power. From Magic to Mike to LeBron. But look at the NHL and tell me who's in better shape.
Sydney Crosby may arguably be the most dominant player in any sport (except for Roger Federer or Tiger). The guy is only 20 years old and entering his 3rd full season. Last year he led the league in points at 19, six more than the next guy in three less games! Have Carmelo or Bron Bron done that? No. He just won an MVP award. At 19! Tom Brady wasn't even starting on his college team at 19. Peyton Manning still hadn't beaten Florida and Kobe Bryant was averaging 7.6 ppg.
And he's not the only one carrying hockey's torch. For Bron's Melo is Crosby's Ovechkin. The new Russian Rocket busted out of the gate to score over 50 goals his rookie year and won the rookie of the year award over the Next One. Henrik Lundqvist has already won an Olympic gold medal and Martin Brodeur has three rings and a gold medal of his own. Joe Thornton is the NHL's 6'4'' version of Jason Kidd, with all the assists and none of the wife abuse. Ottawa's line of Alfredsson, Heatley, and Spezza is a better troika than Nash, Stoudemire, and Marion. O and don't forget hockey has its own shaggy haired, international assist impresario in Henrik Zetterberg.
So next time you sit down to watch a game on tv, make the right choice and find Versus on your cable provider. Its the only sport where New York still has a chance at the championship and the only thing the athletes get accused of is drinking too much. You might find what you've been looking for.
Quick picks for the week: Virginia Tech, Kellen Clemens, In Rainbows, and Smokey the Bear (+5) against the California forest fires
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