Wednesday, April 21, 2004

"Round 2: Round Up"

Before I get to telling everyone my 2nd round picks I am going to take a look at the first round again.


West
Red Wings vs Predators

What Really Happened: Redwings won in 5. Despite the series being tied 2-2 at one point.

What Tucker said: Redwings in 5.

Sharks vs Blues

What Really Happened: Sharks in 6.

The Sharks chewed up the Blues in 5 games.

Canucks vs Flames

What Really Happened: Flames in 7.

I called the Canucks in 7. Hey how was I supposed to know Cloutier was going down? What a close series though.

Lanche vs Stars

WOW I called the Stars going out in 5 and they actually do!!!!!!!

East

Flyers vs Devils

Okay I am glad I was wrong here and the Flyers not only won, but won all but one game.

Lightning and Islanders

Looking back I see I didnt put a number on the series for whatever reason. Although I said publicly I thought it would be the only sweep of the first round. It actually took 5 whole games to oust the Isles.

Bruins vs Habs

Um. Thought the Bruins were winning in 5 here. I was WAY off. Just shock and awe from Montreal when they came back from being down 3-1. It looked like I was going to be right there for a second.


Leafs vs Sens.

I said Sens in 6. WRONG AGAIN. Leafs in 7.


Round 2

The Flyers in 6 over the leafs

Montreal will upset the Bolts in 5 games.

Out west the Red Wings will dump the Flames in 6 and Colorado will have long series full of OT games but win in game 7.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

"Sept. 11th Blame Game"

I really have to just laugh at all the liberals out there that are saying they wish Bush had done something during to prevent 9/11. First off of course everyone one would have liked to stop that horrific day. However its likely that flying commuter airplanes into buildings.

The only thing that you could have really done is been stricter on immigrants and detaining suspicious potential terrorists based on intelligence. Honestly do the liberals actually believe that the would or wouldn’t have a problem with Bush’s administration rounding up Middle Eastern people with very thin explanations to justify it. These people that now think Bush should have taken means are the same ones that bitched that measures have been taken post 9/11.

Okay yeah I don’t doubt that some innocent people were detained after 9/11, but tons of potential threats are either now with Allah, or giving the US more information on potential threats. Although I do believe that sometimes they were just jerking our chain its certainly helpful. Can you imagine if the 9/11 highjackers were pulled out of line at the airport and detained for having box cutters on them? A flurry of hell would have been released on Bush. It is so hypocritical it is almost funny.

The 9/11 inquiry just became a nasty witch hunt. All anyone has done has pointed the finger or shrugged. Its been highly political too. Of course we deserve answers about how it happened. However its not just one man. Neither Clinton and Bush are the only ones to blame, the central intelligence should have seen it coming.

Now who do you blame more Bush? Or Clinton? Under both were attacked on US soil once. Oh was I supposed to through out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center because the towers remained standing afterwards and stock market was good? Okay than credit the USS Cole to Clinton’s watch. Either way they can’t really said they would have done much either since little or nothing was done after the fact.

At the same time Clinton knew of the camps and Bin Laden long before average Joe American could tell you who Osama was. Some reports even indicate her turned down an offer to get the criminal mastermind.

Could Bush have acted swiftly on vague information he was getting from his intelligence? Yeah in hindsight he should have. However its not like Bin Laden just planned the whole ordeal over night the plans go back to 1996 at least. In fact in an ABC interview he more or less indicated things were likely to get ugly and voiced lack of a respect for the US military. I don’t think he feared the US much and could have been even a little surprised nothing was done after 1993.

In Clinton’s defense he did supposedly stop a terrorist plot for the new millennium while we were precouiped with making sure our computers didn’t go back in time to 1900. In fact would imagine many such plots are spoiled perhaps even closer to be carried out than we would like to think about without the American public knowing.

Regardless I don’t think Clinton would have just being playing his sax and getting hummers and simply say “Eh” if he knew of the impending doom either. I don’t think Bush sat back and let it happen either. More importantly even with more information put in better order its still questionable if they could have ever have thought that the terrorists would have done it the way they did it and its likely anyone detained could have been easily been replaced by another Joe Terrorist eager to meet his virgins.

So what did we learn from having all the famous people squirm in their seats when the 9/11 interrogators did their bad cop- bad cop routine? Um basically we screwed up bad and no wants to be at fault. Its lots of peoples fault and its now time to just prevent it from happening. There is no time like the present and its best to stop scratching our heads looking into the past before Osama Bin Laden pulls a Bertuttzi on the US

Sunday, April 18, 2004

"Sympathy for a Devil"

Maybe the old expression about your mother always being right is true. Earlier in the playoff round bettween the Flyers and Devils my mother told me she thought that Pat Burns looked awful. I told her he just looked older than the last time she saw him (she only really pays attention to playoff hockey). I suggested maybe its cause the Devils have a policy that their coaches be clean shaven which resulted in him shaving off his trademark mustache. Just thought my mom was being "crazy" again.

Anyway turns out something was wrong and rumors were starting to fly last night that Burn who had missed two practices for the Devils was ill. Earlier today (Sunday) the Devils made it public that Pat Burns has colon cancer. Just horrible news.

I was always a big fan of Burns going back to this Maple Leafs days and was hoping the Flyers hired him once when he was out of work and the Flyers were shopping around(when they ended up with Hitch). Burns won the cup with the Devils last season.

Anyway despite been the coach of the hated Devils I really hope he pulls through. God knows the hockey world has lost too many in short period of time with Herb Brooks, Roger, and Danny Snyder.

Hope Pat Burns gets well soon and is behind the bench next year. I also hope the Devils players have fun working on their golfing game.
"Reversal of fortune"

Well the Flyers advanced to the 2nd round on Saturday and I am glad to say I was wrong. I base my prediction base solely on the Flyers of the last two weeks of the regular season. Esche played pretty lousy the last two weeks.

Anyway what happened was almost a reversal of fortunes and this time it was the Devil's goalie letting up goals from really far away at the worse possible time. For second I thought perhaps somehow Check-O was in net for the Devils.

The Devils only successful game was when their powerplay was actually working well. Just like when the Flyers used to get smothered by the Flyers in previous years the powerplay was totally powerless. It was so much nicer to be on the other end of the stick for this one.

Game 4 the Devils through everything but the kitchen sink at Esche and what transpired might have been the single most amazing performance in a single period by a Flyers goalie that I have ever seen. Esche stood on every single body part he has in order to stop the puck from going in. He single handily won the game and prevented a potential tide shift in favor of the Devils. It wasn't as if the shots were just weak ones either the Devils had amazing puck movement resulting one timers, wrap arounds, crashing the net and even a few straight on one on one shots.

The Flyers after years of trying got the demonic monkey off their backs in South Philly Saturday and gave the Devils an early summer.

All and all a very great series. It just feels different then other first round advances. It sucked to lose Lappy and Rico but their replacements are doing just find. With the Blackhawk down line playing the way they are combined with they way Esche played I doubt any teams want to play the Flyers in the 2nd round.