Wednesday, June 10, 2009

One More


Just browsing the box scores and reading through all the stories on ESPN and TSN when I happened to bump into the NHL playoff section on Yahoo! Sports. Can you believe the 08-09 NHL season is going to be over on June 12th?!?! Where the hell does time go...it just seems like yesterday that the season started. To be honest, I lost interest in November. The NBA this year was absolutely amazing. The fierce battles didn't start when the playoffs started but right when the season began. Remember when KJ was taunting Calderon during game seven of the regular season.

I can't seem to find a reason for why I didn't keep up with hockey this year. I always keep up with hockey and the day to day life that surrounds the league. If you asked me who the leading scorer was I would be puzzled. If you asked me who finished first in each conference I would be puzzled. If you asked me...you get the picture.

Maybe it was the Leafs that kept me from watching. The Leafs kill me. They have all the resources in the world but still can't find a way to compete in the NHL. Almost every kid who grows up in Canada wants to play for the Leafs or the Canadiens but they still can't seem to sign a free agent, who isn't over the hill, to play and contribute. It baffles me everyday!

Just read somewhere that Dany Heatley of the Senators wants out of Ottawa. He still has 5 years left on his contract extension and it's pretty hefty in price, I think $7.5 mil each year, but still worth a look. If the Leafs wanted to sign and bring in a player who can score and understands the game, this would be a guy they need to sign.

As a Leafs fan, I'm used to saying, "Maybe next year, maybe next year."

Guess we'll see how I feel when the 09-10 season rolls around.

4 comments:

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

From 1998 onwards until the lockout, the Leafs were one of the more competitive teams in the league. They played as many playoff games as the Detroits and Colorados of the NHL.

It's all cyclical. Sure, it's fun to watch the Pens now, but in the early part of the decade they drafted in the top 5 five years in a row (Whitney 5th overall, Crosby 1st overall, Malkin 2nd overall, Fleury 1st overall, and Staal 2nd overall). They unapologetically tanked.

KG taunting Calderon was a fierce battle? Seriously? Or was it just more of KG's rampant douchebaggery?

Gotta love the NBA playoffs, where everything is a foul, where technicals are rescinded after the game, and where the last minute and a half of regulation time takes about half an hour to complete. Very intense and exciting.

On The Fence Sports said...

wow, love the sarcasm from you eyebleaf.

I've had this argument with one of my friends about how competitive the Leafs have been in the past 10 or so years. My opinion, most of those years the Leafs didn't have a true chance at the cup, even though they had successful winning years. How is it possible that a team can be successful but not have a chance at the Cup? Well, the teams were built to be a top 10 team. Not a top 3 team.

About your NBA comment, well chalk that up to some sarcasm as mentioned above. Are you really denying the intensity and fierce battle between the Raps and the Celtics earlier this year and chalking it up to douchbaggery? As I said before, that should have been a technical and it shouldn't have happened but he was into the game and wanted it so badly.

I do agree with you about the technicals and how they were dealt with this year. Pretty lame on how they take them back after the game.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

I bet you thought the Tampa Bay Lighting were going to win the Cup the year they did, right?

I bet you thought the Flames would make the final that year.

I bet you thought the Oilers would make the final post-lockout, and lose to the Carolina Hurricanes? I think we all saw that one coming.

The Leafs had a chance, and made the semi-finals twice from 98 to 2004. That's having a chance, period.

And, the NBA is a joke. Call a timeout.

On the Fence Sports said...

Of course there are tons of surprises in sports and that is why you have to play the games. Looking back on those years with the Leafs I can't give you specifics but I do remember having good reasons for thinking the Leafs weren't going to take the cup. What I do remember from back then is how they didn't match up, in my eyes, to the other teams.

Everyone has a chance at taking the championship in any sport, just look at the 2008 Rays.

The NBA is one of the only sports that is almost impossible to officiate. There is a very fine line between a foul and a clean play. Basketball is a game where there is plenty of contact, intentional and unintentional, and that is what makes the job of an NBA ref that hardest out of all the sports.

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