Roundup of EP's Saturday

Today didn't promise to be a good sports day. After the major Soxfail last night (which we are now denying happened) and the prospect of Muzzy taking down Roger, I was ready to skip this sports thing and just entertain the guests who were coming.

Apparently sports thought otherwise.

The Sox were clearly didn't want to get killed by their own crowd by losing again to the Yankees so instead they decided to win. And minus some major Ellsfail, it was a great win at 14-1. Yeah. I'm kind of afraid of tomorrow's game. It'll end up like 30-29 or something. So, thank you Sox for being angry enough to want to win. And thank you, Yankees, for leaving your brains at the hotel. It was nice.

Anyway... Back in Cincy where the Fab Four (which is really only comprised of two fab guys, one almost fab guy and one guy who gets called "toothface" at times) were going at it in the semis, we had some interesting results.

Last year, we saw Rafa's awesome summer come to a halt as Nole beat him and then promptly... .blew it completely to the-yet-great-Muzzy. Roger had long since disappeared into oblivion.

THIS YEAR everyone was touting Muzzy to win again as he had pretty much blown everyone else out of the water last week in Montreal (and Roger blew himself out of the water). Yeah well, Roger decided that after that little backhanded compliment he gave to Muzzy at the beginning of the week ("He’s [Muz] almost won everything there is to win except, let’s say US Open and the Masters") it was time to back up said "compliment" by actually beating Muz. Shocker, I know. It was a pretty nice win too at 6-2 7-6(8). THANK YOU ROGER! Finally.

Roger is going to get Nole in the finals after the latter decided he too would like to snap an ugly losing streak. Oddly enough, the last time that Nole won a match against Rafa was at... well, Cincy last year. Oops. It was a really solid win at 6-1 6-4. Ow, Rafa...

Do you think Rafa means it when he says

I’m very happy today, more than yesterday. No. 3 is a very good number too.

I get the odd feeling that he really doesn't mind being no. 3 all that much....

Random info day =p

In hockey news....

Well, I can say for sure that was the least amount of fun I've had "watching" the NHL awards thing. I blame CBC for airing the thing an hour after it started. So I already knew who won via twitter before hand. Whoever was responsible for that messup should be waterbottled. Just saying. Also I predicted this over at A View From the Cheap Seats:

Hart - I’ll say Malkin… But I’d like to see Ovie get it. Obviously.

Pearson - Ovie! Ovie! Ovie!

Norris - Chara…..*sigh* (my Markov should be there)

Calder - Mason

Vezina - Thomas *sighs some more*

Adams - it should be Andy Murray but Julien is walking out with it *sighs even more*

Selke - Datsyuk although I’d take Richards winning the thing….

Lady Byng - Shorty Marty…. poor guy

......And was only wrong twice. In all honesty, I didn't actually see Shorty Marty getting the Byng thing over Turnip because... well, it's Turnip here (lesson learned: don't go against your gut feeling in this case). Not sure why I went with Eggplant over Ovie for the Hart though... That was just stupid. Probably to set myself up in the weird event that he actually did win it. So all in all, I was bored and annoyed with this whole thing last night. Mind you...some nice pictures came out of it.... I'm a sucker for pictures....ANYWAY... Congrats to Ovie for winning the Hart thingy and the Pearson thing and we already knew you were walking out with the Maurice Richard thing (how about we work on the assists and/or goals for next year so you can get the Ross again? *G*). And congrats to everyone else too (and someone please tell Chara that it's okay to deliver a short speech in the event that he wins something next time. I know the guy doesn't do anything short but really... I almost fell asleep!).

Two random things about the awards:

1. I loved Ovie's "it's too hot to touch" thing when he got the Hart
2. "I could really use two Stanley Cup rings to block out Roenick..." <-- Number31 last night on Twitter while Roenick was attempting to talk last night. She is a genius.

Not too much in the way of rumors in general and pretty much nada about the Habs. I'm not sure if I should be worried that there's nothing coming out of Habsland or if I should just be thankful that I don't have to think about insane rumors. The closest thing to a rumor I've heard from Habsland is that they're close to coming to a deal with Komi and there appears to be a big chance that Koivu's headed to the Wild. Meh. Heard that one about Koivu. Let me know if it actually happens (which I hope it doesn't).

The only other interesting thing I've heard is that those creepy Sedin twins want matching 12 year contracts worth 63 million.... Not that I care about where they end up or anything, but to me, 12 years is a long time and unless you front load the contract, you could end up with a b*tch of a time trying to get rid of them if you don't want them down the road.... I get that players want the security but as a GM, I'd be hesitant to do it.

In tennis news....

The biggest news is whether or not Rafa will be playing in Wimby on Monday. Apparently his knees are still acting up. I'm a bit torn on this. I'm ready to believe that Rafa is indeed in a lot of pain. I'm not making light of his injuries. I just wonder how it is that he didn't appear to be playing with a lot of pain a the French Open, still lost, and now we're hearing about this? Maybe he really was in pain throughout the French Open. Maybe it started afterwords. It's entirely possible. Honestly, I almost hope that he really is in pain and this isn't an attempt at trying to 1) soften the blow of his Roland Garros loss and 2) lessen the expectations for Wimbledon. I've heard before that Rafa is supposedly injured and then he plays and blows everyone out of the water for the most part. All this being said, I want Rafa to recover and play. I want him and Roger to play in the finals the way it's been for the past.... however many years *g* It wouldn't be a Wimby final without Rafa and Roger. I don't want Muzz and Roger. I don't want Nole and Roger. And I definitely do NOT want Muzz and Nole. GIMME A ROGER VS RAFA FINAL!

EDIT: He pulled out. *sighs* no Rafa. Messed up draw now.... I'm not very pleased with this. Not at all.

And in football/soccer and yes, baseball news....

I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto. I hate Toronto.

Roger is better on clay than Rafa?!

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Technically speaking, yes, he is. Here are the points that both have accumulated during the clay season:

Roger

Monte Carlo (RD16) - 90 points
Rome (S) - 360 points
Madrid (W)- 1000 points
Roland Garros (W)- 2000 points

Total: 3450

Rafa

Monte Carlo (W) - 1000 points
Barcelona (W) - 500 points
Rome (W) - 1000 points
Madrid (F) - 600 points
Roland Garros (RD16) - 180 points

Total: 3280

Okay, so really Rafa really is better than Roger on clay. He's won more tournaments this year (mind you, he did play one more than Roger and he beat Ferrer in Barcelona). But Roger did beat him at Madrid and Roger won the most important event on clay. But for this year, by virtue of his win at Roland Garros, he is the better one on clay. Sorry Rafa....

Oh. My. God. Nadal. Just. Lost.

Excuse me while I go die of shock.

Okay. Back.

Nadal just lost at the French Open. Nadal has never lost at the French open. Never ever. I'm not lying. He came in this tournament four years ago for the first time ever, won it, and has never looked back.

WHAT HAPPENED RAFA?!

This would be like the Wings losing to the Blue Jackets or something... In five games at that. Imagine that. That's what just happened. And that is bad.

I missed most of the match, but I really think a lot of this was Nadal just playing terribly and then letting the whole thing go to his head and continuing being bad. While I think Soderling did do a good job of punishing Nadal on short returns, I'm not sure sure I'm ready to give the world 29 or whichever number he is ranked, all the credit. Nadal was definitely out of it.

There is really only one potential good thing coming out of this. And that is Federer now has a chance to win this tournament for the first time ever. Without Nadal and without the alledged world number two on clay (Djokovic who went out to another random guy), the Fed now has a real chance to win it. Right Roger? Don't let it go to your head though. You've got a lot of work ahead of you and you've got Murray to possibly contend with in the finals - although I really hope not.

Hmm anyway... Let's hope Flambe and Ozzy can continue more of the same tonight. Sorry Flambe but I wouldn't mind too much if you scored on yourself a couple of times again.....

Game 1... *yawns*

If you're like me and the prospect of watching this Puffles Wings game puts you to sleep, then you can spend your time watching this Peachawks thing. Very amusing. And Perky is in it because he was a Hawk then.



In important Habs news....: Sergei and Andrei and Hammer have been completely cleared. Yay! So much for the big scandal. Pfft. Still waiting to get my hands on La Presse to see if they actually reported this. Now stop hanging out with people like this!


And because it is tennis season....

First off, a look at the Clay Monster:

(image from Yahoo sports)

Yup. Sorbet coloured Rafa. Just what I always wanted.... NOT! At least Roger doesn't look like ice cream.... No Roger just looks like...

(image from yahoo sports)

.....OH GAWD! Roger looks like a Puffy. DAMN YOU NIKE!

Oh Roger, how could you?

Nadal just beat Federer. On hardcourts..... I'm incredibly disappointed but not entirely surprised....

I have no words right now for this right now....

Need more caffeine.....

At least it can't get any worse right? Oh... you mean the Habs still have to play the Bruins? Damn.

*sighs*

Later:

"God, it's killing me".

Those were Federer's words after the match when he got up and had to address the crowds.

What happened next was Federer actually broke down into tears.

I'm slightly surprised given that this is after all Roger Federer but then again.... What was he supposed to do? He had this Slam - this record - on the tip of his racquet and he let it go not just to some nobody guy, but to Rafael Nadal. The guy who has so far prevented the Fed from taking 6 majors - forgetting the French open for a sec, with those two wins at Wimbledon and at Melbourne, Federer would have already surpassed Sampras. Yes, Rafa was good. No, Rafa was definitely not unbeatable in this one. I think Federer's poor serves and weak returns on Rafa's serves killed it for him. Let's be honest, this was not a clean game from either of them by any stretch of the imagination. Rafa alone had more double faults today and he had Roger had combined at Wimbledon last year. Breakpoints and actual breaks abounded throughout the match. It was not clean but in the end Nadal played cleaner in the fifth set. Nadal was his usual gracious self and told Federer that he thinks tha the can beat Sampras' record. That's really sweet of you Rafa, but I don't think that that improved Federer's mood at all. But you know what? Rafa's right. Federer is going to beat Sampras' record. Let's not forget that Sampras was 31 when he had that record. Federer is still only 27 and he's still good enough to beat Nadal. It may not feel like that right now, but I know Federer will have that record.

Rafa vs Roger part 165435432

Don't you just love this soap opera? Last time these two played my necked was hurting for a week because I was sitting there for SEVEN HOURS completely freaking out. Yes, I occasionally have no life.

This should be interesting. For all their great rivalry and for all the times that they've played each other, these two have never met in the two hard court Grand Slams. That's mainly because up until the US open last year, Nadal has been no good on hardcourts. You can't doubt that he had a good run in New York last year and he's had an even better run in Melbourne.

Save for a little blip against Berdych, Federer has been rolling in Melbourne. He practically steamrollered over Del Potro following his five setter against Berdych and the new and improved Andy Roddick couldn't take a set off of the Fed. Now the Fed is about to chase history. Should he win at some undgodly hour here in Canada, he will have tied Pete Sampras' record for the most Grand Slams won. This was a record that everyone thought the Mighty Fed was supposed to have had last year. But as it was, the Fed got sick and Rafa made a bid for the top spot. It's save to say that last year, Rafa made Roger's life miserable. He routinely trounced him on clay, he then trounced him on grass, and then while the Fed was getting beaten by nobodies, Rafa was taking the no. 1 spot. Roger's only saving grace last year was his 13th Slam in New York. If Federer is to tie for this record, he's going to have to beat Nadal. Can he do it?

It's hard to say who's got more pressure on them here. Nadal as the new no. 1 needs to prove tha the can do better on other surfaces other than clay. He's shown that he can beat the best on grass and he's shown some good stuff on hardcourts last year but he still doesn't have a slam. Beating an in-form Federer would go a long way to consolidating his no. 1 spot. Then again.... The Fed is shooting for history here. If other people aren't putting the pressure on then he's heaping it on himself. If Nadal beats Federer here on a hardcourt then who knows what the affects will be for Mr. no 2? Don't tell me that he wasn't messed up after losing Wimbledon.... It's more of Federer's to lose than it is for Nadal. Federer may have a slight advantage if the match runs long because Nadal just finished a 5 hour marathon 44 hours before. Plenty of time to recover, but Rafa may get slightly tired if it runs to four or five tough sets.

I say Fed in 5 which means I'll get no sleep tonight... whoopie....maybe I'll sleep while the Bruins pound my poor Habs to death...

Rafa's through

There's nothing like Nadal or Federer winning to put a horrid hockey game of the night before out of your mind.... Yes, apparently despite what I just said, I'm still mulling over that one....

But anyway.....Imagine my surprise when I woke up and learned that Rafa was still playing tennis. For a match that was supposed to have started five hours ago or so, I as a little puzzled by why he was still playing. I quick look at the score said that Fernando Verdasco was playing the match of his life and was actually pushing Mr. No. 1 to five sets. Oh dear me. What was going on here? Verdasco wasn't supposed to be this good. Surely this was a fluke and he would be tired by the 5th set? Or not.... The Verdasco I saw, was a very good one. He was just going for all types of shots completely fearlessly. It was crazy. This was incredible from him. Rafa had a pile of break chances during the fifth set which he failed to convert on until the end when Verdasco handed him the match. That was a little distressing. But Verdasco finally crumbled. After another half an hour of some very good tennis, Versdasco double faulted to give Rafa the match. Final score was 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 for Rafa. Wow.....

As much as I love Rafa and I have to say that I really want Roger to win this one. That 14th Slam would be amazing not just because he would be tied with Sampras, but also because I think Roger would like to prove that he can beat Nadal *g* Rafa has about 44 hours to get himself recovered from his 5 hour slug fest. Good luck dude!

In this case, being wrong is great

My predictions for the Australian Open have officially been shot down. Murray went out to Verdasco and now Djokovic pulled out against Roddick. So. That leaves Roddick to face Roger. The real Roger hopefully. Mr. no. 2 simply crushed Del Potro with a score of 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. I'm still waiting on the highlights but I'm putting credit on Federer for being great instead of Del Potro being bad. Tomorrow morning we'll see if Simon can stand up against Nadal (I'll say 'no') and if Tsonga can repeat last year's success (I'll say 'yes'). If the Fed plays like he should then he should be into the finals and then it's only a matter of beating Tsonga or Nadal.......granted, a very good looking (I mean playing-wise of course!) Nadal....and a still looking good Tsonga.....Blergh.....

Now if only my Habbies could be as good as Roger.....

These are two big points coming up people. We should have had at least two points from before the break. Tampa Bay has been on a roll as of late - sadly - and Florida hasn't exactly been dead either. In other words, the Habs need to stay focused and play 60 minutes of hockey... When they try hard they can beat almost anyone. When they don't everyone beats them. So people. SIXTY MINUTES. Please!!!!!!!

I'm not going to get into this one too much because every time I try Tampa Bay always plays better than they're supposed to - or the Habs just plain stink. So.... onto the prediction stuff....

A 4-3 win for the Habs. And I'll go as far as to say that Prospal gets a goal and breaks down completely into tears (you didn't think that I was letting that go, did you?). It' would almost be worth it to see him break down..... almost.....

Okay so my predictions stink....

I have visions of Federer sitting up in some fancy hotel staring at the TV screen gloating right about now. Andy Murray who? Mr. Supposed Favorite just crashed out against... wait for... Fernando Verdasco! Oh no, not Verdasco..... Well, I was sleeping through the whole thing but apparently Murray didn't do too well and Verdasco played really well and the Spanish dude took it in 5 sets. While it's kind of nice to see Murray out - okay, really nice - now I'm worried about Federer and maybe Nadal getting too easy a time of it. Oh well, we'll see. Verdasco will face Tsonga next while Nadal will take on Simon. If Nadal and Tsonga win then they'll play each other which could be interesting. The Fed will run over Del Potro and the defending champ will play the other Andy.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd

O'Byrne is back. The poor guys is best remembered for putting the puck into his own (empty) net when the Habs were completely underachieving against the lowly Islanders back in November. The Habs continued to be crap and ultimately lost the game in a shootout. After that O'Byrne sat out in the press box for quite some time before he was sent back to the Hammies to regain his confidence which I'm sure took a real beating. You don't put the puck into your own net like that without it being all over the place. And when you consider that you're a member of the team who suffers the most at the hands of their media... you're doomed. But anyway, I'm hoping that his confidence has returned to some degree. That incident was an accident. Stupid? Yes. Was it his fault that they lost? No. Here's hoping everyone has put it behind them and we can move on now.

I know the Thrashers are in like 29 place....

...Anyone want to reassure me that they'll actually play like a bottom ranked team and that the Habs will play like the top ranked team that they are? If anyone remembers, on Saturday, the Thrashers were the 7-2 winners over the Nashville Predators and the Habs were the 5-4 winners of a shootout win over the stinky Senators. Yes, I'm still griping over that shootout win mainly because I can't stand Sens fans gloating....Anyway, if the Habs learned their lesson like I'm hoping they will then they should take away two much needed points in regulation time without too much trouble. I'm trying desperately to ignore what happened last time these two teams met back in December. Habs were about 6 minutes away from a shutout and boom! Thrashers score three goals in under a minute and add another one later. Grrrr...... Too bad the same stinky Sens are about to give away two points to the Caps tonight...Boohoo....

Halak gets the start again tonight but maybe the Habs will be motivated to see the Price sitting as backup (apparently he's getting the start tomorrow in New Jersey)? And maybe just maybe the other guys will be motivated to get to work knowing that Koivu and Higgy will be around too?

Random notes on random things....

1. Despite the truly ugly shirt, Rafa won against some poor guy from Belgium (who if I remember correctly, also lost in the Davis Cup thing against either Roger or Stan) while I was asleep last night. 6-0,6-2, 6-2. That's much better than his start to the US Open *coughs*
   
2. Murray got it easy when his opponent retired after being down a set and a break. lucky Murray.
   
3. Happy belated birthday to Mike Komisarek! He turned 27 yesterday and I forgot to mention it mainly because I only found out today *G* I find it hilarious that he's the same age as Federer and no one's acting like he's about to go off and die......
4. Things are heating up here for the All Star thing. Despite contributing to the ballot stuffing (in all honesty, I think I only voted about 10 times in all) I wasn't that hyped about it but it's getting hard not to get a little excited about it. Okay chuck that, I'm really hyped about it. I intend on staying as far away from downtown as possible for the weekend - what? You think I'm taking out a bank loan to go see it live?! Yeah right! - but I'm still hyped about it. Should be at least an entertaining way to spend the weekend and it will at least keep my mind off of Roger and co down under for a little bit. Yay!
   

So I go away for a few hours and...

Andy Roddick's already through into the next round and the Habs send down Marc Denis. Well actually, I think I'm late to the party on the Denis news but whatever *g* As for Roddick...that was quick. He flattened his opponent, Bjorn Rehnquist - 6-0,6-2, 6-2.

I know I'm late with the predictions and wishes and all but I'll give 'em anyway before too many more people start hammering their opponents...

• I still think that the top 4 will be in the semis. I know this tournament is rife with upsets but I think given how these guys have been doing and/or should be doing, they'll be in the semis.
• Murray's making the finals and like I already predicted, he will win. I'm hoping to be proven wrong here.
  
• The young guys like Del Potro and Cilic will make some noise.
• Gilles Simon will be upset by someone
• Tsonga won't be repeating last year's success
• Richard Gasquet will continue to under-achieve.....
• Nadal will be the last Spanish guy standing by the quarter finals
• Nalbandian just might come out playing like he should be and start winning some good matches
• Or Nalbandian will come out and be the biggest underachiever since Richard Gasquet and lose in the first round
  
• Djokovic and Roddick will play each other again
• Djokovic is going to have some serious issues. Mainly concerning his racquet but also he'll be having a hard time with the pressure of being the defending champion
• Someone in the Djokovic camp will say something that will upset someone
  
• Wawrinka won't be playing Federer. Sorry Stan!
• Federer will get even more annoyed that he is not the undisputed favorite this time around
• Federer will also display some emotion (oooo!)
• The heat will get to someone
  
• Gilles Muller is going to play Del Potro in the third round and give him a run for his money. I'm sorely tempted to say that Muller may just beat Delpo too....
  
• David Ferrer won't be making the quarter finals
• I will miss Federer/Nadal and Djokovic playing for most of the tournament because the timezone difference makes it impossible to see them
  

Habs sending down Denis means we will either see some really random guy come up and act as Halak's backup or else Price is actually coming back this week. I sincerely hope it's the latter.

Alright......I meant to mention a couple of interesting things about the Penguins before but I forgot... can you blame me?

1. They blanked the Rangers today 3-0. Most accounts agree that the Rangers weren't very good today but Fleury came up with some good saves to earn his shutout. Penguins still haven't dumped their third jerseys and actually wore them today for their win....
   
2. Penguins made a weird trade that sent Dany Sabourin, an AHL player (Ryan Stone) and a 4th round pick in 2011 to the Oilers for goalie Mathieu Garon. So drop an okay goalie from Quebec along with an AHL player and a draft pick for another okay goalie from Quebec? This is the part where I wonder why all the okay goalies seem to be from Quebec and what the whole point of that trade was..... I will ponder this more as I go to sleep and continue to dream of an incredibly lame Senators team inbetween thoughts of the Habs decimating the Thrashers.....Sounds like a good dream.... Bwahahahahaha......
   

Random info day again!

Getting tired of these? Too bad. I have to ramble sometimes!

Tennis first.

• World no 3 Novak Djokovic has a chance to become world no 2 and what does he do?
  
  Blows it. After I just said that Djokovic was looking good again after what I thought was a freak loss to Ernest Gulbis and was ready to charge into the Australian Open, he goes and blows it big time in Sydney. He was downed by Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 7-6(3) who will now face a very good looking David Nalbandian. I'm hoping for his sake, that Nalbandian actually performs like he's supposed to in the finals and wins.
  
  I was just mentioning to my sister that Djokovic is getting ignored a bit in the leadup to the Australian Open. It's all Murray all the time and if it's not Murray then it's Federer and "can he win the Australian Open or is he finally finished?". And if there's no talk about those two then it's all Nadal because he's Mr. World No. 1. But no one really expects Rafa to win in Melbourne. While I'm tempted to think that it's really not that fair to be ignoring the defending champion here, Djokovic hasn't exactly been playing awe-inspiring tennis since... well, last year, I guess. He's had his moments, yes, but they haven't exactly translated into a lot of good results. Okay, fine so he won the Masters Cup thing. I think I said at the time that the whole tournament was a bit of a joke considering half the players were first timers and got there because of a couple of good resuls at the end, while the other half were riddled with injuries. Do I think Novak has what it takes to defend his title in Australia? Yes. I think he may actually have a good chance at it because despite the fact that he's the defending champion here, all the talk and pressure is on the other three guys to perform well. This could be his chance to (almost) quietly sneak up through the matches and come out with a good performance in the finals (if he makes it past Federer).
  
  
• Del Potro to meet Querrey in finals of Auckland
  
  Yup. Delpo breaks the curse of the Argentine people not making the finals of this tournament dating back to 1996 by squashing Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-4 to make the finals. He will face Sam Qurrey who squeaked by David Ferrer. Interesting note: Ferrer was reffered to in the media (in Spanish) ahead of his matchup with Sam Querrey as the "executioner of the Team Argentina in the Davis Cup final" which I found hilarious considering it was Ferrer (the top ranked player for team Spain with the absence of Nadal) who got run over by Nalbandian in the opening match. Oh well.
  
  
  
• Wawrinka overcomes Gonzalez in the semis at Kooyong. Guess who he gets to play now?
  
  Roger. I want to see this so badly.... even if poor Stan has no chance. This is apparently the third time that they will play each other and Roger has beaten Stan the two other times in straight sets. Poor Stan....I'm sure someone will be cheering for you Stan so don't worry, you're not alone. Of course no one really wants Stan to win.... that would be.... wow....
  
  
• Draws are in for the Australian Open
  
  The only guy of interest/importance that isn't here is Davydenko who pulled out early this week due to injuries.
  
  
  • Nadal gets Simon, Monfils and Karlovic, Gonzalez and Gasquet among others, in his draw. All could make some trouble for Mr. World No. 1 but I doubt any of them are taking away a win over him. Then again... Simon wasnt supposed to win over Nadal in Madrid and Monfils was definitely not supposed to beat him in Doha...And it remains to be seen which versions of Gonzalez and Gasquet shows up. Nadal has a 21-4 record against the seeded players in his draw. Yes, I just wasted a lot of time finding that out.
    
    
  • Murray got a fairly easy draw. The toughest opponent in his draw is/was probably Tsonga but he's looking really doubtful right now with a back problem. Mezler, Stepanek, Verdasco, Blake, Andreev, and Schuttler round out the seeded players in the draw. Murray holds a 13-3 against them and I doubt that any of these guys will be beating Murray.
    
    
  • Nole got Roddick in his draw again. Hopefully he doesn't say something stupid this time around. He really needs to work on the public relations aspect. The perpetually under-achieving David Nalbandian is also in this draw. As is Kohlschreiber, Robredo, Soderling, Fish (Fish!) and Mathieu. Nole has a 16-4 record against these guys.
    
    
  • Roger has some interesting people in his draw including Del Potro, Berdych, Cilic, Ferrer, Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez (booo!) and Safin. I doubt Delpo and Cilic will be too much of a challenge if Roger meets either of them. Sowwy Delpo! Ferrer can play unbelievably well but I've never watched him win a single match. Every time I've seen him over the summer, he's lost. Wawrinka is doomed if he plays Federer. Berdych and Safin could be the real challengers here. In case you're wondering, Federer has a whopping 37-3 record against these guys. Should be interesting to see what they can do here.
    

Anyway....

You know, I like Bob Gainey, I really do. But....

This whole non-answer about this whole Lecavalier thing is annoying. Gainey gave a whole cryptic speech on not trading the whole team for one guy. Sounds like he doesn't want Lecavalier? Well, he didn't say that either. The main gist of the speech was that he wants to put the interests of the team above all else. That still indicates that he won't trade for Lecavalier. But again, he didn't say right out that he doesn't want to trade for him. What I took from it was "Yeah, Lecavalier could be great for the team and it would be nice to have him but no, we're not trading half our team for him". I don't know why he can't just come out say that whether they're interested or not. I don't see how it's helping the players by giving cryptic messages about what you're intentions are....but hey, I don't know what goes on behind closed doors or what goes on in the mind of Bob Gainey. Maybe he's more direct with the players. Maybe not. Who knows.

Wingless Penguins take on Sitting Ducks

Okay, so the Ducks are in a better position than the Pens. I like the term "sitting ducks" if it applies to Anaheim. Sue me. I may watch it - my TV will have it so I won't have to suffer through bad announcers in Pensville- or I'll try to catch Wawrinka being demolished by Federer. We'll see.

Stats because we can't live without 'em:

Penguins have gone 2-8-0 in their last ten games while the Ducks have gone 4-4-2. Both come into this game having lost their previous one.

Bad news for the Penguins is that they have one of the worst home records in the league going 9-10-2. Good news for the Pens is the Ducks are ranked 18th in their away record going 9-8-2.

Bad news for the Pens is that they're powerplay is 19th in the league (still better than a certain other team *coughs*) while they're PK is even worse at 24th. Worse news for the Pens is that the Ducks are 9th on the powerplay and 17th in PK.

Penguins are 10-6-1 when outshooting their opponents, but simply flailing away at the net won't help them because the Ducks actually do better when they are outshot going 14-7-2. Go figure. Pens are 10-13-2 when they are outshot and the Ducks are 8-11-1 when they outshoot the opposition. So the Pens have to get outshot to win.....?

Fleury - who I'm assuming is getting the start - is 3-7-0 in his last ten games while Giguere is 4-3-2. If it's Sabourin in nets then he's 1-8-1 in his last ten gams. Can we say "battle of the no-so-hot Quebec goalies"?

Infirmary list:

Well, this is quite lengthy. Officially the Pens are without Dupuis (knee), Fedotenko (broken hand), Gonchar (shoulder), Zigomanis (upper body) but they could be missing Talbot, Scuderi, and Crosby who were all injured in the game against the Caps as well.

Update: Yeah, Crosby's out for sure for tonight.
Update 2: Letang is also out!

Ducks aren't exactly the picture of a perfectly healthy team either. They are without Beauchemin (gone for the rest of the season), Festerling (knee), Huskins (foot), Larsen (hernia), Marchant (finger) and Selanne (quadricep injury). Four of those guys are on IR.

of injuries, Penguins + Rafa to turn into Roger

Long term injuries to be disclosed in the future

Yes, yes, Carbo and Co have decided to tell the media what's wrong with a player if they're expected to be out for a long period of time. That's.... nice... I guess.... Given that it's the middle of the season and it's not the playoffs, I really didn't get what the deal was with all the secrecy. I mean... I get it if it's the playoffs but when you're in the middle of the season and there's no real rush to get the guys back onto the ice until they're fully recovered anyway... what's the deal with the hush hush attitude? All it does is lead to lots of rumors which aren't true.

That being said....

Knowing what Price and everyone else have doesn't exactly help in speeding up the process of their return. Koivu has apparently done something bad to his ankle again and he won't be around for a little while longer. Carbo is now saying that Price may not be in the All Star thing at this point, which is pretty disappointing from a fan's point of view. Like we really want to watch Tim Thomas flopping around in the crease for 20 minutes.....? I don't think so.... Then again, I want to see how good the guy is without his great rescue team in front of him, so I guess I'll suffer through watching him.

Dandenault and Higgy were apparently on the ice today. But who ever said that you need your arms to skate....?

*sighs*

GET HEALTHY SOON YOU GUYS! I WANT YOU BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

ATP gets a new boss

I wasn't going to mention this because I mean... I personally don't find it that big of a deal worth mentioning. I'm still waiting for the day that NHL drops Gary Bettman and then I may consider bringing that up. But anyway, Adam Helfant was named the new executive chairman and president of the men's circuit the other day. What I find interesting about the guy is during his long and winding career (the guy is actually only 44 so I guess it cant be that long and winding) he also had a stint as an attorney for the NHL. And you said that hockey and tennis can't be combined somehow....

Yeah, that's all I have to say about him *g* Interesting eh? Didn't think so. No one ever said that I made any sense when I write.... Here's hoping his does a good job. And can I make suggestion for the guy? Move the Australian Open back a couple of weeks. 1) this gives the players more time to get ready for the big event and 2) because the players are getting back into the season slowly, it also allows for the fans to get more hyped up about the Grand Slam. I can't speak for the Australians but I personally am not ready for the Australian Open at this point...Nothing too much to be hyped about....

Say it isn't so! Rafa going normal?!

I guess I should have known that something was up when he appeared in that horrid shirt. I thought it was a weird one time thing that Nike messed up on. Well, I guess I was wrong. According to this little thing over here Mr. World No 1 is indeed making an attempt to be more uh.... normal. Aside from the changes he's supposedly making to his game - which include normalizing his forehand to some degree - his personal image is apparently undergoing a change. The main aim? Turning Rafa into a Rafa version of Roger. I kid you not. If the article is to be believed, Nadal will be attempting to "grow up" and behave less like the kid that he comes off as and more like.. well, Roger.

I don't know who's idea this is but I want to say this: DON'T DO IT. We love Rafa because he's Rafa. And we love Roger because he's Roger. If Rafa ends up acting - and looking - like Roger then that won't be any fun at all.

I think Nadal can attract way more people to the sport by being the way he is now. As much as I love Federer, I wouldn't be talking about this right now if it wasn't because of Nadal. What attracted me to the sport was watching Nadal. I loved that he just looked so different from everyone else on the court. His behavior too is way different. I don't doubt that everyone puts a lot of emotion into their game but with Nadal, you see it. You feel like you can empathize and sympathize with him more because he shows his emotions. When I first started watching the guy, I had no idea about tennis. Not a clue. But I watched him anyway because he was that interesting to watch. Federer, as amazingly good as he is, is harder to appreciate if you don't know a thing about tennis. You have to know what makes a good shot, a good play, and a good point, to appreciate just how amazing Federer is. With Nadal you know by the look on his face whether a play was good or bad. Nadal is special because he's Nadal. Not because he's Federer clone.

Please people, keep Nadal the way he is now. And please dump those stupid shirts. Roger looks a lot better in them than Rafa does. Sowwy....

Penguins and Capitals tonight!

While I would love to see this game, I'm still not sure if I'll be able to.... The TV wants a break from all the Habs stuff so it's showing something else tonight. And TSN is still clinging to the belief that it's viewers will see the Senators win a game. But that never stopped me from rambling about the Pens and the Caps, right? Right. Okay. So tonight's game should be fairly interesting. The Caps will be looking to not lose their 4th straight game tonight while the Penguins are looking to capitalize on their 4-2 smashing out of the Flyers and actually get some type of winning streak going again.

Random notes

• This is the second back to back game for both teams.
• While the media has been blowing this so-called issue between Malkin and Ovechkin, I think they should just be quiet. Malkin can (hopefully) fend for himself if indeed Ovechkin is on the warpath and wants to flatten him like a bug. Whatever little thing these two have going on - if indeed it's still going on like the media will have us believe - it's nothing like what Sergei and Grabovski have going on.
  
• Ovechkin hasn't scored in 11 days.
  
• As much as I like the Penguins, I wouldn't mind seeing Ovechkin finally get a goal tonight. And a nice goal too please. Not one of those stupid "oh whoops, it deflected off of me so I get the goal" type of goals that Semin and Fleischmann got against the Habs.
  
• Crosby hasn't scored in.... 4 days. Feels longer than that. I would much prefer to see Malkin getting a goal or two tonight. Well, heck, as long as ANY Penguin scores, I don't care who it is.
  
• And simply for entertainment value I want to see Crosby fight Semin. C'mon, you know you want to see that happen to!
  

Now tell me you didn't like that game

Go on. Say it. What was there not to like? The Habs squashed the Leafs. Halak was good. Ron Wilson looked ready to go off and die....

Oh, you thought I was talking about the Penguins/Predators game? Well, that was awful, yes. Pens should never have allowed 5 consecutive and completely unanswered goals against them. Sheesh.

As the NHL site thing so nicely put it "six different Canadiens found the back of the net en route to a chippy 6-2 dismantling of the Maple Leafs". Chippy? Is that like perky? Yeah, I guess someone was perky after that totally nice game.

Okay fine. So the penalties sucked. The fact that the second period dragged on for twice as long was annoying beyond belief and was making me wonder if all this effort was worth it - especially for the Leafs who were just delaying their inevitable defeat. And what's the deal with Sergei Kostitsyn and Mikhail Grabovski? I thought the whole thing with Malkin and Ovechkin was silly but this definitely tops that. Almost makes you want to speak Belorussian so you can know what insults they're throwing at each other. Almost. But the important stuff is that 1) the Habs squashed the Leafs. 2) they did it with Halak in nets and 3) Ron Wilson looked ready to go off and die.

Let's start from the beginning, yes? The game got started oh so late because the Habbies decided that they wanted to honor the long standing rivalry that the two teams had. Lots of nice applause, especially for Jean Beliveau. Very nice, yes, but can we please start the game now? We're already running almost half an hour behind and I would like to go to sleep at a decent hour tonight!

I want to say that I love Toskala. He made so many errors tonight that it was impossible for the Habs not to capitalize on at least... 5 of them. I'm only slightly kidding here.

Sergei opened up first of many goals tonight when Toskala was caught half way out of his net trying to... I have no idea what he was trying to do, honestly. He was obviously paying more attention to Brisebois and Andrei but Sergei takes the puck which I think rebounded off of Toskala when Andrei took a shot at him and plonks the puck into the half empty net so nicely provided by Toskala. Oh and this was technically a powerplay goal by the way. Another plus of the night. Lapierre then took a stupid penalty for interference and the Habs were able to kill it. As soon as Lapierre got out of the penalty box he took a pass from Hamlrik and put the puck over Toskala's shoulder. 2-0 for the Habbies. Unfortunately Weber was soon to take another bad penalty and within seconds of him being in the box, Kaberle rammed the puck from the blueline and put it past Halak. 2-1. That would be the last time until the end of the third period that the Leafs were going to score though. We'll just pretend that it wasn't Weber in the penalty box, okay? He wasn't awful tonight. I mean.. he wasn't brilliant beyond belief but what were expecting? The hockey gods in disguise as Weber? Jeez.... Anyway, at this point I was wondering how many times Toskala was going to provide the Habs with a chance to score a goal as he kept getting caught leaving half of the net open. Well, just as I was voicing my complaints, there was a huge gathering in front of the net, Toskala gets caught off balance again and Latendresse put the puck away. And that people would make it a lovely 3-1 going into the second period.

By all accounts the second period was a mess. Well, okay it started beautifully. Kovalev decided that it was high time to stop hitting the posts and he finally got a nice goal into the back of the net. Oh wait. He had one last night too. Maybe this is the start of something good? Anyway, it was nice. Anyway, after that nice goal, it became a mess. 14 penalties were dished out in all. Yes, yes, 7 each. Finger went off for roughing, after Boullion had gone off for tripping. They were followed by White, Blake, Plekanec and Sergei who all got 10 minutes for misconduct. I completely missed the big deal there. And they were then joined by Kostopoulos and Mayers who got into a fight and about two seconds later Boullion and that new guy that the Leafs got joined them too for fighting. Oh and apparently the Habs "abused the officials" at some point in there and they took a penalty for that. AND THEN! Grabovski went and took a high sticking call about thirty seconds after that. Just when I was hoping that the game would get back on track, the Leafs get a penalty for too many people on the ice. And guess what? The Habs scored on the powerplay. Lang does all the work getting to the net, he either attempts at a pass to Andrei or else he actually takes a shot at Toskala but either way, Andrei is right at the net by this point and the puck touches his stick as it goes. It wasn't pretty but it was a nice goal to have. Oh and to complete the penalties, Latendresse took a hooking call with less than a minute to go in the second. Bah. In case you were wondering about Halak... he came up with some big saves in the second period. I think he's looking good again.

After what could only be called an exhausting second period, things toned down a lot in the third. By this point everyone was tired and ready to go home and Toskala had been yanked for Joseph. In all fairness to Joseph, he did fair better than Toskala. Mind you, some of it was luck. Latendresse had a shot on a half empty net that rang off the post. So sad. Lapierre had a swipe at him which deflected off his arm or something. But guess who finally put the puck past Joseph? Pacioretty. He was standing in front of the net when the puck deflected off a sprawling Joseph and he put it nicely away. Okay so his stick also broke in the process but no one cares about that as long as the puck went in. Poor D'Agostini had a great chance a goal but got robbed when Mitchell took a swipe at him. Mitchell went off for slashing after that. Meh, they should have just awarded a goal to D'Agostini. It wasn't like the Leafs were escaping with a win tonight. Poor Matt.

The end of the period was another mess and Grabovski and Sergei had another go at each other. I guess it was too much to hope for that they were just going to call it quits for the night. I dunno why Sergei got ten minutes for misconduct when it was Grabovski that was the one skating around swearing in some language or other - I wish that there were mikes down near the ice - and pushed the refs around. It's kind of sad because there can't be that many players from Belarus and these two end up fighting every time they see each other. Kind of sad. Kinda. Lapierre and some other guy from the Leafs were also sent off for two minutes for something. Didn't matter. Stajan got a weird flukey goal in past Halak but no one cared that much. It was 6-2 for the Leafs and there was thirty seconds left. For Halak's sake, I wish that the goal hadn't gone in, but he really couldn't have done anything on that one with a pile of people blocking his way. It was a minor blemish on an otherwise very good night for him.

SO!

The gooood -

1. 6 -2 win for the Habbies. It was a nice way to avenge that embarrassing loss. I like the Habs when they are motivated. Can we be motivated all the time now? Please?
   
2. Halak. You know the Leafs actually outshot the Habs 32 to 29? Now tell me that you still hate Halak. Go on. Just tell me also where you live so I can come and shout at you.
   
3. Is it wrong to say that I take imsense pleasure in seeing Ron Wilson upset? I just do. I'm sorry. I can't help it.
4. I liked that six different Habbies scored
5. again, the powerplay wasn't awful tonight. 2 for 7 isn't bad for a team that's 27th in the league on powerplay goals... *coughs*
   

the baaaad

1. penalties
   
2. penalties
3. penalties
4. I guess the Habs just couldn't put up a repeat performance of the very disciplined play that they had in Madison Square Gardens? WHY THE HECK NOT?! It's a waste of effort to get into fights with the Leafs. They can pick as many fights as they want. It didn't help them one bit in scoring last night. Not one.
   
5. letting the Leafs get two goals in. Especially that last one.
6. that the Habbies didn't win 8-2. They could have done it! I'm joking... 6-2 is still great.. but still... when I think of all the open nets that Toskala left for them.... oh man.... the potential to be an even bigger washout was so there..... *sighs*
   

the interesting

1. The Habs have now technically scored 18 goals in their last three games. I say technically because that one against Florida was went to shootouts. Although, I guess it still would count as six goals as Markov was the only one to score... hehe... Anyway,18 goals is a lot of scoring, yeah?

I got a proposal for Brian Burke (in all my grammticaly incorrect glory)

1. Trade Toskala for a forward who can make it to the net and score. Oh and there's no need to put in Curtis Joseph as goalie. You've got Luke Schenn who is clearly a heck of a lot better than Toskala is at keeping the puck out of the net. I mean c'mon... that goal would have SO gone in if the guy hadn't been there to stop it with his foot.....I mean helloooo? Who's the goalie here? Toskala or Schenn? 'cause if I remember correctly it was Schenn in the nets and Toskala looking lost again.
   

There was something else I wanted to say but my brain is dying right now and I can't remember what it is.... but I do have to mention a couple of other things before my brain totally freezes...

TENNIS!

1. Nadal is out. Lost to a very chippy Gael Monfils. It was kind of sad but Rafa really got out of his comfort zone today. And a Rafa out of his comfort zone is a very bad Rafa.... Seriously... He made a lot of errors at really bad times whereas Monfils was the opposite. Errors, erros, errors, ooo big moment coming up! Time to get a winner! Also.. what the heck is with this shirt that Rafa's been wearing in this tournament? It looks like something Federer would wear. I mean, look at it. It has SLEEVES! And a COLLAR. And funny STRIPES. The only explanation that I have is that Nike thinks that Rafa is Roger now that he's no 1 and gave him the wrong shirt to wear. YUCK!
2. Speaking of Roger and clothes...Have I ever mentioned how much I detest this latest outfit that' he's got? I hated since I first saw it in Shanghai and I still hate it now. Moving on... I was not a huge fan of that second set of Federer's against Kohlscreiber or something that's spelled similar to that. The first set was good for Federer and terrible for the Gemand but then Federer started making errors and the German dude started picking it up and the next thing you know, it's 5-1 on in the tie break for the German. Well, Federer put to rest any thoughts that this was going to a third set and he started playing like the future no 1 that he is. So it was byebye Mr. German guy and hello to the semis for Federer.
   
3. The semis will see Roddick and Monfils on the top half of the draw and Federer and Murray (who ran over some poor Ukrainian guy in the quarter finals). I think we'll see Murray and Roddick in the finals. Boohoo.... Not that anyone cares about Doha. We're all waiting for the Australian Open!
   

Back to reality...

...and honestly, the reality of the situation for both the Habs and the Pens is very grim right now.

Let's start with the Pens because at least their situation is worse. Amid all the attention focused on the Juniors, I did indeed forget that the Pens were looking to end their four game loser skid last night against the Rangers at Madison Square Gardens. Not only did not they win, but they were shut out 4-0. This is of course terrible news for the Pens and I have no idea what needs to be done to get them back on track - and at this point, I don't think they know either. Obviously Lundqvist deserves a lot of the credit as well and he proved me wrong when I said he was on a downslide (well, until last night, he was!). Apparently he had some really fantastic saves on Malkin and Crosby. Pens will take on Atlanta next and if they can't pull out a win there then.... well... we'll deal with that one when and if it happens....

Now this whole shutout thing for Lundqvist has me exceptionally worried as a Habs fan because well, guess who we have to take on next! Why do we have to clean up after the Pens again?! The reality of the situation here is that we've got major goalie issues right now. There were hopes that Price could at least sit in as backup tomorrow and possibly play against the Leafs the day after but now it's looking like he won't be able to do either of those. And that people, is bad news. Halak is going through a major crisis here and right now no one has any confidence in him. Why anyone thinks that putting in Marc Denis is going to save the Habs against the Rangers and the Leafs is beyond me because he looked a lot worse than Halak. Halak may have been bad but at least he wasn't floundering around looking like he had no idea what he was doing in nets.

I don't know what the deal is with Halak because he's been stellar for the Habs before when Price had his last little bout of problems. But I still think that he should at least be given another try - hey look, if Pat Quinn can put in Dustin Tokarski for the finals even after he let in 9 goals in his previous two games and looked awful at some points, I think Carbo can put in Halak - and we'll just pray that the defense gets its act together and actually backs him up. The defense has been quite bad in the last two games and that needs to change.

Later: Halak will be in nets tomorrow. No news on when anyone is coming back other than Koivu who may just be back on Saturday. Although we all know how good Carbo is at giving estimates on when players are coming back.... *coughs* Weber apparently practiced with the Habbies today and I'm really hoping that he's given at least a shot at playing. I mean c'mon, what was the point of bringing him up if he's not going to play? If he's just there to sit it out in the press box, I think O'Byrne was doing that job just fine, thanks. We shall see... As long as 1) Lundqvist forgets how to play again and 2) no one pulls an Alexander Semin type of "fight", we have a chance at not being the laughing stock of the league tomorrow. Whooopie!

Okay, enough reality. It's depressing already. I'm going to put up a few random thoughts on the Juniors tournament last week.

Best moment - Winning the gold, right? Right.

Best goal of the tournament - Eberle's goal with 5.4 seconds left on the clock! Esposito's game winning goal against Sweden was also really nice. And Tavares had some nifty goals in the tournament too, but Eberle's is definitely the best.

Best save of the tournament - oh my.... I think Tokarski's save on Colin Wilson in the Canada/USA game was the best. Wilson was just standing there for what seemed like forever and it looked as though for sure he would put the puck into the back of the net, but Tokarski just grabbed it out of nowhere. Amazing. Okay so maybe he didn't know that he had it at first but whatever. He saved it!

Best game - Canada vs Russia. Like I've said repeatedly, that one is one for the ages.

Best team - Canada. Russia, the USA and Sweden all had some very talented players on their team but in the end Canada played the best as a team. They had their moments though. There were times when they looked like a bunch of guys who had just been plonked together about a week ago. There were times when it looked like all was lost. But they pulled through as a team and won it.

Most surprising team - Slovakia. Expectations were that they would get relagated but instead they posted one of the best performances in years from their team.

Most disappointing team - Team USA. They had a strong team and were definitely medal favorites and were even in a strong position to make the finals. Unfortunately they crashed out of the tournament and ended up fifth.

Best forward over all - Nikita Filatov. I love the skill that both Tavares and Filatov brought to this tournament but there's something really awesome about watching Filatov. He just moves the puck so well and he's incredibly fast too. His two goals against Slovakia were amazing. The one where he stole the puck off the Slovak defenseman and scored reminded me of the goal that Dastyuk got on Huet in the Winter Classic. Beautiful stuff there.

Best defense over all - I'm going to say.... I dunno *g* The Swedes had some excellent defenders as did the Russians. Goncharov and Backlund are coming to mind...

Best goalie over all - I'm going to say Jaroslav Janus. He carried that team to fourth place and came really close to bringing them to the finals even. He was amazing. Halak should be taking some inspiration here!

The team I really wished could have done better - Kazakhstan. Those poor guys didn't really have a chance but I wished that they could have at least not get run over by every single team that they played. Oh well...

Because it's always summer somewhere.... it's tennis season again!

We may have half a meter or more of snow here in Canada, but in Doha, Qatar, there's no such thing as snow so it's back to playing tennis, baby! Yesterday in marked the official beginning of the tennis season. And today saw Federer and Nadal finally take to the courts again! Finally! I didn't know that they were playing actually and I missed Nadal steamrollering over Fabrice Santoro (which was okay) but I did catch the end of the Roger Federer show today. And let me this: Roger is off to a great start! He looked really good at there against... whoever the poor Italian guy was. There were some typical great Federer shots going on and the poor Italian had no chance at all. I thought Federer just looked sooo much better than when he was in Shanghai. Hopefully the food poisoning stuff and back problems are over for now and he can make a serious bid for the Australian open. Yay for Roger!

Oh and poor Nole got beaten by Ernest Gulbis in Brisbane. Not a great start to the season obviously, but there's plenty of time for him to get his act together and beat Murray in the future.

My top 10 events for this year

...or half the year. I only came to this whole thing in April. Talk about late to the party...Anyway. The list. It's late because I was waiting to see what Team Canada could do.

1. Wimbledon final between Roger and Rafa. What can I say?It was one heck of a fantastic match that had me permanently hooked on tennis.
   
2. Spain winning the Euro Cup. That was really cool for Spain, who hadn't won in over 40 years. I was screaming for a while *G*
   
3. Canada vs. Russia in the World Junior Hockey Championship semi-finals. That was a game for the ages. Canada came very close to losing the tournament and seeing their four gold medal streak come to an end. But Jordan Eberle had a different idea and with just 5.4 seconds left in the game, he tied the goal. Canada ultimately won it in shoutouts but man... that game will be one for the ages!
4. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh showed a lot of determination in extending their stay in the finals. Sykora getting that goal in the third period of OT was really awesome. Okay, so I was actually asleep when he scored and missed the party but yeah.... sue me...
   
5. Federer winning the Olympic gold medal with Wawrinka. I've never seen the guy so incredibly happy after winning a match before.
   
6. Rafa winning the Olympics gold medal. That was a great way to pretty much finish off his amazing summer. Two grand slams, an Olympic gold medal AND the no. 1 spot? Come on...!
   
7. The Canada/US game in the round robbin stage of the Junior World event thing. Great hockey. Better than a lot of NHL games I've had to sit through...
8. That match in the round-robbin stages of the Tennis Masters Cup between Roger and Murray. Too bad Roger was again on the losing side of that one but it was a really good match nonetheless and it completely tired out Murray *g*
   
9. The Davis Cup final. Okay, so I didn't want Spain to win but you have to admit that it was quite the feat for the Rafa-less team to beat the odds and win it. Yes, it's very tragic for Argentina but hopefully that can get things together and win it another time.
10. Team Canada winning the Junior World Championship for the 5th time in a row and 15th time overall right here at home in Canada. Fantastic stuff!
    
11. Game 2 of the Montreal-Boston series in the Stanley playoffs. No, the game itself wasn't particularly amazing but I wouldn't be hear writing any of this stuff if it wasn't for that game. So it's SPECIAL *g*2
    

I never thought I would be saying this....

.....especially considering how I cheered for Spain in the semis of the Davis Cup, but I'm very disappointed that Spain one today. With Del Potro out it was up to Jose Acasuso to keep Argentina's hopes alive. Now, I mean no disrespect to Acasuso, but this definitely spelled out Argentina's doom. His level of play was no where near Nalbandian's or Del Potro's. Even if he had not been playing up to his usual abilities, I still think that Del Potro would have been able to beat Verdasco. Verdasco did have moments of goodness - there was hardly any brilliant tennis in that match (brilliance is Rafa and Roger, oh and Nalbandian beating Ferrer on Friday, thank you *g*) - but on a whole if he had been up against someone better, Argentina would have gone to a fifth match. He had a lot of errors -and in particular double faults. A lot of Verdasco's easy points came on Acasuso's unforced errors. By the end of the match Acasuso was clearly spent both physically (he did call the trainer at one point) and mentally (I'm sure he was aware that this is the second time that his match has cost Argentina the Davis Cup). I feel incredibly bad for Argentina right now. They came in as the favorites and lost due to unforseen injuries. Well, partially unforseen. Surely they would have known that del Potro would have been tired coming into this event after jsut coming from Shanghai. But I doubt anyone thought that he wouldn't be able to play on Sunday. Acasuso calling the trainer at the end of the fourth set was just the straw that broke the camel's back, I think.

So it's Spain who goes home with the Silver Salad Bowl today. To their credit, Sanchez was brilliant in coaching his team. I kind of got the sense that Spain behaved more like a team than Argentina did. Funny enough, this is Spain's third Davis Cup win and the third time that they've won it in the same year as the summer Olympics. All three years Spain has gone away with a medel in the Olympics (doubles teams took home bronze in 2000, 2004, and 2008, while we all know who one gold in the singles in 2008). Well, next year if Team Federer doesn't make it to the finals - and that does seem like abit of a stretch for them to make it- then I will hope for Argentina again. Unless of course Nadal plays.....

Ramblings of the sick and tired

I'm sick and tired and I'm already missing tennis. Or maybe I'm just sick and don't feel like doing anything other than watch tennis...or maybe I'm just tired of whining about how badly the Habs are doing. Whatever. The point is I'm now going to go and ramble about tennis because I feel like a broken record talking about the Habs right now and I don't feel good enough to do anything productive yet....

Federer..Of course I had to be late to the party and start watching him when he isn't doing so well. How typical. The first time I watch Roger Federer he loses the biggest Grand Slam event of the year in the longest final ever. If we stop saying that he's going to die soon - and we really should. The guy is only 27 - then maybe we can step back and look at how his year really went. First off, he was sick. No, I'm not making up excuses for him. I'm stating a fact. Mono is something you don't want to have and once you have it, you really shouldn't be globe trotting in playing high level tennis. I believe Mario Ancic was out for six months with mono and along with injuries he went from being 9th in the world to 135th (he's now 36th). Federer's gone from 1 to 2 (let's pretend that Djokovic isn't actually within 10 points of being no 2). This year, he's won 4 titles which includes the US Open. He's also made the semis of the Australian Open (I believe he was at least starting to show symptoms of mono at this point), the finals of the French Open and he did come very close to winning Wimbledon (let's not forget that for most of the year Nadal has been the fitest player on the tour). Most people would be very pleased with that result at the Grand Slams, no? I mean c'mon, we're saying Murray's fantastic for making the quarter finals of Wimbledon, winning in Cincinnati and Madrid and making the finals of the US Open. Here comes the big BUT though. And that is.... Murray isn't Federer. Murray hasn't (as of yet) been ranked no 1 for a record amount of time and won 13 Grand Slams (among other stuff). Federer has set this incredibly high standard over the last few years. There had to be a point where even if he was still in good physical condition - and I'm going to marvel at the fact that he has remained in relatively good physical condition this long - he wouldn't be able to keep that up. It had to happen. Is this year a reflection of how the next year will go for him? I doubt it. Hopefully he will be in better shape for next year. 27 isn't really that old. He's not about to die. He can still come out and win a pile of more matches. Yes, it will be harder with Djokovic and Murray getting better. But that's the way it works.

Nadal... Of course I missed the clay season entirely so I missed most of the really good stuff there but yeah, all in all I got to see him win for most of the summer which was great. He's obviously had a wonderful year. The only question now is "can he repeat that?" I doubt it. He's already wrecked up his knees up and if he doesn't want to retire at 25 he better stop doing things that will make his knees even worse. A Nadal-less tour would be very sad and boring so please, Rafa, don't kill your knees trying to stay no 1. Being no 2 is okay as long as Federer is no 1.

Djokovic....For the sake of trying to be partisan - err okay, for the sake of having something to say - I will say this: Djokovic needs to be more consistant. No ifs, ands, or buts. He played really well at the start of the year and then promptly dropped off the face of the tennis planet. No cool for a guy who is supposed to be no 3 in the world. You just don't make early exits at Wimbledon, Toronto, and get beaten by a guy who was 10th in the finals at Cincinnati. Oh and that's to say nothing about how things went after the US Open....silly loss to Tsonga at Bangkok, a stupid loss to Karlovic at Madrid, an even sadder loss at Paris to Tsonga....And who did he lose to at the Masters Cup thing? Oh yeah, TSONGA! Surprised yet? Yes, he beat Davydenko and del Potro in Shanghai. But c''mon... del Potro was a bit of a given. The guy's good but please, he hardly came up with his best that week and he's no where near Djokovic's supposed level yet. If you want to stay in the top three you need to be more consistant. You can't win one big tournament and a few smaller ones then not play your best for six months. Of course as a Federer fan I wouldn't mind if Djokovic forgot how to play again, but if you're Djokovic or anyone who wants him to win, you don't want him forgetting how to play - even though it would make ME very happy.

Murray... what to say? He's on perfect track to be no 3 or even no 2. That hurts to say that. I keep hearing about how he's more fit now - and I'm sure he is - but I still think he needs more work in that department. He looked absolutely wasted agianst Federer in Shanghai (I know, it's the end of the year and he's tired. Join the club, dude!) Or we can just settle for the fact that some people are just more fit than others and no amount of work is going to make him more fit than Nadal. I want to see Murray play Nadal when he's not tired and banged up and then we'll see how that goes...

Davis Cup thing... A few days ago Spain announced who would be replacing Nadal for the last spot on the team. I was completely not following this but when I heard Nadal was out I wasn't particularly concerned about Spain finding someone. Spain still has plenty of decent players including Moya, Almagro, Ferrero and Robredo. And who does Spain decide to go with? Marcel Granollers. If you were asking "who?" then you would be thinking the same thing as I was. I remember hearing his name at Madrid but I never saw him play. Okay, so I never saw anyone other than Nadal and Federer play but that's beside the point. The point is, who is the guy and why did Spain pick him to replace Nadal? Maybe because he's around the same age and height Rafa? Hey, if I can pretend that Gilles Simon is Rafa then surely Spain can pretend that this Marcel dude is Rafa? At least they speak the same language! I seriously have no idea why they chose him. He doesn't seem to be good on carpet (but then again, who is?) or particularly wonderful in general (but maybe that's unfair considering who we're comparing him to). At this point this tournament is really Argentina's to lose. They picked the surface (I bet you anything that they're regretting it now that Nadal isn't playing), they have two players who are very capable of being good whereas Spain has Ferrer as their top player, and of course now that Nadal isn't playing there really should be nothing to stop Argentina. But we shall see. Maybe Granollers will actually be wonderfully fantastic. Although considering he's ranked 56th in the world it might have to take a little bit more imagination to pretend that he's Rafa....but it's possible!

RANDOM FACT OF THE DAY - Did you know that if you mistype "atp" as "ato" and hit the enter button before you realize that you've made a typo you will have "the Australian Taxation Office" as the first hit? Yeah. Unless you want tax stuff make sure you type it correctly....

How I think the tennis season went (updated again, because I thought of something else)

But before that. I get proven wrong again in this stupid masters cup thing. Surprising, isn't it? Okay so not really. Djokovic won which was surprising. I didn't think he would come out and do so well to win 6-1, 7-5 (hmm, I thought the finals were best of five sets?). Well, he won and I'm going to cry now because even although I wanted him to win, he's now within TEN points of displacing Federer as no 2. Of course this means that Federer has to go and win the Australian open for sure now *nods*

But anyway... now the season has technically ended I can ramble about it. I’m not even going to talk about the best player on the tour. We all know who he is and what he’s done this year so I’m just going to move on….

note: seeing as I only saw about half of the season, I only get to ramble about half of it, therefore probably missing out on a lot of good stuff from earlier on. Sue me.

Best shot - okay this was really hard.... I've seen a lot of shots that were just downright amazing. Until the other day the ATP thing had a list of plays of the year that you could view and vote on. Apparently now that the voting is over, they're gone, but you can stil find 'em on youtube. Of the nine that they had I liked 1) Federer where he hits a winner while basically running in the opposite direction (he was running towards the back of the court and somehow still managed to hit the ball over the net). 2) Djokovic getting into an extended rally with Nadal and dropping his racquet before picking it up and actually hitting a winner two shots later (and he even had time to look around for his raquet after he dropped it) 3) Nadal making this unbelievable run across the court to hit a winner against Davydenko (if I was Davydenko I would be screaming because there should have been no way that Nadal should have hit that back). But my favorite would be one that they didn't have. It was when Federer was playing Djokovic at the US Open. Djokovic came to the net and smashed the ball. Game over, you would think. But he didn't hit it hard enough and Federer managed to hit it back and Djokovic just stands put and watches the ball fly past him and into the back of the court. Youtube it. I'll save you the hassle of of looking. Click <here>. It's definitely the best shot. Okay, so I'm just saying that 'cause I saw it live and I was in complete awe at the time. And it's Federer and I've come to the conclusion that I'm definitely a Federer fan right now.... It's still the best shot though =p

Best match - Obviously that goes to the Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal. It was only the third live tennis match that I had ever seen and it got me permantely hooked on tennis. It was absolutely amazing (okay, so the rain delay breaks were beyond annoying but what can I say?). I just wish I had known more about tennis when I watched it.

Most lopsided final with a decent amount of people watching it - by all accounts that would have to be Federer's loss to Nadal at the French Open. I may not have seen it, but the surely losing 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 isn't so cool from Roger's point of view? Or Nadal's either. I mean, yeah, you won and winning's great, but surely the finals are supposed to be a little less...lopsided? Especially when you consider who's playing... I mean c'mon, it's Federer and Nadal!!! We're not talking about Federer vs. Murray here...

...or are we? Most anti-climatic final with a decent amount of people watching it- That would be the US open. After all the talk of Murray doing so well against Nadal and Federer being Federer and the four time defending champion and the whole "is the year that Federer finally gets beaten?" thing there was a lot of hype. Unfortunately the final failed to live up to the hype. Murray was clearly not up to top form after taking two days to beat Nadal and the result was a straight set mauling by Federer in less than 2 hours (the third set in particular was a very one-sided event). I'm not complaining though. I was very happy for Federer. At least I didn't have to go nuts like I did during Wimbledon. And I got to eat dinner at a decent hour. All in all, while it was very anti-climatic, it was nice from my point of view.

Most anti-climatic tournament - The Tennis Masters Cup. Do we really need this tournament? I can't speak for the players, but as a spectator, I much prefer the Grand Slams. Winning a Grand Slam seems like a much bigger deal than winning this thing at the end of the year. The top eight are in theory supposed to be in the finals but can we honestly say that the top eight played like the top eight? First let's deal with the theory bit. With Nadal pulling out of the tournament he got replaced with Gilles Simon. Federer tried to play through injuries but that clearly wasn't a good idea. Djokovic hadn't played his best tennis since May and wasn't looking too good early on. As I said, I'm completely surprised that he won it. After a strong start Murray just fell apart, which isn't so cool considering how well he's been doing all summer. Davydenko quietly went through to the finals only to get beaten pretty badly by Djokovic at the end. Roddick pulled out mid-way because of injuries, which just further made things dull. There is no way that Stepenak would be considered at this point someone who should have been in the top eight. Now, I know they had trouble getting other people who were ranked higher to be an alternate, but that just further proves my point. The players themselves don't even find it worth it to go in as an alternate. Tsonga fell a bit flat which was disappointing because he's done pretty well at the very end of the season. Simon did well but he shouldn't have been there. And del Potro was probably thinking about the Davis Cup. Being the end of the year, everyone's injured and/or exhausted. And when you're injured/exhausted you're not going to play your best tennis. I don't know what would make the event more interesting and special - no one will doubt that, while Djokovic probably deserved to win, he's not the best player on the tour right now- but something should be done.

Tournament with the most upsets - Wimbledon. Okay, so Nadal and Federer went to the finals in spectacular fashion but where were the other top players? Not on the courts that’s for sure. Oh well. At least Safin got to provide something interesting in the semis *g*

Which reminds me... The worst challenge ever - goes to Marat Safin in the semis of Wimbledon. Federer serves, Safin hits the net and promptly gets upset and challenges. Now, even in the very fuzzy and tinty screen on youtube, *I* can tell that the ball was in. And what was the result of the challenge? It was in. By a lot. Even Federer thought it was funny. Safin didn't even look upset that he lost the challenge. He knew it was in. Why he would want to waste the challenge is beyond me.

Top three things you shouldn't do during a tournament - 1) don't get the hated by the home crowd. It's not pretty and it makes you look really bad. Yes, I'm looking at you Novak. 2) break stuff because you're upset. Yes, Marat Safin, we know you have a temper, but is it necessary to take a swat at the chairs after you lost to Federer? 3) swear at the umpire guy. Yeah, you may be upset, but c'mon, the guy is just trying to do his job. Why is Roddick coming to mind right about now?

Worst match - After thinking this over for a while, I have to say the semi-finals of the Olympics between Nadal and Djokovic. I've seen a lot of matches were one player clearly has a bad match but I'm choosing this one because both players were awful. The match lasted 2 hours and 10 mins and was a best of three sets. Together, Nadal and Djokovic had 12 aces, 31 winners, 6 double faults, 11 break points, 6 actual breaks of serve, and just under a 100 unforced errors (yes, I dug up the stats!). It was a mess. Granted, it was a fun mess. But a mess nonetheless.

Most surprising match – Gilles Muller, a qualifier, beating Davydenko in the fourth round of the US Open. I’m not sure if the fact that Muller is from Luxembourg or the fact that he was only the second qualifier ever to reach the US Open quarter finals was more surprising. There was something on the website of the US open that said "top 50 expected and unexpected things" or something like that. And in the list under expected things was "a multi-lingual guy from a tiny European country charges through the draw." Unexpected "the guy was from Luxembourg." I thought it was really funny for no other reason than I'm very easily amused. You would instantly asume that they're talking about Federer but nope. It's Muller! Yeah, I'm easily amused. Sue me.

Most disappointing match - probably Federer's loss to James Blake at the Olympics in the quarter finals. The Olympics don't come around often and gold medal in singles is one of only a few things that Federer doesn't have.

Most frustrating match - Well, I've seen a lot over the summer, but I would have to say Federer's win over Igor Andreev in the fourth round of the US open. I don't pretend to know what's going on in Federer's brain but he just came out really flat against Andreev who he should have beaten in straight sets. But no. It got extended to five very agonizing sets mainly due to Federer's errors (although to his credit, Andreev was playing very well).

Saddest way to lose a match - Djokovic's semi-final loss to Nadal at the Olympics. He smashed the ball, Nadal ran off the court and hit it back and then Djokovic smashes it again and misses the court entirely. He has a whole open court to hit but instead he hits it towards Nadal and out. Poor Novak!

Weirdest victory celebration - Federer winning the gold medal in doubles with Wawrinka. He practically went insane. He was jumping around all over the place and ended up rolling around on the court as well. Very weird on its own and when you consider that it's *Federer*... then it's beyond weird.

The player who everyone should watch more - Marin Čilić. Another tall guy who has plenty of potential. 'nuff said. Besides, I like his name. What do you mean we don't watch people because they have nice names? What I have been watching Nadal for then? Oh right.... never mind...

Most frustrating player - I'm sure no one will argue that David Nalbandian is still the most frustrating player on the tour. When he plays well he's absolutely brilliant and he beats the top three players in the same tournament. When he doesn't play well he gets beaten by people like Canada's top ranked male player who is ranked 111 in the world. While it's nice to see a player who treats tennis the way it's supposed to be (as a game), it's still really frustrating to watch him sometimes. Thankfully I'm not Argentinean. And thankfully they have del Potro.

Speaking of which... the most improved player over the summer has to be del Potro. It's easy to say Murray, but I think there wasn't too much doubt that Murray was very capable of being good and it was only a matter of time before he started living up to that expectation. del Potro on the other hand, has gone from being ranked 65 at the beginning of July to finishing the year as 8th. To get there he had won 23 consecutive matches (which is the second longest winning streak of this year behind a certain Spanish guy named Nadal). That's definitely got to count for something, no?

The player with the most unpronounceable name (aka a mini lesson in how to pronounce Serbian and Croatian names)- Actually, this would be a tie between Djokovic and Cilic (I wonder if it's a coincidence that they're from Serbia and Croatia?). Djokovic, because no one (including Djokovic himself) can agree on how the first "o" is pronounced. It's either an "oh" or an "awh". Someone should ask Djokovic's parents instead of the guy who hits himself on the head with his tennis racquet and has probably suffered some form of brain damage. Or we could do what I've been suggesting and just call him Novak and be done with it. So much simpler and easier to type, no?

Anyway, moving on...Cilic is actually incredibly straight forward but no one can say it because they don't try. The problem is there's supposed to be a little doodad on the top of the Cs which indicate how to pronounce them. But being the silly people that we are over here we don't put them in. If we did then Djokovic's name would be like this Đoković and Cilic's would be like this Čilić (let's just pretend that Serbia uses the Latin alphabet more than the Cyrillic when in fact it's the opposite). And when you see that little thing on top of Čilić's name you know that it's pronounced something like "chee-lee-ch". The first C is like a CH sound. It's not like an S! You just have to TRY to say it right. Somehow we all get Ančić's name right (I never ever hear anyone say "An-si-ch" but then again, when was the last time I saw the poor dude play?) without the little doodads but we never get Čilić's name right. Poor Marin!

Most annoying moment of the US open - when the announcers got bored of talking about tennis and started talking about golf. It wasn't like they were even talking about anything important about golf. They were talking about how THEY liked to play golf and how they hadn't been able to as much lately. Hello? We're here to watch tennis, not golf.... *dies*

Best at interviews - Roddick. Hands down. He has always has something amusing to say though you usually miss some of it because you can't tell just how serious he's being. If you could rank people by how they gave interviews then Roddick would be no 1 for sure.

The player that you really wished would be interviewed in his own language - Nadal. He sounds so much better in Spanish! No more garbled and mumbled English for Nadal. Interview him in Spanish, darnit! At least he's better than Pavel Datsyuk from the Detroit Red Wings. Man, I had no idea that guy was even speaking in English at first...

Two things about Nadal- 1) Does he really have to be that noisy when he plays? 2) why does he have to bite everything he wins? It’s bad for your teeth.

The silliest surface to play on - Carpet. I mean c'mon.... carpet??? It's such a silly surface. And no one is even good on it. Except for maybe Federer. And Nalbandian. Although see the point above on why Nalbandian only half counts here. I wonder if they have to vacuum the carpet?

Things to watch for next year – 1) Murray, Murray, Murray. And Federer. Djokovic may be within two points of being no 2 but unless he can start winning tournaments, Murray will overtake him. Of course I"m hoping that Roger stays as no 2 at the very least and Murray sort of crashes, but I'm probably not going to get my way on that. 2) It should be interesting to see how Federer does this year after having - by his standards - a crappy year plagued with mono and injuries. And let’s not forget that he’s only two Grand Slams away from beating Sampras’ record of 14. 3) The Australian open should be very interesting also, with four people very capable of taking the title. 4) For the first time in a while the top four could become very close in points....5) Oh and be sure to watch Nadal too. Especially during the clay season. Say "byebye" to everyone *G*