- 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.
- 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*
- 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!
- 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...
- Federer winning the Olympic gold medal with Wawrinka. I've never seen the guy so incredibly happy after winning a match before.
- 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...!
- 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...
- 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*
- 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.
- 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!
- 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
My top 10 events for this year
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
...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.
How I think the tennis season went (updated again, because I thought of something else)
Sunday, November 16, 2008
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*
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*
Dare I even hope that this is the start to a good day?
Saturday, November 15, 2008
So it's Davydenko vs Djokovic tomorrow and some ungodly hour in the morning for me!!!! Davydenko just delt Murray a nice straight set loss (7-5, 6-2) and Djokovic managed to edge out Simon (3-6, 6-4, 7-5). Don't know how the matches went so I'll have to wait for the replays (hopefully the lovely tv will be nice at play both of the matches. But I doubt it).
I would never have pegged Davydenko to be in the finals but there he is. Looking back I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. His group had two people who had never been in the masters cup before. Tsonga sort of squeaked through at the last minute because of a strong performance at the end of the season, and del Potro, as the youngest and definitely the least experienced player and probably the most distracted (davis cup!), was at a disadvantage. I know I said Tsonga was going through to the semis, but I thought that he would've had more momentum after winning in Paris and Davydenko did have a history of not doing well at this event. As for the whole Murray thing... well, I did say that it depended a lot on how Murray felt. He came out dead against Federer and I guess he couldn't recover enough to beat Davydenko. Next time Murray. Maybe...I still want Federer to win it again....
Liverpool beat Bolton 2-0 and I'm now waiting on Chelsea and Real Madrid to win too. In theory, they should be able to beat their opponents, considering Valladolid and West Brom are practically at the bottom....then again, everyone from Real Madrid seems to be all knocked up... but still.... they should win... in theory....I hate theory.
As the title of this says, dare I hope that this is the start to a good day? The Habs seem rather doomed on paper. Halak's in goal - nothing wrong with Halak, he can be good and he needs to play sometime. I just seem to be getting the impression that we're only using him tonight because Price bombed out against the Bruins - Komisarek's out with injuries from that fight with Lucic, Sergei Kostistyn is probably out as well (don't know what happened to him). I think I'm missing something here too but anyway... It's not like the Flyers' have the best defense around these days either. And it's not like I have to watch Briere who's out with some other injury again. And it's not like they're playing in Philly, though I doubt everyone is going to be pleased with them tonight. Oh and, Biron did let in a pile of goals against Pittsburgh (but then again, so did Fleury who got pulled at for the third period), so as long as he stays completely uninspired to do well against the team that he was completely inspired to beat in the playoffs (inspiration + Montreal + Biron = no goals by Montreal), we're okay. Oh and it would be nice if Lupul and Richards also forgot how to score goals too. Yeah, on paper, we're so dead. But as we keep learning, what's on paper doesn't translate to what happens. But for the sake of not having to avoid tomorrow's paper (and my Habs-hating sister), I really hope they win.
Later: Chelsea ran over West Brom 3-0. Well, they looked a little slow at first but then they scored all their goals within a ten minute period towards the end of the 1st half, which sort of deflated WB a little bit. They picked up in the 2nd but they didn't have too many good chances (and whoever the guy who wasn't Cech was stopped most of the good chances). So yeah. I'm pleased. Real Madrid lost. Which is sad, but at least it was only 1-0. I'll take Liverpool and Chelsea winning.
I'm waiting for the Canadian American football game (apparently my dad doesn't like me calling it American football because we play it differently in Canada than the US) to be over so we can get to the tennis already. C'mooon, people, I want to watch someone beat someone. I don't care if I have to watch Davydenko beat Murray, even though I would rather watch Djokovic beat Simon, just put the stupid tennis on like you said you would *wails* tennis! tennis! tennis! I'll even watch Murray for twelve hours straight before I have to sit through a football game.... I'm so going to have to eat my words in the future, aren't I....*prepares to get twelve hours worth of Murray matches to watch*
Even later: I got to see the second set of the Murray vs. Davydenko match. Davydenko was absolutely brilliant. He was chasing down practically every shot and just put so much effort into every point. Murray was definitely running around a lot even on his own serve and he definitely came out flat today. I think even if he had been at top form he would have had a really hard time against Davydenko. Davydenko made some fantastic shots to break Murray's serve for the second time, including the winning point which involved running up the net and out maneuvering Murray.
They also decided to be nice and the third set of the Djokovic vs. Simon match (some is better than none, I guess). I don't know how the first two sets went, but by the third they both looked exhausted and made quite a few errors. If I remember correctly they both had medical time outs in the second set. Anyway the third set: It went reasonably well at the beginning. Djokovic broke Simon's serve in the 3rd game but this was really more to luck than skill. He hit the net and it bounced lightly onto the other side, leaving Simon no chance to run to the net to hit it. At break point in the game, Simon hit the net and the ball went wide giving Djokovic the break. During Simon's next service game Djokovic held thriple break point but he then proceeded to make a pile of errors which allowed Simon to stay in the match. A little more troublesome was the fact that Djokovic also made a pile of errors when he was serving for the match at 5-4. He basically double faulted to give Simon a life line (which Simon didn't quite exactly capitilize on but that's beside the point). He's going to have to do something about that when he plays Davydenko.
On a whole I think I would like to predict a victory for Davydenko. Davydenko has been doing extremely well so far. Yes, he lost to Djokovic, but let's not forget that the set that Davydenko did win was won by a lot (6-0!). Davydenko seems in better physical shape than Djokovic. I like the type of shots that Davydenko has been making (he was able to mix it up quite well against Murray which says quite a bit) and he has so far shown a lot more determination than Djokovic to go for every shot and every point (which could do with the fact that he appears to be in better physical shape than Djokovic). With the final being the best of five sets, being in better phsyical shape means a lot. We shall see though. I'm probably going to be wrong...See what happens when Federer or Nadal don't make the finals? There's too much guess work....
On a random note: Djokovic and Simon are quite funny to watch when they get upset. Simon makes all these gestures and Djokovic either hits himself upside the head with his racquet or he looks like he's talking to himself (I'm asuming that he's talking to his coach but I guess you never know). It's quite amusing if you watch it.... okay, so I'm easily amused.... sue me...
Even later than before: ahem.... I suppose I'm asking for too much for the Habs to win. Currently down o-2 going into the third. Still lookinh flat, crappy passing, and they're getting knocked around by the Flyers big time (like hello? They're not that much bigger than you for crying out loud). Oh and Biron decided to be inspired tonight. How fun. Be back later if I don't get distracted in trying to make myself a new wallpaper for my computer....at least the Canucks are beating Toronto 4-0 for now. Go Canucks! And go Islanders who are currently beating the Senators. Yay! *dies*
The latest possible "later": Well at least we didn't get blanked.... 2-1.... Still not great playing though...I'm running out of creative ways to say that the Habs fell flat again. Kudos for not losing a billion to one but still, the offense was still dead-ish from my angle. And the defense was struggling. And the passing was still bad. How can you score when you can't even pass the puck to the guy who is almost at the net but who could be a lot closer? The Flyers didn't look that much more alive than we were, they lost the puck quite a bit and they missed out on a lot of good chances. But it's sort of like the Murray/Federer match The deader side lost.
In other news: Ottawa lost 3-2, Vancouver is on track to beat the Leafs 4-2, and the Penguins are losing to the Sabres with eight mins left.
I would never have pegged Davydenko to be in the finals but there he is. Looking back I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. His group had two people who had never been in the masters cup before. Tsonga sort of squeaked through at the last minute because of a strong performance at the end of the season, and del Potro, as the youngest and definitely the least experienced player and probably the most distracted (davis cup!), was at a disadvantage. I know I said Tsonga was going through to the semis, but I thought that he would've had more momentum after winning in Paris and Davydenko did have a history of not doing well at this event. As for the whole Murray thing... well, I did say that it depended a lot on how Murray felt. He came out dead against Federer and I guess he couldn't recover enough to beat Davydenko. Next time Murray. Maybe...I still want Federer to win it again....
Liverpool beat Bolton 2-0 and I'm now waiting on Chelsea and Real Madrid to win too. In theory, they should be able to beat their opponents, considering Valladolid and West Brom are practically at the bottom....then again, everyone from Real Madrid seems to be all knocked up... but still.... they should win... in theory....I hate theory.
As the title of this says, dare I hope that this is the start to a good day? The Habs seem rather doomed on paper. Halak's in goal - nothing wrong with Halak, he can be good and he needs to play sometime. I just seem to be getting the impression that we're only using him tonight because Price bombed out against the Bruins - Komisarek's out with injuries from that fight with Lucic, Sergei Kostistyn is probably out as well (don't know what happened to him). I think I'm missing something here too but anyway... It's not like the Flyers' have the best defense around these days either. And it's not like I have to watch Briere who's out with some other injury again. And it's not like they're playing in Philly, though I doubt everyone is going to be pleased with them tonight. Oh and, Biron did let in a pile of goals against Pittsburgh (but then again, so did Fleury who got pulled at for the third period), so as long as he stays completely uninspired to do well against the team that he was completely inspired to beat in the playoffs (inspiration + Montreal + Biron = no goals by Montreal), we're okay. Oh and it would be nice if Lupul and Richards also forgot how to score goals too. Yeah, on paper, we're so dead. But as we keep learning, what's on paper doesn't translate to what happens. But for the sake of not having to avoid tomorrow's paper (and my Habs-hating sister), I really hope they win.
Later: Chelsea ran over West Brom 3-0. Well, they looked a little slow at first but then they scored all their goals within a ten minute period towards the end of the 1st half, which sort of deflated WB a little bit. They picked up in the 2nd but they didn't have too many good chances (and whoever the guy who wasn't Cech was stopped most of the good chances). So yeah. I'm pleased. Real Madrid lost. Which is sad, but at least it was only 1-0. I'll take Liverpool and Chelsea winning.
I'm waiting for the Canadian American football game (apparently my dad doesn't like me calling it American football because we play it differently in Canada than the US) to be over so we can get to the tennis already. C'mooon, people, I want to watch someone beat someone. I don't care if I have to watch Davydenko beat Murray, even though I would rather watch Djokovic beat Simon, just put the stupid tennis on like you said you would *wails* tennis! tennis! tennis! I'll even watch Murray for twelve hours straight before I have to sit through a football game.... I'm so going to have to eat my words in the future, aren't I....*prepares to get twelve hours worth of Murray matches to watch*
Even later: I got to see the second set of the Murray vs. Davydenko match. Davydenko was absolutely brilliant. He was chasing down practically every shot and just put so much effort into every point. Murray was definitely running around a lot even on his own serve and he definitely came out flat today. I think even if he had been at top form he would have had a really hard time against Davydenko. Davydenko made some fantastic shots to break Murray's serve for the second time, including the winning point which involved running up the net and out maneuvering Murray.
They also decided to be nice and the third set of the Djokovic vs. Simon match (some is better than none, I guess). I don't know how the first two sets went, but by the third they both looked exhausted and made quite a few errors. If I remember correctly they both had medical time outs in the second set. Anyway the third set: It went reasonably well at the beginning. Djokovic broke Simon's serve in the 3rd game but this was really more to luck than skill. He hit the net and it bounced lightly onto the other side, leaving Simon no chance to run to the net to hit it. At break point in the game, Simon hit the net and the ball went wide giving Djokovic the break. During Simon's next service game Djokovic held thriple break point but he then proceeded to make a pile of errors which allowed Simon to stay in the match. A little more troublesome was the fact that Djokovic also made a pile of errors when he was serving for the match at 5-4. He basically double faulted to give Simon a life line (which Simon didn't quite exactly capitilize on but that's beside the point). He's going to have to do something about that when he plays Davydenko.
On a whole I think I would like to predict a victory for Davydenko. Davydenko has been doing extremely well so far. Yes, he lost to Djokovic, but let's not forget that the set that Davydenko did win was won by a lot (6-0!). Davydenko seems in better physical shape than Djokovic. I like the type of shots that Davydenko has been making (he was able to mix it up quite well against Murray which says quite a bit) and he has so far shown a lot more determination than Djokovic to go for every shot and every point (which could do with the fact that he appears to be in better physical shape than Djokovic). With the final being the best of five sets, being in better phsyical shape means a lot. We shall see though. I'm probably going to be wrong...See what happens when Federer or Nadal don't make the finals? There's too much guess work....
On a random note: Djokovic and Simon are quite funny to watch when they get upset. Simon makes all these gestures and Djokovic either hits himself upside the head with his racquet or he looks like he's talking to himself (I'm asuming that he's talking to his coach but I guess you never know). It's quite amusing if you watch it.... okay, so I'm easily amused.... sue me...
Even later than before: ahem.... I suppose I'm asking for too much for the Habs to win. Currently down o-2 going into the third. Still lookinh flat, crappy passing, and they're getting knocked around by the Flyers big time (like hello? They're not that much bigger than you for crying out loud). Oh and Biron decided to be inspired tonight. How fun. Be back later if I don't get distracted in trying to make myself a new wallpaper for my computer....at least the Canucks are beating Toronto 4-0 for now. Go Canucks! And go Islanders who are currently beating the Senators. Yay! *dies*
The latest possible "later": Well at least we didn't get blanked.... 2-1.... Still not great playing though...I'm running out of creative ways to say that the Habs fell flat again. Kudos for not losing a billion to one but still, the offense was still dead-ish from my angle. And the defense was struggling. And the passing was still bad. How can you score when you can't even pass the puck to the guy who is almost at the net but who could be a lot closer? The Flyers didn't look that much more alive than we were, they lost the puck quite a bit and they missed out on a lot of good chances. But it's sort of like the Murray/Federer match The deader side lost.
In other news: Ottawa lost 3-2, Vancouver is on track to beat the Leafs 4-2, and the Penguins are losing to the Sabres with eight mins left.
Someone shoot me, please
Friday, November 14, 2008
I asked last night to be shot after the crappy loss by a certain Habs but then I decided to wait to be shot until after Federer played. Well, he played and lost 6-4, 6-7(3), 5-7, so shoot me right now please. After winning the first set, Federer went down fairly early in the second. By the time I tuned in it was 5-2 on Federer's serve. Thankfully Federer broke serve a couple of times (Murray apparently had temporary amnesia) to take it to a tie break but he eventually lost that and subsequently there was the beginning of the end of the match. I missed the tie-break entirely because my dog needed to be walked, but judging by the many, many errors from Roger, I'm actually surprised he held on as long as he did. I think if he was a normal person, he would have pulled out of the competition before. His back was clearly giving him a lot of trouble and I have no idea how you can even focus with all that pain. He definitely put in a good effort, probably better than anyone else in that type of situation (try that game in the last set when Murray was up 5-4 and it went to 10 deuces before Federer sent it to 5-5). Ultimately the errors killed him and basically handed the match to Murray at the end. This is obvsiously quite tragic for everyone who doesn't want Murray to win but hardly unexpected. Federer needs to go and take a nice long vacation, recover, and come back in January and beat everyone. again I honestly don't believe "his time is up" like people keep saying (dude, you would think that he's going to die by the way everyone is talking) and I'm fairly confident that he can maintain his spot in the top 2 next year if 1) he doesn't get sick 2) his back doesn't give him problems.
As for Murray...I don't know what Murray's excuse for doing badly was. He made almost as many errors as Federer. He came out completely flat today and he is very lucky that Federer just so happened to be in worse shape. And now Murray's going to win the stupid thing... unless Djokovic can remember how to play brilliant tennis... which he hasn't just yet....*goes off to find a Serbian flag* you're my only hope right now, Novak....!
More whining about tennis set to come up in the near future....
Near Future aka later at night: Okay, now that I've had time to be depressed about real unrelated issues and have been able to put things into perspective, here is how I see the semis going.
Murray vs. Davydenko. In theory this should be a no contest. Yes, Davydenko can play well. He's been making some very nice shots this week and if he can be consistant than he can at least give Murray a run for his money (which if Murray wins the cup thing, will be a lot of money) if not more. If he can make those nice Federer-type of shots then he has a chance. The thing is, Murray is a better player. In theory anyway. He's been doing his homework on his opponents and it's been working so far (granted Nadal and Federer have not been playing their best tennis since the US open but that's slightly beside the point). I have no doubt that Murray's already got a plot worked out. The one issue here though would have be how tired Murray will be. As I said before, he did not play brilliantly against Federer and he looked downright exhausted by the end (then again, Murray always looks more wiped out than he actually is but I think this time it was real). Davydenko has had a day to rest while Murray had a late match against Federer so we will have to see just how much that took out of him. I would still like to declare Murray the favorite though *wails*
Djokovic vs. Simon. Again, in theory this should be a no contest in Djokovic's favor. Simon has shown that he can be good. His brilliant showing in Madrid against Nadal proves that if he really wants it he can be a very dangerous player. On paper however, you would think that Djokovic would have a huge edge, being the Australian Open champion and the world no 3. The thing is, Djokovic hasn't won a title since May. I've seen him all summer, and except for his showing at the US Open, in which he kind of bombed out against Federer, he hasn't been doing particularly well. I haven't got to see him at Shanghai (thank you Canada for not really broadcasting the last tennis tournament of the year!) so I don't really know exactly how he's been doing, but he has to be feeling confident with how he's done to the semis in Shanghai. Hopefully he's got some type of rhythm going again and he can come out like the world no 3 that he's supposed to be.
On a completely different random note: Apparently the Tampa Bay Lightning have fired their coach, Barry Melrose. After having only coached 16 games, he fired today and is to be replaced by their assistant coach. I'm not completely surprised but I'm not sure why anyone thought that they were magically going to go from 30 to 1 in the space of 16 games. Yes, you got new owners, new managment, new players, and the top draft pick this year, but seriously.... did you honestly think that things were going to go really well this soon? I don't know anything about Melrose and what type of coach he is (although I have to wonder why a team that needed to change things around for the better picked a guy who hadn't coached in 13 years), but I really hope that they don't think things will immediately change right now. Oh well. We'll see. I've got a certain other team's issues to worry about, yeah?
As for Murray...I don't know what Murray's excuse for doing badly was. He made almost as many errors as Federer. He came out completely flat today and he is very lucky that Federer just so happened to be in worse shape. And now Murray's going to win the stupid thing... unless Djokovic can remember how to play brilliant tennis... which he hasn't just yet....*goes off to find a Serbian flag* you're my only hope right now, Novak....!
More whining about tennis set to come up in the near future....
Near Future aka later at night: Okay, now that I've had time to be depressed about real unrelated issues and have been able to put things into perspective, here is how I see the semis going.
Murray vs. Davydenko. In theory this should be a no contest. Yes, Davydenko can play well. He's been making some very nice shots this week and if he can be consistant than he can at least give Murray a run for his money (which if Murray wins the cup thing, will be a lot of money) if not more. If he can make those nice Federer-type of shots then he has a chance. The thing is, Murray is a better player. In theory anyway. He's been doing his homework on his opponents and it's been working so far (granted Nadal and Federer have not been playing their best tennis since the US open but that's slightly beside the point). I have no doubt that Murray's already got a plot worked out. The one issue here though would have be how tired Murray will be. As I said before, he did not play brilliantly against Federer and he looked downright exhausted by the end (then again, Murray always looks more wiped out than he actually is but I think this time it was real). Davydenko has had a day to rest while Murray had a late match against Federer so we will have to see just how much that took out of him. I would still like to declare Murray the favorite though *wails*
Djokovic vs. Simon. Again, in theory this should be a no contest in Djokovic's favor. Simon has shown that he can be good. His brilliant showing in Madrid against Nadal proves that if he really wants it he can be a very dangerous player. On paper however, you would think that Djokovic would have a huge edge, being the Australian Open champion and the world no 3. The thing is, Djokovic hasn't won a title since May. I've seen him all summer, and except for his showing at the US Open, in which he kind of bombed out against Federer, he hasn't been doing particularly well. I haven't got to see him at Shanghai (thank you Canada for not really broadcasting the last tennis tournament of the year!) so I don't really know exactly how he's been doing, but he has to be feeling confident with how he's done to the semis in Shanghai. Hopefully he's got some type of rhythm going again and he can come out like the world no 3 that he's supposed to be.
On a completely different random note: Apparently the Tampa Bay Lightning have fired their coach, Barry Melrose. After having only coached 16 games, he fired today and is to be replaced by their assistant coach. I'm not completely surprised but I'm not sure why anyone thought that they were magically going to go from 30 to 1 in the space of 16 games. Yes, you got new owners, new managment, new players, and the top draft pick this year, but seriously.... did you honestly think that things were going to go really well this soon? I don't know anything about Melrose and what type of coach he is (although I have to wonder why a team that needed to change things around for the better picked a guy who hadn't coached in 13 years), but I really hope that they don't think things will immediately change right now. Oh well. We'll see. I've got a certain other team's issues to worry about, yeah?
Speaking of shutouts.....
Thursday, November 13, 2008
... I found this lovely bit of information while wasting time at the Canadiens' website (over <HERE>).
486 - Regular season shutouts recorded by Canadiens goaltenders since 1909.
309 - Consecutive minutes that Bill Durnan held off the opposition in 1948-49.
54 - Times the Habs have blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs, making them the club’s favorite shutout victim. Second best? The Boston Bruins, just one shy of the Leafs’ total.
41 - Times the Canadiens have held their opponents off the scoresheet in at least two straight games.
36 - Canadiens goaltenders who have recorded a shutout, beginning with Georges Vezina and going all the way to Carey Price.
22 - Whitewashes registered by George Hainsworth in just 44 games in the 1928-29 season.
6 - Seasons in which a Habs netminder has notched at least 10 shutouts over the course of the campaign. Ken Dryden was the last to realize the feat, doing so in 1976-77.
1 - Goaltenders to have blanked the opposition and scored a goal in the same game. That honor goes to Jose Theodore, who did so against the New York Islanders on January 2, 2001.
I kind of like the blanking the Leafs stat... And the one about Theodore. Haha, I would have loved to have seen that one...
Tennis stuff: Apparently I completely miscalculated who was going through into the semis in the second group. It's going to be Djokovic and Davydenko. del Potro kind of got run over by Davydenko today. Davydenko was just hitting most of his shots really well - there were a couple of Federer-type shots in there - and del Potro kind of has movement issues (tall guys seem to have issues moving around the court well), hence the 6-3, 6-2 result. Oh well. Next year del Potro! I'm sure you can get better at hitting it better but in the mean time you have to go and win the silver salad bowl.
And Tsonga...at least you finished off your trip to Shanghai with a(nother) win over Djokovic. I mean, it's too bad you lost to Davydenko and del Potro but that's okay. You really have to wonder who the world no 3 is (*coughs Murray coughs*). Trying not to freak out completely about Federer though. Stepanek and Federer need to win if Federer wants to go through. I'm sure Stepanek can beat Simon. He's much better...kinda....*wails*
Football stuff: Liverpool died against Tottenham (again!) and Chelsea got booted out of whatever the cup thing is that they're playing in, by Barnley or something that sounds like that. I would cry because Liverpool and Chelsea are supposed to be a lot better than that, but I won't....they can win at one of the billion other things that they play in...
486 - Regular season shutouts recorded by Canadiens goaltenders since 1909.
309 - Consecutive minutes that Bill Durnan held off the opposition in 1948-49.
54 - Times the Habs have blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs, making them the club’s favorite shutout victim. Second best? The Boston Bruins, just one shy of the Leafs’ total.
41 - Times the Canadiens have held their opponents off the scoresheet in at least two straight games.
36 - Canadiens goaltenders who have recorded a shutout, beginning with Georges Vezina and going all the way to Carey Price.
22 - Whitewashes registered by George Hainsworth in just 44 games in the 1928-29 season.
6 - Seasons in which a Habs netminder has notched at least 10 shutouts over the course of the campaign. Ken Dryden was the last to realize the feat, doing so in 1976-77.
1 - Goaltenders to have blanked the opposition and scored a goal in the same game. That honor goes to Jose Theodore, who did so against the New York Islanders on January 2, 2001.
I kind of like the blanking the Leafs stat... And the one about Theodore. Haha, I would have loved to have seen that one...
Tennis stuff: Apparently I completely miscalculated who was going through into the semis in the second group. It's going to be Djokovic and Davydenko. del Potro kind of got run over by Davydenko today. Davydenko was just hitting most of his shots really well - there were a couple of Federer-type shots in there - and del Potro kind of has movement issues (tall guys seem to have issues moving around the court well), hence the 6-3, 6-2 result. Oh well. Next year del Potro! I'm sure you can get better at hitting it better but in the mean time you have to go and win the silver salad bowl.
And Tsonga...at least you finished off your trip to Shanghai with a(nother) win over Djokovic. I mean, it's too bad you lost to Davydenko and del Potro but that's okay. You really have to wonder who the world no 3 is (*coughs Murray coughs*). Trying not to freak out completely about Federer though. Stepanek and Federer need to win if Federer wants to go through. I'm sure Stepanek can beat Simon. He's much better...kinda....*wails*
Football stuff: Liverpool died against Tottenham (again!) and Chelsea got booted out of whatever the cup thing is that they're playing in, by Barnley or something that sounds like that. I would cry because Liverpool and Chelsea are supposed to be a lot better than that, but I won't....they can win at one of the billion other things that they play in...
Hah!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
It has been a good 12 hours. Toronto lost to Calgary and Roger won. I wanted to watch Federer play, and I could have, but I had to go out so I missed it *wails* Actually, Roger's win was almost anti-climatic in that Roddick pulled out (ankle injury or something like that) and so they had to grab the next available guy who just so happened to be Radek Stepanek. I don't know if they got him because he was the closest person to Shanghai (he was apparently vacationing in Thailand or something) or what, but the poor guy apparently had to borrow a racquet from Djokovic and I think he ended up borrowing socks from Murray or something. That was kind of sad and amusing at the same time. Anyway, Federer won 7-6(4), 6-4 and he now has to beat Murray who is already through. I'm hoping Murray doesn't try too hard because he knows he's going to get through....He says he wants to win and he'll try but there has to be some part of him that goes "well, maybe that shot was crappy but i'm still through...." Maybe.
I was thinking how lucky Stepanek was to get Djokovic's racquet. I wonder what Djokovic would have done if Marat Safin asked him to borrow his racquet? Safin is, you may all recall, incredibly notorious for breaking racquets. I have yet to see him play a match where he doesn't damage at least one racquet.... It would be like...
Safin: Hey, Novak, can I borrow your racquet? I kinda don't have one.
Djokovic: Okay, I guess....
Safin: Great!
Ten Minutes Later
Safin: Umm... Novak?
Djokovic: Yeah?
Safin: can I borrow another one?
Djokovic: Umm....why?
Safin: Well, I hit the net in the stupidest way possible and so I then proceeded to break the racquet into a million pieces.... It was kinda cool, watching the little bits flying everywhere....!
Djokovic: .......
Apparently my brain hasn't been working at all today after I ran around like an idiot around the house all last night.... too much caffeine = me not sleeping > me being sleep deprived the next day > serious randomness.
Apparently Liverpool and Chelsea are going to play some random teams at some point in the near future.... too bad I won't get to see any of it.... oh well! *dances around*
I was thinking how lucky Stepanek was to get Djokovic's racquet. I wonder what Djokovic would have done if Marat Safin asked him to borrow his racquet? Safin is, you may all recall, incredibly notorious for breaking racquets. I have yet to see him play a match where he doesn't damage at least one racquet.... It would be like...
Safin: Hey, Novak, can I borrow your racquet? I kinda don't have one.
Djokovic: Okay, I guess....
Safin: Great!
Ten Minutes Later
Safin: Umm... Novak?
Djokovic: Yeah?
Safin: can I borrow another one?
Djokovic: Umm....why?
Safin: Well, I hit the net in the stupidest way possible and so I then proceeded to break the racquet into a million pieces.... It was kinda cool, watching the little bits flying everywhere....!
Djokovic: .......
Apparently my brain hasn't been working at all today after I ran around like an idiot around the house all last night.... too much caffeine = me not sleeping > me being sleep deprived the next day > serious randomness.
Apparently Liverpool and Chelsea are going to play some random teams at some point in the near future.... too bad I won't get to see any of it.... oh well! *dances around*
Okay. It's official. This week stinks.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Let's pretend that Monday is part of last week shall we? (Hey, I warned you that I would get semi-incoherent!). So asuming that we're still part of last week, let's review how my sports week went last week.
- It started with the Champions League (football stuff). After a promising start, Chelsea then promptly died and got demolished by Roma 3-1. Chelsea's goal came way after Roma had scored a pile of times. I somehow missed Chelsea scoring their only goal which was kinda sad for me. At least they're still on top of their group. While I seem to remember that Real Madrid played the same day as Liverpool, ESPN is telling me otherwise, so I guess I completely got things muddled up in the course of everyone doing terribly. But anyway... You would think that if you follow three teams your chances of at least one of them winning is pretty high, yeah? I mean c'mon, it's not like I'm rooting for Tottenham or anything...Well, Real Madrid and Liverpool decided to defy the odds and prompty not win.
Real Madrid played a rather uninspiring game and lost (again) to Juventus which puts them in a not so nice distant second in their group. Liverpool missed out on a pile of chances to score and just as it looked like they were going to lose 1-0 to Atletico Madrid, they were awarded a penalty kick which, in all fairness, should not have been called but I'm not going to get into that. There were plenty of other penalties that the ref should have called and didn't, and he calls one that shouldn't have been called. The result was Liverpool scored and finished the game 1-1. They are in second to Atletico only on what I believe is goal differences. I guess I should be happy with the tie.
Edit: Apparently Chelsea, Liverpool and Real Madrid won in their league things over the weekend. Chelsea beat Blackburn 2-0, Liverpool beat West Brom something rather 3-0 and Real Madrid came up with a 4-3 win which apparently was an exciting game. I'm sure I would be feeling a whole lot better about it if I had actually seen them play *curses TV that only plays American football right now* Gah..... - As disappointing as that was I figured, hey, at least I can look forward to hockey. Montreal should be able to win no problem against Colombus and Toronto. Well, we all know how those games went so I'm not going to rant further on them. *rips out hair anyway* I mean c'mon.... it's TORONTO for crying out loud...*wails*
- To top off the wonderfully lame week, tennis has gone completely the way I didn't want it to go. del Potro and Tsonga lost to Djokovic and Davydenko. I'm not a big Tsonga fan but I was hoping he would do better. And this morning I learned that Federer died against Simon. After taking the first set, apparently Mr. World No. 2 forgot how to play and made a pile of errors which resulted in the French dude who shouldn't be there, winning. So now Mr. Federer has a huge mountain to climb if he wants to get out of the group stage and into the semi-finals. Do I need to mention that if he doesn't make it this would be the first time that he hasn't made it in six years? I'm doing my best not to think of the posibility of Federer not making it past the group stage. I'm really trying but it's hard not to. He's going to have to beat Roddick and Murray and to beat Murray right now he's going to have to play his best tennis. Oh, and of course Murray beat Roddick and that just made the whole thing depressing. That was a given though....at least Roddick won a set though...quite nicely too. Maybe Murray will play like that against Federer *hopes* I can always hope, right? Right. As improbable as it might be, it's entirely possible. Yeah... *keeps telling herself that*
Before anyone starts bashing me for saying that about Murray, let me just say, I have a lot of respect for him a player. I think he's great right now and he's only going to get better. That being said, I still want Federer to win because it would be totally awsome for him to win five of those things, and plus, he needs to win something this year.
Tennis!
Friday, November 7, 2008
So with the last events of the year in tennis coming up I just couldn't help but say something about them. First off is the tennis masters cup thing. Federer is attempting to win his fifth title which would make him only one of three people to have won it five times. Without Nadal, it seems kind of weird to say that the top best players of the year are in the competition, but we'll just pretend that Simon is Nadal and cheer for Federer. Or something like that... Anyway, I think Federer has a good shot at it if he plays like we all know he's capable of playing. I think the only person who can really challenge Federer at this point is Murray. Djokovic hasn't been doing particularly well this summer, though I think he will make it out of his group. I don't really see Simon or Roddick getting out of their group either. As for Davydenko, Tsonga and del Potro....I think it's pretty much up in the air and could come down to who doesn't crack under the pressure. Here's I hope things will go:
Group 1 (forgot what name they gave it... they should have called them "Group 1 with the guy who should win it" and "Group two with the other people who aren't going to win it" and then I would remember what they were called!)
Federer
Murray
Roddick
Simon
I think Murray actually has a good chance at finishing on top with a win over Federer but I'm really hoping that he doesn't win against him *G*
Group 2
del Potro
Djokovic
I think this group will actually end up like this though. Watch as I'm horribly wrong.
Tsonga
Djokovic
del Potro
Davydenko
Anyway....Here's hoping that it's Federer that wins it! Bwahahaha... ahem, moving on... the Davis Cup. Apparently in South America they've been calling it a "salad bow" which I think is a great name for it *g* It looks just like a salad bowl! I read that Nadal is probably going to be out of the Davis Cup thing so I will now be cheering for Argentina. It would be awsome if Argentina won 'cause they've never won before and it would be fun to see them win. That beign said, I think they picked a horrendous choice in surface. In their bid to take away Spain's huge advantage on clay, they opted instead for carpet. While I can see where they were coming with this (Spain + Nadal + Clay = Spain's going to go home with the salad bowl of doom), I have to wonder if they considered the fact that none of their players, except for David Nalbandian, are good on carpet. It's going come down to who's the best of the worst.... Oh well, should be entertaining and with Nadal out now, I think Argentina has really good chance at winning it.
Shall be back after the Habs beat Columbus...
Group 1 (forgot what name they gave it... they should have called them "Group 1 with the guy who should win it" and "Group two with the other people who aren't going to win it" and then I would remember what they were called!)
Federer
Murray
Roddick
Simon
I think Murray actually has a good chance at finishing on top with a win over Federer but I'm really hoping that he doesn't win against him *G*
Group 2
del Potro
Djokovic
Tsonga
DavydenkoI think this group will actually end up like this though. Watch as I'm horribly wrong.
Tsonga
Djokovic
del Potro
Davydenko
Anyway....Here's hoping that it's Federer that wins it! Bwahahaha... ahem, moving on... the Davis Cup. Apparently in South America they've been calling it a "salad bow" which I think is a great name for it *g* It looks just like a salad bowl! I read that Nadal is probably going to be out of the Davis Cup thing so I will now be cheering for Argentina. It would be awsome if Argentina won 'cause they've never won before and it would be fun to see them win. That beign said, I think they picked a horrendous choice in surface. In their bid to take away Spain's huge advantage on clay, they opted instead for carpet. While I can see where they were coming with this (Spain + Nadal + Clay = Spain's going to go home with the salad bowl of doom), I have to wonder if they considered the fact that none of their players, except for David Nalbandian, are good on carpet. It's going come down to who's the best of the worst.... Oh well, should be entertaining and with Nadal out now, I think Argentina has really good chance at winning it.
Shall be back after the Habs beat Columbus...
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