by J. Mesa 

I really love this time of year! Between the NBA and NHL Playoffs coming to a head, the MLB season in full swing and the WNBA just tipping off, there is a lot of action – even enough to hold my attention, ‘til at least July, when I start to lose myself in all things pigskin.

Exciting, exciting – I’m talking the Stanley Cup Finals. Each home team has held serve and as a result, the NHL has delivered the two most exciting words in sports: FREE BEER! Oh no, wait a second, I meant GAME 7. Got your attention though, didn’t I?

These star-studded Finals have been a real treat to watch for even the most fair-weather hockey fans, myself included. By the time this bloggy goes up, we will have crowned a champion. Whether it’s the Pittsburgh Penguins rallying against all odds and taking the cup from Detroit on their ice, or the Red Menace steamrolling their way to their second consecutive NHL crown, the real winner here is the NHL itself, and other leagues should take notice. Namely, the NBA.

Yes you, NBA, with all your swagger, trash talking and obnoxious puppets, I think the NHL has provided the better product and that after all, is entertainment. What the NBA should learn from the NHL is better scheduling. I love this every-other-day format. The NHL doesn’t let their fans have time to forget what happened in the previous game before they are on to the next contest. The NBA postseason, on the other hand, is too long. It’s not the number of games, but calendar length. Why not run a game every other day, and then take a few days off before the start of the next series? Keep the audience’s attention and keep striking while the iron is hot.

Some other notes from around the NBA:

The NHL, NBA and green rubber lizard suits

Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010

by J. Mesa 

There are a lot of things in this world that I just don’t get. I don’t understand the appeal of the Chick Flick, furthermore, I don’t understand how a woman can spend $500 on a pair of shoes, yet not even pay attention to the price of gas. I don’t get why so many U.S.-Americans pay more attention to American Idol than American politics. And could someone please tell my how in the H-E double-hockey sticks Paris Hilton is famous?

I guess I do get sports a little more than the whole 27 Dresses thing, but even in sports sometimes I just sit there, mouth agog, truly wondering what the hell they are thinking. Case in point: Man-Ram vs., well pretty much every MLB team and the American economy.

I love springtime baseball because the MLB picks up right when my NFL withdrawal is at its most unbearable.  I understand that there is always spring-training drama, but when Man-Ram declined a $25 million offer for one season to play with the Dodgers, I was at a complete loss for words. I understand that every ball player wants a long-term deal, but if it hadn’t been for the way “Manny being Manny” turned out in Boston, he might be deserving. But as Manny was shipped off to LA at the end of last season, on the BoSox dime, it was clearly an indictment of his character rather than an endorsement of his ability.

I guess I just don’t get it

Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010

by J. Mesa

Our unanimous choice for the 2007-08 NHL season is Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin.

The 6-3 lefty was the second overall pick by the Pens in 2004 and has been on a steady climb to the top of the NHL’s elite and has reached the pinnacle in his fourth season. This season Malkin ranked No. 2 in the league in points with 106, No. 4 in goals (47) and finished the season ranked No. 6 in assists with 59. In the tradition of Penguins’ teams that have included Jagr and Lemieux it’s now Malkin’s turn to cement his legacy in Pittsburgh.

Malkin has been phenomenal in cementing a team that also boasts the likes of Sidney Crosby and a brick wall of a goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury to help the Penguins to their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 26 years.

Wunderdog Sports Picks NHL MVP

Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010

We saw it at the beginning of the NBA season with the Boston Celtics. The Celtics were the perennial bottom dwellers in the Eastern Conference before a blockbuster trade brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen helping the Celtics return to the forefront of the NBA elite. The Celtics have had their problems, but have been money at home if you play them with your NBA picks.
 
We have seen this turnaround phenomenon occur again, this time in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was a franchise that once had the likes of  Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux on the ice at the same time, yet the team seemed to fall off after falling short of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996. The franchise was struggling to even keep the team in Pittsburgh.
 
And as I wrote at the beginning of the NBA season, I’ll write it again now, at the end of the NHL season. What a difference a year makes!

Do Be Do Be Do – watch out for Penguins!

Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010

HOMER ALERT!

Now I usually shy away from my pro-Denver leanings when writing in my own little corner of cyberspace. Whether it is my loathing of the Raiders, the Diamondbacks or the Lakers, I try to lay off expressing my true feelings in an effort to stay neutral. But things have gotten so bad in the Mile High City, that I needed the collective shoulder of the Dog Pound to cry on.

Denver has always been such a great sports town. We have world titles in both football and hockey and it looked like our little brother of a team – the Rockies, was going to mature in front of our eyes and bring home a World Series crown. Alas, it wasn’t to be as our little brother ran into Boston’s big brother and sent us home in four games last year. 

We are used to getting no respect when it comes to baseball. The east-coast, major-market bias has never gotten to us. So we weren’t surprised when early MLB picks for the 2008 season left us out of the pennant conversation. Heck, they even left us out of the NL West conversation, but we took it all with a grain of salt. We were gonna show them! Well, not so much.

A Mile High is really a valley low

Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010

OK, I’m not a big hockey guy, but I have to give to the NHL. After an off-the-radar regular season where most of the games were televised on the fledgling VS. network, sandwiched between extreme cagefighting and Hunting for the Big Fish, the NHL had redeemed themselves in this year’s playoffs and my TV thanks them.

There were a few first round series’ that we saw go to seven games and the NHL’s stars really came out to play. We saw phenom Alexander Ovechkin break out of a slump to all but take over the series for Washington. Even though the Capitals dropped game 7 to the Flyers, Ovechkin almost single handedly lifted the Caps to the second round. Not like there’s anything going on in Washington right now anyway.

The NHL has cured my bad TV habits

Tags: Cavs predictions against the spread, NBA Picks 2010