More Rants, Raves, and Opinions

I had brain lock trying to come up with a subject for this particular post. I have been paying attention to many noteworthy events in our wonderful world of sports. While not one event overly consumed me (not even Tiger Woods) but many captured that short attention span of mine.

Therefore, I am just going to serve a second helping of Rants, Raves, and Opinions. Here we go!

I'm sure we have all noticed Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James seemed disinterested in an embarrassing Game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics at home Tuesday night. He shot a dismal 3 for 14 from the field and had no life whatsoever. A bad game? More than likely so, however if the Cavs want to continue playing ball, James must come up huge in Boston or the Cavs season ends. I think LeBron will play well, but Boston will find a way to bounce Cleveland from championship contention.

Quick, name the New York Yankees best starting pitcher for the first 6 weeks this season. If you said Phil Hughes, treat yourself to a hot fudge sundae. In his 6 starts, Hughes sports a spiffy 5-0 mark with a minuscule 1.38 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched while allowing only 22 hits and much improved control. I watched a portion of his last 2 starts versus Boston and Detroit and saw that plus fastball everyone knew he had along with a much better idea of how to pitch. Maybe the question I should have proposed was name the best pitcher in the American League after the first 6 weeks this season.

How about those Montreal Canadiens?(!) The #8 seed in the Eastern Conference of the NHL playoffs have pulled off highly improbable feats by defeating Presidents' Trophy winners Washington Capitals and the defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins each in 7 games series. How have the Canadiens done this? First, the play of opportunistic forwards Michael Cammarelli and Brian Gionta have been nothing short of spectacular. The unheralded Cammarelli has 12 goals in the playoffs while Gionta has 7 and both have given maximum effort every shift. Second and more importantly, net minder Jaroslav Halak has been far and away the premier goalie in the playoffs.

Finally, staying in the NHL, can the Philadelphia Flyers complete the stunning comeback against the Boston Bruins? Boston thoroughly outplayed Philly winning the first 3 games. But somehow, the Flyers have willed 3 victories in succession to force Game 7 in Boston. The Flyers have simply out hustled the Bruins to even the series and appear to have the upper hand. Coincidentally, the return of Philadelphia forward Simon Gagne and the loss of Boston center David Krejci has turned the tide as well. All bets are off in this one!

I hope you enjoyed this segment. What are your thoughts?

Dick

Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com

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