Monthly Archives: April 2010

The Case for Playoff Hockey

  By Chris Speziale | 04/22/2010 - 2:44 pm | Musings
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After blanking Atlanta on March 23, I tweeted that Tuuka Rask had saved the B's season. I'm saying it again after last night's amazing double OT thriller.

I don’t know if you’ve been watching, but the NHL Playoffs have been absolutely off the hook this year. In the East, the 6 and 7 seeds are making a run at major upsets in the first round, which would set up for a pretty nutty reseed in the conference semifinals. The games have also been crazy close; in the Buf/Bos series, there is a 3 goal differential, and the Sabres have held the lead for all but 19:40 of play, yet they are down in the series 3-1. The Canadiens stole an OT victory from the Capitals in game one of their series, only to lose game two in OT in a 6-5 shootout.  The Flyers and Devils have combined for 203 hits and 136 penalty minutes, and also played an OT game this postseason. It’s no surprise that Philly has been banging; they made their name this season on physical play, and that’s also why I think they could be a tough match-up for Washington in round two. The Penguins started off slow against the Senators, but have turned the series around in a big way after scoring 7 goals in game 4. The Penguins have momentum, and I think they have the best chance of finishing off their series in five games. And while Pittsburgh has the best shot at a short series, all of the East first round series currently stand at 3-1, with Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh currently leading. If those teams can seal the deal, the second round match-ups would look like this: (1)Washington vs. (7) Philly, and (4)

Pittsburgh vs. (6) Boston.  The Capitals/Flyers series will be a fun series to watch, but what I’m really looking forward to is the Bruins and Penguins.  Matt Cooke laid Marc Savard out with a borderline dirty elbow to the head in a game almost 7 weeks ago.  Savard has yet to play, but yesterday was cleared by doctors to return to the ice when his conditioning will allow.  No one believes, myself included, that Savard will be back before the end of the Sabres series, but if the Bruins advance, he could return to face the team that knocked him out two months ago, and that makes for some exciting hockey.

In the West the series are closer, with Phoenix/Detroit, Vancouver/LA, and San Jose/Colorado tied at 2 games apiece.  The number 2 Chicago Blackhawks are down 2-1 to Nashville in the fourth Western Conference series.  Phoenix and Detroit have traded games since the start of the series, and are also separated by 3 goals.  Interestingly, the first three games were decided by one goal, before the Red Wings blanked the Coyotes 3-0 in game 4.  Vancouver and LA are even in the win column, but the games have been exciting and high scoring.  Everyone expected Luongo to come off his Olympics Gold Medal and shut down the Kings, but that hasn’t been the case so far, and LA is capitalizing.  San Jose and Colorado have gone to OT 3 times in the series so far, and there is nothing to suggest that these two teams won’t take this series 7 games.  Colorado is playing at a very high level right now, and their goalie, Craig Anderson has gotten hot at the right time.  The biggest surprise has be the Blackhawks/Predators series.  Chicago comes into the series as the two seed, and was picked by many of the “experts” to win the whole enchilada.  The story of the series has been goaltending; Pekka Rinne leads all goalies in the post season with a 1.35 GAA and a .953 save percentage.  He’s allowed 4 goals in 3 games, against an extremely potent Chicago offense.  I don’t dare try and pick the winners of the Western Conference series, but what I do know is that there is a possibility, a possibility, that the bottom 4 seeds could win.  That would give Detroit and LA home ice in round two.  Crazy.

The moral of the story?  Watch the freakin NHL playoffs.  Only 7 teams (Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Jersey) in the 16 team tourney have won the Stanley Cup.  Boston and Philly haven’t won it since ’72 and ’75 respectively, and Chicago has been Cup-less since ’61, so there are a lot of frenzied fan-bases out there. The home crowds have been boisterous, and angry, and alive with energy. If you’re not a hockey fan, or if you’ve never watched a game, this is the time.  I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm, or parity for that matter, since the lock-out in ’04, and if you’re not watching, it’s your loss.

The Eagle has…oh no, I’m not using that cliche.

  By Chris Speziale | 04/06/2010 - 5:53 pm | Musings, Predictions
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So, Donovan McNabb is a Redskin.  Well that certainly changes things now, doesn’t it?  McNabb going to D.C. has seriously changed the landscape of the NFC East, as well as, the draft board.  Washington was rumored to be interested in one of the three elite quarterbacks in the NFL draft.  Well, not anymore! In essence, a team at the bottom of the draft now has a shot at a quarterback because the Skins will pass.  With all that draft maneuvering, the McNabb trade will leave its mark on a lot of teams in the upcoming season, but none more than the Eagles and Redskin’s.

Boy, it's gonna look a lot different when he's hoisting those fingers wearing a maroon uni. Get used to it Philadelphia.

Let’s first look at Washington, because—well, we start where…guh…the Eagle landed. Yah, I did it—moving on. This is clearly a game changer for the Redskins.  They get a pro-bowl caliber quarterback a shade after his prime in exchange for, what?  A second round draft pick in 2010 and a third or fourth rounder in 2011.  Two picks, in the later rounds, for a talented veteran signal caller?  I’ll take it.  Plus, the Redskins still have four picks in the upcoming draft; one inside the top 5.  The Redskins are most likely going to take an offensive tackle with that first round pick, and my guess would be that they make a run at a couple of young wide receivers in the later rounds. And what we’ve seen McNabb do with young talent is astounding.  If you look at the seasons that DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek had last year, you’ll notice that he thrives with a group of young guns around him.  Washington would be wise to look at McNabb’s past, as they begin to revamp this team.  All that said—I think that the Redskins compete next year, maybe not for the division, but I do think that they have planted themselves firmly ahead of the Eagles.  The Philadelphia brass are going to be in some hot water, when Washington rolls into Philly next season, and lays a lickin on the Eagles.

Philadelphia has installed Kevin Kolb as their starter for next season.  Kolb, the 25 year old, Texas native, has thrown a whopping 130 career passes.  This compared to the nearly 5000 thrown by McNabb.  Can anyone say learning curve?  Kolb started two games last season for Andy Reid’s team.  The first of which, was against the now defending Superbowl Champion New Orleans Saints.  His team got wrecked.  And yes, I know that he played well—except for the 3 interceptions he threw!  But where exactly is everyone seeing this talent? That’s what I want to know.  In his next game he threw for 327 yards and two scores…..AGAINST KANSAS CITY!  Kolb is going to be surrounded with loads of young talent, and that will make him a decent starter in the NFL, at best.  However, he’ll certainly not be a standout for the Eagles, who will be looking up at Donovan and the Redskins for most—if not all—of next season.

But what I really want to talk about is how this deal went down.  Think about it for just one second.  McNabb, a year after throwing for 3,500 yards and 22 touchdowns (in 14 games no less), gets traded to a division rival.  A DIVISION RIVAL!  This is ludicrous—and clearly sent one simple message: the Eagles thought McNabb was done.  Andy Reid came out at the end of the season and stated that Donovan would be their guy.  The Eagles then, not so secretly, started to shop him around.  Then came the suitors; Oakland, Buffalo, and St. Louis all stated at least a little interest.  St. Louis, after evaluating its options, pulled away from the negotiations.  Oakland offered the 39th pick in this year’s draft, and laid in wait.  And when you get right down to it, Buffalo was NEVER going to give up draft picks.  No one even saw the Redskins coming. (Side Note: I had a conversation with my good friend Chris at a bar last week and we discussed this.  He’s a big Buffalo fan, and didn’t know what to think about McNabb as a Bill.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  Check it: You bring in McNabb for three years.  Draft Terrell Pryor out of The Ohio State University next year, and have McNabb mentor him.  McNabb makes the Bills at least a little more relevant over the next three, and then you have your quarterback of the future waiting to take over when McNabb rides off into the sunset.  But I digress.)  Washington made the best offer; the 37th pick in this year’s draft.  And the rest is history, as the cliché goes. But something just seems off about the whole thing.  The Philly bigwigs made a point to say that they went with Washington because they wanted to respect McNabb’s wishes.  Well here’s an idea: DON’T TRADE HIM!  He wanted to remain an Eagle! He wanted to finish his career in Philadelphia!  But this is a business, and the only thing that makes sense is that they clearly didn’t have faith that McNabb could get the job done.  And now—the conspiracy theory: They sent him to a division rival because they knew he would fail, thus taking one team out of that four team race, and increasing the chances of an Eagles Division Title! Whaaaaaat?!?

No disrespect to Andy Reid, but maybe this is one’s on him.  Maybe it was the coach who couldn’t put that final nail in the coffin.  Every Philly fan has griped about McNabb in the past, and they have every right too.  It’s their team, and they want to see that team win.  But here’s what I don’t get: he did.  He won a LOT of games for the Eagles.  In some cases he singlehandedly willed the team to victory.  He took them to 5 NFC Championship games, in his eleven years at the helm.  Did he win the big one?  No.  Could a change of scenery be the spark that finally puts him over the edge?  Who knows.  What I do know, is that a VERY good quarterback just got a VERY large chip on his shoulder. In two years, with an influx of new talent, McNabb could be hoisting the Lombardi trophy.  This reminds me of someone…someone in the Hall of Fame.  What’s that name?  Oh yeah!  John Elway, a quarterback with a quarter tank of gas left, but looking to prove something.  Elway’s stat line through his first eleven seasons looked like this: 34,246 YD’s, 183 TD’s, and 167 INT’s.  McNabb, through that same timeline: 32,873 YD’s, 216 TD’s, and 100 INT’s.  Um?  Wow.  I’m sure most people didn’t know that McNabb had thrown more touchdowns with fewer interceptions to start his career, than the Bronco’s quarterback of old.  Elway carried that “can’t win the big game” stigma around for a long time.  And Mike Shanahan was right there losing with him.  But they turned it around.  Big.  Elway went on to win two Superbowls with Shanahan manning the sidelines.  Now, the cosmos have aligned to bring these two super powers together, and Coach Shanahan knows what to do with a guy like McNabb. That should be something that leaves the rest of the NFC East—Eagles included—shaking in their shoulder pads.