Hampton Talbots lose 5-0 in Penguin Cup Finals

After an unexpected season, the Talbots finally end their season with silver medals around their necks. The Talbots lost 5-0 to their rivals the Mars Planets of all teams. As a former player for Hampton I hate Mars hockey with a passion. Watching my Talbots give up after beating the number 1 team in all of A 6-2 only a week earlier was very hard on me.

The reason Hampton lost was because of a lack of overall enthusiasm from the team. Everyone was skating at a slow pace, everyone was making poor passes, everyone had bad positioning. It was truly a team effort to lose.

However the Talbots still need to look at this past season as a success. Years earlier it was predicted their would be no team this year. They proved them wrong. Many invluding myself didn't believe the team would even have a winning season. They proved us wrong. The Talbots exceeded expectations and should be very proud of their season.

Penguins 1st Round Upset

Well the Penguins are officially out of the race for the Stanley Cup for the 2011 postseason. With Penguin star forwards Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby out not much was expected of the injury bitten squad. Then came the postseason after the aqcusition of James Neal and former elite player and Penguin Alexei Kovalev.

Personally I didn't think the Pens would make it past the second round either way. But to lose to Tampa in the series after leading 3-1 with game 5 and 7 at home is ridiculous. That squad had already proved what they could do. Unfortunatley they didn't show up when it counted in Game 7 and elimination. I guess their is always next season.

Thursday April 7th, 2011

What a day for sports from my perspective. Today I am completely dedicated to sports. Let's overview why I am excited:

First Round of The Masters
How can I as a lover of golf not be excited for The Masters? The Masters in my eyes is the best event on the PGA Tour. The Masters signifies for many the beginning of spring. The Masters takes place at Augusta, an absolutley marvelous course.

Pittsburgh Pirates Home Opener
Sure the Buccos aren't the best team. But starting out 4-2 and 2 road series wins, how can Bucco fans not feel some excitement even if most likely it's only for a little.. The Bucs are facing off against the Colorado Rockies.

NCAA Frozen Four
Like I wrote about yesterday today is the Frozen Four for NCAA D1 Mens Ice Hockey. Mens D1 college hockey is extremley physical, fast paced and passionate. Great games for any hockey fan!

It all lines up perfectly. The Masters runs through most of the day. The Pirates play at 1:45pm, and the Frozen Four games are at 5pm and 8:30pm.

Final Four vs. Frozen Four

Well the NCAA Final Four is now finally over and we can prepare ourselves for the NCAA Frozen Four. The Frozen Four is the Final Four for NCAA D1 ice hockey. The Frozen Four is this Thursday, Notre Dame vs. Minnesota Duluth at 5pm and North Dakota vs. Michigan at 8:30pm. These games will be played at the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota, the home rink of the Minnesota Wild.

College hockey is one of the most exciting forms of hockey. College hockey is extremely fast paced and hard hitting. Many of these players are undrafted and are working to be signed as undrafted free agents by an NHL club. I also feel like their is an amazing passion in D1 college hockey. A lot of these skilled players are at the end of their competitive careers and play like it. They play for love not for money.

We still have a couple more weeks until NHL playoff hockey. Let's watch some skilled college level, playoff style hockey. Never a bad day for it.

Bucco Hope

The Pittsburgh Pirates have started the 2011-2012 MLB season 1-0. To make things even better the game was won off of a Niel Walker Grand Slam. Walker is a Pittsburgh native from the suburb Pine Richland, a township right next to my own.

The only thing we Pirate fans have is hope. The beginning of every season brings along thoughts of maybe. While this wonderful 1.000 record  is enjoyed and is sure to fall. .500 would suffice at seasons end . Maybe dreams become reality this season.

Headshots in the NHL

The most recent topic of debate at NHL GM meetings was the implementation of a no tolerance policy on hits to the head. I don't like hits to the head at all, however I would not be in favor of implementing a no tolerance policy.

Hockey is a fast paced sport. Sometimes people get hit in the head completley by accident. In some cases it is the player who is getting hit fault when he gets hit in the head, usually because he is trying to duck away or a avoid an oncoming check. I don't think it is right to have mandatory suspensions for accidents. Not to mention this new fear of being suspended for accidentally hitting a player in the head would deter hits and take a lot of the physicality out of the game.

The NHL needs to enforce the rules better. The NHL is continually criticized for small suspensions or most of the time lack of any. If the NHL really wants to take a serious stance on headshots they just need to handle disciplinary action better.

A Love/Hate Relationship with the NFL Lockout

Most people would call me crazy, or claim that I wasn't a fan of the NFL or football if I told them I hoped the NFL locked out for the 2011-2012 season. I don't, but I kind of do.

I love football and the NFL. If the league locks out this coming season I will be upset. No football for a whole year is going to be rough on me for sure. However the NFL lockout opens up a huge opportunity for my favorite sport league, the National Hockey League.

An NFL lockout would allow an amazing opportunity for the NHL to expand it's fanbase. Football is a contact sport. Hockey is a contact sport. Football fans are going to need to watch something with some hitting and violence. Basketball is not going to be enough for the fans who love the hard hitting of the NFL. The NHL can help fill that void for those fans and hopefully create fans for life.

Troubles for the NBA

Some people enjoy the new state of mind held by quite a few NBA players. What I mean is the new trend of star players planning to join teams with other star players. While this does add excitement to certain teams, it drastically affects the competitive advantage of the league. With stars collaborating on the same teams like they are, the NBA is left with less and less competitive teams. Sure it is a positive thing for those markets recieving the star players, but the ones without are severley hurting. The NBA should step in and stop what is going on. It's best for the league and best for the fans.

The Winter and Heritage Classics

The NHL has recently included outdoor games into the regular season schedule; the Winter Classic and the Heritage Classic. The Winter Classic is held on New Years Day for the past 4 years. The Winter Classic has always involved teams from the U.S. The reason being that the whole purpose of the Winter Classic is to generate more fan in the states. You won't be as successful if you use Canadian teams to gather U.S. fans.

Because of this the NHL has instilled the Heritage Classic that will take place between two Canadian teams. The Heritage Classic was held yesterday afternoon in Calgary between the Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens. I did not watch the Heritage Classic. I tried but I couldn't get into it.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the outdoor games, especially if my team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, is not involved. Even when they are I'm glued to the TV. This year as the Pens were in the Winter Classic I fell asleep for the entire 3rd period. Everyone harps about playing the game the way it once was. Who cares? U.S. citizens the NHL is trying to garner sure don't. Even I don't care. The ice can be sloppy outdoors and there are so many other factors to take in when playing the game. I fell in love with the game inside a rink, and that's where it should stay. However the Winter Classic gets good U.S. ratings so I would think that it's here to stay. The Heritage Classic will be here as long as the Winter Classic is to apease Canadian fans.

A Terrible Day for our Sport

In the NHL the New York Islanders are not a very exciting team. They have been the bottom barrell of the NHL for the past decade due to poor team management and ownership. When you get pushed around as much as the Islanders do sometimes you snap. That's exactly what happened on Feburary 11th when the Penguins faced the Islanders in Long Island. The previous game between these two was not very pretty either. The game ended up with both goalies fighting and Penguins backup Brent Johnson injuring Islander starter Rick DiPietro causing him to be out for multiple weeks.

February 11th was an embarresment for the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the New York Islanders. It was well known the Islanders would dress multiple "goons" for this game as they came out and said it. If it wasn't bad enough the Penguins were routed 9-3 by such a poor oppenent, but the beatings by fists were not so great either.

The game was nothing but a brawl fest brought on by the Islanders. That is no way to increase the popularity of our sport. It's not rough old time hockey but a sideshow. If new fans want to watch fighting, they'll tune into boxing or Ulitmate Fighting. The Islanders organization should be most concious about bringing in new fans especially in a struggling franchise such as theirs. The game created a lot of contreversy throughout the hockey world. It definitely didn't stop with me.

ESPN Insider

ESPN Insider is one of the best Apps and/or online resources for inside information on trades, signings, sales of teams etc through the most respected sports network in the U.S. ESPN. Although it is required that you pay a yearly fee it is well worth it for the devoted sports fan. Ever wonder how the analysts and reporters on ESPN are able to predict trades/signings etc, weeks before it happens? It's because of the inside information that they recieve as members of the press and so on. ESPN is allowing us as fans access to that same information. ESPN Insider will make you seem like the sports genius amongst your friends. To be allowed on the "in" for a mere $3.33 a year is well worth it to me as it should be for any devoted sports fan.

Introduction

First of all let me thank you for visiting my blog. My blog is best described by my title, "Simply Sports". I would like to try my best to blog about as many different sports as I can. I am attempting this not only to give you as the reader fresh material, but so that I myself can learn more about sports I may not follow as closely. Thanks again for reading. Here we go!