Sports Then and Now

With a healthy Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins are a good bet to win the NHL championship.

This season’s NHL looks like being another very close run affair, with several sides appearing to real contenders for play-off success. It is no surprise to see names like the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins right in there amongst the betting favorites at bookmakers sites, as all of these are proven winners, but they all look to be in exceptionally strong form. The Penguins have outclassed everyone in the Metropolitan Division, where they are sixteen points clear at the top, and the other two are also top (albeit by closer margins), so which side should the smart punter pick?

It is hard to ignore the form the Penguins have been showing, and the bookies haven’t – as Pittsburgh are in place as hot favorites to win the Stanley Cup on 6/1. Chicago are the holders of the Stanley Cup though, as well as the Western Conference, and with the latter looking almost certain to be retained they will fancy their chances of keeping the former as well. At 7/1, the bookies see them as almost as likely as the Penguins to win it, while the Bruins are at 10/1. They could have a showdown for the Eastern Conference with Pittsburgh which, in turn, might give further indication of who will win the Stanley Cup – so waiting until then and playing ice hockey casino games is a strategy with much to recommend it. Read the rest of this entry →

Evgeny Nabokov and the San Jose Sharks are off to a hot start.

It’s almost impossible to win a football game in the first quarter. There’s too much time to come back, adjust to the other team, get lucky. A team can lose a game in the first quarter though. They can put themselves in such a deep physical and psychological hole that they won’t be able to climb.

The NHL season is a little like that. Everyone has played at least 21 games out of a total of 82. The early favorites have been established, but who is the best team? That title is still up for grabs. Who is likely to make the playoffs? Well in the new NHL where there’s a point given out every time a team completes their pre-game warm-up that’s still undecided yet.

Who has played themselves out of the playoffs and are likely to be lottery pick drafters, well that I can tell you. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes and their five wins respectively are out of the playoffs, in November. It’s a neat trick.

How have the teams in the NHL done this first quarter? Lets’ take a look at teams in the Western Conference in the order they’re in now.

San Jose Sharks
GP: 26   W: 16   L: 6   OT: 4   PTS: 36    WPCT: .692   GF:87    GA: 69

The Sharks are off to a great start. They’re tied with Washington as the best offensive team in the league.

The revamped line-up featuring a first class sniper, Dany Heatley, and the leagues best set-up man, Joe Thornton, is thriving. Patrick Marleau had a great season last year and is looking to do better this year. The injury to Devin Setoguchi hasn’t slowed the team at all. Evgeny Nabokov is shouldering the goaltending load in San Jose and doing it well with a 2.19 goals against average and a .926 save percentage. Throw in Canadian Olympian point man Dan Boyle and all seems rosy in Sharktown.

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Hockey is back! Rejoice!

The new NHL season has opened up and it has started up with a bang. The NHL regular season is a marathon followed by the playoffs. The playoffs are a marathon run at high tempo while somebody beats you with a stick. Alexander Ovechkin however only knows how to sprint. He’s exploded to start the season with three points in each of his first three games.

That’s a Gretzky/Lafleur start to a season that hasn’t been seen in the NHL for 20 years.

Philadelphia and Washington played an important game in October, honest!! They played a great, exciting, back and forth game that Philadelphia won 6-5 in overtime. There were five lead changes in a 6-5 game as in Philly, Washington, Philly, Washington Philly. Besides Ovechkins third three point night and Semin’s highlight reel goal there was a hat trick for Philadelphia’s Mike Richards. Daniel Briere got the overtime winner. Is it time for the playoffs yet?

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