BlueSoxSWJ

Last day of the season, and not a single matchup is set yet. Crazy! For tonight/tomorrow: EAST Pittsburgh Penguins: Locked into the 1 seed. Boston Bruins: Will be the 2 or 4. In Washington today, host Ottawa tomorrow. They need to get more points than Montreal (@ Toronto) this weekend to keep the 2 seed, otherwise they get the 4. UPDATE: Get the 2 with a win over Ottawa, the 4 with a loss. Washington Capitals: Locked into the 3 seed. Montreal Canadiens: Will be the 2 or 4. In Toronto tonight; must get more or the same number of points as Boston (tonight @ Washington, tomorrow vs Ottawa) this weekend to take over the 2. UPDATE: Get the 2 with a Boston loss (vs Ottawa), the 4 with a Boston win. Toronto Maple Leafs (!!!): Will be the 5 or 6. Keep the 5 with at least 1 point tonight hosting Montreal or any kind of loss by Ottawa tonight (vs Philly) or tomorrow (@ Boston). New York Rangers: Will be the 6 or 7. Fall to 7 if Ottawa earns at least 3 points this weekend (tonight vs Philly, tomorrow @ Boston). New York Islanders (!!!!!): Will be the 7 or 8. Keep the 7 if Ottawa loses both games in regulation this weekend (tonight vs Philly, tomorrow @ Boston). Ottawa Senators: Could finish as the 5, 6, 7 or 8. Get the 5 with 2 wins and Toronto regulation loss vs Montreal. Get the 6 with 2 wins and Toronto earning at least a point against Montreal, or with 3 points this weekend. Get the 7 with 1 or 2 points this weekend. Keep the 8 with 2 regulation losses this weekend. 8 ISLANDERS @ 1 PENGUINS 7 SENATORS @ 2 CANADIENS 6 RANGERS @ 3 CAPITALS 5 MAPLE LEAFS @ 4 BRUINS WEST Chicago Blackhawks: Locked into the 1 seed. Anaheim Ducks: Locked into the 2 seed. Vancouver Canucks: Locked into the 3 seed. Saint Louis Blues: Will be the 4, 5, or 6. Get the 4 with a win tonight hosting Chicago, or a point tonight and a loss by LA (vs San Jose). Get the 5 with a point tonight and a win by LA, or a regulation loss and any result except a SJ win over LA in OT or shootout. Get the 6 with a loss tonight and a SJ win over LA in OT or shootout. Los Angeles Kings: Will be the 4, 5, or 6. Get the 4 with a win tonight hosting San Jose and a Saint Louis loss against Chicago. Get the 5 with a win and a Saint Louis win, or an overtime or shootout loss and a Saint Louis regulation loss. Get the 6 with a regulation loss, or an overtime or shootout loss and Saint Louis earning at least a point. San Jose Sharks: Will be the 4, 5, or 6. Get the 4 with a win tonight at Los Angeles and a Saint Louis loss in regulation against Chicago. Get the 5 with a win and Saint Louis earning at least a point. Get the 6 with a loss tonight. Detroit Red Wings: Will be the 7, 8, or miss the playoffs. Get the 7 with a win tonight @ Dallas, or an overtime or shootout loss tonight and a Minnesota loss tonight (@ Colorado). Get the 8 with an overtime or shootout loss tonight and a Minnesota win, or a regulation loss and Minnesota earning at least a point and a Columbus loss (@ Nashville), or a regulation loss and a Minnesota loss and a Columbus win. Miss the playoffs with a regulation loss and Minnesota earning at least a point and a Columbus win. Minnesota Wild: Will be the 7, 8, or miss the playoffs. Get the 7 with a win tonight @ Colorado and a Detroit loss (@ Dallas), or an overtime or shootout loss tonight and a Detroit loss in regulation and a Columbus loss (@ Nashville). Get the 8 with a win and a Detroit win, or an overtime or shootout loss and Detroit earning at least a point and a Columbus loss, or an overtime or shootout loss and a Detroit regulation loss and a Columbus win, or a regulation loss and a Columbus regulation loss. Miss the playoffs with an overtime or shootout loss and Detroit earning at least a point and a Columbus win, or a regulation loss and Columbus earning at least a point. Columbus Blue Jackets: Will be the 7, 8, or miss the playoffs. Get the 7 with a win @ Nashville and a Detroit regulation loss (@ Dallas) and a Minnesota loss (@ Colorado). Get the 8 with a win and Detroit earning at least a point and a Minnesota loss, or a win and a Detroit regulation loss and a Minnesota win, or an overtime or shootout loss and a Minnesota loss in regulation. Miss the playoffs with a loss in regulation, or an overtime or shootout loss and Minnesota earning at least a point, or a win and Detroit earning at least a point and a Minnesota win. 8 WILD @ 1 BLACKHAWKS 7 RED WINGS @ 2 DUCKS 6 SHARKS @ 3 CANUCKS 5 KINGS @ 4 BLUES

I'm sorry, but I believe that everyone, ex-player or not, male or female, gay or straight, has an equal right to have his or her point railroaded by Joe Buck's complete inability to shut the f*** up and let the expert talk.

oops

Let's all reflect on the fact that Rahim Moore pretty much just personally made Joe Flacco $120 million.

Legit? No. Simple? yes. Money.

Were you one of the fans calling 911?

Great comment on an article about the Ravens player supporting gay marriage: "I look forward to the day when football players can have imaginary boyfriends, too!"

Fun with small sample sizes: If the season ended today, Toronto and Columbus would make the playoffs; the Capitals, Rangers, Flyers, Red Wings, Canucks, Coyotes, and Kings would all miss. In all seriousness, get ready for some flukes this year, but probably mostly on the individual stats level - last year, 15 of the 16 eventually playoff teams were in playoff position after 48 games.

It's a true hockey miracle: It's January 20th, and the Maple Leafs are undefeated!

Oops, how'd that pic get into my post?

If it weren't a 1pm east coast game, Seattle should have been favored. Atlanta racked up a lot of close wins against mediocre teams this year.

I'd post a joke here about the Denver secondary but I'm pretty sure it would go right over their heads.

The deal with NBC is a long one (10 years, iirc), but the good news for the NHL in the NBC deal is that it puts a game on NBC every Sunday after the NFL ends, and every playoff game gets nationally televised, even if some of them are stuck on CNBC. HDTV has also done wonders for the watchability of televised hockey.

Yup, since '09.

24 regular season games, full playoffs, and $1500 back? Better than I was expecting, I guess.

Well, it's focused on hockey, but the message comes through ... Also, worth noting how rapidly attitudes can change within a sport. When I started as a season-ticket-holder, the idea of the NHL doing something like that video was a joke. Now, there's not a word of complaint about it (within NHL circles, anyways - obviously plenty of idiots leave trolling Youtube comments). And the only joke is a group of owners that want to put teams in unprofitable markets so they can cover enough of the U.S. to justify selling national broadcast rights, then turn around and whine about how unprofitable those markets are.

Should have tacked on an additional game for the egregious spelling error.

Thought this would be the appropriate place to leave these examples of unnecessary censorship ...

The explicit sign is the photoshop. The two minutes for hooking was the real version. It was also not in Boston, but at the Islanders. You can tell because the Bruins are in their road whites, but the crowd is mostly Bruins fans anyways. The real sign:

If you're going to include the full punishment for the bounties, though, you shouldn't mislead people by claiming that the Pats got nothing for spygate. Bill Belichick was slapped with the largest fine in league history ($500k), the Pats got hit with another $250k, and they forfeited a first round pick. Also keep in mind that, at the time, only one assistant coach had ever been suspended in the history of the league, and no head coaches. (The one coach was automatically suspended under the performance enhancing drug policy, which for some reason includes coaches and staff in addition to players.) The spygate punishment was the harshest sentence ever handed out by the league to a coach and team at the time, and is still one of the harshest, with only two more assistant coaches having been suspended by the league since. (The Jets coach who tripped an opposing player from the sideline was suspended indefinitely by the team and resigned, or there'd probably be three on that list now.) Implying that the punishments should be equal is also disingenuous. If I record someone's actions in a public setting outside of a football stadium, it might be a little creepy. If I offer cash bounties for going out and injuring people outside of a football stadium, I'd probably wind up in jail. It's not big market versus small market. It's that no one is suing the NFL for videotaping that went a bit too far. Contrast that with players struggling to go about every day tasks because of head injuries, a rash of suicides (apparently including Seau's), and a growing number of lawsuits alleging that the NFL has known for years about the growing concussion and CTE problem, but hasn't taken serious action for fear of making the game less entertaining, and thus making less money. And if you think that case is a stretch, consider that even as the NFL claims to be taking player safety seriously, the owners pushed until the last minute for an expanded 18-game regular season during the lockout. When there's as much money on the table as there is with professional football, the answer is almost always as simple as "follow the money."

I can't believe I forgot to look up the most important factor before the playoffs started. Blinded by hometown loyalty. The only teams that can win the cup this year are Anaheim, Buffalo, Los Angeles, and the New York Rangers. Two didn't even make the playoffs, so it should've been 50/50 to pick the winner this year.

This year, if an opposing pitcher had a perfect game going against the Red Sox and it wasn't a Yankee, I'd probably start rooting for it in the 8th or so. A no-hitter is a different story, I'd only switch over at all if the game was a blowout. In a year in which I think the Sox stand a chance of doing anything good, a Sox win still outweighs a historic event for an opponent for me, so I'd only switch if the game was a blowout.

4 Presidents' Trophy winners have fallen in round one: 1999-2000 Blues in 7 to SJ, 2005-2006 Red Wings in 6 to EDM, 2008-2009 Sharks in 6 to ANA, and the 2009-2010 Capitals in 7 to MTL. Of course, the Presidents' Trophy has only existed since the 1985-86 season. Until 1968, it was the Prince of Wales Trophy awarded to the regular season's best team, but that became the trophy for the Eastern Conference regular season winner with the '68 expansion, and then the Eastern Conference playoff champion in 1981. From 1968-1985, the trophy for winning the regular season for the entire NHL was ... nothing.