I'm pretty sure Vancouver's game didn't clear the border, because the Canucks looked downright awful in the first period last night. Roberto Luongo continued to be a complete mess outside of Canada in this series (maybe in these playoffs?) and got no help from his skaters. Sure, those three goals were soft, but the rest of the team can't let Boston keep the puck in the zone that long. I would've pulled Lu after the second goal, but that might not have been enough time for Cory Schneider to get ready. In any case, he looked much more solid in net, and that seemed to calm the rest of the team after a while. Not before Schneider gave up a semi-softy of his own, though. It was redirected pretty close to the net, so I don't want to make it sound like it was all that awful, but it was far enough out that I would've expected it to be stopped. The other goal was off a 5-on-3 Bruins power play, and, well, can you ever really blame the goalie with those odds? Vancouver didn't look so bad through the last two periods, but there was just no luck in the building for Canada last night. Missed chances, bouncing pucks, bad caroms off the post, nothing was really going right. They finally busted through for two late in the game, but obviously the damage was done by then. Oh, and, you know, there was the whole "Tim Thomas is a Net-Minding Genius" thing, too. There's talk of him winning the Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoffs MVP, for those not in the know) win or lose, and frankly, I don't have the first argument against it. The dude has been fucking brilliant, it's not his fault the Bruin skaters are as inept on the road as Luongo is. There is (predictably) a lot of talk about the short leash Robby Lu will be on for game seven, and it is deserved. That said, he has been an iron fortress in Vancouver. I say he gets it done on home ice, and the Stanley Cup returns to Canada for the first time in almost twenty years. And, yes, Thomas takes home hardware of his own and becomes the answer to trivia questions everywhere. In baseball news,* the Cubs beat the mighty Brewers, but the Cardinals were off yesterday, so now the Central is tied at the top. The Cubs remain irrelevant, of course. The Pirates beat the Mets to pull back to a game under .500. The biggest news, though, is the Derek Jeter Hit Counter is standing at 2,994 as of this morning. He's really getting close now, and of course, there's the tension of whether he'll do it at Yankee Stadium or not. *I know, I hear you. This site covers baseball? I thought the name was one of those ironic things, like where you call a big guy Tiny. There's only one more hockey game, then you'll get all the baseball you can handle. Or something like that. The odds already seemed stacked against him. The Yankees hit the road on Thursday, giving him three days to get six hits. That's a pretty tall order for anybody, especially an aging shortstop. After that they're on the the road for six games.* Three at Wrigley and three at Great American. While it would be kind of cool for a player like Jeter to get 3,000 in a stadium like Wrigley, it wouldn't feel right in the least for the first Yankee to get 3,000 (and every last one in pinstripes, mind you) outside of Yankee Stadium, and it would feel especially wrong for it to happen in a National League park.** *I feel dirty going to the Yankees' website to check that. **You may have heard the plan to totally restructure how Major League Baseball is played. I won't say anything yet, but I think I'll tackle that tomorrow. Complicating all of this is the story I read on ESPN that Jeter apparently managed to hurt himself last night. The article calls it a Grade 1 calf strain. I don't know which way grades go with strains, so I don't really know if that's a minor strain or a major one. I'm sure anything described as a strain can't be all that major, but apparently it's bad enough that it took him out of the game last night, and likely tonight as well. Maybe this will let the Yankees rest him on the road trip and let him try to break through the big milestone at home. Most likely against the Brewers or Rockies, which both feel wrong as well,* but I'm sure that will be forgotten if it's at home. *The Brewers would feel slightly less wrong because they spent so long as an American League team, but I would really, really hope they would wear some AL-Era throwbacks to really complete the effect. Those should be their regular jerseys anyway. I mean, come on, don't these look so much cooler than these? Certainly less corporate. I'll be watching the Dans tonight and waiting to hear a call about a house Kristine will be looking at this evening. Keep your fingers crossed about the house, and maybe for the Dans, too. They got off to a good start, but are sitting at 3-6 now. It's DeKalb tonight, though, and they're sitting at 4-6. Should be a good game. And how can it go bad with $2 tickets, dogs, and drinks? Sounds like a good night to me. Comments are closed.
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