***The Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game was certainly spectacular. Canada knows they were in a battle,and the USA proved they were one of the top two teams in the tournament. The Americans handed the Canadians their only loss and they can credit one of the Referees(for getting in the way of a clearing pass that led to Sidney Crosby’s game winner)as well as NHL Commissioner Gary “Beavis” Bettman for assisting them. Bettman is a reason the NHL instituted the ridiculous four on four in overtime,and you can bet he had plenty to do with the IOC putting this stupid gimmick into the Olympics as well. This should have been five and five. Who knows? maybe Canada still ends up winning, but it’s a lousy thing to use a gimmick for something as big as the Olympic Gold Medal Game. My hope is that Bettman doesn’t try to add four and four or a shootout for Stanley Cup play some day.
***Now Patrick Kane will be reunited with Jonathan Toews,Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith Tuesday night when the Hawks face the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky of Slovakia also rejoin their Blackhawk mates. Re-establishing chemistry etc will be important for the Hawks who right now are the #3 overall seed(#2 in the West behind San Jose).
***While Roberto Luongo and his Canada mates won the Gold, it was no surprise to see him looking shaky and give up the tying goal late in the third period after he failed to glove the puck seconds earlier,thus allowing the Americans Zack Parise to tie it. And Mikka Kuprusoff was shelled by the US on Friday. The Hawks made both look bad in last spring’s Playoffs. They will be Luongo Friday at the United Center when the Canucks invade.
***Every time the Bulls look like they will have a good chance to get the #5 seed for the playoffs,they have a lousy game against a crappy opponent. They lost to a horrible Washington Wizards team last week and then Saturday they wet the bed in Indianapolis against a Pacers team they should never lose to.
***Now that the NFL’s overrated Combine is over “let me make this perfectly clear”(Richard M.Nixon quote). The combine is nothing more than a circle jerk that proves zero! These scouts look for athletes, not paying attention to whether these guys are FOOTBALL PLAYERS! The Bears have been burned for years by this stupid event.
***Also a joke(and something that should be discontinued-no matter what any Coaches of GM’s say)-is the so called ORGANIZED TEAM ACTIVITIES or O.T.A.s that are supposed to be VOLUNTARY but they are not. Ask Alex Brown of the Bears who was demoted to third string two years ago when he didn’t show at the OTA. Mark Anderson was elevated to first string. And how did that work?
***Also, I like Jerry Angelo personally,and that goes for just about everyone in the Bears organization. But it was a HORRIBLE president for Jerry to hold a Media Session with no recorders allowed for Radio Reporters. This was giving the Print Media a VERY UNFAIR advantage. I hope this wasn’t done in case someone wanted to say that a quote was taken out of context. With no recordings, that claim would be easy to make with no way to prove otherwise. If no recorders are allowed, then DON’T HOLD THE NEWS CONFERENCE!
LES