Just a site note - main page had it’s most visitors ever in our short existence as people react to the Lightning sweeping Montreal and moving on to the conference final.
To the visitors, welcome. I hope you can find what you need here and please feel free to email me with any quesitons or suggestions.
I look at TBO.com and their sports section and what is the top stories for the day?
The Buccaneers securing a new radio hosting network with Mega-Corporate Clear Channel Communications, The Bucs top draft pick, the Devil Rays getting swept by the Red Sox….
Oh yeah, and then there was this little incident up in Montreal where the local team, I think they are called the Lightning, clinched an Eastern Conference Final berth in 4 games. Nothing important there. I’m sure they were debating whether to give the High School beat writer the space they provided the Lightning.
Of course, bitching out local media is easy. Bitching out National media and International media - now there’s a challenge! Lets start with JP Dellacamera from last nights telecast. First off, what was a soccer color man doing on a Hockey telecast? Had to do something with Ol? chants perhaps? And where was the coverage during the game of the fact 3 Lightning players fell on the ice during the first period and one of those falls resulted in Montreal’s score? There was none. Nada. Zip. I know at the time I brought up the fact that there may be bad ice at Bell Centre if this is going on…. John C. Cotey in his media breakdown seemed to share the sentiments. Excellent article on the telecast and the flubs / disrespect for Tampa Bay by ESPN…
Of course I can’t forget the hypocritical bullshit coming by way of Montreal and Gazette writer Jack Todd. It would seem Mr. Todd had nothing but props to give for Saku Koivu who let it be known he’s been playing hurt the entire series - broken ribs, torn cartilage, etc. Now, I can’t dis Koivu for playing with pain and persevering - he’s already demonstrated that with coming back from Stomach Cancer. Getting on the Montreal Media Machine playing up Koivu for “standing tall” by playing with pain while laying into Joe Thornton for playing injured in the Bruins loss to the Habs in the first round… Now that is just one large pile of hypocritical bullshit. (links would be included to the Montreal Gazette hypocrisy but Le Gazette and Canada.com deletes certain stories from their web site after a few days. A Google News search proved that, click on certain older links and you will see the stories have been removed).
I won’t go into more of ESPN’s bullshit. Between my post yesterday about Saunders flubbing certain stats in Pre-game to Cotey’s article in today’s Times, you can see plenty of weakness in the Former Sports Leader.
In a humorous turn - the Flames fans are rigging voting results on NHL.com again! Through a certain technical fault on NHL.com, one can vote in a poll numerous times with one push of the button… Well, Calgary has perfected exploiting this flaw and sent Miikka Kiprusoff to the top of the latest NHL.com poll. 172 thousand votes just MIGHT draw some attention that there was a problem with the system… Unfortunately the NHL doesn’t pay that close attention to their site. Hats off to the Flames and their fans for supporting Kippy…
And finally in the Media Bullshit column, TSN.ca gives props to Jay Feaster for building the Lightning. Now, Feaster put the Lightning over the top with certain acquisitions since he came into power with the Lightning - Corey Stillman, Daryl Sydor, Andre Roy and Chris Dingman just to name a few…. That’s no small order… But then again, I am one of those Lightning fans that still respect Rick Dudley for what he did for this team (which earns the bane of plenty of Lightning fans). Bringing in Khabibulin, St. Louis, Modin, Andreychuk, Taylor, signing Richards (which previous GM Phil Esposito might have passed on), Afansenkov, Cibak (see my previous post on the draft class of 1998). It’s almost impossible not to give props to Rick Dudley for rebuilding the Lightning and making them contenders in the first place. He’s the man who built the team, Jay Feaster has put them over the top the last 2 years (and without ruining the team like Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Anyone come across any other media bullshit online? Any comments?
Just in case there are a few night owls searching for information on the Lightning’s return home from Montreal….
The team is set to arrive at 2:30 Friday Morning (or 2:30 tonight) at Raytheon Aircraft Services at Tampa International Airport.
Remember the Bolts need to clear customs before they get out of there. They may not be out until 3 or 3:30 in the morning.
Postscript: Ben from paininthebutt.com, who also happens to be keeper of the Ice Girls (well, not really but he’s the lucky IMHO :biggrin ) has pictures of those who stayed up to greet the Bolts back in Tampa
Fredrick Modin Scores on the Empty net to seal Tampa Bay’s sweep of Les Habitants! The Lightning have secured their first ever Eastern Conference Final berth!
A game that seemingly lacked fire and desperation from Les Habs and the crowd in the Bell Center, the Lightning persevered through an early score from Montreal.
I’m a little too elated right now to give a play by play but Dan Boyle (with help from Vincent Lecavalier - the Bane of Les Habs) and Modin each scored to seal the sweep
Operation Andreychuk’s Cup and the Pass The Friggin’ Torch tour 2004 rolls on!!!
:woot
John Saunders lays another goose egg in pre-game…..
“…Plus the Montreal Canadiens have already come back from 3-0 against the Boston Bruins.”
WRONG. Les Habs came back from 2-0 and 3-1 versus the B’s. Only two teams have ever come back from down 3-0…
How unlikely was the Lightning’s comeback victory in Game 3?
Try less than 1 percent.
Make sure to read on and see the details to just how rare the victory was.
The simplicity and stupidity of this quiz insults the intelligence of most if not all hockey fans.
Hats off to the St. Petersburg Times for the redundant questions in their poll. :rolleyes
I’m only posting this story because of a personal twist on it.
While conversing on the Lightning usenet newsgroup, a Canadien fan / troll poster predicted the Habs would slaughter the Lightning and part of the reason was becasue the Lightning would experience the Montreal media and it would be like nothing they had experienced before.
Yeah… Even though we have a roster full of veterans, 3 frano-phones from Quebec, etc, etc… The Lightning would have never experienced the media or a media rush.
Well, with this next story (and I could have added the previous story which talked aobut a near fight breaking out over camera position on Vinny), I can see why someone would say the Media would play a part in taking apart the Lightning. The bad news is - it hasn’t happened.
The starting time for Game 5 has been changed to 7 p.m. … The best fight of the postseason took place Tuesday, but not on the ice. Two reporters, one from TV and another from radio, fought in the Montreal dressing room after the game while trying to gain position for interviews. According to eyewitness accounts, the scuffle lasted nearly a minute and was broken up by other reporters. … The Lightning is 6-0 in these playoffs when it scores first.
What the hell was this supposed to be? A hockey game or a assassination attempt? If this is supposed to symbolize “la mystique de Les Habs” - it shows that Habs history is rather pathetic and current teams in Montreal are desperate to live up to the past glory of the Canadiens.
This comments after a brutal first period where no team had a clear upper hand — unless you count the crowd that was solidly behind the Canadiens through their thuggery. It’s a shame that the citizens of Quebec accept this as the current incarnation of the storied Canadiens…
Vincent Lecavalier — the MVP of the series — scored with seconds left in the 3rd period to send the game into overtime and then Brad Richards gets help from Jose Theodore in overtime to win in Montreal’s Bell Center and silence the hostilities of the local fans. The Lightning win 4-3 and take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals with Game Four scheduled for Thursday in Montreal.
Fisticuffs and thuggery reigned in the first period as shoving matches and scuffles dominated play. It was “Fun” (sarcasm oozing) to watch Eric Perrin standing in front of Jose Theodore before being ganged up on by the Canadiens… Andre Roy skated to his defense and was met with 3 of Les Habs, while Perrin was put into a headlock and then thrown to the ice and pinned against the boards for an unknown duration of time (thanks to commercial interruption in the local telecast).
Richards can be anointed the hero of this game — scoring twice — but Lecavalier is the savior of the game
There’s a poll on TSN.ca that I find interesting and the results I find quite amusing.
Would you be in favor of the East not meeting the West during the regular season?
The staggering vote is for NO, that East should meet up with West. I’m part of the minority vote that decided that the East should stay East. Now why would I side like that?
Looking past the Ultra-traditionalist insistence that all Canadian Teams play each other, there isn’t much reason why the East should play the West during the season. Oh sure, Eastern Conference cities would absolutely love to see some of the talent from out west — I look forward to when the Colorado Avalanche visit the Lightning every single year because the games are so damned exciting. The problem is the big games inter-conference are so few and far between that it just isn’t justified for schedule making.
Perhaps adopting an NFL like system of rotating-divisions from each conference should be taken up? It helps in the final schedule design but also limits trips out west. It doesn’t kill off any National rivalries - it just delays them for a season or two during the division rotation.
The NHL needs to move past the Ultra-traditionalist stance on things if the masses are going to pick up the game… You don’t market to a select few with a pro sports league. You want to appeal to the masses and maximize marketing and coverage. Unfortunately the Ultra-Traditionalist runs the NHL and it makes the league more backwards than Major League Baseball.
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