Steckel wants to know who you got in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
It’s that time of year…finally! We weren’t sure if we would even have the NHL Playoffs this year, but here we are. While other sites try to compile their own lists of the hotties of the NHL, we know our hockey here, so you can trust us.
As an added bonus, we’re even providing a preview of sorts for those who have checked out on the NHL so far. So strap on your skates and don’t ice the puck…
Although it wasn’t quite up to the standards of last year, with the meaningful games being all about playoff seeding instead of mere survival, at least we had the Oakland A’s and their surprising AL West Title win to entertain us. Is this truly the year of Moneyball? Or is it just going to be the Yankees, Cardinals, or Rangers taking the pennant again? We discuss!
Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
When the 2nd wild card for the MLB playoffs was first announced last year, I hated the idea immediately.Yet another gimmick from a commissioner once again looking at something truly great about the game he governed (last year’s epic final day of the regular season) and taking the absolutely wrong message from it. The fact that Selig forced the new playoffs into this year instead of waiting until next year’s realignment annoyed me even further.
So of course that new awkward one game playoff appears to be my Cardinals’ one chance at the postseason. And I’ve been paying more attention to the Dodgers and the Pirates than the Reds (likely NL Central champ) and the Braves (likely 1st Wild Card). Hmmph.
With apologies to the Canadian residents among us, we are standing at the brink of not just a three day weekend, but a three day weekend of potentially epic sporting events. This includes at least one (and possibly two) Rangers-Devils playoff games, which means there is a Henrik Lundqvist picture in this post! Come look at the games you can stay up late to watch and not have to worry about being groggy at work the next day.
Today’s zen meditation: when the only upset 3/4 of the way through the first day of play is the one upset everyone was predicting, is it really an upset? (Not to mention that at least one 12 seed has won a game in 23 of the last 24 tournaments, so statistics were even on VCU’s side.)
I delayed and delayed and delayed putting up the post in hopes that March Madness would break out, but despite some close games (and one burgeoning conspiracy theory involving Syracuse), the surprise of this tournament has been the lack of surprise.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The majority of us Ladies may still be licking our wounds from disappointing playoff losses to either the Giants or Patriots* (not Maggie, obviously) but that doesn’t mean we’re not watching the game! Lady Bee has a yummy treat for you all tomorrow, so we’re getting a head start on our Super Bowl preview. Our thoughts and picks after the jump**.
*Or didn’t even make the playoffs because of losses to both. Hi, my name is Games Mistress and I’m a Jets fan.
** Are they bringing one of these foam pit things when the Super Bowl is in New York? Because I might have to reconsider my no-way-in-hell stance about going out to the Meadowlands that week.
Let’s just put aside the fact that I had an actual rooting interest last night — everything that happened in baseball over the last 24 hours makes my brain scream this song:
As someone who has spent the last two weeks watching the Cardinals wait until the last inning to win or lose what seemed like 95% of their games, one of the most surreal things about last night was that St. Louis was the only team that got their game settled right out of the gate, batting around in the first inning and scoring five runs before recording a single out. Which left me free to enjoy the one day MLB.tv subscription I paid 3.99 for Tuesday night as a mostly impartial fan (possibly the best 4 bucks I’ve ever spent, even if I couldn’t get the Rays-Yankees because of blackout restrictions, and had to switch to the Phillies-Braves radio feeds for the latter innings because of too much traffic on the video feed (and my crappy bandwidth). At one point, I had three GTalk conversations going and was on the phone to my parents; 99.5 % of the discussion revolved around baseball (I did manage to discuss Christmas arrangements with my folks. I’m not totally obsessed.)
The Bruins Saturday night in Vancouver. Boston will try to get back into the Stanley Cup Final series tonight with Game 3 at home. (Photo: Getty Images)
Just a quick hit to give you something to read between periods tonight.
Know how I always talk about the East Coast’s love for all things Boston? Here’s an article from the Globe and Mail that backs up my point, but only to a certain extent. See, what I got out of this was a) Bruins fans in the Maritimes consist of old guys who are missing their own teeth and b) the Maritimes consist solely of Nova Scotia…oh, wait, they threw PEI a bone. So this story drove me crazy all day. Yeah, I know it’s customary for Canadians in my part of the country to kvetch about how the rest of Canada views us. When national publications talk East Coast, they’re really just talking about Halifax (so we think). And the national CBC is even worse, as when they talk about the East, it seems to end at the Quebec border. Grrr.
So here’s a footnote to that Globe article. New Brunswick is home to two Bruins greats: Don Sweeney, who spent the better part of 15 seasons with Boston, and Willie O’Ree, who broke the NHL colour barrier. For the record, I know far more Bruins fans out here than actual Canucks fans (apologies to those cheering them on because they’re the last Canadian team standing).
And many of them are women.
Here’s something to make you smile, speaking of Boston: one kid honouring his uncle’s memory with an assist from the Red Sox. I can’t hate on them when they agree to do stuff like this.
This is from a few days ago, but Star Wars fans will enjoy this tale from our pal Andrew Bucholtz at Sporting Madness.
And now back to some seriousness: keep Nathan Horton in your thoughts, OK? God, I hate seeing anyone being carried off on a stretcher.
Round Two of the PLAYOFFS THAT SEEM TO NEVER END is well underway (and might I add that I am proud that I was 5 for 8 in my playoff picks?) Several series kept us at the edge of our seats by going the distance to Game 7. And let’s not forget the games that spilled into overtime (yes, please take your regular season shootout and shove it, NHL!) Here’s a look at a few guys that seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Always remember: good things happen when you go to the net.
If a miracle 3 pointer hadn’t saved the Spurs last night, this post would have been a celebration of the Memphis Grizzlies unlikely domination of the #1 seed in the Western Conference. Not only have 8 seeds won NBA playoff series only two previous times in history, the Grizzlies, in both their Memphis and Vancouver incarnations, had never won a playoff game before this series.
So it’s now 3-2, and still possible the Spurs (being the Spurs) could pull off two more wins and restore numerical sanity to the playoffs. Regardless, Memphis has been entertaining to watch … and not too shabby in still pictures, either! Perfect for trying out our new gallery capabilities.
Gratuitous Steve Yzerman in a suit. He's practically playoff-ready. (AP Photo)
Congratulations, Oilers fans! You win Ryan Nugent-Hopkins! I’m just relieved it wasn’t Boston who won the Draft Lottery. But I digress.
We looked at the first five quarter-final series last night. Now here’s a glance at the games starting on Thursday.
It’s a glorious time of year! (Unless you’re a Leafs fan or Cory Clouston.) It’s time for our quick and dirty preview of the first round of the NHL Playoffs. Here are the matchups that begin Wednesday:
To get you ready for the NFL Divisional Playoffs this weekend, I thought I would feature a hottie from each team playing this weekend. To see if your favorite hottie made the cut, take a trip with me after the jump. I hope I don’t disappoint!
Why yes, that is a picture of Placido Polanco stuffing Raul Ibanez’s glove down his pants. Thanks for noticing!
Enough goofing around: the league pennants are upon us, Fox has to start acting like the MLB playoffs aren’t something that just gets in the way of its football coverage (although to be fair they have a truly awesome NLCS promo which I can not find on the web but which prominently features a couple great Cardinal playoff moments plus Bartman), and fans whose teams win this series can buy shirts that don’t look kind of pathetic. (Unless you are a Rangers fan — you’re allowed to buy a Divisional Series Champs shirt if your team has never won a playoff series before.) Two teams swept their way in, one team needed all 5 games, and one would have swept if it were not for the heroics of one Rick Ankiel (it is, apparently, a good post season for Cardinals nostalgia). Anyway, here’s who we have left:
Yes, three of the four divisional playoff series played their first games yesterday, and yes, Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter against the Reds and totally ruined any chance I had of writing a “but it’s only Game 1 so it hasn’t got really exciting yet” lead in to this post, but some of us Ladies have once again decided to make fools of ourselves by predicting the MLB playoffs. But at least now the post will be illustrated by photos of actual 2010 playoff action, so that’s a bonus.
…Roy Halladay. Do I even need to say anything else?
HI EVERYONE ROY HALLADAY THREW A NO HITTER IN HIS FIRST POSTSEASON APPEARANCE AND I HAVE LOST THE ABILITY TO USE PUNCTUATION
PS IT WAS ONLY THE SECOND ONE IN A LITTLE THING WE LIKE TO CALL HISTORY
PS NUMBAH TWO: OH AND HE THREW A PERFECT GAME THIS YEAR ALREADY.
For real, I kind of think my husband would be okay if I left him for Roy. Actually, I kind of think he might leave me for Roy. I’m not sure I blame him.
And the winner of the 2010 Ladies…NBA Playoffs of Hotness is….
(suspense building by having to click on another link….)
That’s right, get pumped!! Even though neither of these lovely men are in the actual NBA finals, they are your finalists in the 1st Annual Ladies…NBA Playoffs of Hotness! Vote wisely – winner will be announced next Monday, so voting ends Sunday night at midnight!
Apologies on my tardiness – I too was somewhat stuck in the haze that is the holiday weekend. Plus I realized that I might be rushing this a bit, given that Game 1 of the actual finals isn’t even until tomorrow. On that note, I’m going to slow this down a bit and give everyone a much longer chance to cast their votes on the semifinals. Take a look, think hard, and vote away!
Thank you to everyone who voted in Round 1 of the 1st annual Ladies… NBA Playoffs of Hotness! Click that happy blue link just below here to see the brackets and vote on Round 2!
As promised last Monday (and thanks to everyone who left suggestions!), it is time for the NBA Playoffs of Hotness to begin! Cast your votes for Round 1 until this Thursday at 8am – Round 2 will be posted by noon!
Recently, we here at Ladies… got to thinking: there are all of these playoffs, finals, big events, championships, etc. going on, especially this time of year. And while it’s important to recognize achievements of the best team and watch them fight to the finish, we think it’s also important to give special appreciation to the hottest of the hot. But fear not; this will not be my own personal list of who I think is the hottest, nor will it be a combination of who the Ladies… think deserves the Larry O’Brien for being sexy. We want YOU, dear readers, to tell us who you think should be crowned the hottest man in the NBA!
Ok, well perhaps not LITERALLY. But c’mon, anyone that watched really any sport (including boxing) knows that this weekend was off-the-charts-bananas! Franchise record with a no-hitter, 20 inning scoreless standoff, NHL and NBA playoffs, drunk drivers…
Here’s a Hit & Run recap of the weekend’s events after the jump.
So Lady Bee and I have decided to do the preview for the 2010 playoffs. Since we’re the hockey fiends, we figured we’d do a fun roundtable discussion of predictions and hotties.
Follow us after the jump for some knowledge and eye candy!
It’s been a little gloom and doom in the bomber household these past few days…
You see there was this semi-important professional sporting match on Sunday, and despite my best efforts of yelling and screaming at the tv, my boys did not come away with that Lombardi trophy.
While I hold no ill will towards those gents in black and gold, I can’t help but wallow in my loss.
It got me thinking about championships and fandom- more specifically what impacts us more, the wins or losses?
Clad in my favorite P. Manning jersey, and drenched in a fever induced sweat, I watched my Colts do work on Sunday and win a trip to Miami for Super Bowl 44!
Fine, this was an excuse to post one more Mike Tomlin picture this year.
The big storyline in last year’s Super Bowl was the tradition rich Pittsburgh Steelers and their (then) five Super Bowl victories matched against the Arizona Cardinals in their first trip to the championship. This year, 3 of the 4 conference finalists have either never been to the Super Bowl or have not been in decades. To put things in perspective, I took a look at the rosters of each team — both from their last trip to the conference game (win or lose) and their last conference championship — and selected a player representative of that era in the team’s history. You might be surprised who I came up with.
Vintage (sort of) football hotness, after the jump.
The NFL regular season is over. With Alabama winning the BCS National Championship game, college football won’t be back until next fall. For those of you who play fantasy football, a winner has already been decided. (Congrats to THE Blonde Bomber for winning the ladies… fantasy football!) But don’t be too sad. There is still plenty going on in the football world. There’s coaching changes in college football. New coaches in the NFL. And mostly importantly there’s the NFL playoffs!! The Cowboys remembered how to win in January (which didn’t make me very happy). The Patriots got slaughtered by the Ravens (which did make me happy). This weekend is a new set of games that will hopefully be more entertaining than the Wild Card games. (Admit it, aside from the Cards/Packers game, all those games were pretty boring.)
Congrats to Bama for beating the Longhorns 37-21 in the BCS title game.
Well, it’s finally here: Playoff Time! This is when you separate the men from the boys. Well us Ladies are separating the hotties from the not-so hotties. Take a trip with me after the jump to see some hotties playing in the Wild Card match-ups this weekend.
It’s late and I’m still awake, so instead of reveling in the happiness of the NFL Playoffs, I’ve decided to focus on how many cute, lycra-clad behinds that will disappear from our weekly viewing schedule for the next eight months.
In order to tide you over until August, follow the jump for one last look at the cute boys of the 2009 season who we won’t be seeing anymore…
Ladies... 