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…
If you guessed 87 as the number of minutes the Pens spent in the sin bin Sunday, you'd be terribly close. (Photo: Getty Images)
You can blame the Leafs’ freefall from playoff contention on this, but I’ve been suffering from hockey fatigue. And so, you’ve been without an NHL Playoff Preview, and for that I apologize.
It seems I haven’t missed too much actual hockey, if the Pittsburgh-Philly series is any indication. The Flyers took a commanding 3-0 lead in the quarterfinal series with an 8-4 win Sunday over the Pens, a game highlighted with more Pier 6 brawls in a single afternoon than I’ve witnessed in recent memory. Someone want to remind Crosby that he should be using his stick to score goals, not whack Bryzgalov’s glove? Ugh. Thankfully, there’s a nice cooling off period for these guys – they don’t meet again until Wednesday.
Because good things come in threes, there’s three Game 3’s happening tonight: the Rangers are in Ottawa, Boston visits Washington and San Jose hosts St. Louis. Each series is tied 1-1.
Now let’s talk baseball…after the jump. Continue reading
Your TV, radio and internets are being bombarded with Year In Review posts and specials as I type this. Well, guess what? It’s no different here at Ladies… We took a few moments this week to reflect on our favourite memories of this past year. Some will be hilariously obvious, others may surprise you. All of them will make you warm and fuzzy, like a delicious flute of champagne.
You may call him Captain Pronger. (Getty Images)
The first opening faceoff of the regular season is just a few days away, which brings me a small comfort as Sabathia struggles against the Tigers (as I type this…so many sighs…) Here’s a quick look at what we think is exciting about the Atlantic Division:
Super Bowl Champions the Green Bay Packers visited President Obama at the White House today. For Bears fan Obama, it was a bit of a heart-break, but for Packers fans, it was a visit a long time coming.
Often, when championship teams visit the White House, they give the president a gift – this is usually a jersey and the number on the back is usually the president’s number in the succession of presidents. (For example, Obama is the 44th President of the United States.)
While at the White House today, Packer Charles Woodson presented the president with a certificate of stock in the publicly owned Green Bay Packers. As a Bears’ fan, Obama took the opportunity as a new “owner” to suggest a trade for Aaron Rodgers.
Considering I’ve usually heard of teams giving the president a jersey, I thought the stock certificate was a pretty cool gift. It made me wonder what other gifts teams have presented to the president.
The Giants also gave President Obama a signed bat and fielder’s gloves for his whole family.
2009 World Series Champions the New York Yankees don’t appear to have given any gifts other than the jersey, but their jersey had the #27 on the back – for their 27 world titles.
Chicago Blackhawks, the 2010 Stanley Cup winners, gave hometown president Obama a Blackhawks sweater and let him try on the ring.
Auburn, 2010 National Football Champions, gave Obama a jersey and a helmet.
The jersey the 2009 Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins upped the jersey ante by giving Obama one with a captain’s “C” on it.
UConn, the men’s basketball national champions, gave President Obama a basketball with his name etched on it.
The Philadelphia Phillies, who won the World Series in 2008, also gave Obama a baseball.
As far as I can tell, 2008 and 2008 winners the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints stuck to the jersey gift.
Not a gift, but when the UConn women’s basketball team visited in 2009, President Obama challenged a few of the players to a game of P-I-G. Naturally, he won. But the women were wearing heels and dress.
The Detroit Red Wings, 2008 Stanley Cup Champions, gave George Bush Jr two jerseys – one #43 for him and one #41 for his dad. And also invited them to visit on their annual father-son trip. They also gave President Bush a miniature Stanley Cup statue.
So maybe I’m a little biased, but I think the stock certificate might have been the coolest gift in recent memory. The Packers also broke tradition by giving him a Packers jersey with the name on back “Commander In Chief” and the #1.
You can check out video of the Packers White House visit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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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:
Here's Marquette, whose victory over Syracuse last night made me cry. (Photo: Getty Images)
It’s Monday. How are your brackets looking? Like hell? Thought so.
First of all, a warm welcome to our special guest Ladies… Bracket Brawl participants: Melissa_thistle, Courknee35, Big10Bias and fellow Canuck/friend of the blog Andrew Bucholtz (you will go read his blog The 55-Yard Line now, won’t you?) Our current leader isn’t in our Ladies… group – due to technical difficulties, we had to create another group on ESPN.com so one gal could get her picks in. That gal is Buffalita, leading the pack with 460 points and picking Ohio State to win it all. CuteSports and Raven round out the Top 3 at 440 and 430 points respectively. Any hopes I had of repeating last year’s surprise success have been flushed down the proverbial toilet. I blame Butler.
Best of luck heading into Thursday! Sweet Sixteen will be hopefully be sweet for some of you.
So what else is going on? Continue reading
Hello, Ladies… readers! I know it’s been awhile since you’ve seen a post from me, but I’m back in full force and bringing you some hockey, of course! I was lucky enough to be able to purchase Winter Classic tickets for the Capitals vs. Penguins game in Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day. As a loyal Caps season ticket holder, I decided to make the purchase, book the hotel and make the trek to Western PA.
Make the trek with me after the jump to read all about my trip (and I promise some pictures of hot guys).
Girls, we should really consider an "I Was There" post from the Coney Island Polar Bear Swim next year. I'm just sayin'. (Reuters)
Happy New Year, readers! We hope you had a fabulous holiday that wasn’t marred by travel hiccups, barfing flu or Christmas morning plumbing problems (that last one happened to me. True story.) We’re back at it after a much-needed break. If you laid low this past weekend after a raucous New Year’s Eve, let’s fill you in on what you may have missed.
Yes, some people have to work today.
Happy last weekend of summer as we know it! For those of you not spending it at work, or moving to your dorm, or counting down the hours until you can put the kids on the school bus, we bring you five ways to spend that (hopefully) least of laborious days. Continue reading
Imagine: if we were writing this 30 years ago, we likely would have included him.
Now that we’ve given away the hardware for this year’s NHL Playoff Beards Awards (props to Raven for her excellent research once again), we bring you the NHL Playoffs of Hotness.
This works just like the NBA edition. Vote for the hockey hottie you love. We’ll narrow down the choices bracket-style over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to our readers for their suggestions on such short notice! Don’t worry: we’ve included a few guys from the Stanley Cup finalists Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers.
You have until Monday at 8pm Eastern to cast your vote. Yes, we’re making our readers work hard these days! Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago, Raven and I delivered to you our first round NHL Playoff predictions. For the most part we were correct, but I can’t help but feel a little guilty about my Cup winner prediction. Did I jinx Ovi and the Caps?
Sadness. (Photo: Getty Images)
Maybe? Habs fans were screaming in the streets of Montreal Wednesday night like they were headed to the Final. Is it a good time to tell them that they’re facing the Pens in the next round?
I checked in with Raven Thursday morning, and all things considered she seems to be OK (and fortunately she didn’t have car trouble on the way home Wednesday, although if she had, Mr. Laich could have been of assistance). Her colour of mourning is red and she wishes to be consoled in the arms of one Ryan Kesler. (BTW, Ryan, if you’re not too busy, can you see me when you get a moment? I hit my elbow on the towel rack this morning and could use a hug.)
At any rate, here’s how we see the second round of the NHL playoffs playing out.
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!
Welcome to the hockey version of our ever-popular “Take Us Out To The Ball Game” series.
As I recently mentioned, I made my first ever visit to the western part of my vast homeland. This visit included my first ever live NHL experience. More on that after the jump.
But first, a special shout-out to my new favourite city, Vancouver! Calgary was alright – I can’t fault any city with a Bath and Body Works. But oh, how I love Vancouver and its lush mountains, coastal scenery, Granville Island Market and sushi! I would live there tomorrow, if it weren’t for that whole outrageous real estate situation. Oh, and the uprooting of my family. They’d be pissed.
Oh yeah, so I went to this hockey game…
Even hockey players watch football to pass the time. Sadly, you won't be seeing this trio of hotties at any Eagles games anytime soon.
As Lady Bee told you yesterday, we here at Ladies… can’t wait for the NHL season to finally start, so we’re doing some previews for those of you who feel our pain!
Today I’ll be previewing the Atlantic Division.
Omigodyouguys it’s Game 7 tonight! Really, is there anything more exciting than a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final?
(Perhaps Game 7 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium? Okay, I’ll leave my bias aside for this post and I’ll thank you in advance for not discussing A.J. Burnett.)
Kudos to the Pens for a rousing Game 6 on Tuesday night to bring us to this point. And by the way, nice to see my theory of Crosby’s beard jinxing the series getting totally shot to hell. Would you believe I’m actually getting used to seeing him with…that? I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it if he shows up clean-shaven at the NHL Awards.
But enough about facial hair. I canvassed some of the Ladies to get their thoughts and predictions on who will hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup:
I suppose if you’re a Red Wings, Magic, Lakers, or Serena Williams fan, then it really wasn’t a disappointment of a weekend at all. But over all, this weekend seemed to be filled with disappointment from all over the world of sports – from a 25 inning game 1 showdown to missing the mark in the NBA finals.
Sid, can we talk for a second?
Things got a little scary for Cleveland this week. Their series against the Magic took an ugly turn when they fell 3 games to 1. The Nuggets gave the Lakers a run for their money but with a 3-2 lead, it looks like LA will find themselves in the finals once again. It is déjà-vu all over again for the Stanley Cup Finals as the Penguins and Red Wings face off for the second time in as many years. And amidst all the playoff fun this week, there was some baseball thrown in there as well.
There’s no question that Sid the Kid gets a lot of Ladies… love. But consider his partner in hockey crime, Evgeni Malkin, for a moment. No, he’s not conventionally cute. But his talent on the ice makes him unabashedly HOT!
Well I just got back from the best Game 7, OK the only Game 7, I’ve ever witnessed! As of this morning, my voice is a little scratchy, but well worth the pain. After being down 3-1 in the series, the Washington Capitals battled back and took down the New York Rangers. Sergei Fedorov saved the day with his wicked slapshot with about 5 minutes to go in regulation. The rest as they say is history. The other Game 7 last night was also quite amazing. Eric Staal scored on Marty Brodeur with 31.7 seconds to go in a 3-3 game, and the No. 6 seeded Carolina Hurricanes took down the New Jersey Devils.
So now the match-ups for the East are set, and it’s onto the preview of the Eastern Conference Semifinals…
Chances are you’ll be reading this in 2009. That’s okay. It’s a holiday and you were preparing yourself for the New Year’s Eve celebrations. But if you are reading this in 2008 then let’s go through a review of what happened this year. Specifically what happened every Wednesday of this year. Yes, we’re going to be taking a look back at the Hump Day Hotties that have graced our blog in the ’08. Why? Because how could you not want to take a trip down memory lane and remember Ryan Lochte?
So let’s go back through the year that was and enjoy our hotties one more time before we sing “Auld Lang Syne.” And if you’re reading this in 2009, remember when Lochte was so smoking in 2008 he made the Ladies… HDH? Yeah, that was awesome.
Who says the off-season in the NHL is boring? The Tampa Bay Lightning are poised to make a strike at becoming arguably the most exciting team in the NHL, and they’re sparing no expense. From the top all the way down, they are adding quality and hotness across the board. Follow me after the jump to learn see why.
For the fourth time in 11 seasons the Detroit Red Wings are in possession of Lord Stanley’s Cup. Congratulations to the Wings and all their fans out there. Enjoy your championship. Especially since some of us who root for other Michigan teams are looking at the possibility of a long while without the chance at seeing a championship (*grumble*stupid Detroit Tigers*grumble*). And Pittsburgh Penguins fans don’t hang your heads. The way I see it y’all have a young team that looks like it has quite a few years to win the Cup for themselves. This is only the beginning.
One thing y’all know about me is that I love championship pictures. And I’m pretty sure you all know that’s what’s coming up. Congratulations once again to the Red Wings and their fans.
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. It’s double the dose of HDH. Why? Well, why not? And as I have nothing else to add here except words for the sake of having words, let’s get to the all Pennsylvania final.
You know we’re starting with Crosby, right? Yes, I’m that predictable.
Ladies... 