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Stan!
You're damn right
(Sorry, I just couldn't resist. The picture accompanies an article in the Post about Kroenke's plans for a Denver regional sports network to televise his empire)
With Denver native John Grahame playing so well in Tampa Bay, might they feel a need to unload some salary? Aebischer is playing very well here in Denver, but Colorado had two scouts at last Saturday's Lightning game against Buffalo. It could happen.
I spent most of my childhood in two places: Syracuse, NY and Hartford, CT. I grew up watching Big East basketball, and good Big East basketball at that. Now, for only the second time ever, a basketball program has both its men's and women's teams ranked #1 in the AP Top 25 poll. That program is UConn. It should be an exciting season, and I hope to find the time to follow the Huskies a bit closer than I have in the past few years.
The regular season is still several days away and expectations couldn't be higher on the Connecticut campus.Both men's and women's teams are ranked No. 1 in their respective AP Top 25 poll released in the past 24 hours. Men's coach Jim Calhoun will try to blend one of the nation's top recruiting classes with the All-American inside-outside combination of Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon.
Women's coach Geno Auriemma has everyone back from last year's national championship team as the Huskies, led by national player of the year Diana Taurasi, aim for their third straight title and fifth overall.
I'm not a baseball fan, but I tuned in to watch the Cubs get screwed tonight. Will this man survive the night?
Are you kidding? Just when the Cubs appeared headed to the World Series, disaster struck. A fan's ill-timed decision to catch a foul ball was part of Florida's eight-run eighth as Chicago blew a 3-0 lead to lose 8-3 in Game 6 in the NLCS.
[UPDATE]
ESPN's Jayson Stark had this to say on the matter:
We don't know his name. We don't want to know his name. We hope no one in Chicago ever learns his name.We hope he already has joined the witness-protection program. We hope he can start a new life somewhere, rooting for a team thousands of miles from the North Side of Chicago. We hope he forgets. We hope the people of Chicago forget about him.
But that will never happen. No way. Because the Cubs lost a playoff game they couldn't lose Tuesday night. And one reason they lost it is because a 26-year-old guy in a Cubs cap saw a baseball coming his way and decided to try to catch it.
[Yet Another UPDATE]
Thanks Pete!
For those in the area, Avs opening game at my place Friday after 6ish and then Kill Bill Vol 1 Saturday afternoon sometime.
Colorado gets no Stanley Cup Love from the ESPN crew. Plenty of them picked them to win the West, but all but one picked Ottawa to beat them in the finals (crazy Al Morganti chose New Jersey to repeat over the Avs). Presumably this is a function of Colorado's goaltending situation. Oddly enough, all Ottawa has is Patrick Lalime, who doesn't have a great post-season record. I can't figure it, but hopefully Aebischer will pull out all the stops, or we'll pick up Sean Burke. With the offense the Avs will hopefully have, goaltending is an afterthought. Don't forget, Edmonton won their cups with Grant Fuhr in goal.
ESPN's and ESPN.com's NHL experts give their predictions for division, conference and Stanley Cup champions, as well as the Hart, Vezina, Norris and Adams trophies.
While I'm in a hockey state of mind, ESPN Magazine has a cover story on Forsberg's future that makes for an interesting read. If you have an ESPN Insider account, you can read it here. Otherwise, check out the newsstands this week.
PETER FORSBERG WAS HERE.Was.
Because soon, was might be all we've got.
Forsberg, the league MVP, could have signed a lifetime deal with the Avalanche this summer if he so desired, but he signed for only one season. One year. That's all he's giving the NHL. Everyone close to Forsberg says he took a long while this summer, back in his native Sweden, before deciding to come back to the States this season. "A real discussion with himself," says one longtime friend. "Very, very hard," says another. The man seems to be looking for a reason to leave. Now the league is about to give it to him.
This isn't Steve Yzerman or Mark Messier, legends who will retire anyway after another year or two. This isn't Dany Heatley or Todd Bertuzzi, North American stars who will wait out the storm and dazzle us again someday. This isn't Mike Modano or Sergei Fedorov, offensive wizards who had to learn a defensive game. This is, arguably, the most complete player in hockey history. The guy who, two years ago, led the league in postseason scoring without even making it to the Cup Finals. The guy who, last season, became the first man in 39 seasons to lead the NHL in points without scoring 30 goals. "He has the skill of the best who ever played," says Stars wing Bill Guerin, "and the toughness of the toughest who ever played."
The NHL 2003-2004 season starts Wednesday, so forgive me if I'm not devoting as much time to blogging as I normally might. I've been busy putting my fantasy keeper league team together after a fairly miserable performance last year. I'm happier with my goalies and defensive corp this year at least.
The Avs are looking to be a very interesting team this year. Not since the mid 80's, when I first succumbed to Whaler-mania, has there been such a ridiculously overpowered set of forwards on one team. Goaltending weaknesses might not matter (you'll note I picked both Avs goalies on my fantasy team) when they're scoring 8-9 goals a game. [UPDATE] I forgot to include this before, but the Av's won THN's player poll with 50% of players polled thinking Colorado will win the cup. [/UPDATE]
I've also got my ESPN-HD hooked up on the HDTvizzle. I'm not sure how many NHL games they'll be carrying (if any) but the anticipation is killing me.
My favorite hockey columnist/SportsCenter-in-training anchor Mr John Buccigross checks in with a recap of his summer and a preview of the Eastern Conference. Tomorrow he should have his Western Conference preview.
Hey John, Just to be the 435,000th person to ask ... Are you tuning up the Zamboni for another year? Looking forward to the next column...Rich Glazerman
Actually, you're the fourth person, Rich. If you remember the e-mail that ended last year's final column.
But, this is a year of fan building for me, and fan containment for the NHL and its players. A dawn of a new era. So, in the spirit of unity and good faith bargaining, let's all get along. Let's cast aside our mistrust and bitterness and show some good ol' Darcy Tucker fair play. A man never stands so tall as when he stoops so low to annihilate an anterior cruciate ligament. Oops. Sorry.
"It seems like all the great innovators die young," said Ken Morrow, a defenseman on the 1980 team and now a scout for the New York Islanders. "Coach may have been the greatest innovator the sport has ever had."Brooks was behind the bench when the Americans pulled off one of the greatest upsets ever, beating the mighty Soviets with a squad of mostly college players.
The Colorado Avalanche has signed unrestricted free agents Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne to one-year contracts, the Associated Press learned Thursday.
This is an unbelievable deal. Kariya agreed to a 1.2 million dollar contract. We get one of the greatest hockey duos ever for 7 million dollars. All Praise Pierre.
In the words of Adrian Dater of the Denver Post:
The Avalanche's power play figures to be fearsome, perhaps one of the greatest combinations of talent in NHL history. Rob Blake and Derek Morris should man the points (although Kariya has done the same in the past with Anaheim) and Colorado will have a choice of Forsberg, Selanne, Kariya, Sakic and Hejduk down low for their rotation of three forwards.Unbelievable, indeed.
