Other major signings: MORE»
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Here we go, tons of hockey news to be coming forth today and boy do the hockey fans need it after quite an uneventful draft day last week. Today is one of them big days in the NHL calendar that doesn’t include any hockey actually being played — other such days include the Trade Deadline and the Draft. It’s 1 July and that means Free Agency Opens.
The players out of contract officially became eligible to sign for whatever team offers them a contract at 12 p.m. today so we are about 39 minutes into free agency as we speak and already a few moves are being made. There is also some steep rumors of trades of players under contract being made as team try to free up cap room to sign the potential free agent that attracts them.
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Andy Murray had his toughest test of Wimbledon 2009 today but the usual feast of fist pumps, angry looking faces, and yells of ‘Come on Andy’ from the stands seen him through as it has with British players so many times in the past … Or at least since Tim Henman left the circuit. It was reminiscent of last years later round games when Murray rode the wave of a noisy centre court crowd and dragged himself to his best effort yet at Wimbledon off the back of his muscle flexing. This year looks like it will be more of the same and to be fair, as much as a nightmare it might be for Murray, you won’t find too many onlookers complaining if we see dramatic 5-set Tennis the rest of the way.
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When I typed in the title above my spell checker highlighted the word ‘Pronger’, but when I clicked on it instead of hitting ignore, I hit ‘learn’ because in the coming year or so with Chris Pronger now a Philadelphia Flyers player I believe I’ll be writing quite a bit about him and I don’t want red lines all over my articles before I hit submit.
Last night during the NHL Entry Draft the Flyers made a big splash by giving up their pick late in the first round, their first round pick next year and two young players for veteran defenseman Chris Pronger. Why should I be so interested other than the fact that my team have picked up a marquee player who, even at 35, can still make a difference to the point that he could be the missing cog in a Stanley Cup challenge?
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I haven’t wrote much about the Blue Jays lately, I just haven’t had the chance to get down to see them though I hope to change that after next weekend. But they are playing and playing often, but not often playing well. It’s been win a few, lose a few lately and today it was lose big, 10-0 to Philadelphia big.
The Jays now sit with a 41 wins, 35 loss record which if given at the start of the season they might well have taken actually. It’s not all bad, they sit 1.5 games back on the New York Yankees but 5.5 games back on the Red Sox. Given that only the team that wins your division and the best runner up throughout the entire league qualifies for the playoffs, it seems like it will be tough for the Jays to do anything. They are without doubt in the toughest division in baseball having to overcome the mega rich Yankees and Red Sox. In fact the Jays .539 win average (the measure by which Baseball standings are made) would have them leading two of the three divisions in the National League, if they played there, and less than two games out of leading the other two divisions in the American League. They are stuck were they are right now.
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Brian Burke confused a lot of people last night by revealing that young Nazem Kadri was the guy he wanted all along and not superstar in the making John Tavares, leaving the Toronto media scrambling on the Internet to find out just who exactly they would be writing about for this mornings papers when they seemed sure it would be John Tavares. For months we had been lead to believe that the dream was to move up in the draft to pick Tavares and for months leading into the draft, Leafs GM Brian Burke was saying that was exactly his plan, but when it came to the crunch he called Kadri to the stage as the Leafs new hot prospect. Burke of course was trying to make Kardi feel wanted but he would have saved himself from looking like a fool had he just kept quiet with the media back at the draft lottery all them months ago. I could see then that it would be a costly (in terms of players they would have to give up) mistake to try move up for one hot prospect in Tavares and one that was very unlikely to happen.
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We really only watch the first week of Wimbledon in the hope that we might see some crazy upset with a big name taking a fall about seven days before they should have but in general it is the second week when we all tune in to see the real exciting stuff. With today’s victory, Britain’s great hope, Andy Murray moved into the last sixteen — the second week.
All the top names generally are still in the competition and this is the stage when we start to see some of them getting drawn against one another. By this time next week we will know who will be playing in the mens final … A must watch.
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About half an hour to go until the New York Islanders do one of two things: Take to the stage and announce who their number one pick is or trade down with the Toronto Maple Leafs and watch them take to the stage to announce John Tavares as their number one pick. The later is the certain bet if Brian Burke is to believed who just a few months ago promised he would do everything he could to move his team up to the top pick to get their dream player. But it isn’t crucial that the Leafs get Tavares, giving up too much just to get one player is never to wise, but it should be exciting to see what happens regardless.
Tavares is a gifted player, no doubt about it, but a lot of people are wondering if he is being built up to more than he is. Is he the next Sidney Crosby or the next Jason Spezza? Both great players but one a go-to elite superstar, the other just a superstar. Tavares will have a great career in the NHL but whether he could be the Leafs man to build a team around remains to be seen … We mightn’t even get the chance to find out if the Islanders do not bite.
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Individual races in Formula One are always interesting but the title battle is usually only of interest if more than one driver is competing for the crown. So far this season it has been looking like a Schumacher style year were one driver races off with all the wins, points and eventually, the title. This weekend looked like the perfect weekend for Button to take another huge step for the title, it was his home Grand Prix and his big chance to take the big win in front of all his fans. But it was the German Vettel that spoiled Button’s home coming party and maybe for the good of the title race that wasn’t a bad thing. Vettel is still well behind Button, actually he is still behind Barrichello but if anything the weekend has shown the 2009 version of Button to be human after all and maybe it’ll be a big turning point in the season. It sure would be nice.
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Montreal Impact v Toronto FC
18/6/09
My plan was to sit down last night while watching the impossible game against Montreal and write about last Saturday’s victory over New York. I attended the game against New York so it would be the one worth writing about. I mean Toronto had to beat Montreal by four goals to qualify for the North American Champions League and while Montreal were already eliminated and were fielding a weakened team it still looked like an impossible hurdle to overcome. I had some faith that something could happen, I know all to well that Football is a funny old game and two goals by half-time and anything is possible, but when Toronto fell behind 1-0 to an early penalty even the most positive of fans must have considered opening a beer to what might have been.
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One look at the sporting calendar this weekend and for the next month and you will see that I will be virtually untouchable and unreachable. I usually reserve such drastic matters for World Cup summers when I send a memo out to family, friends and work colleagues that my blinds will be drawn for the duration of the tournament, my fridge stacked with beer, my phone turned off during games and my attention focused on the only thing that matters every forth summer through the months of June and July. If you want my company you had better come over to watch the matches with me or join me in the pub for the match or invite me to your home for … you guessed it … the match.
But I’ve just spent the last portion of the evening looking over various sports websites and all I have been seeing are previews for the month to come. What is even more remarkable is that these events are all annual events and so I must surely have had this feeling of excitement before. I can only assume I blacked out due to being overwhelmed by it all and actually forgot what it was like to head into the month with it all in front of me. Actually, come next year, when it will indeed be a World Cup summer, I might find myself breaking down with sporting overload and waking up a few months later in some clinic, heavily sedated and under serious medical watch.
Indeed. Take a look at this … MORE»
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Eleven months and three weeks ago I sat down and watched one of the most intense and exciting sporting events of my life. If twelve months ago I had told myself that within three weeks the 2009 Wimbledon mens final would slide into my top 10 most memorable sporting events of all time I would have laughed at myself. I was never a massive Tennis fan growing up and my Tennis interest revolved around watching Wimbledon each July when I had the time, following whatever British player had an outside chance and when as a kid, watching it for a little bit before going out onto the street to try play it. Then in 2009 I got watching more Wimbledon than I probably should have allowed myself — though I didn’t go out on the street to play it — and got a hooked on the potential Federer v Nadal final and finally caved to the sports excitement when the final became a reality.
So understandably it was with great disappointment that I read today that Nadal has withdrawn from the championship due to injury. It opens the door for Federer to get his title back and even gives Andy Murray a massive chance to grab a final spot and who knows what. But the fact will remain that without the big-two match-up people will watch Wimbledon with excitement, maybe even claim some game to be the best ever, but come the end be left asking the obvious question: “Would he have won had Nadal been able to play?”
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This weekend is the British Grand Prix which is meant to be one of the biggest and best F1 races of the year. The event is meant to be making the news as the last Silverstone GP before it’s impending move Donnington Park but this week the news that eight teams have seriously threatened to set up a breakaway series has sent shock waves through the sport to the point that this weekends big race is secondary to the latest story. The eight teams, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Brawn GP, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso that make up Fota, the F1 teams association have said that they will not sign up to the F1’s proposals of a salary cap and will set up their own series if necessary.
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England beat Spain tonight.
The only problem, it was in an Under-21 game. Not to take anything away from the under-21’s of course … Their European Championships are currently taking place and the win, regardless of the age category, is bound to be a big boost for the future of English Football. Expect the Sun newspaper and other such rags to be talking up a 2018 World Cup victory in the morning. I noticed that in the England squad was James Milner and Theo Walcott which surprised me. For Milner it seems like the kid has been around forever yet he is still young enough to make this squad. For Walcott it is the fact that he has played for the senior squad. Clearly it isn’t a rule that you can play for the under-21’s after playing for the full-team, but should it be? While it isn’t a rule though, picking Walcott is a given though the biggest shock was not the victory tonight but that Walcott was only a substitute. He did come on later in the game and set up the second goal for Milner, but Walcott is a player who, as a child, made the England squad for the 2006 World Cup yet cannot force his way into the starting XI for England’s U21’s.
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