Wrap-up

Things finally were going right for the Vikings yesterday, and even though it was against the Raiders, I decided I'm going to look at it as a pretty big step forward rather than just a normal step. The Vikings came to play ball yesterday, and that was very apparent. They looked good on all ends of the field and came out with a 29-22 victory. Chester Taylor, who was bumped back into the starting slot because of Adrian Peterson's injury, showed why he deserves to be a starter in the NFL when he tore apart the Raider's D with 164 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. Even Tavaris Jackson showed some poise as he completed 17 of 22 passes for 171 yards and a pick. Receiver Sidney Rice got into the passing game with his first two attempts and completions on two trick plays executed by the Vikings. The Vikings defense looked great in limiting the Raiders offense to only 61 yards rushing. The Vikings D did struggle against the pass again, this time the victim of former Vikings Quarterback Daunte Culpepper. Culpepper completed 23 of 39 passes for 344 yards and a touchdown to go along with two fumbles and an interception. The victory moved the Vikings record to 4-6, good for third in the division ahead of the Chicago Bears.

Although it was a terrible Sunday of Football for my fantasy team, it was a very entertaining day to watch. For the Baltimore Ravens though, it may be a day they want to take back after having the victory taken away from them after 5 minutes of the referees discussing whether or not Phil Dawson's field goal made its way through the uprights. With only a few seconds left on the clock, the Browns lined up for a 51 yard field goal to try to tie the Ravens at 30. When Dawson let the kick fly, it wound up hitting the right upright, bouncing down onto the crossbar, and ricocheting out of the goal-post. The kick was originally ruled to be no good, so the Ravens started celebrating and heading to the locker room. But after a few minutes of review, the call was reversed when the ball was deemed to have hit the bar that connects the goal-post, meaning the ball was inside the post and bounced out. The Browns then received the kick in overtime, drove down the field, and then won with another Phil Dawson field goal, this time from 31 yards.

After watching the Patriots play again last night, I have come up with this conclusion: a team is better off forfeiting their game against the Patriots to avoid an embarrassing loss. This time, the Buffalo Bills were the team that acted as the Patriots punching bag, getting beaten up 56-10. Tom Brady was his usual self completing 31 of 39 passes for a paltry 371 yards and 5 touchdowns. Oh yeah, and four of those five touchdowns went to Randy Moss, who racked up 128 receiving yards to go with those four scores. It's a testament to the Patriots when they go out on the field, score on 7 of their first 8 possessions, and nobody is surprised. After 10 games in which the Patriots average more than 41 points a game, it's not shocking at all that they are doing the things they do. It's fun to have a team like that who you can count on to put on a great offensive show every game. Here are the other scores from Sunday's action:

Tampa Bay over Atlanta 31-7
Arizona over Cincinnati 35-27
NY Giants over Detroit 16-10
Green Bay over Carolina 31-17
Indianapolis over Kansas City 13-10
Philadelphia over Miami 17-7
Jacksonville over San Diego 24-17
Houston over New Orleans 23-10
NY Jets over Pittsburgh 19-16
Dallas over Washington 28-23
St. Louis over San Francisco 13-9
Seattle over Chicago 30-23

Other action going on last night showcased the Minnesota Wild facing the division leading Colorado Avalanche. Unfortunately, the Wild were without their best center Mikko Koivu who suffered a cracked bone in his leg due to a cowardly and selfish act by Canucks Defensemen Mattias Ohlund. Ohlund received a 4 game suspension from league disciplinarian Colin Campbell yesterday, and I must say I am very disappointed to say the least. Four games for a two-handed, intentional stick-swinging act is a joke. Ohlund could have very easily broken Koivu's leg with his vicious attack, yet he only sits out for a few games. People keep bringing up that Koivu looked like he tried to elbow Ohlund right before the slash happened, but if you study the play more closely, you can tell that Koivu was simply trying to get around Ohlund and brought his arm up. Anybody that watches the Wild knows that Koivu is not the type of player that plays dirty. That type of behavior that Ohlund showed is what the NHL has vowed to try to cut out of the game, yet when something like that happens, they give the guy a minor suspension. I personally was calling for a 15-20 game suspension, but obviously I don't work in the NHL's discipline department so I have no say in the matter. Anyway, back to the game. The Wild got offense from the most surprising of players and collected a 4-1 win to leap-frog them over the Avalanche and into first place in the division. Aaron Voros, Stephane Veilleux, and Matt Foy all collected goals to help the Wild break out of their offensive slump. James Sheppard added two assists for his first two-point game in his NHL career. The Wild played a good all around game, skating well and getting back to the Jacques Lemaire-style Hockey that they have been missing. They played tight defense in allowing only 7 shots in the first period and 6 in the third. Josh Harding stopped 27 of 28 shots to earn the victory after a few recent shaky outings. Hopefully the Wild can take this game and use it to propel them forward as they continue to try to right the ship and get back to the type of Hockey they were playing in the first eight games of the season.

That's all for today. I'll try to re-cap the Monday night game between Tennessee and Denver if I can. If I don't write by then, I will definitely have something up next Thursday so I can share my thoughts on the upcoming Wild-Canucks game that is to be played on Wednesday.

The Great Sport of Hockey

So I just got done reading an "article" written by Damien Cox on ESPN that outlines the topic of fighting in Hockey. I just want to start off by saying that Damien Cox needs to get a new job. Reading his take on Hockey makes me kind of ashamed that I actually listen to and follow ESPN. He is so misinformed and all of his articles have been equally terrible. With that being said, this particular article discussing fighting in Hockey is an argument that is brought up way more often than it should be.
Hockey has survived in it's original form since 1875, when the first documented game of Ice Hockey was played in Montreal, Canada. From the time of the first game up until the games taking place now, the one constant in Hockey has been fighting. The purpose of fighting is Hockey is simple to understand: Sticking up for your teammates. When a guy that is 6'2" takes a run at your best player who's 5'10", I'm pretty sure that the 5'10" guy isn't going to try to take on the bigger guy. That is where an enforcer does his job. I'm sure most people have heard the expression "pick on someone your own size," and that applies in Hockey. Most fights aren't one big guy and one little guy going at it. If someone picks on your guy, it is necessary to stick up for your teammate and show the other team that they can't mess with him.
When people try to compare the violence in Hockey to the hitting in other sports, it almost comes across as comical. So you take away fighting in Hockey. What will you do next, make Football two-hand touch? There are certain aspects of the game that cannot be changed. Hockey players have been fighting since before the NFL even came about. People aren't dying on the ice from fights, the purpose of a fight is to teach a guy a lesson like a real man. It's great when people say "Well in Basketball if you even throw a punch, you're out for 5 games, yet in Hockey it's pretty much encouraged that you fight." First of all, that is wrong. By allowing fighting to happen, that in no way is encouraging people to fight. It's simply giving grown men an option to settle their differences in a way that is fair to everyone. There are more brawls in Baseball then there are in Hockey, so why do we think that fighting is such a bad thing? It gives people a reason to not act inappropriately by having to create a brawl in order to get their point across.
When guys are caught up in the heat of the game and all of their emotions are running high, would you rather have a guy attempt to take out someone by hitting them with their stick or by engaging in a civilized fight that leaves a clear winner and loser? Fighting may look dangerous on the surface, and it definitely is dangerous, but without fighting, the only way that guys would be able to stand up for their teammates would be to commit more illegal and dirty hits. Everyone knows the risk of a fight going into it, so it's no surprise to anyone when someone gets their cheekbone shattered (warning: Pretty graphic video) or when both guys come out of a fight unscathed.
Looking at the otherside of the argument, I do see why some people disapprove of the fighting in Hockey. I know that mothers do not want their kids to watch a Hockey game, see Derek Boogaard beat up Todd Fedoruk, and have their kid try to emulate that during their Hockey game. For a person that doesn't know much about Hockey, it is reasonable for them to say that all fighting does is encourage violence and promote harm. But fighting in Hockey is much more than that. Grown men have the right to decide how they police themselves on the ice. Dirty hits are going to happen, cheap shots are going to take place, but without fighting, those will be the only ways to get back at someone. I know that revenge is something that is not taught to most young kids, but it's important that people don't just sit back and take crap from people when they don't have to. Fighting is an intrical part of Hockey and people need to learn to accept that. If you don't like the fighting, then stay out of the rink.

What's a Vikings fan to do?

So after a game of extremely high highs, the Vikings have officially reached the low of the low. The Vikings followed their 35-17 romp of the Chargers last week with a 34-0 drubbing at the hands of the Green Bay Packers. Ryan Grant ran for 119 yards and a touchdown and Brett Favre had 351 yards and 3 touchdowns for the Pack. The Vikings looked inept the entire game and were completely caught off-guard on defense when Grant came out running all over them. Everybody knew the Packers were essentially a one dimensional team, opting to go with Favre because of their lack of a running game, but after today, it seems the Packers have found their running back. Grant took advantage of a Vikings defense who seemed almost too scared to tackle him and had a career day. Here are a few of the records that were set with todays lopsided loss:

1) The Vikings had not been shutout in a span of 260 games dating back to 1991.
2) This was the worst shutout loss in Vikings team history.
3) Worst loss (point-wise) since 1984 when the Vikings lost 51-7 to San Francisco.

And the icing on the cake for this game was that after gaining only 45 yards on the ground, Adrian Peterson was helped off the field after hurting what appears to be his knee. There is no word on the severity of the injury yet, the MRI will take place tomorrow (Monday). I believe, as well as most of Minnesota based on the comments left on blogs on the local newspapers, that Brad Childress deserves most of the blame for today's abysmal showing. It's pretty obvious that Childress is a terrible coach that cannot make correct play calls to save his life. He doesn't seem to have any sort of grasp on his own team, and it doesn't seem like he will anytime soon. I think that it is time to see if Bill Cowher has had enough time off with his family and try to lure him out of retirement to coach our Vikings. Having someone like him, or even Marty Schottenheimer coach the team would definitely bring a lot of the fan base back and could possibly turn this team around. Once the Vikings get a decent quarterback (Derek Anderson maybe?), they should be a pretty good team. So after todays game, the Vikings will examine Petersons injury and hopefully try not to get too down on themselves. I don't think the Vikings can get any lower than they are now, but losing next week the the lowly Raiders would definitely not help.


Off the topic of sports for a minute, I just want to point out that it was reported today that Kanye West, the famous Hip-Hop artist, had his mother pass away today at the age of 58 years young (http://allhiphop.com/blogs/news/archive/2007/11/11/18868133.aspx). It's really unfortunate when something like this happens to such an influential and good person such as Kanye. He was very close to his mother, whom he rapped about in a 2005 song called "Hey Mama." My prayers go out to Kanye and his family.

Top 10 American-born NHL players

After Mike Modano scored two goals in the first 5 minutes of the Dallas Stars November 7th game to break Phil Housley's record of points by an American-born player, it got me thinking: "Is Mike Modano the best ever from America?" Here is a run-down of my Top 10 American bred players to ever lace up the skates:

10) Mike Richter (Retired, Goaltender): Was selected 28th overall in the 1985 entry draft by the New York Rangers. Finished with a career mark of 301-258-73 and a GAA of 2.89. Selected to the 1992, 1994, and 2000 NHL All-Star team (winning MVP in 1994). Won the Gold medal at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey (named MVP). Won the Silver medal at the 2002 winter olympics. Helped Rangers win the Stanley Cup in 1994. Holds 5 Rangers team records including career games played (666) and career wins (301).

9) Keith Tkachuk (Active, Center): Was selected 19th overall in the 1990 entry draft by the Winnipeg Jets. Has 478* goals and 461* assists. Was seleted to Hockey East all-rookie team in 1991. Was an all-star in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2004. First American-born player to lead the NHL in goals (52 in 1996-1997 season). Holds Phoenix Coyotes records in most game-winning goals (40) and career penalty minutes (1,508). Currently plays for St. Louis Blues.

8) Neil Broten (Retired, Center): Was selected in the 2nd round (42nd overall) of the 1979 entry draft by the Minnesota North Stars. Has 289 goals and 634 assists. Won Hobey Baker award in 1981 while at University of Minnesota. Was on 1979 National champion Minnesota Gophers hockey team. Won a Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics as part of Team USA. Won Stanley Cup in 1995 with New Jersey Devils. Played in two NHL All-Star games (1983 and 1986). Won the Lester Patrick award in 1998 for his contributions to the NHL off the ice. Had his #7 jersey retired by the Minnesota/Dallas organization in 1998.

7) Jeremy Roenick (Active, Center): Was drafted 8th overall in the 1988 NHL entry draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. Has 499* goals and 679* assists. Won a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics as part of Team USA. Posted over 100 points in three consecutive NHL seasons (1992, 1993, 1994). Made 9* All-Star teams (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004). Currently plays for the San Jose Sharks.

6) Chris Chelios (Active, Defense): Was drafted 2nd round (40th overall) in 1981 NHL entry draft by the Montreal Canadiens. Has 183* goals and 756* assists. Was part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison 1983 National Championship team and named to All-Tournament team. Won a Silver medal at the 2002 Olympics with Team USA. Made All-Star team 11* times in career (1985, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2002). Won James Norris trophy for leagues best defensemen three times (1989, 1993, and 1996). Led the league in Plus/Minus in 2002. Won a Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1986 and another Cup with Detroit in 2002. Currently plays for the Detroit Red Wings.

5) Brian Leetch (Retired, Defense): Was selected 9th overall in the 1986 NHL entry draft by the New York Rangers. Has 247 goals and 781 assists. Scored a rookie defensemen record 23 goals in 1987. Won the Calder Trophy (top rookie) in 1987 and was selected to the All-Rookie team the same year. Two-time Norris Trophy winner for the leagues top defensemen (1992 and 1997). Only American-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (Stanley Cup MVP) as part of the Stanley Cup winning 1994 New York Rangers. Played in 9 NHL All-Star games (1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, and 2002). Won Silver medal at 2002 Olympics with Team USA.

4) Pat LaFontaine (Retired, Center): Was selected 3rd overall in the 1983 NHL entry draft by the New York Islanders. Collected 468 goals and 545 assists in only 865 games due to post-concussion syndrome. Set record for points in a season by an American-born player with 148 in 1993. Was awarded the Bill Masterson trophy (dedication) in 1995. Made NHL All-Star team in 1992-1993 season.

3) Joe Mullen (Retired, Forward): Signed a free agent contract with the St. Louis Blues in 1980. Has 502 goals and 561 assists. Two-time recipient of the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship (1987 and 1989). Played in three NHL All-Star games (1989, 1990, and 1994). Was awarded the Lester Patrick award in 1995. Was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000.

2) Phil Housley (Retired, Defense): Was selected 6th overall in the 1982 NHL entry draft by the Buffalo Sabres. Has 338 goals and 894 assists. Won a Silver medal at the 2002 winter olympics as part of Team USA. Was selected to the 1983 All-Rookie team. Played in a total 0f 7 All-Star games (1984, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 2000). Holds the record for most games played by an American-born player with 1,495. Also holds record for most assists by an American-born player with 894.

1) Mike Modano (Active, Center): Was selected 1st overall in the 1988 NHL entry draft by the Minnesota North Stars. Has 511* goals and 722* assists. Holds the record for most points by an American-born player with 1233. Was named to the 1990 NHL All-Rookie team. Has appeared in 7 NHL All-Star games (1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2007). Won a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. Holds several Minnesota/Dallas organization records including career goals (511*), career playoff games (156*), and career playoff points (133*).

*-Number subject to change

Just a filler

There wasn't much going on last night so today's post is going to be short.

The Timberwolves lost again, this time to the Orlando Magic 111-103. The Wolves made it close at one point, going on a 14-0 run to cut a 16 point lead to 2, but they could never get any closer. Al Jefferson finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds and Corey Brewer chipped in 10 points. Dwight Howard led the Magic with 28 points. It's early in the season, but the Wolves need to step it up a notch if they want any respect. Good news though, Randy Foye says all the pain is gone in his bum knee and he should start running soon to see how his knee reacts:
http://www.startribune.com/511/story/1533509.html
Once Foye comes back, he should start picking up some of the slack and hopefully the Wolves can start winning consistenly.

Other than that, I just watched the latest episode of Heroes last night and thought it was one of the best in a season of relative disappointments. I guess disappointment is kind of a harsh word, but when they hype up an episode telling me that they will give me answers to certain questions and then they don't deliver, it's not ideal for me. The latest episode was definitely a step up though, and it reminded me more of the edge of your seat episodes they had in season one. It was good to see Parkman get over the devastating memory of his father by essentially robbing his father of his powers. Nikki also got into some trouble when she accidently injected herself with the Shanti virus after seeing visions of D.L. in her thoughts and freaking out. The original thought was that Suresh could use his antibodies to eliminate the virus from Nikki, but it turns out that the virus mutated and is now uncurable. And all this leads up to the end of the episode, when we find out that the man that was supposed to Takezeo Kensei turns out to be Adam Monroe, a man who Bob has on file but we the audience know nothing about. That last twist is one that will make next weeks episode very interesting.

Oh yeah, the Ottawa Senators posted the best start in NHL history with a 5-1 win over Toronto last night. The Sens are 13-1 after 14 games. Daniel Alfredsson leads the NHL's best team with 20 points and the team looks like it's ready to avenge its 4-1 series loss in the Stanley Cup last season.
The Wild are off until Sunday when they will travel to Colorado to take on the Avalanche.

Let's Play Hockey

So the Wild are officially back on track after a 5-2 victory over the currently hopeless Edmonton Oilers. With Gaborik and Demitra out, and Dominic Moore not quite ready to take the ice, the Wild were forced to shift defensemen Petteri Nummelin up to a forward position. Although the shift wasn't ideal, it couldn't have worked out any better. Moving Nummelin up quickly paid dividends when he shot a perfect pass across Edmontons zone setting up Mark Parrish's first goal of the night just 5 minutes into the game. From there, the Wild powerplay just picked apart the Edmonton penalty kill scoring a total of 3 power play goals in just the first period. Although Niklas Backstrom was not tested very often in net at the beginning, he made the saves needed to give the team confidence going into the locker room.

The Wild came out in the second period even faster than they did in the first, scoring just 3:21 into the period. The Wild and Oilers finished the period switching goals, and at the end of the second period the score was 5-2. With the game already in hand, all the Wild needed to do was prevent any scoring opportunities in the third period, and that is exactly what they did. Shutting down the Oilers in the final frame led to the Wild coming out with a victory. Parrish ended up with two power-play goals, Nummelin ended up with two big assists, and Kurtis Foster chipped in a goal and an assist. All around it was a game the Wild desperately needed.

So now to an article I caught on espn.com this morning. Todd Bertuzzi, who to me is a guy who should never have stepped back onto the ice after his incident with Steve Moore back in 2004, apparently offered to settle the $15 million lawsuit brought on by Moore by paying him $350,000. Seriously, that number isn't a joke. He wanted to give the guy who's career he ruined not even 1% of what he's asking for. I don't know if he was purposely trying to insult Moore, but whatever his intent was, it made him look like even less of a man. What he did back in '04 was totally dirty and should not have happened, and the punishment handed down to him was just a slap on the wrist. Thirteen games and the playoffs for ending a 23 year-olds fairly promising career? You have go to be kidding me. When I read this article today, I just kept thinking that I couldn't wait for the Ducks to come to town so Boogey can beat the crap out of him on the ice. If you want to read the article, here's the link for you:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3096818

Also going on last night was Monday Night Football. The Steelers and Ravens were supposed to be playing a Football game, but it looked more like the Steelers were playing a team of kids. The Ravens commited 4 turnovers on the night, including 3 fumbles in the first quarter, en route to a 38-7 pounding by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger looked unstoppable in the first half, tying a Steelers record by throwing 5 touchdown passes in the half. Big Ben finished the game with 209 yards and 5 touchdown passes with no interceptions and a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3. The Steelers defense also looked unstoppable, especially James Harrison, an undrafted free agent signed by the Steelers after they released pro-bowl linebacker Joey Porter. Harrison finished the night with 2 1/2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, and an interception. Those numbers are wicked for an entire defense, much less one player. Even though it was a blowout, it was a good game to tune into during the breaks of the Wild game.

The only thing really that I can think of that is going on tonight is the Timberwolves host the Orlando Magic. Everybody's been hating on the Wolves this year, thinking they won't be able to recover from the departure of KG and the arrival of a lot of young guys, but I think that we should reserve judgement until we get a good look at these guys. Sure they have started 0-2, but like I said, they're a young team and they need some time to adjust to eachother. Plus, Randy Foye isn't even playing, and he is one of our top guys. I'm not saying the Wolves are gonna win 50+ games this year, but I do think they will exceed most peoples expectations.

Unfortunately with all the games going on last night I had to miss a new episode of Heroes, so I will have to catch that online some time today. I'm hoping it answers more questions than last weeks episode, I really thought they were going to clarify some things and it turned out to just be more questions. Either way, it is still one of the best shows on TV right now and I hope the writers end their strike soon so that the season doesn't have to end prematurely at the beginning of December.

Week 9 Football

Well, the game of the century is over. Super Bowl 41 1/2 as some dubbed it. Whatever it was, it was a hell of a game. In most sports blogs, this game may be the first thing talked about, in others it may be the only thing talked about. But for me, the number one story of the Football day was none other than Adrian "All Day" Peterson. As a tried and true Vikings fan for many years, it is absolutely great to see this guy run through defenses like there's nothing to it. If for some reason you don't know what AD did yesterday, here is his line:

30 carries
296 rushing yards
3 touchdowns

Those 296 rushing yards set a new NFL single-game rushing record, beating Jamal Lewis' record of 295 yards set back in 2003. Oh yeah, AD is also only a rookie playing in his eighth career game. If that doesn't impress you, I don't know if you can call yourself a Football fan. I do have to mention that AD did lose a fumble in Chargers territory, but why focus on the negative when there is so much more positive?
Back to the other game. In the game that was said to be the best in over a decade, the Patriots and Colts did not disappoint. In a game that featured two of the best quarterbacks ever, Tom Brady and the Patriots came out on top 24-20. Here are the stats for both Quarterbacks:

Brady: 21/32 255 yards 3 td 2 int
Peyton Manning: 16/27 225 yards 1 td 1 int 1 fumble lost

Statistically speaking, Brady did have a better game, but both Quarterbacks played well enough for their respective teams to win. The score was close for most of the game, with Brady having to lead a comeback after being down 20-10 with less than ten minutes to play. Brady swiftly led the Patriots on two consecutive touchdown drives, one score on a short pass to Wes Welker and another on a short pass over the middle to Kevin Faulk who took it 13 yards to the the house. The Patriots defense was outstanding at the end of the game, forcing Manning to fumble twice to seal the victory. The win over the Colts kept the Patriots undefeated at 9-0 going into their bye week, and the loss dropped the Colts to 7-1 before their showdown with the San Diego Chargers next week.
Here are all the others scores of the week:

Atlanta over San Francisco 20-16
Buffalo over Cincinnati 33-21
Detroit over Denver 44-7
Green Bay over Kansas City 33-22
Minnesota over San Diego 35-17
New Orleans over Jacksonville 41-24
Washington over NY Jets 23-20 OT
Tampa Bay over Arizona 17-10
Tennessee over Carolina 20-7
Cleveland over Seattle 33-30 OT
Houston over Oakland 24-17
Dallas over Philadelphia 38-17

Minnesota Wild play tonight at home against Edmonton. The Wild will be missing Gaborik and Demitra again, but they played strong Saturday against Calgary so hopefully they can keep the confidence and ride it.