Canucks Defeat Nashville

In Nashville -

Vancouver win game 6 and move onto the 3rd round of the playoffs. They will wait and see who wins the Red Wings/Sharks series.

The Canucks defeated Nashville by a score of 2-1. Nashville were unable to get a win at home in this series and Vancouver got on the board early scoring was Mason Raymond getting his first goal of the playoffs and Daniel Sedin had what would be the game winner on the power play just 36 seconds after their first goal. David Legwand scored for Nashville.

In net, Luongo made 23 saves, but forward Steve Tambelini made the biggest save for Vancouver, coming from out of nowhere to catch up with Nashville's Martin Erat, who was on a breakway, Tambellini caught up with Erat at the last second and muscled him off the puck and sent Erat into the goal post. It was a clean play and no penalty was called. Just a strong play from Tambelini who was replacing an injured Samuelson.

Burrows had a strong series for Vancouver. He and Weber battled it out all series. Late in the third, with about 10 minutes to go, they both battled for the puck alogside the boards near the Nashville net. They were jostling for what seemed like 5 minutes. At that point, Burrows sent the puck down deeper into the corner and as they chased the puck, Weber dropped Burrows with a big body check. Nashville gained control and carried the puck into the Canucks end. Vancouver forced a quick turnover and the puck ended back up on Burrows stick at Nasville's blueline, Burrow's just barely beat offside and he went in one on one and let a slap shot go from the hash marks but Renne was able to make the save.

Ryan Kessler was without a doubt the best player in the series, he was in on 11-of Vancover's 14 points scored. It was a low scoring series and Kessler did most of it. Nashville couldn't find away to stop him. The Canukcs have a deep roster. They have a lot of weapons. When their opponent are able to shut down a couple guys, like the Sedin's have been, someone else has to step up and that is what Kessler did - even Don Cherry would have to admit that, we'll see if he says anything, Don Cherry brushed Off Kessler on hockey night in Canada after his sidekick McClean was trying to raise a point about his strong play.

Give credit to Nashville, "they are the hardest working team in the NHL" -Luongo felt that way after the game. It is their work ethic, they dn't stop, and you get a sense they are a real family. That is just their style. They were missing a key player in Steve Sullivan. But they were also facing a superior opponent. Vancouver is the better team and they move onto the semi finals for the first time since 1994 - the year the Rangers beat them in the cup finals

Sweep, sweep, sweep..

.... I'm not talking Spring cleaning here folks

NHL Play-Offs

Tampa Bay sweep their way into the Eastern Conference Finals defeating the Capitals in 4 straight. Remember Rd 1 - After being down 3-1 in the series, the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied back and won 3 games to beat the Penguins. - The Lightning are hot, winning 7 straight games. Who will Tampa Play? The Bruins look to be that team they are one win away from sweeping the Flyers. Can the Bruins sweep? Remember last year in the Playoffs. Boston were up 3 games to none and the Flyers came back and won 4 straight to move onto the finals.

In the West, the Red Wings have not been able to gain any momentum and the Sharks lead that series 3-0.... Can they sweep?

The Brooms are out for the second round that is for sure!

In the other western conference semis Vancouver have a 2-1 series lead on Nashville.

UFC 129 - Fight Night in Toronto

Toronto - UFC 129

The largest crowd ever in UFC history was on hand in Toronto - over 50, 000 people packed into the Rogers Centre.

This was a big night in Toronto, and a huge night for UFC. It was a UFC convention. Every great fighter was there. UFC and President Dana White pulled out all the stops for this historical night.

The 2 title fights did not upset.

The Main Event - George "Rush" St.Pierre (21-2) vs Jake Shields (26-4-1)

GSP, the Pride of Canada, successfully defended his welterweight title belt saturday night. Going the distance with Jake Shields and earning a unanimous decision. GSP was apologetic after the fight (We have seen him do this before) GSP apologized to the fans, saying "I was looking for a knockout or submission, I am sorry" But Shields was a great challenger, he was really a 5-1 underdog according to Vegas odds and he surprised everyone even the Champ.

GSP is one of the greats of the sport. He is one of the most well rounded fighters in MMA and he is alll class out of the ring. Truly a great ambassador for the sport and worth his weight in gold.

The fight tonight, looked different from recent GSP fights. This time GSP didn't try any take downs instead it looked more like a boxing match. Fighters traded jabs in the centre of the ring. GSP was landing more power punches early on. Shields tried for a few take downs, but GSP denied any attempts by Shields. GSP wins the first 3 rounds hands down. GSP lands more punches and is dictating the action. GSP leans back and explodes forward delivering a Superman Power Punch. Midway thru the fight, GSP lands a kick to Shields head. Shields is on his back and GSP hesitates and fails to deliver any ground and pound.

In the last round we see Shields land a stiff jab to GSP's face and it draws blood. But GSP recovers quickly. Both are great fighters but GSP is the better conditioned athlete. This makes the difference, as GSP holds on for the victory.

In the feather-weight title match

Jose Aldo jr (18-1) was defending his title against Toronto's own Mark "The Machine" Hominuk (20-9) this was the fight of the night. The fight went all 5 championship rounds.

Aldo would get the first punch in and lands a stiff straight face of Hominuk and then follows it with a quick sweep kick to his opponents leg . It was this devastating combination of Right hook and left sweep kick that did some real damage. Aldo stuck with this combination all fight. Midway thru the 1st rd Aldo scores a take down and is looking to score with his elbow to the head. Aldo pounds and Hominik defends from his back. The crowd wanted to see a brawl, they get in on the "boo's" early. The ref lets them go. When it looks like the ref may get the fighters to stand up, Aldo then connects with a timely elbow to the head. Aldo dominated the 1st round. The 2nd round was much of the same thing. More take downs and elbows by Aldo. The ref is quicker to stand the fighters back up and they take turns jabbing. Aldo lands a strong right hook and left leg kick. Then Aldo lands another strong power punch and Hominik goes down. On his way down, Hominilk has the presence in mind to shoot for Aldo's leg but Aldo slips off the tackle attempt and delivers some serious blows in the ground and pound position.

In my opinion the ref could have stopped this fight, but being a championship match the ref let it continue. From there it got ugly. In rd 4 Aldo was on the ground and pound again an all of a sudden Hominik's forhead directly above his eyes swells up like a big muffin top was stuck to his forehead. It was ugly. Someone puked in the 5th row, it was ugly. Hominuk wanted the fight so bad and showed incredible toughness. He stuck it out the entire 5 rounds and even made a late surge, getting some of his own ground and pound going. But it was all Aldo, and he got the Win by Unanimous Decision.

It was during the Lyoto Machida (16-2) vs Randy "The Natural" Couture (19=10) fight that we saw the knockout of the night by a Kick to the head. Both Machida and Couture are experienced fighters and former champions. Couture is already in the Hall of Fame for crying out loud. He was a 2x Light-heavy Weight Champ and a Heavyweight Champ. Lyoto is 15 years younger than "The Natural". Machida won the fight with a TKO standing forward foot kick to the head. As they say in wrestling "right in the kisser" Couture was knocked out and the ref stepped in and called the fight. Couture said this was it, no more UFC. Perhaps we'll see him back but he won't be the one fighting.

St.Pierre vs Shields

George St. Pierre is fighting in Toronto this saturday. He will be defending his UFC Middleweight Championship Belt against Jake Shields.

St. Pierre hasn't lost a fight since UFC 69in 2007. This is his 9th title defence.

Now tomorrow at UFC 129 - some critics are calling that Jake Shields will upset St. Pierre.

Are you nuts? I ask. Haven't you seen all the billboards, haven't you heard all the talk, haven't you been thinking ahead to the St.Pierre/Anderson Silva and who is this Jake Shields guy?

Well, just a minute now, hold on a second.

Remember Strikeforce, Jake Shields is the former Middleweight Champions.

Some critics are Predicting Shields will become the new UFC Middleweight Champ. Kevin Lole, MMA writer for yahoo sports knows Jake Shields is the 5-1 underdog. But predicts Shields will upset St.Pierre. I don't know who Dana White thinks will win, he is the UFC President and he is umped up for the UFC debut in Toronto. Joe Rogan will be there (Caffein Nut?), and this is going to be the biggest crowd for a UFC event ever, over 50, 000 people. I doubt it will be the most subscribbed to pay per view event but The money at the gate alone will keep these guys coming back. White has been marketing St. Pierre as the best thing to hit Canada since the canoe. White went as far as saying that "St. Pierre is Canada's biggest Athlete of All Time", saying this during segment sportnet the fan 590. In his defence, he means no offence to Wayne Gretzky. I will tell ya this comment had hockey fans from coast to coast with their backs up."What about Gretzky" everyone was saying. White, would have to go back and clarify and say that St.Pierre would be more recognizable around the world than Gretzky. White got off scot-free, he was lucky, St.Pierre rolled with it. St. Pierre is smooth, he came back saying, that Gretzky was his idol growing up.

Back to the predictions of Shields upsetting St. Pierre I don't think it will happen.

But Kevin Lole, who wrote an article proclaiming that "St. Pierre's win streak should be considered won of the great streaks in professional sports history". Lole must think the streak is coming to end, because as Lole would write, Shields has his own streak as well, the last time he lost was in 2004. That is 3 years longer winning streak than St.Pierre's. But this is also Shields second fight with UFC

"Vancouver win boring game 1"

Did anyone see the Vancouver game last night? I was on a patio with friends and forgot it was on. But heard from someone at the bar say they Vancouver won 1-0. He said it was a boring game. I said ok.

Windstorm

Spring Windstorm

*Click to see video*

The wind was begining to really blow outside.

The Story: Here I am in my home office. Outside I hear the sound of my blue box skidding down the street. "Woooooossshhh" The wind was pushing hard. I looked out the window. Garbage and newspapers and empty plastic bottles were blowing down the street. I better go get my blue box before it ends up in the the park. I hear the sound of the garbage truck engine revving up. It is coming up to my neighbours lane way. It whistles to a stop. The garbage man collectes the bins and tries his best to position the empty trash cans, so they won't just blow away. I take in my neighbours trash can and put it up next to their garage. As I bend over to pick up my trash can I hear a loud sNaaaAAP!

I couldn't believe my eyes. A tall pine tree fell quickly to the ground.The tree landed in the street. Luckily no one was in the area and nothing was damaged.

Across the street I notice another tall pine tree laying on the front lawn. It had already fell. The Utilities service were quickly on the scene with chainsaws and cleared the street. In all the were 4 trees that had been either uprooted or had their trunks snapped in half. Many branches were blown down to the ground. since this morning around 9 am the power has been out and it was eventually restore before 4pm. Fire trucks have been busy today. The sound of the sirens and chainsaws and the wind fills the air.

The Next Round: NHL

The NHL Playoffs

There were 4 game 7's in the first round of the playoffs this year. There were only four game 7's during the entire 2010 playoffs last year. What excitement, what drama. If the 2nd round can live up to the first round i'll be tickled pink.

Before the playoffs, I had predicted that Boston and Vancouver would make it to the finals. My prediction is still intact but I was worried both Vancouver and Boston went to 7 game's and in the 7th both teams needed overtime, can the teams rebound in time for their next series ? We'll see....

A Preview for the 2nd Round

2nd Round Playoff Picture is as follows-

In the East:

-Boston will take on Philly

Boston and Philly tied their season series 2 games a piece

Boston finished the season 3 points ahead of Philly in the season standings

Injuries - Philly is without Carter and Boston is without Savard

-Washington will battle Tampa Bay

Washington won the season series 4-1-1

Washington are fresh, they have been off 5 days

Tampa are hot winning 3 straight to beat the Penguins in 7

In the West:

-Vancouver will try Nashville

Teams split season series winning 2 games apiece

Nashville are into the 2nd round for the first time

Nashville's Mike Fisher is avg 1 point a game

-Detroit and San Jose will renew rivalries

San Jose won season series 3-1

Wings beat phoenix in 4 games

San Jose beat LA in 6 games

Some thoughts for the 2nd round:

Vancouver and Nashville - how tired and beat up are the Canucks? Nashville has been waiting for over 4 days to see who they will play and Vancouver has only had one day of rest to prepare for the 2nd round.

Boston and Philadelphia - both teams first round series went to 7 games. This will be a heck of a series. Remember last year Boston looked like they were going to sweep Philly after Boston went up 3-0 in the series only to see the Flyers win 4 straight and make one of the most amazing come backs in NHL playoff history.

Washington and Tampa - Washington disposed of New York in 5 games and have had 5 days off whereas Tampa went 7 games with Pittsburgh. Both teams have deep rosters with skill, size and toughness.

Detroit and San Jose - This will be the fifth time the teams have met in the playoffs. Detroit coasted thru Phoenix but San Jose will be no walk in the park. There are a few question marks with injuries - How healthy is Franzen and will Zetterberg play?