15 Straight

Hey All,

An amazing feat has been accomplished in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Penguins have won their 15 straight game in a row, coming two games shy of the record for conviction games won.

The record is 17 which the Pens can tie that record Wednesday April 3rd in New York, as they will face the Rangers. This is a very reachable record for the Pens to break as the Sabres and Rangers are very beatable teams. Pittsburgh has beaten both these teams already this season, and since then they had add 3 more captions to their team.

With the talent that Pittsburgh has on their team this season, there is no reason they shouldn't make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. There's only one little wrinkle at this point in the season, and that is caption and NHL leading scoring Sydney Crosby is out for who knows how long. Crosby was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital yesterday afternoon, after taking a slap shot off of Brookes Oprik was deflected off a stick and hit him right in the mouth.

Word from Dan Bylsma, Penguins head coach, is that Crosby had oral surgery yesterday when taken to the hospital. The other word on the street is that Crosby is missing some teeth now after taking that shot to the mouth. Now me personally, I would love to see Sid the Kid with missing teeth and start to look like a hockey player. But knowing how he is and how he's perceived, he probably had those teeth replaced during the surgery.

Normally I would say that the Pens are in big trouble without Crosby in the line up, but with the talent they've acquired I think he can take a few games rest.

I can't wait to see if the Pens are able to break the record and keep this winning streak going for as long as possible.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.

Upset City!

Hey All,

It's March Madness, and boy has it been exciting. There has been more Cinderella stories this year then in years past. We have seen everything from a 15 seed knocking off a 2 seed and a 7 seed to make it to the Sweet 16. Florida Golf Cost shocked the world when that happened, but their run would end there as The University of Florida would be the team to knock them out of the tournament.

That run was impressive, but there's another school that is keeping the momentum going. Wichita State, a 9 seed, has knocked off a 8 seed in Pitt, a number 1 seed in Gonzaga, and last night they knocked off 2 seed Ohio State. They have made the and are the fifth 9 seed or lower to make the The final 4, no 9 seed has ever won in that game. If Wichita State plays like they did in the Elite 8, they will be the first 9 seed to make the Final Four.

The Shockers held OSU to 31.1 percent from the field, which is the second lowest of the season for the Buckeyes. OSU wasn't getting it done from 3 point land either, only going 5-25, that's not getting it done when your playing from behind.

All in all, Wichita State is making a good push for a championship this year. It's going to beat tough road for the to try and make it that far, and history is against them. But if the Shockers play like they did last night, I don't know who will be able to stop them. The only team that could end their run would be Louisville. They are the best team in the tournament right now and Wichita State won't stand a chance against them if they meet in the tourny.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports

Tiger Is Back?

Hey All,

Okay, I'm going to get right to the point. Everyone who is saying that Tiger Woods is back to being the Tiger of old, isn't watching the same Tiger that I am. Woods is still very inconsistent with his driver. He's been driving the ball into the trees and deep into the rough, and he hasn't won a major this year.

Yes, I know that Woods has won 3 tournaments this year, but non of them were majors. And I know that he is back to being the #1 player in the world, but until he wins a major, that number means nothing.

Now I don't plan to know a lot about golf, but I know enough that if you're hitting your tee shot into the rough, the trees, or the sand traps isn't going to help your chances of winning any tournaments let alone a major.

Tiger has improved his putting game, but putting isn't your entire game. He will need to work on his tee shots before these majors start up. Augusta is a very difficult course to play, and Tiger will have to keep his tee shots in the fairway rather than in the traps. To look at how he's played this year, it looks a little like this: Jan 24 he wins the Farmers Insurance with a -14, not bad at all. Next would be the WGC Match Play on Feb 20 where he finished T33 a terrible performance and he was eliminated in the first round. Later that month, on the 28, he was in the Honda Classic where he T37 with a +4, again pretty terrible. Now he would turn it around in Mar 7 he won that tournament with a -19, and just this past weekend finishes first again with a -13 at the Arnold Palmer Classic. These are the kind of rounds he needs to put up round in and round out.

To suggest that Tiger is back just because he's got a new girlfriend, and is back to being the #1 player in the world, and he's started to play better than usual, is just outrageous. Now if this talk was coming out after a Major Championship then I would believe it a little bit more than I do right now.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports

Fight To The Finish

Hey All,

I know I've take a few weeks off, but I'm back now to give you some sports news. Today was the Auto Club 400 at Fontana California, and tempers were high. Two drivers, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, former teammates last year were the main two going at it today.

This fight started a lot longer than just last week at Bristol, it started when they were teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing. These two just don't like each other, and it showed today during the race. Both Logano and Hamlin were bumping and racing hard all race long. To be honest, it was good clean racing up until the last few laps.

That's the part of the race that I will be talking about, the final 10 laps. There was a caution with 15 to go because Clint Bowyer blew an engine. So when it came time for the green flag again there were only 10 laps left to go, and Logano was in first and Kyle Bush was in second. Right behind Logano was Tony Stewart, who had a fast car all day long. As soon as the green flag dropped that's when things got real interesting. Logano put a block on Stewart and almost sent him into the infield. This gave Bush the chance to take the lead. He quickly lost the lead to Hamlin and it because the rivals up in the front with Logano and Hamlin battling for the lead.

Now lets skip up to the final two laps to go. It's still Logano and Hamlin in one-two and Bush lingering in third place. Dale Jr had worked his way up into the 5th spot, coming all the way from 21st place. As they came down the back stretch Hamlin and Logano were drag racing for the lead, bumping one another all the way down the back stretch. This left room for Bush to make his move and slide into the lead coming off of turn 4 heading for the start finish line. As Hamlin and Logano were fighting for what is now 2nd or 3rd place, they wreck each other. Logano slides up into the way and slides his way to a 6th place finish, Hamlin was not as lucky. He got sideways went off the track and into the infield wall where there was no safer barrier. He climbed out of the car under his own power but quickly collapse. He was taken away in a ambulance to the care center. NASCAR said Hamlin was taken to a nearby hospital "for further evaluation" but otherwise his condition was not immediately known.

The way Logano and Hamlin were racing the last few laps, I had no problem with. It was what happened off of turn four that I have a problem with. Both drivers could have been seriously hurt, and we're still not sure that Denny is ok. Another thing is that it gave Kyle Bush the win witch I hate to see. The only good thing that came from all the wreckage, is Dale Jr slid his way into second place. By Jr taking second it moves him into first overall in the points standings, which a lot of people love seeing.

Now after the race, Tony Stewart ran up to Logano and started a fight on pit lane. It was quickly broken up, and later voiced his opinion on what Logano did on the last restart. I hope that everyone is okay, and that Hamlin is able to return in two weeks when they go to Martinsville Virginia.

Matt Barkley

Hey All,


Everyone knows that soon approaching is the NFL draft, and everyone is talking about two quarterbacks. Those two are Geno Smith and Matt Barkley. The one that I really want to talk about is Barkley.

Everyone questioned his decision to stay for his fourth year as a starter at USC. I, at first, had no problem with his decision, and actually thought that it was a good idea. Now on the other hand, it was the worst decision that he could have made for his career. Barkley would have been a first round draft pick had he entered the draft after his Junior year.

Now, he is probably going to fall to the second or even the third round. This is coming because of his injury that ended his collegiate career early, and because of his mechanics when he throws the ball. Also, due to his injury, he was unable to throw at the NFL combine, which hurt high draft stock.

Another thing is Barkley is a very flat footed passer, and doesn't have that strong of an arm. So he will need to work on that a lot in the off-season. He needs to work on his drop backs as well. Barkley tends to trail off for the center, when he's under center. He also steps up into the pressure more often then not. That also hurts his draft stock.

The last and final thing that I think hurts Barkley's stock is that he's coming out of USC. In the NFL the best thing that came out of USC is Pete Carol. No quarterback that has came from USC to the NFL, has flopped. They all have been a bust. The only exception is Carson Palmer. Until his injury he was a very good quarterback, but that's it. No one else has been a success in the NFL, they are all backups.

It will be interesting to see what team takes a gamble on him and where he ends up.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.

Manti Te'o

Hey All,

Now I've been putting off writing about this for a long time now, and that's all this hype about Manti Te'o. His combine wasn't the best for all the LB that were on hand, but it wasn't the worst. He ran a 4.82 40 yard dash, which is real slow for LB now a days.

To say that Manti Te'os draft stock is plummeting is ridiculous. The kid can ball, and if I'm a coach that is all I care about. Look at the tape. Does he really look like a 4.8 40 guy? The answer to that question is no. The kid has football speed, good play recognition, and has the ability to blow up plays in the back field.

Let us all not forget that Te'o finished second in the hisman running, and now because he may or may not have made up a fake girlfriend, he's no longer a first round pick. Now I'm not saying that he is the first overall pick, but to say that he will fall to the second round because of his "off the field issues" and his 40 time blows my mind.

The only other thing I'm going to say on this topic is this; look at the tape on Te'o to see what he can do on the field. He had 212 solo tackles, 225 assisted tackles, that's 437 tackles, 35 for loss and 8 sacks. That's just his ability to blow up plays. Taking it to the pass defense he averaged 8 interceptions in his four year tender at Notre Dame. Looking at those stats, I dare you to tell me he's a second round pick.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports

Pens v Panthers

Hey All,

The Pittsburgh Penguins were in action against the Florida Panthers tonight in Florida. The Pens are 8-2 on the road, and have scored first in the last 5 road games. Pittsburgh has some unfinished business against the Panthers, because the Panthers are the reason that Geno is out with a concussion.

This game would be physical from the drop of the puck, more so from the Pens. Pittsburgh was wanting to come out and hit, seeing what the Panthers did to their star when in Pittsburgh. The first period was played at a very fast passé, with both teams flying around attacking the puck. However, the Panthers were able to get on the board first, breaking that 5 road games with scoring the first goal for the Pens. The goal came on the power-play on Tyler Kenndy for roughing. Now I have a problem with this call because neither player knew it was an icing call, and kept the play going. Pittsburgh was just unable to clear the puck from their zone.

That's not to say that the Pens didn't have any chances to score, because they were able to mustard up 8 scoring chances. Now there is one problem that I have right now with the way the Pens have played without Malkin. They just aren't taking any shots. They are getting too cute, trying to pass the puck around, and wait for the "perfect" shot. They need to star throwing pucks at this goaltender, because he gives up a lot of rebounds.

The Pens were able score within the first min of the second period, but would be give up 2 quick penalties and have to kill a 5 on 3. They were able to kill the one penalty, but were not able to kill both, giving up yet another power-play goal. Then there was a scrum in front of goaltender of Thomas Vokoun. This would give the Pens a power-play of their own to try and tie the game back up. They weren't able to do so, as Florida was able to kill the penalty. Shortly after that the Penguins would go a man down yet again, and give up yet another power-play goal, only to go a man down and give up 4 total power-play goals in the first two periods.

That would do it for goaltender Thomas Vokoun, and the flower would get into the net for the rest of the game. Pittsburgh would come up with another goal in the second period at the 10 min mar, from Dustin Jeffreys, after a monster hit from Derrick Engaland, which would give the Pens new life in this game. They would however, have to try and kill another penalty. They would do just that, and would come back and get another goal off of a turn over. Paul Martin would take a rocket shot and beat Theodore top shelf and off the cross bar. The sore would be 4-3 in favor of the Panthers with just under 5 mins to go in the second period. Pittsburgh would get yet another power-play chance to tie this game up, and Sydney Crosby would capitalize on that and tie the game at 4 goals a piece.

This had to be the craziest second period I've ever seen. There were so many power-plays, so many goals, and so much intensity from both teams. Now a lot of times there's not 7 goals scored in an entire game, and there were 7 total goals scored in the second period alone.

This game had everything that hockey fans know and love. The Pens lost this game 6-4, but they have nothing to hang their heads about. They played a good game, they were very physical, and showed drive to coming back after being down 4-1. One major thing that the Pens do need to work on is taking less penalties. They played a man down 7 times in this game, and 4 of the 6 goals came when the Pens were down a man or two.

My take from this game is that the Pens played a sloppy first period, should have taken less penalties, could have taken a lot more shots, and last but not least they need Malkin back. Malkin adds a certain spark to the Pens offense, and they just seem to play with a different type of intensity. The Pens need to change the way they play without Geno, until they can get him back on the ice.

Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.