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Keep up the good blogging Dubby! lol.

It’s really starting to disgust me the amount of money professional athlete’s are constantly throwing into there bank accounts, no matter which major sport it is the price for an athlete has sky rocketed to a disgusting level. To give you some examples the “Big 3” that signed this summer in Miami all signed for 100+ million dollars, the real sickening part of this is none of there deals go further than 7 years, with a clause in Mr.James contract where he can terminate the deal after only 4 years. Some of the worst deals are or have been in the MLB most of the largest examples come from the boy’s from the bronx with the largest contract currently sitting with Alex Rodriguez where he signed a 10 year contract in 2008 worth a mammoth $275 million dollars. That level of cash is at the sickening point especially for a guy that has been mentioned along the lines of a steroid user. However the guys that really sicken me are the ones getting paid these huge amounts yet still have the balls to stand and either whine about there situation or bitch about where they are the one that certainly sticks out in my mind is Washington Redskins nose tackle Albert Haynesworth who signed a 7 year deal in 2009 worth $100 million dollars which means he makes around $14 million a year to be overweight, what pisses me off about him however is when he signed that contract the Redskins were horrible and he should have seen down the pipe that they still were going to be horrible so don’t sign a contract with a club and then go gee this team sucks because guess what they did in the first place. On Sunday he even had the balls to isolate himself from the rest of the team huddling up on the sidelines. I’m so sick of these athlete’s just cashing there check and that’s all they care about what happened to the passion or love for the sport you are in and train so hard to excel in.

The thing that is most sickening about these numbers these athletes are making now is if you turn on the news on your local television station in most parts of the world you will see for example in B.C schools struggling to keep the resources needed for the students or even to keep the school’s doors open. You can also see not enough room in hospital’s or not enough paramedic’s to go and help people or a small business owner that has been open for year’s and year’s as a family business that need to close there doors because of a economic hardship. Yet with all this plastered wall to wall on the different news channel’s these guys still cash in there $25 million dollar cheques for not even working all year long. The world we live in is showing how it is on a uneven piece of wood right now and sadly it is only going to get worse before you see more guy’s like the Sedin twins(who donated money to help children’s hospital) make it more balanced, because a hero isn’t someone that can hit so many home runs or stop so many touchdowns, a hero is someone that goes out of the norm to help someone in need and trust me none of these athlete’s are in need.

The Canucks of 10/11

As exciting this current period of time is in Vancouver,sport’s wise, it is however itching time and No I do not mean time for you to get up and scratch, I am speaking of the Hockey itch is in the air. At the present time Sport’s is at quite an exciting point, you have the MLB going into it’s stretch run as pennant race’s begin to heat up, The Vancouver Canadians are in the post-season for the first time since 2005, NFL training camp’s are coming to a close as the season is about to begin and even the PGA is somewhat exciting not only with Tiger and his potential Ryder Cup selection but also the promise and excitement some of the new comers to the game are showing.

However we live in Canada so since the big shinny silver mug was lifted I’ve been ripping off the page’s of my calendar hoping that the next one said opening night on it, sadly of course everyday was a disappointment. The Canucks have stepped outside there average off season by making some significant changes to the team and they have now put themselves as one of the best looking Canucks teams to step on the ice on opening night. They have bolstered there blue-line by acquiring big boy’s Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis and also added three new forwards in Raffi Torres,Manny Malholtra and Jeff Tambelini. Those moves in combination with the hope of young star Cody Hodgson finally cracking the squad, along with the boys coming back from last year and Van city is even more than it’s usual buzz. When living in this town however he team comes with different expectations, most people can’t remember most of what happened in the regular season last year nor do they really care what happens during this regular season that is upon us, it’s more when you see Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley cup playoffs that the fans here really get amped up and that isn’t because they don’t care but because of the 1st or 2nd round heartbreak that fan’s have had to endure over and over again.

This year however seems different and it feels different and so as the school bell begins to ring again and the tanning lotion slowly get’s put away you realize it will not be long before the Canucks jersey needs to be pulled back out from the closet because it’s that time of year folks and like I said it is a different type of a feeling this time.

Well there it is the moment that every single Vancouver Canucks fan yelled at there TV, some in an explicit manner. The moment that immediately became the story that every radio show would surround there show with today, and of course in the heat of the moment some of the statement’s said by fan’s are purely crazy and purely just rage, what is interesting to me however is the fact people actually believe that somehow that goal was disallowed because the NHL wants the King’s to win and so this is there way of making it happen even though the King’s still need 2 more Win’s to win the series.



Now we move on to another great explanation by the NHL, there’s the old saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” This statement is related to the NHL but it’s more “If you don’t have anything smart to say, SHUT UP!.” I can still hear the echo’s from the Colin Campbell interview where he said we need to punish repeat offender’s yet I can’t just suspend Matt Cooke because he’s a repeat offender. Which is along the same line’s of what Mr.Murphy said last night, according to the rule it wasn’t a distinct kicking motion but it was a kicking motion, HUH?. There are obvious problem’s with this team be it a defense that every time I see a reply after a goal has either trickled in or has been scored off a rebound, I see the defense turned around looking at Luongo somewhat fishing. Another obvious problem is both the Penalty kill and the Power play, which has gone an amazing 2/11 so far in the series. To get back to my first point however about the notion people believe the NHL just wants the King’s to win, I believe is also a sign of how people feel about this league starting with the head honcho in Gary Bettman, so as the parody’s come in on the NHL commercial about history being made and as the line’s become more and more jammed I think at the end of the day people need to worry more about how this team is showing no fire at all to want to win this series and even deeper not showing the fire to want that silver famous trophy thing.

Playoff Predictions, Forget About it!!

This is the first year I can remember going into a Stanley Cup Playoffs and there is no real clear cut winner. Are there strong contenders for the cup this year? yes of course there is, Washington,Chicago and Vancouver are the predicted three heavyweight’s this year. The word I just used was “Predicted” this word has been used thousand’s of times this year alone and the Canucks and Cap’s are playing game 1 tonight, everyone from the local blog to Sport’s illustrated have made NHL prediction’s and I have looked at quite a few of the prediction’s and they are all along those lines of Vancouver, Washington and Chicago being the “one’s” this year.

The title of this blog somes up the feeling I have for this year’s playoffs and the reason why I can’t invest much into these prediction’s this year is because of two team’s that are in the Playoffs this year that definitely should not be. Phoenix and Colorado are the two team’s that have really changed how I look at prediction’s, Why? because these team’s are dangerous. The reason why I believe these two team’s are dangerous is because of the year’s they have had both really had nobody pushing them to succeed, they were both expected to be bad, especially Colorado because it seemed like the average age of the layer’s on the team was about 12. So because of this last night I picked both Colorado and Phoenix to win, just like I will not be shocked at all if you see both of these team’s move onto the second round as well, both team’s are playing opponents older than them and Colorado is definitely playing the team with the most pressure on there shoulder’s in this year’s playoffs.

Meaningless games at a Meaningful time.

It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that any type of athlete will respond better when there is something important on the line, so for you to ask any member of the Vancouver Canucks to either elevate their game or play with meaning is obviously nuts due to the scientific fact I just mentioned. Most people would turn around and say well they are professionals and they are getting paid multi million dollars a year, yes that is a valid point but at the end of the day they are human just like I am human. However when you really start looking at it these last three games(including the S/O loss to Colorado on Tuesday) can be quite useful. Why? because it gives you a chance to play with line combination’s, gives guy’s with bumps and bruises a chance to rest and I think the most important thing of all you can relax and loosen your grip on your stick a bit rather than having to worry about a playoff race or squeaking into the playoffs. So physically you may not see these boy’s be as jacked as they will be on opening night at the garage but mentally speaking these last three games may be exactly what the guy’s need.

The Ship is sinking...

Once again the NHL shows us all that there are no requirements to get a job with the NHL,or at least they aren’t showing us that brain’s are one of the qualities you need to get a job.

The event I am of course speaking of is the Hit that took place on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, that left Marc Savard laying on his back on the ice looking up at the press light’s and from the visuals it looked like he didn’t even know if that’s what he was looking at.

So once again we not only see the footage of the player not knowing where he is,but we also see the stretcher making it’s way onto the ice and both those images aren’t getting any better looking for the NHL nor are they getting any easier to witness as a general fan. So of course after the game and after the incident everyone skips the question of will Cooke be suspended and moves right on to How long?, Because there is no possible way that he doesn’t get suspended,right?

Apparently even common sense isn’t so common nowadays in the NHL, so today on the same day the league announces they have put fourth a new rule eliminating or penalizing hits to the head and shot’s from behind, Matt Cooke gets handed a total of 0 game’s as a suspension, the first response to that? Well nothing because there aren’t any words to describe the shocking nature of that announcement.

On March 11th The Pittsburgh Penguins will fly to Boston to face the B’s and Matt Cooke will likely be in that lineup which arises the question of, Do you have the Press Release ready to deal with what happens to Mr.Cooke that night?