Bring On The Russians

Big local story is of course Team Canada advancing to the Finals of the World Junior Hockey Championships. There was also that phenomenal ending to the Orange Bowl.

Canada Sets Their Sights on Gold


Team Canada advances to the Final of the World Junior Hockey Championships with a 4-0 rout of Finland tonight at GM Place. Watching the game, Team Canada plays the game the right way. Everything they do is with hard work, determination, and pure effort. They may not have the quickest players, the biggest players, the most talented players. But Sutter has the boys playing much bigger than their stature. Should Canada win the Gold, this team will be remembered as Canada's Boys. Looking forward to Thursday's game against Russia who beat USA 5-1 tonight, Pogge will obviously have to be the best player. The Russians led by Malkin have talent beyond measure but if Canada plays with the same grit and determination that got them here, there is no doubt in my mind that they will take the Gold.

Canucks Looking for Strong Bounce Back

After losing to the worst team in the league on Monday night vs the St. Louis Blues, the Canucks limp into Dallas to face the Stars tomorrow. The Stars sit at 24-12-2, 11-8-1 at home. As bad as the Canucks have been playing, they have a good chance to pick up the 2 pts here. The Stars have accumulated their record primarily by beating bad teams, especially recently. Twice vs the Blues (yes I know the Canucks just lost to the Blues, but still), Blackhawks, Panthers, Blue Jackets. The Stars do feature one of the best goalies in the NHL right now in Marty Turco who could be the difference maker. The top players on the Stars include Jere Lehtinen and future Hall of Famer Mike Modano. The Canucks desparately need Ed Jovanovski and Sami Salo to be healthy, we'll find out if they're ready for tomorrow's game soon enough. If we get our D players back, I say Canucks win this one, 3-1. I'm still holding out hope, but barely.

WOW, What a Game!!!

The game lasted almost 5 hours, but the finish was something for the ages. The Orange Bowl pitted 2 of College Football's greatest Coaches of all time, Joe Paterno of Penn State against Bobby Bowden of Florida State. Penn State eventually outlasted Florida State 26-23 in triple overtime. Everything about the game gave you goosebumps as both teams went back and forth, back and forth. After missing 2 game winning FGs, rookie kicker Kevin Kelly finally chipped the winner in the 3rd overtime. Simply amazing. The only sad part of the whole thing was Florida State kicker Gary Cismesia who failed to hit on his 2 tries and looked devestated after the loss. Don't worry Gary, better times are ahead buddy. Rose Bowl with Texas vs USC is tomorrow, we can only hope it will be as exciting as the rest of the Bowl Games. I'm going with Texas, Vince Young wants revenge for losing out on the Heisman.

Wally Suprises, Says Goodbye to Weiss

With all the local hockey talk calling for Marc Crawford's job as the Canucks benchboss, the Sonics were the ones doing the firing by lowering the boom on Head Coach Bob Weiss in Seattle today. Was it the right move for a mediocre Sonic team at this time?? Probably not. If you look at the Sonics roster, it was really amazing what they accomplished last year. Guys that had surprisingly big seasons last year, Nick Collison, Luke Ridnour, Danny Fortson are playing much closer to how they should be playing this season. These guys are really a bunch of average players. Did you really think that Ray Allen could carry this team?? Ray is a shooter, you can't shoot your way to a Division Title. So who replaces Weiss?? Sonics Assistant Bob Hill. If you all remember, Hill was the coach of the San Antonio Spurs back in the 90s when David Robinson was dominating the league. Hill is a good coach with good head coaching experience in the NBA. Bottom line here though, there isn't nearly enough talent on this team to get back to where they were last year.

What's on TV
College FB, Texas vs USC, 5:00pm PST on ABC
NBA, Philadelphia vs Phoenix, 6:00pm PST on Sportsnet

Picks of the Day
Cleveland Cavaliers -2 over Milwaukee Bucks
Carolina Hurricanes -175 over Atlanta Thrashers
Record YTD (5-11, -753)