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Home / Archive: 16. May 2009
By Louis “King of Roncesvalles Pisano”…
The Jays caught up to, and slid past the White Sox finally in the 8th inning, after Vernon Wells got on base for the third time, proceeding to steal his second base of the game, scoring and tying the affair at 1-1. Adam Lind who hit the double to drive in Wells reached third on a wild pitch by Scott Linebrink who previous to this outing had a .075 ERA in 12 innings of relief work this year. Jose Bautista promptly singled bringing Lind and the winning run across the plate. This score was finalized, 2-1, after Scott Downs set them down in order.
Rookie Robert Ray was quite humble about his first win “It took a couple of outings but it all came together today, it’s a great feeling” he said, but showed some emotion while pointing to the game ball placed in his locker after being asked if he had a memento to mark his first MLB win, saying with a genuine smile “I have that ball right over there, I’m about to send it home in a little bit.” After the cameras were shutoff and the crowd of reporters made their way over to Vernon Wells I asked him if he was going to call his mom and he said you know it. All around good guy!
Wells spoke about the grit that the team has shown this year, while Kevin Millar joked with him in the background behind the cameras, saying “I think the guys have done a great job all year of just battling and games never over with this team and it’s been fun so far and it’s been a pleasure watching guys go about their business each and every day and it’s something that guys are taking pride in and will continue to throughout the rest of the year.”
These guys all seem to have something special going on that Cito Gaston definitely had a hand in implementing. I’d be willing to bet they continue their dominance of this White Sox team as they send their Ace (7-1) MLB leading Roy Halladay to the mound to face (2-3) Gavin Floyd and his 7.32 ERA Sunday at 1:07 pm at the Rogers Centre in the third game of this four game series.
By Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter…
In what can only been termed as “A hell of a game”, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 Thursday night to move on to the Western Conference Semi-finals. In the end, the experience and depth of the Red Wings was just too much for the Ducks to overcome, sure, it was close, but close just ain’t good enough when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Anaheim goaltender Jonas Hiller was dominant in the first period stopping 16 Detroit shots, but he was not flawless as he did let in a Power Play Goal to the Red Wings Jiri Hudler at 15:43 of the first period.
Detroit would go on to a 2-0 lead early in the second period, but watched that lead disappear as Anaheim fought back with goals from Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry, to make it 3-2 Detroit by the end of the second period. The news didn’t get any better for the Red Wings to start the third period as Anaheim tied the score 3-3 when Bobby Ryan tipped in a shot. Both teams went all-out in the third period, but it was the Red Wings with 15 shots in the third that ultimately won the game on a late goal by unsung hero Daniel Cleary at 17:00 of the third period. Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller would eventually argue that Cleary’s goal came as a result of goaltender interference, but the replays showed it was a good goal.
The Red Wings now set their sights on the upstart Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks disposed of the Vancouver Canucks in 6 games in round two and have been nursing injuries and scouting the Wings since Monday. The series will be a battle of Detroit’s experience and grit versus the exuberance and energy of Chicago’s youth.
In the Eastern Conference the Boston Bruins played host to the surprising Carolina Hurricanes. Boston had fought their way all the way back from a 3-1 deficit to earn the right to host the Canes and early on looked as if they might just pull out the game seven win when little known forward Byron Bitz scored at 7:42 of the first period, but the Hurricanes had another scenario in mind. Veteran forward and team leader Rod “The bod” Brind’Amour scored at 13:59 of the first period to tie the game up at 1’s.
Carolina would take the lead when former Boston Bruin draft choice Sergei Samsonov scored a beauty of a goal at 7:45 of the second period. It would stay that way until the Bruins Milan Lucic scored at 6:19 of the third period, tying the game and ultimately sending game seven into overtime, a fitting end indeed! In the end the night belonged to the Carolina Hurricanes and the unsung hero from Hespeler, Ontario, just outside of Cambridge, Scott “I don’t care if your hands are at your sides I am slugging you in the face anyways” Walker. Walker, who had never scored a playoff goal in his entire NHL career, scored what can only be termed as the biggest goal of his life when he tapped in a rebound past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas at 18:46 of the first overtime.
The well deserved win sets up a matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes taking on Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Hurricanes have established themselves as this season’s “Cinderella” team and should conspire to give Pittsburgh some very stiff competition. The Penguins disposed of the Washington Capitals in seven games Wednesday night, they too will be tough to beat, this series should, as Don Cherry says, be a “Beauty”.
The Western Conference Finals will start this Sunday afternoon in Detroit, the Eastern Conference Finals will commence Monday evening.
By Sebastien Tremblay… Overachieving in the NHL is no easy feat. So with the uprising of surprise Chicago Blackhawks prospect Kris Versteeg, a fifth round pick, I wanted to give a shout out to those players we thought wouldn’t make it, and were too small or were “not good enough” to make an impact.
I wanted to show how impressive their careers are, and how they had to overcome much more obstacles than their first, second or third round teammates.
When you’re a late round draft pick, you don’t get the same exposure or the same opportunities. So here are those that raised the bar for the rest of them, and proved to us we were wrong about their talent and dedication.
For this first part, I’ve looked at a 20 years span starting in 1980 up to 2000.
Here they are:
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