You know, the historic one.¹

The Philadelphia Flyers have already made history. They’re now the sixth team in NHL history to lose the first three games of a series, and come back to force a Game 7. Two teams have actually managed to win the series, and the Flyers hope to be the third. This puts me in an uncomfortable position.² I find the Flyers to be a generally unlikable team, anchored by the twin pillars of D-Baggery, Misters Carcillo and Pronger. The city of Philadelphia has already broken the Curse of Billy Penn, so they don’t exactly deserve a break because of a title drought. Then again, neither does Boston, and I can’t say they’re that much of a likable bunch either. (Unless of course, you do enjoy cheering for Satan. Which I do.) And I do like cheering for history. . . but I’m still not going to say it. So good luck to you, winner of Friday night’s puck game. May you lose to the Canadiens, preferably in four.

Speaking of Les Habitantes. wadE asked me what I thought of the Penguins and Baby Jesus Crosby finally getting knocked out (in last night’s other Game 7). I think the short answer is that they finally got tired, after two straight years of being in the Finals, plus having quite a few Olympians playing extra games this year. And it doesn’t hurt that they ran into Jaroslav Halak, who’s doing his very best Cam Ward impression.³

Going forward from here, I’d love to see a Hawks-Habs series for the Cup. Bonus points regardless if Hossa loses in the finals for a third straight year.

Stick with the video until the end to see the different angles – sweet no-look OT winner for the US over Canada in the World Juniors Gold Medal Game. Thanks to Monkey for the heads up on this one.

Apparently there was some sort of kerfuffle over the holiday weekend involving Tiger Woods. And by ‘apparently’, I mean it was completely impossible to avoid hearing about it. Trust me, I tried. So TW backed his car into a fire hydrant, and may or may not have cheated on his wife. This has led to articles all over teh interwebz that boil down to two points:

1. Tiger Woods has tarnished his image.
2. Tiger Woods needs to tell the truth about everything.

To which I say:

1. Perhaps.
2. No, he absolutely does not.
Read the rest of this entry »

From an ESPN article about a feud between two drivers on the NASCAR circuit, where one of them is quoted as saying:

“This is what makes racing awesome, otherwise it’s just cars going in circles.”

I think maybe this is why I’ve never understood auto racing. All these years, I thought it was about the cars going in circles.

ESPN’s got a nice article up about Arnold Palmer turning 80, which is a good read for fans of golf, golf history, and/or Arnie. I’m struck by a quote from Jack about a tip that Arnie gave him:

“We were playing, and I chipped a ball from just off the green. He recommended that I putt the ball, saying that often your worst putt will still be better than your best chip. I still pass that along to players today.”

That is a good tip, and one that I wish I would have heard back when I was still playing competitively (or at least more than once a year).