Things are going well today in Victoria. The sun is out, birds are singing, the temperature is above freezing. I’m in a good mood. Sounds like the best time to make sure my bitter switch still works.
ITEM ONE: If the Wild can keep up the pace their at, winning one truly impressive game a week (like they did against Nashville), then we can excuse overtime losses like the game at home against the Vancouver Sedins, and tough ones like the game in St. Louis last night, where they had to play on consecutive nights. If they can keep at least two of there primary goal scorers (Gaborik, Demitra and Rolston) on the ice every game for the rest of the year, they should have no problem making it into the playoffs. Of course, in the playoffs, they need a more consistent effort, because you can expect it from the opponents. By the way, I’m really looking forward to Pierre-Marc Bouchard trying to grow a playoff beard.
ITEM TWO: Speaking of Nashville, didn’t they acquire a player recently? Yes! And I’m not talking about Vitaly Vishnevski. The Predators overpaid for Peter Forsberg a couple of days ago, finally assembling the late nineties all star team they have desired, with Paul Kariya anxiously awaiting his new teammate. Sure, this makes the team stronger now, but it cripples them down the road. Scottie Upshall is an underrated young player, with speed for days, and the Flyers also acquired two early draft picks, while the Preds nabbed a star on the decline who has been broken much of the season. Good luck, Nashville. Good thing you got Vishnevski.
ITEM THREE: As I’m sure I’ve established, I love college basketball (by the way, Purdue is making a strong case for a spot in the big dance!) and there is nothing during the season more pointessly enjoyable than Bracketbuster weekend. I mean, really, Albany at Boise State doesn’t tell us anything, but I think it’s fun to catch Virginia Commonwealth in action. I don’t need to see Duke every time they’re on, and I’m pretty sure Georgetown has played Villanova about 19 times this year. In any case, the team that came out of this smelling like roses was Drexel, who won at Creighton.
ITEM FOUR: See, Americans think they have the craziest athletes, like, for example, Mike Tyson or Dennis Rodman, but then you get stories like this. Let me give you an example of how ridiculous this is. Let’s say, before the AFC Championship game, Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney were out and Freeney didn’t want to sing some Bruce Springsteen, except Harrison did, to the point that he attacked him. The only difference was that Craig Bellamy used a golf club and this was in Portugal, and the victim was Norwegian. I almost wish these had been Americans, because this story is too ridiculous to get passed up by local media.
ITEM FIVE: I decided to make a more concerted effort to follow NASCAR just so I have something to talk about with my more gear minded friends. I watched the Daytona 500 yesterday, and you can rest assured that I won’t be writing any more on the topic this year, because I don’t really understand it all, but it has cars driving really fast and catching on fire! (Go Newman and Montoya!)
ITEM SIX: I’m dissapointed in my continued lack of vitriol, so let me tap into some reserve. Why the hell does February deserve so many stupid, pointless holidays? Valentine’s Day? President’s Day? For as short as the month is, you think they could move one of them, especially since the NFL has moved the Super Bowl to February and more people celebrate that than the nations’ past leaders. February is just plain silly, if you ask me.
ITEM SEVEN: If anyone was wondering, this might be the best week of the year. All my favorite shows are back and new. It started last night with the Amazing Race (which, unfortunately, does not look promising. Why do Dave and Mary keep teaming with people that are clearly just as awful as they are?) last night, and continues with How I Met Your Mother and Heroes tonight, Boston Legal tomorrow, Jericho and Criminal Minds on Wednesday, My Name Is Earl, The Office, CSI, and Shark on Thursday and if that wasn’t enough, I’ve found a buddy to play the COPS drinking game (which I definitely need to introduce to you sometime) on Saturdays. I think I need to get out of the house more.
Until next week.
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