The Sports Corner - Talking All Kinds Of Sports

[W]

Chelsea is going to play Inter Milan 70 miles away in Indy and I can't get anyone to go with me... I don't know when I'll have a chance to watch that quality of a soccer match live again and no one cares but me.

[silversurfer19]

Why not just make the trip to San Francisco and see a much better team? Everton are playing!

[Buscemi]

It's that time of year again. The NHL season is almost finishing up and the journey to see which teams get is afoot.

Already in:

Atlantic: Boston, Montreal, Tampa Bay
Metropolitan: Pittsburgh
Central: St. Louis, Colorado, Chicago
Pacific: Anaheim, San Jose, Los Angeles

Still in the hunt:
Atlantic: Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa
Metropolitan: Rangers, Columbus, Philadelphia, Columbus, Washington, New Jersey, Carolina
Central: Minnesota, Dallas, Winnipeg, Nashville
Pacific: Phoenix, Vancouver

Eliminated:
Atlantic: Florida, Buffalo
Metropolitan: Islanders
Pacific: Calgary, Edmonton

Most fascinating races:
- The four-way tie (of Detroit, Toronto, Columbus and Washington) for the two wild card spots in the East (basically, the teams that will play Boston and Pittsburgh in the first round). It's as if none of these teams want to win. And New Jersey (with their 0-14 overtime record) and Ottawa still have a shot, being only four and six points behind respectively.
- Chicago and Colorado fighting for second place in the Central. Unless the division (and league) leading Blues fall apart late, these two will likely meet in the first round but it will interesting to see who gets home ice for this series. Though the Blackhawks are the defending champions, it's amazing how the Avs have turned around in just one season (going from the league's worst record to one of the best in the league's toughest division). Also, I think Colorado can match up well with Chicago in a playoff series (they won the regular season series 4-1).

[Shrykespeare]

God, it sucks to be an Arizona sports fan right now.


Just four months ago, the Cardinals posted a spectacular 10-6 record but missed the playoffs despite having an identical or better record than three teams that made it in.

Two weeks ago, the University Arizona lost in the Elite Eight for the, what, third time in a row? They've lost those three games by a combined five points, I think.

Last week, the Coyotes had a playoff spot locked up but decided to finish the season by losing its final seven games and will finish the season in 9th place.

Tonight, the Suns, who won 25 games last year and were predicted by most pundits to do even worse this year, lost a heartbreaker to Dallas just 24 hours after losing a heartbreaker to San Antonio. The Suns had leads in both games, but both Texas teams inevitably hit that five- to eight-minute stretch where every shot (mostly 3-pointers) went, every rebound bounced right to them, and every call went their way.

The Suns are not mathematically out as of now, but it's not looking good. It is quite conceivable that they could become the first team since the NBA expanded to the 16-team playoff format to go 49-33 and NOT MAKE THE FUCKING PLAYOFFS. And the most maddening thing is that there are SIX teams in the Eastern Conference with worse records than the Suns who WILL make the playoffs. (Fucking Atlanta is 37-43 and will make it.)

So by this time next week, all Arizona sports have will have are the Diamondbacks, who are now 4-10 (1-7 at home, 1-5 at Chase Field), and will likely have their worst season since their very first. Yeah, there's the Mercury, but come on, if that is the only winner we have, that's just pathetic.

Vent... over.

[Buscemi]

I feel like the Blues are never going to win again. Sure, they're already in the playoffs but they've lost five in a row (and none of the games were even close) and will likely face Chicago instead of Dallas (since wins are the first tiebreaker instead of head-to-head) in the first round (the Blues won the season series against Chicago but the last two games were losses and Chicago has been the better playoff team). But then again, I think of the 2006 Cardinals in baseball (who went from losing seven in a row late in the season and nearly missing the playoffs to winning the World Series).

Also, I think the NBA should introduce a crossover rule for the playoffs. This is a rule where teams that have a strong record in one conference but finish outside the top eight can compete in the other conference if their record is better than a team in the other conference (if such a rule existed, Phoenix would make it in the East while Atlanta would be eliminated). As far as I know, only the Canadian Football League has such a rule but I feel that it could work in the NBA due to the league's disparity. Another possibility is eliminating conferences and having a 16-team tournament where teams from the East and West can meet each other in the first round (if seeding makes it possible).

[Buscemi]

Picking the Stanley Cup playoffs:

Eastern Conference:

Detroit beats Boston, 4-2
Tampa Bay beats Montreal, 4-3
Pittsburgh beats Columbus, 4-0
Philadelphia beats Rangers, 4-1
-
Tampa Bay beats Detroit, 4-2
Philadelphia beats Pittsburgh, 4-1
-
Tampa Bay beats Philadelphia, 4-1

Western Conference:

Dallas beats Anaheim, 4-3
Los Angeles beats San Jose, 4-2
Colorado beats Minnesota, 4-1
Chicago beats St. Louis, 4-1 (in fact, I could see this series being a Chicago sweep)
-
Los Angeles beats Dallas, 4-3
Colorado beats Chicago, 4-2
-
Colorado beats Los Angeles, 4-3

Stanley Cup:
Colorado beats Tampa Bay, 4-0

[Geezer]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Buscemi]

Detroit won the season series against Boston (3 games to 2). And winning the President's Trophy is not often an indicator of winning the Stanley Cup (only eight out of 28 President's Trophy winners went on to win the Stanley Cup). I think this will be a tougher series for Boston than it looks on paper.

[Geezer]

They only played 4 times. Three of which came before December. If you haven't noticed, the Bruins have been damn near unstoppable since the beginning of March, losing only twice in regulation. They'll win in 5 games.

[Geezer]

Like I said, B's in 5. Bring on those filthy Habs.

[Crew2]

God, it sucks to be an Arizona sports fan right now.

Allow me to ease your mind a bit:

Indians, Cavs, Browns.

[Shrykespeare]

That'll work.

It's going to be a long summer, but I'm emboldened by the draft that the Cardinals just had. They picked up a great safety prospect in Bucannon, and hopefully they'll shore up their needs at OLT in free agency. The Suns missed the playoffs, yes, but I can only hope that this past season wasn't just a flash in the pan, that the core group will be able to keep the sense of selflessness, teamwork and camaraderie and actually improve on last year, but that HAVE to find a way to stop giving up so many damn points in the paint. And the truth is, I could care less about the Coyotes.

To the D-Backs credit, they just came off a nine-game, three-city road trip in which they took two of three in all three cities, something they haven't done since 2011. They actually have a winning record on the road, it's just their horrendous home record that's weighing them down. If they can find some way to right the ship at Chase Field, maybe we can scratch and claw our way back to .500 by the end of the season, which is where we finished the past two years. It's not the playoffs, but I'll settle for that right now. Thank God Goldie hasn't slowed down one iota, that guy is a STUD.

[W]

I think the Suns are pretty screwed. Mediocre teams in the NBA tend to stay mediocre and the West's mediocre is a top 3 Eastern conference team (the #8-12 best teams in the league). In the NBA you need a real star and they don't have one. They have some great pieces' but after two knee surgeries I don't see your only chance at a superstar (Bledsoe) ever realizing his potential. You guys need a good trade for a high pick, a lucky pick in the draft, or a Harden-like trade to happen to get any further than a threat to make the second round.

That's the same reason I wanted the Mavs to give up, trade off any piece that won't be there in three years anyway (Dirk, my favorite player all-time included). The Monta signing worked out better than expected and almost put them in the second round, which against the Blazers would have been a coin flip. Plus the Mavs don't have a first rounder this year.

The Suns have multiple ones, #14, 18, and 27. Maybe a team would take those three for a top 6 pick? I've heard there's six guys that are legit possible franchise guys.

[Shrykespeare]

That's a possibility. They've been shrewd in their deals in the past year and have been acquiring draft picks like gangbusters.

The thing is, the fact that this team that was mostly complete strangers at the start of the year wasn't supposed to gel like they did, much less win. I doubt they'd want to tear it all down and start over just to compete with the elite teams in the West, not if it means two to three more 25-win seasons while they rebuild.

The beauty of having so many draft picks over the next few seasons is that they could package them up and trade them for a higher pick, as you said, perhaps throwing one of the current roster in as well. There is no way in hell they are going to deal Dragic, Bledsoe or Green, and with Markieff Morris coming off a career year, I doubt they'd deal him either. The presence of Marcus Morris is great PR, plus Markieff always plays better when his brother is on the court with him. Len and Plumlee are still projects, we'll see how they develop. Then you have other raw talent like Ish Smith and Archie Goodwin, who could be used as possible trade bait.

Whatever the scenario, I'm very interested in what happens up to and including the NBA draft. That's in June, right?

[Buscemi]

The NBA Draft is June 26th.

It will be hilarious if the Sixers, who spent much of the season tanking to get the top pick, didn't get it since the Bucks were even worse (you know you've failed the tank job when you still finish four games ahead of last).