Pitt-snoggled! (Thats right, I'm bringing it back)

The Capitals played like they were tired, they played like they were going in slow motion, they looked lazy on offense and could hardly even record a shot in the 2nd period, and the STILL took a backs-against-the-wall Penguins team to overtime to almost take a 3-0 lead in the series. What does this tell us about this team? That they very well may be on their way to their first Stanley Cup in 11 years. To be able to push a team like the Penguins, a very good team desperate as ever for a victory on their home ice, to the limit like the Caps did last night, while not playing up to their level for the first time in five games is an amazing feat in itself. Pittsburgh was SUPPOSED to win this game! They had to. All of the odds were in their favor, so I don't understand why Caps Nation is so surprised, I know I'm not.

For the first time this series, the Capitals allowed the Penguins to play their brand of hockey: Fast and furious at a million shots per minute, generating defense by way of offense. In a game where the Capitals were out-shot by almost double (42-23), and were behind in almost all categories (power-plays 2-7, hits 31-44, takeaways 3-10) they were able to take advantage of Pittsburgh mistakes and get the goals when they needed them most. Alex Ovechkin scored less than two minutes into the game after goalie Marc-Andre Fleury lost control of his stick. While attempting to retrieve it, he left the goal while an unfortunate bounce right to the stick of a diving Ovi led to a wide open goal. Ovi now has a league leading 8 goals in 10 playoff games. The second goal came with under 2-minutes left in the game, as Niklas Backstrom got the lucky bounce off of Fleury on a bad angle shot to tie the game a 2-2.

The Caps also looked pretty solid on D, even without enforcer Donald Brashear and more importantly scrapper John Erskine. Considering the barrage of goals that the defense saw, they played about as good as anyone could have asked. You can't even blame Simeon Voila-mov for the 3 goals the he allowed.Voila's stunning performance last night was pretty much the only reason the Caps nearly stole this one away from the Pens. Goals two and three were only scored because someone was blocking Voila's view in front of the net so he couldn't see the puck, otherwise he would have made the saves with ease. The OT game-winner by Kris Letang was especialy painful since it slipped by Varly all the way from the blue-line as his line of sight was disrupted by Caps defender Milan Jurcina (same team! same team!). Despite recording the loss, Varly still managed 39 saves on 42 shots (92.9 save%) including a variety of head-scratching saves throughout and is still playing like the best goalie in the NHL.

So it looks like we finally have a series, and it's only going to get tougher. Game 4 is slated for tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, followed immediately by game 5 in Washington on Saturday. This means no rest and both teams are probably going to be dead after this stretch, but intensity levels are only going to rise. The Caps did a good job of containing Sidney Crosby (0 G 2 A) who was the Pens only goal scorer going into last night. Lets see if they can keep it up and close this series out Saturday night at the Verizon Center.

The Baltimore Orioles (11-17) just recorded their second win in a row (lookout AL East!) by taking down the Minnesota Twins 4-1 after nearly 4 hours of rain delay. The game was eventually called in the 6th inning. Behind the big bats of Nick Markakis (who has hit in 18 of the past 20 games and has reached base in 23 straight games) and Luke Scott, who each homered, the O's never trailed and have won consecutive games for the first time since April 13-14. Despite retiring 9 out of 10 batters, pitcher Mark Hendrickson was pulled due to a rain delay and failed to record a win, making it the 12th game in a row in which a Baltimore starter hasn't got a win. Could this be the end of the Oriole's slump? All signs point to no....but its refreshing to see the team get a couple of W's. The season is still young, so there is no reason to abandon all hope yet. They finish up their 2-game series with Minnesota tonight, before starting a 3-game home series against the Yankees tomorrow. The O's took the series 2-1 from the Yanks the last time they faced each other.

After two surprising game one upsets, the defending NBA East and West Champions bounced back, routing their respective opponents last night in a couple of game two yawn-fests. The Celtics never trailed, and behind Rajon Rondos triple-double, the C's made easy work of the Magic 112-94. G Eddie House had the game of his career scoring 31 points off the bench going 11-14 from the field (78.5%) and 4-4 from behind the arc. Five Celtics reached double figures and this team looked back in form after clearly suffering from fatigue in game one. The Magic did not play poorly by any means. They also had five players in double figures and shot nearly 45% from the field. What killed them was their free throw shooting, going 24-37 (64%). Game three should make for an interesting match-up as the series heads to Orlando.

The Lakers fared equally well against a Rockets team that just fell asleep on defense. After overcoming a 14 point deficit in the 2nd half, the Rockets fell apart and trailed the rest of the way en route to a 111-98 loss on Wednesday. Ron Artest, who did a good job defending Kobe in game one, got manhandled by Mr. Consistency allowing him to score 40 points, as the Lakers connected on 43-86 shots (50%). Toward the end of the 3rd quarter, all hell began to break loose. Lakers guard Derek Fisher bowled over Luis Scola drawing a technical fouled and an ejection. A skirmish ensued, which eventually led to additional technical fouls to Lamar Odom, Luis Scola, and Luke Walton. Later in the game, on what was apparently a cheap shot by Kobe Bryant on Ron Artest, Artest got riled up and all in Kobe's face resulting in yet another ejection (Artest) and Technical fouls (Artest and Bryant). Ron Wafer was also ordered to go to the locker room by Huston's head coach for an unrelated matter. Despite all the ejections, both teams put up solid numbers offensively and managed to get contributions from all around. Ron Artest tallied 25 points, and Carl Landry contributed heavily with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Yao Ming also had another double-double recording 12 points and 10 ribbies. On the other side, in addition to Kobes 40 points (only 3 assists...tsk tsk tsk, selfish basketball) Paul Gasol had a career night adding 22 points and 14 rebounds while Lamar Odom stepped up with 11 rebounds of his own. If game 3 is nearly as crazy as this one turned out to be, you may want to have security contracted to keep these players at bay.

Finally, and this is literally just in, I am shocked to announce that another modern-day baseball legend is forever tainted. LA Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez has tested positive for PED's and is now looking at a 50 game suspension, making him the biggest star yet to be reprimanded in the face of the league's drug policy. This is unfortunate as there is no denying Manny's star power nor his impact on the Major League-leading Dodgers team. This is a guy who singled-handedly brought the Dodgers into the NLCS after being traded in the middle of last season and is also responsible for their current MLB record 13 straight home victories to start a season(asterisks anyone??). He had established himself as one of the league's best hitters, and I guess now we all know why. Manny is currently batting .348 with 6hrs and 20 RBI. This is a dark time for major league baseball, so don't be surprised to see more of our modern day greats take a big fall from grace.

*some statistics courtesy of espn.com

Watch the Caps Friday and Saturday!! Until next time...

Varly and Me

So picture this: It's the beginning of the 3rd period, the game is knotted up. The Verizon Center is a sea of red and at near capacity. All you can hear is them chanting his name, "Var-ly! Var-ly! Var-ly! Var-ly!...


In what was the most raucous crowd at the Verizon Center that I have ever been a part of, The Washington Capitals were able to unleash the fury in a 3-2 come-from-behind win in yesterday's game one match-up against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Conference Semifinals. The Capitals (1-0) are playing like the team that stormed into the playoffs as the perennial favorite. That was before going down one game to three early in the first round series against the New York Rangers. They have completely turned their game around since then, winning their last four games (their first 4-game playoff win streak since 1991), and a lot of the credit has to go to the 21-year old rookie Simeon Varlamov. In what was another impressive outing, Voila-mov recorded 34 saves on 36 shots (94.4%) including an unbelievable stick-save in the second period that had the entire Verizon Center scratching their heads with a "what the hell just happened?" look on all of their faces. Hands down one of the best saves I've ever seen, and most likely the first of many that we are going to see from this kid. The Capitals need to lock this kid up for a long, long time. He is playing like a league veteran and he's only played 8 NHL games in his career. Are you kidding me?! Coming into yesterdays game Voila had the best save percentage in the NHL at 95.7%, he has already tied a Caps record with 2 shutouts in the first series, and he has shown no signs of slowing down yet. His decision making is unbelievable, his awareness of the puck in second to none and they way he throws his body around the net with reckless abandon to get just a glove or the edge of the stick on a potential shot is simply mind-blowing. I don't want to say it yet, but I'm going to anyway: Simeon Varlamov could be the best goalie in the NHL right now and he is the reason that we are still alive in this year's playoffs.

Varly wasn't the only one that contributed to the Capital's game one victory. As always, a lot of guys on this young team rose to occasion and proved to be difference makers in this incredibly hyped up series. Did game one live up to the hype? It's still early on in the series but I would say yes. You had goals by Ovechkin and Crosby and a game that was tied going into the 3rd period. The play in goal was exceptional by both teams as the also young Marc-Andriy Fleury had an impressive 23 saves on 26 shots and looked like a pro out on the ice. Alex Ovechkin's goal came on a 5-3 power play in the 1st period, giving the Caps their first lead of the game; they never trailed again. It was a brilliant act of passing as all of the "big 3" got a hand on it, Backstrom passing to Semin who faked a shot and no-looked it to Ovi, who easily put it in the net. Backstrom and Semin each finished with 2 assists and unheralded role players David Steckel, my boy, and Thomas Flieshmann scored a goal apiece. The Caps were out-shot by the Pens 36-26 but were able to quell a charging Penguins offense especially on power plays. The Caps have come into the series as the 2nd best team on Penalty Kill with an 87% kill rate. They lived up to that number and held the Pens to 0-6 on power plays yesterday. This is the kind of defensive playing that championship teams are made of. It was great to see a team that had been struggling defensively all season turn their game around and prove that they can hang tough when they need to. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see how the rest of this series plays out.

Right now I am also sitting through game 2 of Detroit vs. Anaheim and holy crap! Its in double OT! I've never seen a hockey game go into double OT in my life, this looks like its shaping up to be a great series. Both teams' goalies are playing fantastic hockey right now as neither team is able to get the puck in the net, despite numerous offensive charges. Scratch that, this game is now in triple OT....these teams are doing there best Celtics Bulls impression. I don't want to go too much into this game (Anaheim eventually won 4-3), but I hope you all watched it, I know I am grateful as this turned into a nice little surprise for Sunday (too bad I can't say the same for the dismal game 7 of the Hawks Heat series, which ended in yet another blowout...91-78 ATL. All games in this series were decided by 10 points or more).

Moving on, and boy do I need to as yesterday was one of the most memorable days in recent sports history. Not only did we get to see the most anticipated hockey match-up of the last decade, but we had a historic game 7 of possibly the best NBA series ever, the Kentucky Derby, and the Pacquiao-Hatton fight. So lets start with game 7 of the Celtics Bulls.

Although this game didn't live up to the hype that the series had created, it was still a very enjoyable game to watch. Honestly, how could this game possibly live up to the hype when 4 of the previous 6 games have gone into overtime, and two of those overtime games went into multiple overtimes? You would need a 4OT game with so many players fouling out that both teams were forced into suiting up towel boys to finish to even meet the expectations this game had. The Celtics used a 22-2 run to close out the second quarter and never trailed again, finishing off the pesky Bulls with ease in a 109-99 victory. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce had 20 point nights, Kendrick Perkins had a very respectable 14 points and 13 rebounds, while Rajon Rondo contributed with 11 assists. Again you had this team, young and old, come together and really play team basketball with everyone contributing: even the bench produced 30 points of their own. Chicago played as hard as they have been all series too. Catalyst Joakim Noah carried the team with 15 rebounds, while Kirk Heinrich added 16 bench points (14 in the 4th quarter), but it just wasn't enough to hold off the defending champs. That being said, I was glad to see Boston pull out the victory. I think they have the best chance of the remaining teams to give Cleveland a scare in the Conference Finals, however I don't think its going to happen. Cleveland just looks too dominant this year, but hey, crazier things have happened.

What more can be said about this series? It was nothing shy of incredible, I turned off game 6 feeling as though I had witnessed the greatest act of basketball in my short lifetime. Three Overtimes, Ray Allen playing like he was still in his early 20s, Big Baby Davis somehow hitting mid-range Js, 19 assists to 0 turnovers for Rajon Rondo. And what about Joakim Noah's game saving dunk that cause Paul Pierce to foul out and gave the Bulls the lead for good. Not to mention Derrick Rose's perfect block on Rajon Rondo to prevent any comeback for the Celtics. Yes folks, this series may very well go down as the greatest ever played, people will be talking about it for the next 40 years, so please be thankful that you were around to witness it.

In what was a Monumental Upset, the 135th Kentucky Derby provided more than enough excitement in 2 minutes to justify the 3 hours of pregame. The winning Horse, Mine That Bird, came into the race ranked 17 out of the 19 horses (It would have been 20 horses if I Want Revenge weren't scratched hours before the race) and sitting at 53-1 odds to win the damn thing, pulled the unthinkable. This horse, at one point in dead last and trailing for the first 1/2 mile of this 1 1/4 mile race, turned on the jets and weaved through the slew of horses in front of him to spring so far ahead of the field that he ended up winning by almost 7 lengths. That's the longest margin of victory at the Kentucky Derby in over 60 years! This is going to go down as one of the most historic upsets in derby history. In fact, paying $103.20 to win, Mine That Bird produced the second highest payoff in Derby history, second only to Doneral, the horse the shocked the world in the 1913 Derby, however there were only six horses racing in that years' derby. So yeah, it was the biggest payout in almost 100 years, which is just silly. How did this happen? It's hard to say, sometimes things just fall into place, but there is no doubt the track condition as a result of an all day rain had to play a significant role. He was also under the control of an experienced jockey in Calvin Borel. He is no stranger to Kentucky Derby glory, having rode Street Sense to victory in the 2006 classic by hugging the rail in much the same manner. Needless to say, this was as big a moment as any for Borel, and will go down as one of the most remembered Kentucky Derbies to date. Now I can't wait for Preakness...

In other news, what was hyped as the biggest fight of the year, definitely fell short, or rather Ricky Hatton fell short. Like, leaps and bounds short of what everyone was expecting. ALL HAIL Manny Pacquiao!! Pacquiao (49-3-2) beat the living daylights out of his opponent, the Englishman Ricky Hatton, winning by knockout in a mere 2 rounds and claiming the Junior Welterweight Title. Yeah, Hatton was on the ropes in round 1, getting knocked down twice and failing to even land a good punch on the too fast too furious Pacquiao. The wily Philippino now has won Championships in 6 different weight classes, four of those coming in his last four tries. In this bout, Pacquiao landed almost as many punches as Hatton attempted (73 landed by Pacquiao to 78 attempted by Hatton) connecting on 57.4% of his punches including the devastating left hook that just about knocked Hatton unconscious. After pounding Hatton with a barrage of right hooks all fight, Pacquiao finally got him to bite and took full advantage with the final left hook blow. Hatton was actually taken to the hospital for precautionary purposes after the "fight." So is Manny Pacquiao the best active boxer right now? All statistics point to yes. Pound for Pound, this guy is the best there is and hopefully we will get to see a showdown in the fall against Floyd Mayweather (fingers crossed!!) in what no doubt will be a fight for the ages.

Finally, the Orioles (9-16) are falling faster than Alicia Sacramone in Beijing (too soon?). After dropping their last 6 games and failing to win a series in four straight tries, the O's find themselves in a very familiar position: Last Place in the AL East. This has been their Home base for the last 11 years, so its no surprise to see them back to old habits. The reason? Very simply, the pitching. The Orioles are last in the majors in runs against having given up 161 runs so far this season. They are playing (please watch this clip, you are in for such a treat!) worse than UVA football does year in and year out and I am already sick of it. Please, Angelos, address the pitching situation for everyone's sake. If you can drop multiple millions on hitters, why can't you land a consistent pitcher? It doesn't make any sense. It's really a shame because I am a die hard O's fan and watch this happen year in and year out and nothing ever changes. They always start off promising at the beginning, VERY Beginning, of the season, like April, and fall off the map by June. Ugh. The only bright spot- Nick Markakis is coming off of a 16 game hitting streak, but big surprise...that was broken yesterday against the Blue Jays. The rest of the team's hitting has pretty much fallen off as of late. In fact, the back end of the lineup (Itzuris, Zaun and Pie) are hitting a dismal .189, 26 points lower than ANY team in the majors. Yes, that's including National League teams where pitchers hit...I know these guys weren't recruited for their offense, but come on, you are playing in the majors and there are pitchers who are hitting better...disgraceful. I guess the season is far from over, but these guys need to get their act together before its too late. Wieters can't get up here soon enough!

That's it, expect frequent posts again and be sure to watch game 2 of the Caps-Pens series tomorrow night (7:00 EST) as well as second round NBA playoff match-ups.

*some statistics courtesy of espn.com

Until next time...