Sometimes in sports, there are situations that make you want to scream out....That's Not Fair! What happened tonight in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals was one of those moments.
Because of an injury suffered in a collision in front of the net with under six minutes to play in the game, Dwayne Roloson of the Edmonton Oilers, who has been nothing short of sensational in the 2006 playoffs, is done for the postseason. It's not fair for the Oilers, who have kept hockey fans everywhere on edge throughout the entire postseason. If they bounce back from this and somehow win the series, it will be a miracle.
As if losing Roloson wasn't bad enough for the Oilers, they had a 3-0 lead late in the second period and let it slip away. Brindamour's goal with 31 seconds to play was a heartbreaker.
The injury to Roloson brought flashes back of tragic injuries from the past in sports that just shocked everyone......Bo Jackson's shoe-string tackle vs. Cinci where he broke his hip........Theismann's broken leg.........The careers of those two were never the same after that.....Will Roloson be different????
He's 36, and likely won't play much longer in the NHL. It's been a magical ride for the Oilers ever since the team acquired Roloson at the trading deadline, and then snuck into the playoffs in the next-to-last game.
As they said on O.L.N. (Outdoor Life Network), it would be a little easier to deal with losing Roloson if the Oilers had held on to win the game, but to not only lose the game, but lose the way they did, isn't fair.
Imagine if, in the NBA Finals, D-Wade gets hurt late in Game 1 and is done for the series.......or Shaq........or if Dirk Nowitzki or Steve Nash got hurt........if any of those players got hurt, their teams would be drastically different.
Such is the case with the Edmonton Oilers.
On the flip side, it only takes one injury to a star player to send a bench player into the spotlight. Remember the immortal Wally Pipp? He gets hurt one day, and in for him comes Lou Gehrig, and "The Streak" began. Don Majkowski of the Packers gets hurt in 1992, Brett Favre comes in, wins the game, and his time to shine begins. Trent Green tears his ACL in the preseason after getting hit by Rodney Harrison, and Kurt Warner comes in off the bench to throw 40 TD passes in the regular season and win the Super Bowl.
And who could forget Tom Brady, thrust into the lineup after Drew Bledsoe gets knocked out by Mo Lewis of the Jets in 2001? Five years later, Brady and the Patriots have three Super Bowl rings, and Bledsoe is now on his third different team.
Ty Conklin, the time is now for you. Will you be thought of in the same breath as Lou Gehrig, Brett Favre, or Tom Brady? It's highly unlikely, but then again, stranger things have happened.
If Conklin is ready to etch his name into sports infamy, his time begins in Game 2. If the Oilers play horribly, the series is done and Carolina will win the Cup. If the team responds to the challenge and plays great, the Oilers have games 3 and 4 at home and the series is up for grabs.
Remember the infamous words of Yogi Berra: it ain't over till it's over. Don't bet on the Hurricanes just yet. Never underestimate the heart of an underdog.
One of the most exciting parts about professional and collegiate sports is when underdogs prevail over heavily-favored teams. The Jets in Super Bowl III topping the Colts. The US Olympic Hockey Team in 1980 taking the gold medal. The NC State Wolfpack in 1983 winning an NCAA hoops title as a sixth-seed. Villanova's basketball team in the '80s that shocked the world to win a title as an 8-seed. The Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVI as two-touchdown underdogs, beating "The Greatest Show on Turf", better known as the St.Louis Rams. All of these stories are inspiring. The 2006 Edmonton Oilers, as the lowest seeded team in this year's NHL playoffs, are trying to make their case as being yet another glorious underdog that prevailed.
What the Oilers have done this season has brought hockey back into the picture as an exciting sport again. There are few things in sports that can compare to overtime playoff hockey.....fans watching ever shot with anticipation.......it's crazy........
Playoffs aren't fun to watch when all the teams that are expected to win end up chalking up the victories. It's most fun when teams come out of nowhere to surprise, and that is just what the Oilers are doing.
As an eighth-seed in the Western Conference, the Oilers faced off in a matchup against the #1 seeded Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings, a team looked at by many as having a great chance to win it all, was dispensed in six games by the Oilers. The Oilers' fans have been a huge reason why this team has done so well. The enthusiasm that fans in Canada show for hockey compares to how devoted a lot of Americans are for professional football.
The Oilers' goaltender, Dwayne Roloson, has been spectacular, helping lead his team to seven victories in their 11 playoff games. The team has had two playoff games go to double overtime and one go to triple overtime. They've been victorious in two of those three games.
With a win either tonight in Edmonton or Friday night in San Jose, the Oilers will be going on to the Final Four of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The teams that have moved on are the Buffalo Sabres (a four-seed), the Carolina Hurricanes (a two-seed), and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (a sixth-seed).
The Edmonton Oilers are living a dream, and soon, they just may be making history.
It seems to me that, ever since the great performance that U2 gave in Super Bowl XXXVI's halftime, the halftime show has gone more and more downhill. Most of the Super Bowl halftime shows that I can recall have been really dull. Will this year with the Stones be any different? I doubt it. I would love to hear them sing "Paint It Black", but we'll see how things go.
Do you think that there will ever be a decent halftime show again?
Super Bowl XL Preview: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Seattle Seahawks
When the playoff brackets became official, it was hard to envision such an illogical end result: the highest ranked playoff team from the NFC, the 15-3 Seattle Seahawks, going against the lowest ranked playoff team from the AFC, the 14-5 Pittsburgh Steelers, for the NFL’s biggest prize.
The AFC featured powerhouses across the board; Indianapolis, the #1 seed, started the year 13-0; Denver, the #2 seed, overpowered its opponents en route to a 8-0 home record and a 13-3 overall record; Cincinnati, in its first playoff appearance in 15 years, won the AFC North at 11-5 and had one of the NFL’s best offenses and a killer defense that picked off 31 passes and forced 44 turnovers; then you have the fourth-seeded New England Patriots, winners of three of the past four Super Bowls and 10 straight playoff games; who could forget the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were the fifth seed despite a 12-4 record? With all this talent in the conference, the 11-5 Steelers, who snuck into the postseason by winning its last four games, got overlooked and the rest of the AFC paid the price for it. In the NFL, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and the Steelers have won seven games in a row, including road wins over the three tops seeds in the AFC. No team had ever won over the top three seeds in its conference on the road to make it to a Super Bowl, so Pittsburgh is now in a class by themselves.
The road to Super Bowl glory for the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks was a lot less bumpy. First off, the team finished at 13-3, good enough for the #1 seed and home-field advantage in the playoffs. Seattle was 8-0 at home in the regular season, so this was a huge plus for them. In round one, both lower seeds, the fifth-seeded Carolina Panthers and sixth-seeded Washington Redskins won out over two-seeded New York and three-seeded Tampa Bay, respectively. The final four NFC teams vying for a Super Bowl berth were Seattle, Chicago (the two seed), Carolina and Washington. Seattle’s first postseason game was against Washington, and despite MVP runner Shaun Alexander getting knocked out in the first quarter, the team rushed 33 times for 119 yards. When Chicago, the NFL’s stingiest defense in 2005, fell to Carolina, they got to play fifth-seed Carolina in a home game for the NFC title. They responded by relying on their ground game again, with 51 carries for 190 yards in a 34-14 rout. The win gave Seattle the first NFC title in its 30-year history.
The Pittsburgh Steelers (14-5): AFC Champion
In 2004, the Steelers lived and died by their power running attack, leading the NFC with over 600 carries, and rushing 63% of the time. The reason they rushed so much was they didn’t want the success or failure of the offense to fall on the shoulders of rookie passer Ben Roethlisberger. In 2005, they loosened the reigns, and they owe a large amount of their success to putting their trust in Roethlisberger. He missed a few games to injuries this season, but he went 11-3 in 14 starts this year and is an NFL-best 26-4 over his two-year career. His quarterback skills are very impressive considering the fact that he’s one of the youngest NFL starters (23 years old), and should Pittsburgh win Super Bowl XL, he’ll be the youngest QB ever to win a title.
Then, there’s that vaunted running game, which is one of the most feared in the NFL, boasting three quality runners; Willie Parker, who rushed for over 1000 yards in his first year as a starter; Jerome Bettis, who rushed for over 300 yards and had a team-high six rushing touchdowns; and Duce Staley, the starter in 2004. Roethlisberger is also good at scrambling, rushing for two touchdowns. Bettis is playing in the final game of his 13-year career, and will have a shot at his first championship. Better yet, the game will be in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.
There are many quality wide outs capable of intimidation. Mainstay Hines Ward, who caught 68 passes for 935 yards and 11 touchdowns; rookie tight end Heath Miller (36 catches, six touchdowns); Antwaan Randle-El is a triple-threat, with 545 yards receiving, 72 yards rushing, 385 return yards and five total touchdowns.
The Steelers also have a fearsome defense, spear-headed by hard-hitting safety Troy Polamalu (97 tackles, three sacks, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries, one TD; 19 tackles in three playoff games), trash-talking linebacker Joey Porter (72 tackles, 11 sacks, two interceptions, one fumble recovery), linebacker Clark Haggans (75 tackles, nine sacks), and linebacker James Farrior (155 tackles, one sack, one fumble recovery). The defense has allowed only 85 points during the seven-game win streak.
If the Steelers can have a balanced offense, meanwhile creating turnovers and holding the Seahawks to field goals instead of touchdowns, the Steelers should prevail.
The Seattle Seahawks (15-3): NFC Champion
The Seattle Seahawks flew under the radar; after all, four games into the season, they were 2-2. Now, they’re winners of 13 of the past 14 games and are the #1 seed from the NFC, but are going against the #6 seed in the AFC as four-point underdogs. Seems strange, doesn’t it? Well, Seattle is an underdog for two simple reasons; (1) Pittsburgh is on a roll, having won seven straight, and (2) they’ve been on the grand stage before, emerging with a win in four of their five Super Bowl appearances. The 2005 Seahawks seem a lot like the 2001 Patriots, who won their final nine games after starting the season 5-5.
The Seahawks have one main headline player on offense, running back Shaun Alexander, who in the regular season and playoffs has 2090 total yards and 30 touchdowns. They also have a lot of young players on offense and defense making their presence known.
Matt Hasselbeck, one of the most underrated quarterbacks, had over 3000 yards passing, 24 TD passes and nine interceptions.
Five receivers had two or more TD catches. Joe Jurevicius had 55 catches for 694 yards and a team-high 10 TD catches. Bobby Engram had 778 yards and three touchdowns. Tight end Jerramy Stevens, who has all but guaranteed a victory for his team, had 45 catches for 554 yards and five touchdowns. Darrell Jackson, a deep threat, had 38 catches for 482 yards and three touchdowns. Up-and-comer D.J. Hackett caught 28 for 400 yards and two touchdowns. Jackson has 228 yards combined in the two playoff games for Seattle, second only to Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers (335 yards).
The defense had an NFL-high 50 sacks. Leading the way for the imposing defense are safety Michael Boulware (73 tackles, two sacks, four interceptions), who is doing great in his second year after being a linebacker in college; linebacker Lofa Tatupu (104 tackles, four sacks, fumble recovery, three interceptions, one touchdown); and defensive tackle Rocky Bernard (52 tackles, eight and a half sacks, two fumble recoveries).
The biggest advantage for the 2005 Seahawks has been their home stadium. In front of their home crowd this year, they’re 10-0. Away from home, which they’ll be on Sunday, they’re 5-3.
How The Game Will Go
“This one’s for Jerome!” That will be the Steelers’ battle cry, and the will to win for him will carry the team to victory and their fifth Super Bowl title. Both teams will try and establish their running games in order to have lengthy drives that wear out the opposition, but likely only the Steelers will be able to switch between running and passing with ease. When Shaun Alexander rushes for 100 yards or more in a playoff game, Seattle is 1-0. When he doesn’t, they’re 1-4. Is Seattle wants to win, they’ll need to rush Alexander early and often. Pittsburgh knows that, and they’ll be geared to stop him. Tight end Jerramy Stevens of Seattle has all but guaranteed victory. On Sunday, Pittsburgh will try and make him eat his words.
If you go and look at the losers of the past 39 Super Bowls, you'll see that there hasn't been a team that has lost more than one Super Bowl in the past 12 years. Pittsburgh lost Super Bowl 30, so I think that Seattle will end up being the 13th different team in 13 years to lose a Super Bowl and keep the streak alive.
There's probably other reasons why I could see Pittsburgh coming out on top, but I figured I'd go with one that's a stat since I'm "Stat Man".
Prediction: Pittsburgh 28-24
MVP: Jerome Bettis (one TD run, about 90 yards rushing)
