NHL Round 1 Predictions

Montreal 4 - 1 Boston
Pittsburgh 4 - 1 Ottawa
Washington 4 - 2 Philadelphia
New Jersey 2 - 4 New York Rangers

Detroit 4 - 1 Nashville
San Jose 4 - 3 Calgary
Minnesota 2 - 4 Colorado
Anaheim 4 - 2 Dallas

There goes the bracelet

After a month and a half, the bracelet from PassionDC has come off.

NYC

315am, instead of sleeping, since I didn't sleep last night, or studying for my in-class exam in 15 hours, I'm up looking at the schedule for the Yankees and the Mets in an attempt to schedule a couple of visits down to NYC this summer to check out a few games before they move into new stadiums next year. First weekend and last weekend of August looks to be the dates that work, just waiting to see what kind of job I can land for the summer, and how I can work that schedule around my travel plans.

So much for studying

The time of massive-pointless-sports-plus-other-related-and-unrelated-blogs has arrived - or otherwise known as its-exam-time-so-i-procrastinate-by-blogging period. Its approximately 9am when I start this blog, and I got back into Waterloo about 30 minutes ago. I got an exam in 7 hours and I have barely started studying for it.

I was listening to the FAN590 this morning for part of the drive, and a thought crossed my mind. With teams like the Leafs out of the playoff, and a few games remaining that is considered meaningless, what should a coach/management do with regards to managing playing time for their players. This issue comes up especially when they play a team that is fighting for a playoff spot, or playing a playoff bound team looking to move up in the standings. The reason this thought crossed my mind this morning, is because the Leafs will be starting Andrew Raycroft in net tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, his first start in 30 games. The Buffalo Sabres are currently mathematically still in the hunt for a playoff spot, despite their chances of actually making the playoff being slim, that is not the point. The Leafs themselves were a victim of a team not playing their best player last year which might've had a direct impact of them missing the playoffs (The New Jersey Devils decided to start their backup goalie instead of Martin Brodeur in the last game of the season which the New York Islanders won and took over the 8th spot from the Leafs). It is a widely used tactics in basketball to rest your key players in the last few games of the year if you have clinched a spot so that you are able to have your best players rested and have time to heal bumps and bruises from the regular season so they may be rested for the second season - also known as the playoffs. Got a bit off topic for a bit, but going back to the original issue - how should a coach manage their players going into the last few games of the season? There are two thoughts - a season is 82 games (or 162 in baseball, 16 in football), and therefore a coach shouldn't manage their team any differently in game 1 of the season or game 82. The second thought is that the ultimate goal of any team is to win the championship, and if by resting players will give them a higher chance of succeeding in achieving the ultimate goal, the coach should do whatever it takes to increase the chance of achieving that goal.

9:05 - that took a bit over 5 minutes. I shall come back to this topic later on. I really should study...