Talk-Sports.net

Anastasia Top April User

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:53:03 GMT

Last month, Anastasia was our top user. She accumulated 9562 points, while 2nd place had only 6554. You get points by posting/deleting/reporting comments. Posts are awarded 1-8 points. Deletes are giving 1 point. Reported abuse gets 32 points. You lose 1024 points when you are banned. These points are also used to determine your level (Legend, etc). 24 user accumulated over 1000 points in April. Anastasia chose a $100 Forever 21 eGift card. Every month, we will award a $100 eGift card of their choice to our top user.

http://canada.forever21.com/ECard/GiftCard.aspx

2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 01 May 2013 02:15:09 GMT

A series by series predictions for the 1st round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and a glimpse into the next 3 rounds. The NHL playoffs since the 2004-05 lockout has been a unpredictable beast. You make the playoffs on the last day of the regular season and you find your way to the Stanley Cup finals. What makes a good regular season team is clearly not what makes a good playoff team. Here's my sense of what might happen this playoff season.

Wild v Blackhawks

The Minnesota Wild have badly underperformed and scratched their way into a playoff spot. That said, a hot goalie and some timely scoring might give them a chance. But goaltending and scoring have not been their forte this season. They do have some grit with Cal Clutterbuck, but on the whole this team is soft. Not a recipe for winning the Lord Stanley's mug. An underdog to win a series and a longshot to win it all.

And the Wild are playing the recent Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks are loaded with talent; Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane. Their was the question of goaltending at the start of the season, but Corey Crawford has been great. The consensus is that the Hawks are the team to beat in the West.

Winner: Blackhawks

Red Wings v Ducks

This isn't the Red Wings we knew in years past. There's no Nicklas Lidstrom. End of story. It's just not the same team.

The Ducks have been an off-and-on team for years with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. They even won a Stanley Cup a few years back. I don't think this team has the depth to make it far in the playoffs, but I do think they have enough to handle the Wings. Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne are getting older by the day.

Winner: Ducks

Sharks v Canucks

For the 1st time in a long while, the Sharks aren't expected to do anything this playoff. They're suppose to boy out to the much better Canucks. And with perenial non-playoff performers like Joe Thornton, they have every excuse. But remember, they are very deep in talent and someday, if Joe is willing, they might surprise in the playoffs. And don't forget, that's a Cup winning goalie between the pipes; Anti Niemi.

The Canucks are very much like the Sharks of a few years ago. Some playoff success, but everybody expected so much more. And because of injury, they'll be starting the playoffs with long-time playoff disappointment Roberto Luongo in net. Whichever team loses this series, will cement their reputation as playoff losers.

Winner: Canucks

Kings v Blues

An extremely talented team that should have little problem taking care of the Blues. But I'm not sure a team led by the party boys (Jeff Carter and Mike Richards) can make it two years in a row. I'm thinking the hangover from last summer hasn't quite warn off yet.

The Blues are... well... a blue colar team. No stars and a lot of names even I don't recognize. Just a lot of hard work. Their goaltending load was split between three goalies. It's very rare that teams with no talent advance in the playoffs.

Winner: Kings

Islanders v Penguins

The worst run organization in the NHL made the playoffs on the back of their one superstar John Tavares. That's about as far as they'll get. I doubt they could handle an injury riddled Penguins lineup in a seven game series. And the Pens are getting healthy.

If Sidney Crosby returns to the form he displayed early this year, then we might see a 16 game winning streak. Unless... remember last year... total collapse of the flower.

Winner: Penguins

Senators v Canadiens

Senators played way over their heads all year. Now they have a healthy Erik Karlsson and Craig Anderson. They can steal a round, at most.

The Canadiens are looking back between the pipes and putting their faith in Carey Price. A career 8-15 playoff record. This might be Price's last chance. If he falters again, then the fans in Montreal might start calling for a change.

Winner: Canadiens

Rangers v Capitals

I really liked the makeup of the Rangers at the start of the season. Things didn't go as expect and the team was rebuilt mid-season. Mid-season of an already short season. Henrik Lundqvist could put the team on his back lead them thru a few playoff rounds, but I doubt it. Teams rebuilt mid-season rarely go anywhere in the playoffs.

Alex Ovechkin is on fire and we're heading into the playoffs. This team is gonna live and die on his stick. I don't see much problem dispensing the Rangers. Then... in the 2nd round, it's OV time or bust.

Winner: Capitals

Leafs v Bruins

As a long-time Leafs fan, what a relief. Playoff games. Everything sits on James Reimer's shoulders. They're a tough and fast team that can score. Can they keep the puck out of the net? Reimer did it all year.

The Bruins are either the toughest team in the playoffs or the 2nd toughest. And the Leafs are either the toughest or 2nd. Expect a lot of hitting. Fighting. Injuries. Whomever wins is likely gonna get beat the next round anyway. This is war.

Winner: Bruins

NHL Awards

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:11:32 GMT

Here are my choices with a couple games left in the NHL season for the individual award winners. In a couple cases, my choice is partial based on the assumption that the team will or will not make the playoffs and if that changed, then my opinion would change. But I doubt it. You'll find my choices a little different that the conventional people who think they know hockey.

Hart

Had Craig Anderson not been injurred, his sneeking the Senators in the playoffs with a 1.71 GAA and .941 SV% would've won him the Hart, but I can't give it to a goalie that only played half the season? Can I? Without Anderson's heroics early in the season, this injury riddled team could very well be competing for the 1st overall pick in this summers entry draft instead of being in the playoff race. Still, I can't believe

How about a forward that played only 3 quarters of the season? Sidney Crosby was still leading the NHL in scoring and 2nd in assists with 3 games left in the season. His linemates are #1 and #2 in the plus-minus leaders (he's currently 4th) and he's in the top 15 in faceoff wins.

Can you give it to two forwards, Martin St Louis and Steve Stamkos, who may win the Art Ross for most points while leading their team to a lottery pick instead of a playoff spot? These two players rank last and 2nd last on their team in plus-minus for forwards. This isn't new territory for this pair. These are two players that I would absolutely not consider for the Hart. In fact, I doubt this team will ever make the playoffs until they break up their core group of offensive players who don't skate in their defensive zone.

Alex Ovechkin is by far the Hart winner in the 2nd half of the season, but is that enough to overcome a very bad start? Remember 2 months ago when everybody was saying OV was washed up? Now he's gonna win yet another Rocket Richard trophy and is a prime candidate for the Hart as well.

Other players I would consider voting for are Ryan Getzlaf, Jonathan Toews and John Tavares. All four elevated their teams to new heights this season, but none stood out as much as Crosby or Ovechkin.

Winner: Sidney Crosby

Vezina

Let me start by repeating the same argument that Craig Anderson would've won here too had he not been injured.

That said, people are starting to talk about Sergei Bobrovsky as the prime candidate for the Vezina. And I agree. Without Bobrovsky, the Blue Jackets would not be in the playoff picture.

I'm also gonna make a case for another goalie that took a team that hasn't made the playoffs in a decade into the playoffs this season; James Reimer. In the game that clinched the playoffs for the Leafs, they were outshot 50 to 22 by the Senators, yet won the game 4-1 on 49 saves by Reimer. Getting outshot isn't a rarity in Toronto these days (years).

You could also make a case for Tuukka Rask, Henrik Lundqvist, Cory Schneider, Antti Niemi and Corey Crawford, but Bobrovsky and Reimer were the best this season in my opinion.

Winner: Sergei Bobrovsky.

Norris

He's hated, just as much as he's loved, but this year he became a true all-star and Norris candidate; P.K. Subban. He hits hard, he leads all d-men in goals and points and has a nice plus-minus to boot.

How about Brooks Orpik? If he could only score. But how about 10th in hits and 6th in blocked shots? This guy is a true unsung warrior.

And then there's Dion Phaneuf. Twenty-sixth in blocked shots, 6th in hits, 6th in points, 3rd in goals, 5th in ice-time. Now those are some impressive numbers.

Ryan Suter is another possibility, but his team has under-performed even with Ryan playing his best season yet and they don't look playoff bound.

My finalist are Phaneuf and Subban.

Winner: P.K. Subban.

Calder

Jonathan Huberdeau leads all rookies in goals and points and he's nearly leading a bad Florida offense in both categories as well.

Justin Schultz leads all rookie defensemen in goals, assists and points, but he does have a lot of offensive help on a very talented Oilers team.

Cory Conacher is a nice story and does lead all rookies in assists and points. That said, he accumulated most of those points playing along side the offensive-minded Lightning.

I'm deciding between Huberdeau and Schultz.

Winner: Justin Schultz.

Lady Byng

I don't really care.

Selke

This is by far my favorite award. Mostly because I think it's histerical that the most recent winner of the award doesn't even play much on his teams short hand unit. Pavel Datsyuk may very well win this award again, but in my opinion he isn't even in the top 20 best defensive players in the NHL. If he's so good defensive, then how come he only ranks 3rd on his team in short-handed ice-time per game for forwards? And how can you even give the award to a player that isn't played much in defensive situations like power plays?

Let's look are real defensive players, not just great offensive players who are reasonable defensively. The real great defensive players are those that hog most of the short-handed ice-time and are on the ice in the last minute when your team is winning by a goal.

This guy should've won the Frank J Selke most every year he's been in the NHL. No other player even needs to be named. He leads the league in short-handed ice-time by a forward with 163 minutes. No other player has more than 131. In those 163 minutes, the power-play has only 11 goals. His new team joined this season had their penalty kill go from 24th last year to 3rd best this year. He plays every shift against the other teams best offensive players and maintained an even plus-minus. And does he play in the final minute in one goal games? He must. He has 3 empty net goals this season. No player since Michael Peca has scored such a high percentage of his games into empty nets (just saying, didn't double check that stat).

Winner: Jay McClement.

Adams

The Ottawa Senators have been devastated with key injuries, yet the team still managed to stay in the playoff hunt. Paul MacLean deserves consideration for the Adams for holding this team together all season.

John Capuano deserves a gold medal for managing to put the worst managed hockey organization in the NHL into the playoffs. His team has Tim Thomas, Alexei Yashin and Rick Dipietro accounting for $11-12 million of the cap space. Without these players, who aren't even on the team, they wouldn't meet the CBA team salary floor for 2012-13.

The Columbus Blue Jackets suck. If they make the playoffs then Todd Richards is another candidate for coach of the year. This team is made up almost entirely from players unwanted otherwhere in the NHL.

All three coaches have taken a bad team to the promised land.

Winner: Paul MacLean.

GM of the Year

The Penguins added Jarome Iginla, Jussi Jokinen, Douglas Murray and Brenden Morrow to an already stacked team. Ray Shero must be using a different math then the other General Managers in order to fit so many stars into the same salary cap every other team struggles with. Their backup goalie Tomas Vokoun is better than most NHL starting goalies and he signed him for next to nothing.

Not as impressive as the Penguins, but the Bruins added Jaromir Jagr and Wade Redden at the deadline. Peter Chiarelli also managed a very skillful trade to free up salary room by trading Tim Thomas to the Islanders. The trade was clearly made to circumvent the salary cap for both teams, as the Islanders were under the salary floor and the Bruins needed some room to work with.

I can't put my finger on a 3rd GM that stood out as much as these two.

Winner: Peter Chiarelli

Top Sidney Crosby Twitter Feeds

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:42:43 GMT

I searched thru twitter today looking for decent Sidney Crosby feeds. I found only 3 :(

Psychosis

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:52:43 GMT

Lately, I've been rudely introdued to the term psychosis. Two relatives, a friend of a friend and too many ppl to count on Talk-Sports. Here's a recent anonymous message I got from a Talk-Sports user. RMEs!

I told about being surveilled and stalked but it wouldn't let me post it here so you need to pass on to you know who that unless I get an explanation why and the information was passed back and forth on here ,here is some proof ,they are not rhinestones but diamonds ,yes I use coupons ,we have photos of the ones watching ,license numbers ,etc.and know they took photos with a Nikon there plenty more all this goes to some one who NASCAR will ban if they reveal other stuff but they will print and expose this and that will come out as well not me but someone with that contact. No Open time frame on the why or explanation for and only from the person that wanted it done.,clocks ticking pass this on to you know who

Updated the South Atlantic League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:26:12 GMT

I updated the South Atlantic League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/sal/

Update Midwest League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:19:17 GMT

I updated the Midwest League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/mid/

Update the Florida State League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:03:58 GMT

I updated the Florida State League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/fsl/

Update the Carolina League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:40:20 GMT

I updated the Carolina League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/car/

Updated the Southern League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:32:41 GMT

I updated the Southern League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/sl/

Update the Eastern League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:05:26 GMT

I updated the Eastern League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/el/

Updated Mexican League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:57:06 GMT

I updated the Mexican League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/ml/

Updated Pacific Coast League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:24:36 GMT

I update the Pacific Coast League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/pcl/

Updated the International League Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:03:14 GMT

I updated the International League rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/il/

Updated MLB Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:56:33 GMT

I updated the MLB rosters this morn.

http://www.talk-sports.net/mlb

Updated NHL Rosters

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:25:16 GMT

We updated all the NHL rosters this morn.
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/

I'm gonna do all the MLB and minor league baseball rosters soon.

Dwyane Wade Dove Commerical

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:10:11 GMT

Sometimes, it's really hard to take a TV commercial seriously. Like the new Dwyane Wade father-of-the-year Dove commercial.

Did Unilever do any research on this one? It's hard to take a role model dad commercial like this seriously while knowing that a little research will tell me why he is divorced. I mean seriously, he plays in the NBA. They call them NBA "players" for a reason and it's not because they play basketball.

I'll do some research for Unilevel. Go to google and try the following search terms...

dwyane wade sex parties
dwyane wade bitter divorce

Dustin Brown v Antti Niemi

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:06:28 GMT

Today is game 3 of the Hottest NHLer playoff. Vote for who u think is hotter;
Dustin Brown v Antti Niemi.

To vote for Brown simply tweet
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/girlfriend.aspx/Dustin_Brown @TalkSportscom

To vote for Niemi simply tweet
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/girlfriend.aspx/Antti_Niemi @TalkSportscom

Votes are tabulated over 24 hours.

View the entire Hottest NHLer playoff bracket at
http://challonge.com/hottestnhler

Henrik Lunqvist v Matt Duchene

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:31:28 GMT

Today is game 2 of the Hottest NHLer playoff. Vote for who u think is hotter;
Henrik Lunqvist v Matt Duchene.

To vote for Lunqvist simply tweet
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/girlfriend.aspx/Henrik_Lundqvist @TalkSportscom

To vote for Duchene simply tweet
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/girlfriend.aspx/Matt_Duchene @TalkSportscom

Votes are tabulated over 24 hours.

View the entire Hottest NHLer playoff bracket at
http://challonge.com/hottestnhler

Mikko Koivu v Ales Hemsky

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:24:04 GMT

Today is day 1 of the Hottest NHLer playoff. Vote for who u think is hotter;
Mikko Koivu or Ales Hemsky.

To vote for Koivu simply tweet
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/girlfriend.aspx/Mikko_Koivu @TalkSportscom

To vote for Hemsky simply tweet
http://www.talk-sports.net/nhl/girlfriend.aspx/Ales_Hemsky @TalkSportscom

Votes are tabulated over 24 hours.

View the entire Hottest NHLer playoff bracket at
http://challonge.com/hottestnhler

Hottest NHLers Brackets

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:52:24 GMT

We're almost ready to start the Hottest NHLer tournament. Talk-Sports users will vote for the hottest NHLers every day for the next few months. The votes are cast on twitter using a special tag that will be given the day of each voting. We're hosting the brackets view on challonge.com. The first match is between Mikko Koivu and Ales Hemsky.

http://challonge.com/hottestnhler

NFL All-Stars

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:57:20 GMT

Today we selected the Talk-Sports NFL all-star team starters and replacements. The players were selected by the number of pageviews each player generates on Talk-Sports and not their actual performance on the field.

Starters

Tim Tebow (QB)
Michael Turner (RB)
Ahmad Bradshaw (RB)
Calvin Johnson (WR)
Josh Morgan (WR)
Aaron Hernandez (TE)
Dominic Raiola (C)
Jonathan Scott (OT)
Michael Oher (OT)
Chilo Rachal (OG)
Richie Incognito (OG)
JJ Watt (DE)
Chris Long (DE)
Ndamukong Suh (DT)
Chris Canty (DT)
Clay Matthews (LB)
Ray Lewis (LB)
Brian Urlacher (LB)
Nnamdi Asomugha (CB)
Joe Haden (CB)
Ed Reed (S)
Ike Taylor (DB)
Sebastian Janikowski (K)
Pat McAfee (P)

Replacements

Aaron Rodgers (QB)
Jay Cutler (QB)
LeSean McCoy (RB)
Jamaal Charles (RB)
Frank Gore (RB)
Danny Amendola (WR)
Larry Fitzgerald (WR)
Miles Austin (WR)
Jimmy Graham (TE)
Rob Gronkowski (TE)
Anthony Davis (OT)
Todd Herremans (OT)
Gabe Carimi (OT)
Darnell Dockett (DE)
Julius Peppers (DE)
Cameron Jordan (DE)
Connor Barwin (LB)
Brian Cushing (LB)
Brendon Ayanbadejo (LB)
Bryan Thomas (LB)
Jason Allen (CB)
Dominique Rodgers Cromartie (CB)
Johnny Patrick (CB)
Antrel Rolle (S)
George Wilson (S)
Eric Berry (S)
Robbie Gould (K)

Hottest NHLers Seeding

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:17:04 GMT

The initial seeding of the players for the hottest NHLers run-off that will happen over the next couple months.

1 Sidney Crosby (633)
2 Milan Lucic (185)
3 Mike Fisher (162)
4 Ryan Kesler (145)
5 Zach Parise (132)
6 T.J. Oshie (128)
7 Mike Cammalleri (125)
8 Henrik Lundqvist (119)
9 Dustin Brown (114)
10 Patrick Sharp (114)
11 Rick Nash (112)
12 Mike Green (111)
13 Bobby Ryan (103)
14 Martin St. Louis (103)
15 Andrew Ladd (98)
16 Mikko Koivu (93)
17 Ales Hemsky (90)
18 Mikhail Grabovski (90)
19 Jason Pominville (90)
20 Nicklas Lidstrom (88)
21 Cam Ward (79)
22 Shane Doan (75)
23 Kris Versteeg (70)
24 Antti Niemi (69)
25 Matt Duchene (69)
26 John Tavares (68)
27 Brenden Morrow (62)
28 Erik Karlsson (54)
29 Wayne Simmonds (53)
30 Max Pacioretty (34)

Both Sidney and Milan will get a bye in the 1st rounds. The 1st rounds matches will be 3rd v 30th, 4th v 29th, etc.

Hottest NHLers

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:25:23 GMT

With the shortened NHL season about to start, I thought I'd spice it up with a hottest NHLer contest on twitter. I'm gonna start with Cosmo's hottest NHLer list.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/exclusive/hot-hockey-players-2012

I'm gonna use stats on Talk-Sports.com to rank the players from 1-30. The top 2 will get byes. The 3rd place will face the 30th, 4th v 29th, etc. Each round, the players will be reseeded, with highest original seed against lowest. There will be 3 initial one-day rounds over 27 plus days (I may miss a day here and there). Once we get to the semis, then both voting period will take place over two days. The finals voting will take place over an entire week.

The 1st day will be 15th v 16th. I'll provide twitter tags for both players. The player who receives the most tweets with his tag every day will move onto the next round. For example, the tag for voting for Randy Morin would be #RandyMorinHottestNHLer, but only tweets during the voting period will cound. You can vote as many times as you want, just be careful not to get yourself banned by twitter.

I'll provide the initial seedings later today.