NHL - Halfway Mark

This past weekend marked the halfway point of the regular season for the NHL with the All-Star Game.  In the All-Star Game, Team Lidstrom defeated Team Staal by the score of 11-10, with Patrick Sharp of the Chicago Blackhawks winning the MVP award with 1 goal and 2 assists.  Alexander Ovechkin made history during the game by forcing the first ever penalty shot in All-Star game history.  Ovechkin slid his stick while Matt Duchene of the Avalanche was on a breakway in attempt to knock the puck away. 

So with the Halfway point in the books, who are the teams to look out for?

Right now, I think the power rankings go as follows:

1.  Vancouver Canucks

2.  Philadelphia Flyers

3.  Detroit Red Wings

4.  Pittsburgh Penguins

5.  Dallas Stars

6.  Tampa Bay Lightning

7.  Boston Bruins

8.  Washington Capitals

9.  Nashville Predators

10.  New York Rangers 

If the season was to end today, the playoof structure would look like this:

Eastern Conference

1.  Flyers
8.  Thrashers

4.  Penguins
5.  Capitals

3.  Bruins
6.  Rangers

2.  Lightning
7.  Canadiens

Western Conference
1.  Canucks
8.  Sharks

4.  Predators
5.  Ducks

3.  Stars
6.  Coyotes

2.  Red Wings
7.  Blackhawks

Teams to look out for
Blackhawks:  The defending champs are only the seventh seed right now but expect them to improve.  Their still a young team but this year they have the experience.

Lightning:  The Tampa Bay Lighnting may be a surprise to most people this year piling up 67 points in their first 51 games.  Don't be surprised.  This team is much improved from last year and look for them to do some damage in the playoffs.

Stars:  Dallas seems to be back in their old late 1990's early 2000's rythm again.  Their team stats don't stand out by any means but they play exceptionally well together and find ways to win games.

Sabres:  The Sabres are off to a dissapointing start, but they've won their last to and last seven out of ten.  The Sabres are a young inexperienced team but they have a shot to push for the playoffs.  Don't expect them to go very far though.

Stanely Cup Predictions:

I like the Detroit Red Wings to once again go to the Finals and play the Philadelphia Flyers.  I believe the Red Wings are the strongest team the Western Conference.  They have a very veteraned team that knows how to win games down the stretch if they can stay healthy.  The Flyers made the finals last year with an inexperienced team.  This year, they return almost everybody and Daniel Briere is playing at the top of his game.  The Flyers are the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.

Shaun White Fails to Qualify

Winter X-Games 15 is underway and today we saw the qualifing round for mens snowboarding slopestyle.  Favored Shaun White failed to make the final round in over a decade.  Shaun put together some decent first two runs but was rewarded with a low score.  For his final run, he barely tried at all.  People may wonder why he just 'gave up' in the last round.  When they interviewed Shaun after his run, Shaun went on to say he was just happy to be there and have a great time.  He realizes the competition that he faces and now knows to step his game up.  Regardless of how tough the competition is, shouldn't Shaun still be atleast one of the best?  And what was the reason behind him just throwing away his final run?  Was he not wanting to injure himself for the SuperPipe? Or maybe he was thinking that if he gave it his all, and failed, people would question his snowboard status.

For all you NASCAR fans

CEO of NASCAR Brian France implemented huge changes in NASCAR's point system that will effect both regular season races as well as the Chase for the Cup.

Points
This new format is a 'simpler' format that uses a 43-1 scale.  With 43 cars in the field, the winner will reciever 43 points, 2nd place 42 points, and so on down to 43rd place recieving 1 point.  Bonus points are set to be awarded as usual for winning the race (3 pts), leading a lap (1 pt), or leading the most laps (1 pt).  The most points available in one race are 48. 

Qualify
Qualifing procedures have been changed in that the order for qualifing will be based on practice speeds.  the slowest practice time will run first, and the fastest practice time will qualify last. 

Wildcard
There will still be 12 spots in the Chase for the Cup, but this year, the last 2 spots will be wildcard spots. Those two wildcard spots will be opened for the two drivers who have the most wins outside of the top 10; as long as they are ranked inside the top 20 in points.  Mike Helton, NASCAR president, said 
"There will always be 12 drivers.  If all of the winners [of the season's first 26 races] are in the top 10, we'll fill 11 and 12 by points. There is always going to be 12; there wouldn't be any more than 12. If there are five drivers that, in theory, are tied for the opportunity to get 11 and 12, then we would break that tie via the rule book to fill the 11th and 12th spots."
  

Jimmer-Time

No. 4 San Diego State played No. 9 BYU in Provo, Utah last night; it was more like Jimmer Fredette versus San Diego State.  Jimmer dropped 43 points in the win over the undefeated Aztecs, including 5 for 8 from behind the arc.  Jimmer went on a tear at the end of the first half accounting for all of BYU's last 15 points in the half. 

Jimmer topped the 40 point mark for the 3rd time in the past 4 games as he continues to lead the nation in scoring with 27.4 points per game.  Jimmer is shooting 48.2% from the field, 42.1% from 3 point land and an amazing 90.1% from the free throw line.

 With all of this buzz and great stats surrounding Jimmer, it should be easy to say he's gonig to the NBA, right?  Some analyists believe Jimmer doesn't have what it takes to be in the NBA, we'll see about that. 

Not Top 10, 1/21/11

Sports Upsets

Syracuse who?

After suffering two losses last week to Pitt and Villanova, Syracuse lost their third straight game tonight against Seton Hall (9-12).  Syracuse seemed to be one of the power houses early starting at 18-0 but have collapsed since.  Their 2-3 zone seems to be failing them while their offense continues to struggle.  Seton Hall's star player Jeremy Hazell put up 28 points in the 90-69 blow out over the Orange.  Seton Hall shot a very good 10 for 17 behind the arc, while holding Syracuse to just 5 for 21.  Cuse is slumping.