Greg Adams OT Goal- Maple Leafs @ Canucks Game 5 05/24/94 [HQ HD]

AN OPEN LETTER TO CANUCKS FAN

This is from a life long Canucks fan. From a guy that bled through an early lifetime of mediocrity in the 80’s where the most success in a given season was a 1st round playoff drubbing to the Oilers! In those days, the Canucks were the whipping boy of every Wayne Gretzky milestone.

The Canucks’ greatest accomplishment in those days was having the greatest jersey of all time in all sports both professional and amateur in the beloved Flying V jersey! I was too young to remember the ’82 Cup run, so all I have is that amazing Flying V jersey.

We’re not cursed as Canucks fans. We have no BoSox, “Curse of the Babe” or Chicago Cub “Curse of the Billy Goat.” We would have had to won something before to have a curse. At least the Cubs have won a World Series, even if it was over 100 years ago. As of now, the Canucks are 0 for 39 for Stanley Cups.

As a Canuck’s fan, I have memories of the 1989 1st Round series vs. Calgary and Stan Smyl’s breakaway in overtime of Game 7 stopped by Mike Vernon. A stone cold save. This was followed up by Joel Otto’s goal kicked in to beat the Canuckles! I was a 13-year old kid blankly staring at my black and white rabbit-ear antenna TV for 20 minutes after that damn Otto goal.

Or how bout Matt Cooke’s game tying goal with 5 seconds left in 2004 in Game 7 vs. Calgary? I was living in Toronto at the time with the goal scored at 1:00 AM because of the time change. I woke up my roommate J-Paq because of the ruckus, where he just gave up and watched the end of the game with me. When Cooke scored, the cheers woke up the rest of the house. The crowd at GM Place was going nuts.

No one will ever forget the 1994 Cup run! There was Pavel’s Game 7 overtime goal v. Calgary to culminate a 3-1 comeback with 3 straight overtime wins in the 1st Round. There was Greg Adams’ Game 5 overtime goal in the conference finals vs. Toronto with Jim Robson’s classic call of, “Greg Adams! Greg Adams! …..the Vancouver Canucks are going to the Staaaan-leeeee Cup Fiiiii-nals!!!” That alone gives me chills remembering that moment!

J-Dawg, holler at your boy here, and give us some witness smack! J-Dawg was in the freaking building when Greg Adams! Greg Adams! Scored! Scored! Woooooooooo! Epic chills!

And of course there’s the whole Stanley Cup Finals in ‘94 vs. the New York Rangers with Greg Adams’ overtime goal in Game 1! There’s the Canucks forcing Game 7 after being down 3-1 in the series, culminated by the Game 6 victory leading to the classic end of game picture with an exhausted and bloody Trevor Linden embracing the embattled Captain Kirk McLean!

These are all cherished memories! Yes Canuck’s Haters, these are cherished memories of losing!

Now……on the other side of this whole existence as a Canucks fan is the presence of:

Canucks Bandwagon Fan!

All you Canuck Haters….YES! we have the biggest bandwagon fans in all of sport. I am embarrassed by that fan who jumps on and off the bandwagon and at all times is expecting bad things to happen. This is enhanced by the incessant rhetoric of Canucks Bandwagon Fan calling in all of the time on the TEAM 1040 and the weasel-ly voiced devils-advocate banter of Blake Price!

But these 40 years of Vancouver Canuck history are filled with the above memories. Filled with the Roger Neilson’s “white towel” moment in their 1982 Stanley Cup Run. Bleeding through these moments is a rush, and I would never trade these memories for any other fan’s championship memories. Because, we gotta have a Cup winning moment soon! It’s a bloody numbers game! (My apologies Cubs fan…..talk about a long numbers game for you…….and for me. As a Cubs fan as well, I admit my glutton for punishment)

So 2 Things Canucks fan:

1. If you bleed the green and blue or the old school orange and red, then keep bringing it tonight!
2. If you’re a card carrying member of the “Canucks Bandwagon Fan” club, then jump the eff aboard! When you do, do so by bleeding through every shot and every second of tonight’s game and leave the skeptisim at the door!

Because tonight is huge. The 3-0 lead is gone and we are the whipping boys and girls of every non-Canucks fan out there. So keep bringing the Smack all you Canuck Haters, because we would be doing the same thing if your precious team choked away a 3-0 lead.

That’s just it. The Canucks choked away a 3-0 lead. They’ve lost 2 straight years in the playoffs to these same Chicago Sh!#hawks. These demons have to be exorcised! And we need every fan to jump on board and keep the freaking faith!

The energy and electricity is palpable for tonight’s Game 7. Ride that wave! If we lose, then at worst we’re 0 for 40, and there will always be next year as the ol’ Brooklyn Dodgers fan used to say.

If we win, I’ll be seeing you on Granville and Robson later tonight.

Drop the damn puck already!

Insanity Pool Recap - BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.....

Alright, so the so called Madness is done. It was Madness, Mayhem and an epic run! But since the computer difficulties of the Commish have finally been resolved, it’s better late than never to get this out. Plus, what a better way to follow the worst game in the history of sports at any level with the worst timed closing Insanity Pool address.

First, congratulations to Amy Jonker on winning the 13th edition of the March Madness Insanity Pool. Jonk’s always shows a top effort year in and year out, and it culminated into an Insanity Pool championship this year!!! Big ups Jonks!

Now to the Final! Everyone knows that it was a bust of a game. UConn winning 54-41 was hopefully an end to a trend that hopefully ended with that atrocity of a game. Butler shot 18.8% from the field! T-Smack was correct into not to say 19% as that would be giving Butler too much credit. On top of that, the Butler continued to kill themselves in the Houston Reliant Stadium with the noose with an anemic 3-31 shooting performance from 2 POINT LAND!!!! 9.7%!?!?!?! Pathetic! That goes beyond great defense by UConn. Granted, UConn established an inside presence early on making it difficult for Butler bigs, Howard and Smith, but 9.7% goes beyond good defense, that’s a straight up choke job but the Butler!!!

And UConn shooting 34% total and 9% from 3 point land makes for an NCAA Title by default! The first title awarded by process of elimination! Kemba Walker had a great tourney, but his rising stock in the NBA draft is due to his body of work and not his measly 16 points in the final.

The trend that doesn’t bode well for March Madness fans is that this is the 2nd straight year where the champion was one that won the title despite a poor shooting performance. Last year, we were all blinded by the Rocky-Hoosier-type underdog story of the Butler’s run to the final with the greatest what-if moment outside of ‘what if Wayne Gretzky stayed in Edmonton?’, with Gordon Hayward’s 2-inch half-court buzzer beater miss! This all blinded us from Duke’s championship despite many 5-6 minutes droughts where they failed to score a hoop! They did that many times in the tourney last year, and credit still must be made for grinding out that title. But 2 straight years of poor performances from the champ? This is a trend we hope is done.

Plus add in the great stories of VCU making it to the Final 4. That will always be great looking back at Shaka “Khan” Smart’s run, but it was helped due to the 2 for 21 3-point shooting performance from Kansas in their Elite Eight win. We’re all for the underdog upsets, but not at crappy performances!

For the love of Madness, pick it up hoop teams!!!! I don’t care the reason for this disturbing trend……over-coaching, too much turnover from early draft-entries…….whatever! Fix it!

And to Top it off and end it off, a quick All-Adolph Award winners…..better late than never….

2nd Team All-Adolph

KEMBA WALKER – UCONN
Started off hot in November/December, then ice cold in January and picked it back up for his NCAA Title run.

TYLER ZELLER – UNC
One of the most consistent posts in the nation especially in compete levels. Zeller was the only consistent player for an inconsistent yet incredibly talented UNC Tar Heels.

JAJUAN JOHNSON – PURDUE
Quietly had a Big 10 Player of the Year season.

BRANDON KNIGHT – KENTUCKY
Inconsistent at times but many of his treys were of the “dagger” variety. Has an under-rated offensive and defensive game. Should blow up if he decides to stay at Kentucky next year.

MARCUS/MARKIEFF MORRIS – KANSAS
Just like the Sedin twins, these guys are attached at the hips. They’re incredibly talented and at times were inconsistent especially when pushed around in the paint. But the inconsistency in the KU’s, UNC’s and Kentucky’s just to name a few is another semi-disturbing trend in college hoops. A frustrating trend of when they’re on, they’re unstoppable, and when they’re cold they have KU vs. VCU or Butler/UConn shooting performances.

1st Team All-Adolph

JARED SULLINGER – OHIO STATE
Had a 1:1 ratio of improvement rate to backside growth over his freshmen year. To compliment his junk-in-the-trunk growth is his incredible footwork that will dominate the Big 10 next year, since he has said he’ll return to Ohio State

TAYLOR BATTLE – PENN STATE
This is a body of work award for Taylor. He showed consistent clutch shots his whole 4-year career, especially this year. He was a poor man’s Jimmer with 3’s shot from the half court circle just like Jimmer. Taylor also led a Penn State team with only 5 players with no bench whatsoever and parlayed that into a NCAA bid.

DERRICK WILLIAMS – ARIZONA
He was a lock for the 1st Team before the tourney and solidified that with his NCAA tourney run especially with his dominating game to crush the Dukies.

JIMMER FREDETTE – BYU
Just see the countless Jimmer highlights with his long distance treys. You know you’re good when you can make so many long distance 3’s and it becomes a trend to jack these shots when before it was seen as a ridiculous shot to even attempt. You also know Jimmer has game when his suspect defense is a non-factor because he makes up for it with his crazy offensive game.

NOLAN SMITH – DUKE
To start the season, he was a solid role player within the Duke offense averaging 10 ppg with the probable Player of the Year in freshmen PG Kyrie Irving. When Kyrie got injured, all Nolan did was take one high-ball screen and become an unstoppable scoring force with defense to boot.

2ND ANNUAL OUTHET PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Nolan Smith- Duke
He’s Jimmer with defense!

4th ANNUAL INSANITY POOL SMACK OF THE YEAR
After some tough deliberation, the 4 year run of the McCarrell/Schmidt fam continues with a late run by Terri “T-Smack” McCarrell.

Honorable mention to Slider and Terry “T-Almost Smack” McKaig with great Commish Smack!

That’s it everybody. Thanks for being in the Insanity Pool this year. Onto next year!

Now Go Canucks go!!!!

Yours in Madness,
Commissioner Adolph

Think you had a bad day?? Meet this guy!

WHACK:   Son of a B*TCH!

News and Notes from around the sports world today:

All of us that play golf experience 'a bad hole' from time to time that can cost us a good round, but PGA tour golfer Kevin Na took this to a new whole level on Thursday with a 16 on the Par 4 Ninth hole at the Texas Open!  (Makes every hacker out there smile a little bit)

During this meltdown, he found a way to whiff one stroke, ricocheted another off his inner thigh, tried two shots left-handed and watched the ball barely sputter forward on another stroke.  No word on if he had 16 shots at the bar afterwards.


Amazingly, even with the 12 shots over par on that hole, Kevin managed to shoot 80 (+8) on the day.  So a par on the hole would have had him only one shot off the lead.  Check out YouTube to see the whole adventure.


Kansas' Josh Selby going pro
In a sign of the times for the NCAA, Kansas point guard Josh Selby is a classic one and done player who and has hired an agent and declared for the upcoming NBA draft.

Definitely seems like some of his entourage getting into this kid's head and making him think he is better than he really is.  A pre-season #1 rated prospect, Shelby was not exactly a phenom at Kansas.  The guy was injured and suspended this season and averaged only 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 26 games. 

Without going on a rant, it seems Shelby is a classic example of why the NBA may consider changing the CBA and force players to play at least two seasons of college ball before being eligible to enter the NBA draft.  The one-and-done culture for marginal players has diluted the NCAA product and discourages kids from staying in school and graduating.  Some would argue that the kid has a right to earn the money if someone is willing to pay him after one year.  The counter argument is that these young kids often just don't turn out to be solid pros and are quickly out of the NBA and don't have the education afterwards that they could have earned for free by staying in school.  If they are worried about the money, there are insurance policies that can be purchased for that sort of thing - and rarely ever has a kid hurt himself that much that he cannot be drafted upon recovery from an injury.

The NBA did the right thing back in 2006 by changing the CBA and forcing kids to play at least one year of college ball before being eligible for the NBA - essentially getting the NBA scouts out of the high school gyms - which is a good thing.  Leave that job to the college teams.

Gone are the days when only the truly exceptional player would skip school for the draft.  i.e. Someone like Kobe or a Lebron.  BUT you have to wonder if these guys would be even better pros if they had played two or even four years of college ball before becoming pros.  The NCAA is the ulimate developmental league for its players and I'm all for any rules that encourage players staying longer before being able to enter the draft.  Let us know your thoughts.

Stanley Cup Playoffs - The UNDER is King

The puck has dropped on the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and a familiar gambling trend is emerging which needs reminding each year.  The trend relates to playing the UNDER in the playoffs.

Of the first 8 games played so far, only one game has gone OVER the total.  (5 UNDER, 1 OVER, and 2 PUSH)

Teams in the playoffs traditionally play better defense, take fewer penalties and have better goaltending which leads to lower goal output.  Teams and players are usually nervous to start a series and thus the trend of the UNDER is a good bet.   The zig-zag theory is also in play for Game #2 matchups on Friday and Saturday so be aware of this trend when laying any puck cheese.  (Strong lean toward Anaheim in Game #2 of that series with the Predators who don't want to lose two in a row at home.)

That's all for now.  D$ OUT

NHL Playoffs - Starts tonight

Alright, spring is always a great time of year.  Not only does the weather start getting better but MLB baseball is now in full swing (groan, bad bun there), the Masters has just completed, the NBA Playoffs begin next week, and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs starts tonight. Below is a quick look at vegasinsider.com odds to win the Stanley Cup : ODDS TO WIN THE 2011 NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS

Team Open  Current Vancouver 12/1  3/1 Washington 6/1  4/1 San Jose 8/1  6/1 Philadelphia 12/1  7/1 Boston 20/1  8/1 Detroit 8/1  10/1 Pittsburgh 6/1  10/1 Tampa Bay 45/1  15/1 Chicago 5/1  18/1 Anaheim 30/1  20/1 Buffalo 25/1  25/1 Los Angeles 15/1  25/1 Montreal 30/1  25/1 Nashville 40/1  30/1 N.Y. Rangers 45/1  30/1 Phoenix 35/1  30/1

Also like the Sabres +150 to win the series against the Flyers.  Flyers will be without Pronger for at least Game #1 and they just haven't been the same team for the final 15 games of the regular season - really hard to flip a switch come playoff time.

Last lean is a homer play.  Take the Canucks +180 on the Puckline (-1.5) to win by at least two and get an early jump on their series at home against the Blackhawks.

Good Luck and D$ OUT

It's Friday!

This video has gone so viral (85 Millions views and climbing) in the past month, I couldn't resist.  There was a great cover of this song done by Jimmy Fallon last week with Stephen Colbert & Taylor Hicks - check out YouTube if you haven't seen it.

Liking the Red Sox -1.5 today (+160) to come home and lay the wood to Phil Hughes and the Yankees to get their FIRST win of the season.   Maybe Bill Simmons will finally be able to start tweeting again!!  (He is currently refusing to tweet until the Red Sox actually win a game in 2011.)

Big Night for the Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks had a big day today.  A Statue, A supension, a defensemen returning from injury, a trophy, oh and they even played a hockey game (and won) tonight too.

First, a bronze sculpture of former coach Roger Neilson, holding a stick and white towel in hand, was unveiled in front of Rogers Arena. The sculpture will be permanent, and is immortalizing the Canucks longstanding "towel power" tradition.

On hand were Canucks alumni from the 1982 roster who were a part of this moment in the team's history.

A ton of buzz and excitement in Vancouver as the team captured their first ever Presidents Trophy.  Anything less than a Conference Final trip this year will be seen as a major disappointment.

Speaking of the Presidents Trophy, the Canucks received that trophy (first time in franchise history) in a pre-game ceremony tonight. There to help receive the trophy was a surprise guest Manny Maholtra.

Manny, brother in law to Steve Nash, suffered a season ending eye injury on March 16th when a puck accidently hit him in the eye.  It was his first public appearance since that game and after two eye surgeries.  Yesterday he mentioned that there is hope for him to eventually recover and we hope that he may be able to for next season.  He will be missed for this playoff run with his faceoff work and checking abilities.

In other Canucks news, Alex Edler returned to the line up for the first time in 32 games after having back surgery in January.  Getting a game or two under his belt is key for this top 4 defenceman.  He played pretty good in 19 minutes of action - big boost for the roster.

Sounds like Dan Hamhuis could also be back for the final game giving the Canucks a deep defence heading into the playoffs - something that was lacking last year.

The Canucks are currently 3-1 favourites to win the Stanley Cup heading into the playoffs.

Other notes:

What happened to Colorado?  They are 4-24-2 since the All Star Break.  You could have made some serious coin betting against this squad over the past 2 & 1/2 months.  The off season and a top three draft pick in the June Entry Draft can't come soon enough for this team.

UCONN are the Champs

Congratulations to the Huskies of UCONN for winning the 2011 NCAA DIV I Men's College Basketball Championship tonight.  Our apologies to anyone who watched this terrible basketball game which was a completely pathetic display by both teams.   94 Total points?   REALLY?  That's all these two teams could muster.   Unbelieveable - it left all of us Easycovers correspondents dumbfounded.

It's only one game, but hard to believe Butler was 12 for 64 from the field - that is 18.8% folks!!!! - to set an NCAA record for worst shooting percentage in the championship game.  Hardly an exciting climax to a wild and crazy 2011 Tournament.   We are happy to report this game went easily Under our recommended 131 Total, but Butler's dreadful 2nd half performance meant UCONN was the side ATS to take tonight.

Now that the 2011 Tourney is in the books, there are lots of gambling lessons to be learned and to be reflected on in the coming days.  Definitely the tourney is a different animal and it is easy to see why the wiseguys stay away for the most part as it is very unpredictable.   The tourney provides good entertainment for the sports fan but not many easy betting opportunities to make large amounts of cheese from the sportbooks!

In the mean time we will be in the 'basement' for the next while, taking notes, making tweets, and making small plays on early season MLB, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the NBA.   (And hoping we get some NFL games this fall.)

More to come, but until then..  D$ OUT

Butler or UConn?

Championship Madness!!

Tonight the college basketball season ends and we should be treated to a pretty good finale with Butler taking on UConn.  (Tips at 6:26pm PST)  There is already tons being written and said about this matchup, so be sure to read up on websites like ESPN to see a detailed breakdown on the matchup:

LINK: ESPN Writers Breakdown Championship Game

The opening line for this all dog matchup has the Huskies being 4 point favourites over the Bulldogs and has been bet down by the public and Vegas wise guys down to 3 now.   The total has been set to 131.

If laying some cheese on this game, D$ leans towards Butler to cover the 3 point spread and may be tempted to lay down a unit on the Money Line +150.   (Leaning towards the UNDER.)

A little nervous as Butler is favoured by many of the wiseguys and the public (read Chad Millman's Behind the Bets Blog, or the above link - ESPN writers article).   But in the end I think the Bulldogs will outlast the Huskies.  Some key factors:

1) Butler is well coached - we have already blogged about this earlier - Brad Stevens is da Man!
2) Butler is experienced - lost in the final last year, they will be hungry to ensure it doesn't happen again.
3) UConn is getting tired - Kemba Walker is playing a ton of minutes and this team has played a lot of games in the past month - Kentucky sh*t the bed at the end of the Semi-Final game when UConn was gasping for breath.

In the end it has been a crazy tourney, and the perfect finish will be a repeat of last year, but instead of Hayward's prayer from half against Duke hitting iron, we get a SWISH of the net and an all time buzzer beater for Butler to win the 2011 tourney!

Best of luck to everyone out there.  ENJOY THE MADNESS
D$ OUT