Sporting Madness

Regular readers will know that I'm pretty interested in how narratives shape our perception of sports . One of the most significant ones lately has been in the Vancouver-Chicago series in the NHL playoffs, where the Canucks led 3-0 before the Blackhawks won three straight games to force tonight's seventh game. Of course, that's led to plenty of pieces on how this is a defining moment for Vancouver , a historic occasion and all the rest. Those stories aren't necessarily wrong, as there certainly is a significant mental aspect to sports, and that mental element will be involved tonight; I give it more credence than Joe Posnanski does , even if I share some of his other opinions on storylines. What's happened in the series so far does have a bearing on tonight's game in my mind, so it's perfectly relevant to talk about the pressure, the situation and the rest. What I don't like is when that analysis takes the next step, though, and ascribes narrative rea...

Time for a quick update in my playoff bracket standings. After Round 1, I'm leading with 24 points. I managed to get all eight series right in terms of winners (beating all of the TSN experts ), but only predicted the exact number of games (six) in the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series. Still, my bracket is still intact, which has to be seen as a victory. My father, Frank Bucholtz , is hot on my heels with 23 points; he picked seven out of eight series correctly, but figured that the Devils would knock off Carolina. However, he got two series exactly right: Pittsburgh in six and Washington in seven. New Queen's Journal co-editor-in-chief Mike Woods and Canadian University Press board guy extraordinaire Ricardo Bortolon are tied for third place with 19 points each. Both picked New Jersey and San Jose to advance incorrectly. Mike was dead-on on the Washington series, while Ricardo called the Detroit sweep. My mother brings up the rear with 14 points; she incorrectly picked Calg...

Yes, this is a little late, but seeing James Mirtle 's playoff bracket yesterday inspired me to create my own. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as pretty, but it's functional. If you're interested in joining my bracket pool for fun, just go to Simply Sports Ware ; the pool name is SportingMadness and the password is Sporting. The pick deadline is Friday night at 7 p.m.; that will allow picks to be made after one game in every series has been played. Let's see who comes out on top! Here's my picks: Round One: West: - Vancouver over St. Louis in six games. - Anaheim over San Jose in seven games - Detroit over Columbus in six games - Chicago over Calgary in five games East: - Boston over Montreal in five games - Washington over New York in six games - Carolina over New Jersey in six games - Pittsburgh over Philadelphia in six games Round Two: West: - Vancouver over Chicago in five games - Anaheim over Detroit in six games East: - Boston over Carolina in ...

Just thought I'd mention that I'm doing CFL coverage today over at Out of Left Field . East final preview is here , West final preview here and a East final recap is here ; I'll put a West final recap up there later tonight, hopefully between periods of the Queen's-McGill game (which will be live-blogged here, as previously mentioned).

There are some moments in sports that transcend the usual prose used to describe such encounters, when art, life and competition collide in a surreal mix. Saturday's football game between Queen's and the Ottawa Gee-Gees was one of those moments, at least from this perspective: I've been trying to find the proper way to give it justice for two days now. In the end, there was one poem that kept flashing through my mind high up in the chilly Richardson Stadium press box while watching the Gaels' dream season reduced to ruins on the gridiron below. I present it below, with annotated commentary on its relevance to this occasion. [ The full text of The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Tennyson, can be found here ... ] Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. "Forward, the Light Brigade! "Charge for the guns!" he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. Much like the famed Light Brigade...

According to Kingston Whig-Standard sports editor Mike Koreen , Queen's football head coach Pat Sheahan has said that star running back Mike Giffin 's aforementioned knee injury is just a bad bruise. Here's the important parts: "The Gaels (8-0) took a sigh of relief yesterday when testing showed Giffin suffered only a badly bruised right knee Saturday in the first quarter of a season-ending 38-22 win over the Waterloo Warriors. 'He would be doubtful [if the Gaels had a game] this week,' Gaels coach Pat Sheahan said. 'But with a week to recuperate, there is a reasonable chance he'll be able to play. I'm optimistic. We've got two weeks and we're just hoping there are no major setbacks. It's not season-ending or career-ending or anything like that.' Because they finished first in the 10-team league, the Gaels will be spectators for the OUA quarter-final round this weekend. They will play host to the lowest-ranked quarter-final survi...

Just to continue on with the Stanley Cup playoff predictions: the Detroit-Pittsburgh series kicks off tonight, so I thought I'd put a quick post up with my pick. I love Pittsburgh's offensive firepower, and I have more faith in their goaltending (Fleury instead of Osgood), but I don't trust their defence. Also, Detroit has the experience, they have the scoring depth, and they have some amazing defencemen in Lidstrom, Rafalski and Kronwall. I've been going against the Red Wings all playoffs long, thinking that someone would be able to expose their flaws of only average goaltending and a high collective age, but no one in the West was able to handle them. It should be an interesting series, and I'll be rooting for Pittsburgh all the way, but my prediction is Wings in six.

Well, I went 4-4 in the first round of the NHL playoffs, which puts me on a level with the Globe 's David Shoalts and slightly behind Maggie the Monkey and the Globe 's NHL scout, who were both 5-3. Hey, a little better and I could have a job in this league! Let's see if I can channel Allan Maki or Eric Duhatschek instead, who were 8-0 and 7-1 respectively. Here's my thoughts on Round Two. East: Montreal versus Philadelphia: Habs in six The Canadiens slept through much of the first round and let Boston take them to seven, but they turned it on when it counted, winning the decisive seventh game 5-0. Rookie goalie Carey Price appears to be back in world-beating form, and you don't want to bet against Montreal with a hot rookie goalie (see Dryden, Ken; Roy, Patrick). Montreal also has reasonable depth on both offence and defence. Pittsburgh versus New York: Penguins in six The Rangers did better than I expected in the first round, knocking off always-dangerous New...

Just a quick note about the hockey playoffs: I've entered a team in the globesports.com challenge, which works on a pretty simple basis: pick one player from each list (i.e. a list of #1 forwards, #2 forwards, #1 defencemen, etc) until you have six forwards, four defencemen and two teams' goalie tandems. You get one point for each assist and two for each goal any of your players score, plus two points for each win your goaltenders put up and an extra point for each shutout. You can also completely retool your roster after the first and second rounds. Thus, I wasn't too concerned about picking teams that could go deep into the playoffs: I was more interested in finding the most offensive player available at each slot, and particularly those playing against teams with weaker defence and goaltending. My players and their performances to date are listed below. So far, I've accumulated 15 points from the first two nights, good enough to put me into a tie for eighth (however...

It's that time of year again, when hockey scribes make their predictions. The Globe 's cast of writers have their first-round picks up on the Globe on Hockey blog, the TSN analysts (including my favorite, Maggie the monkey) made their annual predictions Monday night, and James Mirtle's already filled out a full playoff bracket . As Bob McCown said today on Prime Time Sports , "Every bonehead in the world has their picks up." Well, far be it from this bonehead to stay away, so here's my picks for the first round. FIRST ROUND: : EAST Montreal versus Boston: Habs in five This one will depend on how rookie goalie Carey Price performs under pressure, and also on if Zdeno Chara and the Boston defence are able to shut down Alex Kovalev. Power plays may be a key as well, considering how many goals the Canadiens racked up there during the regular season. Boston might challenge the Canadiens a bit, but in the end, I think they'll be able to overcome any obstacle...