Sporting Madness

Trevor Linden is the main reason not named Luongo that the Vancouver Canucks are still in the playoffs and not out on the golf course. He currently leads the team with 6 points, 1 ahead of Taylor Pyatt and 3 ahead of such luminaries as Markus Naslund and Daniel Sedin . However, what's even more impressive is the clutch timing of his points. Both of his goals were game-winners in the Dallas series, coming in Games 4 and 7. He also added an assist in Game 7, and set up the winning goals in Game 3 of the Dallas series and Game 2 of the current Anaheim series. Linden had a solid regular season with 12 goals and 25 points, a considerable improvement over last year's 7 goals and 16 points. In the playoffs though, he has taken his game to another level, as he usually does: there's a good reason that he has an impressive 98 points in 121 career playoff games. Linden has always led by example, and will play a major role in any further success the Canucks may have this post-se...

The end of this year's soccer season should be incredibly interesting. Manchester United and Chelsea are still only separated by 3 points in the Premiership, will face each other in the F.A. Cup Final, and have a good chance of meeting in the Champions League final as well (United will have to get past A.C. Milan in a home-and-home, while Chelsea must face Liverpool, who are perennially excellent in Europe). United have a terrific shot at repeating their famed Treble success from 1999, while Chelsea could walk away with all four major trophies available to them, due to their League (Carling) Cup victory earlier this year. Both teams have been terrific this year, and have made the Premiership title race one to remember. This weekend, United will host Middlesbrough, while Chelsea travel to St. James' Park to take on Newcastle. Both should be superb games. However, I think the Premiership title is likely to come down to the May 9 meeting between United and Chelsea at Stamford B...

Earlier today, UEFA issued a one-game suspension and fine to Bayern Munich star goalkeeper Oliver Kahn . The fine of 20 000 Swiss francs (just over $19 000 Canadian) is not a huge deal, but the timing of the suspensions means he will miss his team's next vital Champions League match, the first leg of the quarterfinals against AC Milan. As Kahn is still one of the world's best keepers, a vital leader on the field, and a key component of the squad's defense, Bayern will have great difficulty taking on the Italian giants without him. However, the real issue here is not the suspension itself, but what it was given for. Kahn was apparently suspended as a result of a drug test after the team's last Champions League match against Real Madrid. Yet, it was not for testing positive: rather, Kahn (and teammate Lucio, who received a fine, but no suspension) apparently committed the heinous crime of " improper conduct " during his doping test, according to UEFA . ...

Last weekend featured some very interesting NFL action. All of the favoured home teams hung on to win, but the best game was far and away the Seahawks - Cowboys match. There were many potential turning points and unusual plays: the overturned spot via video replay (without a challenge by the Seahawks, to boot), the fumble that was first ruled a touchdown and later changed to a safety, the 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, and many more. However, it all came down to Tony Romo, so recently hailed as the saviour of the Cowboys franchise, and his inability to set the ball up for a likely game-winning field goal from Martin Gramatica. Romo has my sympathies: it must be incredibly difficult to come so far, carrying a team that often looked hopeless into the playoffs, only to come up short at the last second. He'll likely be able to recover and be a good quarterback down the road, though. By contrast, the Eagles won on a last-minute field goal, at least partially due to the efforts ...

At the end of tonight's NHL games, a vast 2 points separated the Northwest Division's first and last teams. Edmonton led the division with 36 points from 32 games, closely followed by Calgary and Vancouver with 35 each (from 30 and 33 games, respectively). Colorado and Minnesota were tied for last, having picked up 34 points from 32 and 33 games respectively. The rest of the NHL features vastly greater disparities within divisions. The largest gap is in the Pacific Division, where NHL-leading Anaheim's 56 points are 31 more than divisional bottom-feeder Phoenix. In the Central Division, a 27-point gap exists between Nashville and St. Louis, the NHL's lowest-ranking team. The East features slightly smaller divides, with a 20-point separation in the Atlantic between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, a 18-point gulf between Buffalo and Boston in the Northeast, and a 14-point rift between Atlanta and Florida in the Southeast. This dramatic difference in di...

This may possibly be the most geeky sports column I have ever written or ever will write, but bear with me. Delocalized electrons are electrons in a molecule that are not directly tied to one specific bond, but rather shared over larger sections of the molecule (for a more complete definition, see the Wikipedia article here .) The classic example of this is benzene , a 6-carbon ring structure usually depicted with 6 single bonds and 3 double bonds: due to delocalization, the actual bonds are actually between double and single character, and spread evenly out over the molecule. This makes benzene incredibly stable. What relevance to sports does this have, you may ask? Well, it perfectly describes the innovative style of football (soccer for those of you who insist on North American terminology:P) that Manchester United have been playing thus far this season. On paper, their regular lineup appears as the standard 4-4-2 formation (four defenders, four midfielders (two in the middle, two o...

The title quote, taken from American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, will hopefully apply to the Canadian national women's soccer team. Ironically, their defeat came at the hands of Longfellow's fellow Americans last night, in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final. The Canadians played a strong game, and battled back from trailing 1-0 early, due to a sixth-minute strike from Leslie Osbourne. In the 45th minute, Randee Hermus, a defender from Langley, B.C., equalized for Canada off a corner kick, driving a loose ball just under the crossbar from 12 yards out. In the second half, the U.S. had excellent chances to take the lead, but the respective defences were up to the challenge. Canadian keeper Erin McLeod made some huge saves, and defenders Hermus, Robin Gayle, and Melanie Booth played large roles in nullifying the American attack. Christine Sinclair, a strong contender for FIFA's Female Player of the Year award, could have won it for Canada in the 91st minute when she broke into ...