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Monday, April 30, 2007

Good-bye to Norfolk, lots of Chelios love, Toews, Rally Towels, Baseball

Did you ever wonder why talk show hosts and American sports writers will criticize the NHL for having multiple overtimes in playoffs games and not do the same the day after a regular season baseball game runs five hours long and seventeen innings?

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres went nine straight innings without either team scoring a run, from the Padres home half of the seventh to the Dodgers’ top half of the seventeenth inning. The Dodgers won the game 5-4 in the seventeenth. Dodgers/Padres boxscore

Watching the latter portion of a seventeen inning baseball game is like that feeling one gets from waking up with a heavily alcohol-induced hangover. If you’re attending the game in person, you most likely ARE waking up from a heavily alcohol-induced hangover in the seventeenth inning.

Did these two teams really need to play nearly two full length baseball games to determine a winner? Couldn’t they just have called it quits after twelve innings and gone to a home run derby? Why not play the extra innings without a short-stop or centerfielder?

Seems ridiculous and maybe it is. Why, its’ America’s past time, you can’t mess with that! Well, its actually not anymore, football is, but that’s another story.

NBC executives were undoubtedly besides themselves Sunday afternoon when there broadcast of the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres playoff game ran a hour and fifteen minutes long due to the two teams being unable to decide the outcome within the regulation sixty minutes or the first twenty minute extra session.

NBC had slotted and promoted a special network produced special on the life and legacy of the famed race horse Barbaro, who passed away due to complications from surgery on a broken leg this year. However, the special was slated to run in the hour between the hockey game and local news at five o’clock central, and it never made the air.

Poor Barbaro can’t catch a break.

Selfishly, for my sake, the Dodgers game ended a few minutes before 8pm. Just in time to free up a television screen in the viewing room so I could watch the Sopranos in high-definition.

NORFOLK OUSTED FROM AHL PLAYOFFS; That didn’t take long.

Well, one thing’s for certain and make no mistake about it; the Norfolk Admirals were the minor league affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. An absolute choke-job by the Admirals in round one of the AHL playoffs, leading to their immediate dismissal from the post-season tournament.

The Admirals can’t be criticized for losing to a lesser team; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton were clearly more talented than Norfolk. They can, however, be chastised for not playing up to the 108 point standard the team set during the regular season.

When the going got tough, supposed top prospects Troy Brouwer, Martin St. Pierre, Dave Bolland, and Danny Richmond never got going. Cam Barker never showed a willingness or ability to take the game over at this level. Dustin Byfuglien should be psychologically analyzed. Send Adam Burish with him. Corey Crawford is going to need a new jock and a better glove hand. Possibly the biggest disappointment was in someone who didn’t take the ice for Norfolk in the final three games. Jack Skille was a healthy scratch ever since Game 3. Skille didn’t show the intensity or aggressiveness he had in nine regular season games after being signed away from the Wisconsin Badgers and coach Mike Haviland repositioned him into the press box because of it.

Norfolk’s top performers in the series were players who you’ll never see in a Chicago Blackhawks uniform. Well, at least we shouldn’t.

The good news is Bob Pulford, Denis Savard, and assistant coach Mark Hardy were on hand to witness first-hand, the debacle and should now have a better understanding of the level of players they actually have in the minors.

Our live game coverage of Game 6. WBS 3 – Norfolk 2

Live coverage of Game 5 WBS 8 – Norfolk 1 [at Norfolk] (not a typo)

Live coverage of Game 4 Norfolk 4 – WBS 1 [at Norfolk]

Live coverage of Game 3 WBS 3 – Norfolk 2 [at Norfolk]

No live coverage of Gm 2 WBS 5 – Norfolk 2

Live coverage of Game 1 Norfolk 5 – WBS 2

We’ll have much more on this series and the state of the Hawks farm system late tonight.

Admirals ousted from AHL playoffs; Hampton Roads Daily-Press

Pens dispatch Admirals in six; NE PA Times-Leader

More from the NE PA Citizen's Voice

Here are Norfolk’s final 2007 AHL Playoff Statistics

#
Player
GP
G
A
Pts
SOG
Plus/-
PIM
19
Nordqvist, Jonas
6
3
4
7
10
5
0
7
Corazzini, Carl
6
4
1
5
23
4
2
10
MacDonald, Craig
6
2
3
5
12
4
8
5
Barker, Cam
6
1
3
4
9
2
13
14
Bolland, Dave
6
0
4
4
2
-1
2
22
Parenteau, Pierre
6
2
1
3
10
-2
2
28
Dowell, Jake
6
0
3
3
8
1
4
18
Burish, Adam
6
1
1
2
11
0
4
8
St. Jacques, Bruno
6
0
2
2
4
4
10
16
Byfuglien, Dustin
6
0
2
2
23
-4
18
6
Hendry, Jordan
6
0
2
2
4
2
6
11
Brouwer, Troy
6
1
0
1
11
-4
4
15
Fraser, Colin
6
1
0
1
6
-4
21
24
Low, Reed
5
1
0
1
3
-2
6
9
St. Pierre, Martin
6
0
1
1
6
-2
6
44
Richmond, Danny
6
0
0
0
11
-4
8
4
Rogers, Brandon
6
0
0
0
6
0
14
12
Skille, Jack
3
0
0
0
4
0
2
23
Versteeg, Kris
2
0
0
0
1
-1
2
17
Bickell, Bryan
2
0
0
0
1
-2
0

Totals
6
16
27
43
165
-4
132

In net: Corey Crawford finishes with a record of 2 wins and 4 losses.

Crawford: 6 gms, 152 saves, 172 shots, 88.37% sv%, 3.36 GAA

Brodeur: 1 gm, 4 saves, 6 shots, 66.66% save%, 14.12 GAA

------------------------------------

At 45, Chelios continues to impress; Eric Duhatschek, Globe and Mail

“He’s the best American player ever” Bill Guerin

I'm rooting for Chelios now; Montreal Gazette

Chelios still a marvel; Bruce MacLeod, Royal Oak Tribune

Enthusiasm, hard work, and treachery define Chelios; MLive.com