Offensively Minded's Blogs

What a Day in Sports

OM= Andrew Luck — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:17:55 GMT

For many, this was an average or maybe even terrible day in sports, depending upon who you root for. If you live in the Bay Area however and root for the Stanford Cardinal and San Jose Sharks, this has been a weekend to remember.

First off, I start my day by waking up and checking whats new on Fannation. I discuss the upcoming games with my colleagues on Around the Table and we prepare for the great day in college football. With such games as Alabama vs. LSU, Ohio State vs. Penn State, and my personal favorite, Oregon vs. Stanford.

At around 11:30, I leave my house for a 12:30 kickoff at Stanford Stadium. I get there, being outnumbered by Ducks fans, and feeling embarrassed at how terrible our fanbase is. As I walk in the stadium, I remain silent, in awe of what a real college fanbase looks like.

The game kicksoff, and the Cardinal jump to an early 10-0 lead with the help of Chris Owusu and his 79 yard return to the Oregon 8 yard line.

For the rest of the game, the Ducks and Cardinal trade off scores with Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck leading the way for Stanford.

As the 3rd quarter comes to a close, Stanford stuffs Oregon on a 4th and 1 to get the ball back. I'm wearing my Biggest Upset Ever shirt (from the 2007 USC game), I tell my dad, I think I may need a new one of these, so long as we don't blow this game.

It's 38-24 at the end of the 3rd, and I am in about as much disbelief as the Oregon fans. It's nice to hear this silence coming from the Oregon side of the field. Something we haven't heard in a while.

The game comes down to the wire as Stanford blows a few oppurtunities to put it a way, including a huge missed FG from the 32 yard line. Oregon scores, followed by a Stanford FG with 15 seconds left and the Cardinal go on to win.

Even though I had been telling people all week that this was a possibility, I couldn't believe it when I actually was watching it. I was stunned that Gerhart, had a career high 223 yards and added 3 TD's. And Andrew Luck, my new hero had 251 pass yards with 2 TD's. Oregon was the second team (U Washington) of the season to beat USC, and then in the next week go into Stanford and lose.

Throughout the day, I couldn't stop thinking about the game. To cap my wonderful day in sports off, my Sharks dismantled the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins in a 5-0 romping.

It's days like these that remind me why I love sports so much.

MLB Report

OM= Andrew Luck — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:32:55 GMT

The offseason is young, very young. About as young as it could get. But that shall not stop me from blogging about what has already gone down.

First off, Tim Lincecum, my favorite player, was charged with possession of drugs. I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion, I mean, who didn't know this guy smoked the reefer? Just look at that hair, and I think that tells you the whole story. And plus, it's not like he resisted the "arrest" or anything.

Not a blockbuster, but none the less an interesting trade has already gone down. JJ Hardy, coming off an awful year in Milwaukee was traded to the Twins for CF Carlos Gomez. Really, all I see in this trade is this, the Twins don't want to pay Orlando Cabrera big time money, so they will take the cheaper JJ Hardy. Basically, these two teams are swapping each other's problems.

Manny Ramirez will be a Dodger for sure next season, assuming he isn't traded for some strange reason. He excercised his 20 million dollar option yesterday.

The Mets have no intention of resigning JJ Putz, as they declined his ridiculous 9.1 million dollar option. For a reliever? Even in New York, thats insane.

Cliff Lee will remain a Phillie, as the Phills excercised his 9 million dollar option. After his incredible stint with the Phills this past season, they'd be dumb not to take this as 9 million is a bargain for a pitcher of Lee's caliber.

Bobby Abreu signed on with the Angels for another 2 years at 9.5 million a year. This is actually a big deal, not for the Angels, but for all the other OF's on the free agent market. 9.5 million would appear to be a bit less than an OF of Abreu's caliber. It will be interesting to see how this affects the salaries offered to OF's this offseason by everyone except for the Yankees.

That's all I really have for now, a pretty active offseason to this point.

NHL Predictions: November 6th

OM= Andrew Luck — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:32:47 GMT

Alright guys, once again I gotta keep this short and sweet as I still have way too much homework to do. I can thank fannation for my procrastination of this task of mine until the very last second. Today, my record was 7-3, including guessing the Pittsburgh/Los Angeles game correctly. With my 7-3 record today, my overall record comes to 12-4 through 2 days of my predictions. Anyways, here goes my predictions for November 6th:

Game 1

Toronto Maple Leafs

vs.

Carolina Hurricanes

Hurricanes win 3-2

Game 2

New York Islanders

vs.

New Jersey Devils

Devils win 4-2

Game 3

Philadelphia Flyers

vs.

Buffalo Sabres

Flyers win 5-4

Game 4

Washington Capitals

vs.

Florida Panthers

Capitals win 4-1

Game 5

Vancouver Canucks

vs.

Dallas Stars

Canucks win 3-2

Game 6

Chicago Blackhawks

Colorado Avalanche

Blackhawks win 3-1

Alright guys, that's all I got. Any questions about my picks, I will explain my reasoning ASAP.

NHL Predictions: November 5th

OM= Andrew Luck — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:47:15 GMT

Alright guys, I gotta keep this one short and sweet as I still have a lot of homework left to do. So in advance, I apologize for the lack of explanations of my picks. Just know, I do have explanations, I just can't type them all out given my lack of time.

Today, I was 5-1, with the only game I missed being the Florida Panthers. Thomas Vokoun won the game in a great effort as his team went on to win 3-0. Other than that, I got all my games right, including getting the score perfect for the Devils vs Caps game.

Now, on to tomorrow's games:

Game 1

Montreal Canadians

vs.

Boston Bruins

Bruins win 4-3

Game 2

Columbus Blue Jackets

vs.

Atlanta Thrashers

Jackets win 4-2

Game 3

San Jose Sharks

vs.

Detroit Red Wings

Sharks win 5-3

Game 4

Tampa Bay Lightning

vs.

Ottawa Senators

Senators win 3-1

Game 5

Vancouver Canucks

vs.

Minnesota Wild

Canucks win 4-1

Game 6

Calgary Flames

St. Louis Blues

Blues win 3-2

Game 7

Chicago Blackhawks

Phoenix Coyotes

Blackhawks win 5-2

Game 8

New York Rangers

vs.

Edmonton Oilers

Rangers win 4-3

Game 9

Nashville Predators

Anaheim Ducks

Ducks win 2-1

Game 10

Pittsburgh Penguins

Los Angeles Kings

Kings win 3-2

Any questions on my projections, just message me.

Adios amigos!

My NHL Predictions: November 4th 2009

OM= Andrew Luck — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:02:03 GMT

Well guys, Im going to attempt to do this every day until the end of the season... well, until I get bored with it. But for now, Im pumped at the thought of doing a daily NHL prediction for all the games in the league.

Today's games have already started, so allow me to begin with tomorrow, November 4th.

Game 1

New York Islanders

vs.

Buffalo Sabres

New York's first round draft pick Jonathan Tavares sure hasn't let anyone down to this point. He has 5 goals and 6 assists for 11 points, tied for first on the team. Kyle Okposo leads the team with 7 assists. However, I'm taking the red hot Sabres for this game. The team has too much scoring depth, and Ryan Miller has looked fantastic to this point.

Sabres win 4-1

Game 2

Washington Capitals

vs.

New Jersey Devils

The loss of Alexander Ovechkin will be too much for the Caps in this game. New Jersey is slowly starting to find itself, and given that this game is at home for them, I think the intagibles are too heavily in favor of the Devils.

Devils win 3-2

Game 3

San Jose Sharks

vs.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Sharks have been red hot of late, with a 5 game winning streak, 3 of those wins coming in decisive road victories. Last time these two teams met, the Sharks man-handled the Jackets in a 6-2 romp lead by a Dany Heatley hat-trick. I don't see this game being as bad of a beat down, but with Steve Mason's poor start, I think the Sharks will light the lamp a lot.

Sharks win 5-3

Game 4

Carolina Hurricanes

vs.

Florida Panthers

Both these teams have looked awful to this point. Especially Carolina who has been a rather big dissapointment after such a great finish to last season. Eric Staal hasn't been scoring, and Cam Ward has been sub-par to say the least in net. However, the Panthers have put far too much pressure on Thomas Vokoun early on this season as he has already been forced to make 40+ saves, 4 times. I see Carolina taking this one in a rather uneventful game.

Hurricanes win 3-1

Game 5

Calgary Flames

vs.

Dallas Stars

Two Western powers collide. Dallas, looking to come back after an injury plagued 2008-2009 campaign have started off this season rather well, compared to last year. The problem I see for the Stars is lack of secondary scoring. It appears as if James Neal, Mike Ribeiro, Brad Richards, and Loui Erickson are the only players who know how to put the puck in the net. Calgary will take this game due to its over powring defense against Dallas' undersized forwards.

Flames win 4-3

Game 6

Phoenix Coyotes

vs.

Colorado Avalanche

In this matchup, we have two overachieving teams, looking to keep up there great play. I don't see the Coyotes continuing there early season succes, as they have already started there decline to an extent. Avs hot streak shouldn't last too much longer, but I definetly see them carrying it over for this game.

Avs win 3-1

Looking for a new Sports Website?

OM= Andrew Luck — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:10:47 GMT

Just recently, one of the members of this site, MTC Ryan Leaf, has created a new sporting website called Sports Addicts Groups. This new website is designed to allow its members to make picks on games ranging from football, to hockey, to basketball, baseball, and much more. There will be leaderboards kept, similar to Fannation.

To go along with this, members will be able to add friends and write blogs to debate sport subjects. This website is somewhat a spinoff of Fannation, just more exclusive and with hopefully fewer jokes of members. Also, there will be no way to cheat or make dupe accounts on this site because the leaderboard will be based off the picks you make for games on that day.

If you have any more questions, message them to MTC Ryan Leaf.

Here's the link to the site, go right on ahead and create an account:

http://sportsaddictsgroup.spruz.com/

Another One Bites the Dust

OM= Andrew Luck — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:22:02 GMT

With all the injuries this season, you have to wonder where the line will be drawn. Already this season, we've seen injuries to players like Sergei Gonchar, Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa, Evgeni Malkin, Roberto Luongo, Devin Setoguchi, Joe Pavelski, Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, and many many more.

Well, the injury bug just bit arguably the games biggest star. Alexander Ovechkin left today's game against Columbus early in his teams 5-4 OT loss. No doubt, the lack of Ovechkin's presence was felt on both ends.

Alex ended the game with only 7:43 on the ice and only 1 shot with 4 penalty minutes. The extent of this injury in unknown at this point.

The Ilya Kovalchuk Situation

OM= Andrew Luck — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:27:15 GMT

Ilya Kovalchuk is one of my favorite NHL players. Given that the Thrashers are also one of my favorite teams outside of the Sharks, and that I just love small market teams in general, I am happy to announce that Ilya Kovalchuk and the Thrashers are very close to a deal.

This blog is obviously for those who haven't heard the news yet. So please, don't call me captain obvious or anything like that if you already knew.

Despite Kovalchuk's broken foot, this deal is projected to be for about 9 years and worth close to 100 million dollars. Quite a hefty contract even for a player of Kovalchuk's talent level. I will be interested to see if this projection really is correct or not.

San Jose Sharks: Where they Stand after a Month of Hockey

OM= Andrew Luck — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:37:07 GMT

Well, as the first month of the season comes to a close, we have quite a few surprises on our hands. With the Coyotes and Kings off to fantastic starts in the Pacific. The Red Wings playing garbage hockey in the Central. The Avalanche have been the biggest surprise to this point as they lead the Western Conference.

In the East, the slow starts of Boston and Philadelphia have surprised many. But no fans in the entire NHL have the right to be as upset as Toronto fans. This team has been a disgrace.

Back to the West, the far west that is, the San Jose Sharks have lived up to expectations to this point. With a Pacific Division leading 21 points through 15 games, the Sharks have been playing great hockey, especially of late.

Just today, the Sharks destroyed the Carolina Hurricanes in a one-sided 5-1 victory. With goals from the likes of Kent Huskins, Brad Staubitz, and Douglas Murray, the Sharks were getting there fair share of secondary scoring. Nabokov played spectacular again and in his last 3 games has only given up 2 goals.

New addition Dany Heatley has also played as everyone hoped, he and Joe Thornton have been a fantasy players dreams. Joe leads the league with 16 assists, and Dany has 9 goals and 8 assists. 5 of those goals being on the Power Play. Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau also are off to great starts. Marleau has a team leading 11 goals and Boyle is tied with Drew Doughty for most points from a defensman.

And all this, without Joe Pavelski for the majority of the year, Torrey Mitchell for the whole year (to this point), Devin Setoguchi for 8 games, and Ryan Vesce for 4 games. When the Sharks are back to 100% health, this team could surpass the franchise season from last year.

Outside of Dany Heatley, the other new guys are Scott Nichol, Jed Ortmeyer, Kent Huskins, Benn Ferreiro, Jason Demers, Thomas Greiss, and Manny Malhotra. Nichol has done exactly as asked and been a huge force in the draw circle. Ortmeyer and Malhotra have been key to the penalty kill. Huskins has made a great pair to this point with Vlasic, and Ferreiro and Demers have exceeded expectations as rookies. Especially Demers who already has 10 assists as a defensman.

After a relatively slow start the Sharks have been hot, winning their last 5 games. 3 of which were on the road. If this keeps up, the Sharks will repeat as Western Conference Champs. Although, the true test, and measurment for succss of this year will not come until May and June.

The San Jose Sharks: A Cursed Franchise?

OM= Andrew Luck — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:43:46 GMT

At the end of the 2008-2009 NHL regular season, the San Jose Sharks find themselves atop not just the Pacific Division, not just the Western Conference, but the entire NHL. With franchise records in wins (53), points (117), and Wins at home (32). One would think this would be enough to at least get a team out of the first round of the playoffs, right? Wrong.

The furthest the Sharks have ever been in the NHL playoffs is the Conference Finals in 2004. They lost to the Calgary Flames in 7 games. Since then, they have made the playoffs 4 times, yet never past the 2nd round. For an 18 year old franchise, this is not a very impressive track record. No season however was anywhere near as dissapointing as this most recent.

Entering the playoffs, it was a pretty safe bet for most fans that the Western Conference Finals would consist of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings, and the Presidents Trophy Winner San Jose Sharks. It wouldn't be til the Conference Finals that we saw a truly competitive series. Wrong again.

When the Sharks received the No.1 overall seed in the West, they were to play one of 4 teams, the Blue Jackets, the Wild, the Blues, or the Ducks. None of those teams were suspected to be much of a challenge for the Sharks, rather a good warm up series. When it was determined that the Sharks would play the Ducks, nobody thought too much of it as the Sharks had a 4-1-1 record vs. Anaheim on the season. Once again, we were wrong.

With all the matchups set in place, the playoffs commenced. Detroit and Vancouver handled the Jackets and Blues respectively. The Blackhawks won their series against the Flames in 6. The Sharks however, were a different story.

Who would've thought, that of all the favorites to struggle in the playoffs, the Presidents Trophy Winner would be the team that found themselves on the brink of elimination. After a terrible homestand, the Sharks found themselves down 2-0 heading back to Anaheim. This would prove to be too much for the Sharks to comeback from. After bringing the series to 3-2, the Sharks were crushed in Anaheim 5-2. I watched in disbelief.

As I sat on my sofa, Sharks jersey on, Sharks towel in hand, with my dad at my side on his usual chair the two of us watched as our beloved Sharks were dismantled in front of us. The team that had been put together over the past 4 seasons, the team that had been built to win NOW was thwarted, by a division rival to make things worse. We just couldn't understand what happened. I sat in front of my TV for over an hour after the game had ended, wondering what the hell I just saw. Had it really just ended? Had the joyride that I had witnessed over the past 4 months just ended? It had, and I didn't understand how. And the scary part is, I don't think anyone understands how.

Doug Wilson, the Sharks GM did similar to myself, sat and watched not understanding what had happened. He had assembled a team that had all the pieces to win, a playmaker (Joe Thornton), a quarterback/puckhandler (Dan Boyle), goal scorers (Patrick Marleau, Devin Setoguchi), veteran leadership, (Rob Blake, Jeremy Roenick), a great goaltender (Evgeni Nabokov), young talent (Joe Pavelski, Milan Michalek), and even fighters (Jody Shelley, Brad Staubitz). Yet, it wasn't enough, what were they missing?

This leads me to my point, are the Sharks a cursed franchise? What will it take for them to win? They bring together great mixes of talent year in, year out yet no combination ever seems to work. When you lose to a division rival who you dominated all season long, are you simply unlucky, or cursed? The Sharks will need to produce if they ever want to rid their name as the NHL's, and possibly all of sports as the biggest choker.