Milestones, Sochi on point, NFL off season, Bruins and other fun facts

Sharks Head coach Todd Mclellan.

Yesterday the San Jose Sharks faced off against the Columbus Blue Jackets for the last Sharks game before the Olympic Winter game break in Sochi. A game in which Sharks head coach Todd Mclellan name was officially engraved into San Jose hockey history as he coached his 435th game behind the bench and passed former Sharks coach and present LA Kings head coach Darryl Sutter for the most games coached in Sharks franchise history.  Mclellan is already the franchise leader in wins (257), winning percentage (.590) and points percentage (.652).  Even move interesting, in only his first four seasons as an NHL head coach (2008-2012), Todd Mclellan has already accumulated more wins than any other coach in League history (195).  He posted the second most wins (236) in his first 400 games of any NHL coach in League history (Bruce Boudreau, 238) and was the second-fastest coach in NHL history to reach 250 wins (424 games, behind Boudreau, 416 games).  Combine that with the fact that Mclellan became the second-fastest NHL coach to win 200 games.  Needless to say, Todd Mclellan's not too shabby and the only item missing from this impeccable coaching resume is the the Stanley Cup hardware to back it all up.  The Shark as a franchise have never won a Cup since it joined the NHL in 1990, maybe coach Mclellan is capable of accomplishing another franchise first.

McCarthy shoots the puck over Bobrovsky's shoulder last night.

All things aside the Sharks still had a game to play with Columbus and what a game it was.  Tommy Wingels showed up big again in a tie game and picked up the game winning goal again as he did two nights before against the Dallas Stars.  John McCarthy joined the fun scoring his first goal since 2010.  "You feel the atmosphere now," said Sharks captain Joe Thornton.  "Guys are excited for the break.  It's always nice to win before things like this or Christmas.  The guys will enjoy the break and come back ready to work for the second half."  Patrick Marleau also scored for the Sharks last night before he makes his way to Sochi to help his country and team Canada win another gold in the Winter Olympics.  The final score was 3-2 and helps San Jose solidify their position as the second place team in the Pacific Division and just at the right time as the Anaheim Ducks can't seem to win games at home after starting the season as one of the top dogs.  San Jose will also have a different look after the Olympic break when they next play Feb. 28th in Philadelphia, with expected returns of injured players Logan Couture, Raffi Torres, Matt Nieto and Tyler Kennedy.

Raffi Torres returns after the break to assist Mike Brown as the Sharks enforcers.  

"We're 80 points at the Olympic break" coach Mclellan said. "We would have been probably pleased with that at the beginning of the season considering some of the players we lost over and throughout the year.  We go into the break satisfied.  Coming out of it, we have work to do."  Ryan Johansen and Boone Jenner scored for Columbus, who trail Philadelphia by only one point for third place in the Metropolitan Division after losing in two tight games with San Jose and LA.  Columbus net-minder Sergei Bobrovsky made 44 saves while Sharks goalie Antti Niemi made 19.  "Obviously, you don't want to go into the break with a loss but we have been playing great hockey the past few games," Johansen said.  "The boys battled hard, and we just fell a little short." To sum it all up without breaking down every period, the Sharks looked and were the more rested team but the Blue Jackets clearly will be a team to contend in the playoffs as the season carries on.

Boston Bruins Captain Zedano Chara carrying the flag for his country Slovakia.

After all the prodding and poking fun at the accommodations over in Sochi (myself included) the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies were actually quite breath-taking once the athletes representing their countries started rolling out, even if one of the 5 Olympic snowflake's malfunctioned being the only minuet issue in the grand scheme of it all.  Vladimir Putin must be credited, he made the Sochi games possible and had his hand in everything from paying homage to the cultured history of his country by highlighting the industrial workers and industrial movement of years past while steering clear from the nasty aspects of the Soviet Union. Pyotr Tchaikovsky the creator of the ballet Swan Lake would even be impressed with last night's interpretation of Swan Lake. With dancers looking like over-sized jelly fish moving gracefully around the lighted dark lake center stage with the neon-light costumes  assisted with extraordinary choreography. The all-out presentation of the ceremonies finished with the lighting of the Olympic Torch with Russian women's tennis pro and Sochi native Maria Sharapova jogging the Olympic torch into Sochi's Fisht Stadium finishing the passing of the torch in truly amazing fashion with former 3-time gold medalist and Olympic figure skating champion Irina Rodnina and Russian hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak hand in hand to lite to the fire leading to an awe-inspiring fireworks show and must have made all the demanding labor and stressful times feel a little rewarding for the people of Sochi.  

If you missed the lighting of the torch you missed Sochi lite up the sky.

In New England Patriots news, Pats owner Robert Kraft made the first official off-season business comment when he touched upon the topic of retaining presently under contract cornerback Aqib Talib but next month Talib's 1 year $5 million deal will expire and he will once again hit the open free agent market. Last year when Talib tested the open market there really wasn't that many takers so obviously he decided to return to New England and took the 1 year deal in hopes that he could get a better return investment the following year.  Now things start to get tricky because while Talib only played 13 games this past season and was knocked out again due to injury in the second straight AFC Championship game he was still dominate in the games he did play, shutting down Pro Bowler and New Orleans Saint tight end Jimmy Graham to zero catches in week 6.

Aqib Talib brawling with Steve Smith during their teams Week 11 meeting.

The Carolina Panthers game in week 11 where some my remember Talib let Panther's wide receiver Steve Smith get under his skin so Belichick was being weary of the conflict and sat Talib on different dives, the most notable one was when quarterback Cam Newton pulled off Carolina's game winning drive against the Patriots defense and I feel that not having Aqib Talib out there on that final Panther offensive drive maybe he could have changed the outcome is he was out there and if the refs called holding later when Luke Kuechly bear-hugged Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski in the Carolina end zone.  My point is that Talib is a premier cornerback but he not always out there on the field and that prevents him from getting a huge payday investment and clearly Robert Kraft feels similar as he stated in his interview with 98.5 the Sports hub 

Kraft hopes Talib will take the hometown discount to help win another title.

"Well, we want to retain all the good players we can," Kraft said via Patriots insider Tom Curranof CSN New England. "It's not like we have unlimited funding so...He wasn't on the field a lot of the time since he's been with us.  It's a balance of us balancing all that out and what is he worth.  I think he's happy here and would like to be here and we're happy with him and we'd like to have him here and now it's just about doing business." Talib has a past history of incidents and maybe that scares many teams away from investing long-term big money but sometimes teams like to roll the dice when it comes to the high risk high reward players.  Regardless, the Patriots and Kraft have till Mach 8th to sign Talib before he gets another shot at a market that will probably be licking their chops at the chance to sign a Pro Bowl cornerback. Especially since the Seattle Seahawks just won the Super Bowl and the NFL is known for copycat antics and I wouldn't be surprised if another team took a shot at becoming the next great defense by inking Talib long term.  Patriots fans can only hope he takes the hometown discount verses the supposed payday.   

The Bruins go into the Olympic break smoking hot.

While constructing today's blog I've been watching the Boston Bruins lay down the hammer on the Ottawa Senators and man this Saturday matinee game has been a exciting so far one sided match.  Ottawa net-minder Craig Anderson has been pelted throughout the game, and Patrice Bergeron has already scored two goals. His first goal of the game was scored when the Bruins were up on a power play opportunity and a quick dash and nifty passing by Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson to set up Bergeron, while the second came on a beautiful give and go play coming out of the Boston defensive zone with assists from Dougie Hamilton and Brad Marchand to Bergeron for a double tab into the net past Anderson.  Ottawa player Zack Smith thought he could breathe some life into his team by picking a fight after getting hit by B's Kevan Miller, well, he thought wrong because Miller laid down a killer beating on Smith as the two headed to the locker room with only a couple of minutes remaining in the 1st period.  Bruin's Chris Kelly and Jarome Iginla also helped the puck find its way into the back of the net and as it stands now the only Ottawa goal in the game scored is Bobby Ryan's scored in the 2nd period.  I'd say it's safe to say the Boston Bruins will be going into the Winter Olympic break with the W but hey its sports and that's the beauty of it all you truly never know, Diesel out. (I came back to deliver the final score of the Bruins game with Ottawa from earlier today and the Senators had no shot as I thought before having to take off to take care of some nonsense, but at any rate the B's took Ottawa to the woodshed winning 7 to 2 and no Patrice Bergeron didn't get a hat trick but he did pick up an assist on a Brad Marchand goal later in the 3rd, this is the Diesel signing off.) 

    

Super Seahawks, Sochi are you ready? Richard Sherman and other sides.....

Superhawks

You might have heard by now that the Seattle Seahawks have given the state of Washington the title of champions for the first time since former NBA Supersonics beat the then Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards) when the dynamic duo of Gus Williams and MVP Dennis Johnson beat the very same team the Sonics lost to in the finals the previous year.  Dennis wasn't finished being a menace after helping the Sonics win the franchise's first and only championship title back in 1979, nope, Johnson went on and collected two more NBA titles while in the final stretch of his professional career with the Boston Celtics.  I point this out merely because of my Celtics pride and also that the Dennis Johnson and I share the world's greatest first name.  How’s that for name dropping!  

The 12th man rejoices on the Space Needle now that Seattle is Super.

All nonsense aside, the Seahawks broke out the beating stick and I can now say that 12^th man and their Hawks brick wall defense of 2013 can be honestly called the “legion of boom”.  They earned the title, both in verbiage and with the hardware to back it up by winning the Seahawks first and only Lombardi Trophy. My only gripe is that I and many others still think Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman “…the best corner in the game!!!” (His words not mine) is the saddest sore winner ever to grace the NFL gridiron.  A class act par none and truly a stellar example of how to act professional, to think he’d learn his lesson from only a couple weeks earlier when he lost his mind in an interview with Erin Andrews after beating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC title match.  

My name is Richard Sherman and I like yelling!

Sherman unwittingly bashes the game again after he and his team dropped the hammer on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII and stays ever classy by saying “The NFC Championship was the Super Bowl” and that “The 49ers were the second-best team in the NFL.”  Now while I believe number 25(Richard Sherman) is driven by self notoriety and attention seeking comments like this one, I can’t say I completely disagree with him on his latest greasy tout.  The Seahawks were as I like to say strictly diesel, they punched every opponent they played in the mouth even when they lost, and Seattle lost to only three teams all year, the Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts and 49ers are the only teams that can say their team was able to beat Seattle during the regular season.  Here's some food for thought, the Seahawks beat the very team that they used to play in the same division for back when Seattle was still in the AFC West and rivals with the Denver.  Seems like Seattle gets the last laugh.

So let the Seahawks green and blue skittles rain down from the Seattle sky like the confetti did in New York (technically New Jersey) because Beast Mode Marshawn Lynch and Carroll and company were able to prove that smash mouth football can still reign supreme in today's pass happy NFL.  I will keep it short when I speak about Manning and the Broncos because the major sports news networks have said enough about how great this 2013 Broncos team was statically. I'll end it with this, in a year where many talking heads thought Peyton Manning would walk off with his second Super Bowl Trophy after his Broncos ran over the 9^th easiest schedule in the NFL this season to rewrite a plethora of offensive records only to get trucked themselves by losing in embarrassing fashion with a final score of 43 to 8.  You know it's sad as a fan when the only thing you can get excited about it your team going to the 2 point conversion ouch!

In Russia we have special touch for decorating.

Now our sports addition is now turned to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics where the security is strange as the toilets stalls with no dividers, as the late great Hunter S. Thompson might say, the air is thick with fear and loathing instead of what is suppose to be a time of togetherness and nationalism.  If you searched google.com today you’d see the trademark website logo in colors of the rainbow in support of gay pride and human rights with this quote from the Olympic Charter "The practice of sport is a human right.  Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding  with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play."  This is clearly a response to USSR I mean Russian President Vladimir Putin who has human rights beliefs that date back to a time when Russia still had Czars running the country.  Putin's most recent attempt to look civil was back in late December when Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina two members of the Russian feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot after 21 months of imprisonment for "Hooliganism" were released, but this one example hasn't convinced the world over that Putin has changed.  

Pussy Riot jamming out in Moscow.

His tricky tactics are dirtier then the toxic tap water that many of the journalist covering the Olympic games have been complaining about.  However, with all the negative noise emulating and the constant coating of doom and gloom accompanied by treats of violence from terrorist organizations will hopefully remain just that, grim puffery.  So that when we look back at these Sochi Winter Olympic games, the only thing that stands out will be the intense competition and some slight tension between two old Cold War rivals.

Steven Stamkos #91.

In Olympic hockey news Tampa Bay Lighting forward Steven Stamkos was removed from team Canada in regards to the previous injury he sustained back in November when the 23 year old Tampa star suffered a broken right tibia.  The strange thing about it all was that Stamkos seemed to be on the road to good health, leaving Stamkos and the rest of the hockey world taken aback by the move. "I was a little surprised ," he said "It was a little shocking."  Shocking eh? No team Canada eh?  Guess not.

My boy Martin St. Louis #26.

   What's not shocking is who's replacing Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, which means evidently the lighting does strike twice in Tampa.  The 38 year old veteran will be taking his teammate's spot on the team Canada Olympic roster and heads over to Russia after initially being snubbed by team Canada probably just because of his age.  St. Louis has gone on a tear since first learning that he wasn't invited to the Olympics racking up eight goals and 15 points in only 15 games accompanied by a four-goal highlight reel performance  against San Jose on January 18.  Despite being removed however for injury concerns by the Tampa Bay medical staff Stamkos was still happy for his teammate "I'm very excited for Marty," Stamkos said.  "He deserved to be on the team since day one.  He's going to go over there and prove why he deserves a spot on this team."  I wonder if Richard Sherman would be as gracious if he were in a similar position?

Leave it to Ron Burgundy.

As this blog entry comes to a close I want to mention a interesting side note about game against the San Jose Sharks when Martin St. Louis scored his four goals.  Team USA's and San Jose Sharks forward Joe Pavelski also lit up the lights in that January 18th match up when the Lightning and Sharks meet up down in Tampa.  Pavelski pulled off his first career hat trick that night and helped the Sharks win a nail biter 5-4.  That's my way of plugging my favorite hockey team, I know I know blasphemy for a guy that hails from New England, but that's a story for another day.  I really bring this up in hopes that it's a sign of things to come for team USA in the men's hockey tournament over in Sochi.  I'll leave you with this..... As Ric Flair would say "Woooo!!!"  It's time to trade that silver for gold this time around team USA!  Diesel out. 

Go Team USA!!!