The Most Failed Contract in Sports

I just read an article on The Hockey Writers today. A paragraph stood out to me regarding New York Islanders' goaltender Rick Dipietro. A stat stood out to me and I wanted to share it with my readers:

"It was recently announced that goaltender Rick DiPietro would likely miss the remainder of the season due to sports hernia surgery. DiPietro, whose 15 year contract signed in 2006 will pay him 4.5 million per season through 2021, has appeared in a total of 47 games since 2008, compiling a 14-24 record."

In my view, DiPietro's lack of ice time due to injury, coupled with his extremely long-term deal make his contract the most failed one in all of pro sports.

Source: http://bit.ly/wokIbp paragraph 5 via The Hockey Writers.

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NHL Realignment

Alright, I don't want to spend much time on this, but here we go..

The NHL Board of Governors have agreed on a realignment plan that ill include 4 divisions, 2 per East and West. The plan will be put in place once the NHL Players Association agrees with the new format. Playoff formatting will involve the top 4 teams in each division. For details, visit NHL.com.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving day!

Take a moment today and think about what you should be thankful for. Count your blessings, think of all the positives in your life. In fact, make it a habit: be thankful for every day from now on.

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Crosby's 4 Point Night Leads the Penguins Past the Islanders

When Penguins' Center Sidney Crosby scored in the first period of Monday night's game, the croud went nuts as expected. Even I must admit, Crosby's goal was very impressive, and would have been so on any other night. Crosby scored 2 goals and added 2 assists in a 5-0 win against the Islanders in Pittsburgh. As I said on Twitter, I'm very excited to see the Penguins play against another top team in the NHL. Despite Crosby's return, the game became pretty boring after the midway point of the 2nd period. The Islanders failed to show any sign of competitiveness Monday night, and I found myself watching the Patriots beat up on the Chiefs instead. Congrats to Sid on the great return.

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Sidney Crosby Returns Monday Night vs. Isles

Pittsburgh Penguins' center Sidney Crosby is finally set to return to the ice. He will play Monday night in Pittsburgh vs. the New York Islanders. I called him the Justin Bieber of hockey last week, and the hype lived up to it once again. The mere announcement of his return had my Twitter feed clogged up with words like 'Sid' and 'finally' and 'returns'.

I'll start off by saying I am glad to hear that Crosby is cleared to play. I don't wish for any player to be sidelined due to injury, so I'm glad for him. We all know he's pretty much a lock for the All-Star game, so hopefully he does really well in order to keep us fans (or at least me) happy with his ASG appearance.

It's been nearly a year since the Penguins have seen Crosby on the ice. The Pens havent played badly though. Despite a round one loss in the playoffs last year to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Penguins have continued to be a top team in the NHL. They are once again competing for a top spot in the Eastern Conference, even without the phenom named Sid. The Penguins hope to have even more success with Crosby's return, but I think there could be a brief negative effect. The Penguins have developed a system, a chemistry, that works without Crosby. After such a long period of time, Crosby's return will be a shock to the team's systems. The Penguins hope it will be a positive shock, a spark if you will. It is possible, however, that an adjustment period could occur where the Penguins play not badly, but with less flow, because of Crosby's lack of playing time in the past months. Of course, that is unlikely, as Crosby is one of the top players in the league. It's possible that Crosby's return could have a very short-term negative effect. Of course, only time will tell.

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Gabe's Stream of Consciousness - More College Abuse

After analyzing the Penn State scandal daily last week, I found myself emotionally drained. I was deeply saddened that people (Sandusky, Paterno, etc.) could have such egregious lapses in judgment. What Sandusky did is obviously much worse than what Paterno did and didn't do, I don't deny that. Recently, Sandusky made a statement during an NBC interview, basically stating that he was innocent and only "horsed around" with the children in the showers. This seemed to inspire not only Sandusky's victims to speak out, but others as well.

As reported by ESPN, 2 alleged victims (former Syracuse University ball boys) of another abuse case have spoken out. Both said Syracuse associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine abused them sexually. I just heard about this story this morning, and I do not know the full story. Therefore, I will not be covering the story in detail. This segment isn't for me to discuss the Syracuse case in detail. I'm set to begin attending the Univerity of South Florida in Tampa next fall, so stories like this are a lot closer to me than you may think. I can't help to think, what if something like this happens at my school? These stories sadden me so much, and I'm not even closely connected with any of these educational institutions. I'm not planning on playing any sports at USF, outside of intramurals. Sadly, I think it may be in my best interest. With two sex abuse scandals rising into the media in the past two weeks, I start to wonder how often this really happens. It's scary quite frankly. I do hope to enjoy my time in college, but it makes me wonder: what goes on behind closed doors? I encourage all of my readers to not hide anything you see. If you see something, or are approached personally in an inappropriate way, tell someone, anyone.

This post has not been edited. Stream of Consciousness posts are typed without revision, apologies for any errors. I understand that these cases are very sensitive. If you have a comment, please let me know civily via Email or twitter. Twitter handle on the left bar.

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Via Bolts by the Bay: Lightning Look for Thirteenth Straight

And no, we aren’t talking about wins. The Tampa Bay Lightning are in Winnipeg tonight to faceoff against the Jets. With a win tonight, the Lightning will have a 13 game win streak against the Winnipeg/Atlanta franchise. This is the longest active streak of this sort in the league... more

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Gabe's Stream of Consciousness - Penn State

This is the first of what I will call a 'Stream of Consciousness' post. Basically, I will just speak about a certain issue impulsively, depending on what comes off the top of my head at the time. It's not a planned article, it's strictly impulsive. It can be compared to something like a dictionary or journal entry that I want to share with you, the audience. Tonight's topic (a very predictable one)........

Joe Paterno and the Penn State Case

If you've been keeping up with the news lately, you already know what's going on at Pennsylvania State University this week. A sex scandal investigation revealed that assistant coach Sandusky had molested several children (Penn State football players) in the past few years. Now, I do not know all of the facts, and am not here to inform you on the facts of the story either. Rather, I want you all to know how I feel about the situation. Joe Paterno, the head coach of Penn State's football team, has been under heavy scrutiny. Last night, he was fired, after coaching since 1966. Now, my first question is... why do you let someone coach an organization for that long? Does it make sense to have such an elderly coach (Paterno is currently 85) coaching a College Football team? At 85, no one should be coaching any team in any league! And Paterno hasn't even won a championship or competed for one since forever ago.. the 70s or 80s is the last time PSU won a national championship, if I remember correctly. So how did he manage to remain in his position? Simple: we as a society forced a mythology, a deity, onto Paterno. We put so much power and recognition into Paterno that we were blind to anything else. Common sense would tell us that Paterno should have been out way before all of this happened. When we enforce deities on human beings, things can get dangerous, and we've seen an example of that this week.

Now let's focus on the victims, something not many people seem to be doing. How do you think they feel? Hey PSU students, do you think those victims, you PEERS, would want you supporting Paterno? Think about what you are supporting! Paterno didn't do anything illegal, but he didn't know enough to protect the victims of Sandusky. Therefore, why support him? The victims are suffering while thousands of students are protesting Paterno's firing, wishing he would stay back. Well guess what folks: think about what you're supporting. Stop worshipping Paterno, he is only human.

Look for more Stream of Consciousness posts here on Gabe's Take.

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11/4: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Chicago Blackhawks

The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming off of a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes that had head coach Guy Boucher very dissatisfied. During an interview yesterday (11/3) Boucher implied that the team didn't battle hard enough, saying that they would "loose to every single team" if they continued to play with the same lack of effort. Guy Boucher said before the game that he had discussed the team's recent slow starts in the days leading up to the game in Carolina. However, the team didn't respond well, giving up 19 shots in the first period alone. The Lightning will look to respond tonight however, when they face the Chicago Blackhawks in Tampa Bay. For more info and a preview of tonight's game, visit the Lightning's official site: http://t.co/n9R65X2Z

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World Series Champs St. Louis Cardinals

I havent forgotten about baseball.. the St. Louis Cardinals and their unlikely run has finally ended, and it ended exactly how everyone in St. Louis wanted: with a World Series Championship. The Cardinals beat the Phillies, Brewers, and then the Rangers to win the 11th championship in franchise history. The team faced unfavorable odds throughout their entire run. As they were down a multitude of games to the Braves with just a month or so remaining in the season, most people wrote off the Cardinals. However, the remained tough and made the postseason. They were underdogs against all 3 teams they played in the playoffs, and faced some tough off the field issues in the mean time. The story of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals is an inspiring story for not only baseball fans, but also people in general.

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10/29 Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Winnipeg Jets

Tonight at 7:00 PM EST a pair of teams of which are very familiar with each other meet once again. Except this time, one of the teams has a brand new look. The Winnipeg Jets pay their first visit to the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight. However the teams are very familiar with each other. The Jets, formerly the Thrashers, have struggled lately against the Lightning. After a solid start last season, the Thrashers lost several times to the Lightning. The Thrashers, eventually, would fall out of contention. More info on tonight's game can be found via the preview link.

Preview link: http://bit.ly/vkZPlE

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Lightning vs. Predators Game Recap Link

The Tampa Bay Lightning had ther 3 game winning streak halted Thursday night in Nashville. The Predators scored three goals in the second to pull away from the Lightning. More details via link:

Lightning vs. Predators - 10/27/2011 - Tampa Bay Lightning - Recap - http://bit.ly/vrGPYV 

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Cards, Rangers, Game 7

The Cardinals and Rangers tonight will finish what has been an epic World Series. With three comebacks last night, and finally a walk-off hit by David Freese, the Cardinals have guaranteed that the last game of the MLB season will be played tonight. Pujols has not been given a chance to beat the Rangers since game 3, but guys like Lance Berkman and David Freese have picked it up in support of Pujols. Chris Carpenter will get the nod tonight on three days rest, and will most likely be the biggest key to a Cardinals victory tonight. The Rangers will look to pitch better tonight as well in order to clinch the first World Series for the Rangers. Tonight's game 7 is, as I said on twitter, a MUST watch.

Reminder: Game 7 tonight is at 8:00 PM EST on Fox

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'Pivotal' World Series Game 5 Tonight

The World Series between the Cardinals and Rangers is now tied at 2 wins each. Tonight's game will be 'Pivotal', as you all know. However, my point is the fact that EVERY game in any playoff series in any league is pivotal and important and any related adjective. Just something I wanted to say. The main reason such adjectives are used is to sell it. After all, networks like ESPN, MLB Network, and other related networks are, in fact, a business. They have marketing strategies like any other business would.

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Friday!

Today is Friday, and i hope everyone has had a fantastic week! Concentrate on what is positive in your life, don't dwell on the negative. Keep your spirits up, and live your life as happy as possible. You won't regret it!

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Time Off

Hello folks, I am planning to take some time away from the blog. I am not sure for how long, as I have some personal issues to attend to. Updates will not cease, but they will be very minimal. #StayTuned..

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First Weekly Review Tommorrow!

Just a quick reminder folks, my first Weekly Review will be posted tommorrow between 10 AM and 12 PM!

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Blogging On The Go?

Alright folks, I've found a new toy! Introducing the Blogaway Android app! Alright alright, I'll tone down my excitement just a bit. For those who have an Android OS plus a blogger account, Blogaway is the perfect way to make new postings and keep up with your blog via your smartphone. I am not sure if the app is available on other operating systems, but give it a try folks! Search "Blogaway".