Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers! Here are my Jan. 1 bowl picks.

Outback #19 Auburn vs. #17 Wisconsin
Cotton #8 Michigan State vs. #5 Baylor
Citrus #16 Missouri vs. #25 Minnesota
Rose Bowl #3 Florida St. vs. #2 Oregon
Sugar #1 Alabama vs. #4 Ohio State

Also, if you're tired of college football, be sure to check out the NHL Winter Classic on NBC between the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks at 1 PM ET. They're playing outdoors at Nationals Park in DC this year.

Happy New Year 2014!

Happy New Year to all my readers! Here are my Jan. 1 bowl picks.


Gator Nebraska vs. #22 Georgia
Heart of Dallas UNLV vs. North Texas
Capital One #19 Wisconsin vs. #8 South Carolina
Outback Iowa vs. #16 LSU
Rose Bowl #5 Stanford vs. #4 Michigan State
Fiesta #15 UCF vs. #6 Baylor

Also, if you're tired of college football, be sure to check out the NHL Winter Classic on NBC between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings at 1 PM ET. They're playing outdoors for the first time since 2012 (they missed last year because of the lockout), this time at the Big House at Michigan Stadium.

Kings Win Stanley Cup

It's been long 45 years for hockey in the City of Angels. What the Great One couldn't deliver in the 90's, these group of Kings did, winning the Stanley Cup in six games over the New Jersey Devils, in a 6-1 rout (full highlights below) last night at the Staples Center.

For Con Smythe Winner goalie Jonathan Quick, who had an awesome 1.41 goals against average in the Kings' 16-4 playoff record and 17 saves in tonight's win, and the rest of the Kings, what a run it was to win the Cup. From going through a coaching change in the middle of the season to Darryl Sutter, to barely making the playoffs, LA becomes the first 8th seed to ever win the Cup, having beaten the top three seeds in the West, in Vancouver, St. Louis, and Phoenix.

Against New Jersey in the Finals, the Kings won the first three games in the series, before dropping two headed into tonight's Game 6. After a New Jersey major penalty in the first period, which netted three LA goals, and Jeff Carter's second goal early in the second period, the fans were ready celebrate yet another championship for Los Angeles.

"You never know. You get to the dance, you never know what's going to happen," captain Dustin Brown, who became the second US-born captain to hoist the cup, said. "We calmed down after losing two. It was the first time we had done that all playoffs, and we finally got off to a good start."

For New Jersey, a great run in the playoffs, which included upsets of the top seeded Rangers and red-hot Flyers, ends just short of a fourth championship for goalie Marty Brodeur, who at age 40, turned back the clock. There just wasn't enough offense in the end, as New Jersey went just 1 for 20 on the power play in the series.

Bruins Win Stanley Cup

There is nothing like a Game 7 for the championship. It's too bad the Vancouver Canucks didn't show up.

The city of Boston has another title after the Bruins defeated the Canucks 4-0 last night in British Columbia to win their sixth Stanley Cup, and first since 1972. The Bruins join the Celtics, Patriots (three times), Red Sox (twice) as championship winning teams in Boston in the last decade.

Conn Smythe Trophy Winner, awarded to the MVP of the series, went to dominant goalie Tim Thomas, who saved an insane 238 of the 246 shots he faced throughout the seven games. Not even the starting goalie at the beginning of the season, Thomas put on a legendary performance throughout the postseason, including winning three Game 7's.

"I think I went even further than I thought," Thomas said. "I was scared, I won't lie. I had nerves yesterday and today, and I faked it as best as I could, and I faked it all the way to the Stanley Cup."

For 43 year old Mark Recchi, who plans to go into retirement now, he goes out a champion to cap a great career.

For Vancouver, which squeaked by with three close wins, but were blown out in their four losses in the Final, a great season comes to and end in a rather puny fashion. Goalie Roberto Luongo was especially bad, giving up numerous soft goals and reverting to Bad Luongo way too often. In addition, the Sedin twins were largely unproductive against the hard hitting Bruins defense.

Finally, shame on the city of Vancouver, which turned a bitter playoff defeat into and excuse to start riots and loot the city. I never understood this idea of "We lost so let's be hooligans and trash the city" (or in the case of Los Angeles, "Now that we've won, let's flip some cars"). In the end, it's just a game, and not worth breaking the law just because you can't keep your Canadian hockey emotions at an even keel.

Blackhawks Force Game 7

If you haven't been keeping up with the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in addition to all the NBA Playoff action, you have been missing out.

Last night, the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, seeded 8th in the Western Conference, won their third straight game to even their series with top-seeded Vancouver 3-3 with a thrilling overtime win at the United Center. They are only the 7th team in NHL history to force a Game 7 after being down 3-0 in a series. Highlights of the game are below.



They will try to complete the amazing comeback tomorrow night in Vancouver Game 7 at 9 PM CT on Versus.

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year to all my readers! Here are my Jan. 1 bowl picks.

Ticket City Northwestern vs. Texas Tech
Fiesta Connecticut vs. #7 Oklahoma
Outback Florida vs. Penn State
Rose Bowl #5 Wisconsin vs. #3 TCU
Gator #21 Mississippi State vs. Michigan
Capital One #16 Alabama vs. #9 Michigan State

Also, if you're tired of college football, be sure to check out the NHL Winter Classic on NBC at about 8 PM ET. They're playing outdoors for the fourth straight year, this time at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.

2010: The Year in Sports

Well, another year, amazingly has passed, and before we head to 2011, here's a quick rundown of the biggest sports stories of 2010. And despite all four Houston franchises missing the playoffs :(, it has been a great year in the world's sports scene.

NFL
Behind MVP quarterback Drew Brees and Tracy Porter's game clinching interception (below), the Saints boost up New Orleans and beat the Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV.

College Football
Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton leads undefeated #1 Auburn to BCS Championship Game, as they will play #2 Oregon and LaMichael James in Glendale on January 10. Boise State was looking to jump into title miss, but suffered a heartbreaking loss to Nevada in overtime, while undefeated TCU misses out because of it's soft schedule. Still no playoff.
MLB
It was the year of the pitcher, six no-hitters were thrown (Ubaldo Jimenez, Dallas Braden, Edwin Jackson, Matt Garza, Roy Halladay X 2) including two (should have been 3, Armando Gallaraga) perfect games (Halladay, Braden). In the end, the San Francisco Giants rode their pitching and clutch hitting to win their first World Series since moving to the Bay Area, beating the Texas Rangers in five games.
NBA
The Celtics and Lakers played another epic 7-game NBA Final, with Kobe and LA winning the title for the second straight year. In the world championships, Kevin Durant led team USA to a gold medal. But the story of year was the most active free agency period in NBA history, with LeBron James making his decision to sign with the Heat, joining Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade to make an instant title contender in Miami.
College Basketball
It was another great NCAA tournament, with Duke and cinderella Butler playing a classic championship game. (final 2 minutes of game below)

Hockey
The Chicago Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup since 1961, but the play of the year had to be Sidney Crosby's golden goal for team Canada (below) in the Vancouver Olympics. It came in sudden death overtime after the United States had tied it with 24 seconds to go in regulation with a goal from Zach Parise.


Soccer
Colorado Rapids won their first ever MLS Cup, but the biggest story was the World Cup obviously. Landon Donovan rescued U.S. with an epic goal against Algeria in stoppage time to send the U.S. to the knockout stage, but in the end, it was Spain which reigned supreme, beating the Netherlands 1-0 in the final (highlights below)


Golf
It was a wild year in golf. Tiger Woods goes winless for the season, while the relative four different countries were represented as major champions: Martin Kaymer (Germany), Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa), Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland), Phil Mickelson (United States).
Tennis
Rafael Nadal returned from a tough 2009 and dominated, winning Wimbledon, the French Open, and the U.S. Open, while John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played the longest tennis match in history (11 hours, 5 min)
NASCAR
Jimmie Johnson won his fifth straight Sprint Cup title, in the closest Chase ever.

Blackhawks Win Stanley Cup

In a bizarre finish, Chicago Blackhawks' star Patrick Kane scored the championship-clinching overtime winner, and only he knew it.

"I knew it went in right away," Kane said. "What a feeling. I can't believe it. We just won the Stanley Cup. I can't believe this just happened. ... It's something you dream about, scoring the final goal in the Stanley Cup finals."

Kane scored in just the fifth minute of sudden-death overtime, and after a brief review, the Blackhawks had defeated the Flyers 4-3 in Game 6 to clinch their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

Captain Jonathan Toews, who also earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs, became the second-youngest ever to captain a Cup winning team at age 22. "There's so many great things about winning a Stanley Cup. This is it," Toews said. "This is the best feeling you can ever get. I just can't believe it's happened."

For Philadelphia, which didn't clinch a playoff berth until the final game of the season, a great postseason, which included coming back from 3-0 series deficit against Boston, came to an end to a more talented team. "In the long run, everybody should be proud with what we did this year," Flyers forward Jeff Carter said. "We overcame a lot of adversity. The guys should be proud of what we accomplished."