Carolina Rebounds With Thrashing of Bolts

After falling into a tie with the Caps last night for the Southeast lead, the Hurricanes are in the process of taking out the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canes currently have a 5-1 lead in the third period of play. Eric Staal scored a mere 32 seconds in for Carolina. Martin St. Louis tied it up at 1-1 about eight minutes later, but the Hurricanes have gotten four unanswered scores. And the final score is 6-2

Through two periods of play in Pittsburgh, the Pens are up 3-2 against their cross-state, Pennsylvania rival Philadelphia. The Flyers got goals from Scott Hartnell and Jeff Carter. With a Sergei Gonchar Power Play tally sandwiched in between for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin tacked on Power Play goals to put the Pens ahead by a score of 3-2. Four Power Play goals give the Pens a final of 4-2 for this game giving and the Atlantic Division title.

And a team rooting for the Flyers, the New Jersey Devils, is currently trailing the Boston Bruins (Who are hoping for a Pittsburgh victory) 2-1 at the end of the second. And the Devils prevail in the shootout 3-2

Three goals in a span of 2:30 has the Chicago Blackhawks up three-zip on the NHL-leading Detroit Red Wings. The Blackhawks need to win tonight to have any shot at sneaking into the playoffs. Henrik Zetterberg has pulled the Wings within two with a late first period goal. After 2 periods it’s 5-2 Blackhawks. And six different players score for Chicago in a 6-2 whipping of Detroit.

Chicago is now three points out of a playoff spot with two games left. Detroit missed a chance to clinch the #1 seed in the West as well as the Presidents’ Trophy.

Celtics Win 60th

The Boston Celtics cruised to their 60th win this season and tied the NBA record for best turnaround in one season. They now have 36 more wins then they had all of last year with seven games to go.

Gilbert Arenas returned to the Washington Wizards lineup tonight, but the Wizards still fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 110-109. Two Wizards were injured during the game in addition to the Bucks Chinese rookie Yi Jianlian. The injured Washington players were Antawn Jamison and DeShawn Stevenson.

Also back in action tonight was Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavs. Your final score is 111-86. With the outcome, the Mavericks solidify the seventh seed while Golden State drops further into the #9 slot behind Denver. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what was widely predicted would happen when Dirk went down. It was thought Dallas would drop out and the Warriors would secure the 7th spot.

And Pau Gasol has made his return for the Lakers as well. LA beat the Portland Trail Blazers 104-91.

The Cavaliers, Hornets, Jazz and Hawks also won.

Just Wondering

Has anyone else managed to get Dan Dickau to suffer a groin injury in any version of an NBA video game?

Playoff Re-Seeding Decision Scrapped

The NFL owners ended their meeting without passing a new measure on whether the playoffs should be re-seeded in an attempt to make every game count. The idea would make it possible for wild-card teams to actually host a playoff game.

However, the competition committee withdrew the proposal due to a lack of support by the owners.

I personally think that this was a dumb idea anyway, so I’m glad it was tossed. If a team has done what is necessary to lock up a high seed, they shouldn’t have to risk their stars because the League wanted to turn meaningless games into meaningful ones.

This would get rid of the strategy involved in resting starters while approaching the postseason. It would no longer be a question of how many games should the players get off in anticipation of the playoffs, but if they got any at all.

Plans that were passed include the elimination of the incidental face mask penalty. Now only the personal foul version (Twisting the players head around) will be called.

Also done away with was the force-out rule. No more controversial decisions by the refs regarding force-out sideline catches. Now it is back to the regular method of deciding whether the player was in or out of bounds (Still leaves room for questionable calls obviously), no matter if he was pushed or not.

On the coin toss, teams can now opt to defer the choice of possession.

Also modified was the rule regarding video review of field goal attempts. Now kicks that bounced off the upright, etc. can be reviewed.

And the last one, a direct snap from center that goes backward will now be treated as a fumble instead of a false start.