Game One of the NHL Western Conference semi-finals between the Blackhawks and Canucks is in the books.  It was a fairly close game until 19:50 into the first period.  The Canucks score their second goal and came out smoking in the second.  When it was all over, the Blackhawks surrendered home ice and were on the losing end of a 5-1 game.

They played like a team that was distracted and really didn't care.  The Canucks were aggressive and set up shots on goal with a solid passing game.  The Blackhawks couldn't pass if their lives depended on it.  The blasted the puck at the goal, most often finding it deflected by the Canucks defense.

It was so bad, I turned the channel at the 5-0 point to watch The Birds on Svengoolie.  If the Blackhawks continue to play this poorly, the only cup they will be the cup on every hole at their local golf course.  They have not been the same team since the Olympic break.  They better shake out of it because these games won't get any easier.

We're all watching Blackhawks playoff hockey right now.  This is a very hard fought game.  The Nashville Predators are playing a very good game. 

The Blackhawks had a 10 minute edge in power play time in the second period but failed to capitalize.

They are currently at the 2nd intermission.  The Blackhawks will have to play with greater intensity in the 3rd period or they may not be able to stop the Predators.

The NHL playoffs began tonight.  The Blackhawks lost game one 4-1 after two empty net goals at the end of the game. 

Antti Niemi played a verty solid game with teh exception of the first goal which was a slow moving, bad bounce of a clearing pass.  Goal two came after a number of great saves that the defenders could not clear, for some reason.

The Blackhawks had more shots on goal the first two periods but the Predators ruled the third.  That was all that mattered.

They should bounce back on Sunday.  The were a bit tentative and were not really scrappy enough.  If they don't pick it up, the playoff beards will not be very long.  The off season will be.

My beloved Boilers took it on the chin even thogh they won their game against Minnesota.  They retained their first place standing in the Big Ten but the win came at a significant cost.

The star forward, Robbie Hummel tore his ACL and is gone for the season.  When they lost him last season with a back injury, they went 1 - 3 with 8 fewer points per game.  This is a different season and hopefully the extra year together will give the Boilers the opportunity for someone else to step up and fill in the gap. 

At least they have several gamers before the NCAA Tournament to work things out.

Hang in their Boilers, we're all pulling for you even if The Sporting News is already predicting the worst.

Lastly, it comes as no coincidence that the Boilers lose Hummel on the same day GM loses Hummer.

Tonight I watched the excellent Canada vs USA hockey game at the Olympic Games in Vancouver.  It was a great, tight game.  The USA came out on top 5-3 with an empty net goal in the closing minute. 

NBC decided the game should be broadcast on MSNBC because they would not have to cut away as they would if it was shown on NBC.  With so many players on all teams playing in the NHL, the league has stopped for the two weeks of the Winter Games.  The games of the Olympics are like All-Star games with the difference being that the players actually play defense here. 

It is great hockey.  Different than the days before the NHL players started playing and the Soviet machine rulled international competition.  Earlier in the day, the Russian and Czech Republic played another great game. 

Olympic Hockey is a great distraction from the long grind of the NHL season.  There is talk that the layoff will be too much for players not in the Olympics and the flow of the NHL teams will be too greatly disrupted.  I disagree.  These teams have played enough of the season that their play will not be disrupted to the extent that critics are concerned about.

A two week layoff for the players who are not in the Olympics will help keep their legs fresh for the end of the season.  I sure hope so, the Blackhawks will need a strong rest of the season if they are to win Lord Stanley's Cup.

I love baseball.  I love watching and playing (when my body was much younger) football.  The Bears are my favorite team but I no longer have the same passion for football that I do America's Pastime.  There is such a strategy to baseball that no other sport has.  Most other sports are more physical but baseball is more cerebral.  It's about averages and statistics.

There is no sport that is more relaxing and then exciting than baseball.  A low scoring pitcher's dual can be just as exciting as a high scoring game.  The tension and adulation when the closer comes in the bottom of the ninth inning is like no other feeling.

And in the cold northern states, there is nothing that warms us up and reminds us that the warm weather is not that far away like the first news reports from Spring Training and hearing the words "Pitchers and Catchers reported today".

In 2005 when the Chicago White Sox won the World Series, it was the capper to an amazing season.  They played strong and had a 15 game division lead heading into then end of the season.  The Cleveland Indians got hot and cut the lead to one and a half games before the White Sox finished the season with a sweep of the Tigers and Indians.  Little did we know this was a harbinger of things to come.

The first series saw the White Sox sweep the defending World Series champion Red Sox.  Then came the ALCS.  They were in danger of heading out to California down two games to none when AJ Pierzynski and the famous dropped third strike allowed them to win game two and start a streak of complete games by all their starters en route to their first World Series since 1959.

The Houston Astros dropped four straight and all Chicago sports fans felt what it was like to have a World Series in town, the first since 1917. 

That brings us to 2010, five years after that amazing season.  The White Sox have a great pitching staff with the return of Mark Buehrle, John Danks and Gavin Floyd, as well as the what will hopefully be a 100% healthy Jake Peavy.  The only question mark is DH as there is no one power hitter in the position.  Instead, Ozzie is going to conduct a platoon system that will hopefully work out.  Gone are Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, Scott Podsednik.  Welcome Andrue Jones, Omar Vizquel, Mark Teahen, Alex Rios (we hardly got to know him last year), Juan Pierre and now word of a possible Johnny Damon signing.

Baseball is back and all is right with the world.

This past weekend Drew Brees was Bacchus the king of the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade.  You would think riding a float in that costume would be enough in one week but it is overshadowed by an Oprah Faux-Pas.

The Queen of Daytime TV had the current King of Football on her show last Friday.  In a moment of "Should've done my homework", O asked who kissed Drew and tried to wipe off HIS BIRTHMARK.  "Who just kissed you?" she asked.

I don't know how long this will be up but until Harpo pulls it, here goes.  Of course, being the class guy that he is, Drew just laughed it off.

It is just about time for the Super Bowl. This has now become more than just another football game. It is now a national event.

I spent several years in Indianapolis in the 1980s. The very first game the Indianapolis Colts played after moving from Baltimore fell on a Saturday when my band was playing a gig at a Westfield, Indiana lounge.  No one was there.  They were all at he game or watching it at home.  We played to a waitress and the owner.  I have never forgiven the Colts.

The New Orleans Saints were long the laughing stock of the NFL. They now play in their first Super Bowl after joining the NFL in 1967. They did not play their first playoff game until 1987. In 2006, they signed Drew Brees, one of the best quarterbacks to come out of my Alma mater, Purdue University.

While have rooting interests on both sides, I stand by the New Orleans Saints. I would love to see them win this game.

In an effort to create a product that people are actually interested in seeing, the NFL has moved the annual Pro Bowl to the weekend between the Championship games and the Super Bowl.  While I don't believe this is the perfect solution, it is a good step forward.

The true Pro Bowl began in 1951 after a lay off of seven years since the last NFL All Star in 1942.  From 1951 - 1970, the game was played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.  Starting in 1971, the venue changed each year but found a permanent home in Hawaii in 1980 ...permanent until this year.

Due to waning player and fan interest, the NFL decided something had to be done to save their version of the All-Star game.  The baseball All Star game is known as the "Mid-Summer Classic".  In my mind, and that of many others, this is the all star game that all other sports look to for a barometer of success.  The NBA really pumped up interest in their game during the Michael Jordan era when they brought in the slam dunk contest, the three point contest and more recently, the All Rookie game.  The quality has suffered in recent years but they've still created a fairly entertaining All Star Weekend" that draws enough interest.

The NHL has taken a cue from the NBA and added skills competitions to their weekend event and while it has a long way to go in hopes of generating that level of interest it does pretty well for what some consider a niche sport.  That brings us to the floundering NFL Pro Bowl.

I believe the biggest problem the Pro Bowl has is that it follows the ultimate over-hyped sporting event in existence, the Super Bowl.  By the time the Super Bowl is over, even the most ardent football fan has had enough football and needs to take a break. 

Another problem is football relies on teams working together to get in sync and workout a lot of timing drills.  That is while the pre-season lasts so long.  The Pro Bowl then brings together guys who in most case haven't played together but are expected to put on a competitive game.  It's not going to happen.

Next up is the players themselves.  They have been playing a very violent sport for seven months and they are beaten up.  Most sports only take off a few months.  The NFL season ends at the very start of February and is off until the end or July/start of August.  The player's bodies just need it.

There are probably plenty of problems with staging this game and these are just a few.  The main problem is not just fan disinterest but the player's disinterest.  In the 1980s and early 1990s, a league paid for trip to Hawaii might have been a big deal but contracts are so big now, that just buying a house in Hawaii for the off-season seems a large possibility.

So the league has taken a first step to create interest in their dying all star game.  As stated above, it is now held the week before the Super Bowl at the same venue.  Players from the two Super Bowl teams will not play.  Fair enough.  They deserve the rest but that can hurt fan interest.  Moving it before the Super Bowl has not helped players dropping out.  They're still injured or beat up from the season.

So what else can the NFL do to save this game?  Maybe move it even earlier in the season?  Players would be fresher.  Still, there would be player interest.  I can't imagine they could make non-injured player's participation mandatory.  Maybe they replace the Hall of Fame game, which I believe is no longer, with the Pro Bowl game.  The game was held at the beginning of the pre-season so the players not knowing what's going on would be okay. 

I'm not sure that the game can be saved but given the popularity of the NFL, allowing it to die off would be a bit of a black eye.

My playoff picks didn't go as I expected today.  I picked both games correctly yesterday as the Saints and Colts won soundly.  Today was another thing entirely.

The Cowboys came out of the gate strong but turnovers and missed field goals stopped them cold.  The defense couldn't stop the Vikings as the once hot Cowboys cooled off in a big way.

Things were very different on the West Coast where the Jets pulled off the upset against the favored Chargers.  It was a rather low scoring game with the Jets defense holding the Chargers in check until they made it close in the end.  Missed field goals again played a part as Nick Kaeding missed all three attempts.  If he'd made two of them, the Chargers would be headed to Indy.

So I went two and two.  Now to look at next weekend's games.

It's hard not to go with the home teams.  The Vikings stand a chance depending how their defense plays against the Saints' high powered offense.  But the Saints are very tough at home, especially in the playoffs.  I take the Saints in the NFC Championship game.

Three weeks ago, the Jets beat the Colts in Indy and ended their quest for an undefeated season as Coach Jim Caldwell decided to rest his starters with the game far from decided.  There will be no resting this time.  The Jets are on a high right now.  They are playing great football and may also pull the upset.  The Colts players are still ticked off that they lost that game and will likely play with a greater sense of purpose than they would if they'd won.  The Colts will prevail.

That will set up a Saints vs Colts Super Bowl.  I'll get to that pick after next weekend.