LeBron Looking To Right A Wrong. Might Double Up

LeBron doesn't quite realize the natural contempt
American's have towards royalty. It's all in the name.

When he first left for the sunny beaches of Miami, the Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans burned his jersey in effigy. Apparently the heat from that flame has melted the icy relationship that grew when Cleveland and its favorite son had taken divergent paths, for the parting had not been sweet. As he left,  King James reminded Cleveland that he's from rival city Akron, so Cleveland shunned his royal highness regardless of his steady ascension to the throne.

The royal one is returning to Cleveland and his supreme stature instantly shifted the Cavs to the top of Vegas odds to win it all next year. Vegas could simply be moving to avoid potential historic payouts. The 10 people who already bet Cleveland to win it all next year are thrilled  with this new development. On the other hand, therapist' who helped LeBron, and Cleveland, heal from their last breakup are a little suspicious...and so am I.

They used to say that if you broke up, you  broke up for a reason, and they might be right. The two years he has signed to play for represent a virtual prenuptial agreement. Dan Gilbert may have removed his hate letter to LeBron from the Cav's webpage, but this manifesto is etched into the Cleveland psyche. Cleveland may be willing to allow him the chance to bling out their city like he did Miami, but they will never fully trust him forever. Bigger cities bow to royalty while small towns never open up to keeping something they've never had. At least not for long.

Rejecting LeBron was never going to persist forever. LeBron had to wait for history to rank his all time greatness and Clevelanders would make the distance and hatred between them and Akron disappear. But LeBron couldn't wait. For all the mountains and obstacles he's overcome in his life, being vilified just doesn't sit well with this King.

If only his name had been Smith. Because he's a James, punsters like myself were destined to annoint this talented player, "King James". American's discovered greatness while shunning appointed royalty. We do not readily accept anything , especially royalty, without rigorous debate.

Now the debate becomes, "can LeBron win in Cleveland and will it matter if he does? Clearly LeBron thinks so or he would not be so forgiving of the ineffective curse Cleveland cast upon his crown. LeBron thinks that he was much more beloved before the bad Decision, but is this new Decision truly for the right reasons?

If LeBron and Cleveland are rightful lovers who never should have departed from one another, then love shall write this story. If they are both wounded and running towards an easy way out, this make up might end horribly.

Sometimes you simply can't go home.

Patrick Roy Teaches Life Lesson While Leading Av's To Victory

I am a passionate person with a passion for life and all things Colorado.  That includes the Avalanche (when they are winning) so my passion fire burned hot as the Av's took on the Wild in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoff chase.

The Colorado Avalanche are a very important team in Colorado. They are the team who helped us to capture our first major sports championship prior to Elway and the boys joining in on the act.  We enjoyed that run in true Colorado sports fashion.  Inside of those two championship journey's was plenty of reason to doubt.  The first title came in the face of immense opposition  while the second championship was captured in a way that resembled this season's opening round game against the Minnesota Wild. Back then, the Av's were a capable team that took it on the chin early in the finals only to find its fire from a legendary spark plug named Ray Bourque. Bourque inspired the team to get up off the mat when they had been knocked down and appeared beaten.

As I listened to the game on radio, (I much prefer it to television) I found myself standing face to face with the volume dial as I shadow boxed my way through the entire last minute of play. The Av's had once again picked themselves off of the mat and were mounting an attack against their opponent.

If you don't follow hockey, you are not likely to be reading this post, so I won't review the game much at all assuming you already watched it.  In short, the Av's scored first and appeared to be delivering some good blows at a goalie who held strong.  Minnesota responded quickly and often to everything the Av's offered up in this game and eventually gained confidence in their goalie by extending the game to a 4-2 lead in the 3rd period.  When the Av's scored to put the game within one point, it became a forgone conclusion that Patrick Roy would pull his goalie if the team could not generate the offense they needed to tie the game.

Roy not only pulled the goalie, he did it with over 3 minutes left in the game.  Historian's worldwide instantly stood in amazement wondering if any coach had every done such a thing with so much time to play in a playoff game. Coaches the world wide tweeted the letters WTF across the worldwide web trying to see which handbook this was drawn from and why did Roy have the only copy.

This coach (Me) immediately dropped the pool stick that I was holding and walked directly up to the radio, as if standing in front of it would get me right out onto the ice.  My eyebrow's remained stuck in the sky as I listened to see how each team would respond to this move.  I was hopeful for a score, but afraid bad luck would intervene since it had a 3 minute window to play with.  Bad luck usually needs much less time to do its damage.

As bad luck would have it, a puck popped loose an headed straight for the Av's net. The radio description of the puck that headed towards our goal felt like the final blow until Erik Johnson saved the day.  In a miraculous bout of effort and luck (the puck never got flat so it eventually slowed) Johnson stopped an imminent goal and justified the confidence of his coach.

I come from the Jim Thompson "Positive Coaching" school of thought, and I am keen on what happens when coaches invest belief and confidence into their players.  Great coaches are on a mission to help you see your capacity and to give you the fight to fulfill it to the best of your ability.  If you ever begin to doubt your own ability (as young teams often do), great coaches have enough confidence in themselves and in you to fill the void.

Confidence in sports is a unique thing because their is a wide gap between the words and the actions.  As a coach, I can say I believe in you but if I never put you in the game or let you stay there when you are not succeeding, then there is a  gap between the words and the actions.  Great coaches are looking for an opportunity to tell their players that they believe in them, but they are desperate for a chance to show it.

Patrick Roy is a legend in sports for reason's that had nothing to do with coaching.  This season, and in this game, his legend grew in a special way.  Roy saw a chance to display confidence in his team, but he wasn't exactly a river boat gambler.  His team had practiced this approach for a long time leading up to that moment, so they were confident in the approach.  In fact, it is something that most teams will do when faced with game desperation.

Just not at three and a half minutes.  60 seconds of an empty net is about all that any normal coach can endure without passing out from sheer anxiety.  By leaving the Avalanche net empty for over 3 minutes, Patrick Roy shifted the series and probably the playoffs all in one gutsy call.

Prior to that moment, Colorado sports fans were witnessing a much less painful variety of the Denver Broncos over the last two seasons.  An immensely talented team was once again outmatched or outlasted in the playoffs.  Minnesota put on a defensive display that ignited their offense and the concerns of Avalanche nation that all of our excitement was probably a season too soon. The moment Roy pulled the goalie, the Wild took on a defensive posture that eventually came to resemble the fetal position.

In the last minute of play, the Wild hoped they could simply absorb the Av's blows and just beat them on the score card. As I stood at the face of my radio swinging punches like a boxer, I became convinced that the same team that stopped an obvious open net goal would find a way to tie this game and win it in overtime....and they did it.

Not every defeat is quite the same.  Some of them have lasting effect.  Barring another injury, the Av's have probably finished off the Wild by snatching their hearts out in the first game.  The heart of an athlete will regrow, but it takes some time.

What also takes some time is the journey of legend.  Sure, for us sport fans it seems like the speed of light as we recollect the flashes of brilliance that connect us to our sports heroes.  For Elway, it was all of those amazing comeback moments with the spinning helicopter play against Green Bay in the Superbowl as the flashes in time that established his legendary status.  For Roy it will be similar, but his legend is gaining images that started on the ice and are extended to the coaching box.

First it was the opening game assault on the glass partition between him and the opposing coach, and now
 we will talk about the day he pulled the goalie at 3 minutes and won the game.  In both situations, he was making a statement that every coach, every parent and every leader of others could learn from.

"I Believe In You"!

Montreal Beats Avalanche, McKinnon Steals Show

In a homecoming for the Canadian born players and coaches, the Avalanche began a 3 game, 4 day, far north tour of duty tonight starting in Montreal with the Canadiens.

We expected Matt Duchene to get the heroes welcome as well as Canadian born JS Giguere who got the call in goal.  We even expected the love and admiration that this team would bestow on the goalie who last captured the Stanley Cup for Montreal (1993), the team with the most of them all.  Patrick Roy has a storied career that began with Montreal. With so many years removed, the rift that caused him to go is all but healed. Today, Roy is nothing but beloved in Montreal...as he should be.

What was not expected tonight by anyone except those in Canada and from Canada, was the warm reception given to the NHL's front running Rookie of the Year, Nathan McKinnon.

These Canadians are serious about their hockey as the recent Olympic victories suggested.  After being dead in the water in the semi-final game against the USA, Canada women's team rallied late to push the game to OT and won it in the extra period.  The men's team followed that feat a few days later by winning the gold as well. Winning hockey in Canada is about as important as basketball is to the USA.  They simply expect to win.

Thanks to their blind passion for hockey, the Canadiens proceeded to piss off  Patrick (who was struggling at the time), forcing Roy to demand a release.  When the breakup was over, Avalanche had a Hall of Fame goalie and would gain two Stanley Cup victories with him in net.

Montreal was glad to see the return of Roy, but hardly ready to hand over a much needed victory.  The respectful applause for McKinnon appeared to inspire something special into his legs.  Everything they admired in McKinnon as expert hockey fans was on display in this game. McKinnon would eventually take #2 star of the game even though the Avalanche lost 6-3.

Losing teams are not awarded #1 stars as a matter of form, but McKinnon was clearly the best player on the ice.  Thomas Vanek of Montreal got the #1 star with an ugly hat trick that didn't even draw one hat from his home crowd, who remained mesmerized as McKinnon skated circles around their team.  Undoubtedly, Canadien fans walked from the arena happy with a win, but exuberant over the show McKinnon gave them as well.

There is admiration, and then there is admiration from fan's who really know what they are watching.  If you didn't realize what the rest of the league thought of Colorado's super rookie, you do now.  Canadiens tested....Canadiens approved.

POST SCRIPT: Avalanche forward John Mitchell lost his skates while rushing up ice, slid into the boards and bounced off so violently he went airborne from the ricochet.  Mitchell, who skated off on his own power, was transported to a local hospital for precautionary x-rays.  (No injury report was available at publishing).

Ducks Beats Av's With 6 Goals In One Period. Avalanche Looking Forward To Season Finale

Tonight was a difficult sports viewing night for a Nugget/Avalanche fan such as myself.

The Nug's, the Av's or Golf?
So many decisions....so little time.

Lured late in the evening by the Colorado sunshine, I got stuck playing the back nine (instead of stopping after nine) and finished in the darkest of functional dusk.  By the time I made it home, the Nuggets were late in the game against Miami, and the Colorado Avalanche were getting plastered with pucks by the Anaheim Ducks.

The Avs have recently beaten some of the best teams in the NHL.  The Ducks are among the top in the league, but not seen as playoff worthy like the Chicago Blackhawks or the St. Louis Blues, two teams that the Avs dismantled in recent games.

The last time these two teams faced off, it was the glass partition between the benches that became dismantled in a heated opening night match up that, if not for the partition, might of ended in a fist fight between the coaches of these two teams.  The Avs won that game 6-1.

Two things to remember.  The Ducks left that first game mad as hell over the outcome and the Ducks are the best team in the league at winning a game when giving up the first goal.  After peppering Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov with several shots on goal early, John Mitchell scored for the Avs to take a 1-0 lead into the second period.  .

This has become the nature of this team.  Even when they do not appear to be dominating play, they are dominating goal tending and grit.  True to their name, the Avalanche can come out of nowhere with ferocious impact, and they did again tonight against the Ducks.

Content that the Avs could find a way to do what they've done to others recently, I decided beating the Heat was a much for significant challenge for this Colorado sports fan and switched over to see the Nuggets close out Miami. When I turned back, the Av's scored a goal in the second period to take a 2-1 lead over the Ducks.

That would be the last lead they saw in this game that ended 6-4 in favor of the Ducks who blew the game wide open in the second period with all 6 goals (the most goals against the Avs in one period this year) and made the Avs chase the rest of the way, as they chased away the Avs goalie who did not finish the game.

The Av's have the benefit of fighting with the Ducks and a few other teams for the best record in the Western conference and will likely finish the season jockeying for playoff positioning.  Since the last game of the season will be in Anaheim against these Ducks, hockey fans in both cities are crossing their fingers for a meaningful game and a grande finale.

For the Denver Nuggets, the night would end more joyfully. (read more)

Postscript:  The Av's got the score as close as 5-4 in that second period with a magical play from the captain Gabriel Landiskog.  After making a move to get free in front of the net, Landiskog nearly held the puck till the window to score had fully closed and then unleashed an odd angled blast  past a goalie frozen by the move.  Peter Forsberg type stuff if I do say so myself.

Mackinnon Surpasses "The Great One". Is He Gretzky (or Is Joe Sakic More Accurate?)

I was about to lose my focus on this topic when I realized that the Avalanche have the most productive 18 year old on their team since the Great One Wayne Gretzky (12 game point streak).  If Mackinnon scores another point (goal or assist) he will surpass the Great Gretzky to stand alone with this record. Why we still have 18 year old hockey players but basketball players are forced into college is another blog for another day.

Especially since that magical 18 year old plays for my team, I celebrate whatever system allowed for that to happen.  Nathan Mackinnon is a player for the ages.  Earlier in the season I wrote a post about the best Avalanche player from a big list of options, and decided that Semyon Varlamov is clearly the best of the best.  Mackinnon is making me question myself.

Not that Mackinnon is really at THAT level yet, but the upside potential is absolutely scary with even a little bit of growth as a player.  Considering his age, physical stature as a result of age, and impending growth from both a physical and mental perspective, McKinnon is on a path to take over the entire NHL.....no really.  His point streak, that is equal only to Gretzky, does not appear to be a freak coincidence.  This kid does things that boggles the mind.  It feels like he is so advanced that he could be doing more hot dog type plays, which he sort of does, but with an obvious restraint.

If he was a 10 year veteran this would simply be impressive.  As an 18 year old rookie we are seeing amazing stuff coming from the stick and skates of this kid.  If comparisons to Gretzky are high praise, then we are at least seeing the reincarnation of Joe Sakic for sure.  We'll make him earn that Gretzky stuff later.

Understanding that comparison's are the most unfair thing that we fans love to do, my  praise of Mackinnon seems to discount the fact that Gabriel Landiskog is the captain of this team or that Matt Duchene is the most magical scorer we've got.

Mackinnon is something special.  I watched the Avalanche/ Detroit Red Wings game in Detroit as I wrote this piece, and the record that Mackinnon had tied with Gretzky is now Mackinnon's alone (13 games in a row for an 18 year old player).  With a pass from behind the net that looked like he threw it with his hand, Mackinnon found Andre Benoit in overtime to beat the hated Red Wings in their own house. A similar late assist from Mackinnon was the difference in beating the back to back champion Chicago Blackhawks two nights ago.

It was actually amazing goaltending that gave this team a chance to win.  Detroit was smothering in their defensive approach, so it took a patient Avalanche team to overcome the Red Wing D and capture the overtime win.  Much bigger than the Mackinnon scoring streak was the maturity of this win.  Detroit may not make the playoffs this year for the first time in years, but they are a hated rival who gives us their best shot whenever we play them.

Coach Patrick Roy made the wise decision to start goalie J.S. Giguere in net.  Giguere dislodged the net and broke a stick (old veteran tricks to slow down an aggressive team) as needed in order to overcome the initial attack from Detroit.  It is likely that starting Semyon Varlamov in goal would not have provided the calming effect that Giguere brought to this victory.

In the end, Mackinnon finished the game in a fashion that not only reminded us of Sakic (not Gretzky), but reminds us that all legends, even Gretzky, will someday be surpassed.

Not to be forgotten was the spinning pass that Erik Johnson made to Mackinnon when the puck was moving out of the zone.  That was a pretty special play as well. 

Seattle Seahawks Are The Champions Of The World. Will They Repeat? Three-peat?

Somewhere right after the season comes to an end, signified by the championship parade, it becomes time to swallow the yearly dose of medicine the nearly every football fan ingests. If your team didn't make it to that last game, you've had time to chop that pill up and swallow it in small chunks.  When you lose in the final game, it goes down abruptly, slowly and painfully.  In fact, it reminds you of that first big pill that you struggled with as a kid.  You know, the one where swore that you were choking to death?

Somewhere in the middle of  the film footage of the championship team enjoying their moment in the sun, I finally realized that I will not be in that parade this year.  Those who have experienced one or more of those parades (as we have in Denver), realize how surreal they become.  One minute you are simply cheering for your team to be the last team standing, and the next you are surrounded within the electrical energy of fans that are all staring at you with the same "I can't believe it" amazement.  Perfect strangers become friends and family for a  moment of glorious celebration, and for at least one moment, you and the players who carried you up that mountain, can water the soil of your city with tears of collective joy.

Seattle earned that for themselves and their fans this year.  I may be sad for my city but I am not a hater, and I smile when I think of what that feels like for any city, especially one that has not seen it in quite some time.
The core (Wilson) of this team needs to prove that they can be a champion without riding the back of the Legion of Boom.
How you celebrate says a little bit about your vision of the future. A few of  the Seattle Seahawks did some serious dancing, especially those players who realize that the free agent market will come calling after such a public debut of the Legion of Boom.  The core of this team is sipping water and acting like its liquor while dancing a slow two-step and standing with a sly smile in the corner of the room.  The core of this champion is hardly satisfied with one bully beat down championship.  The core of this team needs to prove that they are the champion of the world for reasons other than Denver playing "one of those games" or riding the backs of the Legend of Boom.

Nicknames are cool, but seldom considered for even really good teams.  To carry a defensive moniker, ala The Steel Curtain, The Orange Crush or The Legion of Boom is reserved for great defenses only.  This defense represented greatness from beginning to end. They have made it clear that  the only real question about the prospect for the Seahawks lies on the other side of the ball, because the defense that we witnessed is the real deal.  They are capable of playing you any which way but loose, and what they have done all season long, they simply brought to the biggest stage in the world.

There is a beauty and a detriment to performing on the big stage.  As you perform, the talent takers start shifting plans and revenue to purchase the wares on display.  Will the Legion of Boom maintain its moniker even after the loss of a piece (or two) of the puzzle?  Maybe so.

What we know about the history of great defenses is that they are anchored by great players who offer amazing leadership.  Someone in that locker room is leading these guys to study so well that they are making plays like we used to see before the defense was clipped by modern rules.   When you draft really fast guys who recover well, you can generate a little snap, crackle and pop.  When you train guys with okay speed to do their homework and anticipate the play really well you might create a little Bam Bam.  When you combine speed and film study and sprinkle it all over your defensive backfield you become the legendary Legion of Boom.

These Seahawks did not lack for speed or film study when Richard Sherman went off the field with an injury so it is hard to imagine them as a one hit wonder irregardless of the ravages of free agency.  The Legion of Boom has assumed such a prominent place in the sun that their presence has cast a shadow over their quarterback who shocked his way unto the scene a year before his defensive brethren.

In only his second year as a pro, Russell Wilson did his best to contribute to his teams success in the Superbowl.  He made plays when necessary and avoided costly mistakes as he usually does.  Would that have been enough against Tom Brady or a Peyton Manning without a clenched rectum? Depending on the future of Wilson, Seattle could become a dynasty or a cherry picked champion that struggles to see these heights again.  Their coach and his blueprint leans towards the dynasty prediction, but dynasty's are even harder to create than legendary defensive moniker's.

Next Post:  Is Russell Wilson ready to build a dynasty in Seattle?