Picking The Low Hanging Fruit…

• Sens take Game One over Buffalo in battle of tortured sports cities.
• Gainesville is on fire.
• Tank Johnson is handling prison well. Which should be expected of someone 6-3, 300 pounds.
• Not even Lindsay Lohan’s coked-out appearance on Conan last night could save this movie.

The Conference Finals

Don’t get too excited. It’s the NHL Conference Finals. In the East is Ottawa-Buffalo. I’m picking Buffalo because they’re American. As for your pick, I think the best way to analyze this matchup is a video from the Ottawa-Buffalo game on February 22nd.

As for the West, I’m taking Anaheim over Detroit. Any team with Todd Bertuzzi should get their asses kicked. Karma is a bitch.

Scott Burnside Is An Asshole

Hockey doesn’t get much coverage so when I saw this story on ESPN.com I had to take a look. In it, ESPN writer Scott Burnside advocates allowing players to kick the puck into the net.

“Why not simply erase the kicking rule entirely? Who cares if a player kicks the puck into the net?…By erasing the “kicking motion” rule, the flow of the game would be improved.”

Burnside seems to imply that allowing kicking would increase scoring. Sure, if Martin Brodeur is laying on the ice and Sydney Crosby kicks the puck and just happens to also kick Brodeur in the neck that would increase scoring because the league’s best goalie would bleed to death on the ice. Maybe Burnside forgot about this scene. WARNING: WOMEN AND CHILDREN SHOULD NOT WATCH THIS.

You think that’s bad? Look at the still photo. And that video is not as graphic as most of the other ones.

The Clint Malarchuk injury is why you can’t kick the puck. Burnside wants to see arteries split open by a pair of CCM Tacks? Good, have them change the kicking rule then. Maybe the NHL can have their second on-ice fatality! That’ll get them some much needed publicity. Hey, maybe that’s what Burnside was thinking? After all, blood and gore sells.