It’s my Parting Shot for my Monday Musings…..
Having spent almost 45 years in the main-stream sports media, 43-and-a-half of that time in radio, I’ve come to perfect simplifying my analysis and basing opinions off of that. For instance, the simple explanation for the results of the first two games of the Saskatoon Blades-Prince Albert Raiders W-H-L playoff series was the winning team received better goaltending and had more power play production! P-A had that in Game 1 on Thursday with the Bridge City Bunch flipping the script on Friday. Those two factors may or may not have any bearing in the next two games tomorrow and Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre!
Another premise, based on straight, simple results from the first weekend of the W-H-L playoffs is that Prince George and Portland in the Western Conference along with Moose Jaw and Swift Current in the East are the best teams in the loop and will meet in the Conference finals. That’s all because those four teams “held serve” at home to take 2-0 leads in their respective best-of-seven Conference quarter-finals with the other four sets even at 1-1. I’ll reserve judgement on that for another week as a lot can still happen. That Warriors-Broncos match-up could happen next round if they continue on and win while the Blue and Gold take out the Raiders!
As I write this, Brad Gushue’s Canadian foursome has just lost to Italy in an extra end at the World Men’s Curling Championship in Switzerland. Before you get your underwear all twisted in a knot about, “how can Canada lose to Italy?” – remember that the Joel Retornaz foursome plays a lot of Grand Slam and major international events in Canada during the season, and does very well! This isn’t as big of an upset as you might think!!
Once again, I’m pleased that Gushue’s quartet has lost a game in the round-robin – so long as they don’t lose many more and miss the playoffs!
And, again, I’m a little disappointed that Ryan Fry – a Canadian from Winnipeg – is the Italian team’s coach. Plus, there are at least four other Canadians acting in a coach/advistory capacity with teams not representing Canada! I hope they’re getting paid well!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..