Month: April 2014

Sharks suffer their worst playoffs exit yet

Published on by Ivan MakarovLeave a comment

By Ivan Makarov

SAN JOSE, CA — After many years of Stanley Cup playoffs disappointments, San Jose Sharks found a new way to end their season after making the playoffs once again.

After going up 3-0 in the series against the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks let the Kings climb back and take the series in Game 7, when LA won the game 5-1 at the SAP Center. LA Kings became just the fourth team in the NHL history to accomplish such a feat since the 7-game series format was introduced for the Stanley Cup playoffs back in the 1930s.

Devastated. Disappointed. Shocked. Upset. Low point.

These were some of the words heard again and again in post game interviews inside the Sharks dressing room. These are no doubt some of the emotions experienced by the Sharks fans as well that night.

And the Game 7 played out just like the previous four games won by the Kings. Stingy defense by LA, and a complete lack of offense and execution by San Jose, coupled with the outstanding game by Jonathan Quick.

Sharks scored the first goal in the game when Matt Irwin blasted a shot from the blue line early in the second period. But their lead did not last long as Kings tied the game four minutes later on a power play goal by Drew Doughty and played a solid defensive game for the remainder of the period. The big blow came towards the end of the period when Kings took 2-1 lead on a counter attack goal by Anze Kopitar.

When the Kings made it 3-1 on a goal by Tyler Toffolli early in the third period on an odd man rush, the home crowd loudly exhaled, knowing how hard the task became at hand. And the Sharks never came back, failing to score the rest of the game.

After scoring 17 goals in the first three games, Sharks scored only 5 in the remaining four. That’s the most telling stat of them all.

Special teams were once again terrible for the Sharks, giving up a power play goal, and going 0/6 on the man advantage.

So how did this all happen after going up 3-0 in the series and what happened to the offense?

“I think their defense just swallowed up our offense, to be honest with you,” said Sharks captain Joe Thornton. “They played real tight defensively, and their goaltender got really hot like he usually does this time of the year.”

Coach McLellan had similar thoughts.

“From the way I look at it, [the LA] fixed their problems,” he said after the game. “We didn’t. Our problems got progressively worse as we went along. We were awful off the rush. They scored I don’t know how many goals off the rush and we were awful around our net. Every day we came to the rink, we tried the stress that, but we were never able to fix that. It’s frustrating because during the year we’re pretty good in those areas.”

It’s hard to predict right now what changes the club is going to make in the offseason after another good regular season team ends their season early and without a championship. Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson job could be in danger, as he’s built every aspect of this team and still haven’t taken the Sharks into the Stanley Cup final while his neighbors Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings have all been there and have won the Cup. Todd McLellan’s future is also in question now, and he did admit after the game he’s in charge of this team and is to blame as well. Some of the players will no doubt change their home address to another NHL city.

These things happen to the teams that can’t win. But this win in particular will sting for a long time because of how close the Sharks were to advancing into the next round, and how far they let their game slip.

Hudson keeps rolling, gets past Pads

Published on by jeremy2878Leave a comment

By Jeremy Harness

 

SAN FRANCISCO – Tim Hudson gave Bay Area fans at least one thing to cheer about Wednesday night.

 

While the San Jose Sharks were completing their NHL playoff meltdown by blowing a 3-0 series lead and falling in Game 7 at home to the Los Angeles Kings, Hudson masterfully guided the Giants to a 3-2 win over the San Diego Padres at AT&T Park.

 

Hudson had one heck of a first month for the Giants, and he capped it off with one of his better performances in stifling the Padres. The 38-year-old righty gave up only five hits and did not walk anyone while striking out six.

 

He was on his way to a complete game, as he just needed one more strike to finish the thing off. However, he left a fastball in the heart of the plate, and Yasmani Grandal deposited it into McCovey Cove to narrow the Giants’ lead to just one.

 

Giants skipper Bruce Bochy took no more chances and went to closer Sergio Romo, who got Chris Denorfia to ground out and give Hudson (4-1) the win.

 

He even contributed at the plate with a single in his first at-bat of the game while dropping down a nice sacrifice bunt in the seventh to move a runner over and contribute to a much-needed insurance run.

 

In fact, the only real downer to his night came when he was unable to make contact in the fourth inning with one out and a runner on third, after Brandon Crawford had led off the inning with a triple.

 

Crawford did not score in the inning, but the Giants still had the two-run lead.

 

Michael Morse hit a two-out rocket off the brick wall in right field against Padres starter Robbie Erlin to bring in Hunter Pence and give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

 

The next mistake that Erlin made was to second baseman Brandon Hicks, as he left one out over the plate and watched as Hicks hammered it the other way into the right-field arcade.

 

The Giants added to their lead in the seventh, as they got Erlin out of the game and tore into the Padres’ bullpen. Pence got a two-out single that kept the inning going before Buster Posey’s two-out hit up the middle scored Joaquin Arias to provide the slight cushion that the Giants would need.

Warriors Playoff commentary: Oprah, Geffen, and Ellison line up to buy the Clippers;Magic expected to throw his hat in the ring

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The stars are getting aligned already and you know how it is in Los Angeles as the immediate lifetime suspension of L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his being forced to sell his ball club has the likes of former TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey, record producer David Geffen and Oracle’s Larry Ellison are ready to get the checkbook out and would like to buy the Clippers once they go up for sale. The former talk show gab host Oprah will be an investor and the club will be ran by Geffen and Ellis.

Winfrey spokeswoman Nicole Nicols confirmed the report and said that Oprah was interested in the club as soon as she found out that the NBA was forcing Sterling out. Oprah’s representitives contacted the league office and also confirmerd the story with CBS.

If the sale is successful it would be Ellison’s second shot at trying to be an owner of an NBA team. Ellison tried to get on with the Golden State Warriors which boiled down to a bidding war with Warriors current owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber who won the bid for. Ellison is in good company this time in trying to buy the $1 billion plus basketball team with Oprah and Geffen. Ellison might have competition one more time as Magic Johnson is trying to put a group together a group and throw his hat into the ring in trying to buy the club. Magic is co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The strange thing about the Sterling story is when I first wrote about this last week on Saturday morning this was just bubbling up and it certainly seemed like a big deal at the time but who knew how big of a story this was going to be, Sterling who is a real estate businessman, a former injury attorney, and now former owner of the Clippers. When the story first broke it was big but there was no idea at the time that this story was going to explode world wide like it did with President Barack Obama commenting on it from Kuala Laumpar.

Now this story grew and it was on every major TV network for the last five days and with Sterling in an interview with reporter Jim Gray telling Gray that he’s not selling the club this could turn into a real war between the NBA and Sterling as Sterling plans to fight the NBA in court. It’s just strange that there was nothing more on the news cycle that was more important as this story dominated the news for the last week.

Sterling also was involved in settling out the largest discrimination suit in U.S. history in 2009, in 2006 that case started. Also there were other cases involving Sterling regarding sexual harassment and discrimination over the years. This was adding up since 2006 with these dicrimination cases over the years and this part of Sterling is really to no one surprise.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson had been active back when he was a player with the players union and Johnson was a player more than a decade ago. Johnson the current mayor of Sacramento is obviously a politician and obviously has symphathy with the players union. Some say Johnson has a bigger role than the mayoralship he may have higher political ambitions than the mayorship after he finishes in Sacramento.

He might be a little cynical and say this is a launching point to get bigger publicity that covers more than just the state of California that remains to be seen. Johnson was contacted by the Los Angeles Clippers and union president Chris Paul partly becuase of Johnson’s experience in the player’s union. Johnson responded by being the public face for the union and part of this is because the union and the NBA does not have a current president.

There is a player president and that’s Paul but there is not an official player representative, there used to be an NBA president and that was Billy Hunter but he got fired following the last collective bargaining agreement because the agreement was so bad for the players. So with Hunter gone there is no one representing the players so Johnson was asked to step in.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

Larry Leavitt on the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Niemi back in net looking to shut down Kings pelting in game 7

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by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–Goaltender Antti Niemi’s rest in game six was not as much a benching as the San Jose Sharks wanted to see what backup goaltender Alex Stalock could do with the team in front of him. If you look at the corp of the team they were young players who all played with Stalock coming through the minors in Worcester the older corp had played with Niemi.

The move to put Stalock as starting goalie in game six was more to spark the team than bench a goalie. Now game seven is on the line and the Sharks basically have to go with the guy who brung you, he’s the number one goalie and he has been all year and if you play Stalock in game seven what does that say to Niemi your number one goalie someone that they have to start in game seven.

The Sharks are hoping that Niemi has one of his stellar games, he’s been had and he’s been standing on his head and he played a great game and he just can’t allow anything soft in game seven. He can play a hot game in game seven in the best of the seven series and Niemi has to go out there and do it.

Blalock kept the Sharks in the first period in a half of game six he kept them in the game, and he made some stellar saves. The Sharks feel more comfortable with going along with the puck than Niemi who is more a stay at homne guy and Niemi doesn’t have the stick handling skill that Stalock has so they went with Blalock in game six.

Stalock played a great game and the second goal was actually him getting pushed in. By the NHL rules thats an illegal goal that should have been a no goal it was counted and there’s nothing you could do about it and the whole team in front of him was upset. They were all pinching and trying to have an extra rush in the offensive zone and he burned on the odd man coming in because everybody was jumping in.

It’s great when everybody jumps in and everybody controls the puck but when everybody jumps in and you give up the puck and they all gang rush you the other way you can’t fault them in any of those as far as goals one, two, three and four.

You also have to give credit to the coaching of the L.A. Kings to come back like the way they did and that goes to head coach Darryl Sutter whose been around a long time and he really knows his hockey. He knows his players how not to fall into the trap. I absolutely enjoy all of his media time, his interviews their very quick and controlled with an answer or their very witty .

Sutter doesn’t give away too much it’s enough to make you wonder to ask “what did he just say” he’s not really straight forward he’s real vauge. He knows what to say and not what to say. He knows how not to fall in the traps of his answer of a question that he doesn’t want to answer, he’s a very smart hockey man.

Larry Leavitt does Stanley Cup Playoffs commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

One of Three Sevens: Sharks, Kings Must Win or Go Home

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By Mary Walsh

Seven. Each NHL Playoff round is a best of seven games, and three of eight first round match-ups have gone the distance. Second round dates have already been set, even for the Penguins who do not yet know who they will play.

With three Game Sevens today, it seems likely that we will see at least one upset… if you define upset as the triumph of the team with the lower position in the standings. In the case of the Pacific Division contest, the predictions have been for the third place team to upset the second place team all along, so would that even count as an upset? Is it really an upset if it was expected? Will the Kings live up to expectations, or will the Sharks reassert themselves?

All three of today’s games came to be with a Game Six win won by three goals. The Flyers and the Wild both beat their opponents 5-3 and the Kings beat the Sharks Jose 4-1. A little more eerie than that is the Philadelphia connection to Los Angeles: Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were both part of the Flyers team that upset the Bruins in 2010, and now they are in another Game Seven after a three game comeback, while their old team is playing a Game Seven on the same day.

The Sharks are not playing in three games, only one. They are not even playing in seven games, they only have one tonight. Is it any different from any other game? Sharks forward Logan Couture said:

Every playoff game has a different atmosphere compared to a regular season game. I mean, guys know, obviously, what’s at stake. I don’t think it’s any big difference.

Playing in and winning a Game Seven is every young hockey player’s dream. But after squandering a three game lead in the series, the Sharks might be feeling some extra pressure. This morning, Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle was asked about the fun and the pressure of a Game Seven:

This is fun, you know everyone’s going to talk about how we got to this point but at this point it really doesn’t matter. We’re in Game Seven, we got to win a hockey game to move on and we’re at home. So you’re right this is fun and we’ve got to channel our energy the right way.

The Kings won three games in a row, as did the Sharks, but the Kings played all of those games with the threat of elimination hanging over them. They were all “win or go home” situations. Is it any different for the Sharks now that they too must win or go home? This morning, Sharks defenseman Jason Demers said:

I don’t think so. But it’s like I said, it’s just about executing. You can talk as much as you want about x’s and o’s, but it’s just about executing those x’s and o’s… Just executing when we need to execute to win.

Sharks head coach Todd McLellan’s approach to the win or go home situation is to go back to his core group:

I think our core on our team has to step up, and they were there early in the series. LA’s core has been there later in the series. Tonight’s the deciding game and in my opinion Nemo’s a very big part of that core and they’re going to get their chance to perform in Game Seven.

It is April 30, 2014, or 4/30/14. Add month and day together without the zeros and you get seven. Divide the year by two and you get seven. All three games start in the seventh hour, two of them at seven sharp. It seems like it should mean something, but I can’t tell what that is or what could possibly be done about it. Probably a safe bet that everyone should steer clear of deadly sins.

Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi said his routine would not change for this game:

I just got to think about my own game… and do the same things to get ready as I do every day.

Sounds like a plan.

A’s Wallop Rangers 9-3

Published on by kahlilnajar7Leave a comment
ARLINGTON, TX - APRIL 29: Derek Norris #36 of the Oakland Athletics hit a two run double for Coco Crisp #4 and Yoenis Cespedes #52 in the first inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington on April 29, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Rick Yeatts/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX – APRIL 29: Derek Norris #36 of the Oakland Athletics hit a two run double for Coco Crisp #4 and Yoenis Cespedes #52 in the first inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington on April 29, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Rick Yeatts/Getty Images)

By Kahlil Najar

ARLINGTON – A day after beating Yu Darvish, the Oakland A’s beat the Rangers other ace Martin Perez 9-3. Derek Norris went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and Yoenis Cespedes appeared to be feeling a lot better as he crossed the plate three times.

The A’s got on the board first when Derek Norris smacked his fourth double of the year and drove in Coco Crisp who had doubled to lead off the game and Cesepedes who had ben walked right before he got to the plate. Josh Reddick added to the A’s lead in the top of the second when he drove in Craig Gentry from third on a ground out to Prince Fielder.The A’s then made it a 4-0 game when Norris hit his second double of the night and drove in Cespedes for his second run of the night.

The Rangers finally erased the zero from their scoreboard when Alex Rios hit a sharp fly ball double to center field and drove in Adrian Beltre to make it 4-1 after four innings. The A’s then added five runs in the top of the fifth with two bases loaded walks, a single from Reddick that scored Cesepedes and Callaspo and a wild pitch from the Rangers Jason Frasor that scored Brandon Moss who was at third to make it a 9-1 game.

The Rangers were only able to muster up two runs in the bottom of the fifth and closed the scoring on the game for a 9-3 win for Oakland.

A’s pitcher Scott Kazmir is now an impressive 4-0 and lasted five innings and only surrendered three runs and struck out four. Cook, Abad and Doolittle finished off the last four innings and only gave up one hit and struck out five.

The A’s and Rangers square off again on Wednesday in Arlington when the A’s send up Jesse Chavez against Robbie Ross Jr.

Warriors trail Clippers in series, 3-2

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By George Devine, Sr.

Tonight’s game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors actually began when NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling was banned from the Association for life and would have to pay $2.5 million in fines. This came after a league investigation determined that Sterling indeed made racist comments recorded by a woman described as his girlfriend. With this morning’s press conference the Clippers were free to return to the series, tied at 2-2, without a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the team and the league as a whole.

Pretty much unencumbered by the recent controversy, the Clippers won by a 113-103 margin, gaining a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series. An advantage for them was the obvious enthusiasm of the hometown crowd at Staples Center in downtown L.A., sharing in the relief brought by a resolution of the Sterling situation. The outcome could have been very different: prior to the morning’s announcement by the commissioner, there were rumblings about players boycotting and fans turning their backs on the game. It didn’t happen, after the prompt action of the league.

At times, the game was closer than indicated by the final score. In the second period Golden State outscored Los Angeles 29-24. In the third, the teams tied at 22, and late in the frame a 3-pointer by Steph Curry gave the Warriors a short-lived lead, 70-69. But the persistence of the home team prevailed as Deandre Jordan led the attack with 25 points, 18 rebounds and 4 blocks. Chris Paul scored 20 and had 5 steals. Blake Griffin scored 18 and Darren Collison 15.

For the Warriors, three of the starters played for most of the game: Andre Iguodala played for 42:21, notching 18 points and 8 assists; Klay Thompson for 44:46 with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists; Curry for 43:42 with 17 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. David Lee scored 18, had 10 boards and 4 assists. Draymond Green had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Green, Lee and Thompson were all in foul trouble with 5 apiece.

The next game in the series is at Los Angeles, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PDT on Thursday, May 1.

Note: When the Giants’ game against the San Diego Padres ended at AT&T Park, a goodly portion of the 40,000+ in attendance stayed in the ballpark to watch the conclusion of the game from Staples on the stadium JumboTron.

Petit comes up big in emergency start

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By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Pawn Stars star Chumlee may have thrown out the ceremonial first pitch on Tuesday night, but what Angel Pagan did in the bottom of the first inning was just as impressive.

Pagan hit a leadoff home run off of Eric Stults in the bottom of the first inning, and after a Hunter Pence groundout, Buster Posey hit a solo home run, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres 6-0 before a sellout crowd of 41,952, the 260th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

In a spot start due to an injury of original starter Matt Cain, Yusmeiro Petit pitched six innings, did not allow a run, gave up just three hits, allowed no walks and struck out four on his way to his second win of the season.

Cain was scratched from the game about an hour prior to the start of the game due to a cut on his right index finger that was suffered in a

Stults was able to retire the Giants in order in the bottom of the second inning, but the third inning was a different story for the former Giants pitcher.

The left-hander loaded the bases with nobody out, but then was able to get Michael Morse to ground into a double play that retired Pagan at the plate.

Stults then walked Pablo Sandoval intentionally, but the plan backfired, as Hector Sanchez hit a sharp two-run single up the middle that chased Stults.

Donn Roach allowed a sacrifice fly to Sanchez in the bottom of the fifth inning, but Roach did something in the top of the sixth inning that he will never forget.

Roach picked up his first major league hit, a double to the right-center field gap off of Petit.

The Feitelberg Report: NBA Commissioner shuts door on Sterling with lifetime ban and $2.5 M fine

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The NBA and its commissioner Adam Silver moved very swiftly to end Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling his ownership of the club. The NBA banned him for life and he cannot attend any games or be around the Clippers’ offices or practice facilities and cannot attend any Board of Governors meetings. In short, he is through and the NBA imposed a 2.5 million dollar fine.

What Sterling said was totally inappropriate and we live in the 21st century. Black athletes have come a long way since 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color line for baseball and , in effect, all sports. Many of us remember the days when black athletes had to play in segregated leagues. Satchell Paige, Willie Mays. Hank Aaron all played in the Negro Leagues. The only job that black basketball players could get was to play with the Harlem Globetrotters. Black athletes have shown the world that they can compete and win at the highest level of any sport.

In the mid 50’s the Boston Celtics started to bring in black players. Bill Russell was the most notable but he was followed by Sam Jones and K.C. Jones. NYU’s Tom Sanders became an important piece of the great run of championships that the Celtics enjoyed in the 50’s and 60’s. I believe the Celtics were the first team to utilize five black players on the court at the same time. The University of Texas at El Paso won an NCAA championship with all black players.

Other great black players include Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy and the list goes on and on.

Most owners want to get the best players because winning is what counts in pro sports. Winning improves attendance. When you sell your product to the people there is no room for racism. People of all ethnic backgrounds are entitled to buy a ticket and watch the product on the court. When your team goes on a run, fans generally high five the people sitting round them without regard to race or ethnic background.

There is no room in sports for an owner like Donald Sterling. He will, unfortunately,

profit handsomely when his team is sold. Sterling can run his real estate business

until he dies but the NBA and all other pro sports teams do not need him or anyone else that thinks like him.

Jerry Feitelberg is a talk show host on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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Jerry Feitelberg
jyf1938@gmail.com