The Blackhawks' First Quarter: Room for Improvement

There's better pictures out there of the championship baaner ceremony, but few of them fit very well in the quarterly graphic. So there ya go. (You can go here to watch the ceremony, or get a better range of images here.)

When the NHL dropped the puck on this 2013-14 season, it seemed to come up on a lot of people sooner than usual. That was partly because we were coming off a shortened season that didn't begin until January last time around and partly because this season did start a little sooner than usual thanks to the three-week interruption we'll get courtesy of the Homophobic Hockey Winter Olympics over on the other side of the planet. 

So whereas I was quite the dedicated fan last year who listened to or watched every single 'Hawks game, this season's competing with playoff baseball and regular season NFL as well as us finally cutting the cord with cable has ultimately seen me only pay passing attention to the developments of games I get in the form of various push notifications on my cell phone. And the one thing that has been an annoying constant thus far this season is being informed that Chicago will be up 2-0 or 3-0, but then later that evening I will be told to tune in because the game is tied and is going to overtime. Sure, the Blackhawks end up winning a majority of these contests (I'm a little stunned to read that the 'Hawks are 1.000 when leading after one and .917 when leading after two, but are 3-4 in overtime), but the defense late in games is my foremost concern. 

Some of that has to do with goaltending issues (possibly because of new equipment?), largely because Nikolai Khabibulin thus far has not shown any signs of being anywhere near the backup that Ray Emery was last year. However, another aspect concerns a penalty kill that has essentially been the complete opposite of the dominance showcased last year. Still, none of these are issues that cannot be corrected. 

And it's hard to complain too much when Chicago sits atop the division standings.

The Bears' Second Quarter: One Game Makes A World of Difference

Even during the conclusion to the last quarter of the season, there were signs that this year's Bears defense was going to be one that was going to struggle. Still, it was hard for me to imagine that Chicgao's D would be as awful as it has been, and things only got worse this past quarter when Lance Briggs became the latest player to sustain an injury. Oh, and Jay Cutler went down too.

I was preparing to search for a very frumpy-looking Marc Trestman photo to use for this quarter's graphic after the team suffered a convincing loss to New Orleans, came up with on the losing end of a shootout with the woeful Washington Redskins, and barely beat a then-winless New York Giants. Then suddenly, lo and behold, this past Monday night in a game that the rival Packers were supposed to basically have wrapped up by the end of the first half, an incredible thing happened: Green Bay's star quarterback was not only sacked, not only suffered an injury that forced him from the game, not only will miss several weeks of action, but all of this was the result of a play by much-maligned first round draft pick Shea McClellin.

Not only did the Bears pull off a stunning upset on Monday night to stay above .500, but Chicago now sits in a three-way tie for first place. With Jay Cutler expected to return in a matter of weeks, the playoffs still seem like a very real possibility for many fans. Perhaps that's fair, but I say slow down. After all, the Lions were my Super Bowl pick. Still, there is one Wild Card out there.

Final Thoughts on 2013 MLB Season: #BostonStrong, Pundits Weak

When a Nationals-Tigers World Series was more or less the consensus pick at the beginning of this season, I said in my predictions that it reminded me of 2011. I once again brought up a 2011 reference when the Braves concluded their third quarter. And so at year end, who should happen to win the whole thing? The team I picked to win it all in 2011, of course.

As I mentioned before, I was far from being the only person who didn't have either of these teams in the Fall Classic, seeing as none of the 63 "experts" recorded by PunditTracker had Boston or St. Louis. In fact, I was like most in relegating Boston to the basement of the American League East, so the fact that the Red Sox instead ended up winning it all is quite incredible. And while I wasn't really rooting for either one of these teams, I certainly did take some joy in knowing how miserable the loss made Cardinals fans. Thanks to the Baseball's Best Fans Twitter, we got to see every single racist, homophobic and plainly insensitive tweet from the St. Louis faithful, many of which referenced the Boston Marathon bombings (one particular lowlife actually got arrested). So I can wholeheartedly endorse the city finally getting to savor a championship, you know, considering the additional pain residents endured this past summer.

Final Thoughts on 2013 Atlanta Braves: Yet another early farewell

My skepticism about the Braves heading into this postseason appears to have been justified.  Sure, I was cheering for the thought of a possible Game 5 in Atlanta during what turned out to be the final game of the year in Los Angeles, but it was clear I had a bad feeling even when the Bravos were holding a lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning. Witness this tweet as Juan Uribe came to the plate with a man on:

Be careful. Uribe's a spoiler.
— excitable honky (@excitablehonky) October 8, 2013

Sure enough, you know how that turned out:

Juan Uribe's with a HUGE 2-run home run giving the #Dodgers the 4-3 lead over the #Braves in the bottom of the 8th #postsesason
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 8, 2013

And with that, the Braves suffered yet another immediate exit from the playoffs, leading to immediate criticism that Fredi Gonzalez should have brought in Craig Kimbrel for a two-inning save and that David Carpenter was somehow representative of a bullpen that couldn't be trusted. Hindsight, as the old saying goes, is always 20/20. Truth be told, there's no guarantee Kimbrel would have been able to get six outs instead of three, and Carpenter had earned his opportunity to be entrusted with the eighth inning opportunity.

And beyond the inevitable letdown of another first-round ouster, there appears to be the additional fact that just like we said goodbye to Chipper last year and Bobby two years before that, it seems likely that we may have seen Brian McCann in an Atlanta uniform for the last time too. While the Braves catcher made innumerable contributions to the team over the year and I suspected he would step up to become the new team leader, McCann instead this year became more responsible for helping Atlanta earn the reputation of the "baseball police" in MLB. Hopefully next year will provide more reasons for the team to be more like those clubs accused of celebrating too much, you know, the ones that actually advance in the playoffs.