Super Bowl and Ice Brawls

This has been a pretty insane couple of weeks in sports. I'll just try and touch on some things.

Let us begin with the Super Bowl. That was a pretty awsome game. It threatened to be a blow out at first, then the Steelers got on track. In fact it ended up being a really close game. Aaron Rogers was absolutely out of his mind. Everyone has said that all week, but it's probably worth reiterating all the passes dropped by his receivers. Because of that, it was the Packers defense that really won that game. In a way, the last drive by the Steelers really represented that, because by stopping the Steelers, the Packers defense really did win that game. And even though I was rooting for the Steelers, if they had won, it would have been a steal. The Packers were definitely the better team that day.

Now, on to hockey. This has been a nutty week with a lot of fisticuffs. In particular, fisticuffs involving my boys, the Pittsburgh Penguins. A week and a half ago they met the islanders and it was a pretty rough game with a lot of fights. The feature match up being Brent Johnson and his one punch on Rick Dipietro that broke his face. Later in the week Boston and Montreal one upped that game with an 8-6 shootout that also happened to be a slugfest. Almost 200 penalty minutes  assessed, lauded as one of the most entertaining regular season hockey games in years. Then came Friday. The rematch of the Pens and Isles. The Islanders even brought up a goon from Bridgeport to show they meant business.

So began the grudge match. I have to say I can't remember the last time the Pens played that poorly. I could blame it on the injuries and the fact that half of our forward line up was AHLers, but I won't. The Pens have done well otherwise without Malkin and Crosby including a win against LA the previous night. So no excuses, it was a terrible showing against a terrible team.

On the scoreboard, the game was over early. The rest of the game was just plain ugly. This basically put all the fighting earlier in the week to shame. I'm won't go over each fight, in detail but Haily, the goon from Bridgeport, not only got a Gordy Howe hat trick but went on a rampage against Brent Johnson. Johnson dropped his helmet and gloves ready to fight, but then Goddard stepped in and it got all messy. By the end of the game every hit resulted in a fight. Soon they were just kicking guys out of the game. For the last 3 minutes there were only 2 guys on the Pens bench and 4 on the Isles. I've never seen anything like it.

So how do I feel about it? Well, I gotta say  this kind of fighting and the whole feeling of a grudge match is pretty exciting. But, if it happened all the time, it would probably get boring after a while. The league is cracking down, there were three long suspensions handed out after Friday's game. It's probably for the better. Still, a pretty exciting week in hockey. I'm glad I was able to catch some of it. Really, my main worry is Crosby coming back and that hopefully Malkin's injury won't ruin him. Our defense is solid, but, as was shown on friday, without a lot of help up front it can be real difficult to win games. Hopefully, Friday's events can be put in the past and regarded as a mere fluke.

And that is it, I will be back soon with some reflection on Mirrordin Besieged and some other fun Magic topics.