NHL ramps up for the Playoffs!

Lord Stanley's Cup awaits this years Hockey Champion. (Courtesy NHL.com)

It's that time of year again! March Madness is over, Baseball has started its season but Hockey is just kicking into gear. All eyes will be on the NHL for the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs! Here are the updated playoff predictions.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Washington Capitals Vs. (8) Montreal Canadiens

With the Capitals clinching not only their division and the Eastern Conference but the President's Trophy for Best Record in the Regular Season (and also home-ice in the playoffs), they really look like the team to beat. After tripping up in Game 1 and righting the ship in Game 2, the Caps look to be in control of this series. I see them winning and moving on to play Boston, Pittsburgh or the Flyers.

Prediction: Caps in 5.

(2) New Jersey Devils Vs. (7) Philadelphia Flyers

The Devils were manhandled during the season by the Flyers, only managing one win. This series will be determined if the Devils can tie it. If not, I see the Flyers on their way to a matchup with the Caps.

Prediction: Devils in 7.

(3) Buffalo Sabres Vs. (6) Boston Bruins

Buffalo, we have a problem. Down two games to one, the Sabres are without Vanek, their leading scorer. The Bruins are bigger and playing better hockey than the Sabres. Unless Vanek returns and Miller can stand on his head for three games, they're toast.

Prediction: Bruins in 6.

(4) Pittsburgh Penguins Vs. (5) Ottawa Senators

The Pens tripped up in game one but have turned on the jets beating the Senators 4-2 in their last two games. I don't see Ottawa returning in this series.

Prediction: Pens in 5.

Lookout for: The Washington Capitals. A team on a mission and thirsts for the Stanley Cup.

Team on the decline: Buffalo Sabres. True they won their division but now are down 2-1 in their series with a pesky Boston team. Hit the Panic Button now Buffalo!

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) San Jose Sharks Vs. (8) Colorado Avalanche

The Sharks missed out on their second straight President's Trophy but still won the top seed in the West. But now down two games to one thanks in large part to team error, the Sharks are in trouble of getting ousted yet again in round one. If this happens, the Sharks need to fire the GM. Someone needs to be held accountable and they've already fired coaches more than 4 times.

Prediction: Avalanche in 6.

(2) Chicago Blackhawks Vs. (7) Nashville Predators

The Blackhawks look to take control of this series as the 1-1 tie gets broken tonight. I think Chicago has suspect goaltending but won't lose to the Predators.

Prediction: Blackhawks in 6.

(3) Vancouver Canucks Vs. (6) Los Angeles Kings

The Canucks wrapped up their division over Colorado and now are down two games to one with Roberto Luongo getting chased out of net in game 3. Very troubling and with Luongo in doubt, I see the Kings victorious.

Prediction: Kings in 6.

(4) Phoenix Coyotes Vs. (5) Detroit Red Wings

The Coyotes, owned by the NHL, have surprised everyone with their play this season. At one point, they gave away free tickets to everyone in the crowd to their next game if they won. What helped them win over and build a fanbase, the Coyotes take it to the playoffs in hopes of keeping their dream season alive. The Red Wings have once again caught fire at the right time. However, Howard is showing his rust and now is not a good time for that. If Phoenix wins game 4, the series is over.

Prediction: Phoenix in 6.

Lookout for: Phoenix Coyotes and L.A. Kings. Both young, these teams are catching fire at the right time and are playing out of their minds.

Team on the decline: Detroit Red Wings. Suspect goaltending and aging players are putting them in an early hole. A loss in Game 4 and they are good as gone.

NHL Semi-Final Predictions:

EAST

(1) Washington Capitals Vs. (6) Boston Bruins

(2) New Jersey Devils Vs. (4) Pittsburgh Penguins

WEST

(2) Chicago Blackhawks Vs. (8) Colorado Avalanche

(4) Phoenix Coyotes Vs. (6) L.A. Kings

Why Duke was more lucky than good

Devil in a Blue Dress?

One of the weaker of the 4 Duke teams to claim the National Title, the Blue Devils relied on help from the NCAA Committee and a little luck (Courtesy CoachK.com)

Finally. The NCAA Mens Basketball season is over. After a crazy NCAA Tournament, the Duke Blue Devils came out of the rubble victorious and National Champs. But did Duke really deserve to win? Did they play the best out of every single team in the tournament? The answer to those are yes they deserved to win but no they did not play the best out of everyone. Before all the Duke fans chastise me let's look at the facts.

1. Duke won the ACC regular season and tournament title so the #1 seed was deserving. BUT putting them in the easiest bracket? I think someone on the committee wanted Duke to have the easy path so they could potentially play Kentucky, one of the best rivalries in the history of college basketball. Too bad that blew up in their faces when Kentucky lost to West Virginia.
   
2. Duke's road went through Arkansas Pine-Bluff, California, Purdue, Baylor, West Virginia and Butler. Not the most difficult road with the only bumps being Baylor and Butler. Meanwhile, Butler went through UTEP, Murray State, Syracuse, Kansas State, Michigan State and then Duke. That's the toughest road to the Final Four since George Mason had to go through Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State, UConn and Florida.
   
3. Duke was not the strongest team in the tournament. As far as ranking the #1 seeds, they were the fourth #1 seed out of the four.
   
4. Let's face it, without Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State and Syracuse, Duke had it pretty easy getting to the Final Four.
   

Now I am not diminishing the 4th National Title in any way. The winner of that game deserved the title for the way they played. But all this "Coach K is the greatest of all time" talk is a bunch of bologna. Sure, he has 4 National Titles, but is he really the BEST all time? Wooden has 10 National Titles. Adolph Rupp has four National Titles. Roy Williams has two National Titles. All those coaches are great coaches but to say Coach K is the G.O.A.T. is ridiculous. I'd say Top 5 coach of all time but not the best that's for sure since he teaches the "School of Flop."

So who will be the top dog next season? It certaintly will not be Duke.

'Four'-gone Conclusion

He looks pretty ridiculous now that Kentucky is out of the NCAA Tournament doesn't he? (Courtesy Photo)

Well folks, March Madness is subsiding. After the Elite 8 saw Ohio State then Kentucky get the boot, Michigan State outlasted Tennessee and Duke became the odds on favorite beating Baylor 78-71 to reach the Final Four for the first time in 8 years.

Coach K got the easiest draw of the tournament and took advantage of it as Duke rolled over their competition. Duke only has to win two more and they'll win Coach K his 4th Championship, tying him with Adolph Rupp of Kentucky. They have to play a pesky West Virginia team who could win it all.

Kentucky looked unbeatable in the first three rounds but "played to lose" instead of "played to win," something they have not done the entire tournament. Say goodbye to Demarcus Cousins, John Wall, Patrick Patterson and possibly Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton. Calipari will be starting from scratch yet again and if this formula does not work next season, he will definitely have to retool it.

So what are my predictions for the Final Four? I really don't care since my team is out (Kentucky) but I'll pick for the fun of it: West Virginia OVER Duke; Butler OVER Michigan State. Champion: Butler OVER West Virginia.

Let's root for the mid-major to win it all. Hope everyone had a great March Madness!

March Madness: Part 2

The overall #1 Kansas Jayhawks were shocked by #9 Northern Iowa in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament. (Courtesy Photo)

John Wall and the Kentucky Wildcats dominated the first two rounds winning by an average of 30 points. (Courtesy Photo)

Welcome to the greatest time of the sports year: March Madness. What a first week of the tournament! Shocking upsets, double digit seeds raiding the party and the overall top seed falling in the round of 32. Let's dive in to what happened:

• The overall #1 Kansas Jayhawks ended their season in a loss to #9 Northern Iowa in the round of 32. The last overall #1 to lose in the second round was Kentucky in 2004 to UAB.
• In the round of 64, EIGHT double-digit seeds made it to the round of 32, the most since 1985. Three are still dancing in the Sweet 16: #10 St. Mary's (Calif.) - Defeated #7 Richmond and #2 Villanova; #11 Washington - Defeated #6 Marquette and #3 New Mexico; and #12 Cornell - Defeated #5 Temple and #4 Wisconsin.
• Syracuse and Purdue are surprising me with their play so far in the tourney. Syracuse was without their star center due to injury. If he plays in the tourney remains to be seen. Purdue lost one of their top scorers for the season but have somehow found a way to make it work.
  

Analysis:

East

The Kentucky Wildcats have been the most dominite team on the floor. Beating #16 East Tennessee State 100-71 and then #9 Wake Forest 90-60, the Cats are looking solid and ready to make their run for their first National Title since 1998. John Wall has been the leader with players like Eric Bledsoe (8-9 in 3 pointers in game 1) and Darius Miller (Career-high 21 in the Wake Forest game) stepping up. That's the reality with this team: you shut one of them down, there are plenty more that can fill in. Their road goes through Cornell then possibly West Virginia or Washington. But with how physical they are, I see them in the Final Four by the end of this weekend.

West

The Syracuse Orange have rolled in their first two round wins over Vermont and Gonzaga. They have a tough road to get to the Final Four with Kansas State possibly being their Elite 8 matchup. It's a toss up between them and K-State for the Final Four.

South

Duke has had a quiet road so far with wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and California. They have the easiest road of all the top seeds remaining with a game against a pesky Purdue team and then Baylor or St. Mary's (Calif.) Look for them in the Final Four unless #4 Purdue or #3 Baylor trips them up.

Midwest

With #1 Kansas now out of the tournament, this opens up the door for #2 Ohio State. In the top of their bracket, #9 Northern Iowa takes on #5 Michigan State while #2 Ohio State takes on #6 Tennessee. With Player of the Year Evan Turner, I just don't see Ohio State NOT making the Final Four. The only team I'd be concerned with is "Cinderella" Northern Iowa. They are the only one out of the three cinderellas left that have a chance to crash the Final Four.

Predictions

MidWest: Northern Iowa OVER Michigan State; Ohio State OVER Tennessee
Ohio State OVER Northern Iowa
Region Champ: Ohio State

West: Syracuse OVER Butler; Kansas State OVER Xavier
Kansas State OVER Syracuse
Region Champ: Kansas State

East: Kentucky OVER Cornell; West Virginia OVER Washington
Kentucky OVER West Virginia
Region Champ: Kentucky

South: Duke OVER Purdue; Baylor OVER St. Mary's (Calif.)
Duke OVER Baylor
Region Champ: Duke

So the Final Four in Indy should be: Ohio State Vs. Kansas State and Kentucky Vs. Duke.

March Madness commences Thursday night! GO BIG BLUE!

"Lost Boy" Corey Haim dead at 38

Corey Haim, 1980's heartthrob and friend to Corey Feldman, died Wednesday, March 10 of an accidental drug overdose. Here he is in happier times on "The Lost Boys." (Courtesy Photo)

On Wednesday, March 10 around 2:15 a.m. west coast time, Corey Haim was pronounced dead. The 1980's teen heartthrob of such films as "Lucas," "License to Drive," "The Lost Boys," "Dream a Little Dream 1 & 2" and most recently "Crank 2: High Voltage" died of a reported accidental overdose of prescription drugs. He was just 38 years old.

Haim tried so hard to recapture the magic from the 80's that made him an A-list star. But drugs and alcohol addiction took their toll on him and he was forced to doing mostly direct-to-video(DVD) releases. It wasn't until 2007 when Haim tried to reconcile with Feldman on A&E's "The Two Coreys" that his career started to turn for the better. He took out the full page ad in Variety stating that he was back and ready to work. He went to therapy with Feldman and Susie. But none of this could quiet the demons of his drug addiction thus leading to his untimely demise.

The person I feel most sorry for right now is Corey Feldman. This man has lost his best friend in Haim and another close friend in Michael Jackson within a year. Both accidental drug overdoses. His now ex-wife Susie Sprague filed for divorce on Oct. 22 after seven years of marriage. Not a banner year for anyone. In a statement to the media, Corey Feldman said:

"I was awakened at 8:30 this morning by my brother and sister knocking on my bedroom door. They informed me of the loss of my brother Corey Haim. My eyes weren't even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face. I am so sorry for Corey, his mother Judy, his family, my family, all of our fans, and of course my son who I will have to find a way to explain this to when he gets home from school. This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend. We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. Please respect our families as we struggle and grieve through this difficult time. I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived.

- Corey Feldman"The Two Coreys"

I am hoping Feldman is surrounded by family and friends to get through this difficult hurdle in his life. He is a talented person as well as an actor. Here's hoping we see him act again sometime in the future.

Unfortunately this story has been told many times before. How Hollywood welcomes you, makes you a star then spits you out forgotten. I remember one of the episodes of "The Two Coreys" where Haim goes to a young acting class to warn these kids about the price of fame and how they should handle it to avoid his path. Here's hoping he got through to them. R.I.P. Corey Haim. The world is less brighter without you in it.

Post Oscar Hangover

The 82nd Academy Awards were as predictable as usual with Kathryn Bigalow winning the two big Oscars for Best Director and Picture for "The Hurt Locker" (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

For the fourth time in five years, an independent film has won the Best Picture Oscar. Is Big Hollywood over? As far as the summer movies no, but for Oscar-calibar films the sun is setting. You gotta give Kathryn Bigalow a lot of credit. "The Hurt Locker" was lauded as one of the best films of 2009 and with all the campaigning for it, the little $13 million dollar film slayed James Cameron's billion dollar grossing monumental movie "Avatar."

Don't get me wrong, Bigalow is a fantastic director. Her movie about the gritty Iraq war bomb squads was chilling. I just never saw it as the best movie of 2010. This reminds me of the year "Brokeback Mountain" was the odds on favorite to win only to have "Crash" upset the Ang Lee film. Again, a good movie won but not the best of that year. The Oscars need to look long and hard at who they give this award to. The best movies are not getting the award they deserve.

"Avatar" was a phenominal film. The story was lacking and had been done but the visual effects and 3-D has changed the way movies will be made forever. Cameron deserves the award solely for that merit.

All the actor awards were decided way in advance of the Oscars. Wins by Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz were well deserved. Tarantino came up empty but has an Oscar already for "Pulp Fiction." One of these days he's going to blow the lid off the Oscars and win Director and Picture. He's such a fantastic filmmaker and writer.

So what will 2010 bring? Who knows but there are 10 open slots for Best Picture. Let's hope this years list is more competitive.

2010 Academy Award Predictions

Ten Movies vie for the one Oscar© for Best Picture Sunday, March 7 at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards (Oscar.com)

This Sunday marks a historic night for the Oscars. For the first time in nearly half a century, 10 movies will vie for Best Picture at the 82nd annual Academy Awards. Now as I said in a earlier blog, there are two groups of nominees for Best Picture: Top 5 and Bottom 5. The Top 5 Films are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air and Up. The Bottom 5 Films are District 9, The Blind Side, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Saphire, An Education and A Serious Man. Who will win Oscar Gold? The Actor races are set but Director and Picture are anyones guess. Here's a look at my predictions:

Best Picture
* Avatar
* The Blind Side
* District 9
* An Education
* The Hurt Locker
* Inglorious Basterds
* Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
* A Serious Man
* Up
* Up in the Air

Prediction:
This category is interesting. I totally agree with the Oscars expanding the category to 10. If that was done 2 years ago, "The Dark Knight" would have easily won Best Picture. But the first year of this expansion shows that after 6 or 7 films, it was tough to fill in the rest. "A Serious Man" is the longest shot but got the nod because the Academy loves the Cohen Brothers. The two films that have a legitimate shot are "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker." With all the controversy and negative press for "Locker," I'm going to have to give the edge to "Avatar." A film of historic preportions (both fiscally and visually) and the biggest movie of all time deserves to be recognized. Bigalow will get the Oscar for Director while Cameron will win his 2nd Best Picture Oscar and cement his name in Hollywood lore.

Best Director
* James Cameron "Avatar"
* Kathryn Bigalow "The Hurt Locker"
* Quentin Tarantino "Inglorious Basterds"
* Lee Daniels "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
* Jason Reitman "Up in the Air"

Thoughts: What a powerful group of Directors. All worthy of this award, Bigalow has the edge in this category. She would be the first female director to ever win and her film would be recognized. I think this will be their recognition as Best Picture will go to the well-deserved "Avatar."

Best Actor in a Leading Role
* Jeff Bridges "Crazy Heart"
* George Clooney "Up in the Air"
* Colin Firth "A Single Man"
* Morgan Freeman "Invictus"
* Jeremy Renner "The Hurt Locker"

Thoughts:
This race has been done for a while. Jeff Bridges role of a lifetime (with a story almost like "The Wrestler" only with a County Music legend in the lead role) will win the Oscar for Best Actor. Sure, Colin Firth won the BAFTA (he is British afterall) but Bridges picked up the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild trophy. The only actor that could come close is George Clooney but that would take a Roberto Benigini type upset.

Best Actress in a Leading Role
* Sandra Bullock "The Blind Side"
* Helen Miren "The Last Station"
* Carey Mulligan "An Education"
* Gabourey Sidibe "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
* Meryl Streep "Julie and Julia"

Thoughts:
Like Best Actor, this category has been locked up for a while. Bullock won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and a slew of critic awards for her role in "The Blind Side." Get your speech ready Sandra!

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
* Matt Damon "Invictus"
* Woody Harrelson "The Messenger"
* Christopher Plummer "The Last Station"
* Stanley Tucci "The Lovely Bones"
* Christoph Waltz "Inglorious Basterds"

Thoughts:
Am I sounding like a broken record? Yet another category locked up with Waltz's stellar performance as a Nazi in "Inglorious Basterds." Tucci is the only other competition but the nomination is all he can hope for on Oscar night.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
* Penelope Cruz "Nine"
* Vera Farmiga "Up in the Air"
* Maggie Gyllenhaal "Crazy Heart"
* Anna Kendrick "Up in the Air"
* Mo'Nique "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

Thoughts: Another category that is already decided. Mo'Nique has dominated winning the BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Gulld and many critic awards for her protrayal of a gritty, abusive mother. All the other ladies are definitely worthy of this award but Cruz won for Woody Allen's film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Farmiga and Kendrick will cancel each other out and Gyllenhaal should just enjoy the nomination. Her time will come but this year it's Mo'Nique!

Here's hoping the Oscars are not a ratings disaster (1989 is deemed the worst Oscar telecast in history.) With Baldwin and Martin, we'll see. As long as one doesn't try to upstage the other it should be a funny show.

So who will walk away victorious? Watch ABC Sunday night at 8pm!