An Ohio State Sports Blog
Today, the NHL announced the CBJ schedule for the 2006/7 season.
The season opens against Vancouver on October 6, and features a division matchup on New Year’s Eve against the Blackhawks.
Also, this is currently classified as a “rumor,” but the Jackets might have a home preseason game against the world champion ‘Canes in September! More on that later, if it pans out.
In the aftermath of last week’s World Cup fiasco, I found myself wondering – how is it that the USA men’s team was beaten so badly? Obviously, the team’s level of talent doesn’t approach that of their African and European counterparts.
But more interesting than the US team’s humiliating performance was the fact that nobody even noticed. The world has gone ape for the World Cup, but here in the US, World Cup news is what gets shoved into newscasts between baseball scores and NHL draft news.
“So, didya hear that the US men lost?” “What US men?” “The soccer team, you dolt.” “Yawn… oh, yeah. What about it?”So, here’s my attempt at an explanation as to why soccer is so popular worldwide, and why folks in the US generally don’t care.
Well, the Indians finally did something they haven’t managed to do in months… start a series with a victory.
So, the question is: Are the recent difficulties in Cleveland (losers of 11 of the past 16 games and seven consecutive series) due to simply playing in MLB’s toughest division? Or is it just bad baseball?
Wedge was selected as a coach for next month’s All Star game, so it’s clear what Ozzie Guillen’s opinion is. (Did I just write that?)
At any rate, if the Indians can win the series heading into the break, maybe it’ll provide some momentum for the summertime playoff push. After all, they’re only behind Detroit by about one or two dozen games. (Holy cow, did I just write that?)
The CBJ took center Derick Brassard as their first pick on Saturday. Brass (his moniker) earned the Michael Bossy trophy winner as Quebec’s best pro hockey prospect last year. He scored 44 goals and had 72 assists – in just 58 games, and despite breaking his wrist.
It seems clear now that the CBJ has spent the past couple of years building a “finesse” team… Brass will join the team’s other three talented group of youths: Zherdev, Nash, and Brule. All four are finesse players with excellent playmaking ability. Brass is likely to be the speediest player among them.
He’s a little too small to be an effective NHL center right now (6’1″, 172 lbs.), so no doubt he’ll be sent to Syracuse to bulk up. Expect to see him at Nationwide when he gets closer to 200 lbs., perhaps as early as 2007/2008, barring any injuries. The future looks to be an exciting, high scoring one.
