Why do we continue to love bad teams?

A truly great question, and one that people ask me all the time. It's one that I ask myself. JD wrote a post about it concerning the Reds (and other Ohio teams). Specifically, he asks

"So why is it this way? Why can't we step back and look at these teams objectively?"

It's worth reading, if you're into bad teams. Which I am. The Reds and the Raiders. My other two teams have been doing pretty dang well lately. It's hard to deal with sometimes, a lot of losing. But it happens. And I still remain interested. I can't pull away. I expect to win, even if those expectations are not well placed.

Bye bye Olmedo

Rosey Crayons drops the beat.

Granted the great Ray Olmedo didn't do a WHOLE lot for the Reds, but he was a very capable Triple-A player and always gave full effort when he got a shot with the major league club. He hit well, he played impressive defense, and was pretty much a solid guy. I'll miss him. Sad.

Devils 4, Flyers 3 (Shootout)

Goals:
First Period: Ryan Potulny, Flyers (unassisted)
Scott Gomez, Devils (PPG) (Rafalski, Elias)
Second Period: None
Third Period: Kyle Calder, Flyers (Carter)
Jamie Langenbrunner, Devils (Greene, Parise)
Simon Gagne, Flyers (PPG) (Knuble, Forsberg)
Brian Gionta, Devils (Martin, Elias)

Shots on Goal: 38-23 Devils

Penalties: Devils - 4 minutes, Flyers - 14 minutes

What???!!?? The Devils won a shootout??!!?? Yes sir! Wild game today. Times of great focus from the Devils, times of pretty sloppy play. They were shooting like mad and thankfully some late goals fell through. They were on their way to zero points, but they pressed late and got the score to send it into overtime. So at least a point was guaranteed. But then Broduer felt like SHUTTING THE GATE and denying all three Flyer shooters in the shootout and Gionta scored a pretty little goal to take home the two points. Well done. I mean, not really. But yeah, well done!

--FIRST PERIOD--

The Devils took a while to get going in this one. I used to remember hating the Flyers with a passion, almost as much as the Rangers. Because the Flyers were dang good and always beating the Devils. But they haven't been all that good recently, so I don't hate them all that much. I'd still prefer a win today, though. I think the Devils have picked up enough steam to carry them into the second period.

--SECOND PERIOD--

The score should not be tied. The Devils had many opportunities to score, and not just on the power plays that they screwed up. They have a lot of shots on goal tonight, but there's a difference in my book between shots on goal and quality shots on goal. Although it seemed the Devils had quality chances, the actual shot is just not there. The defense is playing very well, as the Flyers can't muster hardly any offense at all. It was all lined up for the Devils to take a lead, as they clearly had the momentum. They are winning the faceoff battle and time of puck possession. It just wasn't meant to be. Hopefully we can see some magic later on.

--THIRD PERIOD--

Too dang much scoring. Not many shots registered on Brodeur, but they kept going in the net due to general sloppiness on the Devils part. They played relatively well, plenty of shots and plenty of puck time, they were just maybe a little too loose. The Devils were down 3-2 late and just when it was inevitable that they were going to head to an ugly (and I mean UGLY) loss, Gionta gets it to go with 20 seconds left!!! Time for overtime!

--OVERTIME--

Nothing settled here. It's going to a shootout. I don't like it, it usually doesn't work well for the Devils. See you on the other side.

Stevey, we hardly knew ye

Steve Sarkisian, who was to be the savior of the Oakland Raiders, has refused the non-offer. If that makes sense, good, you're ahead of the game. That's pretty much the story. To be honest, I was buying the hype about this guy, even though he's proved nothing to be worthy of being a head coach. Oh well. Back to the Rob Ryan bandwagon, the one I never left in the first place.

Mavericks 114, Lakers 95

Sweet justice. There was domination in Dallas. The Mavs killed them in shooting percentage, killed them on the boards, killed them in assists, killed them in blocks, and killed them in points. Kobe had an off night (and if 26 is an "off night," then you know he's dang good) and the Mavericks rolled early and often. Piece of cake.