Today is the 20th anniversary of the Seinfeld episode concerning the holiday, Festivus. In following the tradition, this December 23rd, here is my airing of grievances and feats of strength from the major sports:
AIRING OF GRIEVANCES PLAYER’S POWER In the NBA, the power of the players to control their owners has been a constant problem. Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George and Chris Paul say they want to leave their franchise team and there’s no debate, they’re right onto listening for new deals! They say they want out and they’re gone. That’s ridiculous, but it looked like it was staying in the NBA until recently. STANTON LEAVES MIAMI Giancarlo Stanton followed in suit with the NBA stars and decided he wanted to leave the city he’s called home for his entire eight-year career. Immediately, he’s dealt to the New York Yankees, which actually leads me to my next grievance which is how a lifetime Pinstripe traded the star of the team he newly owns to the Yanks for next to nothing! Derek Jeter willingly deals the reigning National League MVP from the Miami Marlins to the Bronx for Starlin Castro and a couple of mediocre minor leaguers? Something’s not right, here. FIGHTING IN FOOTBALL From Michael Crabtree and Aqib Talib to A.J. Green and Jalen Ramsey, the fighting in the NFL has gotten out of control. The sport is dangerous enough as it is, and with the ongoing investigations into concussion protocol and CTE, they definitely do not to be scrutinized over how Ndamukong Suh stepped on Aaron Rodgers’ throat. The Cincinnati Bengals are a prime example, for they’ve been recognized as thugs ever since Adam Jones and Vontaze Burfict tried to essentially assassinate Antonio Brown in the 2015-16 AFC Wild Card. NHL LEAVES THE OLYMPICS With great players from around the globe in the NHL, it’s a real shame that this 2018 Olympic Games is the first tournament to not include the NHL athletes. Who doesn’t want to see Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin lead Team Russia against Patrick Kane and Zach Parise for Team USA, or Tuukka Rask and Team Finland against Henrik Lundqvist and Team Sweden, or the many notable faces of Team Canada against whatever sorry country they’re pitted against? The NHL doesn’t want to take two weeks out of their season anymore to showcase their best and brightest stars, but fortunately, we still have the Hockey World Championship in late spring. NBA SUPERTEAMS The Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets, the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder are prime examples of superteams. These teams are corrupting the NBA because now great players are just getting together and making it ridiculous for other teams to even try! It’s not inconceivable that the only competition in the West is the Warriors, Houston and OKC and it’s only Cleveland and Boston in the East because of these superteams. FOOD AT MARINERS’ GAMES The Seattle Mariners are a fine organization, but their food has gotten a little outlandish. Safeco Field is now serving roasted grasshoppers at Mariners’ games, but however good they may or may not taste, this writer is not on board with munching on insects. HATING TB12 The New England Patriots are often thought of as the Yankees of the NFL because they just keep on winning, but that hate is directed mainly at Tom Brady. People claim that he’s not the greatest quarterback of all time, but the stats do not lie and now people are claiming that he’s not that good when he’s the front runner for MVP. Giving the MVP Award to somebody else is like when the NBA gave the award to Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon or Magic Johnson just so Michael Jordan didn’t get it every single year; greatness gets repetitive and people need to get on board. 31 TEAMS Sure, the Las Vegas Golden Knights is a pretty addition to the NHL, but now the league is in a weird situation. The West now has 16 teams and the East has 15, lopsiding the league so that there’s one more team to contend with in the Western Conference than there is the East. Maybe it’s just an answer to how the Nashville Predators, who made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, were the last seed in the West, but the seventh seed Calgary Flames wouldn’t have made it in the East, so now teams have to do slightly better to make the playoffs. FEATS OF STRENGTH WIN STREAKS The Celtics, Cavs and Rockets all boasted win streaks in the double digits, with the Land at 12 games, Houston at 14 and the Celts at an outstanding, historic 16 games. Granted, all three of these organizations fell under my list of superteams, in the competitive National Basketball Association winning above ten games in a row is no small task. Only a strong team could pull off such a feat. ANGELIC DEALS The Los Angeles Angels are making themselves into a powerful foe for their American League counterparts. Already possessing arguably the greatest baseball player since Babe Ruth in Mike Trout, with the recent acquisition of Shohei Ohtani, Zack Cozart and Ian Kinsler, they’re a daunting danger to the daring demeanor of the distant desert teams in the AL West. The all-star Reds’ shortstop Cozart and the WBC Team USA star Ian Kinsler make a deadly, dastardly duo in the middle infield and Ohtani speaks for himself, something he doesn’t do when addressing an English-speaking crowd! They barely missed the playoffs last year, so with this rejuvenation, this year will be a wild one. THE COMEBACK Okay, okay, it was last season, but it’s still 2017 and 28-3 is the greatest Super Bowl comeback in history. Without their star tight end, Rob Gronkowski, and only held up by Tom Brady’s cool calm collectiveness, Julian Edelman’s nimble fingers, James White’s clutch speed, LeGarrette Blount’s means of just hurling himself through a defense and Martellus Bennett’s grit, Bill Belichick’s soldiers sauntered into Houston, through screeching Falcons to the first Overtime victory in Super Bowl history. A fifth ring to the GOAT’s hand through the only 21 minutes and 8 seconds of a comeback is no small deed. LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN Last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning was the tenth seed in the Eastern Conference and now they’re the best team in the entire league! This year, they have the best powerplay, most goals scored per game, the most points, most wins (and least losses), Nikita Kucherov leads the league in both goals and overall points, Anton Stralman has the best plus-minus, and Andrei Vasilevskiy has the most wins by a goaltender. This isn’t a jump from the absolute worst, but the irrelevant squadron from the 2016-2017 season is now the scariest phenom on the ice for the 2017-18 season. Now that I’ve exhausted my airing of grievances and feats of strength, it’s time to take out the festival pole. 2017 has been a good year for sports and let’s hope for an even better one in 2018, so this December 23rd can really prove to be a Festivus for the rest of us. Jesse A. Cook “Festivus” December 23, 2017
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It’s time for Music City to bring home a cup named Stanley. They made the great offseason move to trade Shea Weber to the Montréal Canadiens for P.K. Subban. The Nashville Predators are now down two games to one to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Why, not only will the Preds win the championship series, but why do they deserve it?
It’s not necessarily that Nashville is predestined to win the 2017 Cup, but it’s just that the Penguins shouldn’t. There are several teams that have won too much in the NHL: the Pens, Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, etc. Any of the remaining teams could deserve to win, but why is Nashville most deserving? That’s a good question, I mean, why not Sergei Bobrovsky’s Columbus Blue Jackets who had that insane winning streak at the beginning of this 2016-17 season? Why not Brad Marchand’s Boston Bruins who scraped their way into the postseason by beating powerhouses at the end of the year? Why Pekka Rinne’s Nashville Predators? Well, to begin with, they fought off the rallying St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks in the last two rounds. The Blues were the second round matchup and the Ducks were their opponents in the Western Conference Finals. What’s more remarkable is their victory in the first round: The top seed Chicago Blackhawks laughed in the face of the bottom seed Predators before Game 1. How could Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, and Pekka Rinne’s feeble Nashville Predators, who had barely nudged their way past the Winnipeg Jets take on Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Corey Crawford’s Blackhawks? Well, in the Game 1 Smashville shutout on the road, the Preds’ Viktor Arvidsson scored the only goal in the first period. Game 2 saw another Rinne shutout with a 5-0 victory which brought the series to Tennessee. Game 3 started out with two Chicago goals from Dennis Rasmussen and Patrick Kane in the second period. In the third, Filip Forsberg took the game into his own hands and fired two goals, one early in the period and one late, past Crawford to tie the game 2-2 and bring us to overtime. It wasn’t until 16:44 in OT that the tie was broken by the Preds’ Kevin Fiala. The current score in the series worried the now horror stricken Hawks fans as they trailed three games to none to the eight seed. Despite the third period goal from Jonathan Toews, the two goals from Josi, one goal from Colton Sissons, and final goal from Arvidsson brought the final score to 4-1 Predators, just confirming the Windy City’s worst fear: they’d, not only lost to, but been swept by the last seed in the Western Conference, Nashville Predators. With 94 season points, Smashville would have missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, yet Chicago had been knocked off by them. Now, we move past the implications for who deserves what more, and to who has more skill. In this series, the defending champ Penguins are favored by 145 points to win. Now, that does not mean they’ll win Games 3 and 4 276-131; it means that if you bet one dollar on the Predators winning, and they do, you win $145. Pittsburgh is clearly heavily favored to take this series, which would be their third since 2000 and their fifth total. This year is Nashville’s first appearance in the NHL Finals. Despite the previously presented information, Pittsburgh gave up more goals than Nashville. The Preds also have won a higher percentage of faceoffs than the Pens, which, when combined with the apparent lacking defense of Pittsburgh, does not come out with a Pittsburgh victory. Now, Rinne, after yesterday’s game is 1-9 against the Pens; and his newfound momentum and complete steely-eyed nature in front of the net will almost assuredly carry Music City to their first NHL parade. The Predators have given up very few goals this postseason and are neck and neck with Pittsburgh for goals scored. That combination does not add up for the Pennsylvania side of the coin. The Predators have faced great adversity this season and they have really excelled of late. No team is more deserving of this Stanley Cup victory than the Predators of Nashville, Tennessee. Sidney Crosby and the Penguins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have had their fun, but like LeBron James in the NBA with his Cavaliers of Cleveland, Ohio, they will most likely lose on their quest to defend their title. Jesse A. Cook “P.K., Pekka, Preds” June 3, 2017 |
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