end of 2008

well it certainly has been awhile since my last post. end of the year, its time for a sports update.

as you likely know (if you live in Canada), the Stampeders won the Grey cup, in a close low scoring game that was won mostly by the Stamps defence. the Stamps defeated the Allouettes 22-14 to earn thier 6th Grey cup in franchise history. here is a video that looks back at 2008 for the Stampeders

http://stampeders.com/multimedia/audio_video/?id=362



as for the Flames, they have continued to be red hot in December, winning again on monday over minnesota to maintain a solid lead in the division and close pull closer to Detroit. the Flames have collected points in thier last 8 games and have 19 (i think) points in december. they play the Oilers tonight in the new years eve game. the Flames have benefited from depth scoring, consistent team play and solid goaltending. they seem to be for real, something tells me this isnt just a streak where they will go back to the way they were playing in october, they have gotten better all season. this team is resilient, and unlike past years, can win without iggy and phaneuf scoring, even if they dont show up for the whole game. The Flames have become a team that finds ways to win. that said, its still early in the season. Iginla is still leading the team in points, with 40, and goals, with 16. Bourque is second in goals with 14 and Camelarri is second in points with 29.

GO Flames



the Hitmen are also still leading the WHL with 68 points, ahead of the Vancouver Giants, who have 65 points. the Giants have the leading scorer, but the next 3 are all Calgary Hitmen (Kozun, Sonne, Bortis). things are looking good for the Hitmen.



the world Junior hockey tournament is once again in full swing, team Canada has dominated with a strong and deep team, defeating the Czechs, Kazakstan, and Germany. they play the Americans today, with the winner getting a bye to the semifinal.

Go Canada Go.



also the Mac's Midget hockey tourney is going on, there are no international teams this time around, and a few Calgary teams have a solid chance at winning.



in the NFL the playoffs have begun, and the NBA season is also rolling.



here are your winnners in 2008



NHL: Detroit Red Wings

CFL: Calgary Stampeders

MLB: Philidelphia Phillies

NBA:Boston Celtics

NFL: New York Giants

WHL: Spokane Chiefs

Macs tourney: Russia Severstal

GBL:Orange County

world Juniors: Canada

MLS: Columbus Crew

CIS Football: Laval Rouge et Or

Grey Cup - eve

alright, tomorrow is the Grey cup (4pm, tsn). i watched pregame stuff on tsn today, great coverage. they showed a little stamps story of how they got to the cup. linky
http://watch.tsn.ca/cfl-news-and-highlights/clip115039#clip115039

Another reason the Stamps will win, Burris lost the MOP award to Calvillo, Calvillo gets the award, Burris gets the trophy everyone Really wants. and Montreal is expected to win because of the home crowd. Calgary has overcome many obstacles that have haunted them in the past, this season. this Stamps team has everything it needs for the win.
that being said, it will be a close game, and it is football, you never know who is really going to win. this game is a pickem, too close to call. For the sake of picking tho, im sticking with my 33-31 victory for the stamps, a 2 point victory just like in '98 over the Ti-Cats
GO Stamps

and the flames play tonight vs Detroit, and they beat Colorado 1-0 on thursday

GREY CUP SUNDAY!! GO STAMPEDERS GO!

TIME TO BRING THE CUP HOME TO CALGARY.

Lets look at what happened in the division finals last weekend first.

in the East final, the hometown Montreal Allouettes came back from a slow start to defeat the edmonton eskimoes. Edmonton had a strong lead nearing halftime when Montreal took the lead with two touchdowns before the half and one not long after. The Montreal Allouettes (12-6)scored 33 unanswered ponits to defeat the Edmonton Eskimoes (10-8) and claim the East Division championship, the first Home team to play in a Grey cup since Edmonton in 2002(which they lost to the same Allouettes).

In the west division, the leagues best regular season team, the Calgary Stampeders (13-5) hosted the B.C. Lions (11-7). This was the first time Calgary hosted the west final since 2000 when they lost to the BC Lions after a Dave Dickenson injury destroyed thier hopes of playing the the Grey cup at home that year. the Stamps came out slow and BC was able to drive the field several times. The leagues number 1 defence was able to hold them in it by preventing the Lions from scoring touchdowns, allowing 4 fieldgoals. The sold out crowd of 35,650 urged the Stamps D and was a major influence during the game. The Stamps special teams in the first half also kept them in it, creating great field position on every return. The Stamps scored a touchdown near the end of the half, closing the gap to 12-9. in the second half the Stampeders played better on offence, though the Defence still won them the game. after trading turnovers, the Stamps D was able to stop the Lions on a first and goal from the one, another field goal for BC. later the Stamps would get a touchdown to go up by 7 at 22-15. the Lions added a field goal and later drove much of the field in the last 2 minutes before throwing an interception. Calgary had the ball for the last minute, up by 22-18, and almost blew it. on 3rd down with 7 seconds left, Burris threw out of bounds, but one second remained. BC had one chance for a hail mary, but couldnt convert a touchdown. The Stamps got the victory, aided by the crowd, in what is the best atmosphere for a football game i have been to. yes, better than the two grey cups (tho they were fun) because the Stamps were in it, the crowd was into it and had a huge impact on the game (plus i had great seats)The Stampeders will play in the grey cup for the first time since 2001, when they defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

this sunday at 4pm (mt) the Stampeders will play in Olympic stadium for the Grey cup vs the Allouettes, in what should be a sellout (near 70,000) crowd of mostly Montreal fans. It'll be loud. the matchup is perfect, the two best teams this season, two rookie head coaches, the two mvp candidates (Burris and Calvillo), west vs east...this game will be awesome. the Stamps and Allouettes have played in two grey cups in history, with Montreal winning both, most recently in...1970. This year, the Stamps defeated the Allouettes in both matches. with the two best offences and top quarterbacks, this could be an offensive game. although, the Stampeders boast the best defence in the league this season, and defence wins championships....

The oddsmakers wont pick a favourite at this point, Calgary would be favoured except for Montreals home team advantage, almost 70,000 fans at home. The teams have been preparing with loud noise at practice and the teams will be ready to roll on sunday. Montreal last won the grey cup in 2002 in Edmonton, Calgary won the year before in Montreal. the winner of this game will match Edmonton, and BC with 2 Grey cup wins this decade.

my pick for the 96th Grey cup....Calgary 33-Montreal 31.

GO STAMPS GO

in other news, the flames beat colorado 4-1 last night.

Gameday - November 8 - CFL playoffs, CIS quarter finals and Flames

quick predictions for the CFL playoff games today.
the Bombers will fulfil Stegalls garuntee of a win over the Eskimoes in chilly Winnipeg. The Riders home team advantage will help the Riders win a close game over the Lions in jam packed Mosaic stadium in Regina.
should be a good day of football.

the Dinos are hosting SFU in the Hardy cup, for the right to go on to the semifinals for hte Vanier cup, the winner of this game will travel to Quebec to play the quebec conference champion, with the winner fo that game moving on to the Vanier cup. prediction? Dinos over SFU 27-22.

also, the city highschool football championships are under way this weekend

the Flames are playing Columbus tonight, after beating Nashvill 7-6. The flames will be looking to play better on defence, and will win 3-1.
im off to watch some Football.

Stamps, Flames, Dinos, Hitmen.

so November has begun, and so far, Calgary's big teams have shined.
Today the Stamps defeated the BC Lions 41-30, but lets look back at what happened last week. The Stampeders needed a win over the Tiger-cats to clinch first. easy, right? not really, Hamilton may have struggled in the final half of the season, but they have managed to be close in many games, the Stamps were ripe for an upset, and have had trouble getting wins out of Ivor wynne stadium. This year is different though for the Stamps. they won, convincingly, garunteeing the west final will be played in Calgary on November 15.
after that week, the only thing to be decided was who would host the west-semifinal, Saskatchewan or BC. the Riders needed to beat toronto and BC to lose to Calgary. the Riders had trouble, but with 4 touchdowns in the 4th quarter, managed to come back and beat the Argos with the winning touchdown coming off a botched Argo 3rd down gamble with 2 minutes left. the Argos finished the season losing 8 or 9 in a row. the Riders would become Stamps fans on saturday, with hopes of hosting the west semi. Today the Stamps played decent in the 1st half, finishing up 17-14. In the second half, the STampeders put in backup qb Barrick Nealy, who would run for 3 touchdowns! the Lions tried to make it a bit closer at the end, but they couldnt bring the intensity to defeat the coasting Stamps. As a result of the Lions loss (41-30), the Riders will host the west semi on saturday Nov 8 (2:30 pm), after the Bombers host the Eskies in the east semi (11am). the Eskies were the 4th placed team in the west, so will crossover and play the bombers.
the Stampeders finished the reg season 13-5, won the west division for the first time since 2000, other notables are the STamps finished first in most defensive categories, Rambo was the leading reciever (1473 yards)and Burris finished with over 5000 yards. Barrick Nealy was 1 for 2 for 9 yards, scrambled for 76 yards for 3 touchdowns. kicker Sandro DeAngelis led the league in points scored and Reynolds led the league in rushing yards. the Stampeders beat every team in the league at least once, losing only to Edmonton, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. impressive
Go Stampeders in the west final!!!

The Flames have put together a 6 game win streak. they defeated the LA Kings 3-2 tonight as Kipper was the best player on the ice. Kipper has played much better lately, and is now the only goalie this season to have played all the minutes for his team. the Flames are now 7-3-1 and tied with Minnesota atop the Northwest division. desipite the hot streak, the Flames haven't played as well in the last few games, and will need to play better to beat anahiem tomorrow.

The university of Calgary Dinos are in the playoff mix also. they play Regina tomorrow at home (1pm) in a Canada west semi final. the winner will host Simon Fraser University next saturday in the Canada west final. the Dinos haven't won a playoff game since winning the Vanier cup in 1995.

The Hitmen are still hot with a 13-4-1 record. thier 27 points are good for first place currently in the WHL.

In Baseball, the Phillidelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays to win the world series in 5 games.

Flames and Stamps...what else do you need? maybe the world series, nfl, Hitmen and CIS football

Flames!
ok so the flames appeared to have turned a corner on tuesday with a 2-1 win at home over the washington capitals. they only gave up one goal, killed a 9 minute penalty and Kipper didnt let in the "softy". but it was one game, the flames are in Nashville tonight and are down 3-0. the flames are 2-3-1. c'mon flames

Stampeders!
well another expected win for the other Red and white Calgary club. they defeated the Bombers 37-16 on a decent October saturday night at McMahon stadium. the Bombers clinched a playoff spot at gametime as the Argos lost badly to the Alloettes. the Bombers fell to 6-10, but will host a western team in the east semifinal. The Stamps move to 11-5, 2 points up on the Riders and Leos after those teams won on the weekend. The Eskimoes are 4 points back and will be the crossover team if they lose on Saturday to the Riders. The Stamps can clinch first in the west with a win over lowly Hamilton (3-13) on Friday. but this is the CFL, so anything can happen. I'd expect a Stamps win though.

in the world series of baseball, Tampa Bay is playing Philidelphia. Philidelphia won game 1 in Tampa Bay.

the Hitmen won again last night, and are 11-3, a great start for a team that was expected to struggle with the loss of some key parts.

the Dinos are another Calgary team that is doing well down the stretch. they are in third place in the west conference with a record of 5 wins and 2 losses. in the final game of the reg season, the University of Calgary plays the University of Alberta(1-6) on saturday. the Dinos are garunteed a playoff spot, and will likely host a playoff game.

of course the NFL is also going on, but dont expect me to cover it, haha.

thats all,
Adam

Stamps poised to take first, flames scoring but lack defense

first off, the big turkey day game - Stamps vs Riders.
winner takes the season series and the leg up on the division, loser falls 2 points back of first and in a three way tie for 2nd.
well this game wasn't even close. from the start the Stampeders took a 10-1 lead, after a game of many turnovers, which the Stampeders capitalized on for 27 points, the Riders fell the the Stamps 42-5. the Riders managed to muster more yards passing than the Stamps (not by much) but could only produce a field goal and two singles. 7 turnovers will do that. you can't win turning the ball over.
after the weekend, including an Edmonton win over BC, the Stamps were 10-5, 2 points ahead of BC, Sask, and Edmonton, with the tie breaker in hand vs the Leos and Riders with only three games left.
tonight the 3rd last week started in what was a close game wherein BC defeated Edmonton 42-28, taking the season series en route to a temporary tie with calgary for first. Edmonton will likely finish the weekend in last, as the Riders play the lowly Ticats (who had thier playoff hopes officially extinguished last week), im giving the riders a win there. Calgary plays Winnipeg tomorrow, and with a win over the 6-9 Bombers will move back into sole possetion of first

The Stampeders can win the division with 2 wins in their last 3 games garunteed. they finish the season vs Winnipeg, Hamilton and BC.

as for the Flames, the picture isn't quite the same, albeit early on.
the Flames have played 4 games and have a record of 1-2-1, after falling to rival Edmonton tonight 4-3. they play a return match in Edmonton tomorrow night. the Flames have scored alot lately, but theyve given up over 4 goals a game on average so far.
luckily there are still 78 games left to turn it around.

in Baseball the Phillies are in the world series, awaiting the winner of the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa bay Rays.

thats all for now, im off to the Stamps vs Bombers game tomorrow

HOCKEY! and CANADIAN FOOTBALL! and baseball playoffs, and nfl, and various college sports....yay for October

alright first off, the Stampeders. they finished off the Argos two weeks ago, then proceeded to lose to the Riders in an offensive shootout this past friday 44-41, dropping to 9-5 on the season both teams played well, it came down to a fumble and an interception late in the game for the Riders, as they took advantage and the Stamps ran out of time, failing to convert an onside kick after scoring a touchdown to make it a 3 point game. the Riders pulled into a tie with the STamps and the Lions, who beat the Argos (no suprise there). the Esks beat up the Bombers to pull to within 2 points of the rest of the west. In the suprise of the weekend, Hamilton beat Montreal in what was a great, well played game by both teams (on offence at least) to keep thier slim playoff hopes alive, now 4 points back of Winnipeg with 4 games remaining.
should be an interesting finish, the STamps play the Riders again on thanksgiving, im looking forward to thanksgiving...a day off, two football games and of course turkey!

as for the Flames, they finished up the preseason with an overtime victory over the Oilers 4-3, to finish the preseason at 5-2. the Flames open up the regular season this very thursday in Vancouver. the Nhl has officially kicked off with 2 games in Europe on saturday, but the rest of the teams start this week in North America.
with the Hockey season starting this week, its time for my picks for the season. I was away most of last season (and the summer) so its really just my guess of how things will go, but who really knows anyways...its a long season, anything can happen.
(tho Montreal looks great and Detroit doesnt really have any flaws, aside from a possible stanley cup hangover)
the West:
1. Detroit
2. Dallas
3. Calgary
4. Edmonton
5. San Jose
6. Anaheim
7. Chicago
8. Vancouver
---------------
9. Columbus
10. Nashville
11. Pheonix
12. Minnesota
13. Colorado
14. Los Angeles
15. St. Louis

EAST:
1. Montreal
2. Pittsburg
3. Washington
4. Philidelphia
5. New York
6. Ottawa
7. Tampa Bay
8. New Jersey
----------------
9. Buffalo
10. Carolina
11. Boston
12. Florida
13. Atlanta
14. Toronto!
15. NYI
Stanley cup: Montreal over Detroit
The Hitmen are off to a solid start this season

Baseball playoffs are now on and Nfl is in full swing also.

Go Stamps and Flames and Hitmen

wake me up when september ends....stamps halftime update

alright, its been a few weeks and its time for an update.
the calgary stampeders beat Montreal 42-30 (i think) in a game that was not as close as the score indicates.
last week i had the pleasure of going to the game against the Argos at McMahon stadium with a few friends. the stamps beat up the argos 34-4. the defence and special teams won the game for the stamps as the offence didn't produce very much. other big news last week was the Riders losing thier second game to the Lions in a row and Edmonton getting thier butts kicked by Montreal 40-4. awesome!
coming into this weekend, with 6 games remaining, Calgary was tied with saskatchewan for first and edmonton and BC were tied for 3rd, two points back of the teams in first.

Edmonton lost to red-hot winnipeg last night 30-23 and could be alone in last after this weekend as BC plays the last place Hamilton Tigercats tonight.
the STamps are playing Toronto right now at the Rogers center, where they havent won since 2000. The Stamps are up 21-13 at halftime.
next week the stamps start a head to head series vs the Riders, who they are tied with at the moment, although the Riders play a tough game tomorrow in Montreal against the league leading Allouettes.

the Dinos beat Manitoba, then lost last week to SFU. today I watched them on channel 10 and they beat UBC by 13 points to move to 3-2.

the Calgary Colts of the CJFL are 4-1-1 and play the Edmonton Wildcats today

The Flames started preseason this week. I had the pleasure of going to a game with one of my buddies on tuesday vs florida, which they lost 3-2. since then they have won 3 in row, with 2 wins of over pheonix and a solid 8-2 victory over floriday last night. looking great so far!

Schnieder has been traded to Atlanta by the Ducks and no word from Sundin yet

thats all for now

Friday night football

its that time of the week again. time for Friday night football
the first game tonight is at 5pm(tsn). The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2-8) visit the Toronto Argonauts (4-6). the second game has the Montreal Allouettes (7-3) visiting the Calgary Stampeders (6-4) at 8pm (tsn). should be two good games. Go Stamps Go.
Also tomorrow the Calgary Dinos football team is playing Alberta (I think), and the Calgary Colts (CJFL) are 4-0 and play this weekend.

In baseball, the Calgary Vipers are playing a team from Orange County in the Golden league baseball championship. The series was tied at 1 going to Orange County.
The Toronto Blue Jays won again last night and are 6 games back of the wildcard spot held by the Boston Redsox with about 16 games to go.


Go Stamps

Stampeders and Dinos win in successive days

last night the Calgary Stampeders deafeated the Edmonton Eskimoes in front of 46,000 fans at Commonwealth stadium, just 4 days after losing to the same team at McMahon stadium. the Stamps outplayed the Eskimoes and won 38-33. The stamps had a rough start with an eskimoes interception return for a touchdown just 29 seconds in. but the stamps answered back on thier next drive. the first half was fairly close, with the Stamps playing well on offence and defence and not making any mistakes on special teams. the Stamps defense shut down Ricky Ray, not allowing him to throw for any touchdowns. the Stamps started the second half with a interception touchdown, again, 29 seconds in but for the right team.
the biggest thing that I saw was that the defence was actually getting sacks, with 5, to move from last in the league in the sack count. the Eskimoes made it close near the end, with a touchdown with 50 seconds left on the clock, but the Stamps were able to recover the onside kick attempt and kill the last half minute on the clock, with a first down.

The Stampeders move to 6-4, tied with the Eskimoes for second, but need to finish ahead of them because the Eskimoes won the season series, meaning they have the tiebreaker.

the University of Calgary Dinos football team beat the defending Vanier cup champions, the Manitoba Bisons 37-17 at home today. Deke Junior, Dions QB, played very well and the Dinos are now 1-1, at the quarter pole of the regular season.

the Calgary Colts, of the CJFL (canadian junior football league), are 3-0 and play Edmonton (0-3) today also.

in other sports news, Sundin still hasnt decided which team to play for if he does, but if he does Montreal and New York (Rangers ) appear to the the favourites.

Canada's national mens soccer team plays Honduras today in world cup qualifying. they tied Jamaica in thier first game of the group, they need to finish at least 2nd in the group to move on to the next round of qualifying. Mexico is the other team in the 4 team group, and are favoured to win the group as the top ranked team in the region. Canada is trying to qualify for the 2010 world cup in south Africa.

the Stampeders...have fallen to 5-4

alright so today was labour day, and the Esks and Argos came out victorious. the Eskimoes defeated the Stampeders 37-16.
the Stamps defence held up in the first half, but fell apart in the second. I don't blame this loss on the defence however. the offence couldnt seem to do much aside from run close to the endzone but not convert it into touchdowns. Burris played alright in the first half before getting hurt, coming out of halftime down 12-9, the stamps led by Dave Dickenson got a touchdown. Edmonton promptly answered back, then the Stamps proceeded to fumble away the ball on two consecutive punt returns, allowing the Eskimoes to build up two touchdown lead. Dickenson got banged up late in the game and 3rd string Barrick Nealy was put in for the final minutes.
for the first time this season the Stampeders got fully beat on all 3 facets of the game.
I didn't get to watch much of the Argos game, but the Argonaughts beat the Tiger-cats 34-31, with a close finish and Hamilton failing on a 3rd and inches with a minute left.
The Eskimoes move to within 2 points of the Riders, 2 points ahead of the Stampeders who are 2 points ahead of the Lions.
the Stamps head to Edmonton to face the Eskimoes in the rematch on Friday at 7pm (TSN)
in other CFL news, it sounds like Charles Roberts has been traded by Winnipeg to BC for Joe Smith. interesting move for both, a bit of a shakeup, but it won't save the Bombers.
so the Stampeders have fallen to 5-4, but will look better on Friday, hopefully with Burris leading the charge.
one stat that sticks out to me is sacks. the stamps D have gotten the least sacks of any team in the league, need to get to the qb more.

Stampeders!!

ok so heres the latest on the mighty Calgary Stampeders. they defeated the BC Lions on Friday last week 36-29, in a great back and forth game, to move to 5-3, dropping the lions to a record of 4-4 at the time. the win moved the Stamps into a tie for 2nd in the west with the Edmonton Eskimoes, who defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders the night before (dropping the Riders to 6-2). The Stamps were able to shut down the Lions and prevent a late comeback after dropping earlier games in the season from late comebacks.
the Stamps have now won 2 games in a row, defeating Saskatchewan a week earlier 30-25.
This weekend is Labour day weekend, the unofficial start of the playoff drive. the Montreal Allouettes defeated the BC Lions last night in a game that the Lions somehow managed to stay in despite a rediculous 6 turnovers. the Lions had a chance late in the game from the 1 yard line with no time left, a chance to put the winning points on the board with a 5 point deficit. the Lions were stuffed 2 times in a row but the Als took penalties, on the third attempt the Lions fumbled and the Als won. the Als move to 6-3, atop the east division, by 6 points pending the outcome of the Tigercats-Argos game on Monday(TSN, 5:30pm).

the Stamps play the Eskies (esky is austrailian for cooler....) at 2pm in the Labour Day Classic at McMahon stadium in Calgary (TSN). the two teams are tied at 5-3, one win back of the riders who play the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on sunday(TSN,1pm) in their own labour day classic.
the stamps-eskies labour day game is always a classic, but this year will be great because of the meaning in the standings and both teams coming in off of big wins. the rematch will take place on friday(tsn, 7pm) in edmonton. most years the teams split the games, meaning both teams would come out with 6-4 records, but lets hope the Stamps can pull a Labour day sweep.

in hockey news, the flames newcomers arrived and the rookies have started practicing. the flames have heaps of games on tv this season, on sportsnet west, tsn and cbc.
the Ottawa Senators have traded Meszaros to Tampa Bay for two young players and a first round draft pick.
Mat Sundin still hasnt decided what he wants to do this season
Joe Sakic has resigned for one year at $6mil with Colorado, essentially giving them hope for this season.
the Blue Jays have fallen 10 games back of the wild card race, the nfl had its exhibition game at Rogers center last week, with $500 tickets being scalped for $50 and fans complaining about lack of atmosphere (haha) and tailgating. Toronto is due to host a regular season Bills game in December. ted Rogers still thinks he's going to get an nfl team, move it to Toronto and be successful in that, he is crazy, along with all the other toronto nfl fans that think it will fly.
the University of Calgary Dinos football team lost to the U of Saskatchewan Huskies last night 25-0 to open the CIS season.
thats all for now
thanks for reading
Adam

Adam's Olympic update

alright, so the summer olympics started 2 weeks ago in Beijing and are nearly done. in the first week of competition Canada got no medals, while the Americans and Chinese dominated the medal table. the Americans were led by Phelps in the pool, who won an amazing 8 gold medals.
in the second week Canada started pulling in the medals, they now sit at 3 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze, with a good chance of 1 or 2 more coming.
Canada is in the top 16 in the medal standings which was the goal. my favourite Canadian medal win was Simon Whitfield winning the silver in triathalon. he came from behind and almost got the gold, it was a great finish. Canada's softball team lost to the aussies and finished 4th.
Canada won 2 medals in equestrian....alright. i think the horses should get the medals, the riders just sit on top.
another sport that is questionalbe is taekwon do. i watched a Canadian girl beat up a swedish girl and yet lose. the announcers weren't sure why...the judged sports are always frustrating (unless your the home country......China). I have seen alot of volleyball on tv in the olympics, which is a little annoying, canada isnt even in volleyball. i heard there is a racewalking competition. walking?? ok its 50k or something nuts like that, but it is walking. oh well, it takes more athleticism than curling, which shouldn't be in the winter olympics. if a fat smoker can win in it, its not an olympic worthy sport, not to say its bad, but im pretty sure it doesnt take the athleticism of hockey, skiing, swimming or running.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica won the gold and set world records in the 100m and 200m. that is amazing, the guy actually slowed down and celebrated before finishing the 100m. setting world records in those is amazing, they take two different sets of athleticism in my opinion. I think he won another track medal today.
Canada has outdone its performances in Athens and Sydney, and is short of the 18 it recieved in Barcelona and the 22 it got in Atlanta in 1996.
heres hoping we get to 20, but congratulations to all the athletes that made it to Beijing and the ones that won us medals.
Go Canada Go

test

need to see if something is working....
stamps play on friday vs the lions....Go stamps go. both teams are 4-3. saskatchewan plays edmonton tomorrow (edmonton is 4-3 and sask is 6-1)
thats all

August sports update

ok so the stampeders recently beat the saskatchewan roughriders, in saskatchewan to move to 4-3 and end the riders 6 game winning streak. with the BC win over Edmonton last night, the Stamps are tied with the Lions and Eskies at 4-3. the als beat up on the bombers who are in last now at 1-6, the als move to 4-3 and hamilton defeated toronto to move to 2-5, 2 points back of the argos who drop to 3-4. so the west is still best at the moment and the stamps rebounded with a win.
heres a short recap of the last few weeks for the stamps
in week 4:
Calgary 43 - Hamilton 16
in week 5:
Winnipeg 32 - Calgary 28
not much news for the flames
and week 6:
Saskatchewan 22 - Calgary 21 (soo close)
and this week
Calgary 30 - Saskatchewan 25 (the Stamps at one point led something like 27-4)
next week the Stamps have a bye week
on Aug 22 the Stampeders play the BC Lions in BC place. a pivotal west division matchup between two 4-3 teams.
not much news for the flames
they did end up signing Bertuzzi for 2 years, im not sure about it but the Nolan deal turned out alright, and Bertuzzi was pretty good, should be interesting to see how he playes and how the fans respond to him. also the preseason sked is out.
Go Stampeders!
and Go Team Canada in the Olympics, which started yesterday.

early July sports update

the following was sent to me by a source in Calgary on July 8

Lots of hockey news. Too much to really talk about. The latest (just an hour ago) has the Flames signing Todd Bertuzzi to a one year contract (rumored to be 2.0 million). Owen Nolan signed with Minnesota yesterday and it was assumed the Bertuzzi signing is a trickle down from the Nolan signing. Sutter was not prepared to sign Nolan for that amount.I'm sure you also heard that the Oilers made some great trades on July 1st (Eric Cole for Pitkanen, Greene and Stoll for Visnovsky and Torres for Brule. In case you missed it the Flames traded Tanguay to Montreal and then picked up Cammalari from LA Kings in a 3-way trade. I liked this trade. But haven't been happy with the Flames not being able to sign any good guys to replace Huselius' presence. Huselius signed with Columbus for 4.75 million a year.

in other news
The stampeders have gotten off to a decent start at 2-1.
in week 1 they defeated the BC Lions 28-18 for a good start.
then they went to Edmonton and lost a close one to the Eskimoes 34-31 after a last minute shootout.
in week 3 they went to Montreal and stole a win from the Allouettes 23-19 for thier first road win outside Alberta in years.
on July 17 the Calgary Stampeders host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Go Stamps Go.
the Stamps come in tied with Edmonton for 2nd with a 2-1 record, behind 3-0 Saskatchewan.
the Tiger Cats are coming in tied for 2nd with Toronto at 1-2, behind 2-1 Montreal

Hope that keeps you updated.
still downunder
Adam

may 25

Stanley cup final game 1: Pittsburg at Detroit.
detroit won 4-0. Brutal. c'mon pitts

a little update for the nhl playoffs.
in round 3
Pittsburg is up 2 games to 1 on phili in the east.
Detroit is up on dallas 3 games to none in the west. looks like pittsburg and detroit in the final - go pittsburg!
as for cfl news, commissiong of the Stampeders has announced his retirement.
the rougnecks lost to San Jose in the NLL west final
thats it for now

flames and hitmen both done

the flames lost to the sharks in game 7 of thier western conf. quarter final series 5-3 and are done for another year. kiprusoff was pulled in the loss
The hitmen lost game 4 in the eastern conference final 4-2 and were swept, after finishing first in the east conference during the season.
the calgary roughnecks defeated edmonton 12-8 and move into the playoffs where they will play the Colorado Mammoth in the western semifinal.
in cfl news - Calgary will host the grey cup in 2009 on November 29. sweet deal. also 2 of the teams were over the salary cap and were fined, with Montreal losing thier first round draft pick as a penalty for being more then 100,000 over. thats it from Australia

Flames win - force game 7

the flames defeated the sharks 2-0 to force a game 7 on tuesday night in San Jose. if they win that game they will play the detroit redwings who they lost to last year in the first round. in the east Montreal is tied in thier series with Boston at 3. Go Flames Go

playoff time

the flames finished in 7th and are playing hte sharks from san jose. the sharks are up on the flames 3 games to 2 with the flames trying to stay in it with a win tonight. good luck boys. the only other canadian team left is montreal as they are tied in the series with boston at 3, ottawa got swept by the penguins.
not to much else i can update you on.
go flames!!

flames lose

flames lost 6-2 to vancouver, brutal. they still have 3 games left and are 2 points up on nashville, vancouver and edmonton, in 7th, one point behind colorado

end of march sports update: from down under

Hello folks,
in the last month i have heard the flames arent doing amazing, but they are playing good enough to be playing into april....barely. they are now 40-27-10, which is good enough to be tied with dallas for 5th with 90 points, one point behind minny for the division lead. they are 6 points clear of 9th place nashville with 5 games left, so they should end up in the playoffs. 6th place would be a good place to finish if they cant win the division.
in the east, montreal is leading the way?! thats cool, they are having a great season. calgary vs montreal for the cup! thats just my uneducated guess from australia.
also in the cfl, the argonauts managed to pry kerry Joseph from the riders with a few draft picks and prospects. bad deal for the riders, first they lose the coach, now the allstar qb. also ottawa has been granted a franchise again, but this time it will work out, the right owners are involved and they wont operate until they can get a new stadium. cool stuff.
the roughnecks are 4-8, so not doing great.
thats all for now.
Adam

trade deadline update

ok so the other poster on here sent me an update...here it is
Hey Adam!
I would've posted this on the blog but apparently my gmail account expired and I can't do a blog anymore.I just came back from Cuba so here is the latest.
LA traded Jarolslav Modry to Phillie for draft pick.P
hillie traded Jim Vandermeer to calgary for a draft pick (this was Calgary's only trade) and happened a couple days before the deadline. I like this trade by the way. Kind of wishing bigger named players like Jokinen but what ever. Sutter said the day before that he has no intentions of trading Tanguay.
Simon gagne has a season ending concussion.
Ethan Moreau is out for the season.
Selanne is doing fine had a hat trick while I was gone.
Kipper had his first shutout against the Red Wings (first game Vandermeer played). Calgary is currently on top of the north west division.
Forsberg signed a year reto active contract with Colorado.
McCarty signed with Detroit.
Dan Boyle signed a huge contract with TB similiar to Phaneuf's contract.
Edmonton put Patrick Thoresen on waivers and Philadelphia picked him up.
Philadelphia traded Alexandre Picard to TB for Prospal (good trade for Phil).
Tampa Bay Acquire Time (ET) Anaheim Acquire
F - BRANDON SEGAL2008 7TH ROUND PICK 5:30 PM D - JAY LEACH
Nashville Acquire Time (ET) Anaheim Acquire
F - BRANDON BOCHENSKI 4:30 PM FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Nashville Acquire Time (ET) Tampa Bay Acquire
F - JAN HLAVAC 3:49 PM 2008 7TH ROUND PICK
Atlanta Acquire Time (ET) Washington Acquire
F - JOE MOTZKO 3:32 PM F - ALEX GIROUX
Anaheim Acquire Time (ET) Los Angeles Acquire
G - JEAN-SEBASTIEN AUBIN 3:25 PM 2008 7TH ROUND PICK
Anaheim Acquire Time (ET) New York Acquire
D - MARC-ANDRE BERGERON 3:23 PM 2008 3RD ROUND PICK
Florida Acquire Time (ET) Toronto Acquire F - CHAD KILGER
3:18 PM 2008 3RD ROUND PICK
New York Acquire Time (ET) Phoenix Acquire
F - FREDRIK SJOSTROMG - DAVID LENEVEUF - JOSH GRATTONCONDITIONAL DRAFT PICK 2009 3:21 PM - MARCEL HOSSA G - AL MONTOYA
Detroit Acquire Time (ET) Los Angeles Acquire
D - BRAD STUART 3:15 PM 2008 2ND ROUND PICK2009 4TH ROUND PICK Minnesota Acquire Time (ET) New York Acquire
F - CHRIS SIMON 3:11 PM 2008 6TH ROUND PICK
Penguins Acquire Time (ET) Atlanta Acquire
F - MARIAN HOSSAF - PASCAL DUPUIS 2:58 PM F - ANGELO ESPOSITOF - COLBY ARMSTRONGF - ERIK CHRISTENSEN2008 1ST ROUND PICK
Penguins Acquire Time (ET) Toronto Acquire
D - HAL GILL 2:51 PM 2008 2ND ROUND PICK2009 5TH ROUND PICK
New York Acquire Time (ET) St. Louis Acquire
D - CHRISTIAN BACKMAN 2:50 PM 2008 4TH ROUND PICK
Vancouver Acquire Time (ET) Washington Acquire
F - MATT PETTINGER 1:36 PM F - MATT COOKE
New York Acquire Time (ET) San Jose Acquire
D - ROB DAVISON 1:29 PM 2008 7TH ROUND PICK
Washington Acquire Time (ET) Columbus Acquire
F - SERGEI FEDOROV 1:11 PM D - TED RUTH
Colorado Acquire Time (ET) Columbus Acquire
D - ADAM FOOTE 1:01 PM CONDITIONAL 1ST ROUND PICK IN '08/'092009 CONDITIONAL 4TH ROUND PICK ON FOOTE RE-SIGNING
Ottawa Acquire Time (ET) Chicago Acquire
F - MARTIN LAPOINTE 12:36 PM 2008 6TH ROUND PICK
Carolina Acquire Time (ET) Chicago Acquire
F - TUOMO RUUTU 12:17 PM F - ANDREW LADD
Colorado Acquire Time (ET) Florida Acquire
D - RUSLAN SALEI 12:15 PM D - KARLIS SKRASTINS2008 3RD ROUND PICK Washington Acquire Time (ET) Canadiens Acquire
G - CRISTOBAL HUET 11:50 AM 2009 2ND ROUND PICK
Dallas Acquire Time (ET) Tampa Bay Acquire
F - BRAD RICHARDSG - JOHAN HOLMQVIST 11:42 AM G - MIKE SMITHF - JUSSI JOKINENF - JEFF HALPERN2009 4TH ROUND PICK
San Jose Acquire Time (ET) Buffalo Acquire
D - BRIAN CAMPBELL2008 7TH ROUND PICK 11:27 AM F - STEVE BERNIER2008 1ST ROUND PICK
Florida Acquire Time (ET) Toronto Acquire
F - WADE BELAK 11:15 AM 2008 5TH ROUND PICK
New Jersey Devils Acquire Time (ET) St. Louis Blues Acquire
D - BRYCE SALVADOR 10:34 AM F - CAM JANSSEN
thanks for the update buddy. lots of stuff happening as expected but only a minor deal for the flames. glad to hear they are doing well and kipper got a shutout!
awesome
hope everything is going well there
from down under
Adam

Great Leafs Video

Had to post this to you Adam. It's a Leafs fan breaking up with his team, LOL! Take your sweater back.

http://www.youtube.com/user/stratola

Last night Flames won in over time 4-3 over the Sharks. This is a game where Kipper stood on his head. The shots were 20-5 in favour of San Jose in the first period. Phaneuf was huge in that game, total impact player. He tied the game late in the third with a huge shot that went past Nabokov (Pulled the goalie - another forward on the ice).

Iggy then scored in OT from a great feed from Phaneuf.

No other rumors yet. Still a lot of talk about Forsberg.

The Calgary Stampeders added defensive back Dwight Anderson to their lineup on Tuesday, signing the former Tiger-Cat.

First Big Trade

Ottawa traded Patrick Eaves and Joseph Corvo to Carolina for Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman.

I think Ottawa got the better of that deal. Stillman's good but Commodore is capable of huge things during playoffs.

Last night a freaky thing happened during the Panthers game. Richard Zednik got his throat slashed by Olli Jokinen's skate and they sent him to the hospital for emergency surgery. I guess it was horrific and they were evning considering canceling the rest of the game.

Montreal Canadiens defenceman Ryan O'Byrne and forward Tom Kostopoulos were arrested outside of a Tampa nightclub early Monday morning. They were arrested for stealing a ladies purse at the night club... Weird. Who knows more could come out of it.

Right now Ovechkin is leading in goals and points. Alfredsson was catching up to AO in points but AO had a big night and pulled away again.

Flames thumped Oilers in return last Saturday 4-1. Nolan had 2 goals. Calgary was relentless and were all over Edmonton. Calgary slowed toward the end and Gagner fed Nilsson a wicked pass to wreck Kippers shutout hopes. Iginla's been okay but quiet at the same time.

Phaneuf had his third goal. 3 goals the past 2 games. He's been playing with a lot of fire of late.

As for Stamp's news they have been quiet of late but the rest of the CFL have been trading players (I have no idea if any of them are worthwhile noting).

Take care Adam! Your desk is still vacant.

Phaneuf Update

It's official Phaneuf is signed for 6 years.

He will make 7.5 year 1, 6.5 year 2, 7.0 year 3, 6.5 year 4 and 5 and then 5.5 for year 6.

It will hit the cap hard for next year but I like the signing. Hopefully he remains healthy throughout that long contract.

Last night the Leafs were shutout by Florida 8-0! The Maple Leafs organization are in a dark place right now. Maurice commented on their pond hockey style of playing, LOL!

Forsberg has announced he has no interest in the following teams Detroit, Calgary and Dallas. He also said he has interest only playing for top contender teams. Apparently he still has some bad blood with detroit in the past playoff battles when he was with Colorado.

Supposedly the Phaneuf signing has allowed Calgary to pursue trades full tilt. Eklund said they are in talks with Tampa. I think they'll trade Lecavalier, Prospal and Boyle for Sarich, Erikkson, and Tanguay (that's fair right, LOL!)

February 5th Update

Last night (or was it another night??) Calgary got smoked by Edmonton 5-0. That was an embarassing loss. With the Oilers being Horcoffless and CuJo having his first start and giving out juicy rebounds Oilers were relentless in shaming the Flames. Godard went out and wanted to start something so he went after Garon and Garon didn't exactly back down. There was a lot of fighting as well.

Tonight, Calgary was 0-3 against Phoenix until Phaneuf managed 2 goals in the third and iggy breaking his goal slump to tie the game. The game went into a shoot out where iggy scored the lone goal. The Flames really, really needed to pick up those 2 points as everyone else were winning games.

Hockey news:

The EIG (Oilers group) have officially accepted Katz's last bid, so unofficially he's the new owner.

Ovechkin is blowing the competition away with goals, he had 2 more tonight making it his 45th (Kovalchuk is next with 38).

Thta's really it for hockey news and rumors at this point things still quite quiet.


Here's something funny: My favorite "Nice try no-goal-ov", LOL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIGHJm5nxM

Febuary 4th Update

Went to the Dallas Stars game on Saturday, it was not pretty. Turco was flashing his pads and do some serious acrobatics saving the puck. Calgary out shot Dallas but Calgary seemed lack luster (sp??) the reffing was pretty bad and Dallas got a way with some crazy stuff but Calgary's performance was still sub-par.

Horcoff is out for the rest of the season. Oilers top point producer is out as he has to have surgery on his shoulder. This is just good news and should make the win next Saturday against them that much easier.

I watched the super bowl, that was perhaps the best story line Superbowl i've seen so far. Personally, I was cheering on the Cowboys so I didn't care who won the Superbowl.

I am going to Cuba in 2 weeks but I will be back the day before NHL trade deadline so my posts may be a little long trying to catch up at that point.

No huge trades yet. Edmonton traded Dick Tarnstrom to Columbus for Curtis Glencross. Yeah, that'll definitely help them out. Insert rolling eyes.

San Jose traded a pick to Columbus for Jody Shelly, I guess San Jose decided they needed a slow moving goon.

Yzerman was named GM for Team Canada (IIHF).

Phaneuf's contract is still not finalized and a post said talks resume today.

Still a lot of talk of Forsberg returning, Sundin and the impact of playoff rental players. As you can tell things are silent at the moment in the hockey world.

Hope your having fun Adam!

quick update....the pats lost to the giants in the nfl superbowl 17-14...there goes the pats perfect season
the flames lost to the stars 2-1

add on to jan 31st update

dave dickenson has reportedly been signed for 2 years and wants to be here for calgary hosting the grey cup in 2009, which is the first mention in hte media of calgary possibly hosting...which i think could be a reality, the last time calgary hosted was 2000 when bc beat montreal
also i can get the standings down here but if you want to keep posting that on here then that is great and easy. GO FLames, Hitmen, Roughnecks, Stampeders and Team Canada

Jan 31st Hockey and a Stamps Update

First off, Flames just won an exciting game against the Sharks (Sharks are 2nd in the conference) and Flames are 5th in the conference. Owen Nolan had a hat trick in that game and his last goal was this hilite reel goal where he was in the air while he scored.

Selanne signed with the Ducks right after the all star break, he'll be making $600,00 for the remainder of the season. No exciting trades have happened yet just a couple of minor ones.

TSN reported last night that Phaneuf is like 99% signed and hey are just ironing out a few more details. This is great news but that probably means Taguay, Huselius or Langkow might be moved as they can't afford to resign but Huselius and Langkow.

There are a lot of reports saying the Forsberg is looking close to playing for a NHL team, people say it'll be for the Flyers but Calgary comes up in some of the rumors.

Jokinen, Sundin, and Tucker are also mentioned in the rumors of late of joining Calgary but other teams mentioned as well...

Oilers are sucking as always they are currently 13th in the conference and placed Souray on the IR again.

Currently, Alfredsson is leading with points with 68 (Iggy has 64). Ovechkin is leading with goals with 39 (Iggy has 32 - he's been in a goal less draught).

Adam: are you getting the stats and standing there or should I leave that part out? LOL!

Here's some Stamps' news, I don't follow football so I have no idea if any of this is worth while posting!

The Calgary Stampeders have reached an agreement with free agent quarterback Dave Dickenson, according to several media outlets.

calgary hockey update from jan 22

ok so this is a post from australia, being out here, my updates wont be too indepth. but here is an update a friend of mine sent me a week ago.
Tanguay's agent is in town, a lot of speculation as to why of course. Sutter has been spending time in Montreal, perhaps Ryder is coming to Calgary.
Silly rumor tonight, Eklund said he heard a rumor that Phaneuf might be traded to New Jersey and believes Parise might be in the return package.
Cindy Crosby is out with a high ankle sprain and will be out 6-8 weeks.Calgary won tonight at home against Minnesota 2 - 1 to take top spot in the north west.
Ferguson was finally fired in Toronto and the ol' Flame Cliff Fletcher himself is taking over as interim GM.
the flames play tonight now that the allstar break is done
thats all