The Pittsburgh Penguins may want to play all over their games on the road for the rest of the season. Coming off a brutal 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders at home, their second home loss in as many games, the Penguins stormed back against the New York Rangers to stir up some boos at MSG. Evgeni Malkin scored his second goal of the season, Simon Despres scored the second goal of his career, and James Neal added his team-leading fifth goal. Behind Tomas Vokoun who stopped all 28 shots, the ... Read More
Archives for January 2013
Pirates Ink Walker, McDonald
The Pirates have finally signed the remaining players on their roster that are arbitration-eligible. James McDonald, one of the Pirates best right-handers, went 12-8 last season. He had a 4.21 ERA for the season and has a 4.10 ERA for his career. He had a fantastic start to the 2012 season but had a rocky end to it, posting 7.52 ERA in his last 13 starts. Towards the end of the season, the Pirates moved him to the bullpen. In this off-season, he pitched in a dominican winter league where he ... Read More
Penguins on Familiar Path
Come on, Pens fans. The panic button is right over here, and you know you’re about to push it. Stanley Cup favorites? Cripes, their best home game so far was an intrasquad scrimmage. The consensus among the talk-radio-show-calling crowd is that Fleury should be traded, Malkin is a bum, and Bylsma will be gone by the end of February. But let’s all take a deep breath and look at the big picture – not this season, but this second golden era, which is starting to feel very familiar. Think ... Read More
Jackie Robinson: American Legend
Today would've been Jackie Robinson's 94th birthday. Jackie Robinson came from a time that most of us today only read about in books. Born in 1919 to sharecroppers in Georgia, Jackie Robinson grew up to change the game of baseball. Adversity was nothing new for Robinson. Growing up, his family was the only African American family on their block. He went on to UCLA to be the first athlete to letter in four different sports. After being forced to leave college, he went into the Army, where ... Read More
Paul Chryst winning the recruiting battle of Pennsylvania
For years, the Pitt football team has watched the top recruits in the state of Pennsylvania avoid the Panthers like the plague, in search of greener pastures elsewhere. That was until Paul Chryst came to town. It was always felt that Pitt would not start competing again on a consistent basis until they started to get the top recruits in the state to stay home and play instead of heading off to schools such as Ohio State, Alabama and even Penn State for that matter. But Chryst is doing ... Read More
Power play problems; it’s the plan not the personnel
After scoring just one goal in their last fourteen power play opportunities, the Penguins decided to change things up yet again. Evgeni Malkin will now play the point while James Neal will command the half-boards. Anyone whose watched more than five games with Malkin on the point knows he's not comfortable in that position. When you consider how pass-happy both he and Kris Letang (playing on the other side of the blue line) are while on the man-advantage, it's amazing this idea has found ... Read More
What Exactly is Happening with Duquesne?
The Dukes have lost their past eight games and ten of their past thirteen. Marhold, one of the senior leaders, has been benched for underperforming. The team’s two star players, Colter and Johnson were each held to two points last weekend at Dayton. So what is really going on with Duquesne? How can we account for the lengthy losing streak, the inability to finish games, and the inconsistencies from one half to the next? Perhaps it all boils down to the inexperience. But it is debatable as to ... Read More
Pittsburgh Power sign former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson
The Pittsburgh Power announced today they have been assigned quarterback Jordan Jefferson. Jefferson started 32 of the 39 games he appeared in for the LSU Tigers. For his career he completed 398 of 678 passes (58.7%), accumulating 4733 yards passing. He had 34 passing TD's, 12 rushing TD's, against 20 interceptions. He also rushed for over 1000 yards in his collegiate career. Jefferson went undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft but earned a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after minicamp only ... Read More
Steelers Sent The Bus Out On Top; Ravens Trying to do the same with Ray Lewis
The Pittsburgh Steelers know all about what the Baltimore Ravens are trying to do this post-season. A legend on their team, Ray Lewis, has announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season and the team is rallying behind him to try and send him out on top. For the Steelers this scenario played out to perfection during the 2005-2006 season. The player was Jerome Bettis and the Steelers road "The Bus" all the way to Detroit and allowed him to finish his NFL career as a Super Bowl ... Read More
The X’s and O’s of the 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers’ new look offense has received plenty of attention for its pistol and zone read wrinkles. Today, a breakdown of the 49ers’ offense. We’ll start with the zone read concept. On paper? Read the end man on the line (EMOL) at the mesh point (where the RB meets QB). If he crashes, the quarterback keeps it. If he contains, give to the running back. Here’s the tape against Green Bay in the Divisional matchup. San Francisco is in the Pistol (QB four yards behind center, RB ... Read More