Here are my quick thoughts on three recent developments in the Sports World.
1.) The Blackhawks Cement their Mini-Dynasty
I'm almost always wrong in my preseason predictions. Hell, I had the Bears beating the Giants in the NFC Championship Game before the 2012 season started, and I had picked Kansas to win the NCAA Title in both 2010 and 2011, years where they were unceremoniously beaten by Northern Iowa and VCU. So, when I am right, I usually flaunt it. And this time I was, as I picked the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup back in January (http://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2013/01/nhl-2013-season-picks.html). Of course, I had them beating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final, but let's overlook that part for a second.
The Blackhawks are the first team to win multiple Stanley Cups in the post-lockout era, and while they did it with a great core of young players like Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Sharp and a grizzled vet with Marian Hossa. However, Toews and Kane scored a combined 5 goals in those two Stanley Cup Finals, and while Duncan Keith was brilliant in this Cup Final, Marian Hossa missed a game and did little when he was on the ice. No, the Blackhawks won each Cup because their role players stepped up and performed. The amazing part about this Blackhawk mini-dynasty, though, is almost none of the role players from 2010 were on this team.
First of all, the goalie is different, with the "dont-eff-this-up-for-us" Antti Niemi gone in favor of Corey Crawford. But guys like Troy Brouwer, Brian Campbell, Kris Versteeg, Tomas Kopecky, Dustin Byfuglien and John Madden have all been replaced. It took a while for that process to happen, but they were replaced by Andrew Shaw, Brandon Saad, Nick Leddy, Michael Roszival and Michael Handzus, and this core worked about as well as the last one. The Blackhawks, like the Penguins, got lucky by sucking for a while and getting two first-rate players, but it is what they have surrounded those two stars with that seperates them from the Penguins.
It was amazing to watch the swiftness in the Blackhawks comeback at the end of Game 6. It brought up some bad memories, as the ending was hauntingly similar to the Hurricanes comeback in Game 7 against the Devils in 2009 (my 4th worst personal sports loss), as they too were down by one with under two minutes and came back to win scoring two goals within 40 seconds. The difference here was Boston still had to win another game, but then again, this was losing a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Boston fans have had more to cheer about over the past 10 years than any sports city should ever have to cheer about, but they've also had to go experience some terrible defeats. Add this one to the list.
The Blackhawks shouldn't be done any time soon as long as they hang onto Toews and Kane. Crawford is still young, but his price may get too high, and the Hawks have already shown that the goalie doesn't have to be a constant. Unlike 2010, their role players will mostly been back next season and some of them are exciting young guys who just got their first NHL action. There are other teams out there stockpiling talent (Hello, Edmonton), but the Blackhawks are well set up to be as close to a modern NHL dynasty as we will see.
2.) Aaron Hernandez
I don't know why, but when the Hernandez story first broke about 10 days ago, when the news reported that he wasn't a suspect, just a party of interest, I always thought that it could end up being a lot messier than that. I don't know why. Even though I was right, I would have never expected this. What Aaron Hernandez has been charged with doing (not to mention the possibility that he could have been involved in the shooting of two other people last year - this being the killing of a potential snitch on the other episode) is far beyond what I could have conceived. How someone with his life, his opportunity, his contract, could have thrown it all away is beyond comprehension.
There are many questions I have about Aaron Hernandez and what he was charged with doing. First, if you are going to 'orchestrate the execution' (great line, by the way), why be there when it happens? Why not pull a Rae Carruth and just set the thing up? Of course, that wouldn't be any better, but Hernandez compounded his stupidity by making the idiotic decision of being there, if not shooting the guy himself. Then, how deep were his gang connections? Many NFL players left the gang life behind but still have ties to the gang world through friends and past associated. Hernandez took it one step further by still seemingly being a part of that world while in the NFL. This is different than OJ or Michael Vick, or even Ray Lewis. This looks like gang violence, orchestrated by an NFL player.
Of course, when the news of his impending arrest broke, I was slightly amused that this was happening to the Patriots, that their greatest strength (TE) is being turned into a large weakness one-by-one. Of course, I then had to credit the Patriots for making a tough, logical decision to get rid of Hernandez early. They are going as far to distance themselves from Hernandez as possible, and I have to think this was purely Bob Kraft's decision (although I doubt Belichick gave much resistance) to remove the stain of a potential murderer from the Patriots organization.
To defend the Pats for a second, this shouldn't be used as some sign of a deteriorating Patriots locker room. First of all, the 'Patriot Way' has been dead for about six years, but still, the Patriots didn't draft him in the 1st round knowing his character concerns, but in the 4th. They gave him an extension I'm sure after doing due diligence, it just missed whatever was still there with Aaron. The Patriots have other issues in the locker room, particularly on defense, and this definitely looked bad in the beginning of the saga, but by cutting the cord quickly, they did all they could to remove themselves from the Hernandez trail and situation.
As for Hernandez, he's basically everything that is wrong with the glamorization of gang violence in this country. If what has been alleged is true (and I would put that percentage quite high), Hernandez chose to dole out his justice in the most primal, 'gangster-y' way possible, seemingly wanting to flex his muscles. Hernandez obviously is dumber than a rock, not only with the crime but the haphazard way he planned it (texting his associates to meet him) and the brilliantly terrible way he tried to cover it up (the 'breaking the phone' idea kind of shows how much TV Herndo has watched on such matters). Hernandez is a terrible person, but also a terribly dumb and insecure person. The NFL is better off without him, and while his ability (which I always thought was slightly overrated) will be missed in New England, his presence won't be. I just can't believe that for all of Rob Gronkowski's raunchy, frat-bro qualities and exploits, he's by far the smarter, more well-adjusted TE the Patriots had.
3.) The Fall of Rafa and Roger?
I have an almost prescient ability to predict what will happen in Nadal matches very early. The fact that Nadal couldn't break Darcis early in the 1st set of their 1st round match made me nervous. I don't know why. He lost the first set in each of his first two matches at the French Open just four weeks earlier and then he won that tournament. Still, a similar feeling the previous year made me nervous, and that ended with a similar outcome. By the time the shocking three-set match was over, it was hard to believe that that man, Rafael Nadal, could have once won Wimbledon twice and made five straight finals at Wimbledon, let alone won a major just 16 days earlier.
Yet none of that compares to watching Federer lose. In isolation, the Nadal loss is a bigger upset. Darcis is the lower ranked player, and while that ranking difference is quite close with Stakhovsky currently ranked 116, he spent much of the last 3-4 years firmly in the Top 100. Nadal is younger and still closer to his prime. Discounting last year's Wimbledon, Nadal had made the Final of 9 of his last 10 slams played. Rafael Nadal was having the best year of anyone on tour despite missing the Australian Open. Federer, on the other hand, was having his worst year since 2002, going just 27-7 heading into Wimbledon, losing meekly to guys like Tsonga and Kei Nishikori, let alone Nadal twice. However, Federer was the defending champ, and because of Lukas Rosol's even more stunning upset last year, we are conditioned to believe Nadal was beatable early.
Out of all the many records and streaks Federer has set, the consecutive Semifinal streak was always the one I was most impressed with. From Wimbledon 2004 to the 2010 Australian Open, Federer always made the last four. That's kind of absurd. Djokovic just crossed the halway point, but he would need to make it to the 2016 Australian Open to match it. The Semifinal streak ended with a loss to Robin Soderlin (of all people), and since then he's missed the Semifinal another four times coming into this Wimbledon (Wimby '10 and '11, the '12 US Open and the '13 French), but he at least made the last 8, which brings me to my third favorite Fed streak, the 36 straight Quarterfinals, which now ended. Djokovic has now made the QFs 16 straight times, with the 2009 French Open the last time he failed to do so. He would have to make it through the French Open in 2018(!) to match that. The worst part of how the streak ended was that it wasn't some rousing match in the Round of 16, but a shocking, stunning loss in the second round on his best surface.
Roger Federer is either the Greatest or the 2nd Greatest (after Rod Laver) male tennis player of modern times. Rafael Nadal is definitely in the Top 10 and would easily be in the Top 5 on most people's lists today and still has an outside shot of getting 17 slams. However, they will both probably be ranked outside the Top 3 come the end of Wimbledon. I'm not ready to call this a new era, because Nadal's deflated ranking is still mostly due to him missing everything from the US Open Series in 2012 through the Australian Open this year, but Federer, who hasn't missed any time, is clearly declining. There was so much anticipation of a Federer-Nadal Quarterfinal, on the surface where you would think the greatest chance of an epic match would lie, but shockingly neither will make it.
I have no idea what the long term ramifications of this match will be, but going forward the more interesting story is Rafa's. Last year when Lukas Rosol beat him in the 2nd round, he was clearly less than 100% during that match, but he ended up missing the next 7 months. Nadal didn't seem hampered in the loss to Darcis, and he's already said that there was no injury and there will be no layoff, but it will be interesting to notice if his confidence will drop. Despite his bulldog mentality, Nadal's confidence, in my opinion, has never really recovered from losing four straight Masters 1000 (the 2nd best level of tennis tournaments after the four slams) to Djokovic in the spring of 2011. I think that lack of confidence followed Rafa to the Wimbledon, US and Australian Open Finals, each he lost to Djokovic. He's since beaten Novak twice in majors, but I don't think he's the confident force he was through 2010. This is the lowest moment, so it will be interesting to see what happens if he has early trouble at the US Open.
The Federer-Nadal rivalry is still what carried Tennis back into the minds of many sports fans after some lean years after the end of the Sampras era. Despite Nadal and Djokovic having played far more times than Nadal and Federer, the Federer-Nadal rivalry will always mean more, will always be more special, and it makes sense that two days after Nadal's (new) lowest moment, Federer suffers his. They were tied together at Wimbledon forever because of that amazing 2008 Final, and are tied together again in defeat. A rivalry till the end,
1.) The Blackhawks Cement their Mini-Dynasty
I'm almost always wrong in my preseason predictions. Hell, I had the Bears beating the Giants in the NFC Championship Game before the 2012 season started, and I had picked Kansas to win the NCAA Title in both 2010 and 2011, years where they were unceremoniously beaten by Northern Iowa and VCU. So, when I am right, I usually flaunt it. And this time I was, as I picked the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup back in January (http://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2013/01/nhl-2013-season-picks.html). Of course, I had them beating the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final, but let's overlook that part for a second.
The Blackhawks are the first team to win multiple Stanley Cups in the post-lockout era, and while they did it with a great core of young players like Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Sharp and a grizzled vet with Marian Hossa. However, Toews and Kane scored a combined 5 goals in those two Stanley Cup Finals, and while Duncan Keith was brilliant in this Cup Final, Marian Hossa missed a game and did little when he was on the ice. No, the Blackhawks won each Cup because their role players stepped up and performed. The amazing part about this Blackhawk mini-dynasty, though, is almost none of the role players from 2010 were on this team.
First of all, the goalie is different, with the "dont-eff-this-up-for-us" Antti Niemi gone in favor of Corey Crawford. But guys like Troy Brouwer, Brian Campbell, Kris Versteeg, Tomas Kopecky, Dustin Byfuglien and John Madden have all been replaced. It took a while for that process to happen, but they were replaced by Andrew Shaw, Brandon Saad, Nick Leddy, Michael Roszival and Michael Handzus, and this core worked about as well as the last one. The Blackhawks, like the Penguins, got lucky by sucking for a while and getting two first-rate players, but it is what they have surrounded those two stars with that seperates them from the Penguins.
It was amazing to watch the swiftness in the Blackhawks comeback at the end of Game 6. It brought up some bad memories, as the ending was hauntingly similar to the Hurricanes comeback in Game 7 against the Devils in 2009 (my 4th worst personal sports loss), as they too were down by one with under two minutes and came back to win scoring two goals within 40 seconds. The difference here was Boston still had to win another game, but then again, this was losing a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Boston fans have had more to cheer about over the past 10 years than any sports city should ever have to cheer about, but they've also had to go experience some terrible defeats. Add this one to the list.
The Blackhawks shouldn't be done any time soon as long as they hang onto Toews and Kane. Crawford is still young, but his price may get too high, and the Hawks have already shown that the goalie doesn't have to be a constant. Unlike 2010, their role players will mostly been back next season and some of them are exciting young guys who just got their first NHL action. There are other teams out there stockpiling talent (Hello, Edmonton), but the Blackhawks are well set up to be as close to a modern NHL dynasty as we will see.
2.) Aaron Hernandez
I don't know why, but when the Hernandez story first broke about 10 days ago, when the news reported that he wasn't a suspect, just a party of interest, I always thought that it could end up being a lot messier than that. I don't know why. Even though I was right, I would have never expected this. What Aaron Hernandez has been charged with doing (not to mention the possibility that he could have been involved in the shooting of two other people last year - this being the killing of a potential snitch on the other episode) is far beyond what I could have conceived. How someone with his life, his opportunity, his contract, could have thrown it all away is beyond comprehension.
There are many questions I have about Aaron Hernandez and what he was charged with doing. First, if you are going to 'orchestrate the execution' (great line, by the way), why be there when it happens? Why not pull a Rae Carruth and just set the thing up? Of course, that wouldn't be any better, but Hernandez compounded his stupidity by making the idiotic decision of being there, if not shooting the guy himself. Then, how deep were his gang connections? Many NFL players left the gang life behind but still have ties to the gang world through friends and past associated. Hernandez took it one step further by still seemingly being a part of that world while in the NFL. This is different than OJ or Michael Vick, or even Ray Lewis. This looks like gang violence, orchestrated by an NFL player.
Of course, when the news of his impending arrest broke, I was slightly amused that this was happening to the Patriots, that their greatest strength (TE) is being turned into a large weakness one-by-one. Of course, I then had to credit the Patriots for making a tough, logical decision to get rid of Hernandez early. They are going as far to distance themselves from Hernandez as possible, and I have to think this was purely Bob Kraft's decision (although I doubt Belichick gave much resistance) to remove the stain of a potential murderer from the Patriots organization.
To defend the Pats for a second, this shouldn't be used as some sign of a deteriorating Patriots locker room. First of all, the 'Patriot Way' has been dead for about six years, but still, the Patriots didn't draft him in the 1st round knowing his character concerns, but in the 4th. They gave him an extension I'm sure after doing due diligence, it just missed whatever was still there with Aaron. The Patriots have other issues in the locker room, particularly on defense, and this definitely looked bad in the beginning of the saga, but by cutting the cord quickly, they did all they could to remove themselves from the Hernandez trail and situation.
As for Hernandez, he's basically everything that is wrong with the glamorization of gang violence in this country. If what has been alleged is true (and I would put that percentage quite high), Hernandez chose to dole out his justice in the most primal, 'gangster-y' way possible, seemingly wanting to flex his muscles. Hernandez obviously is dumber than a rock, not only with the crime but the haphazard way he planned it (texting his associates to meet him) and the brilliantly terrible way he tried to cover it up (the 'breaking the phone' idea kind of shows how much TV Herndo has watched on such matters). Hernandez is a terrible person, but also a terribly dumb and insecure person. The NFL is better off without him, and while his ability (which I always thought was slightly overrated) will be missed in New England, his presence won't be. I just can't believe that for all of Rob Gronkowski's raunchy, frat-bro qualities and exploits, he's by far the smarter, more well-adjusted TE the Patriots had.
3.) The Fall of Rafa and Roger?
I have an almost prescient ability to predict what will happen in Nadal matches very early. The fact that Nadal couldn't break Darcis early in the 1st set of their 1st round match made me nervous. I don't know why. He lost the first set in each of his first two matches at the French Open just four weeks earlier and then he won that tournament. Still, a similar feeling the previous year made me nervous, and that ended with a similar outcome. By the time the shocking three-set match was over, it was hard to believe that that man, Rafael Nadal, could have once won Wimbledon twice and made five straight finals at Wimbledon, let alone won a major just 16 days earlier.
Yet none of that compares to watching Federer lose. In isolation, the Nadal loss is a bigger upset. Darcis is the lower ranked player, and while that ranking difference is quite close with Stakhovsky currently ranked 116, he spent much of the last 3-4 years firmly in the Top 100. Nadal is younger and still closer to his prime. Discounting last year's Wimbledon, Nadal had made the Final of 9 of his last 10 slams played. Rafael Nadal was having the best year of anyone on tour despite missing the Australian Open. Federer, on the other hand, was having his worst year since 2002, going just 27-7 heading into Wimbledon, losing meekly to guys like Tsonga and Kei Nishikori, let alone Nadal twice. However, Federer was the defending champ, and because of Lukas Rosol's even more stunning upset last year, we are conditioned to believe Nadal was beatable early.
Out of all the many records and streaks Federer has set, the consecutive Semifinal streak was always the one I was most impressed with. From Wimbledon 2004 to the 2010 Australian Open, Federer always made the last four. That's kind of absurd. Djokovic just crossed the halway point, but he would need to make it to the 2016 Australian Open to match it. The Semifinal streak ended with a loss to Robin Soderlin (of all people), and since then he's missed the Semifinal another four times coming into this Wimbledon (Wimby '10 and '11, the '12 US Open and the '13 French), but he at least made the last 8, which brings me to my third favorite Fed streak, the 36 straight Quarterfinals, which now ended. Djokovic has now made the QFs 16 straight times, with the 2009 French Open the last time he failed to do so. He would have to make it through the French Open in 2018(!) to match that. The worst part of how the streak ended was that it wasn't some rousing match in the Round of 16, but a shocking, stunning loss in the second round on his best surface.
Roger Federer is either the Greatest or the 2nd Greatest (after Rod Laver) male tennis player of modern times. Rafael Nadal is definitely in the Top 10 and would easily be in the Top 5 on most people's lists today and still has an outside shot of getting 17 slams. However, they will both probably be ranked outside the Top 3 come the end of Wimbledon. I'm not ready to call this a new era, because Nadal's deflated ranking is still mostly due to him missing everything from the US Open Series in 2012 through the Australian Open this year, but Federer, who hasn't missed any time, is clearly declining. There was so much anticipation of a Federer-Nadal Quarterfinal, on the surface where you would think the greatest chance of an epic match would lie, but shockingly neither will make it.
I have no idea what the long term ramifications of this match will be, but going forward the more interesting story is Rafa's. Last year when Lukas Rosol beat him in the 2nd round, he was clearly less than 100% during that match, but he ended up missing the next 7 months. Nadal didn't seem hampered in the loss to Darcis, and he's already said that there was no injury and there will be no layoff, but it will be interesting to notice if his confidence will drop. Despite his bulldog mentality, Nadal's confidence, in my opinion, has never really recovered from losing four straight Masters 1000 (the 2nd best level of tennis tournaments after the four slams) to Djokovic in the spring of 2011. I think that lack of confidence followed Rafa to the Wimbledon, US and Australian Open Finals, each he lost to Djokovic. He's since beaten Novak twice in majors, but I don't think he's the confident force he was through 2010. This is the lowest moment, so it will be interesting to see what happens if he has early trouble at the US Open.
The Federer-Nadal rivalry is still what carried Tennis back into the minds of many sports fans after some lean years after the end of the Sampras era. Despite Nadal and Djokovic having played far more times than Nadal and Federer, the Federer-Nadal rivalry will always mean more, will always be more special, and it makes sense that two days after Nadal's (new) lowest moment, Federer suffers his. They were tied together at Wimbledon forever because of that amazing 2008 Final, and are tied together again in defeat. A rivalry till the end,
