Jays Lose Two to Boston, Montreal Defeats Capitals in Game 7

All right, this is just going to be a quick post as I will only post the recaps for the games. I would do more but it slipped my mind. I apologize for any inconveniences. Here are those recaps:

Game 2 vs Boston: Final Score: 2-1
Game 3 vs Boston: Final Score: 2-0
Game 1 vs Oakland Athletics: Final Score: an 8-3 win

Montreal's Game 7 upset win against Washington: The Big Story

There you go! I'll be back with actual recapping of my own later. You all have a good night!

Jays Flash Leather in Wild Slugfest, Montreal Goalie Halak Supreme in Playoff Win

Boy, was last night a crazy one! From the grass and dust of the baseball diamond to the ice-cold nature of the hockey rinks, there was much mayhem from the sports world. First, to the baseball game...the Toronto Blue Jays played against the Boston Red Sox for the first time this season and it occurred in Toronto at the Rogers Centre. This is the first of a 3-game series which will be played from last night to Wednesday. From the first moment of the game until the end, the bat never grew cold and banged out hit after hit after hit: 16 for Toronto and 18 for Boston. Boston was ahead 5-0 until Toronto scored 6 runs in the 3rd inning to go ahead 6-5, the highlight of the inning being Jose Bautista's 3-run home run. The hitting went back and forth, but Toronto lost 13-12 in the game and now sit at 10-10 (a .500 record). At least 7 Blue Jays had a hit last night and 5 of them hit at least more than twice. Lyle Overbay was the other valiant performer for the Jays, going 3-5 in at-bats and drove in 4 runs, including a solo home run in the 6th inning. Bautista also drove in 4, but Boston was better. All in all, it was not a great game for the Jays (or for the Red Sox for that matter), but it WAS an entertaining one. Both teams combined to use 13 pitchers who threw a collectively ridiculous 399 pitches and allowed an eye-popping 25 runs and 34 hits. Reliever Scott Schoeneweis grabbed the win for Boston and reliever Shawn Camp took the loss for Toronto. Schoeneweis went to 1-0 on the year while Camp fell to 1-1. The next game is tonight at 7 PM at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. You can watch the game on Rogers Sportsnet. The recap for the game is here: Jays vs Red Sox while the boxscore is here: Jays vs Red Sox Boxscore

Now, finally for the hockey rink...the Montreal Canadiens played game 6 of their first-round NHL playoff series from the Bell Centre in Montreal last night. If you missed the game, then you missed out on a dousy! The Washington Capitals looked frustrated last night because of one man: star Montreal goaltender Yaroslav Halak. The man stopped an eye-shocking 53 of 54 shots that came his way in order to preserve the 4-1 win for Montreal. What made the victory shocking is that Montreal finished the season in 8th place in the NHL's Eastern Conference while Washington finished 1st. So when Montreal accomplishes a rare feat and wins the game to force the series to a final game 7, you can understand why it is a stunning achievement. That game will be played tomorrow evening and the broadcast is on TSN at 7 PM. Goal scorers for Montreal were: Mike Cammalleri (2 goals), Maxim Lapierre, and Tomas Plekanec. Washington's only goal was scored by Eric Fehr late in the 3rd period. Shots on goal hugely favoured Washington by a count of 54-22. The box score for the game is here: Canadiens vs Capitals Game 6 Boxscore  The overall recap can be found here: Canadiens vs Capitals Game 6 Recap

That's all for now, folks! Keep on cheering our Canadian teams. I'll write later on tonight's action. See you later!         

Introducing...the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays!

Yes, that is correct. As the title suggests, this will be the first blog post on the Jays. Many pleasant things have occurred this year for the team. They are 10-7 at the moment and currently sit 3rd in the American League's East division behind the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees. OK, that doesn't equal a playoff berth but at least the team has a winning record! This brings me to last night's game vs the Tampa Bay Rays, which was played at Minute Maid Park in Tampa Bay. The Jays defeated Tampa 6-5 behind 4 1st-inning runs off a double to left-field by outfielder Vernon Wells which scored Jays leadoff hitter Fred Lewis and moved Adam Lind to 3rd base. Next up, Alex Gonzalez hit a 2-run single to center-field which scored both Vernon Wells and Adam Lind and moved Gonzalez up to 2nd. These plays all added up to give the Jays a 3-0 lead. To finish up the frame, Jose Bautista doubled to left-field on a fly-ball out to Rays left fielder Carl Crawford. This scored Alex Gonzalez and gave Toronto a 4-0 lead. After that, Rays starting pitcher Matt Garza got the final out and that was the end of the top of the 1st. There would be no more scoring until the top of the 4th inning when Lyle Overbay doubled to Rays right-fielder Gabe Kapler, scoring Vernon Wells. The Jays now lead 5-0. All looked cozy and snug for T.O. until the bottom of the 5th when Tampa Bay finally scored behind Willie Aybar's fly-ball solo home run to left field, which made the score 5-1 in favour of the Jays. After this, Tampa Bay decided to change pitchers: Matt Garza left (having given up an uninspiring 5 runs up to this point) and reliever Grant Balfour came on to replace him. After that, Jays star Aaron Hill belted a solo home run to left field in the top of the 6th to make it 6-1 Toronto. After that, the Jays nearly gave the game away to Tampa Bay. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Ben Zobrist doubled to center-field, scoring Gabe Kapler to make it 6-2 Jays. However, that was just the beginning; the fireworks were still to come. In the bottom of the 7th, Gabe Kapler homered a fly ball to left field, scoring Willie Aybar. This made it only a 2-run advantage for Toronto: 6-4. It grew even worse for Toronto, as B.J. Upton singled to right fielder Travis Snider in the bottom of the 8th, scoring Ben Zobrist to make it 6-5 in favour of the Jays. However, the Jays held on behind reliever Jason Frasor as he was able to get the final 3 outs in the bottom of the 9th to preserve the win. He got the save while Matt Garza received the loss. The winner for the Jays was starter Brett Cecil, who was absolutely masterful in the game last night. He struck out 8 Tampa batters and had all of his pitches working, while Garza had runners on base in almost every inning and had trouble pitching strikes; he struggled mightily. This was especially the case in the top of the 1st inning where Garza threw an incredibly high 40 pitches! Yes, that's right, 40 pitches! I strongly believe that this set the tone for the game and made it too difficult for Tampa to complete their comeback. Every time Tampa seemed to be on the verge of making it, the Blue Jay pitchers shut the door. All in all, this was a solid victory for the team and they should be pleased with their overall effort. One other note must be made before I close...Rays catcher Dioner Navarro was ejected out of the game by home plate umpire Dan Bellino in the top of the 6th inning. This happened after Aaron Hill's solo home run had given the Jays a 6-1 lead at that time. So there's the game; the Jays win 6-5 and take the 1st game of a 3-game series. The next one for the team is TODAY at 6:10 PM in Tampa Bay. You can watch the game on the Rogers Sportsnet TV channel. Have a good one! Here is the recap for the game: Jays vs Rays       

Raptors Win Final Game, but so does Chicago!

It's been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for the Toronto Raptors this season, and Wednesday's home game vs the New York Knicks was a bittersweet moment for the team. They crushed the Knicks 131-113, but the Chicago Bulls defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 98-89 to guarantee themselves the 8th and final Eastern Conference playoff spot. Yes, that's right...the Raptors will NOT be going this year: they finished the year 40-42 in 9th spot. New York was largely apathetic and unmotivated in the game, and Toronto outscored the Knicks in every quarter. There were a few moments in the 2nd quarter where the Knicks tried to make it close, but the Raptors kept on pulling away from them and went on to display a superb exhibition of shooting. They even built their lead to 21 points at one instance in the game; the Knicks played that bad! The player of the game was rookie shooting guard DeMar DeRozan who scored himself a career night. He earned 24 points and tied a career mark with 9 rebounds and field goals, all in 38 minutes of playing time. It didn't start out good for DeRozan who scored only 6 points in the first half before heating it up in the 2nd half. He scored 18 points in that half on an incredible 7-8 shooting clip. There were plenty of fantastic statistics provided by the two teams in this game. Some of them are: shooting 65% in the game, scoring a team-history high 131 points in regulation play, and an unconscious 62-28 edge in points in the paint, which tied a season high. New York attempted a crazy 33 3-point field goal attempts and Toronto earned a season series sweep of the Knicks (winning all 4 contests against them). Over his last 4 games, Amir Johnson has shot a terrific 69% from the floor (making 32 of 46 shots) and this season marks the 6th year that the Raptors have won 40 games or more (the other five of these seasons were ALL playoff ones, the only playoff years to date: 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2006-2007 and 2007-2008). This season provided us with record-setting statistics as well. The Raptors scored 8,534 total season points, they earned a team-high 104.1 points per game, made a record 3,199 shots, shot a team-history field goal percentage (48%), and put out a record number of free throw attempts (2,118). Overall, it was a bittersweet victory for the Raptors: beating New York, but not making it to postseason because of the Bulls winning in Charlotte.

What's next for Toronto? Well, the offseason of course. The biggest question mark to be answered is the future of Chris Bosh as a Raptor. He is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer which means that it will be EXTREMELY difficult for Toronto to keep him if they don't grab him before then! My prediction: Bosh will leave Toronto and the Raps will start rebuilding all over again. I wish Bosh all the best; he gave us consistency almost every night and seems to be an all-around great guy. See you next year, Toronto fans!

Here's the recap: Raptors vs Knicks   

Raptors Cut Pistons Engines, Knights Defeated by Rangers

There are those times when you are doing nothing except losing, and you need a big break to push you out of your slump. Then when you finally do succeed, a huge sigh of relief exhales from your lungs. For the Toronto Raptors, Monday night's game was one of those times. After losing the BIGGEST game of the year Sunday vs Chicago at their own court, the Raptors revved up their engines and cut down the Detroit Pistons 111-97. This was a much-needed victory for them, as it cut the Bulls lead to half a game for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The game-changing moment came after Piston guard Rodney Stuckey completed a pair of free throw attempts sliced the Raptor lead to 31-30 two minutes into the second quarter. Over approximately the next 5 minutes however, Toronto went on an 18-4 run and weren't really challenged the rest of the game. One of the contributers to the Raptors success on Monday was starting centre Andrea Bargnani who had a remarkable night. He finished with 33 points on 13-22 shooting and also picked up seven rebounds. Andrea made 5 3-point field goals on the night and scrambled the poor Piston defense. This enabled starting power forward Amir Johnson to have a career game and finish with 26 points. Helping out and feeling like Santa Claus and his elves were Raptor point guards Jose Calderon and Jarret Jack. They combined for 23 of the team's season-high 37 assists. Jack was more generous than Calderon however, getting 12 assists and even turned it over 4 times to the Pistons. He also scored 15 points for a solid night. Calderon meanwhile, had 11 assists and 0 turnovers. The two guards also combined for a 6-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. All in all, a superb team effort was shown by Toronto at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Other important game notes are: a 60% shooting performance, and a 9-15 shooting night from the 3-point line. 


Here is the recap for the Raptors victory: Raptors vs Pistons 


*Update: The Chicago Bulls defeated the Boston Celtics last night, so they now lead the Raptors by a game for 8th place in the East. This means that Toronto MUST win tonight at the Air Canada Centre versus the New York Knicks and the Bulls MUST lose against the Charlotte Bobcats for the team to have ANY chance at all of making the playoffs. I'll come back and post the results later. Start time for the game is 8 PM on The Score.* 


Now we turn our attention to the sad and awful news: there won't be any more Knights game this year. Why? Kitchener defeated them 8-3 in Monday's Game 7 of their Western Conference OHL semi-final series. This puts London out of further playoff action and guarantees an off-season that is much too early for their liking. It started out great for the Knights who led 1-0 after the 1st period on a goal by Chris DeSouza. Kitchener however, turned it up another notch in the second, scoring 5 times in that period, most of them coming via the power play or on short-handed situations when London had the power play. After that, Kitchener was pretty much unchallenged for the rest of the game: a most disappointing end to a wild series that produced 75 goals combined between the two teams. This averages out to roughly 10-12 goals per game! Another disappointing  thing about the game was that London captain Justin Taylor was ejected in the second period after what was called "a slew foot" penalty on Kitchener player Kelly. The Knights payed dearly for their undisciplined play in that period, giving up 2 Kitchener power play goals. As I said, a most disappointing game. Some important stats are: a 47-23 shots on goal edge by Kitchener. Goal scoring for London was as follows: Chris DeSouza, Scott Griffith and Daniel Erlich. Kitchener goals were scored by: Cimadamore, Morin (who scored three times), Landeskog, Akeson, Moore, and Kelly. For London Knights fans: I'll see you next year as the Knights will seek to avenge this painful and pitiful loss. Here is the recap: Knights vs Rangers: Game 7  


That about wraps it up. Remember, the Raptors play against the Knicks tonight. Until after the game, you all be good.         

Knights and Raptors Recap Links

Due to personal reasons (family and town distractions) and other matters, I will only post the recaps for the following games: Knights vs Rangers - Game 5, Knights vs Rangers - Game 6, Raptors vs Hawks, and Raptors vs Bulls. I am sorry for this inconvenience and will attempt to post a recap of tonight's Game 7 between the Knights and the Rangers. Until then, have a good day!

Here are the links:
Raptors vs Hawks,
Raptors vs Bulls,
Knights vs Rangers: Game 5,
Knights vs Rangers: Game 6

That game 7 between the London Knights and the Kitchener Rangers is being played tonight at 7 PM at the John Labatt Centre. You can either listen on the radio (AM 1290 CJBK) or listen on the team website. Hve a good night!

Raptors: Attack of the Injury Beetle, Knights: an Eye-Shock in OT

Oh how the tables have turned...

Months ago in December-February, the Raptors had climbed to 5th place in the Eastern Conference and all seemed to be going well. Then came the All-Star Break in Mid-February with Bosh and DeRozan representing the team in Dallas (DeRozan lost to now 3-time Slam Dunk Contest winner Nate Robinson; Bosh hit the game-winning free throws for the Eastern Conference All-Stars). Afterwards, the Raptors played host to the Memphis Grizzlies and lost in a heartbreaking thriller as Bosh sprained his ankle in that game. Since then, the team has climbed steadily downward in the East standings and now find themselves just HALF a game ahead of the Chicago Bulls for 8th. This came after Toronto was defeated at home last night by the 4th-place Boston Celtics 115-104. Coming into that game, the team was shorthanded after losing Bosh for the remainder of the year following a 1st-quarter injury in Cleveland which fractured bones just below his right eye and also his nose (Toronto lost the game, which you can follow the link about in my previous post). Last night during the game, 4 MORE Raptors became injured: Hedo Turkoglu (injured in similar area as Bosh, only Bosh's injury is a nasal fracture while Turkoglu's is a nasal contusion), Antoine Wright (sprained ankle, but played through it vs Boston), Jarret Jack (rolled his ankle in game) and Amir Johnson (smacked into Boston forward Glen Davis and was injured). This meant that Sonny Weems (who scored 21 points) and a much shorter bench would have to shoulder the load, and they did: 58 of the Raptors points were scored by the bench. Boston by contrast only scored 46 bench points. All this despite the fact that Turkoglu will likely miss the remainder of the Raptors 2009-2010 season with his injury, just like Chris Bosh. Other shocking facts about the game were: 12 Raptors free throw attempts to Boston's 33, and a 41.7% shooting mark for the Raptors starters (20-48 shooting). It wasn't all doom and gloom for T.O. however. The team actually led 54-52 at the end of the half and stuck with Boston until the 4th quarter when Boston put the Raptors to bed. It was all because of Celtics stars Ray Allen and Michael Finley. They pushed the Boston lead to 13 before the Raptors went on a 10-3 run which ended - with all things - a Jarret Jack hook shot? Yes, a hook shot by the Raptors reserve point guard! (Makes me wonder what this man has been eating for breakfast: first a dunk in Minnesota and now this!) This brought the Raptors to within six with roughly 4 minutes to play in the 4th quarter, but on the next play Celtics All-Star point guard Rajan Rondo hit a layup plus the ensuing free throw to give Boston a 9-point lead. From then on, the Raptors couldn't bring the game any closer and lost. (Rondo, by the way, scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half.) So, that's a rap. Here is the recap for the game: Raptors vs Celtics

A kick in the stomach: it can leave you breathless and pained, not to mention angry and vengeful. This is exactly how the London Knights feel after their 8-7 OT slugfest which took place last night in Kitchener vs the Rangers. The Knights (especially general manager Mark Hunter) argued and protested against the goal, claiming that it was kicked in off a Ranger skate. However, the video review couldn't dig out a kicking motion on the goal. This goal was credited to Rangers forward Jason Akeson who claims the puck simply rolled off his leg and skate and into the net past goalie Michael Hutchinson. However, if Akeson didn't kick in the puck, why then was Kitchener Ranger Jeff Skinner (who scored a hat-trick in the game) already in the goal crease? Oh, suspicions, suspicions...

Other suspicious moments in the game include: Akeson taking a simply ILLEGAL run at Knights star Nazem Kadri earlier on in the game, leading to a fight between Akeson of the Rangers and Daniel Erlich of the Knights. Needless to say, Erlich took an instigator penalty for it. There was also a mini game of "musical goalies" for the Knights: " Big Hutch was yanked after Skinner made it 6-5 in the third. Mike Houser made his OHL playoff debut, stopped five of six, held the fort while the Knights rallied with two late goals in 39 seconds, then Hutchinson returned again." (from the Knights official recap of the game which I will link to at the end of this post)  An eye-opening statistic for this slugfest is: 40 Ranger shots on goal and 37 Knights shots. I've already mentioned how Jeff Skinner scored 3 goals, so here are the other Kitchener goals: Catenacci, Murphy, Moore (who scored 2), and Akeson (who scored the overtime winner). Goals for the Knights were: Pieter Schinkelshoek, Tyler Brown, Nazem Kadri (who scored 2), Jared Knight, Colin Martin and Steven Sanza. Suffice it to say that the Knights will need to give it their all in order to defeat the Rangers in Game 5 tonight at the JLC. Start time is at 7 PM and the game can be listened to on AM 1290 CJBK or on the Knights website. I'll be back later to blog about that game, and possibly the Raptors game tomorrow vs the Atlanta Hawks at the ACC. Start time for that game is 7:30 PM on TSN. So long, everybody; have a good night! 


Here is the recap for the Knights game: Knights vs Rangers: Game 4           

Apologies and Confessions

If you have been awaiting recaps of the latest Raptors and Knights games and are surprised at my absence, the reason for this is that I had been experiencing Internet connection difficulties earlier today. As a result, I will only give you the links to the recaps. This will allow me to get back on track so that I can provide you with the content you can expect. So, here are the recaps:

Raptors vs Cavaliers

Knights vs Rangers: Game 3

Once again, I am sorry for this inconvenience. I should be ready after tonight to blog about the London Knights who are playing tonight in Game 4 vs the Kitchener Rangers and the Toronto Raptors who are playing tonight without Chris Bosh and Antoine Wright vs the Boston Celtics. Until then, cheer on the home team!

Playoff Chance? We'll See...

Yes, that's correct. After two exciting, sloppy, and poorly played games the Toronto Raptors find their playoff hopes rapidly decreasing. First off, on Saturday, the team travelled to Philadelphia to play against the Philadelphia 76ers, a team going nowhere in the Eastern Conference (they are not even going to make the playoffs). The 128-123 OT win in Philly was huge with multiple playoff implications: the team found themselves only 2 games behind the Charlotte Bobcats for 7th in the East after the game, and they hold the tie-breaker in head-to-head play vs BOTH the Charlotte Bobcats and the Chicago Bulls (who are 9th in the East). Losing to Philly could have meant 9th spot, but as a result of the win, they keep the 8th and final playoff spot. The climactic period of the game occurred when the Raptors allowed the Sixers to destroy a 17-point lead (Yeah, that's right: SEVENTEEN!) during the 4th quarter, but the team found the offense once again in the furious overtime period. All-Star forward Chris Bosh put the Raptors ahead 124-122 on a key layup with 1:55 left to play. Sixer big man Samuel Dalembert split a pair of three throws on Philly's next possession, leading up to CB4's next clutch play: a wild, driving banker shot that used the glass and gave T.O. a 3-point lead. Next, Philly star Andre Iguodala missed on an extremely foolish, quick, and questionable 3-pointer, and Raptors reserve point guard Jarret Jack knocked down both of his free throw shots to seal the game and the victory: the team's 3rd straight! The key men for Toronto were: Chris Bosh and starting shooting guard Sonny Weems. Bosh came close to a triple-double (when a player grabs 10 or more in 3 game categories: points, rebounds, assists, etc.) with 28 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. He also made 12-13 free throw attempts. At first, it didn't seem as if Bosh would end up with such a dominant performance as he played through a sloppy and sluggish 1st quarter: 0 field goals, 2 free throws, 2 turnovers, & 1 foul in 10 minutes. For the rest of the game however, Bosh was superb getting 11 points in the 2nd quarter, 7 in the 3rd, and came up big in OT as already mentioned. Weems, the Raptors other key player scored 18 points in the game on 9-11 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds and 2 assists. After racing to 6 points in the 1st and looking strong, Weems pushed in 10 points in roughly the first 8 minutes of the 3rd quarter. This gave the Raptors a 15-point lead. Sonny has looked impressive lately, scoring 12.2 points per game and shooting better than 50% during the last 5 games entering Sunday's game vs the Golden State Warriors. Other honourable stats to mention are: a 56.2% shooting mark for Toronto against Philly, 7 Raptors players in double-figures, a 42-27 rebounding edge for Toronto, 35 Philadelphia points scored on 20 Raptor turnovers compared to 12 Raptor points scored on 17 Philly turnovers, and 15 points in the 3rd quarter for Toronto compared to 36 points in the 1st. So, a poor game for Toronto but a win is earned. As they say though: "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

After the Philly win, the Raptors had to host the Golden State Warriors last night on Easter Sunday at the Air Canada Centre. This game was key as the 9th-place Chicago Bulls were not in action and were only 1.5 games behind Toronto for 8th place and a spot in the playoffs. A loss meant that the Raptors lead shrunk to 1 game ahead of Chicago, and a win meant a 2 game lead. Well, a breathtaking finish answered the playoff situation question for T.O. After almost erasing a 16-point deficit, the team found itself down 113-112. This was after both teams traded quite a number of free throw attempts during the final minute of the game. The last attempts were made by Chris Bosh with 2.9 seconds to play. It was the Warriors turn to inbound the basketball in their own end (as the teams were both out of timeouts). As Golden State inbounded, Sonny Weems stole the pass for the Raptors and quickly whipped a blind pass to Bosh, who wrenched it away from Warrior big Rony Turiaf and immediately put up a close-in layup attempt toward the basket. Turiaf, however, challenged the shot and the ball clanged off the rim to the disappointment of the Raptors and their fans. It was an unfitting end to a marvelous game for Bosh, who scored at least 40 points for the 9th time this season. Warriors star and rookie point guard Stephen Curry (the son of former player and sharpshooter Dell Curry, who once played in key games during the Raptors BEST-EVER seasons in 1999-2002) had a more well-rounded performance than Bosh did though. Curry scored 29 points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the game and was seemingly everywhere on the court. He dished out 8 of the 12 assists in the 1st half, showed great defense, and showed the Raptors that more was to come in the 2nd half. At that point, he found his shot during key Golden State runs in both quarters before hitting some key free throws at the end of the game. So, why did the Raptors lose this game that they SHOULD have won? That's an easy answer: they shot just 39.1% from the court, and hit only 3 3-pointers as well. Golden State however, shot 48% from the court and made 13 3-balls. That's not to say that the Raptors funked the stat sheet completely: they owned a 48-24 points in the paint advantage, a 25-12 fast break points advantage, a 55-40 rebounding edge, and they also sunk and attempted more free throws than Golden State (19 more makes and 20 more attempts). This game was the 3rd one this season where Toronto had a 20 or more advantage in free throw attempts. Other stats include: 31 Warrior assists on 41 shots, and 16 4th-quarter points for bench point guard Jarret Jack. To sum up this game: heartbreaker! The only other tidbit to write home about is that Golden State head coach Don Nelson is now tied with legendary former head coach Lenny Wilkens (who once coached the Raptors during their 2001-2003 seasons) with 1,332 wins. Congratulations Donny; you deserve it! This doesn't help our chances though!

Here are the recaps for the two games: Raptors vs Sixers, Raptors vs Warriors (the recap vs the Warriors has false information on it about Sonny Weems that is actually relevant only to the OT win against Philly; just thought I'd warn you all)

We now come to the end of yet another news-filled blog post. The London Knights are playing TONIGHT at 7 PM in Game 3 of their second-round series vs the Kitchener Rangers at the John Labatt Centre. You can catch the game on AM 1290 CJBK or on their official website. The Raptors meanwhile, play their next game in Cleveland against the Cavaliers tomorrow. The start time is at 7 PM on TSN. I'll catch you all again after the Knights and Raps are finished their games. Until then, be good!



    

Knights Split Two with Rangers

After getting past the Guelph Storm, the London Knights now find themselves battling their rivals the Kitchener Rangers in their second-round Western Conference OHL series. In Game 1, London thumped the Rangers 8-5, playing in an offensive thriller at their home ice, the John Labatt Centre. The shots on goal were even at 33. London goals were scored by: Steven Sanza, Jared Knight, Daniel Erlich (scoring twice), Nazem Kadri, Colin Martin, Chris DeSouza, and Leigh Salters. The Kitchener goals were scored by: Skinner (scoring twice), Murphy, Mackinnon, and Catenacci. The scoring all started because of a second-period incident where Nazem Kadri crashed hard into the net, and Rangers goalie Brandon Maxwell giving Kadri a frustration shove in retaliation. Earlier in the year, this would have meant a severe penalty for the Knights (especially from Nazem), but the Knights just score more goals when they face an angry opponent, and that's what they accomplished on Thursday with the 8 goals. In fact, in their last 3 games, London has 22 goals combined! This shows the talent, agility, and professionalism that the Knights must have in order to go to the Memorial Cup (which they have not played in since they hosted it in 2005 when they beat the QMJHL champs the Rimouski Oceanic - then led by current NHL superstar Sidney Crosby to win the entire event). All in all, a memorable start to what promises to be a terrific and hard-fought series. Here is the recap for Game 1: Knights vs Rangers 

Game 2 took place last night in Kitchener. This game was a far cry from the previous one, with the Rangers winning 5-2. As Nazem Kadri once played for Kitchener, he expected the jeers and boos from the Rangers fans. Well they sure came: every time Kadri was slammed into the boards or failed to make any sort of a good play. Add a win by the home team to that fact and you end up with an ugly night all around for London. Nazem DID score a goal for the Knights and would not allow the hostile crowd to shake him out of his game. Star goalie Brandon Maxwell was the difference-maker for Kitchener: stopping an incredible 39 of 41 London shots on goal. Let's face it; he HAD to after the killing the Knights had put him through in game 1! The Rangers, meanwhile, only fired 34 shot on Knights goalie Michael Hutchinson. Another key man for Kitchener was Gabriel Landeskog who scored a hat trick in the game. (This occurs when a player scores 3 goals in a game.) The other Knights goal was scored by Daniel Erlich. Kitchener's other goals were scored by: Morin and Skinner. I will now close with two lines from the official recap put up on the Knights website: "They (the Knights) don't have to win at the Aud (Kitchener's current home ice) to move on. But if they don't, they know they're in for a long haul." (The information in brackets is not contained in the actual quote.) True, very true. Here is that recap for game 2: Knights vs Rangers 


Game 3 will not be played until Monday at the JLC. Start time will be at 7 PM and as always the broadcast will be on AM 1290 CJBK. The Raptors play TODAY at 1 PM against the Philadelphia 76ers on TSN. Catch you all later! 

Late Push Propels T.O.

It took awhile, but the Toronto Raptors finally got it rolling last night in the 4th quarter during their game vs the Los Angeles Clippers. They were victorious over the Clippers, 114-92, and with the win the Raptors move a whole game ahead of the Chicago Bulls and 2 games behind the Charlotte Bobcats in the Eastern Conference standings. Currently, the Raps are 8th in the East, with Chicago sitting at 9th and Charlotte at 7th. The decisive stretch in the game came during the final 2:46 of the 3rd quarter and the first 4:30 of the 4th, when Toronto limited L.A. to an unbelievably low 1 field goal in that time length. Before that, in the 3rd, they had traded six lead changes with the naughty Clippers before the opposition "hit the wall". In the 2nd half overall, the Raptors outscored the Clippers 66-39. The game-changer was undoubtedly All-Star Chris Bosh for the Raptors, of course. He finished with 34 points on a hot 12-15 shooting mark. Chris also picked up 11 rebounds and 3 blocks and he shone the brightest in the 3rd quarter. During that defensive-minded stretch in that period, he scored 7 straight points and changed a 1-point deficit into a 7-point lead. His points came at the rim and at the free-throw line. For the game, Bosh made 10-13 free throws. Another great Raptor was Sonny Weems. He scored 17 points on a perfect 8-8 clip and received 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Sonny was relentless all night long, with his points coming from mid-range and near the rim. According to head coach Jay Triano, "He works hard everyday in practice and gives us something we don’t have...he's earned a spot in a rotation and he's a valuable one for us." Some of the statistics for the game are: Toronto shooting a season-high 61%, Toronto scoring 24 points off 12 Clippers turnovers. L.A. meanwhile, only scored 12 points off of 12 Raptors turnovers. The Raptors also scored 56 points in the paint as opposed to just 30 for L.A. 2nd half scoring favoured Toronto: 66-39. Their record this year when holding opponents under 100 points is 21-1, with the only loss of that sort coming in their home game this year vs the Denver Nuggets. All in all, a monster game for the Raptors, especially in the final quarter. Here is the recap: Raptors vs Clippers 


Just a final update before I finish posting: the London Knights are playing tonight vs the Kitchener Rangers in their OHL Western Conference Semi-final round. Start time is at 7 PM and can be listened to on AM 1290 CJBK on the radio dial. Thanks, for reading, and have a happy night!