Week 19 of NHL 2005-6

The Olympics have started but Men’s Hockey doesn’t kick off until tomorrow (Wednesday). I haven’t really checked yet to see if I get any of the games on my Dish set up. Won’t matter though. The matches take place seven hours earlier which means they’re playing in late morning here. Short of an upset during the medal round, I will have to agree that Canada is pretty much a given on the gold. 
 
My Flyers wrapped up rather poorly before the break. The injuries were piling up yet the rookies and back ups did a decent job beating the Caps on Friday night although they almost blew their lead. On Saturday, the game against the Senators was awful. Steve Coates of Comcast was trying to be optimistic by saying that they may be trying to use the Muhammed Ali rope-a-dope strategy. I disagreed with that statement on two points. Firstly, that’s not Coach Hitchcock’s style or plan. He believes in playing 60 minutes of your best so you can pound your opponent into the dirt immediately. Secondly, with Ottawa’s speed, shooting prowess and aggressiveness; you’d be a fool to ever let them jump out ahead because they’re not known for letting you catch up. Now we’re back to being in second for the Atlantic while the one-line Wonders known as the Rangers have first place. There are less than 30 games remaining. I can only hope that those who are left behind rest, practice and regain their hunger to bring home Philly’s first Cup in 30 years. 
 
Meanwhile, what’s my two cents on this whole Wayne “Betzky” mess? I’m saddened that Rick Tocchet is in the thick of this mess which automatically pulls Wayne into it (due to their working relationship on the Coyotes). When they said this involves the Mafia from southern New Jersey and Philly, I had a sinking feeling that Jeremy Roenick was part of this mess. My worst concerns came true last night when ESPN.com broke the story that JR is giving an affidavit over this. It doesn’t look well on the surface but here’s the silver lining: No one has bet on hockey at any level thus a repeat of what happened to Pete Rose is unlikely. No one has been murdered like the Michael Jordan situation. Lastly, my friend who’s a lawyer said that in Texas, gambling with an illegal operation is a misdemeanor. I imagine it isn’t that serious in New Jersey so the case they’ll probably make will be conspiracy (hard to prove), fraud (iffy) and tax evasion (that usually sticks). I think the media is just bored since they don’t really care about the game, they just look for blood in the water.