Update

I've been busy doing a few things the last week or so. Mourning the Avalanche loss to the Mighty Ducks, attemping to find a job, and trying to put together a site for a girl named Molly Bloom. For those who don't know, Molly is a girl who was run over by her limo on Prom night. I attended the high school she went to, and my sister was in the same limo with Molly, so it hit's really close to home.

I'll start writing again once I figure the other site out, as that is a lot more important than who wins the game tonight. As of now, there is a Blogger site set up for Molly. Keep her in your prayers.

On a happier note, I'll be working at KKFN AM 950 The Fan in Denver this summer. Marc Moser and Sandy Clough will be on air from 6 a.m. until 10 a.m., and I will be doing some behind the scenes work. Both those guys are really, really great broadcasters, hopefully I'll be able to pick up on some of their skills over the summer.

Sports articles soon...

ESPN and their False Reporting

The first thing you learn in journalism school is that as a journalist, you must accurately report the news. That is the cardinal rule. It doesn’t matter if you are the best or the worst reporter out there, you must portray the news accurately.

In some instances, it doesn’t affect very much if the news is 100% correct or not. Today, on ESPN, there is an article which ends in “Brunette has three goals in the Avs' eight playoff games this year,” when in fact, the Avalanche have only played in six playoff games (at the time the article was posted online). A few days ago, also on ESPN, an article stated that the Los Angeles Lakers had won the first three games of their series with Phoenix, and then Phoenix had won the next three. Actually, Phoenix won the first game, then Los Angeles won three, then Phoenix won two more (and went on to win game seven, but not until after the article was posted). Again, it’s not a huge mistake that will affect very much, if anything at all, but it still makes a difference. Weather it affects something greatly or not, the information needs to be correct.

The two examples weren’t huge mistakes, and didn’t affect very much, especially since they were sports stories, which don't have as big of a social impact as a murder story or a financial story might. However, those weren't the only mistakes that were made. Over the last week, there have been 5-10 discrepancies that I have noticed casually reading the site. None were overwhelmingly wrong, but in any case, ESPN needs to make sure that the information on their site is correct. They are the leader, both on TV and on the web, in providing sports news to fans. It may start out with little mistakes like this, and eventually lead to a big problem and a huge decline in their credibility.

Everyone makes mistakes, even ESPN can't be correct 100% of the time, but they need to be more careful with what the post as "official" sports news online.

Western Conference Predictions (Semifinals)

It’s not hard to believe that the top-4 seeds in the Western Conference all lost in the first round of the playoffs. Like I’ve been saying all year long, the teams that looked really good, standings-wise, were highly over-rated (Detroit, Dallas), and the teams that looked not too great in the standings (Edmonton, Colorado) were ten times better than people thought they were. Up until the last week or so of the regular season, The Western Conference seeds 3 through 10 were all separated by 4 points. With so many teams compacted like that, it’s not really surprising that all four series’ were “upsets” in the first round.

The only series that was even a little surprising was the Calgary/Anaheim series. Towards the end of the season, Calgary looked like the much better team, but Anaheim proved why playoffs are the best time of the year; anything can happen on any night.

In the first round, I picked Edmonton, Colorado, San Jose and Calgary. Three for four (.750), not too shabby considering the combined total for the “experts” at ESPN was seven for twenty (.350). Considering the pounding both Colorado and Edmonton put on Dallas and Detroit, respectively, it should be easy to pick the winners of the Semifinal round.

With that all said it’s time to make my second round predictions…

Colorado over Anaheim in 6 games.
Colorado beat Dallas in every aspect of the game. From penalty kills, to power plays, to shots, to blocked shots; Colorado even outnumbered Dallas in hits, which is abnormal, because Dallas is a much more physical team than Colorado. Colorado conquered every aspect of the game against the second best team in the West, and should have no trouble against Anaheim, a team which Dallas dominated in the regular season, compiling a 6-2 record against. The Avalanche were 3-1 against Anaheim in the regular season, the only loss coming in a shoot-out, which, as I mentioned in my first round predictions, should not be held against the Avalanche, as they were abnormally awful at shootouts. The Avalanche will dominate the Ducks, and the only reason I’m giving the Ducks 2 wins, is because the Avalanche will have Steve Konowalchuk back, and will be experimenting with different lines in order to see what will fit them best in the next round.

Edmonton over San Jose in 5 games.
I don’t even know if much needs to be said in this series. Edmonton dominated the best team in hockey in the first round. An eight seed absolutely killed a one seed in six games. As I have mentioned many times before, Detroit is not as good as they seemed in the standings, and should not have been considered as big of a favorite as they were. However, they were still a good team, and Edmonton dominated. Edmonton played in the toughest division in hockey, and earned stamina and strength doing that. San Jose beat Nashville, a team whose final point-tally was inflated in the same way that Detroit’s was. San Jose was a better team than Nashville all along, and no one should be surprised that San Jose made it past the first round. Edmonton will come out and play at the same level they played at against Detroit, and that will be too much for San Jose.