Playoff time in the NHL...who ya got?

Manchester United won a pulsating game over Chelsea 2-1 yesterday to book their spot in the Champions League semi-final.  Chelsea looked much better than last week but were undone especially by the play of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Javier Hernandez and J.S. Park.  Chelsea did get the game to a draw with time to spare, which would have seen them advance had they scored another, but Didier Drogba's goal was canceled out 51 seconds later by Park.  They'll get the winner of the Schalke-Inter Milan quarter-final, which goes today.  The German side hold a 5-2 lead on aggregate, a huge hole for Inter to climb out of.  The other quarter yesterday saw Lionel Messi score his 48th goal in all competitions to lead Barcelona to a 1-0 win at Shaktar Donetsk.  They'll get the winner of the Real Madrid-Tottenham quarter which goes today, with Real holding a huge 4-0 lead on aggregate.  If I'm a betting man today, I'm hitting Inter Milan and the Real/Spurs over, and saying we'll see a Schalke-Man U and Real-Barca semi-finals pairing.

I'll spare my seemingly annual rant on how I miss the days where one conference in the NHL would play one night, the other the next and back and forth til the end.  Far easier to follow than this "who plays when?" scheduling to pander to the American networks.  Would've made doing half the picks today and half tomorrow  easier, so instead, all today.  In the East, I've got Washington topping the NY Rangers in six, Philadelphia in seven over Buffalo (though an upset wouldn't shock me there), Boston in six hard fought games over Montreal, and Tampa Bay topping Pittsburgh in six, though that could swing the other way if the Pens get anything out of Sidney Crosby.  In the West, I don't imagine the President's Cup winning Vancouver Canucks are too thrilled to get the defending champion Chicago Blackhaawks in the opening round, but they'll prevail in six games that expose the Hawks housecleaning last summer as a true mistake, unavoidable though it may have been.  I've got the San Jose Sharks knocking off the LA Kings in five, Detroit in six over Winnipeg Phoenix and Anaheim over Nashville in six games.

Toronto FC host the LA Galaxy tonight with David Beckham suiting up for the visitors.  This is the middle of three games in seven days for TFC, with kickoff at 8pm.

Well that didn't take long: Vernon Wells has already been benched in Anaheim for "trying to do too much".  

One final Chelsea item.  They're now another year on without winning the prize owner Roman Abramovich wants more than any other in the Champions League.  And since the millions he dropped on Fernando Torres haven't exactly worked out, here's a great little website that is not-so-cryptically entitled "Has Torres Scored For Chelsea".

Nice of the NFL to release its pre-season schedule for 2011.  That ought to get them all the attention they're after.  Why not announce the half-time entertainment for the Super Bowl next?

The Texas Rangers are 9-2, but they lost Josh Hamilton yesterday for 6-8 weeks with a busted arm thanks to a headfirst slide that he probably could've done without.

Granted, it is only an entertainment pub, but love this bit in Exclaim! entitled "Chris Bosh: from Canada's hero to America's punchline."  Guess that says something about us Canucks, huh? Oh, right, the Toronto Raptors are Canada's hoops punchline.

I love when the Yankees are sitting at home for two days, and still pick up a game.  Thanks for that, Boston and Toronto.

More backyard wrestling fail, and this might be the best one yet.  Love the barricades.


Have you seen the since-removed trailer for Hangover 2?  Check it here.  Awesome.  It was removed around the world for the "monk-ey" scene.