OVECHKIN’S AMERICA – The Washington Capitals finally did it. They won the Stanley Cup. Alexander Ovechkin has been partying nonstop since. I’m actually worried about him. There’s no doubt that he’ll turn up to camp in September 75 pounds heavier. But I’m afraid someone’s going to find him one morning at the bottom of a pool or something. The guy knows how to party. And he’s earned it after a dozen years in the league. He’s finally got his Stanley Cup and we’ll probably see a steady decline to the end of his career.
Looking towards next week’s NHL draft, the Rangers will be looking to add a few key pieces for their Cup run in 2023. They’ll have the 9th, 26th and 28th spots in the first round after getting shafted in the lottery. Eh, it was mostly their own doing. They won too many meaningless games down the stretch and didn’t finish low enough to have good odds in the lottery. So 9th. For good measure, the Rangers have two second round draft picks and two third round picks to go along with their three first rounders. So the Wolfpack should be stacked with young talent next season. The Blueshirts should be primed for playoff contention in two or three years. Lets hope they don’t become the Edmunton Oilers who seem to be going backwards with the young talent they have. Time will tell.
The World Cup started with hosts Russia thrashing Saudi Arabia. For their efforts the Saudi’s probably got a few suitcases full of money. Today we’ll see a couple of good matches as Egypt takes on Uruguay in the early game and Portugal takes on Spain in the late match. While Brazil came into the tournament as favorites, I think it’ll be defending champion Germany’s World Cup to lose. Ratings will definitely be down as the USA didn’t qualify for the dance along with big European names like Italy and the Netherlands.
I’m hoping that Iceland can back up their strong performance at the European Championships two years ago where they made the quarterfinals. Iceland kick off their tournament against a strong Argentina side tomorrow, as Junoir Blaber listens to really bad songs.
