[JuZ]

Who's looking good this year?

Cool, glad you got to see a a game. Was it in Seattle or New York? I'm almost a bigger fan of the stadiums than the teams themselves!

Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Minnesota. There are other good teams, but they'd all have to have a hell of a lot more go right.

I know what you mean! It was at the new Yankee Stadium, so it was cool to see it all new and shiny in one of its first few games. Very impressive stadium, but felt a little... sterile? Maybe it was the Yankees fans. They were pretty quiet!

We got to see Ichiro play which was a highlight. Also got to see Ken Griffey Jr in his last season.



Aden, I've been following Liverpool since Craig Johnston was there in the 80s.

Nhl hockey anyone?
It's that time of year, every game is so important, and the lineups are depleted, players play injured, and well it's a great spectacle!

I'll just say that I'm proud of my Montreal Canadiens who have managed to remain competitive despite having so many injured players, and relying on so many rookies.

Big fan of Anaheim here. Mainly because of Koivu and Selänne. I am overjoyed after discovering internet streams! Finally I'm able to watch the games live

Interesting times too. Western conference is insanely evenly matched, Ducks and three other teams near the play-off line with almost same points. Can't miss a game

Haven't been able to keep up with the NHL at all this year... The games are always on too late and I've been getting little enough sleep as it is so I figured I'd give it a break this year. Though I will have to tune in to the Playoffs because they're always far too entertaining to miss! I've been checking in on it every now and again and it's just always so refreshing, that league. League leaders are different every season, total unpredictability in the standings... Never loses it's edge at all! Vancouver look like serious business this season though. Miles out ahead of the pack. Although going into the Playoffs at the top has been a jinx the last two years. San Jose bit the dust in the first round in 2009 and Halak almost single-handedly threw the Capitals out in the first round last year. Hopefully that trend won't play on their minds!

[Octillus]

Haven't been able to keep up with the NHL at all this year... The games are always on too late and I've been getting little enough sleep as it is so I figured I'd give it a break this year. Though I will have to tune in to the Playoffs because they're always far too entertaining to miss! I've been checking in on it every now and again and it's just always so refreshing, that league. League leaders are different every season, total unpredictability in the standings... Never loses it's edge at all! Vancouver look like serious business this season though. Miles out ahead of the pack. Although going into the Playoffs at the top has been a jinx the last two years. San Jose bit the dust in the first round in 2009 and Halak almost single-handedly threw the Capitals out in the first round last year. Hopefully that trend won't play on their minds!

Living close to San Jose, let me just tell you to never count on them to do anything come playoff time.

Haven't been able to keep up with the NHL at all this year... The games are always on too late and I've been getting little enough sleep as it is so I figured I'd give it a break this year. Though I will have to tune in to the Playoffs because they're always far too entertaining to miss! I've been checking in on it every now and again and it's just always so refreshing, that league. League leaders are different every season, total unpredictability in the standings... Never loses it's edge at all! Vancouver look like serious business this season though. Miles out ahead of the pack. Although going into the Playoffs at the top has been a jinx the last two years. San Jose bit the dust in the first round in 2009 and Halak almost single-handedly threw the Capitals out in the first round last year. Hopefully that trend won't play on their minds!

Living close to San Jose, let me just tell you to never count on them to do anything come playoff time.

Yeah, they're pretty big bottlers in the post-season. I have a Sharks jersey but it tends to get retired in April for a while.

[Octillus]

The Shark Tank is a wonderful place to see a hockey game, though, I'm only a very casual fan.

Just watched the highlights from yesterday's F1. Boring, to be honest, and all a bit predictable. I tuned out of F1 years ago after Mika Häkkinen left and have been trying to get back into it ever since but have yet to have the patience/interest to stick with it for a whole season... it just never seems as exciting as it used to.

And on an MMA sidenote, that UFC Fight Night card the other day was bloody brilliant! Great to see Chan Sung Jung and Leonard Garcia fight again after what was arguably the most entertaining MMA fight ever last April. So in one fight they possibly had the greatest stand-up fight of all time and in the second the victory came via a submission that's never been done before in the UFC and is seemingly regarded as a holy grail of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Third fight guaranteed to be awesome!

[swervedriver]

Just watched the highlights from yesterday's F1. Boring, to be honest, and all a bit predictable. I tuned out of F1 years ago after Mika Häkkinen left and have been trying to get back into it ever since but have yet to have the patience/interest to stick with it for a whole season... it just never seems as exciting as it used to.

I know, I can get really excited about the sport and the cars beforehand, and then you sit through the race just being rather bored. There's so many gizmos and gadgets and rules about the whole thing that just makes it impossible to like. Like, you can use your fancy moveable rear wing, but only if you're less than a second behind the guy in front and only on the start/finish straight. They're just making it overly complicated....

Just watched the highlights from yesterday's F1. Boring, to be honest, and all a bit predictable. I tuned out of F1 years ago after Mika Häkkinen left and have been trying to get back into it ever since but have yet to have the patience/interest to stick with it for a whole season... it just never seems as exciting as it used to.

I know, I can get really excited about the sport and the cars beforehand, and then you sit through the race just being rather bored. There's so many gizmos and gadgets and rules about the whole thing that just makes it impossible to like. Like, you can use your fancy moveable rear wing, but only if you're less than a second behind the guy in front and only on the start/finish straight. They're just making it overly complicated....

Plus you've just got the obvious winners and the same manufacturers creaming it race-in, race-out. And it isn't like bike racing where it can be saved, even if you know what manufacturer might walk a GP or who's gonna win, by some serious competition a bit back of the leaders or just that notion that anyone can drop off or miss an apex and then you've got back-and-forth passing battles. It just doesn't come together so easily for the cars because of their size so it all just gets a bit monotonous. Disappointing, really. They should standardise performance and limit all the electronic computer crap so the cars can actually be driven by the drivers. F1 these days is entirely controlled, won and lost in the pit lane. Hardly proper racing...

[swervedriver]

Plus you've just got the obvious winners and the same manufacturers creaming it race-in, race-out. And it isn't like bike racing where it can be saved, even if you know what manufacturer might walk a GP or who's gonna win, by some serious competition a bit back of the leaders or just that notion that anyone can drop off or miss an apex and then you've got back-and-forth passing battles. It just doesn't come together so easily for the cars because of their size so it all just gets a bit monotonous. Disappointing, really. They should standardise performance and limit all the electronic computer crap so the cars can actually be driven by the drivers. F1 these days is entirely controlled, won and lost in the pit lane. Hardly proper racing...

Well, they tried that with the A1 series, but that never really appealed to the masses. Also because you know the best drivers are in Formula 1, so you're aware you're watching F1 rejects race against each other.

But also the point you make about back-and-forth passing battles. Those simply do not exist in F1. I cannot recall a single moment where two drivers were equally fast and constantly fighting each other for position. One is always hugely faster than the other and once he's past the battle is over; if there's a marginal difference in speed overtaking isn't an option either because they can't get close enough behind to make a move. I know they've tried to improve on that now with the re-introduction of KERS and the moveable rear wing, but passing someone with more speed on a straight is hardly that exciting because it's just the driver pushing a 'boost' button. And the rules of overtaking, oh god the rules: only change your line once, don't push the other driver off his line, don't blabla etc. Seems like all drivers are being scared into not overtaking in fear of a penalty or disqualification; they're all being disciplined to do their laps and not take risks because you might scrape somebody's sponsor stickers off.

Case in point: Button's move on Massa for which he was penalized because he took the escape route only to avoid a crash. Ferrari was very, very sneaky to have Massa then immediately let Alonso pass, so even if Button was going to give back his place to Massa that Alonso would have been past him as well. Quite a dick move by Ferrari and I can definitely understand Button's frustration about it.

Plus you've just got the obvious winners and the same manufacturers creaming it race-in, race-out. And it isn't like bike racing where it can be saved, even if you know what manufacturer might walk a GP or who's gonna win, by some serious competition a bit back of the leaders or just that notion that anyone can drop off or miss an apex and then you've got back-and-forth passing battles. It just doesn't come together so easily for the cars because of their size so it all just gets a bit monotonous. Disappointing, really. They should standardise performance and limit all the electronic computer crap so the cars can actually be driven by the drivers. F1 these days is entirely controlled, won and lost in the pit lane. Hardly proper racing...

Well, they tried that with the A1 series, but that never really appealed to the masses. Also because you know the best drivers are in Formula 1, so you're aware you're watching F1 rejects race against each other.

Yeah, I always thought that was a pity cos it did have the idea right. The standard settings of the cars make for way more interesting racing and make it so it is the driver winning and not the wheeled computer.

But also the point you make about back-and-forth passing battles. Those simply do not exist in F1. I cannot recall a single moment where two drivers were equally fast and constantly fighting each other for position. One is always hugely faster than the other and once he's past the battle is over; if there's a marginal difference in speed overtaking isn't an option either because they can't get close enough behind to make a move. I know they've tried to improve on that now with the re-introduction of KERS and the moveable rear wing, but passing someone with more speed on a straight is hardly that exciting because it's just the driver pushing a 'boost' button. And the rules of overtaking, oh god the rules: only change your line once, don't push the other driver off his line, don't blabla etc. Seems like all drivers are being scared into not overtaking in fear of a penalty or disqualification; they're all being disciplined to do their laps and not take risks because you might scrape somebody's sponsor stickers off.

Case in point: Button's move on Massa for which he was penalized because he took the escape route only to avoid a crash. Ferrari was very, very sneaky to have Massa then immediately let Alonso pass, so even if Button was going to give back his place to Massa that Alonso would have been past him as well. Quite a dick move by Ferrari and I can definitely understand Button's frustration about it.

You'll never knock that carry on out of it though. That gifting positions to team-mates thing pisses me off no end. It must infuriate the drivers as well, seeing as most of them are on a similar level of skill so it's just shite to let your team-mate, who is genuinely not performing better than you in the race, to go through because boss man says so. I think teams should be punished really, really severely for that kinda crap.

Holy shit, 3 goals and 5 points for Selänne. The guy is freaking ageless. 5 to 7 games left and still 6 teams battling for a playoff spot. This is the most fun I've had as a hockey spectator since 2006 olympics Tomorrow we go again!

My beloved Nttingham Panthers are through to the EIHL (UK's top league) Playoffs, alongside Sheffield, Belfast and Cardiff.

Also looking forward to GB vs. Netherlands on the 9th

My beloved Nttingham Panthers are through to the EIHL (UK's top league) Playoffs, alongside Sheffield, Belfast and Cardiff.

Also looking forward to GB vs. Netherlands on the 9th

Having spent a year working in Nottingham, and now that Basingstoke are no longer in the Elite League, the Panthers are the team I follow at that level, so c'mon Bison and c'mon panthers!!!

[Octillus]

BASEBALLDAYBASEBALLDAYBASEBALLDAYBASEBALLDAYBASEBALLDAYBASEBALLDAYBASEBALLDAY

Beat LA!

Ahem. Keeping composure, of course.