Author Archive

Green Bay Packers’ Playoff Chances Already Ended Last Week

Posted: 8th November 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NFL
Last Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings came into Lambeau Field and beat the host Green Bay Packers 38-26. In the process, they made a statement: ôWe are the better team.ö Packers fans made a statement, too, booing their former signal caller when he took the field and, for a while at least, when he touched the ball. Apparently, he was wrong to exclaim that ôreal Packers fans would understandö his joining the ...

Packers-Vikings: Minnesota Dominates

Posted: 7th November 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NFL
Before assessing what Sunday's 38-26 loss to the Minnesota Vikings actually means to the Green Bay Packers (the subject of my next articleùlook for it Sunday morning), I want to provide the report card on each unit: á Quarterback: B+ Aaron Rodgers had a passer rating over 100 for the fifth consecutive week, raising his season rating to 110.4. He now has 14 TDs and just two picks, plus one rushing TD and ...

San Jose Sharks Coast To a Five-Game Winning Streak

Posted: 2nd November 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NHL
The San Jose Sharks are back on the road after a brief two-game homestand. Not that it mattersùthey just keep winning. After a slow start to the season (3-3-0-1), they are red hot, winning five in a row and seven of eight and moving up to the second-best record in the Western Conference. They are also tied for the second most wins on the road, thanks in part to a scheduling quirk ...

NFL Game of the Week: Packers-Vikings Rematch

Posted: 1st November 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NFL
At 1:15pm PST (that's rightùdaylight savings is over, and it's time to change your clocks back to real time!), the second-place Green Bay Packers host the division-leading Minnesota Vikings. It is a rematch of the Week Four matchup won by the Vikings, 30-23. And I think I have heard something about a future Hall of Fame traitor's return... (Incidentally, for all of you still holding the ridiculous notion that The Traitor did ...

San Jose Sharks Complete East Coast Road Trip 4-2

Posted: 26th October 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NHL
The San Jose Sharks embarked on a six-game, Eastern Conference road trip just under two weeks ago. They played three games in the first nine days before the final three games in four days tested their physical and mental stamina. Considering the competition, finishing 4-2 was impressive. The trip included games against two of the top six teams in the league (the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers) and two more ...

Green Bay Packers: Ted Thompson Must Be Held To a Higher Standard

Posted: 14th October 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NFL
If things do not change, Ted Thompson should be on his way out the door. I don't know about you, but they expect me to perform my job well in order to keep it. We cannot accept lower than that from the GM of the greatest franchise in sports. And no, I am not one of those who blames Thompson for the departure of a petty prima donna who quit on us ...
In my last Sharks article, I lamented the play of the Sharks on the back end. This was for good reason: Through four games, San Jose had given up 13 goals had a composite save percentage of .863. In the last two games, the team has allowed just two goals in 125 minutes of skating, and Evgeni Nabokov has a save percentage of .971. This raises his season percentage over .900 ...
In my preview of this game, I talked about how the media was focusing on the matchup between The Traitor and The Understudy. Meanwhile, the real matchup was the Packers sorry offensive line and the Vikings elite defensive line. I was half-wrongùboth were the story. Aaron Rodgers and The Traitor dueled it out, with both registering passer rating well over 100. Rodgers had the lower percentage (.703 vs. .774) and just two ...

Green Bay Packers-Minnesota Vikings: The Traitor Awaits!

Posted: 5th October 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NFL
Pull out all the stops! This game is for the NFC North lead, bragging rights between two rivals, and a memorandum on two quarterbacks. Except the game really means none of those things. No one cares who takes the division lead a quarter of the way into the season. What matters is who is standing in that position in January. Bragging rights tend to be more significant for the team that wins the second ...

NHL: Time To Dump Versus Network!

Posted: 4th October 2009 by MJ Kasprzak in NHL
The San Jose Sharks were one of the teams chosen to kick off the 2009-10 NHL season because they are a team with All Star talent that plays exciting end-to-end hockey. So why is it a Sharks community leader is unable to even see the game?Gary Bettman. His short-sighted decision four-plus years ago to take a little more money from a third-rate network rather than let the league continue to ...