The Weekend Run-down June 6, 2011

It was another wild weekend in sports. The French Open crowned a new champion and first ever Asian winner on the women’s side in Li Na. The men’s side was more of the same as Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer for his 6th French title. The NBA Finals continue to roll on as Miami pulled out a close win with a questionable call. Vancouver took a 2-0 lead against the Boston Bruins thanks to a guy who many think shouldn’t even be playing. And in local news, Vanderbilt defeats Belmont in a game of hometown favorites to advance to the college baseball super regional.

Let’s jump right into it:

Women’s French Final: Li Na and Rafael Nadal win the French Open: Li Na made history as she became the first major winner, man or woman, from Asia. The country of 1.3 billion hasn’t fully embraced the game of tennis yet but maybe this will generate some buzz as Na looks to be at the top of the game now. She defeated defending champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6(0). Na admitted on Twitter how nervous she was but said she never showed her opponent. Its great to see history made and Na will rise to no.4 in the next WTA rankings as career looks to continue rising. The French may not yet be use to giving her the winner’s trophy as they mistakenly gave Na the winner’s up hardware instead. When you make history people have get accustomed to something new but more than likely it was just a simple mistake.

Men’s French Final: Rafa and Roger treated us to yet another great finals match-up. Both seemed to struggle just to make it here but they both showed us why they are considered two of the best to ever play the game. Federer came out and set the tone for the match as he hit a number of his signature forehands. Federer would lose steam though as he had a drop shot that went just wide. Rafa would take over from there displaying his defensive style of tennis and would go on to take the match 7-5, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1. The win gives Nadal his 10th major championship and his numbers at Roland Garros are just astonishing. He is 45-1 all-time on clay and his latest major performance against Federer makes him 6-2 against him in major finals. He now is creeping into the talk of greatest ever and at age 25 he should have a lot left in the tank to take a run at Federer’s all-time major wins mark of 16.

NBA Finals:

Miami 88 Dallas 86: The Miami Heat defeated the Dallas Mavericks 88-86 to take a 2-1 game lead in the final series of the NBA season. Dwayne Wade was the difference make in this one as he torched the Mavs for 29 points and 11 rebounds. He dominated early as he scored 19 points in the first half as Dallas could do nothing to prevent the ultra quick Wade from getting to the basket. Miami would take a big lead down the stretch just as they did in game 2 and Dirk would take over for the Mavs again. He would score 12 straight Dallas points to get them tied at 86. The much maligned and Dallas native Chris Bosh broke the tie as he swished a 16 footer with seconds left to play. Nowitzki would have a couple chances for the tie and the win but couldn’t break the steady defense of Miami’s Udonis Haslem.

If the Mavericks are going to win this series, they will have to get Dirk more help. He scored 34 but his next three closet teammates combined for the same amount. Dirk also had his faults in this game as couldn’t get off the screen that allowed Haslem to put a hand in his face and he had a chance to pass to an open Jason Terry but he didn’t and I can’t say that I blame him. Mario Chalmers was also credited on a shot that clearly should not have counted but none of that is here nor there at this time. Fact of the matter is that the winner of game 3 in a Finals series that was tied 1-1 has gone on to win every series in history. Dallas again has their backs against the wall, what will they do Tuesday night?

Stanley Cup Finals:

Vancouver 3 Boston 2 Vancouver leads 2-0: This was just a crazy game from start to finish. Alex Burrows aka biter x thoroughly dominated as he had a hand in all of the Canucks scoring finishing with 2 goals and 1 assist. Burrows, as you know was accused of biting the Bruins Patrice Bergeron who had to be restrained afterwards. Maybe the Bruins should have made sure he was suspended because he just ran through Boston’s defense all night long. Burrows scored on a power play in the first period and helped tie the game midway through the third with an assist to Daniel Sedin. Burrows would cap his busy night by scoring 11 seconds into overtime to give Vancouver the win. Boston now goes home in a two game hole but this not an unfamiliar position for the Bruins as they came back to beat Montreal after dropping the first two homes games of the series. The Bruins played physically again against the Canucks but Burrows was the difference as his speed and precision has been too much for them. Even top defensemen Zdeno Charo has had a problem with the speedster Burrows. Ironically Vancouver hasn’t lost since they were defeated by Nashville on May 7th. I think we lost the game ourselves,” Boston forward David Krejci(notes) said. “Obviously they played well, but we had the game in our hands and we just gave it away.”

The two teams next face each other tonight at 8:00 pm eastern time. Make sure to tune in.

Vandy defeats Belmont to advance to Super Regionals: Vandy got a career high 13 strikeout performance from Taylor Hill as they defeated Belmont 6-1. After beating Troy 10-2 and Belmont 10-0 earlier all the Commodores had to do was beat the Bruins one more time to advance. They had the warm embrace of Hawkins field and Coach Tim Corbin made sure he stayed on top of things. Jason Esposito was named regional MVP as he had three hits with one home run. The win puts Vandy within two victories of their first College World Series, which frankly is hard to believe with all of the success the program has enjoyed over the last few years. A lot of credit has to be given also to the scrappy Belmont Bruins. They faced the tall task of having to win two of three games against regular-season champion and 17th-ranked Stetson to grab the sixth and final spot in the tournament of the Atlantic Sun. As for Vandy, they will face Oregon State as the host but the date and time has yet to be determined. Make sure to go out and support the Commodores.



Hopefully everyone enjoyed there weekend and now unfortunately back to work. At least we sports fans have a week of NBA Finals, Stanley cup finals, and baseball to look forward to. Also Plaxico Burress was released today it will be interesting to see where he lands whenever the lockout ends. Hope everyone has a great week.

Nashville Predators lose series to Vancouver but best is yet to come

The most successful season in Nashville Predators history came to a close last night. The Vancouver Canucks capitalized on early mistakes from the Preds and defeated them 2-1 in front of a sold out Bridgestone Arena.




This game will be remembered for the missed opportunities Nashville had. The Predators allowed two early goals by Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin ten minutes into the game, as the highly energized and frenzied pace seemed to work against the home team. This lost marks the third time Vancouver has beaten the Preds at home in this series. Nashville was able to get back into the game thanks to improbable goal by David Legwand. The veteran forward scored on a banking shot that hit off of Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo’s leg.



But Nashville wouldn’t be able to get any closer. The Predators couldn’t exploit its power play opportunities as they were just 1-21 in the series while having the man advantage. Nashville had an 18 shotson goal compared to Vancouver’s 9 but the Canucks were able to put 2 of those shots in net.



“I thought we played the first two periods as well as we’ve played all in the playoffs,” coach Barry Trotz said. “The first period was a little disturbing because according to our [calculations] and what we track … we were outchancing them 11-2 and we were losing 2-0.



Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler continued to be the thorn inside of Nashville’s side as he recored assists on both goals for the Canucks. The first would come off a Ryan Suter turnover that happened to be near the net. Kesler zipped a pass to Raymond for a backhanded shot past Pekka Rinne.



This was a disappointing end to an otherwise great season for Nashville. The Predators won their first playoff series in defeating the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, recorded their first playoff victory in overtime, their first playoff road victory, the teams first win in an elimination game (Saturday night in Vancouver, forcing Monday’s game six), and set the single season attendance record averaging 15,562 655 a game at Bridgestone Arena



The Predators ownership is hoping that this season’s momentum rolls over as they now turn their attention to key off-season moves. This includes re-signing their top restricted and unrestricted players. The first player on that list has to be Shea Weber (who had the best beard in the world by the way), earned $4.5 million this season. He could command as much as $7 million and any team (and there will be many) that is willing to make that offer could possibly take him away from the Predators. Goalie Pekka Rinne is locked up for next season but the Preds would be smart to lock up the Vezina trophy finalist up long term. Steve Sullivan is a fan favorite for all of years of fighting injury but with his contract up and his health down as he only played a limited amount of games this year; his time may be up in Nashville. Joel Ward had a breakthrough in the playoffs and his $1.5 million salary will surely increase in the open market as he is an unrestricted free agent. He may have played himself out of Nashville’s price range. The list goes on as Nashville would probably like to lock up Defensemen Ryan Suter up long-term as well.



The challenge the Predators face now is sustaining the success that they have achieved this year. This is a team on the rise as long as their core stays intact with Weber, Suter and Rinne. They have the playoff experience needed to advance in future playoffs. They also have a number of possible impact players in the minors including local favorite Blake Geoffrion, Defensemen Jonathon Blum, and left-winger Taylor Beck. If the Preds can find a way to add some scoring punch to the lineup, that would take this team to a new level. As Ryan Kesler of the Canucks proved, a dynamic scoring wing can pay big dividends in the playoffs. Hopefully the Preds can sign a talented offensive wing to add to an already tenacious defense, but that may be hard to due considering the players that are already in line for new contracts. The salary cap also isn’t Nashville’s friend as they have one of the lower payrolls in the league.



Above all the uncertainty about the Predators, we can all agree that this was a watershed moment type of season for them. They have gained respect from non-believers who never thought a hockey team could survive here and gained numerous new fans with their tough grind it out style. Even though this wasn’t the ending we wanted in Smashville it’s only the beginning of bigger and better things for Hockeytonk.



Congratulations to the Nashville Predators for a great season and we look forward to an even better one next year.