Indians return to post season,Devils premiere as well

Big night in sports as the Cleveland Indians battle the invaders from the "big cesspool" in Game 1 of the ALDS,while thousands of miles south and a half an hour later,the New Jersey Devils begin their season with a murderous road trip in Tampa's Citrus Bowl vs the Lightning.
Plus the Chicago Blackhawks start their season as well in Minnesota vs the Wild.

I think I will be watching the Tribe live and taping the Devils to watch at work,so we will have coverage of both games tomorrow.
If the Indians win Game 1,I really like their chances of winning the series.
I don't like the Yankee starters at all once you get past Chien-Ming Wang and Wang starts tonight against C.C. Sabathia for Cleveland.
Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens go for the Yanks in Games 2 and 3 and both are more than capable of a big effort,but both are battling through age and injury,so I would not feel too safe counting on them.
I will say this-if it comes down to the Bullpen,New York has a huge edge with Mariano Rivera and the devastating rookie Joba Chamberlain over Joe Borowski and Rafael Betancourt.
Actually,I will go even further and predict this-The Indian bullpen will lose at least 1 winnable game for Cleveland in the series.
Both teams have potent offenses,but the Yankees have the edge in playoff experience and that could go a long way here,especially with a Game 1 Yankee win.
I will say Cleveland in 5,but the series is really too close to feel great about picking either way.

I wont get too in depth on the Devils opener since I just did the preview yesterday,but at least a split of the two games in Florida would go a long way towards navigating this road trip at .500.
Brent Sutter has mixed up quite a few of the traditional Devil lines and even broke up the long time checking line of John Madden and Jay Pandolfo.
Sutter says that he "doesn't believe in checking lines".
One thing is for sure,he certainly is not afraid to break up the norm!

Bullpen Notes

The Chicago Blackhawks start tonight vs Minnesota.
Not sure how much Hawk talk that we will have.
Their games start at 8:30 here,which means they finish too late for me to take them to work.
So,for the most part,I will watch the Hawks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays that the Devils do not play and the occasional Sunday night.
Sunday games usually start at 7:00.
So,if I get to watch the game,we will cover it here.
The first date that looks to work out is Oct 1o vs the San Jose Sharks.

Interesting quotes from Boxing promoter Bob Arum.
Arum has mended fences with former friend Oscar De La Hoya and is co-promoting this weekend's 130 lb title fight between Manny Paquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Arum offered this thought on the reunion.
"That's what this sport should be all about and that's what we need to do to counter this momentum you see with the UFC. We're a much better, much more compelling sport. But they do a better job than we do of getting their matches made and making them into events.
I agree wholeheartedly,Bob!!!

I realized that we missed two games of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats since all the other football started.
The Cats split the games winning at home over Calgary 24-20 and just missing a road upset over division leader Winnipeg losing 21-19.
The Cats are 2-12 on the year and return to action Monday in Montreal vs the Alouettes.

And finally,nice job by Lou Pinella last night in pulling Carlos Zambrano out after 6 innings and 85 pitches in the Cubs loss to Arizona.
Pinella violated the top rule of managing at any level-don't worry about tomorrow when you must win today..