Packers end Seattle's season,Devils knife the Sabres

For a short while,it appeared that the Seattle Seahawks were going to have a great day.
Two Ryan Grant fumbles on his first two touches of the football led to a 14-0 Seattle lead and things were looking up.
That was as good as it got as the Seahawks would never reach the end zone again,the Packers offense and the aforementioned Grant got rolling and there was no stopping them in a 42-20 Green Bay win.
The normally dependable Seahawk defense was helpless against the Packer onslaught in the snowcase that was Lambeau Field.
A funny aside on that-I watched ESPN 2's Boxing last night at work on tape from Friday and on the bottom line was the weather forecast for the game-30% chance of snow FLURRIES!
Glad ESPN isn't buying the Weather Channel anytime soon.
Anyway,yesterday I wrote that the team that ran the ball better would win.
Green Bay 235 rushing yards,Seattle 35.
Game,set and match.
The Seahawks continued their anemic road playoff record as they have not won a road playoff game since their AFC days in 1983 against the Dolphins and a ROOKIE Dan Marino!
A somewhat disappointing year in what could be Mike Holmgren's last year as coach.
The team needs some offensive retooling and could use some new safeties,but what they do will depend on a possible new coach and the system that he would install.
Congratulations to Green Bay and here is hoping you go all the way.....

The New Jersey Devils had to be feeling that their game in Buffalo vs the Sabres was payback night.
Daniel Paille scored two goals in the first period,one being on the patented "Brodeur beater" from the parallel net shot and it seemed like Ryan Miller was going to finally get his win over the Devils.
But the Devils never quit and dominated play for the remainder of the contest,despite Miller's stellar play.
Paul Martin finally cut the lead to 2-1 in the second with his goal that deflected off Miller's glove and into the net for Martin's 3rd goal of the year.
But still despite the Devils energetic play,the tying goal had not came until Martin Brodeur left the net with 90 seconds remaining for the extra attacker and through the Devils aggressive forechecking set up David Clarkson stuffing the puck between the pipe and Miller's right leg for the tying goal and Clarkson's 5th goal of the year.
So on to another scoreless Devils-Sabres overtime and then to the shootout.
Zach Parise quickly beat Miller to give the Devils the edge,Brodeur then turned away Ales Kotalik,who is excellent in shootouts and Thomas Vanek,who is not.
That then set up Patrik Elias beating Miller for the clincher leaving a discontented Miller on his stomach pounding his hand on the ice as the Devils pull 2 points from the fire with the 3-2 win.
The only downside was John Madden leaving the game after being cut by the skate of Buffalo's
Henrik Tallinder.
No word on the seriousness of Madden's injury.
The Devils are off until Wednesday against (uh oh) the Islanders at the Rock....

Bullpen Notes

The Eastern Conference All-Stars were announced.
Marty Brodeur was voted in as the starting goalie by the fans.
Good thing because no other Devils were selected as backups.
So the second best team in the conference got 1 all-star and the second worst (Washington) got two?
And Ryan wonders why I believe there is a anti-Devil bias.......................

The Cleveland Browns wasted no time in replacing Todd Grantham as defensive coordinator with defensive backs coach Mel Tucker.
Tucker was the Browns secondary coach for the last three years and was a coach on the defensive side of the ball for Ohio State before that.
My only question is this,nothing against Tucker,but you fire a coach because your defense was not up to snuff and replace him with a coach that was helping him?
Just asking.........

Looks like another good Billy Beane deal for the Oakland Athletics in swapping aging,injury riddled outfielder Mark Kotsay for power armed reliever Joey Devine with the Atlanta Braves.
This tells me that Huston Street will not be in Oakland past July 31st at the latest...

What a right hand by Super Middleweight contender Edison Miranda in knocking David Banks cold in 3 rounds.
The hard punching Miranda is always an entertaining fighter to watch.


Photo Credits
Favre-Mike Roemer-AP Photo
Devils-Don Heupel-AP Photo