Devils bolted in Tampa, trail 2-0

Photo Credit:Mike Ehrmann Getty Images

The New Jersey Devils battled the Tampa Bay Lightning even through a period, but a second-period rampage resulted in four goals in ten minutes, a benching of Keith Kinkaid and an eventual 5-3 Tampa win in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

New Jersey received one goal in each period with Nico Hischier, Sami Vatanen and Blake Coleman accounting for the Devils goals.

Game three will see the series return to Newark on Monday.

Hell Raisers

1) These two games have not presented Devils fans with a large amount of hope of pulling an upset of the top-seeded Lightning, but look at it this way- Tampa Bay has simply held serve and the Devils have to simply return the favor in Newark.
However, one slip up at the Rock and it will likely lead to eventual doom...

2) Another encouraging note was that the Devils scored three goals without Taylor Hall.
If the Devils can match that with Hall's play in game one, I still have hope that this will be a series yet.

3) I know Keith Kinkaid was sent to the showers early, but I thought he was blameless on each of the second period rushes by Tampa.
Sometimes coaches are simply looking for something to swing the pendulum back their way and a goalie switch is an easy way to attempt to do that, but the breakdown was on the defense and not on Kinkaid.

4) Cory Schneider looked good in relief and I wouldn't wager against Schneider being tabbed as the starter for game three.
Schneider didn't allow a goal and played the period plus that he saw action in the manner of Cory Schneider of old.
Could a Schneider return to the lineup swing this series with the possibility that the Devils have found the "hot goalie"?
It'll be interesting to see what John Hynes decides.

5) The Devils outshot Tampa by 18 shots (44 to 26) and again makes me think that with some good fortune along with defensive improvement (and maybe a lineup change) that the Devils can get back into this series Monday.
Perhaps that's false hope, but I believe it's possible.

Road Trip: Charleston

The day started early in Lexington with a quick departure and a stop for a styrofoam cooler.

Why is a cooler important to this story?
Well, it set the stage for more conversation than you can believe about a styrofoam cooler, but more on that later as we sped to Charleston and landed there early enough to wait a while, but too late to work on players entering Appalachian Power Park on the Greenville Drive and the homestanding Power.

Charleston and the Power has been a favorite stop since our first trip here and I like going here on multiple levels-the autographing is relatively easy, the staff is nice, actually helps you do things and they keep the on-field ridiculousness to a minimum, which often is a refreshing change.
It's a cozy ballpark with a reasonably wide concourse and I love the ease of entrance into the park with a loud whistle to signal the gates opening (Think the Flintstones opening with Fred getting off work!).


The Greenville Drive will not make an appearance in Hagerstown this season, so this was a key game to have any chance to work on the Boston Red Sox affiliate for the collection.
The parent club has lost much of their depth in the farm system and isn't as high in the talent rankings as they usually are, so the Drive lacks the talent-laden teams of the past.
I was able to have the team's top two position prospects sign in C.J. Chatham and Cole Brannen, but when I was pulling cards, I missed the team's top overall prospect in pitcher Alex Scherff's Bowman and had nothing for him.

The West Virginia Power didn't have the Pirates first-rounder Shane Baz on the roster yet and the team's top position prospect in outfielder Lolo Sanchez doesn't have any cards as of now.
I did nab (with help from Fred Landucci, so I could do some extra work on the Drive) both of the Pirates players in the New York-Penn league top prospect set from 2016 in Dylan Busby and Deon Stafford to sign.
Fred and Michael enjoyed talking to Stafford as he is a Harrisburg native, with some rival high school talk as Stafford and Michael graduated from the same high school.
Second round selection Cal Mitchell signed his Bowman (and hit a long home run in the game) and was very nice.
I still don't have a card for infielder O'Neil Cruz, who is being converted to shortstop after being acquired from the Dodgers last season in a trade for pitcher Tony Watson.

The Power had canceled the previous day's game and therefore scheduled a doubleheader with the Drive not returning.
We watched game one (with the highlight being the Mitchell homer) and with the game tied through seven innings, we were treated to the new rule for extra innings!
Do you sense my excitement for this?
The batter that made the final out of the previous inning starts on second base in the extra stanza in an attempt to add, ahem- excitement and speed the game along.
Well, I've seen two extra innings so far this season and in each case, the team at bat sent its first batter up and sacrificed the runner to third.
Considering that so many fans and supporters of the designated hitter use the talking point of "no one comes to see a pitcher hit or sacrifice bunt", this experiment features the sacrifice bunt.
It's very sound baseball strategy, but I fail to see where the excitement builds.
I'll never understand why pro sports leagues hire commissioners (baseball with Rob Manfred and hockey with Gary Bettman notably) that seem to dislike the sport they run and have contempt for the people that enjoy the game.
I would wager that this trial run will be at least tweaked for next season, if not given up completely as it has been overwhelmingly met with a negative response.

After adding a few more players between games, we were off for an early dinner before the ride home and we had a few ideas, but the "Toastman" Rod Blackstone had recommended Adelphia Sports Bar and Grill and in the eyes of Fred and Michael-if the Toastman says it-it's as good as gold.
Derreck was dubious of Adelphia when it was touted as "Greek Food", Doug and I lacked a strong opinion, so we were Adelphia bound.
It wasn't the worst place that I've been, but far from the best as well.
A dry undercooked burger, less than great fries and a waitress that was nice, but misplaced Derreck's credit card and delayed our leaving for ten minutes.

Now its time to talk cooler.
Derreck was in the back of a Nissan Pathfinder that was supposed to seat seven, but the fifth person (Derreck) was mildly tight in his seat.
This was passable on the way down, but Michael had bought some chocolate bourbon balls for his boss and he was afraid that they would melt in the sun.
Therefore a small cooler was needed to keep them intact and the only space available was next to Derreck, which took almost all of his leg room and led to many complaints and gripes to Michael for both the cooler and his lack of space.
Generally, this was quite hilarious, but Derreck's insistence on keeping the trip moving meant we made just one stop between Charleston and Hagerstown.
When we arrived home, my knees were killing me and I can only imagine how Derreck was feeling!

It was a great start to the new season and I always enjoy traveling with my friends.
I cannot ask for better friends than the guys in that vehicle and I'm hoping that next year, perhaps we can make a two-vehicle trip somewhere for a few days and add some of my other friends that I enjoy their company such as Bill Cover, Lefty Koch, and Kendall Morris.
Now that would be a really fun trip to take!

I'll be back later with the Devils against the Lightning as they try to tie that series, a quick boxing challenge, why something that happened yesterday poured cold water on a post that I wanted to write and my inbox is loaded-I'm going to have to do something about that soon!!

Devils struck by Lightning-Lose Game One

The New Jersey Devils return to the postseason was not a smooth one as the Devils dropped game one of their series to the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 in Tampa.
New Jersey fell behind 3-0 before goals by Taylor Hall and Travis Zajac cut the lead to just a goal before Tampa pulled away to the 5-2 win.

Game two sees the teams stay in Tampa Bay Saturday as the series continues.

Hell Raisers

1) Taylor Hall finished with a goal and an assist, but the goal came on an accident when Tampa's Ondrej Palat made a brain-dead play when instead of sending the puck around the boards, Palat couldn't have given Hall a better pass unless he skated over and laid the puck on his stick.
Hall had an occasional lapse defensively, but once again did his part on offense.

2) I thought Keith Kinkaid played reasonably well in his first playoff game and considering he allowed four goals.
It's tough to blame Kinkaid for any of the four goals that he gave up and though the scoreboard doesn't indicate it, he was far from the worst offender in this defeat.

3) The Devils did allow one goal to Tampa Bay on the power play (like those rhymes, do you?), but I thought (especially in the first few chances) that they did very well with clears and they did it in a fairly physical fashion.
Tampa's power play is one of the stronger in the league, so this wasn't a total failure at least,.

4) If the Devils want to be a true contender, the team is going to have to address the defense and add another good defender.
Ben Lovejoy is terribly slow, Mirco Mueller made mistakes that directly led to two Lightning goals and John Moore seems to be always around everything but the puck.
You cannot fix everything overnight and Ray Shero has done an excellent job in shoring up a leaking ship, but the Devils still have some holes-most of them behind the blue line.

5) What the hell was the deal with the thundersticks in Tampa?
I hate crap like that (mainly because they were supposed to give them out once at a football game, they didn't and I've heard about it ever since from Cherie!).
Artificial noise is really ridiculous and shows just how hard it is to summon real excitement in sports anymore!!

Back later, if time permits with the final day of my trip...

Devils return to the playoffs

The New Jersey Devils return to the playoffs tonight for the first time as the eighth seed against the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I'm not going to write a full-length column on this because I just haven't watched enough hockey this winter.
That doesn't mean that I didn't (or don't) care about the team or even the sport, it means that something happened that I hadn't accounted for- I missed watching the games with Rachel and it wasn't the same without her.
I had always watched alone before her fandom began and I didn't count on not wanting to watch the games alone again when she stopped watching games after the Adam Henrique trade with Anaheim.
I missed sharing that with her and it trickled down to me.
Hopefully, some playoff hockey will revitalize things for at least me and hopefully both of us.
For an excellent and lengthy preview, click here for the thoughts from All About the Jersey.
I'll be covering the playoffs as much as I can (some games may conflict with work and some channels may not be on the road office television) and hopefully game one will end before work.

The Devils will have to count on some huge efforts to pull an upset of the Lightning and their best player will have to continue to build on his career season.
Taylor Hall finished in the top ten in the league in goals (39) and points (94) as he grew into the player that he could be and not projected on potential.
First overall pick Nico Hischier scored 20 goals in his first NHL season and also showed signs of the type of ability that could make him a perennial all-star and Kyle Palmieri added 24 goals from the wing.

Cory Schneider's struggles continued, but to the surprise of most, Keith Kinkaid became the top goaltender and managed to keep the team afloat during their late playoff run that allowed them to hold off the Florida Panthers by one point for the final spot (New Jersey tied 7th seed Columbus in points, but lost the tiebreaker in wins 45-44).
It will take Keith Kinkaid playing over his head for the Devils to defeat Tampa four times in seven games.

The Devils did win all three games with the Lightning in the regular season, so they have to feel that they can skate with Tampa, but the top seed won ten more games and finished with 17 more points so this will not be an easy task.
The rebuilding process of Ray Shero is one year ahead of schedule for a playoff berth, I figured that next year would be the season that some of the fruit of Shero's labors came to pass and as a result, any damage done in this years postseason will be playing with house money.

My prediction: The Devils will give Tampa all that they can ask for and make them work for their victories, but the inexperience of Keith Kinkaid will eventually come into play and the superior depth of Tampa will eventually wear down the Devils.

Tampa Bay in six.

Road Trip-Day 1-Louisville

So where were we?

Yes, rolling into Louisville after some not so Legendary treatment and touring the bourbon factory, it was time to brave the cold for the Louisville Bats (Reds) against the Toledo Mud Hens (Tigers).
I really liked Louisville when I came here with Ryan and even though we didn't do anything around town this time, I still like Louisville Slugger Field.

Louisville built their park in 2000, so it's 18 years old now and as much as I like it, I can see how to others it might rank behind flashier AAA stadiums that I have been to like Nashville, Durham or Columbus.
It has the retro look without the bells and whistles that newer parks have.
In other words-it's a ballpark and not an athletic emporium.
Terrific sightlines, a generally knowledgeable baseball crowd and having the type of facility that has the space of the newer stadiums without the noise of those parks helps to rank Louisville among my favorite of the AAA parks.

I was not all disappointed to return to Louisville, even though I had nothing to get signed.
We still had a bonus though, as it was a bobblehead giveaway night and I added a Tucker Barnhart gold glove bobble for the evening.
Now this is where I betray a little ignorance in the I didn't pay much attention sort of manner- Even before that night, If you had asked me for a million dollars, who won the gold glove for National League catchers last season- Tucker Barnhart would not have landed in my first five guesses.
I might not have even remembered him at all without a list of names in front of me, which likely says this- the Reds were awful last year, I didn't see many Reds game and Barnhart must have been pretty strong defensively to win an award on a bad team and a bad small market team at that!

We watched about five innings from the left field bleachers (They gave us great seats behind the plate, but those were in the shade- the bleachers were in the sun and therefore warmer) where the weather was better than that in Lexington, just an hour west, with the sun shining.
We could have stayed longer and even stayed in the sun as if you remember from my trip with Ryan, the sun stays out far later in Louisville as it is located on the western tip of the eastern time zone with the result being that it is far lighter there at the same time compared to Maryland, although the sun arrives far earlier here than in Louisville at the same time.
Louisville is one of my favorite stops (maybe it's because of my love of the Kentucky Colonels?) and though I did get the feeling that some (if not all) of the other four travelers liked it as much as I did, I had a great time at a nice ballpark.

We did need to eat before the night was through and as before, we looked up Trip Advisor as we moved along.
One of the problems with TripAdvisor (and similar sites) can be that when you go to larger cities, so many great places are deep in the city, which means they often are closed, can be hard to find when you aren't familiar with the city and more times than not- you have a very difficult time finding a place to park.
As much as I felt that we left some really good places to eat on the table, it was the right call in this situation.
We checked a few places and finally looked up a town named Shelbyville.
The selection was Claudia Sanders Dinner House and yes, it was named after the wife of Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.

The restaurant looks like exactly where you would think a Kentucky Colonel would reside and the inside was massive, wide open and spacious.
It's really hard to describe other than imagine a home that you would think Colonel Harlan Sanders would live in and that's exactly what it was like.
The menu was awesome and I rolled the dice and went for the all you could eat fried chicken with chicken livers.
It included FOUR vegetables and a soup of choice (I went with chicken and dumplings).
We all ordered an appetizer to split that loomed as a must try -Sausage stuffed mushrooms!
I cannot convey how good this tasted!
I wound up bailing after just two pieces of chicken and two liver servings, just way too much food at super reasonable prices!
Combined with a great waiter and I couldn't give Claudia Sanders Dinner House a better recommendation and on that- all of us agreed!

After another liquor house stop for an interminable period for Miguelito Loveless and his love of the bottled spirits, it was back to Lexington to finally hit the bed.
The hotel was nice and I was so tired that I didn't watch the boxing card on Showtime- that's called exhaustion, folks!

I'll finish the final day later this week as I have another post to work on tomorrow..

Road Trip Day 1-Lexington out, Louisville in?

The trip season started in
2018 as I joined Fred and Michael Landucci, Derreck Chupak and Doug Hopkins for a planned two city stop on the opening weekend of the minor league season.
The plan was for a trip to Lexington (I had been there last season, but the rest of the group had never visited) and finish the trip the following day at standby Charleston WV, where we had been, but Derreck had not.

Things do not always go as planned.
The weather forecast had improved over the final few days before the trip  (At one point, one to three inches of snow was called for in Lexington), still light rain was falling and at some points in the higher elevations snow showers, so we expected an at least 50/50 chance of a cancellation of the game.

For lunch, we were checking TripAdvisor for places to eat in towns a few miles away for ideas and decided to stop in Morehead, Kentucky.
If you are a rabid college sports fan, you might know Morehead State from the Ohio Valley Conference (Division I basketball, 1-AA Football), but otherwise, Morehead is a small town that you may not have heard of otherwise.
The number one listing was Pop's Southern BBQ, so that was the choice.
Doug loves BBQ and I'm not passionate about it, but traveling through small-town Kentucky, one was going to gamble sooner or later unless you wanted to wait until Lexington arrival.
The gamble paid off as in my opinion, Pop's was even better than the North Carolina version that I tried last year.
The beef brisket was highly recommended by a local diner and I tend to listen to the recommendations of the regulars-as long as I like the item that is!
I had a side of slaw and something called cheese taters that was tasty, yet odd looking dish that merged cheese, potatoes and a small amount of ham.
Sometimes, the small places are the best places to go and finding them is half the fun!

Our next stop was scheduled to be Woodford Reserve, a famous Kentucky Bourbon manufacturer and a place that Michael wanted to see since we were in the area.
After a stop at the Liquor Barn for Michael (A liquor fancier from way back), we decided to stop at Whitaker Bank Park to get tickets and as we cut through the wind, we were told that the game was canceled.
I figured that could happen and was prepared for it.
We asked if we could take some pictures and buy some items from the gift shop.
The Legends were about to make some dollars as Doug Hopkins isn't afraid of dropping money for memorabilia and the rest of us have been known to spend too.
No, they weren't.
The manager of the gift shop was called and she "didn't feel like turning the machines on".
The person in the front office tried to coax her into it, but "she just didn't feel like it".
The Legends lost a tidy sum on this and left a less than desirable feeling toward Lexington among us.

I reached out to the general manager, Mr. Gary Durbin, a few days later, he apologized for the employee and has offered to make things right, so we'll see if Doug can buy the items that he wanted most...

Woodford Reserve was a place that I likely wouldn't have visited on my own, but for a one time visit, it passed the time.
It is a tour of the entire facility and our tour guide was very knowledgeable combined with being entertaining without being over the top as so many people are in similar situations.
Learning how the bourbon is made, aged, shipped and just what being "Bourbon" requires was interesting and I always like to learn new things.

After a little under two hours, we were off to Louisville.
Yes, Louisville.
Louisville was roughly an hour and change away, the Bats (Cincinnati Reds) were at home and they defeated the weather to play their game.
This was unexpected, so none of us had anything to be signed, but for the love of the game and to see something on the trip, we were going to Louisville Slugger Field!

But that will wait until another post,where we talk Louisville and one awesome place to eat!!

Boxing Challenge: Hurd takes down Lara!!

Photo Credit;Stephanie Trapp-Showtime Sports

While I was off in the Blue Grass State (more on the first trip of the year over the next few days), Showtime held an interesting three-fight telecast from Las Vegas with the main event being a title unification fight that would have major repercussions in the junior middleweight division.
In an unrelated note-this is the 4,000th post on this blog.
I'm amazed sometimes with just how much I've written about here.

Editor's Note:It turns out this is 3,995-Five posts that I've been working on, but haven't published were counted by Blogger.
I'll make the 4,000th later this week.

In the main event, Jarrett Hurd knocked Erislandy Lara down with seconds remaining in the fight and that knockdown was the difference on the scorecards as Hurd retained his IBF junior middleweight title and took Lara's WBA title for his own via a split decision.
The three scorecards all read 114-113 (two for Hurd and one for Lara), so without that knockdown, as the sun went down in the bout, both men would have retained their titles, but the result would have been a majority decision draw.
One has to love Jarrett Hurd, who is always aggressive and outworks his opponent, but unlike many fighters who win fights by accumulation, but rarely sit down on their shots and as result often fail to hurt the opposing fighter, Hurd has good power and when you look at that with the number of punches that he throws, Hurd's style makes him a very tough fighter to win a decision against.
Hurd's style makes fighters have to stand and fight far more often than they would like to and it usually is to their detriment.
That was the case in this one as Jarrett Hurd simply did not allow Erislandy Lara to move away, he forced Lara to engage and deliver a fun fight from a fighter that is often dull to watch.
Give Lara credit for a fine effort that was not in his usual style and dealt with an almost closed right eye, but I thought Hurd won a clear 115-112 decision (7-5 and a Hurd knockdown).
Hurd will likely fight Jermell Charlo in another unification fight next, the winner will hold three of the four titles after that bout.
Lara will likely fight a stay-busy bout and await that winner as this fight likely enhanced Lara more than hurt him.

As far Jermell Charlo, for all the talent that he has, his spectacular KO of Erickson Lubin ( who came into the fight with a questionable chin, I did pick Lubin though) and punching power, I found it interesting that a fighter without a win against a top-five fighter (Lubin and Vanes Martirosyan are his best wins) commented that it was Hurd preferring Lara to Charlo as an opponent before this fight.
I'm dubious of that claim, I doubt Hurd has that kind of pull (at least not yet) and with Charlo's lack of an opponent for a scheduled defense in June (bet on either a soft touch or a shopworn veteran name), I really have my doubts.
The Charlo brothers really have made their names off one (each) spectacular knockout over a talented, but untested opponent (Julian Williams for Jermall, the aforementioned Erickson Lubin for Jermell) and a large amount of social media for their hype.
Both fighters hit hard and are talented, I'm anxious to see what happens when someone fights back.

The semi-final saw James DeGale win back the IBF super middleweight title that he lost to Caleb Truax via a close unanimous decision. DeGale was badly cut in the third round but showed toughness in fighting his way through the cut.
Truax was busted around the eyes as well and marched forward throughout in a fight that just seemed to be always awkward through 24 rounds with two styles that didn't mesh well with each other as far as action and clean punches go.
I scored DeGale a 114-113 winner (7-5 minus a point deduction on DeGale in the late rounds).
DeGale will likely wish for unification with the World Boxing Super Series winner and WBA champion of the George Groves-Callum Smith fight, but he should have to get by the IBF interim champion Jose Uzcategui next.
As impressive as Uzcategui was in pounding Andre Dirrell and with DeGale looking like a faded version of himself since his draw with Badou Jack, I would rate Uzcategui a solid favorite to derail DeGale before a unification fight.
Truax will more than likely go back to his previous role as a trialhorse for the PBC's prospects and up and coming contenders with a little more prestige now as a former champion.

In the opener, Julian Williams won a majority decision over Nathaniel Gallimore to earn the IBF's mandatory position for Jarrett Hurd.
I'm amazed that someone saw this even as I thought Williams won 117-111 and didn't lose a round over the second half of the fight.
I was a big advocate of Williams before his only loss to Jermall Charlo (I picked him to win), but he still doesn't seem to be completely back from that loss.
No knockdowns in this, although Williams had Gallimore badly hurt in the eleventh, but could not finish the game.
I'm still not quite ready to quit on Williams, but he still has plenty to prove after looking good, not great.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica each earned three points on the night-two from James DeGale and one from Julian Williams.
I lead the challenge 59-46.