Friday Trends and Indexes 04/18

[pm530]

National Hockey League – Write up

NHL
Write-up


Friday, April 18

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2008 NHL playoffs
Opening Round

Home team won all four Nashville-Detroit games, with Preds 0-2 at Joe Louis, losing last three visits here overall by 1-0/3-1/4-2 scores. Under is 4-2-1 in last seven series games played in this building. Wings outshot Nashville 78-44 in winning first couple game in series; lo tof pressure on them in pivotal game here.

Rangers won 10 of 12 vs Devils this year, with both Devil wins in OT; four of last five series games went over total. Rangers won five of last six visits to Newark, only busride away. In six of last seven periods in series, Rangers had 10+ shots on goal. Penguins are already done in their series; it helps them if the Devils win and extend series further.

Last Stanley Cup champ to make second round of playoffs was Colorado in '02; Anaheim is one loss away from joining list of failed champs- they didn't score until last 0:08 last night, first goal in four periods for them. Underdog won six of last eight series games. Stars are 4-2 in last six games in this building.

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[pm530]

Six-pack for Friday

-- If you ran an NFL team, would you want Chad Johnson? I sure as hell wouldn't.

-- Providence is paying former Drake coach Keno Davis cool million dollars a year. Wow. He's been a head coach for one season and was making $400,000 at Drake. Good luck.

-- Prep school coach Danny Hurley turned down Marist job; the former Seton Hall guard (brother of Bobby) is the coach at St Benedict's in New Jersey. Not a good sign for Marist.

-- Travis Ford turned Providence down, signed a new deal at UMass, then six days later, bolted to Oklahoma State. AD at UMass didn't sound real happy talking about it.

-- Miguel Tejada admitted to being 33 years old, not 31. He lied about his age when A's signed him 14 years ago.

-- Since signing Barry Zito, Giants are 7-13 in his road starts, 7-10 in his home starts, 14-23 overall. Not good.

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[pm530]

Friday's List of 13: A very long night in the National League........

13) There were four extra inning games Thursday, with Prince Fielder beating St Louis with his first homer of year, Mets beat Nationals on wild pitch in bottom of 14th, Orioles erased a 5-2 deficit in 8th inning vs White Sox, but they all take a back seat to Colorado's 2-1 win over the Padres. In 22 freakin' innings.

ESPN has to show a Padre-Rockie game in primetime; they play great games against each other. And they play crisp game, not 4-hour, nine-inning games. Good baseball.

12) Peavy and Francis traded goose eggs for seven innings in a classic pitcher's duel, then the bullpens took over. Colorado scored first run in top of 14th on a bases loaded walk, but the Rockies tied game in bottom half. There were only three extra base hits in the entire game.

11) The Met game took 4:45 to play, the San Diego game 6:16. A game was started at 10:05 pm in the east ended at 4:25am.

10) Both catchers went the whole way; I'm sure they slept very well and are probably still sleeping as I type this.

9) 661 pitches to 165 batters. Long night for Alfonso Marquez, the home plate umpire. Interesting to see how long next game he works behind the plate is.

8) Troy Tulowitzki's first hit of game came in the 20th inning; his second hit won the game in the 22nd. Tulowitzki has had an awful month, is hitting .167, but maybe this will turn around his fortunes this season.

7) Iguchi and Hawpe both went 0-7; Giles and Helton 1-9.

6) Rockies had men on first and second, no one out in 18th and Holliday up, but pitcher was on deck so he couldn't bunt; of course, he hit into a double play. It was that kind of a game.

5) Holliday found out big difference between Coors Field and Petco when he crushed ball to 401-foot mark in left center, but Edmonds caught it at the fence. In Denver, thats a long homer.

4) By the way, Jake Peavy has allowed four runs in 30 innings so far this season. Maybe the best pitcher in National League pitching in the best pitcher's park.

3) 13 walks, 47 strikeouts, three extra base hits, Paul McAnulty gertting thrown out at third base trying to stretch double into a triple with no one out in an extra inning (can't remember which one, but a horrendous mistake).

2) There is a playground area behind centerfield fence out at Petco Park; Colorado TV guys kept showing two little kids in the sandbox, digging a hole with little plastic shovels. By the end of the game, the thing looked like scene from Escape from Alcatraz, kids had dug a pretty deep ditch.

1) Both teams had to travel after the game; Rockies are playing in Houston Friday, Padres in Arizona. Good luck.

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[pm530]

National Hockey League - Short Sheet

NHL
Short Sheet


Friday, April 18th

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First Round
Game Five
Series Tied, 2-2
Nashville at Detroit, 7:35 ET

Nashville:
25-18 SU after one or more consecutive overs
10-6 SU on the road playing their 4th game in 7 days

Detroit:
7-10 SU off a road loss
6-10 SU off 2 or more consecutive road losses

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First Round
Game Five
Rangers Lead, 3-1
NY Rangers at New Jersey, 7:35 ET

NY Rangers:
2-7 SU after 8 or more goals were scored
35-57 SU on Friday nights

New Jersey:
11-2 SU after having lost 3 of their last 4
25-9 SU in April

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If we receive data for this game, we will attempt to update asap.

First Round
Game Five
Dallas Leads, 3-1
Dallas at Anaheim, 10:35 ET

Dallas:
n/a
n/a

Anaheim:
n/a
n/a

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