Is Any Player Worth a 17-year Deal?

One of the longest deals I've ever seen was done in the NHL tonight as Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils agreed to a 17-year, $102 million deal.

Signing any player for that long is just mind boggling to me. So much can happen over the next 17 years.

This works from both sides. Why would Kovalchuk want to tie himself up to that team for so long. It's not like we're dealing with the Red Wings here. The Devils are usually an alright team, but there's no way I would want to be stuck with a 17-year contract if I was talented as Kovalchuk is.

These lengthy deals happen more often then you think in the NHL, but they usually don't go past 11 or 12 years. The idea behind this is the team pays the majority of their money to the player in the early part of the contract and it shrinks during the last part of the contract. For example, Kovalchuk will only be getting $550,000 a season in the last five years of the contract.

Kovalchuk played for a Thrashers team that is obviously going nowhere anytime soon, and he rejected almost the same amount of money but for five years left. Obviously he would rather spends an extra five years in New Jersey than being stuck in Atlanta.

Once again this deal just seems extremely risky for both sides. It's just crazy to think that if Kovalchuk finished out this contract it will be in the 2026-2027 season!

Oh Canada!

There's finally a team based out of Canada making a run for the NHL Stanley Cup. Fittingly enough it's the Montreal Canadiens and they're turning heads in the NHL.

The Canadiens entered the playoffs as an 8-seed with a daunting task of taking out Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. Despite what all of the experts said, the Canadiens went into the nation's capital and took out the Capitals in Game 7.

Then there was yet another heavyweight to take out and it was the defending Stanley Cup champions in the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Once again the Canadiens stuck to the gameplan and took it to a Game 7 where anything is possible. Well the near impossible happened yet again as the Canadiens convincingly went into the Steel City and beat the Penguins 5-2.

Perhaps the most telling stat in this series is the fact that Sidney Crosby was held to just a single goal in seven games. He scored 51 goals in the regular season and five goals in the previous series against the Senators.

There's no denying the reason the Canadies have made it this far and looking at becoming the first even 8-seed to win the Stanley Cup. It's becasue of Jaroslav Halak and his stellar goaltending that is like nothing I have ever seen.

The Penguins socred two unanswered goals in the 2nd period and had all the momentum on their side when Halak made amazing save after amazing save to keep the game out of reach for the highly talented Penguins.

If Halak keeps this up then you're looking at you're Stanley Cup champions. In hockey, great goaltending wins Stanley Cups.

This series wasn't the only great series going on in the Eastern Conference. The Flyer have now won three straight games in their series to force a Game 7 with the Bruins.

With all of that said, as of right now this year's NBA playoffs have nothing on the NHL playoffs and the Canadiens can greatly be thanked for that.

Inside the 2010 NHL Playoffs

• Number of 7-game series: 4
• Number of 6-game series: 6
• Number of 1-goal games: 33
  

Four Reasons Today Was Craziest Sports Day I Can Remember

What a day in the world of sports! It started off so ordinary, but today was anything but that. Here's four reasons why:

1. Mets and Cardinals Go 20 Innings:

It's not often you see more than 10 innings of baseball, but the fans in St. Louis got their money's worth Saturday night. Technically they saw over two full games of baseball played. The Mets ended up winning 2-1, but sadly they'll only get credit for one win in the standings. If I was a player on either one of those teams I would be expecting a bonus.

2. Ubaldo Jimenez Throws No-Hitter For Rockies

A no-hitter is significant in itself, but the fact that Jimenez looked average for the first four innings makes this even more amazing. He had five walks to start the game but still managed the first no-hitter in Rockies history. To put the icing on the cake, his last pitch clocked at 97 miles per hour.

3. One-Seeded Capitals Come From Three Goals Down To Tie Series With Habs

Hard to believe that this is only third on the list of most impressive sports stories of the day. It still deserves a lot of attention. The Capitals were in danger of going down 2-0 to an eight-seeded Canadiens team that was given no chance to the President's Trophy winner. Despite trailing 4-1 with less than two minutes remaining in the 2nd period, the Capitals raillied to win 6-5 in overtime. They scored the winning goal just 31 seconds into overtime. Now that's playoff hockey!

You want to hear parity? Currently every series in the NHL playoffs is knotted at one game a piece except for the Predators-Blackhawks series which has yet to play the 2nd game of the series.

4. Dan Henderson Loses Strikeforce Debut, Brawl Breaks Out Afterwards

This could end up being costly for the sport of MMA. To catch everyone up, Strikeforce is basically the little brother of the UFC. It's featured on CBS instead of Pay-per-view and virtually the entire country has access to their events. Tonight was particularly special because MMA superstar Dan Henderson was featured in the main event. He lost in an unanimous decision to Jake Shields. Unfortunately the main storyline from this fight didn't occur during the scheduled fight time. The camptain of Shields and another fighter got into a physical confrontation in the middle of the ring shortly after the fight. This all occurred on national television and shines another negative light on the sport of MMA which is slowly trying to move into the national spotlight.




Honorable mention:

• Alex Rodriguez (584 home runs) moves into 8th all-time in home runs.
• Rookie Brandon Jennings (34 points) comes just two points short of tying Derrick Rose and Kareem Abdul-Jabarr for the most points scored by rookie in playoff game.

Bruins Win the NHL Winter Classic, But Does Anyone Care?

The 3rd Annual Winter Classic ended up being a thriller inside historic Fenway Park today after the Bruins tallied a goal late in overtime to beat the Flyers.

Call me cynical, but the NHL could've picked a better day to have this other than a day when college football is notorious for having a slew of games on tap. There were two bowl games airing at the time of the game.

If it wouldn't have been for the ESPN ticker flashing at the bottom of the screen the score of the game then I would've never realized it was even on. I'm guessing many others were in the same boat as me.

Next year the NHL should have it on a slow sports weekend because I do think it's great for the NHL. You just have to get people to watch it.

I got the opportunity to see the last minute or so of this game and I have to say it was very exciting. The Flyers were firing shot after shot in front of the Bruins goal only for the Bruins to quickly advance it up ice and score the game-winning goal.

Hopefully the Predators will eventually get an opportunity to participate in one of these games. Sadly it's very unlikely because the Predators are not a very marketable team for the NHL outside of Nashville. Teams like the Flyers, Bruins, and Penguins have nationwide appeal and you can't blame the NHL for showcasing these teams for it's Winter Classic.

Preds Re-sign Sullivan, Ward

Last season was a major disappointment for the Predators after they missed the playoffs for the first time since the 02'-03' season.

The Preds took a step in the right direction to getting back to the playoffs by re-signing Steve Sullivan and Joel Ward, two key offensive players.

Sullivan has been injured for much of the past two seasons but looks to be healthy now and add a major scoring threat to a team that at times struggles to score goals.

While Sullivan was out last season, Joel Ward came in and really provided a nice spark for the Predators. Ward scored 17 goals last season, good for fourth on the team.

The Predators have always had the bad luck of playing in the same division as the NHL juggernaut that is the Detroit Red Wings.

It's still way too early to tell what the Predators will bring to the table for the 09'-10' season, but coach Barry Trotz as always brought consistent teams to do battle on the rink. I expect them to put another solid season together and make another playoff run.

Ovechkin Caught Watching Rangers Practice

This might be one of the funniest stories I've heard in the sports world in a long time.

Alex Ovechkin, the best goal-scorer the NHL has seen since possibly Wayne Gretzky, was caught "relaxing" in the stands while the Rangers were going through practice Monday morning.

What really made this story so funny was Ovechkin's response to reporters when they asked him why he thinks the Rangers asked him to leave. His simple, yet funny response...."They're afraid of me".

Ovechkin is probably right and who wouldn't be? The guy has eclipsed the 50-goal mark three of his four years in the NHL and combined that with at least 100 points three of the four years.

I'm sure Ovechkin just wanted to see what would happen and that is so funny to me. He left as soon as they asked him to and I don't think he was trying to cheat or anything like that. I mean, why would he need to? He's the best in the game right now.

Thanks for giving me something to laugh about today Alex!