Fine as Swiss Tennis

Roger Federer is off to the Finals at the Aussie Open after straight setting over-hyped American Andy Roddick. Just appearing in his 19th straight Grand Slam semi is an amazing feat all to itself for the Super Swiss. Think about it, 19 times in a row he's made it to the final four of the four major tournaments. Only Ivan Lendl has appeared in more Grand Slam Finals and he only won 8 to Federer's 13 and counting. Over the last two decades nobody has a longer winning streak than RF's 41 or even his second best run of 35. The Fine Swissman is on the verge of tying Pete Sampras for the most Grand Slam single titles ever with 14 and its only taken him half the time to do it. Ironically, Sampras last won over a half dozen years ago, just when his heir apparent started collecting trophies. He's one of only 6 players to reach the final of every major. He spent 237 consecutive weeks as the #1 player in the world, the longest streak ever. Imagine waking up 1659 straight mornings and knowing you are the indisputable best at what you do. This is a body of work that is indisputably unmatchable by anybody that has set foot on the court. High performance at such a level of consistency like this is borderline impossible. But hey, they make them to last longer and taste sweeter in the land of the Swiss.
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Good thing poster boy Sid Crosby can play with pain. Just for showing up and smiling at the All-Star game, he avoided a one game suspension. He was so injured a couple of days ago that he couldn't risk anything in a game of shinny, but had three points against the Blue Shirts in New York last night. Meanwhile, Detroit fans (and me) still don't know why they're guys had to sit and not the wonderboy in Pittsburgh. Must be a good smile Crosby has. I wonder if the Red Wings would have sent a poster of Lidstrom and datsyuk, if that would been enough.
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The headline reads, "LEGACY ON THE LINE AS ST. PIERRE, PENN PREPARE TO SQUARE OFF"....Legacy? Are you kidding me. How about we all meet on Dewdney Street outside the bar and watch two animals try and prove their testosterone levels to the world. Legacy, ha.
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Finally, the Vancouver Canucks. Nobody likes a guy who says 'I told ya so' but I did. I don't think that many people like me anyway. Kind of like the way Vancouver fans feel about the Canuckle-heads these days. 10 million (pro-rated) to an old Swedish guy who hasn't played in the NHL in forever (I don't consider the Leafs a real big league club the last few years). Okay, so it has been less than a year, but c'mon Mike Gillis (GM Canucks), this almost never works. Trying to plug a big name into your lineup to put you over the top. Let's remember where this team finished last year. Below the playoff cut line. Then the club lost its franchise leader in Markus Naslund to New York. Brendan Morrison caught the first ferry out of town, taking his perennial 20 goals a year with him to Disneyland. To be surprised that the club has drooped 8 in a row at home and 7 straight overall shouldn't necessarily be a shock. What does need the defibrillator is the identity of this team. Now, no doubt Roberto Luongo is the club's best player, but having him as your Captain sends the wrong message. Yeah, I know (and Rod Pedersen let me know it) how important the goalie is, but if he ain't out there blocking shots and taking hits, its hard for any of his teammates to relate and therefore respect him. I've never liked hearing from a tender that we need to cycle the puck better down low. How the hell would he know? And, if one thing is as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, all goalies are a bit, how shall we say, different (again confirmed by Rod and my Dad. Both goalies). So while the list of reasons why the Canucks continue to be bad is long, their season may end up just being as short as last year.