What The Fowler!

There were many shocking picks that came in the first round, but the most shocking pick of all had to be Cam Fowler's slide from TSN's ranking of 5th overall, to 12th where he was eventually taken by the Ducks.

Earlier in the season, most people thought that Cam would go as high as third, but no one ever imagined that he would go outside of the top six or seven; let alone twelfth! The Ducks were extremely lucky to grab this kid.

TSN's 4th overall pick, and fellow defensmen Brandon Gormley slipped to 13th and was picked up to the Yotes, who couldn't be happier with the pick.

First Overall

Although it was made out to be a more difficult decision than I'm sure it really was, the Edmonton Oilers have selected (as I predicted months ago) Taylor Hall as the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL entry draft. This came as not a huge surprise, as tempting as Seguin was, Hall was the obvious choice.

Edmonton was trying to get the top 2 picks in the draft which would have called for a blockbuster trade. A single team hasn't had the top two picks in the draft since Montreal did back in the day. Rumour has it that they were offering Boston Hemsky and Jordan Eberle for the pick, but the Bruins declined the offer.

Edmonton then offered Florida Andrew Cogliano in exchange for a late first round draft pick but no dice.

Edmonton did the right thing in drafting Hall, he's a dynamic offensive forward that is sure to make an immediate impact. Congratulations Hall.

Newest Coug.

Brett Leffler, formerly with the Regina Pats, has just committed to the University of Regina Cougars. Leffler will be joining former Pats teammate Matt Strueby as well as countless other ex-WHLer's. Leffler should fit in quite nicely with the Cougs lineup and will bring his size, shot and work ethic to the team, but both Leff's and Strueb's will continue to work on their speed while with Regina.

Leffler was originally drafted by the Capitals and attended their development and training camps but was never able to secure a deal with the Caps and as a result was thrown back into last years draft. It is rare that a player will be picked up twice in the draft and Leffler's case was no different and he was not chosen a second time around. However, last summer he was invited to attend the Blackhawks development camp and was expected to receive an invite to training camp, but the call never came.

Both Struebs and Leffs are great hockey players and deserve more looks by scouts and teams. Although they may not have blazing speed, their work around the net and willingness to battle in the corners is top notch. Good luck with the Cougs. boys!

NHL Combine.

It's that time of year again, time to put 17 year old kids through hell and back and dangle their dreams of playing in the NHL right in front of them.. that's right it's draft time. Now, with the draft comes the dreaded combine where these young kids are put through all kinds of tests to test there physical and mental abilities. Most of the test results have been said flat out do not translate to whether or not the kid will be a good hockey player, but it's all part of the process.

Obviously, all of the attention has been on the Taylor vs Tyler saga. However, Taylor Hall took the easy was out and opted not to participate in the physical tests. He kept claiming that he had "nagging injuries" and felt that it would be better if he sat out, he also said that his season had just finished 5 days ago. Although this is true, his season did just finish, but so did Cam Fowlers, they play on the same f-ing team yet Cam didn't have a problem participating. Cam also played in the World Juniors, just like Hall, yet had to go through all of the hellish tests while Hall got to sit and watch.

Jack Campbell, the stud USA goalie from the World Juniors came out on top of a number of the tests which I found to be quite interesting. I was watching the live chat but the operators seemed to refuse to talk about the bench press results but released all other information quite willingly. I really wish that they would release all of the results to the public, in fact, I'm surprised that they don't, everyone would clearly love to know.

If the draft were based on interview skills and like-ability then the Oilers would definitely choose Seguin, he's much-muuch funnier then Hall and actually looks like he's interested and not about to fall asleep. I still think that because of what the Oilers need that they should choose Hall but Seguin is so marketable it's going to be hard to resist.

Stanley Cup: Game 2

After narrowly escaping the high scoring affair that happened on Saturday, neither team could get their offense going early in game number two. Both teams were held scoreless for the first period of action and well into the second until Chicago managed to score two quick ones to put them up, obviously, 2-0. The Flyers finally put one past Niemi in the third to cut the lead to one but even with almost 2 minutes with the extra attacker they could not poke a second through. Hawks win game 2 by a score of 2-1.

However, although the Hawks have been winning, their top line of Kane, Toews and Big Buff have not been doing anything to help, in fact they have done the opposite. In game number one the trio combined for zero points and a minus nine rating. Not exactly something to be proud of. Game number two was not much better, Kane had zeros across the board, Buff was given 1 assist, and Toews was a plus 1. So, you can look at this situation a number of ways. But one that stands out is that, if the Hawks three top guys aren't clicking.. at all.. and yet they can still win, what about when they are clicking? Will they dominate? Only time will tell.

Team Hawks 2-0.

Goodbye Suns.

Although I do not usually write about basketball, a few things need to be said. It seems as though I am one of the only people to be happy that Kobe and the Lakers knocked off Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns. It's my theory that the only reason anyone cheers for Nash is because he is Canadian, and the only reason they cheer against Kobe is because they are jealous.

The series went for 6 games and almost looked to be headed for a 7th in the final minutes of game six. After dominating the entire game, the Lakers managed to give up an overwhelming 18 point lead in the final minutes, but Nash and his 3 point shots couldn't keep Kobe off... again. The Lakers went on to take the series and now face the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals which are set to begin on Thursday.

For once, the sports world got together and discussed what days the NBA finals should be on and what days the NHL finals should be on. It wouldn't have surprised me if they had been scheduled for the same days. In the conference finals for the NHL, they had both finals running on the same day and then would have no games the next day and then 2 the day after, until some genius suggested that they alternate. That deserves a slow clap. Due in part to poor planning by networks, on Saturday I was forced to flip between game 1 of the Stanley cup, Kobe vs Nash, UFC prelims on Spike, and UFC. Sweet.

Rampage vs Rashad

The feud that has been continuously growing for over a year now came to a highly disappointing end Saturday night. I say highly disappointing because no one even got knocked out! The fight and feud ended with Rashad winning a unanimous decision.. booooring! If I would have known that Rashad's game plan was to lay on Rampage the entire time and barely look for the knockout except for in the first 2 minutes, then I would have been cheering for Rampage.

Rampage's ring rust was quite evident. The guy was completely gassed after the first round! He claimed that he had never really trained before but now he's taking his training much more seriously.. well, you couldn't tell from watching that fight!

With the win Rashad secured his chance of getting the next title shot against Shogun. I would have much rather seen Rampage vs Shogun, due to the fact that they have fought before, but none-the-less Rashad-Shogun should be a good one, I just pray that it doesn't go the distance. I don't think I can handle watching another 5 round decision, there have been far too many lately!