90th National Hockey League Season Starts Saturday 29 September in London

Hockey season is here with the opening weekend of special games being played across the pond in London, England between the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks and their cross Southland rival Los Angeles Kings. The two games are the first regular season NHL games ever played outside of North America. The second of the two games will be at 10am MDT Sunday 30 September and be televised by Versus, the regular national broadcaster of NHL games. Regular nationally televised games by Versus will be on Mondays and Tuesdays. NBC broadcasts Sunday afternoon games starting in January, and they will have a special broadcast on Tuesday 1 January, New Years Day, when Buffalo hosts Pittsburgh in a game being played outside at Ralph Wilson Stadium where a sellout crowd of around 80,000 or more will be in attendance. The NHL previously successfully staged an outside game in Edmonton a few years back. Lets hope it is good weather for outdoors hockey that day. In recent years Buffalo has had some days in the 60s and low 70s deep into December.

I will post my NHL forecast in the next few days before the rest of the league starts their seasons this coming Wednesday 3 October. The Colorado Avalanche open up that evening with an 8pm tilt against the Dallas Stars that will be nationally televised. With the regular season going for over six months to the first Sunday in April, most weeks teams will have 2-4 games per week. I hope to catch many if not most of the Avalanche games this upcoming season as the team will be very good this year and should win their division. Every Avalanche game is scheduled to be broadcast this season with 74 of the 82 games on Altitude with the other 8 games either on Versus or NBC. If things work out, I might even attend a game or two at the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver perhaps against Detroit and the New York Rangers. The Rangers were my favorite team when I was young and first started following hockey 38 years ago. When I was in my early adult years, my favorite teams were the Los Angeles Kings, the Edmonton Oilers, and Pittsburgh Penguins. Later I was a fan of the San Jose Sharks, but since the creation of the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, they have been clearly my favorite team.

GO AVALANCHE ! WIN A THIRD STANLEY CUP !

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=338494&page=NewsPage&service=page

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East Pacific La Nina Means Warmer Drier Winter for Southwest, Central Rockies

Analysis by climatologists and meteorologists strongly indicate a La Nina is forming and gaining strength in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. If this phenomena reaches its anticipated peak, the climate and weather from California eastward and across the Central Rockies and High Plains will be much nicer than normal with above normal temps and below normal precipitation, including snow. After last winter, a radical swing to weather that would be the opposite of what we endured would be greatly welcome by us flatlanders. I know the livestock, agriculture, and water resources managing folks will think otherwise.


http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/psr/pns/ENSOFactSheet_Sep20.pdf

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It All But Comes To An End

Close but no cigar. Thats about all that can be said now after the Rockies dropped a 4-2 decision to Arizona Friday night. Colorado drops to 87-73 and has their eleven game winning streak snapped. The Diamondbacks victory means they clinch a playoff spot and eliminate Colorado from contention for the NL West title. With San Diego winning in Milwaukee, the Padres pull two ahead of the Rockies with two left and all but eliminate Colorado from the wild card race as well. With the Padres having two games left against the now eliminated and disappointed Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego should win at least one to clinch a playoff spot. Arizona will continue to play hard as well tomorrow and Sunday to clinch the best record. If that happens they will matchup with the newly crowned NL Central Champions Chicago one of the NLDS series. The other NLDS series may very will matchup San Diego against Philadelphia. The Phillies have assumed sole possession of the NL East lead over the collapsing Mets, and its hard to imagine New York regaining their poise and swagger to catch the Phillies in what will be the greatest choke in baseball history for a September leader. The Mets had a seven game lead only two weeks ago. We will see what happens over the next two afternoons.

Meanwhile, although Colorado has come up short, I am very pleased and elated to see them to have gotten as far and as close this season as they have. It was truly a great run with a lot of highlights and exciting moments. I greatly look forward to the '08 season and maybe I can even figure out a way to get down to Tucson for some spring training games.

NFL Predictions for Week Four, 30 September-1 October

Here are my picks for the NFL games upcoming for week four, Sunday 30 September and Monday 1 October.

Sunday 30 October

MIA (-4) v OAK: Dolphins 20, Raiders 17
HTN (-4) @ ATL: Texans 27, Falcons 13
CLE (+6) v BLT: Browns 16, Ravens 13 UPSET
CHI (- 3 1/2) @ DET: Bears 27, Lions 16
GB (-3) @ MINN: Packers 23, Vikings 16
STL (+14) @ DAL: Rams 31, Cowboys 27 UPSET
BUF (+3 1/2) v NYJ: Bills 27, Jets 23 UPSET
CAR (-3) v TB: Panthers 24, Buccaneers 20
SF (+2 1/2) v SEA: Forty-Niners 26, Seahawks 23 UPSET
PGH (-7) @ ARIZ: Steelers 30, Cardinals 24
SD (-11 1/2) v KC: Chargers 27, Chiefs 17
IND (-10 1/2) v DEN: Colts 38, Broncos 30
PHIL (-3 1/2) @ NYG: Eagles 32, Giants 19

Monday 1 October

NENG (-7 1/2) @ CINC: Patriots 45, Bengals 20

NORL; WASH; TENN; JAX: idle

For the season so far:
30-18 .625 straight up
33-15 .688 against the spread
5-6 .455 on the upsets

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