Unbalanced
The Unbalanced explores the world of sports and the culture surrounding it; from basketball to baseball, football, hockey, wrestling, and more.
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Lovin’ the PWHL
The inaugural season for professional women’s hockey is well underway and I, like many North American sports enthusiasts, have cottoned on to the excitement of the games and the fanfare. Most of the women playing are relatively well-known through previous media exposure during Olympic games, World Championships and Rivalry matches between Canada and the United States. Yesterday, March 8, being International Women’s Day, I decided that I would pay tribute to the women of the world in my own little sports-minded way, and watch a PWHL game between the teams from Toronto and Montreal. Casually observing the new teams since the start of the season, I had suspected that the Women’s league was somehow different from the NHL and other men’s hockey leagues around the world. Sometimes these differences don’t show up during the Olympic games or World Championships because of the media focus on winning gold medals and the like. However, during a regular season hockey game, be it a men’s game or a women’s game, one gets a chance to really notice what the respective games are all about. I would therefore like to weigh in on what have formerly been suspicions but now are being seen as true differences between men’s and women’s professional hockey.
John Oliver SmithPublished 2 months ago in UnbalancedA Spirit That Fears Nothing
There are many sound reasons to repudiate professional sport in general and NHL hockey in particular. After all, the game has been as utterly defiled by cynical, avaricious late-stage capitalism as every other aspect of contemporary existence. The ordinary fan is incessantly encouraged by marketers and advertisers to gamble, guzzle alcoholic beverages and devour kilograms of fast food, which is a bald oxymoron if you contemplate it for a moment. Salaries are stratospherically inflated, as are ticket prices, and what passes for discourse generated by the participants in, and commentators upon, the game is so full of cliches and verbal false limbs that Orwell’s ghost will never stop screaming.
D. J. ReddallPublished 4 months ago in UnbalancedThe History of the Adams Division
I've followed the NHL in some form for 30 years, but I'm still learning about the league I enjoy watching. A long time ago, I did learn about the old divisions: Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe. These divisions predated the geographical ones that we've known for the last 30 years, and the rivalries were immensely intense during that period. This will be the first of four stories focusing on those classic divisions, and I'll start geographically, even though the names had nothing to do with location. First off, the Adams Division.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 4 months ago in UnbalancedA Look Ahead to Week 18 of the 2023 NFL Season
Week 17 kicks off tonight, but I want to take a look ahead to Week 18, the final week of the regular season. We all love the final week, don't we? We've really loved it since they changed the final week's schedule back in 2010. The final week always completes the league's playoff puzzle, it's do or die for a lot of teams looking to get in and even clinch divisions. However, a lot of games lacked a lot of drama, and even saw teams not give their all when they know that they can't move up in the standings. So in 2010, the NFL decided to make all of the final week's games divisional, because regardless of where a team is in the standings, that team wants to give their all to defeat a division rival.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 5 months ago in Unbalanced63 Strikes, You're Out!
They did it, folks. They finally did it. The Los Angeles Chargers actually fired Brandon Staley as their head coach, with the firing coming after the Chargers suffered a very embarrassing loss on national television. The Chargers were on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders, and it was a game that saw the Raiders absolutely pour it on. 63 points. Nine touchdowns--seven of them by the offense. The 63 points fell just 10 short of the long-standing record set by the Chicago Bears, who scored 73 points in the 1940 NFL Championship Game over Washington. However, the Raiders' 63 points are the most in team history, and marked the second time this season that a team scored 60+ points--the Miami Dolphins scored 70 points in Week 3.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 5 months ago in UnbalancedNFL Week 9 Recap: Nine Months
January 2, 2023. We all remember that Monday evening. The Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals faced each other in what was the final Monday night game of the season. Regarding the game and the storyline, it was two teams jockeying for position in the AFC, as they were both in position to possibly take the AFC's #1 seed. This was an important game for both teams, but before the 1st quarter ended, there was suddenly something much, much more important than the game of football.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 6 months ago in UnbalancedFantasy Football is BACK!
Despite being English, I have found myself becoming more and more enamoured with the sport that the Americans call “football”. Watching American Football in the UK used to be a most difficult proposition, aside from the Superbowl the only way to watch any action was a highlights show at 1am on a Wednesday morning. During the nineties and early 2000’s I was school aged, but after that coverage started to improve. In recent years Sky Sports have added the Thursday and Monday night games, as well as three Sunday matches. Even then, the absolutely baffling decision to host games only on nights when most people have work confuse me no end. But as my interest has grown, I’ve put additional effort into trying to keep up with the games when I can. My wife has since joined me in this interest, but unlike me she is a reasonable person, who goes to bed at a sensible time rather than staying up into the night watching foreign sports and typing up nonsense for strangers to read (4th wall break! Hi, thanks for reading).
Luke FosterPublished 8 months ago in UnbalancedNFL Week 1 Recap: A New York Minute
The NFL is back, and this fan was ever so eager for the season to start. My reasons were simple. One, I had a good feeling about Fantasy Football this year, and two, I'm a Yankees fan who wants to forget about this disaster of a season. With every new NFL season comes new storylines and new questions, and one of the biggest new storylines of the debuting 2023 NFL season had to be Aaron Rodgers making his New York Jets debut on Monday Night Football.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 8 months ago in Unbalanced
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What Went Wrong: Derailed
The saddest part of this: it seemed almost inevitable. The Colorado Avalanche were coming off humilating the very goalie who will (most likely) win the Vezina Trophy this year, and we were in the catbird seat waiting for the dust to settle in the Dallas Stars/Vegas Golden Knights series. The momentum continued in Game One; a big time overtime win after trailing 3-0. The Avs lost Game Two, but we nearly pulled off another comeback. Even so, it was 1-1 heading home, but Game Three didn't go well for us. Despite this, we were still at home, and we had a chance to rectify things.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished about 19 hours ago in UnbalancedJohn Jay Falls 17-10 to Mahopac
On Tuesday April 23, John Jay celebrated their Passover day off on the baseball diamond, but did not get an even playing field versus visiting Mahopac. The continuation of last week’s game, the Wolves already trailed 6-0, and the deficit made the matchup an uphill climb all afternoon.
Rich MonettiPublished about 22 hours ago in UnbalancedWhat Went Wrong: How Did THIS TEAM Beat Toronto?!
Look on the bright side, Boston. At least you have a chance to capture PWHL's championship. At least that's a Boston hockey team who actually performs well.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished about 23 hours ago in UnbalancedIllinois Jumpers Shine Bright
Last weekend's Big Ten Championships saw some of the top collegiate performers in the sport of track and field compete in Ann Arbor Michigan, May 10-12.
Winners OnlyPublished a day ago in UnbalancedMinnesota Wins Big Ten
As Minnesota's Abigail Schaaffe approached the finish line in the 1,600-meter relay, it looked like Ohio State was about to capture a third straight Big Ten gold medal in the event.
Winners OnlyPublished a day ago in UnbalancedMinnesota Wins Big Ten
As Minnesota's Abigail Schaaffe approached the finish line in the 1,600-meter relay, it looked like Ohio State was about to capture a third straight Big Ten gold medal in the event.
Winners OnlyPublished a day ago in UnbalancedWhat Went Wrong: Hurricanes' Last Chance?
Losing sucks, but one thing I always praise is when a team doesn't go down without a fight. We saw this with the Carolina Hurricanes in their Metropolitan Division Final series against the New York Rangers. The Canes lost the first three games of the series, leading to the conclusion that the Rangers would literally sweep their way to the Eastern Conference Final. However, the Canes managed to break the brooms in Game Four, and really get to Igor Shesterkin in not only Games Four and Five, but Game Six as well. After winning those two games, the Canes had a 3-1 lead entering the third period, and that had fans thinking that the dreaded reverse sweep would happen.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 2 days ago in UnbalancedJohn Jay Wins Senior Night with 6-2 Victory over Pelham
Senior Night Photos On Wednesday April 24, John Jay hosted Pelham for senior night, and the rain and overcast weather passing by returned the just right front for Emma Klares. “It was nice that the sun came out,” said the senior. “We put the posters out, and it felt like senior night.” Holding up her end in the circle, the starter was still happy to share the spotlight with the kids in the 6-2 victory.
Rich MonettiPublished 2 days ago in Unbalanced
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