The Flying Dragons' road to victory

After three years of being denied by the PSAL, this coming fall season will be the first appearance by HSMSE’s cross country team in the league. The Flying Dragons are planning to surprise the other competing teams. Thomas Henning, their coach, has great confidence in his team and knows they are going to go far. Henning said in an interview, “Nobody knows who we are so when we run, we are going to win and win.”

Henning is excited about his team finally being able to compete in the PSAL. The team’s first PSAL race starts in late September. The PSAL competition consists of ten races with teams from all five boroughs competing against each other for the championship. After asking Henning about his thoughts on the team’s first appearance in the PSAL, Henning replied, “It’s very exciting because we will be able to do ten races.”

Just like their coach, the Flying Dragons are looking forward to their first meet in fall. They will start preparing for this competition on the 20th of August. They will be doing drills and workouts such as long distance sprints, running up hills, and multiple mile runs four to five times a week. Sophomore Mathew Brown, one of the runners from the Flying Dragons who ran for two seasons gave his opinion on the drills and workouts, “It’s not fun, but I know it will help me improve.” These drills and workouts will turn out to help them in the future.

This will be an exciting season for the Flying Dragons. With their heads high, they will march towards victory. However, they do not expect for everyone on the team to win. Henning explained, ”You’re not trying to be first, you’re trying to be better.” The Flying Dragons want to win, but the top priority for them is to make themselves better. They are confident and training hard to get far in competition. They know that their hard work will pay off. This is a new era for the Flying dragons. The excitement within the team increases each day as the first PSAL meet gets closer.

The New York Rangers, float or sink?

The New York Rangers vs The Ottawa Senators
Credit to MattBrit00 on Flickr

The New York Rangers may not be the best team in the Stanley Cup playoffs this year; however, they’re a powerful team that won’t give up. Despite their rough history, The Rangers have improved and can win the Stanley Cup.

The blueshirts beat the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs with a record of 4-3 and advanced to round two. However, watching the first round of the games, it is noticeable the Rangers improved since the regular season.

In the regular season, the Rangers were usually defeated by the Senators with a large three point difference, but now in the playoffs, the Rangers manage to decrease the differences of scores to only one or two points.

It's true that The Senators have a great offense that finish in the top 35 offensive GVT ranks like Erik Karlsson (fourth), Jason Spezza (sixth), and Daniel Alfredsson (34th) , however, The Rangers have an even better defense player to match it up with defensemen Ryan McDonagh (fourth), Dan Girardi (seventh), and Michael Del Zotto (28th) in the top 30 GVT defense ranking. They also have Henrik Lundqvist, who has the third highest ranking for goaltending.

The Rangers are playing well, and they are going to start playing better. The other team better watch out, because the Rangers are coming through!

Is this the Rangers' year?

New York Rangers locker room- vipeldo / Flickr

The New York Rangers will advance to the finals in the Stanly Cup. The Rangers are playing against the Ottawa Senators and are down in the series three to two. The Rangers, who haven’t won the Stanley Cup since the '93-'94 season, must get past the Senators in order to advance to the semi-finals.

The Rangers won games one and three of the series and lost games two, four, and five. The Rangers had an impressive regular season winning 50 games and coming in first place in their division. In the games against Ottawa, the Rangers have made the games close, but didn’t make the most out of their opportunities.

Center forward Brian Boyle, who has scored in the last three games against Ottawa, will need to step up big in game seven in order to keep the Rangers' post season hopes alive. Boyle has been one of the leading scorers for the Rangers during the post season and seems to perform well against the Senators. Center forward Brad Richards, who has taken 26 shots during the post season and only has a 3.8 shooting percentage, has to be accurate with his shots in order to help the team score more goals. 

If the Rangers are able to play solid defense and work well together they will be able to win game seven against Ottawa. The Rangers need to play like the team who has one of the best records in the whole NFL in order to advance to the next stage of the playoffs.  

Bruins to move on to second round

Bruins in a March 2011 game- enjoiskate8-Flickr

The Boston Bruins, winners of the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship, may not be as lucky this year. They will defeat the Capitals and advance to the second round, though.

Goalie Tim Thomas, a Vezina Trophy winner, has played exceptionally throughout the playoffs. With 36 saves last game, a 2.18 GAA and 0.922 save percentage against Washington; Thomas has been key to the team’s success. After Game 6, Tim Thomas said to ESPN, "If you want to be the one that comes out on top in Game 7, you have to be the one who is willing to pay the price and be the one that is prepared to give everything you have from what's inside you". Surely Thomas' play will be vital to the Bruins' final game against Washington.

Other players have made outstanding plays throughout the series, like Tyler Seguin, who made the winning point in overtime in the sixth game. The team as a whole has excellent offensive ability and with an average of 3.2 points per game, the Bruins are ranked second in the league for points per game.

The Bruins have a good combination of offensive and defensive plays. Their third line, consisting of Chris Kelly, Rich Peverley and Michael Ryder, has made several important assists, goals, and defensive plays, greatly aiding the top forwards’ somewhat lacking performance. Peverley, current center for the team, is the series leaders in both goals and points, with three goals and five points.

Although the Bruins have a good chance of moving on to the quarterfinals, their performance is not enough to advance further. After a close win over the Capitals, the Bruins do not have much of a chance to defeat other, more competent teams.

San Jose Sharks: No chance at all!

The San Jose Sharks started out with a high chance of winning against the St.Louis Blues. They had the first win in the series and led 1-0. Maybe they were just lucky because in the next game the Blues tied the series at 1-1. As the series, went on any chance of winning for the Sharks perished.

In Game 3 at the Compaq Center at San Jose, the Blues won with a score of 4-3 and took the lead at 2-1. The Sharks, at this point in the series, still had a likely chance to catch up with the Blues and win. A few days later, they lost another home game to the Blues.

A loss is a loss, but the most humiliating thing for any team in sports is to lose when they are playing home. This was humiliating for the Sharks because out of the five games they played with the Blues, two were home games and they had lost in both.

At this point in the series the Blues were leading at 3-1 and they only needed one more win to move to the next round. The Sharks just simply had no chance. The Blues went to take the win at the last game in the Scottrade stadium.

The Sharks were dominated and slaughtered by the Blues and lost the series at 4-1. A few reasons why they lost is the poor offense and lack of teamwork. They had a good defense over the St.Louis Blues and did not allow them to score that many points, but they lacked offense and were not able to penetrate the Blues defense and score points. The main reason why the Sharks lost was because they traded Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi in separate off-season deals to Minnesota. Too bad for the Sharks, but there's always next year.

Philadelphia Flyers is on their way to winning the Stanley Cup

Philadelphia Flyers - Rhys Asplundh - flickr.com

The Philadelphia Flyers concluded their first round series by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Six of their series on Sunday, April 22. The Flyers have a high chance of winning the Stanley Cup this year. 

In the series, the Flyers scored a remarkable 30 goals. In two different games the Flyers scored eight goals. Claude Giroux had six goals and Danny Briere had five goals. All of the players contributed to the game, leading to the series victory.

Even though the defense for the Flyers was not as strong because Chris Pronger and Andrej Meszaros were injured and Nicklas Grossmann was eventually knocked out with a concussion, they managed to succeed. During Game Six the defense blocked many of the Penguins' shots.

The Flyers set an amazing record by scoring 12 power play goals in this series. They had an outstanding average of two goals per game. The Flyers converted 50 percent of their power play chances, which is the most out of any other playoff teams. They also added three shorthanded goals.

Even though the games after this series are going to be tough because Grossmann is injured,  the Flyers can get through this and work hard to win the Stanley Cup this year.  

Predators preying for first Stanley Cup in franchise history

Predators' goalie Pekka Rinne- flickr.com- Photo Taken by Robert Claypool

All around the United States, and Canada, people are tuning in to the hockey games this season. The popularity of hockey has risen, with the thrilling game series and underdogs winning at this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. “The game has never been more popular, nor seemed so out of control,” Jim Litke of the Associated Press said in a recent column on MSN.com.

After crushing the Detroit Red Wings 4-1, the Nashville Predators seems like a legitimate contender to winning the NHL championship. Pekka Rinne, the goalie of the Predators, is undoubtedly playing his best game during the most important time of the season. During the first round, the goalie had stopped 35 or more shots from the Red Wings. Also stepping his game up is rookie Gabriel Bourque who scored three of the 13 goals scored by the team during the whole round. With these young talents, the Predators has an advantage of less chance of their players being fatigued.

For most of the round, the Red Wings had most of the possession of the puck, but the Predators came to win the series 4-1. The Predators take their opportunities and use them wisely. The Predators are also first in the whole league in power play percentage. Their next opponent is the Phoenix Coyotes. During their last meet, Predators beat the Coyotes 5-4. The Predators also have six more wins during the season compared to the Coyotes, outscoring them 13-9. The Predators should come in the series confident that they can win the the second round.

After beating the Coyotes, the Predators are likely to play the St. Louis Blues in the Conference Finals. The Predators managed to win Game three against the Red Wings with only 17 shots, and that's just spectacular. Although their Finals opponent seems unclear at the moment, the Predators seem to be on top of everything.It is likely that the Predators will win the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Although they have some disadvantages as a team such as lack of experience, it seems as they're ready to win a championship for the first time in franchise history. "Nashville's depth, balance and basic lack of weaknesses makes them my pick to win this year's Stanley Cup," said Timothy Rapp in a Bleacherreport.com article.