The National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs are in full swing.
Sixteen teams have qualified to play in the ‘new season.’
Often the playoffs are referred to as a ‘new season’ because regular season statistics don’t count any more.
Author: Ahren Sternberg
Raptors Headed To Playoffs
Canada’s only basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Toronto Raptors, are generating some excitement.
For the first time in six long years they have made the playoffs.
Of the 30 teams in the NBA, only 16 make it to the playoffs. There will be eight teams from the Eastern Conference and eight teams from the Western Conference. The Raptors play in the East.
In the playoffs, each team competes in a best-of-seven series. The first team to win four games moves on to the next round. A team has to win three rounds to make it to the finals. Then, the lone surviving team from the East plays the lone surviving team from the West.
Determination, Team Spirit Helps Canada Win Its First Medals In Sochi
On Saturday, Mark McMorris won Canada’s first medal at the 2014 Olympics–a bronze in snowboarding.
That was quickly followed up by two more medals for Canada: Justine Dufour-Lapointe won Canada’s first gold and her sister, Chloe, earned Canada’s first silver medal.
McMorris is a native from Regina, Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan is known for having very flat terrain, yet McMorris was determined to be a world-class snowboarder.
Super Bowl More Like Super Blowout
The Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII in grand style. Seattle crushed Denver 43-8.
Seattle’s number-one ranked defence was commanding. In fact, the defense of Seattle kept Denver scoreless for the first half of the game.
Denver’s number-one ranked offence was pathetic.
It was the first time since 1990 that both the number one-offence and the number-one defence played against each other in the Super Bowl.
Peyton Manning, Denver’s quarterback did try his best, though. He set a record with 33 completions (the number of times a ball is successfully passed to a teammate). Nevertheless, he had a night to forget.
Get Ready For The Super Bowl This Sunday
Super Bowl Sunday is nearly here.
On February 2, professional football’s biggest and most important game — the Super Bowl — will take place.
The Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks will be battling each other for league supremacy.
Denver enters the game with the league’s number-one offence. Seattle enters the game with the league’s number-one defence.
Denver has one of the best quarterbacks ever to play football: Peyton Manning.
He is the only player ever selected league as the National Football League Most Valuable Player four times. He’s expected to become the first five-time MVP when the league’s year-end awards are announced on Saturday.
Genie (And Her “Army”) Marching Towards Tennis Stardom
Eugenie “Genie” Bouchard from Montreal, Quebec, recently made tennis history for her country.
She made it to the semi-final round of a tournament called the Australian Open.
Bouchard is the 30th ranked female tennis player in the world.
On Monday she played against Ana Ivanovic, the 14th ranked female tennis player in the world.
Ivanovic had just recently beaten the world-number-one ranked female tennis player, Serena Williams. With that huge win, Ivanovic seemed poised to beat Bouchard.
However, Bouchard had other plans.
Canada Shining At Winter Sports – Including “Slopestyle”
Downhill skier Erik Guay, from Mont Tremblant, Quebec, raced recently in Kitzbuehel, Austria.
The 3.3-kilometre course at Kitzbuehel is often referred to as “the Super Bowl of the ski season.”
Guay finished second, skiing just 0.13 seconds slower than the person who came in first. Because he came in second, Guay earned a spot on the “podium.” In skiing, “podiums” is an official statistic. It refers to coming in first, second or third.
Coming in second at Kitzbuehel earned Guay his 19th podium of his career. If he gets one more, he will be tied for the most podiums ever by a Canadian downhill skiier.
Guay is now preparing for the World Championships which take place on Feb. 10 in Austria.
Canada’s winter sports success continued in Aspen, Colorado at the Winter X Games.
Steve Nash’s Outstanding Basketball Career
It is often said that a sign of greatness is making others around you better. If that’s the case, then there can be very few better than Canadian basketball player Steve Nash.
Nash is a two-time winner of the Most Valuable Player award in the National Basketball Association: for the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons.
Nash recently achieved another significant milestone in his career.
He surpassed the 10,000 career assists mark.
NHL Season (Finally!) Begins This Saturday
The National Hockey League season is finally beginning.
After 113 days, the dispute between the owners and the players is over.
Fans have been without hockey since Sept. 15; that’s when the NHL season was supposed to have started.
After months of negotiations, players voted in favour of a new “collective agreement” to end the lockout.
Then to officially end the lockout, representatives for both the owners and players signed a document saying they agree to the proposal.
The 30 hockey teams that make up the NHL started training camps on Jan. 13.
There are seven Canadian teams in the NHL: the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks.
Training camp is a time for teams to put together their roster.
It also gives teams a chance to prepare for the upcoming season in hopes of winning the Stanley Cup.
This camp will be shorter than usual as there is a rush to get the season started. As a result there will be no pre-season games.
Christine Sinclair Is Canada’s Outstanding Athlete For 2012
Women’s soccer superstar Christine Sinclair has won the 2012 Lou Marsh Award.
The award is given out each year to Canada’s outstanding athlete. She is the first soccer player to win the award.
Sinclair, 29, is from Burnaby, British Columbia; she is captain of Canada’s women’s soccer team.
She led Canada to a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
She played a spectacular tournament, scoring an Olympic-record-setting six goals.
