The Fifth Liners

Here's some stories and thoughts from the world of sport this week. Baseball The San Francisco Giants only went and won the World Series for the third time in five years. Congratulations San Francisco. Hockey Detroit Red Wings legend and Hall of Famer Gordie Howe suffered a significant stroke on Sunday while staying with his daughter in Texas. The 86 year old is said to be recovering but has a tough journey ahead. Mr Hockey and his family are definitely in our thoughts. The Carolina Hurricanes continue to suck harder than anyone expected. The 2006 Stanley Cup champions are 0-6-2 for the season so far. Luckily for the 'Canes (and fans hoping to cash in on that free BoBerry biscuit), the team has a few games against division rivals Columbus soon, another team that seems happy to give points away. Washington goalie Braden Holtby might not be having much success on the ice, but his beard is top-notch. We also learnt a lot about P.K. Subban's intense personal groomi...

After being humiliated 10-0 by the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Game 6, the San Francisco Giants captured their third World Series title in five years with a 3-2 victory in Game 7! Madison Bumgarner proved to be the difference in this game and his decisive pitching limited the Royals attacking options. He entered the game in the second inning when Giants starter was pulled by Bruce Bochy for allowing two runs. From that point onwards, Bumgarner was ice cold through out and Missouri was left weeping. The scoring opened in the second inning off an RBI by designated hitter Michael Morse , which gave San Francisco a 2-0 lead. But the Royals were soon back in contention and dragged the score back to a tie game at 2-2! The game however hinged on a play by San Francisco rookie outfielder Joe Panik , who turned in an excellent double play by making a catch in the third inning and followed up with a glove toss to second base. Initially the runner was declared safe at second b...

The Pittsburgh Penguins have today announced that defenseman Olli Maata will be undergoing surgery for a tumor in his neck. According to NHL.com , this type of tumor an 85% chance of being lower type thyroid cancer. Maatta is not expected to undergo chemotherapy for this condition and the Penguins have suggested they expect him to be back with the team within four weeks after surgery. The 20 year old has been cleared to play up until then and has shown some great form this season so far and currently stands on 1 goal and five points in seven games. The Penguins have advised that they were aware of his condition pre season, but Maatta wished to keep this news to himself. They have also praised his attitude and sheer concentration during this period. The Finn was quoted as saying "I feel healthy and I feel fine,the only thing that's different is that now I know that I maybe have cancer. And you know what? That's tough, but I don't think it's affected me much....

Last night, the San Francisco Giants look advantage of a minor implode by the Kansas City Royals to level the scores of the 2014 World Series at 2 games a piece after 4 games played! This match up between Missouri and California might not have been predicted by many fans at the beginning of the post season, but so far both are making a good show of things. After being humiliated in game one by the Giants, the Royals' recovery has been nothing short of a masterstroke! Watching starting pitcher James Shields stumble his way through 4 very nervy innings while Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner held Kansas to only 4 hits in a one sided 7-1 victory made the air go out of Kauffman stadium! Also aided by a Hunter Pence home run, things were already looking bleak and the Royals impressive 8-0 post season record lay in ruins. Game 2 brought about a dramatic change and the Royals looked more fired up and ready to counter the Giants threat. After being held 1-1 in the opening innings, Om...

The Montreal Canadiens 3-1 win over the New York Rangers tonight at the Bell Centre was very impressive one and aided by the excellent saves of Carey Price in net, they continue to prove they are worth a shot at the cup this year! But it was this excellent play between Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty in the first period that caught everyone's attention. You are unlikely to see a better example of passing play between teammates this season.

The trade rumour mill has been grinding vigorously of late and one name that has been at the centre is that of Carolina Hurricanes captain, Eric Staal .  Word has been that Staal would be happy to waive his no trade cause and join the Toronto Maple Leafs instead. At 30 years old and with only one year left on his contract, this would certainly help lift $8 million off the Hurricanes salary cap. But the real question is, what would be the long term effect of letting one of their stars leave? Ever since their remarkable run to the 2006 Stanley Cup win, the Hurricanes have struggled to be any where near competitive and Raleigh, North Carolina is unlikely to see another cup banner raised any time soon. Eric Staal since being a second overall pick in 2003 has been a solid player for them over the years. His 690 points from just 770 NHL games reads very well, but his plus/minus figures have been consistently dropping recently. Last season amidst a lengthy knee injury, Sta...

The time has come at last Tampa Bay Lightning fans! 2013 3rd overall draft pick Jonathan Drouin will at last make his anticipated NHL debut this week. This event has been a year in the making, but will this man live up to the hype? Last season Drouin was surprisingly sent back to his old team the Halifax Mooseheads in the QMJHL after training camp. Clearly Tampa Bay wanted to ensure this was one gem that was thoroughly polished. This meant that this young man was the only top 6 pick that didn't go on to make an appearance in the NHL. Despite the disappointment, Drouin went on to have another productive season with Halifax and finished with 29 goals and 108 points! Another blow would come when the 19 year old broke his thumb before training camp even began and it looked as if he would be confined to another year of obscurity when Lightning again sent him down. Drouin was sent to AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch for a conditioning assignment. Fans in Florida were again left in lim...

After looking like they had finally reached a break through, last season was nothing short of a disaster for the New York Islanders franchise. Mid season it looked as if GM Garth Snow had lost his mind after surprisingly trading star winger Matt Moulson to Buffalo in exchange for Thomas Vanek . Soon after Vanek became disgruntled and was then traded to Montreal! After limping across the finish line in 8th place in the Metropolitan Division, Islanders fans had only a move to the Barclays Centre to look forward to! But in the off season, a couple of moves have seen this team being pushed back into spotlight. Problem last season was that the Islanders were not a rounded team and aside from the star power of captain John Tavares and Kyle Okposo , the lower lines were not stocked with quality. In this off season alone they have in an amazing move acquired Boston D-Man Johnny Boychuk and Chicago Centre Nick Leddy who will aid both their scoring ability and will assist in adding qualit...

Seems that Anaheim Ducks legendary Finnish winger, Teemu Selanne has been inspiring creative juices recently, as 22 year artist Timo Ranto has made a Lego mosaic of the 'Finnish Flash'! This 5 ft 8 piece took over 10,000 pieces of Lego to assemble and the result you would have to say is pretty darn impressive! Check out the video below Selanne retired last season as the highest scoring Finn in NHL history with 684 goals and 1,457 points in 1,451 games. His number 8 jersey is to be retired by Anaheim later in this upcoming season.

It has proven to be a big day for the Ottawa Senators so far as they have re-signed star right winger Bobby Ryan to a brand new seven year contract reportedly worth over $50.75 million and finally they have announced a new captain in the shape of defenseman Erik Karlsson . Debate has been raging today about whether the 24 year old Swede is the best man for the job? Ever since former captain and longtime Ottawa star Jason Spezza was traded to Dallas, the Sens management has been taking their time over announcing his replacement. In retrospect I think the selection of Karlsson is a fine one because he is a young man who is coming into his own and is fast becoming considered one of the leagues finest defensemen. So far Karlsson has spent six seasons in Ottawa, he has 63 goals and 237 points scored in 315 games, also he was awarded the James Norris Trophy in 2012. On these kind of stats alone combined with his committed play, I can think of no other candidate who was more qualified ...

Prior to arriving in Canada I was aware of the existence of the game of baseball, but being European I never quite grasped its appeal! The games seemed like 'The Never Ending Story' and I marveled at the fact that their main championship was named the World Series when in fact no other nations participated. But watching baseball films such as Bull Durham, Moneyball, Eight Men Out and Major League perked my interest in this game and I found myself reading more. The Toronto Blue Jays were a franchise I had been aware of for some years as they were Canada's only MLB franchise who had not only claimed back to back World Series wins in 1992-93 but had also not reached the playoffs again since then. As I was facing a long wait until Hockey season rolled around and the 2014 World Cup really wasn't peaking my interest this time, I decided to immerse myself in the beautiful game that Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Mickey Mantle and Cal Ripken Jr have made so popular. Arr...