Friday Commentary: ICYMI

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A coupla three or more thoughts entering the weekend …

#1 – What a heckuva night it was in the NHL! Columbus throttled the Rangers 6-3 and moved into third spot in the Metro. The Blue Jackets have points in 11 straight under Rick Bowness and have nudged the Islanders out of a playoff spot! Oh, and the Islanders lost 3-2 to Ottawa and New York #1 pick Matthew Schaefer notched his 50th point. The only other 18-year old to do that in NHL history?

Phil Housley.

Out West the undermanned Florida Panthers surprisingly throttled the Oilers 4-0 in Edmonton while Vegas got shutout at home 4-0 by Utah. The Panthers’ hashtag is #TimeTo Hunt. Maybe the Golden Knights’ hashtag should be #TimeToPanic.

#2 – ICYMI: (In Case You Missed It): The SJHL Playoffs start tonight. (I miss the old Survivor Series, but whatever). Here are your Game 1’s – Estevan at Flin Flon, Melville at Yorkton, Weyburn at Nipawin and Melfort at the Battlefords. Let the games begin!

#3 – They’re putting the World Baseball Classic to bed with some final analysis. Venezuela beat USA 3-2 in Tuesday’s final at a jam-packed Loandepot Park in Miami. Ratings are at an all-time high, and attendance too.

And now the geniuses in the suits are thinking of moving the tournament from preseason to mid-season.

That sounds about right for how things go in a lot of sports these days: “Things have never gone better! Let’s change it up!”

#3 – Just a quickie on March Madness. It ain’t like it used to be. I sat down to fill out a bracket on Thursday – because of course I didn’t want to be left out – and immediately realized I didn’t have a half hour to do it. However ESPN was offering a free bracket, with the wonders of AI, which fills out your bracket in seconds! So that’s what I did. (So I’ve got Michigan to win by the way).

In a way I felt guilty spending the day on the couch watching basketball before switching over to hockey.

But then I realized – that is my job after all.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

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