THURSDAY RUNDOWN: THE GOOD, THE GREAT & THE UGLY

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

It’s time for this week’s edition of the Good, the Great & the Ugly!

First, the good: It’s actually better than good. This homestretch drive of the NHL regular season is providing more spills and chills than we anticipated.

It just feels like the Flames are that horse or race car making the final turn and about to surpass the Jets, saving the best for last. Each team has seven games to go, Winnipeg is just two points up, and has lost two in a row while the Flames have won two in a row.

The fanbases hang in the balance, wrought with anxiety.

Over in the East, I wrote off the Florida Panthers in December but Paul Maurice is having the last laugh, as the first-year Panthers coach has them just one point out of the playoffs after last night’s 3-2 upset win at Toronto. They too only have seven games left.

In the NHL this year, there’s no such thing as meaningless games.

Next, the great: It’s Opening Day! There are few things as good as this and the Blue Jays are one of 30 MLB teams playing today as they open at St. Louis; the first-ever American League team to play at Busch Stadium in Game 1.

Some pundits have the Blue Jays picked to reach the World Series! And some have gone so far as to forecast a Jays/Braves World Series, which would make things fun for our Atlanta radio listeners.

And lastly, the ugly: This is sort of a tongue-in-cheek comment, but I winced when I heard Keith Tkachuk on Toronto sports radio Tuesday calling the Florida Panthers a “soft” team right now.

Keith’s son Matthew, of course, is the Panthers leading scorer he certainly wasn’t speaking about his own kid. It was about his teammates. This is elementary school stuff all over again. Or minor hockey.

Having said that, the Panthers went out and stunned the Leafs 3-2 as mentioned previously so perhaps the Hockey Dad’s comments served as motivation.

But my long-standing policy has never changed:

Hockey parents shouldn’t be doing interviews.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, YouTube Live and WQEE Radio)