From Hockey To Baseball

I'm not going to say the Habs are out of their series with the Flyers yet but being down 2-0 is certainly a hill to climb. I've not only seen many a team come back from 2-0 deficits but seen many teams lose two at home and still come back on the road. Montreal has two games at home next and while many players have stated that sometimes getting on the road and away from the home fans takes some of the pressure off that's not the case with this team. At least it shouldn't be.

The Canadiens have been a pleasant surprise so far in these playoffs and if they do lose to the Flyers I would still call this season a great success. So because the team has surprised many, including their fans I don't care what the fans actually say, they should be welcomed home as if they're up 2-0 in the series. Let's see how the Flyers react to a hostile home crowd.

Regardless, (did you know irregardless is officially a word even though it makes no logical sense?) if the Habs win or lose this series, when they do finally get knocked out of win the Cup there's another Canadian team that's doing some great things. The Toronto Blue Jays.

Every year in Canada the start of the baseball season is ignored for the NHL playoffs. It's fine it's natural but for the Jays it's not the greatest thing in the world. Here is a team that plays in the toughest division in baseball. They can put up great numbers and still find themselves behind the likes of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. This year they also have the Tamps Bay Rays to contend with. To put it in perspective the Jays are the fifth best team in the entire Major League. That's fifth out of thirty teams but guess what place they are in the division. Third. There are only four teams with better records and two of them are in the Jays division and one of them is not Boston who I would expect to get better as the year goes on and who has had the Jays number all year so far.

So people ignore the Jays for hockey. Hockey finally ends and the Jays are nowhere near first despite their 7 games above .500 record, that's what it is now anyway. I'm not saying we should ignore the Habs, not at all, but I think this Jays team may be one to keep an eye on. They may just parallel the Habs this season. I don't mean make a run for the World Series. In baseball late season runs for the last playoff spots are the same as the first couple rounds of NHL playoffs and the Jays could very well be contending for a spot come late August.

They also have a young core and it looks like they are only going to get better over the next couple of years. They're a team to watch and don't let the standings fool you. MLB has dropped the ball on allowing rich teams to stack their roster putting the Jays in a annual difficult situation facing off against rich teams all season. Still they are playing fantastic baseball and I don't expect it to end anytime soon so when the ice melts either for good or ill there is another Canadian team to keep your eye. The best part is that when the Jays are finished their season long show it will be time for a brand new NHL season.

I think the Habs (or perhaps our Olympic athletes did it) may be kicking off a great decade for Canadian sports teams, if you care about that sort of thing.