Friday Smorgasbord!

No need for a preamble, let’s dive right in!

• The Penguins played what quite possibly was their best game of the season since Crosby’s injury in game one. It was hard to tell if the Penguins were able to raise their level of play that much or if the Lighting were a little shell-shocked by the intensity of the playoffs. Either way, if the Penguins continue to get that kind of play from Marc-Andre Fleury in net and the power play continues to show some life, the Pens are going to be a tough out for anyone even without Sid. With him, I think they just might become the favorite once again.

• Six of the eight teams I predicted to move on in round one won their opening game. I am not sure if that is good or if missing the two upsets everyone was calling for is bad. It is still early, however, and winning game one doesn’t mean a whole lot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hopefully the Penguins remember that.

• So much for that great Pirates’ start. After losing five of their last six, the Buccos are now 5-7 and trail four other teams in the NL Central. Sure the standings, and even the records, are not very important this time of the year but it would have been nice if this team could have sustained some momentum from the strong early start.

• The good news is that the Pirates starting rotation has continued to perform pretty well. Outside of the opening day defeat the Pirates have been in every game thanks to their starting pitching. Hopefully the pitching doesn’t deteriorate when the bats decide to wake up.

• Fresh off seeing him in person here in Pittsburgh last week is it time to start calling Troy Tulowitzki the best player in baseball? Well let me be the first! You remember when the national outlets start talking about this guy as the best player in the game that you heard it here first. Going back to last September, “Tulo” has hit 22 home runs in his last 42 games while playing the best shortstop in the majors. Hopefully he can stay healthy so we can all enjoy a full season’s worth.

• The guy Tulowitzki reminds me of is a young Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez, by the way, is far from done himself. About the only player in baseball matching what the Rockies shortstop is doing is the former best player in the game. Tulowitzki is first and Rodriguez is second in the majors in OPS and nobody else is close through the early part of the season.

• How about that Masters finish on Sunday? That was quite possibly the best golf on television I have seen with so many guys hitting important shot after important shot. It very well might have been the return of Tiger Woods as well. For more on that, I know I can’t say it any better than the Sports Guy did, so I will just link to his column: Bill Simmons

• I was going to post my NBA playoff predictions as part of the Smorgasbord but I will hold off and have a separate post going up Saturday morning. Check back then to see who I like in the opening round and a little commentary on the foregone conclusion that Derrick Rose is the NBA MVP this year…

TGIF Smorgasbord!

A few thoughts I have had during this great week of sports.

· The Pirates are off to a solid start after taking two of three games from the Dodgers, but they have to clean up the defense if they are going to be competitive at all this year. The Pirates have already committed 4 errors in 3 games (only 73 all of last year) and have failed to make other plays that they need to make (Andy LaRoche’s play in the top of the first in the opener sticks out). On top of that, the Dodgers looked to be stealing bases with ease against catcher Ryan Doumit. The Pirates do not have strike out pitchers as we have talked about on here. If they are to have any success this season, playing above average defense is a must.

· We are only five days into the season and yet only one team is still undefeated (San Francisco Giants) and one team is winless (Houston Astros). That is a far cry from the other major sports and makes baseball a funny game that way. The smallest margin of error exits between winning and losing, that is why even the best teams struggle to win 60% of their games. Imagine if the best team in football went only 10-6 every year…

· I have talked about the importance of getting the number two seed in the playoffs for the Penguins and it comes down to the final weekend. Then Pens and Devils are tied with two games remaining on Saturday and Sunday. The Devils hold the tiebreaker due to their sweep of the Pens during the regular season (would sure have been nice to win just one of those games now wouldn’t it!). The Devils have what should be a sure win against the Islanders on Saturday. The Penguins must win both games this weekend and root for the Sabres to knock off the Devils in the finale Sunday afternoon.

· I am still in shock that the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb to their division rival the Washington Redskins. Those that know me know I have long been a Donovan fan. I don't want to get into too much of it here as I plan to write a longer piece regarding the trade in the near future, but the Eagles have all but guaranteed their division rival a spot in the playoffs. Philadelphia has only missed the playoffs twice in Donovan’s 11 seasons, once in his rookie season and once in 2006 when McNabb missed six games. Further, only two active quarterbacks have a higher winning percentage than McNabb and they are none other than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Meanwhile, the Eagles are left with an unproven quarterback in Kevin Kolb. That trade was simply a steal for the Redskins, but more on this in the near future…

· As I post this column, Tiger Woods just wrapped up his second round at the Masters with a 2-under 70 that leaves him (-6) overall for the tournament and tied for 3rd place. No matter what you think of Tiger as a person, or whether you are rooting for or against him this weekend, one thing is for sure: Golf is a whole heck-of-a-lot more interesting with him out there. I, for one, am looking forward to sitting down Sunday and watching Tiger in contention for another Major once again.