They’ve since changed it, but for about 10 minutes, ESPN.com had this headline on their homepage:
Wow, Mike Modano’s returning to the Stars? Tonight?? Mid-playoffs??? Anything really can happen in the postseason.
To fill Modano’s roster spot, Gerard Gallant will be returning to the Red Wings.
Sidney Crosby may have missed out on the Hart Trophy this year (finishing third in the voting behind Henrik Sedin and Alex Ovechkin), as well as the Lester Pearson Award for MVP as voted on by the players (Ovechkin), but last night he won the ESPY Award for Best NHL Player.
The ESPY award doesn’t specify parameters, so Crosby’s Olympic-winning goal likely swayed some votes, and all three players had comparably unmemorable postseasons, so even if the Crosby verdict was just a byproduct of casual fans voting for the biggest name, the decision by the ESPY voters is a fairly logical one, especially when Crosby deserved the Hart over Sedin to begin with.
I realize this evaluation is borderline conspiracy-theory-ey, especially coming from a blogger with a Pens logo in his banner, but I still believe that North American hockey writers were influenced by the opportunity to promote someone other than Crosby or Ovechkin for a change and leapt at the chance to vote for Sedin knowing it would benefit the league as a whole from a promotional standpoint, especially after Ryan Miller’s Olympic run was such a captivating event .
At this juncture, I would like to post my monthly “hockey writers are stupid” reminder that Jaromir Jagr won 5 scoring titles and only 1 Hart Trophy in his career, and that doesn’t include the year he finished 2 points behind Joe Thornton but scored 25 more goals and Thornton still got the MVP. I’ve said multiple times that complaining about MVP voting is the most useless endeavor in sports besides complaining about All-Star selections, and yet I get pulled into it again and again every year. It’s like heroin, without the upside.
That’s not a sarcastic title – this ESPN poll map really does make me feel bad for the state of Ohio:
At least New Mexico is kinda on the fence about him leaving too!
…
:_( :_( :_( :_( :_(
Here’s the front of ESPN’s NFL page right now (click for full size):
For the record, ESPN, when I write something in all-caps, I’m usually being sarcastic. But I appreciate you taking my suggestion nonetheless.
“Dammit, fellow ESPN execs — that Olympic Gold Medal game gave the NHL waaayyy too much positive exposure. If we don’t squelch this momentum now, people might actually falsely believe that this niche Canadian cult thing is as important as regular season college basketball games or NFL Draft coverage nine weeks before the event occurs. Any suggestions? Yes, Jenkins?”
“How about we make another poll on ESPN.com ripping on hockey for no reason, even though we’d never do a poll questioning the importance or watchability of a sport that our network owns the broadcasting rights to?”
“Brilliant. Make it happen. Remember to put it on the ESPN.com NHL page, too, so it specifically insults people who’ve gone the extra step to find our hockey coverage. And make the jab at hockey really really lame, too, so the unfunnyness matches the lack of necessity…”
“That should take care of that. Next item on the agenda: Combining NFL Draft coverage and after-the-fact NBA Trade Deadline Talk into some sort of all-in-one, Devastator-like ESPN Behemoth. Ideas, anyone? Something involving radiation?”
ESPN reports that the San Francisco Giants have re-signed Tim Lincecum to a 2-year, $23 million deal. I’m still not entirely sure how Torry Holt was involved, but there he is:
I realize that laughing at a photo mistake is borderline 3-year-old humour, but as you may or may not know, I am literally a baby. Frankly it’s pretty impressive that I’m writing anything, let alone an entire blog, and spelling the word “humour” Britishly.
[Ed Note - The photo has since been corrected. They can try to cover up Torry Holt's obvious involvement in this deal all they want, but this investigative blogger KNOWS THE TRUTH]
