Derrick Rose Wins MVP

All season long, one guy played day after day and played well. That man was and is Derrick Rose. I will agree to say that other players stepped up to help their team throughout the season, but not one player other than Derrick Rose played game after game to help the team. The Bulls finished the season as the number one overall seed, and the leader game after game was Derrick Rose. He scored points, got assists, and made everyone else better on the team. Luol Deng had a great season this year, and I don't doubt one bit that Derrick Rose helped that happen a little bit. He makes his team look better and play better. That is what an MVP is. LeBron or Wade can't win this award, because they play together. They both stepped up at different times to help that team win games, Derrick Rose was by himself for the most part. Game after game they turned to him to be their MVP and he stepped up every time, all season.

My favorite thing about Derrick Rose winning MVP is that at the beginning of the season he said in a press conference that he could be the league's MVP. He proved that all season and got the reward here near the end of the season. The only thing that Derrick Rose still needs to do is to win the Finals. In my opinion, winning the NBA Finals this year is not a must for the Bulls. They have a lot of years to come in which they can win a lot when the Lakers and Celtics fade from contention. Also, I think that the team people thought were take the Celtic's spot as controller of the east was the heat. The team that will actually take that spot is the Bulls.

The Bulls are the up and coming team; they proved that when they won the number one overall seed. They proved that they could play with anybody. My favorite stat from this regular season is that they beat every single team in the NBA at least once. Only good teams do that, and the Bulls are a good team. The thing that excites me the most is that this is only the beginning. I can't wait for the Bulls in three years, winning championship after championship.

Blackhawks vs. Canucks Game 2 Preview

This is not a real preview, I just felt the need to post this youtube video that I found on @RunsOnDuncan site. She got it off youtube, but I thought I would give her credit, check her blog out here: http://aeryssports.com/runs-on-duncan/ and also check out the other aerys sports blogs, they are all by women and they are all amazing.

Playoff Bound

Both the Blackhawks and the Bulls are headed to the playoffs for a second straight year. Last year I was not nearly as interested or as much of an avid blogger as I am this year and I missed the chance to write about such a great thing. The Bulls play tonight against the Knicks, which is their second-to-last game of the regular season. They will start off playing the Pacers in this year's playoffs. The Blackhawks played their final game on Sunday against Detroit and lost, but thanks to Minnesota beating Dallas (Thank You Wild!!) the Blackhawks slipped in. They will play the number one seed Canucks.


Bulls
The Bulls ended up sealing the number one spot in the East. If they win tonight, and tomorrow they can clinch the number one overall seed if they haven't already by then. They are playing the Knicks tonight, the only team they have not beaten all season. I think its important to win this game because it shows that the Bulls beat every single team in the league and deserve a ton of consideration as true contenders. I know that our team is young and this team has never won a playoff series together, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be considered. The Bulls are a good team and have proved that time and time again. Yes, the Celtics will show up in the playoffs and so will the Heat's big three, but Rose will show up in the playoffs too. The Bulls deserve to be considered contenders and nobody should be surprised if they win it all, but I actually didn't pick them to win it all. This team is young, like I said and they lack playoff experience. They are might end up facing the Lakers in the finals who have been there the last three years, they know how to win the finals and they showed that last year. This Bulls team is good and young, the Celtics, Spurs, and Lakers are all old teams and after this year they might not contend as well as they will this year and did last year. The Bulls have years to come of winning championships, Derrick Rose will not leave like LeBron and he will bring a championship to his hometown of Chicago. He is a true hometown hero. I didn't pick the Bulls to win this year because I still like to compare this team to the 2009 Blackhawks. They will make a splash and will be picked to win it all the next year and then in the playoffs they will make a great run to win it all. I will not firmly predict that the Bulls win it all, but if injuries subside I am firmly picking the Bulls to win next year's NBA Championship.


Blackhawks
The Blackhawks have the great task of being defending champs in this year's playoffs. They had trouble with injuries all year and were missing a lot of key pieces from last year's team, but they still held on to get in the playoffs in the very end. Now that they are teams should be worried. The Canucks are the number one team and they are very good. The Sedin twins are very good and so is Ryan Kesler. The Blackhawks are not going to let this chance pass them by, though. Jonathan Toews will be yelling and screaming at this team the whole playoff run and that is what will keep them going. Expect to see Kane, Toews, and Sharp playing like they did during that 8 game win streak and expect Hossa to be on the top of his game. The defense will be sturdy and hopefully with a little luck, Bolland will be back sometime during the playoffs. This is a team that can win and be a very good team if they give it their all. They can beat this team and the next team and the next. A great playoff run by the Blackhawks would not surprise me at all. They are a good team with a lot of heart, if they put everything out on the ice and give it their all they can keep the cup.

The Price Was Right Hawks Lose 2-1 in OT

The best thing about tonight's game was probably the amazing play by both goalies. One got the win, but each goal given up was a good shot and good attempt at a save. Crawford went back to his hometown in this game, and was not treated as a hometowner would expect. He shrugged that off and played his ass off. I was very impressed with him in this game. It seemed like every few minutes I was tweeting a tweet that had the hashtag #CRAWESOME in it. That's always a good sign.

For the past few games, he has been the only guy stepping it up and that needs to change. When your goalie is the only player who decides to play you aren't going to win. Most good goalies can't make that many saves, so don't expect it. The Blackhawks need to learn from this rookie and learn from his work ethic and the way he always plays 110%. My favorite thing about tonight's game was that Turco had another heart to heart, goalie to goalie talk with Crawford. I don't know how he does it. If I was a professional hockey player that was sitting on the bench, I could not be mature enough to coach the rookie who took my place. I admire Turco so much for the way he has stepped up and helped Corey out.

The worst part of tonight's game was another injury. Brouwer went down in the 3rd period with a bad shoulder. I don't know the details, but I do know that we can't afford to have any more injuries. Sharp will be skating soon, but if we make the playoffs he probably won't be back for the first playoff game. If we make the playoffs these injuries need to end. We can't make a run at keeping the cup without Sharpie.



The only Blackhawks goal scorer was Patrick Kane. In doing so, he got his 300th career point. This is extremely impressive because it was done in only 314 games. Statistically that means that he only went 14 games without a point, literally he probably went more because he has had 18 multipoint games. Kane is an impressive player. He got cold through the middle of the season and I think people forgot that he is one of our best players. He has been the hot guy lately and has had a point in each of the last 8 games. (That's if my stats are right) Kaner is being the leader of the team right now. I heard that Toews was mad in the locker room after the game and that might lead to another win streak, but until the Hawks play again Kane is still the hot guy.

This game unfortunately and fortunately went to overtime. This was good and bad. I didn't want the Hawks to lose so overtime would have not been necessary if we didn't play like idiots during power plays. I like that we went to overtime because we still got a point. It's better than losing and not getting any credit even though your goalie and a few players played really well.

The Blackhawks started the game as if they had urgency, but did not continue to play that way throughout the game. Their energy trickled and led to them losing this game. They need to play a full 60 minutes of full on urgent lose you go home hockey. This team can win games if they all pull together and actually play well. I think Toews will get a goal the next game, and I think Kaner continues his awesomeness. Just for fun, I'll predict that Johnny gets an Ovechtrick.