Good Times Grimes

Rick Nash to the New York Rangers! Columbus is now even further from getting off the bottom of the Western Conference...

The two big UFAs (Parise and Suter) both signed identical 13 year/ $98m contracts with the Minnesota Wild. A funny fact: Both Parise and Suter are 27 years old. The combined goal total from the past season of all the NHLers who were 27 13 years ago is ZERO.

Rumour has it that Martin Brodeur is going to be testing the free agent market on July 1. He'll most likely be joined by his team mate and captain, Parise. I wonder how the NJD will do next year if they lose 2 of their most important players...

I had the same experience. When I was flying down to Australia, there was no LAK merchandise to be found anywhere in LAX. On the return, though, the Kings were the pride of everything in the airport, including Wolfgang Puck! He's been rewarded with a 10 year contract!

His manager gets to pocket more than $5m of that. Ridiculous.

Matt Cain threw the first perfect game in Giants history and the 22nd of all time last night... 2 this season already!

Now I'm looking forward to when the free agent and trading excitement begins. Looks like Rick Nash will be heading to the New York Rangers, while Luongo is also likely to be on the move.

I'd say if the Devils can win game 6, they'll win the series. Come on LA...just one more win!!!

I'm looking forward to it. A big Brodeur performance is needed for that to happen.

Yep, I would be a very vocal member of the crowd without a doubt. I can't blame him for taking the money, but the way he went about it was disgraceful. This discussion has been done to death in a number of topics for the past year and a half now though, so I won't say any more. I think I'll be watching it at my brother's house. Thanks for the offer though. It's disappointing that I'll just miss out on seeing the end of the series back in North America. Seeing more footy softens the blow though. Did you see that game tonight? It was a ripper.

It's true, and I'm sure LA won't even be thinking about where it would be better to win...they'd be equally happy winning it on Mars. Yep...still in Oz for another week and a bit. I'm spewing that the Dees have the bye next week and GW$ the week after...I would love to see the return of $cully.

They'd have to break the Kings perfect road record to do it. If I were LA I'd want to win Game 6 at home though...I don't think the buzz would be quite the same if you win the Cup on the road with the crowd being 95% in favour of the opposition.

The Maple Leafs signed one of the Hansen brothers' sons a couple of seasons ago. He failed to have much of an impact and was released at the end of last season. I think he might be playing for Carolina now.

Yeah, I'd agree that many boxing movies would be near the top of my list...probably The Fighter taking the cake. Like you, I also haven't seen any of the Rocky movies haha. I loved watching St Louis's run towards the end of last season, finishing with that fantastic World Series. I also enjoy watching Philly when Halladay is pitching. He's one of my all-time favourite athletes and will go down as one of the greatest ever pitchers. I struggle to support any team other than Toronto, though, and it's nice watching a young team on the rise.

To be honest I'm not much of an expert when it comes to the financial discrepancies that exist between different teams in the MLB. It amazes me that the Chicago Cubs can still be so profitable after so many years of futility. I'm happy to see Tampa Bay doing well, given that they are in the hardest division in the MLB and have such a low payroll. It's evidence that you can be successful in rebuilding through the draft and that a good team that work well together can beat teams made up of stars who are perhaps not team players. I thought Moneyball was so good that I went to see it twice. I particularly liked Jonah Hill's character and his performance. I thought Brad Pitt was quite good, but didn't really know much about Billy Beane before seeing the movie. I'd say it's in the top 5 sports movies that I've seen.

I'm hoping to see the series go 7 games, even though I want LA to win. It's always exciting having a sudden death match for both teams.

Toronto's is about $75.5m this season, with $14m of that going to Bautista. It benefits from having many young stars who are not being paid too highly (Lawrie and Arencibia are both on less than $500k). It amazes me that the Yankees pay almost 200% more than the Blue Jays, yet they are still relatively even in the standings. If you've seen the movie Moneyball, it's a great insight in to how the poorer teams need to manage their rosters in order to compete with the big markets of New York, LA, Philadelphia and Boston. Here's my source, which is pretty interesting if you want to compare team salaries: http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team

It was only a matter of time before they came good, Macca. It was nice (if only for a brief period) seeing the AL East with Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto occupying the top 3 spots and the Yankees and Red Sox on the bottom. The AL's wildcard spots will be very interesting this season, with several teams looking like they'll be making a serious push. I can't remember ever seeing the Dees with grey, but I agree that it does look better than the white. What do you think of the Baltimore logo? I think it's just about the worst logo going around in pro-sports.

LA win 4-0 and now lead 3-0 in the final. It would be a big ask for NJ to come back from here. The Kings now sit with a 15-2 record in the postseason, and are a chance to equal 1988 Edmonton Oilers as having the most dominant playoff record in NHL history (16-2). Quick looks like a lock for the Conn Smythe.

I've seen stranger things than teams coming back from 2-0 down. If the Kings win the next one though, it's all but over. Go Kings!

2 Games, 2 Overtimes, 2 LA Wins. New Jersey would be cursing themselves...they came so close twice, and matched the Kings both games, but now they're heading on the road in what could be their final trip of the season.

What a goal it was...great move by Kopitar

On the topic of retirements, you'd have to think that Brodeur might call it quits after the end of this season. It would be a dream to end a career by carrying your team to the Stanley Cup one last time.

Kings are now 9-0 on the road. Unbelievable record. Also, apparently Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom is set to announce his retirement tomorrow.

It feels like an eternity since the last game...it was great having playoff hockey on every day for the past month and a half, but now I'm struggling with this six day break.