Seattle Seahawks: Zero to hero in

wildcard round

   
   

By David Hollinshead

he Wildcard round of the NFL
playoffs brought us a few

surprises, but no one expected
the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks to beat the
defending Super Bowl champions,
the 11-5 New Orleans Saints. Seattle
came into this game being the first
team in the league’s history to win
the division and make the playoffs
with a losing record; but in the
watered down NFC West division,
they took the division title by a
technicality from the St. Louis Rams
who finished with the same record.

Matt Hasselbeck, quarterback of
the Seahawks, was cleared to play
two days before the actual game
with an injury where he had to have
fluid drained from his hip, threw for
272 yards and four touchdowns, a
playoff career high, after an up-and-
down career since his Super Bowl
loss a few years ago to the Pittsburgh
Steelers. The Seahawks had a 34-20
lead in the fourth quarter, and the
Saints appeared to be attempting
one of their patented fourth quarter
comebacks. Until ‘Hawks running
back Marshawn Lynch burst up the
right side, breaking several tackles
in one of the greatest runs in NFL
playoff history to put the Saints
away once and for all.
Saints QB Drew Brees,

considered one of the premier pivots
in the league, finished the day with
a playoff record 39 completions on
60 attempts for 404 yards and two
touchdowns. After Lynch’s score,
he led his team to score 16 points in
a comeback attempts before Saints
kicker Garrett Hartley’s onside
kick went too far and was fell into
‘Hawks TE John Carlson’s awaiting
arms. The Seahawks will now go to
Chicago to play the Bears, hoping
for another miracle performance.

In other games, the Green
Bay Packers eked out a 21-16
victory over the Michael Vick led
Philadelphia Eagles, hurting even
more Vick’s chances at the MVP.
The Packers will go into Atlanta to
take on the Falcons. The New York
Jets, the team everyone loves to
hate, in a surprise victory, took out
Peyton Manning and the Colts in a
17-16 victory that went right down
to the wire, despite Jets QB Mark
Sanchez playing very inconsistently.
The Jets will travel to Foxborough
to take on hated division rivals: The
New England Patriots. In less of a
surprise, the Baltimore Ravens blew
out the Kansas City Chiefs 30-7,
ending their story book season.
Baltimore will travel to Pittsburgh
to play their division rivals, the
Pittsburgh Steelers.

 

 

Ovechkin vs. Crosby

By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

idney Crosby or Alexander
S Ovechkin...who’s the better

player? It’s hard to say. They’re
both international NHL superstars
who have completely turned their
Own respective teams around since
being drafted into the NHL in a
180 degree direction to success.
The Pittsburgh Penguins star has
most notably brought his team to
consecutive Stanley Cup finals (and
one championship) in the 2008 season
and winning in the 2009 season while
the Washington Capitals sniper on
the other hand has yet to get past the
second round in the playoffs of the
three appearances that he’s made with
his team.

With the first part of the NHL
season over its safe to say that
Crosby has overshadowed Alexander
Ovechkin in the regard of being the
most productive in terms of points
and the overall better player. He’s
currently first in the league with 32
goals and 66 points in 41 games
which is 21 points ahead of his rival,
Alexander the Great, who has just
15 goals and 45 points. He’s on pace
for a career low this season of just
27 goals and 54 assists which is still
remarkably good but the only thing
is that he has set the bar so high for
himself in the past which proves to
be the factor. In the 2005-06 season
he scored 52 goals, in the 2006-07

 

season he put 46 markers in the back
of the net and the next year he was
absolutely remarkable, potting 65
tallies. Going from such a productive
rate to being on pace for only 27 goals
is quite a sight to see, especially for
one of the best players to ever play the
game. But with that being said we all
know how number eight can instantly
explode out of the starting gate and go
on a scoring frenzy, seemingly out of
nowhere. He’s done it before and he
can do it again.

But now is the real test, the final
drive before the post-season.

Last year both captains tied for
second in league leading points for
109 and in the past couple of years
both have broken the 100 point barrier,
but Ovechkin was always the one on
top. This year Sid the Kid went on
a 25 game point streak for 50 points
which kind of set him in the right
direction. But since then he recently
got a concussion in the Winter Classic
game where he was blindsided after
the whistle blew and has missed five
games and has yet to practice with
the team. Uh oh! This would be the
perfect time for the Capitals sniper to
jump up on the opportunity and tie up
with Canada’s number one player.

The first half of the season has
got to go to Sidney Crosby who has
been the best player in the NHL and
MVP for his team. The score is 1-0
half way through the season, between
both stars.

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