The Phoenix Suns win over the Lakers tonight was amazing. The bench played so well, coach Alvin Gentry sent Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire back to the bench at one point because his second unit was schooling the Lakers starters. As “The Sports Guy” Bill Simmons wrote on his twitter account, “We need to have a ceremony where Manu passes the torch to Dragic as the most exciting foreign player.” Never thought we would hear that a year ago. Channing Frye found his way to the Western Conference finals via Google maps. And the 2-3 zone may not be the greatest, but its getting the job done.

The series is tied 2 games apiece and while that seemed like a miracle scenario after L.A. destroyed Planet Orange the first two games, I’m here to say, “temper that enthusiam Suns fans.”

I know. I know. Everyone hates that I’m “that guy” who comes in and rains on your parade with my pessimistic attitude toward everything. But i do it because all this means is that this series is back to square one. The Suns havent won anything yet. Do not get me wrong. I WANT THE SUNS TO WIN. (I wrote that in bold to illustrate my point). All im saying is that Suns fans have a tendancy to get too high on games, that while they are big/must win as tonights was, they still dont mean anything yet. Yet.

Anyone else see Kobe Bryant’s reaction after the game. He. Is. Pissed. I dont like him. Never will. But that man is still the best in the game and i dont want him angry. Especially when i dont have homecourt…which the Suns dont. I mean the Lakers could easily go out and throw up 130 in Game 5 and then the sky is falling again.

I’m not saying Phoenix cant win this series. They can. They have to win a game in L.A., but they can. We’ve seen a team come back from a 3-0 deficit in the NHL Playoffs this year, so anything is possible. All I’m saying is dont get too high. Take it from a guy who has learned that valuable lesson (Gary Anderson, Tracy Porter, Jason Arnott are just a few examples). The fall sucks. It will never leave you. So just be careful Planet Orange. And someone…anyone…make sure Frye has directions to the Staple Center.

Sure, that new like of NHL commercials declaring that “History Will Be Made” makes me yearn for the days when I was told to get “Cup Crazy.”

They’re also the most easily spoofed viral videos since Beyonce’s Single Ladies:

But make no mistake about it. Tonight, at TD Garden, the night after LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers quit on their season, the Philadelphia Flyers will dumbfound another set of sports fans.

The mere fact that the Flyers have been able to claw back into a Game 7 after falling behind 3-0 to the Boston Bruins in this Eastern Conference Semifinal series is one thing. It’s the first it has happened in the National Hockey League since 1975, when the Islanders did it to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

You can look at the stats – including Philadelphia, only six times has a team in that hole fought back from the deepest of deficits to even force a deciding game. Only those ‘75 Islanders and 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs have been able to finish the feat in hockey.

It’s going to happen again tonight.

I personally didn’t even think Boston had a chance of knocking off Buffalo in the first round, let alone being one win away from their first conference final appearance since 1992. They can’t score. They’ve got an untested rookie goalie who had more U’s in his first name than playoff victories entering this postseason.

They did, though, in stunning and swift fashion. Then they put Philadelphia down 3-0, who were fresh off their own first round upset. Marc Savard was back. The team was healthy and hitting.

And, like that, it all hit a wall.

I don’t think anyone can put exactly a finger on why we find ourselves with an improbable Game 7 tonight in Beantown. Obviously, the whole “scoring a single goal in their past two elimination games” thing factors in — and even that goal came with just one minute to play in Game 6.

And it’s not as if Philadelphia has played remarkably well. Game 5 was a whitewash in which the a lazy and careless Bruins team gave the puck away as if it were an extra wedding present toaster. Philly then came out in Game 6 and did just enough to squeak out a victory to tie the series.

The fact of the matter is, though, they did. The Bruins have improbably lost three consecutive elimination chances. Tonight, they’ll lose a fourth and their season will be over.

Somehow.

There’s no way the Bruins can possibly win tonight, is there? With apologies to NSF Adam (not a contributor, but a frequent guest of the fine program), if the Flyers even come out and score the first goal, this will descend into chaos.

Trust me on this. I’m a Yankees fan. I know full well what it feels like to see your team blow a 3-0 series lead. Once it gets away in Game 7, there’s no turning back. Weezer’s “The Sweater Song” describes how pulling one thread can unravel an entire garment. The Flyers almost have the Bruins naked. They will by the end of the night.

Isn’t it hard to believe that this happened 13 days ago in the very same playoff series?

The NHL better get it’s marketing department chugging tonight because, in reality, history will be made.

After last nights two Eastern Conference semifinal games, i learned one thing….hand the Stanley Cup to whoever wins the Sharks/Blackhawks series. Seriously.

I didnt think many of the teams out East had a chance to beat the West when the playoffs began anyway, but the last month has just proved my point. You can say its parity. I say it’s overrated top teams who lost to lower seeds that are playing above their head.

Don’t get me wrong, the Montreal Canadiens run is fun to watch. Mike Cammalleri is sticking it to fans in western Canada who thought the kid couldnt cut it when he played for Calgary. This P.K. Subban kid on defense is fun to watch…and he’s only 20!And Jaroslav Halak has been amazing ever since the Olympics.

That said…you think San Jose or Chicago gives a crap? They have 24 titles!

Yeah, Pittsburgh has just as much firepower as anyone else and Montreal beat them, but this Penguins squad was different from last year. They just looked disinterested. Sidney Crosby didnt show up and Marc-Andre Fleury played like me in goal.

We dont have a winner yet in the Philadelphia/Boston series as of this writing, but I can you neither of these teams can hang. Hell…im picking Montreal to beat whoever wins tomorrow night. The city of Boston has had enough sucess this decade to last until 2100. Plus, not being able to close out this Philly team shows me they have no killer instinct, something you need as a championship team.

And Philly…well…they let Boston get up 3-0 on them in the first place. It will be a nice story if the pull a 2004 Red Sox, but Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton don’t scare me if I’m the Sharks or Blackhawks.

Sure…I could be wrong. Watch: Montreal will sweep Chicago and win it all. Halak is playing well enough for that to happen, but at somepoint the clock has to strike midnight and instead of playing another round of hockey, just hand the cup over to the Bay or the Windy City and hand the Conn Smythe to Joe Pavelski or Jonathan Toews.

It read: “PHOENIX – TAKE CARE OF OUR BOYS.”

This Tuesday, the Glendale City Council may do just that.

Item #14 on the Consent Agenda for this coming Tuesday’s council meeting meeting reads:

This is a request for the City Council to grant the City Manager authority to sign the agreements and secure the financial mechanisms that are reasonably necessary to satisfy the NHL’s requirements in order for the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes to remain in Glendale during the NHL’s 2010-11 season.

It’s a pretty simple concept for one of the most muddled ownership situations in the history of the National Hockey League.

You all know the facts by now. Ice Edge Holdings is back at the table. The city and the potential ownership group have been working at a fever pitch to come to a memorandum of understanding – basically an exclusive right to negotiate a new lease at Jobing.com Arena – over the past three days.

Item #14 of Tuesday’s meeting, though, will most likely make or break the Coyotes’ future in Arizona.

What’s at stake here is the millions of dollars City Manager Ed Beasley would be permitted to commit to covering the losses the Coyotes are expected to sustain next season. This year, losses the NHL absorbed were tune of about $20 million despite the vast improvement in the team’s on-ice product.

However, Ice Edge and the city might have that new memorandum signed by Monday – and that’s something that would work to the benefit of everyone involved. Once that letter is signed, they can go forward to establish a new lease agreement and complete the sale of the team.

It’s a complicated situation to say the least. Because of last summer’s bankruptcy fiasco, the NHL holds the power to relocate the team if a new owner who will keep the team in Arizona is not found. The deadline to do that is June 30.

What the vote on Tuesday basically does is buy the franchise time and most likely another season at Jobing.com Arena. The league doesn’t want to cover the franchise’s losses anymore; in short, they want the team off the books. If the city council says yes, the league and the Ice Edge get more time to negotiate a lease and terms of a sale while Glendale picks up the tab for any losses.

However, it’s imperative to realize that a yes vote on Tuesday night doesn’t keep the team here for good. It’s a stop-gap measure to let the league, city and Ice Edge try to work out a new lease at Jobing.com Arena.

If the city votes no and the sale isn’t complete by June 30, the NHL, whose patience with the situation is clearly running thin, could turn and sell the team to Canadian billionaire David Thomson, who will move the team.

Glendale argues the money to cover the Coyotes’ losses wouldn’t come from the city’s general fund but rather a new “community-facilities district” which would tax landowners in the Arena/Westgate area to finance the losses.

Glendale says it’s legal. The Phoenix Development Planning and Financing Group thinks the opposite. I’m also pretty sure the Goldwater Institute will have something to say (AKA a lawsuit in its back pocket) if the new taxing district were to go forward.

A commenter here on NSF brings up the issue of credit and bond ratings – a concept I’m not fully familiar with, but I generally get the idea that if the Coyotes were to leave town, the city’s credit rating could be negatively impacted. What more, another good point which I neglected to bring up is that without the Coyotes, Jobing.com Arena loses dozens of guaranteed booked dates.

Without the ‘Yotes, we’re talking 41 regular season home games, at least three preseason games and up to 16 home playoff games all gone. If the team leaves, the city will have fronted $180 million for Glendale’s version of Kansas City’s Sprint Center – a professional sports venue without a professional sports team.

What more, civic pride would take a major hit, of course. Quebec City, Baltimore, Hartford, Charlotte all have lost teams in the past few decades. Just ask Winnipeg what it felt like.

Last night, during the 1st intermission of CBC’s coverage of Game 5 between Pittsburgh and Montreal, Pierre LeBrun and Glenn Healy weighed in on the entire situation. LeBrun was the well-sourced, clear-cut one of the two, outlining what we’ve said on this site. I didn’t know Glenn Healy was an expert on Arizona constitutional law, though:

I don’t think you can cover the National Hockey League’s losses. I don’t think they can cover Ice Edge’s losses. It’s not an eligible use of that money. I think it’s against the law. I think it’s against the constitution of Arizona.

Though I do believe Healy may be overstepping his boundaries (and knowledge base), it’s something to consider and something the Goldwater Institute is probably already investigating

We’re still, at its root, talking about the city of Glendale, the same city which earlier this year proposed laying off 218 employees to help close a $14.8 million budget gap, covering what could be more than $20 million in Coyotes losses next season.

No one here at NSF or, probably, anyone outside the city limits of Winnipeg is rooting for the city council to vote no on Tuesday night. The reality, though, is that the council will most likely be under extreme pressure to do just that.

If you haven’t taken a gander at Jack McCallum’s piece on Ben Roethlisberger from this past week’s Sports Illustrated, you need to.

Like, immediately.

“Store owners are experiencing a Roethlisberger market downturn, with the exception of the dumb and dumber shirts depicting Tiger Woods and Big Ben. At Yinzers in the Strip District, 50-year-old owner Jim Coen has moved his bin of Roethlisberger jerseys to a storeroom in the back….He points to the little girls’ pink number 7 shirts emblazoned with Roethlisberger’s name. Says Coen, “Would you buy your daughter this jersey?”

Ouch. Our guy Brett probably isn’t a big fan that I’ve posted this, but the fact of the matter is that, just as one of the fans quoted in McCallum’s article says, Ben has become an embarrassment.

Read the article. Form your own opinion. I just got back from a weekend trip to Pittsburgh and, as Brett can attest, the level of Steelers idolatry in that city is remarkable. I saw entire families emerging from church (yes, church) on a Sunday morning in Steelers jerseys.

The fact that the team cut Santonio Holmes loose and seem to be apt to sit back and let the NFL handle Roethlisberger seems counterintuitive.

Either way, take the time and absorb the material McCallum presents.

Mere minutes after the Detroit Red Wings, the team that knocked Phoenix out in the Western Conference Quarterfinals, got done whipping San Jose in Game 4 of that series, Scott Burnside reported that Jerry Reinsdorf’s deal to buy the franchise was dead on arrival.

All sides denied that report, but it seems obvious that since the city of Glendale and Ice Edge Holdings began feverishly negotiating yet again through Friday, the Chicago sports mogul will not be taking control of the team.

The sticking point now becomes operating losses. The Coyotes, as expected, lost money this season yet again. Increased attendance and four home playoff dates will pad that number a little bit, but the team is still hemorrhaging money.

The Arizona Republic says the NHL, who owns the franchise in this transitional state, covered about $20 million worth of red ink during the 2009-10 season.

By all accounts, all sides, from the city to all potential ownership groups, expect the Coyotes to do it again next year.

Ice Edge and Glendale are supposedly going to soon come to a “memorandum of understanding” soon in which they will exclusively negotiate terms of a new lease at Jobing.com Arena.

And, on Tuesday, the city council will vote on whether or not they will agree to a guaranteed amount of money to cover the team’s losses for next season.

Mind you, this is the very same group of politicians who foolishly and unanimously voted to endorse Reinsdorf’s “no money down”  bid and 5-1 against Ice Edge, who promised to keep the team in Glendale through the remaining 24  years on the team’s horrible lease at The Job.

Think about that for a moment – the city of Glendale, who is still digging out from the subsidies and tax breaks they provided to build the arena and Westgate City Center, is voting on whether or not they’ll be on the hook to absorb millions more to subsidize the hockey team.

If that doesn’t make any common sense to you, you’re not alone, because it doesn’t.

That’s a hard thing to admit for us here at No Sir Fans, who have been ardent supporters (not quite fans, considering each of our allegiances to the Sharks, Stars and Penguins) of the franchise.

Residents of Glendale should be incensed. They should be marching on Jobing.com Arena furious that their city council is even considering putting the city in even more of a financial hole by taking on upwards of $20 million to subsidize a hockey team.

Even if they do, as the Arizona Republic points out, the city’s idea to set up a special taxing district around Westgate and funnel the extra tax dollars directly into funding franchise losses might not even be legal.

This is, once again, a royal mess. Last summer, though, the league was able to dig itself out and keep the team here for the time being.

But that time is running out – and each passing day in this drama is one fewer day this team could be in Arizona.

Late Thursday night, both Scott Burnside of ESPN and Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the potential sale of the team from the NHL to Jerry Reinsdorf is “dead” and that the organization is desperately trying to get Ice Edge Holdings, the only other potential group that would keep the team in Phoenix, back to the table.

Less than a month ago, the City of Glendale decided to endorse Reinsdorf’s bid for the franchise despite the Chicago sports mogul insisting on a clause that would let him sell or move the team after five seasons. It came after Ice Edge pledged to not try to move the Coyotes during the remaining 24 years on the team’s lease with Jobing.com Arena.

Ice Edge, though, has been criticized for not being able to prove that they have the nearly $150 million in assets to actually purchase the team.

Their bid for the franchise was deemed to be dead when the city endorsed Reinsdorf, but Burnside says Glendale is now scrambling to get Ice Edge back to the table now that the franchise is hanging in the balance and no other local buyers at the table.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, who has been engaging in what can really be classified as “shuttle diplomacy” throughout this entire process since last June, denies that the league has told the city and franchise that they want a plan nailed down by the end of this week.

But with the June 30 deadline on to make a sale  rapidly approaching, the situation is now desperate. That deadline date is when the team’s transitional lease with the city runs out and the team could be sold and moved.

Meanwhile, sources say the NHL is in a position to quickly sell the team to David Thomson, a Canadian billionaire, who would move the team to Winnipeg should Glendale and the league not secure an ownership group committed to keeping the team in Arizona.

The timing obviously couldn’t be worse. The team and their fans are basking in the glow of spending the 2009-10 season as the NHL’s darlings – making a run to the playoffs and pushing the defending Western Conference champions to 7 games after being widely picked to finish dead last in the conference in the preseason.

But now the franchise might be facing an even bigger loss than that 6-1 defeat last week.

I’m guessing this is not from spring drills at Rutgers. For one, most colleges dont have spring practice at their home field. And there’s the whole kid not knowing there’s a net on the ground. That has high school kid written all over it. Not sure how this young man got up from this. He contorted in a way that the human body isn’t supposed to contort. That and the whole face plant into the bottom rung of that railing. Regarless of why these kids are running so hard for a school they probably wont get into (we know face plant guy wont), this moment always reminds me of my favorite Adam Sandler quote

“There’s a fence there…someone should move it.”

I look at old fights of Ali, Foreman, Tyson, and Lewis and I see matches that were entertaining, and fueled with subtle mind games.  All I saw from boxing last night was a sport that so desperately wants to be entertaining but is failing madly.  During the entire under card the crowd was unenthused and was fill with mainly with friends and family of the competitors.  There was a time when boxing matches would be packed from the start of the under card to the completion of the main event.  This is opposed to what is boxing’s main competition of MMA where every Pay Per View I have seen have had a full crowd the entire match.

But this is not about the competition between Boxing and MMA that topic has been beaten to death by several other people and will undoubtedly be done in the coming weeks comparing this PPV to the UFC’s upcoming UFC113.

Instead this is to ask when the hell are we going to see the only boxing match left in the world that people want to see: The Undefeated Floyd Mayweather vs the Great Manny Pacquiao.  These are the two best known and most skilled boxers in the world.  They also hold the distinction of being the only boxers that most people know/care about.  Earlier this year it looked like the fight was going to happen, but negotiations broke down over drug testing because Pacquiao didn’t want to have his blood drawn so close to a match (but said that it could be drawn immediately following the match).

The millions of dollars that would fly around this match are off the charts.  When it was first announced earlier this year millions were bet in the first few weeks.  Millions more would follow if the match were to actually happen.  Both of these fighters are either in or just after their prime and now would be the perfect time to stage the fight.

Once Mayweather/Pacquiao happens boxing can finally step aside as the predominant fighting sport.  It will still be there of course but only as a niche sport that doesn’t get as much press as it’s successor MMA.

Cooke knocked Markov out of the game. (AP)

8:20 into last night’s Pittsburgh/Montreal Eastern Conference semifinal, the spotlight was once again on Penguins agitator Matt Cooke.

Unfairly.

Certainly Cooke has a history. Lest we forget this little dance he performed all over Marc Savard’s temple earlier this season.

But when Andrei Markov was cleanly sent into the corner boards by Cooke minutes into a 1-1 tie in Game 1 Friday night, it set a tone.

Sure, the Penguins power play success (4 of their 6 goals came on the man advantage) quadrupled what the Washington Capitals were able to do in seven entire games. They chased Jaroslav Halak. They imposed their physical will.

It was Cooke, though, who sent a message – in the form of a clean, good hockey hit – that this series was going to be different.

(Quick side note: Props to the guy in the 2nd row at Mellon Arena rocking the old alternate Flying Penguin jersey customized with Jiri Slegr’s name – solely because I would probably be to embarrassed to admit I owned a Jiri Slegr jersey.)

Of course it’s unfortunate that Andrei Markov, clearly the Habs best defenseman in this playoffs so far, had his knee buckle under him because Cooke caught him while turning.

He’ll be vilified in the Montreal press simply because of who he is and because of his past. But, as has become the sad norm in the National Hockey League, this followed the hit:

Probably not the time or place to be harping on players feeling the need to fight after a clean hit, but it reeks of Montreal trying desperately to match the Penguins physically. The Capitals, in stark contrast, don’t bang bodies. This series is a different animal for the 8th-seeded Canadiens.

And it wasn’t the right way to start it.