Sonics Resurgence Still up in the Air; NBA All-Star Weekend

The Seattle SuperSonics were supposedly going to be reestablished when Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer settled with the Maloof family, owner of the Kings, on a deal that would give Hansen and Ballmer 65% of the franchise. Once they were the majority owners Hansen and Ballmer planned to move the team to Seattle. Sacramento's mayor, Kevin Johnson, is trying desperately to keep the team in Sacramento. Johnson himself is a former NBA player who played for the Cavaliers and the Suns while getting his education at Cal-Berkeley. The NBA has already approved a plan for the Kings to finance an arena in Sacramento while they have not approved the sale of the team yet. According to Stern, it is impossible for both Sacramento and Seattle to be happy after this situation settles itself.

NBA Recap

Terrence Ross

No games in the NBA last night but there were the skill contests. The dunk contest had six contestants.
1. Terrence Ross
2. Jeremy Evans
3. Kenneth Faried
4. James White
5. Gerald Green
6. Eric Bledsoe
I'd post videos but I'm pretty sure that would breach all copyright infringements and I'm pretty sure the pictures I use are close to the line but let's play it safe okay.
I'll post links though and you can watch the entire contest here.
These are the highlights

Luckily the NBA got rid of the horrid fan voting last year so we got to see some judges putup some numbers.
In the opening  Round Terrence Ross and Gerald Green both scored 50s on their first dunks. Gerald Green struggled on his second attempt only getting a 32 and failing to advance to the next round. Kenneth Faried scored the only 50 of the second half of the first round with an ally oop of the glass then a windmill through the legs.
Faried's efforts were not enough to advance to the next round as the finals were between Terrence Ross and Jeremy Evans. Evans got to the finals with a dunk of 47 and 43.
Sadly the Final round came down to fan vote so there were no definite scores to be given. Here is the complete final round.
Ross came away victorious due to fan voting.

Three Point Contest

Kyrie Irving

In the three point contest Paul George, Kyrie Irving, and Steve Novak represented the East while Ryan Anderson, Matt Bonner, and Stephen Curry were out there for the West. Stephen Curry was my favorite going into the contest but his 17 makes in the first round were not good enough to advance to the finals. Paul George flubbed on the big stage only making 10. Kyrie Irving advanced to the Finals from the East with 18 makes and Matt Bonner, who is 6' 10" made it from the West with 19. In the end, Kyrie Irving won the contest with 23 makes while Bonner only made 20. Highlights can be viewed here.

Taco Bell Skill Challenge
So this is pretty much an even where guards run around a court as fast as they can doing things such as passing, dribbling, and making layups.
East
1. Jrue Holiday
2. Brandon Knight
3. Jeff Teague
West
1. Damian Lillard
2. Jeremy Lin
3. Tony Paker

Damian Lillard

Tony Parker and Jeff Teague pretty much refused to show up (not suprising for Parker as the Spurs have a history of not showing up) both completing the course in 45 seconds plus. Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard both advanced from their conferences with times of 29.3 and 28,8 seconds respectively. Brandon Knight of the Pistons and Jeremy Lin both took second place in their respective conferences.
In the final round, Damian Lillard's time of 29.8 beat Jrue Holiday's 35.6. Here are the highlights.
P.S. Isn't it weird that the NBA has had their All Star Weekend in Houston twice in the past 10 years?

NHL Recap

Pouliot

Lightning 6- Panthers 5 OT In a high scoring affair between two inter-state rivals the Lightning picked up their fist win in what seemed like awhile. Steven Stamkos scored 2 goals to increase his season total to 9. Benoit Pouliot also had two goals including the game-winner in overtime for Tampa Bay.
Maple Leafs 3- Senators 0 It was a matchup between the capital of Ontario and the capital of Canada so their was some pride at stake. Ben Scrivens saved 34 shots in the shutout in a great performance. Tyler Bozak scored his 5th goal of the year for Toronto.
Canadians 4- Flyers 1 Again the Flyers lose falling to 6-9-1 and tied for last in the Atlantic with the Islanders at 13 points. Backup Brian Boucher was in net for the Flyers saving 25 of 28 shots with one goal being an extra netter. Brendan Gallagher picked up a goal and an assist for the Canadiens. Luke Schenn only had one turnover last night and now has a grand total of 14 tied for 10th in the league. What makes that really sad is that teammate Braydon Coburn is #1 in the NHL with 21 in 16 games.
Islanders 5- Devils 1 Johan Hedberg was in net for the Devils instead of Martin Brodeur and it was not his night. Hedberg was 2-0 in his first two starts of the season including a shutout of the Islanders but they got to him this time conceding 5 goals on 33 shots and also had a turnover. John Tavares scored three of those goals for the hat-trick.
Ducks 3- Predators 2 SO THis game went to shootout and Corey Perry and Nick Bonino both scored during the shootout for the Ducks. Craig Smith was the only Predator to score during said shootout. Patrick Maroon of the Ducks scored his first career NHL goal in the game.
Coyotes 5- Blue Jackets 3 Sadly no highlights for this one except for this fight. Martin Hanzal scored two goals for the Coyotes to improve his year total to 7. Both of Hanzal's goals were scored in the third period which were key as the game was tied 3-3 going into the last period. Steve Mason made 30 saves in the loss.

Varlamov

Oilers 6- Avalanche 4 Couldn't tell if it was a bad or good game for Semyon Varlamov as he did let up 6 goals but he also make 50 saves. That is right the Oilers were able to get 56 shots off. Nikolai Khabibulin saving 16 shots coming into relief for Devan Dubnyk who let in 3 goals on 12 shots in the first period. The Avalanche had a 3-1 lead entering the second period but their lead fell to 4-3 entering the third thanks to Nugent-Hopkins first goal of the year and this goal by Ales Hemsky. Jordan Eberle then scored to tie the game up and Magnus Paajarvi scored the game winning goal.

All NHL

Casey Cizikas

Forward- Casey Cizikas- New York Islanders In only 15 minutes of playing time last night Cizkas was able to put his mark on the game. Even though he did not score a point or even finish with a +/- he made his mark by winning 15 of 19 faceoffs and also playing good defense. He had 3 hits and 3 takeaways in addition to 1 blocked shot.

Tavares

Forward- John Tavares- New York Islanders Unlike his teammate Cizikas Tavares definitely was an offensive powerhouse scoring three goals and also chipping in an assist. He was his best on the powerplay scoring two of his goals and getting his assist on the man advantage.
Forward- Martin Hanzal- Phoenix The most important part of the Coyotes win Handal scored two goals and also chipped in an assist. Also wasn't afraid to use his body hitting 7 Blue Jackets and also blocked a shot.
Forward- Benoit Pouliot- Tampa Bay In the high scoring game Pouliot scored two goals on three shots. Finished the game with a +1 rating in only 17 minutes. Also had 6 hits and one takeaway.
Defense- Keith Yandle- Phoenix Finished the game with a +2 rating. Played a very offensive game in his impressive 28 minutes with 3 assists and 9 shots on net. On Defense he had 2 takeaways and one blocked shot.
Defense- Dmitry Kulikov- Florida In 22 minutes he did not provide much offense only getting one shot on defense but he did play good defense. He finished the game with a +2 rating, 6 hits, 2 blocks, and two takeaways.
Defense- Matt Hunwick- Colorado Similar to Kulikov he did not have have much an effect on the offensive side of things but he did play a solid defensive game. While he was on the ice the Avalanche were +3 and he had 4 hits.
Goalie- Evgeni Nabokov- NY Islanders Unfortunately for my fantasy team I started Anderson and Price over him. Nabokov had 30 saves on 31 shots to finish with a .968 SV%.
Goalie- Ben Scrivens- Toronto Should have been the #1 goalie considering he had a shutout on 34 saves. But just because you are number #1 puck stopper doesn't mean you are the best goaltender as he lost the top spot due to two turnvovers (tisk tisk).