Pekke Rinne loses puck in gear, causing hilarious delay in OT (Video)

 

In overtime of Game 4 between the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, Hawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson shot the puck around the boards and goalie Pekka Rinne cut it off behind his goal cage.

Innocent enough, right? Well, the next moment was one of sheer panic for all the players on the ice: The puck disappeared. Rinne dramatically dropped to his knees trying to save an invisible puck.

The referee blew his whistle to stop play, and the comedy began – for the next three minutes, Rinne removed gear, shimmied around, put his hands in his pants and searched for the disc.

He then finally dug the puck out from inside his right leg pad, where it hopped into as it went around the boards, tossing it out to center ice.

Hey, if nothing else, this unanticipated delay gave all the dead-tired players a breather with 5:34 left in overtime.

This is actually the second time this has happened to a goalie this season, as Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby “hatched” the puck in a game back in January.

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Rockets dunk Mavericks into submission, grab 2-0 lead

At first glance, a 12-point road loss to the Western Conference's No. 2 seed should not suggest that a team is in crisis. But the Dallas Mavericks' 111-99 loss to the Houston Rockets in Game 2 of their first-round series was no ordinary game.

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To be more specific, the fourth quarter saw the Rockets pummel the Mavericks into submission with a barrage of alley-oops and dunks keyed by an unlikely player — veteran forward Josh Smith. With MVP candidate James Harden struggling to shoot with consistency, Smith found Dwight Howard for several alley-oops and looked like his old dynamic self from his Atlanta Hawks heyday. Up just one point entering the period, Houston ended up with a 30-19 final-quarter advantage that looked far more dominant than the margin suggests. The Mavericks are now in a 2-0 hole and face many questions about their interior defense, a terrible performance from Dirk Nowitzki, and an apparent benching of Rajon Rondo.

Let's start with the Rockets' dunk party, because it jumped out for the sheer ease with which they seemed to finish at the rim. Smith served as the team's primary facilitator at the beginning of the fourth quarter and found his onetime AAU teammate Howard for several finishes at the rim. Dallas had no defensive answer — Nowitzki could not check Smith, and Amar'e Stoudemire and others could not impede Howard and others around the basket. The result was 14 dunks over the course of the game, as many as any team has had in a postseason game since the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001, when they had Shaquille O'Neal at his most dominant and Kobe Bryant at his athletic peak. Take a look at just one of the alley-opps here:

Or enjoy this emphatic slam from Smith:

It was a positive period of play for the Rockets for several reasons. Howard finished with a team-high 28 points (10-of-15 FG, 8-of-11 FT) and 12 rebounds in a performance that suggested he is nearly fully recovered from the right knee soreness injury that sidelined him for two months. It was also nice to see the Rockets play especially well without Harden on the floor. MVP arguments in Harden's favor have stated that the team's offense would be lost without him, and that's appeared to be the case for much of this season. But Smith was tremendous on a night where Harden went just 5-of-17 from the field (plus 13-of-13 from the line) and starting forwards Terrence Jones and Trevor Ariza combined to shoot 2-of-15 for nine points. Smith's 15 points, nine assists (seven in the fourth quarter!), and eight rebounds changed the game.

It's hard to know if he can reproduce this performance, because there have been few precedents for it in the last few seasons. While Smith nearly notched a triple-double in a late March game against the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves, he is mostly known these days for his poor shot selection. The furiously active monster who affected games in numerous ways with the Hawks is essentially no more, which is what made his excellent Game 2 so fascinating. If it doesn't happen again, then at least we got to experience this version of Smith in such an important situation.

The good news for the Rockets is that they don't depend on Smith playing in this way. On the other side, the Mavericks have to wonder if they can bounce back from such an overwhelming failure late. It was not a pretty sight for most of the night, but their interior defense was so lackluster as to suggest that Rick Carlisle might need to reform his big-man rotation for Game 3 to give Bernard James more minutes and perhaps add superior defenders to other spots in the lineup. No team can expect stellar defense from Stoudemire and Nowitzki at this point in their careers, but they were so bad Tuesday that it's worth wondering how their offense could possibly make up for it. That certainly wasn't the case in this game — Amar'e took only three shots (though he made them all) while Dirk went 3-of-14 for 10 points.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the team's regular point guard offered no positive impact. Rajon Rondo suffered through a horrible first half that included an unforced eight-second violation and was subbed out for good after a technical foul and personal foul in the first 34 seconds of the third quarter. Here's what he looked like as the Mavericks floundered to the loss:

🎶 Hello darkness my old friend... 🎶 http://ift.tt/1Fd5HAD

— Greg Wissinger (@gwiss) April 22, 2015

Rondo finished with four points and one assist in 10 minutes, enough to compel questions about his role for the rest of the series. Not surprisingly, he didn't talk to media after the game. Rondo and Rick Carlisle have had issues with each other throughout this season, but it was supposed to get better in the playoffs, where the enigmatic point guard typically shines. If anything, though, Rondo has been at his worst in these first two games. Regardless of how the rest of the series goes, it is very hard to imagine him coming back to Dallas as a free agent this summer.

The best news for the Mavericks right now is that they play at home on Friday. A change of scenery and two days off could allow them to collect themselves and find something that works. Whether it involves Rondo or some other combination of players remains to be seen — all Carlisle and his staff know is that Game 3 can't possibly involve quite so many dunks.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Nicklas Backstrom's OT goal for Capitals evens series with Islanders

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Facing a 3-1 series deficit, the Capitals received contributions from their two biggest stars and beat the New York Islanders 2-1 in overtime. Nicklas Backstrom scored for the third straight game as Washington evened the series 2-2 with Game 5 Thursday night in D.C.

Star number one was captain Alex Ovechkin, who deflected a John Carlson shot for a 1-0 lead 13:06 into the game. The early lead was big for the Capitals, as they had failed to score first in each of the first three games of the series after posting a 37-2-2 record, tops in the NHL, during the regular season when doing so.

In the second period, the Capitals opened the door time and time again, giving the Islanders every opportunity to take the lead. That door was the penalty box, and with the game tied at one after Casey Cizikas’ late first period goal, New York tried to get its struggling power play going.

The game, according to Backstrom, was won in that second frame when the Capitals took three penalties in a 5:12 span. Washington killed each of them off, keeping the Islanders without a power play goal in 10 opportunities through four games.

“One mistake, one shot can cost you a game,” said Ovechkin. “We did a great job to handle the pressure.” 

The atmosphere inside Nassau Coliseum was again loud and boisterous, and with an overtime chance for the Islanders to go up 3-1 in the series, they had their shot, but Backstrom silenced everyone 11:09 into the extra frame:

The goal was a perfect example of what Washington didn’t do enough of in Game 3: create havoc in front of Jaroslav Halak. The Islanders netminder saw just about everything on Sunday afternoon and many of the Capitals’ shots were fired directly into his chest.

“It’s a good job by [Joel] Ward in front of the net there,” said Backstrom, whose performance in Game 4 was described as “all-world” by Capitals head coach Barry Trotz. “Without him there, it wouldn’t be a goal.”

“It’s standard in this league. In order to score you’ve got to get traffic,” said Ward. 

Now the Capitals can breathe a bit as they head back to Verizon Center for Game 4. It’s a best-of-three series now with both teams on even ground.

“This game could have gone either way,” said Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik. “Obviously 3-1 or 2-2, that’s a big difference. You always look at this game as a big swing game.

“Nothing’s going to be easy the rest of the series. It will all be like it was tonight.”

Backstrom’s two-point night gives him six overall and puts him atop the NHL’s scoring list through a week of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He finished sixth in scoring during the regular season, yet seems to fly under the radar in conversations about the league's elite players.

On the ice, Backstrom is a picture of calm while carrying the puck and his vision as a playmaking center ranks among the best in the league. While Ovechkin may have the big personality, score 50-plus goals annually and wear the captain’s ‘C’ for Washington, there’s no doubt that the Capitals follow the Swedish pivot’s lead.

“He’s been on for a long time, not just tonight,” said Orpik. “He just quietly leads by example every day. I think he kind of sets the tone for this team, practice, games. 

“I don’t think anyone is surprised that he was the one who came up with that shot.”

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

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Jose Bautista and Adam Jones exchange words after pimped home run

The Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics may have been the early leaders in baseball feuds this season, but the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles could steal that title soon.

Tempers flared during Tuesday's game following Jose Bautista's seventh inning home run. Early in the at-bat Orioles pitcher Jason Garcia threw a pitch that went behind Bautista. Both benches were warned following the event.

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On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Bautista launched a 95 mph fastball out to left for a two-run shot. Bautista took his sweet time admiring his shot before flipping his bat and rounding the bases. While he was running the bases, both Steve Pearce and Ryan Flaherty had things to say to Bautista.

Jose Bautista smacks a two-run HR, stands and watches it leave, flips bat and circles bases. Pearce at 1B, Flaherty at 2B both chirp him...

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) April 22, 2015

Bautista stared at the Orioles dugout once he crossed home plate.

That was hardly the end of this spat. As Bautista was heading out to right field the next inning, he and Adam Jones exchanged words.

Bautista says Jones called his HR trot “bush-league” – “or another word that sounds like bush-league.” Says pitch behind him was bush-league

— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) April 22, 2015

Following the game, it doesn't appear either side is backing down.

Adam Jones said Garcia wasn't trying to hit Bautista. Jones said HR trot was "uncalled for." "You pimp the pitcher, you're pimping me too"

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) April 22, 2015

In response, Bautista told Sportsnet's Shi Davidi, "I could care less what Adam Jones is saying." He continued to stoke the fires, admitting he admired his home run during the contest.

Jose Bautista: "You throw at me, I’m not going to forget. And if I get you right after, then I’m going to enjoy it and I did.”

— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) April 22, 2015

Bautista went on to say that he believes the Orioles throwing at him was "premeditated." He also took a shot at Orioles manager Buck Showalter.

Bautista: I think it’s all pretty well planned out & premeditated & I think they hide behind the way their manager acts and conducts himself

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) April 22, 2015

Showalter indicated that the issue was "closed" following the game, but also noted his displeasure with Bautista pimping the home run. Both Showalter and Jones mentioned a game last season in which Aaron Sanchez came close to hitting a number of Orioles.

Coincidentally, Sanchez is slated to start Wednesday.

Jones & Showalter both mentioned that Aaron Sanchez hit & came close to hitting some #Orioles in 2014. Guess who starts for #Jays tomorrow?

— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) April 22, 2015

Based on the comments from everyone involved after the game, it appears this situation is far from over. The two sides are set to face off against each other the next two days, and it certainly sounds like things will be tense.

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This is just the fourth time the two teams have met this season. It seems certain the situation will escalate over the next two days, but the two clubs will still play 13 times following this current series. Unless cooler heads prevail, there's going to be plenty of opportunities for this wound to be re-opened. 

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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Wall and Beal star as Wizards handle Raptors, head to DC with 2-0 lead

Paul Pierce announced himself as a major factor in the Washington Wizards' first-round playoff series by antagonizing the Toronto Raptors before and during an overtime Game 1 win at the Air Canada Centre. Pierce is still an unpopular figure, but Torontonians will find no shortage of targets for their ire after a rough Game 2 on Tuesday night.

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Young backcourt stars John Wall and Bradley Beal excelled as the Wizards cruised to a 117-106 win behind several big runs and a relatively weak effort from the host Raptors. Washington now heads back to the Verizon Center for Friday's Game 3 with a 2-0 lead and as many as three home games (plus two more visits back to Toronto) in which to grab two more wins and close out the series. The Raptors are in very big trouble and may now have played their last game at home this season.

The night started well enough for the Raptors, who reversed their poor scoring in Game 1 with 31 first-quarter points and a five-point lead after 12 minutes. Unfortunately for Toronto, their troubles in Game 2 came primarily on the opposite side of the ball, where they especially struggled to contain Wall and Beal, who combined to play 82 minutes. Things got especially bad for the hosts in a 17-4 Wizards run over the final 4:30 of the second quarter that staked them a 60-49 halftime lead. Wall and Beal found success by attacking the rim with extreme prejudice and finding little resistance.

Toronto got to within just two points after a few minutes of the third, but Washington responded with an even more explosive offensive performance and put up 34 points in the final 8:30 to head into the fourth with a 97-75 advantage. Wall continued to dominate the game on his way to finishing with 26 points (8-of-16 FG, 8-of-11 FT) and 17 assists while Beal found plenty of pockets of space for a team-high 28 points (11-of-21 shooting). The story of the game was their ability to attack — the Raptors had no answer and the Wizards not surprisingly shot 53.2 percent from the field (including 10-of-21 on threes) with 34 free-throw attempts.

This combined shot chart for Wall and Beal tells a similar story:

Good attack from Wall (11 FTA) & Beal. Combined shot chart: http://ift.tt/1FcQNdF

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) April 22, 2015

The Raptors cut the deficit to as few as 10 thanks to some nice play from newly crowned Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams, but the threat did not feel especially credible. The minor comeback also came at a cost when starting point guard Kyle Lowry left the game around the 6:00 mark after suffering an injury to his left leg. Take a look at the play here:

Already nursing a bad back, Lowry returned to the bench did not re-enter the game. The All-Star point guard has had little success at the offensive end of late and put up just six points (3-of-10 FG) and four assists in 27 minutes, but it's hard to imagine the Raptors getting back in this series with Lowry unable to play major minutes. Although his plus-9 in Game 2 does not entirely line up with his contributions, the stat does indicate that he defended Wall better than any other Raptor.

No matter Lowry's status, it's tough to see the Raptors taking this series after losing two games at home. They have played few, if any, stretches with simultaneously competent defense and offense and there do not appear to be easy answers. Game 3 suddenly feels like a must-win.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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Brooks Orpik takes skate, cup of beer to face as Capitals beat Isles in OT (Video)

Nicklas Backstrom scored 11:09 into overtime on Tuesday night to send the Washington Capitals out of Nassau Coliseum with a 2-2 series tie with the New York Islanders.

As the Caps celebrated, one fan in the stands decided to give Washington defenseman Brooks Orpik a parting gift – a cup of beer to the face.

Now, this is over 10 minutes into overtime – who’s still nursing that much beer at that point in the game, after what we can only assume was a third period beer cutoff?

In fainess to the Islanders fan we assume threw the cup, he or she might have been trying to give Orpik something to wipe the asbestos off his face. 

Alas, the Vine ends before we can see if Orpik delivers a head shot to the empty cup. As far as things hitting Orpik in the face this game, he's seen worse.

Orpik took teammate John Carlson's skate to his face but returned to the game in the second period. Because that's what Brooks Orpik does. (Via RMNB)

 

 

 

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Despite request, NFL gives Jets a home game on Rosh Hashanah

It will not be a very happy start to the NFL season for some New York Jets fans, who may end up choosing to celebrate a religious holiday over celebrating touchdowns.

The NFL decided that the Jets will play a home game against the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 13 to start the season. This game coincides with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which starts that night and runs until Tuesday. That the NFL would decide to start the Jets season at home on this date is beyond a head scratcher, especially considering they had eight road games they could have chosen for the Jets for that week.

It is, simply put, a shmo decision.

New York City is home to an estimated 1.9 million Jewish people, making it the second largest Jewish metropolitan area in the world after Tel Aviv. There are also an estimated 516,450 New Jersey residents with a Jewish background, further impacting potential fans for the game. With this in mind, the team requested a road game to start the season due to the sensitivity of this issue with a large segment of their fanbase. But the NFL, which determines the schedule, did not comply.

However, the team did win over the league when it asked for a 1 p.m. start to the game if it had to start the season at home. Since the holiday officially begins at sundown on that Sunday evening, the team hopes any Jewish fans wishing to ring in the New Year will still be able to watch the Jets game before observing the day. The game will begin at 1 p.m.

Sunset is expected to be 7:09 p.m., hopefully giving fans enough time to leave MetLife Stadium and head to their homes for the start of the holiday.

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Kristian R. Dyer writes for Metro New York and is a contributor to Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KristianRDyer

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