Lucas Punkari - A View from the Nose Bleeds

Screw the Super Bowl, and never mind the playoffs currently in progress in both the NHL and NBA.
The most dramatic finish you’ll see in sports this year happened Sunday in England as the 2011/12 English Premier League soccer season came to an incredible conclusion that would be rejected by every Hollywood studio if you wrote a script for it.

It’s been interesting to watch the discussion that’s been generated this past week over what colour the uniforms should be for the local ‘AA’ hockey teams.
Should it be the black and yellow that’s associated with the Muskies? Or should it be the blue and white that is the traditional colours of the Canadians?

It’s not very often you get the chance to talk with someone who was a member of a championship squad from 60 years ago, let alone from the most celebrated team in Fort Frances hockey history.

You may have thought that with the Pittsburgh Penguins being knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, you would have gotten a bit of a break from the Sidney Crosby media circus for a few months.
But as it turns out, you only had a reprieve for a couple of days.

Over the past week, I had an epiphany of sorts, where I’m trying to avoid things that will bring me down or tick me off in life.
In the world of sports, that seems to happen more often than not, with complaining about different things being part of seemingly every sports reporter’s mantra.

The way that the SIJHL final, not to mention the regular season and “showdown” series, has gone between the Fort Frances Lakers and Wisconsin Wilderness, it sort of seemed destined the title was going to come down to a seventh game.

Has it really only been five months since that insane World Series which the St. Louis Cardinals won over the Texas Rangers in seven games?
Other than a two-game sojourn in Tokyo last week between the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners that marked the official start of the season, the 2012 campaign really kicks into high gear this week for the 28 other teams.

After the summer workouts, the training camps, the exhibition contests, the regular-season affairs, and the playoff rounds, here we are.
This Sunday night in Spooner, the SIJHL season will begin its final chapter as the best-of-seven series to determine this year’s Bill Salonen Cup champ gets underway between the Wisconsin Wilderness and Fort Frances Lakers.

Let’s be honest. As fans, we turn to sports for an escape from reality.
No matter how bad your day has gone, or whatever issues are going on in your life, if your favourite athletic endeavour or your favourite team is in action, you’re able to get your mind off whatever’s bothering you for a few hours.

Often in the world of hockey, the best teams in the regular season fail to win out in the playoffs.
Just ask the Ferris State Bulldogs, who were one of the top teams in the NCAA all season but fell in their conference quarter-finals Sunday to the Bowling Green Falcons—a team that won just won five games in conference play.