Sports Update for June 1

NHL

Okay, this just might be my last sports update before leaving for vacation, where I will not have the chance to really keep up with the blog page.

That said, I should say, straight away, that I was wrong in predicting the Detroit Red Wings over the Blackhawks. Chicago showed more resilience than I expected, admittedly, as well as depth of character. Backed against a wall, they came out swinging, and eventually knocked out the Red Wings, who had held a 3-1 series lead, and had three straight opportunities to eliminate Chicago.

Instead, the Blackhawks will now face the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference, to see who will reach the Stanley Cup Finals. Both teams won the Cup recently, with Chicago hoisting it in 2010, and the Kings having won it all last year.

In the meantime, out in the East, two other recent Stanley Cup winners will square off. The Boston Bruins, 2011 champions, will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins, champions in 2009. Each of the most recent four Stanley Cup champions will be on the ice for the Eastern and Western Finals, so everyone has solid playoff experience, obviously. Has this ever happened before in hockey history? It should make things very interesting to watch!

I will make predictions now: I learned my lesson with underestimating the Blackhawks, so I like Chicago in a tough series that goes all the way to seven. As for who will come out in the East, I like Pittsburgh to take an early edge, and ride that to the end, beating Boston in five, maybe six. The Bruins are tough, but it looks like Pittsburgh's year in the East.

NBA

The Spurs already are in already in the West. It is their fifth time in the Tim Duncan era, and they have never lost an NBA Finals series during that time.

That said, the East is going to be very tough. It will either be the high-powered Miami Heat, who are, of course, the reigning NBA champs. Or, it will be Indiana, who will have proven their stuff if they manage to get past Miami.

The Heat have the Pacers against the ropes, with a 3-2 series lead. Game 6 is tonight, and it should be interesting to see whether Miami can close it out right then and there, or if Indiana will hang on and force a decisive Game 7.

I will go ahead and predict that Miami will emerge in the East, and I would expect them to go ahead and win the whole thing, for that matter. The Spurs always had home court advantage in their prior NBA Finals series before this season, but if they go against Miami, that will change. Miami has also been virtually unstoppable on the road when they absolutely need to win in these playoffs, winning when they absolutely need to. I see Miami winning in six, maybe seven, and successfully defending their title.

French Open

I watched Samantha Stosur take care of the beautiful Kristina Mladenovic, with her wonderful, long blonde hair. Mladenovic was taller, and jumped ahead early. But Stosur started to straighten things out, and eventually wore down a rather overwhelmed Mladenovic, who started making mistakes and showing her frustration a bit.

No major upsets to report on since Venus got eliminated in the first. Nadal and Federer are still rolling. It's hard to believe that we're only at the third round, but the weather has been horrible there, evidently.

Richard Gasquet did win earlier, and moves now to the fourth round.  Last I heard, Nadal was up two sets to none over Fognini.

I expect another Nadal title here, although it would be interesting to see if it's Djokovic if he doesn't. If that proves to be the case, then we would have three all-time greats who managed to win all four Grand Slams all playing at the same time, and all competing at a very high level.

We'll see!