Bryce Harper is a monster.

Shot taken after the blowout of the Mets today where Harper hit a foul ball about a million feet, then hit a rocket single to left center and also ate an entire horse... Somebody get this guy a slab of raw meat before he kills someone!

Via Puck Daddy, Traded on national pancake day, Dustin Penner has a weird past with 'cakes and Caps.

""""Kings’ Dustin Penner injures himself while eating a stack of delicious pancakes

Puck Daddy By Greg WyshynskiJan 9, 2012 10:55 AM

.

Things an NHL player should do when his weight and conditioning are constant points of contention and ridicule: Hit the exercise bike, hire a personal trainer, impose some dietary restrictions.

Things an NHL player shouldn't do when his weight and conditioning are constant points of contention and ridicule: Suffer an injury while eating a stack of "delicious pancakes."

Oh, Dustin Penner. From Rich Hammond of LA Kings Insider comes the story of the Los Angeles Kings forward who missed a game and is questionable for Monday night's tilt with the Washington Capitals because of Aunt Jemima's Revenge:

"I woke up fine, sat down to eat and it locked right up. It never happened to me before. I couldn't stand up. I was probably at the third stage of evolution. So my wife helped me get dressed, and then I drove to the rink here, to hope they could do some magic and get it opened up. Kinger [trainer Chris Kingsley] just looked at me and said, 'Go home.' So I got some treatment and went home.

"Apparently it's one of those mysterious things, where you can throw it out (from) sneezing. I just leaned over to dip into some delicious pancakes that my wife made. It's just like it [the pain] wraps around you and squeezes. … So it was disappointing. Hopefully it's just an isolated incident, and not something that's going to become chronic."

Or else he'll have to switch to waffles …

The evolution joke makes us think Penner can have a laugh about this stuff; obviously, we don't want to see a guy already struggling through this season suffer through a back injury.

[ Y! Health: Back disorders, symptoms and treatments ]

Not to get too syrupy here, but we're rooting for the guy, even though the odds are stacked against him.

From David Staples of the Edmonton Journal, who hipped us to the story and obviously saw a lot of Penner:

Penner was a good player while he was in Edmonton, even as he drove some crazy with his seemingly languid style of play. I saw him as a smart but lumbering player, not a lazy bones. If he gets healthy, he can help the Kings.

Credit to Penner for telling the truth about how he got injured in this case, as he had to know his critics would feast on such an anecdote.

As Staples notes, and as so many of us are painfully familiar with, back injuries can occur through the simplest of activities: Getting out of bed, tying one's shoes, lifting a child.

Or eating a plate of pancakes.

We eagerly anticipate Dustin Penner's public safety video to be shown at all Los Angeles area IHOPs about the dangers of pancake consumption.""""

Here's the original link.http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/kings-dustin-penner-injures-himself-while-eating-stack-155530523.html

CAPS Trade Deadline: Buyers, and Givers

As we approach tomorrow's 3:00pm NHL trade deadline, we can't help but wonder what moves George Mcphee will make to improve the team.

I have 3 things in mind that need to happen if the Caps are going to make a playoff push and build for the future. It will take buying and...giving to make it happen. I'll break them down in "my" order of importance.

#1 - "Give" away Erat:

George Mcphee made a horrible mistake when he acquired Martin Erat....or let's say Martin Erat's contract at last years deadline. He's signed through the 2014-15 season and has a cap hit of about $4.5 million annually. Erat has demanded trades publically multiple times since the beginning of the season and his play has been quite awful. He has been lazy on the ice, taking game changing penalties and just has no will to play for this team. His 1 goal (an empty netter) will make it difficult to move him but that's why Mcphee has to "give" him away. Even if it's a 5th round pick or he's added into a package deal for free, his money in the cap and spot on the ice needs filled by someone who wants to be there.

#2 - Stay at Home Defenseman:

Everyone knows the Caps lack one or two shutdown defenders. Andrew MacDonald could be the perfect partner for Mike Green. He is (by far) the leagues leading shot blocker and his smart positioning and decisions with the puck along with his crisp passing out of the zone, is EXACTLY what Green and the Caps need. This would give the Caps two defensive pairings they can count on to clock major ice-time in the playoffs. He is a very low cap hit (around $550,000) but will demand a big payday at the end of the season. He's worth handing over a 1st round pick and maybe a little more.

#3 - Scoring Left Winger to Play With 8 and 19:

One name comes to mind and he is actually married to George McPhee's God-daughter. That name is Matt Moulson. The three time 30+ goal scorer is big and incredibly good at using his size to screen the goalie and punch in rebounds in the crease. Seems like he'd be a nice compliment to the Great 8. He's affordable to re-sign and with Buffalo on the complete rebuild path, McPhee could package up a current roster player, a prospect and a pick for Moulson and another Buffalo player. Maybe like Neuvirth, Shmidt and a 2nd round pick for Moulson and veteran goaltender Jaroslav Halak...? Just an idea.

The Caps also have a promising prospect in Kuznetsov who will more then likely join the squad in the next few days. McPhee will have to have around $900,000 in cap space to sign him. This deadline will be all about crunching the numbers and giving what they have to to win a cup in the next few seasons. The Caps core guys can't keep waiting for prospects to develop. They need the pieces now!

**Oh wait..just recieved news yhat the Caps pickrd up Dustin Penner! Nvm on the Moulson deal.

Go Caps!

Zach Hart
Shades of Red

OLYMPICS: Medal Count - Day 5

Here's your top 5 in the medal count after day 5"


Germany - Gold - 6, Silver - 1, Bronze - 1, Total - 8


Canada - Gold - 4, Silver - 4, Bronze - 2, Total - 10


Norway - Gold - 4, Silver - 3, Bronze - 5, Total - 12


Netherlands - Gold - 4, Silver - 2, Bronze - 4, Total - 10


United States - Gold - 3, Silver - 1, Bronze - 5, Total - 9


What hockey fan's have been waiting for will begin tomorrow morning (our time) when in Men's Hockey, Team US will faceoff against Team Slovakia!


Let's Go Team U.S.A. !!!!


Zach Hart
Shades of Red

OLYMPICS: Medal Count

Here's your medal count through Day 4 in the Wubter Olympics in Sochi.








As you can see, the United States is in 5th place but hopefully that will change because there's quite a few events left on the schedule.




Here's the 7 - U.S. medalists through Day 4 of the Winter Olympics in Sochi:






- Sage Kotsenburg - Gold -Snowboarding Men's Slopestyle


- Hannah Kearney - Bronze - Freestyle skiing, Women's Moguls


- Jamie Anderson - Gold - Snowboarding, Women's Slopestyle


- USA - Bronze - Figure Skating, Team Event


-Julia Mancuso - Bronze - Alpine Skiing, Women's Super Combined


-Devin Logan - Silver - Freestyle Skiing, Women's Slopestyle


-Erin Hamlin - Bronze - Luge, Women's Singles








Zach Hart
Shades of Red

OLYMPICS: Men's Ice Hockey: Our Projected Medalists

For me, Olympic hockey is the best part of the Winter Olympics. The Olympics throw us a change-up from watching the NHL, which undoubtedly boasts the highest skilled players that come from around the world to play. But when you look at the rosters from each country who are competing in the Olympics, you realize just how many superstars there are in the NHL from other countries. It makes me feel lucky to have the opportunity to watch many of the world's best players on a nightly basis.

We project that the top 4 teams in the Olympics will end up as: Russia, Sweden, Canada and the United States (not in that order.) Let's do a short breakdown of each and we can all decide which order we think they will finish. At the end of the article, myself and some of the other writers here at Shades of Red, will give our own projections of the order we think "our projected" top 4 teams will finish.

Team Russia:

Hockey is HUGE in Russia. They will have possibly the biggest advantage of the tournament as they will be playing in their country. They will no doubt gain energy from their home crowd which will most likely be on it's feet and cheering every game. In my opinion, the line they will make out of Kovulchuk, Datsyuk, Malkin and Ovechkin, will be the best scoring line of any country. They will receive a lot of ice time and all four players have Olympic experience. Their second line will most likely be made up of Alexander Semin, Alexander Radulov and whichever of the aforementioned 4 doesn't play on the 1st line. This will make up for an above average 2nd line but not as good as some of the other teams 3rd or even 4th lines. The problem I see with Russia, is the depth behind their 1st two lines. I don't know much about the other players on their roster who play in the KHL, but I know the NHL is the more skilled league of the two. With the US, Canada and even Sweden, full of NHL level talent, only time will tell how they will match-up. Once again, home-ice advantage will be huge, and they have the NHL's leading goal scorer (Ovechkin) to their advantage.

Team Sweden:

They took a slight hit when Henrik Sedin was ruled out, but overall the squad is solid. Like Team US, the biggest advantage Team Sweden will have, is their goaltending. We've all seen Henrik Lundqvist strip great teams of wins and even playoff series with his stellar skill in between the pipes. Outside of Lundqvist, the team still is loaded with other NHL stars. Zetterberg, Karlsson, Daniel Sedin, Steen, Alfredsson, and Backstrom provide the make-up for a lethal scoring threat. The squad also features a great defense. Overall, the team is made up of 24 NHL players. Only one player on the roster (Jimmie Ericsson), comes from a league other then the NHL. This team could be a gold medal surprise.

Team Canada:

Ok, this team is loaded with lethal scoring ability. 11 of the teams forwards are among the NHL's top 25 point producers this season, including the leagues top 3, and 5 of the top 10. Also, 5 of the leagues top 10 goal scorers, two of which (Crosby and Kunitz) play on a line together in the NHL and will be paired on Team Canada. Defensively, Canada will feature 4 of the leagues top 6 (defensive) point producers. There's no doubt that when it comes to scoring, Canada has the biggest advantage of any other country. Every line and defensive pairing they have are of NHL top line/top pair quality. It's insane to think that their 4th line will consist of John Tavares, Rick Nash and Patrick Marleau. Their only weakness could be goaltending with Roberto Luongo and Carey Price having so-so NHL seasons. But that could prove to be wrong though, because at the Olympics in Vancouver, Luongo shined and helped Canada to win the Gold.

Team U.S.:

Team US has a big time goal-tending advantage over most other countries with Ryan Miller in the net. Outside of goaltending, Team US features a nice blend of talent. On defense, you don't see many big-time scorers but they do feature solid, defensive minded defensemen, which is what you need in a world class tournament. But it is a young blue-line that lacks experience. I'm excited to watch Ryan Suter (who in my opinion is the best defensemen in the NHL.) At the forward positions, Team US has a blend of superior speed, scoring ability and experience. Phil Kessel and Patrick Kane place 4th and 5th in the NHL. Joe Pavelski is also in the top 20. Those same three players, all place in the NHL's top 9 in goal scoring and Team U.S. features 8 players who have scored 20 or more goals in the NHL this season. Zach Parise, the Captain of Team U.S. has 19 goals but if he wasn't battling injuries this season, he would probably have closer to 25-30. Overall, with the good talented forwards, solid-shutdown defense and elite goaltending, Team US should matchup well with other countries and compete for Gold.

Every countries' teams has a chance so It's hard for us to count out the other countries who will compete as well as these 4. The Olympic hockey tournament is set up different then the 7 game series type that we are accustomed to. Here's a full set of Rules and the 3 assigned groups for the 12 countries' teams. One or two upsets can knock a team out of contention. This is why it's extremely hard to guess who's going to medal. Chemistry has a lot to do with teams being competitive as there's hardly any time to practice. And many of these players traveled to the other side of the world and have one or two days to get adjusted to a MAJOR time difference. No matter what it will be fun to watch and all of us here at Shades of Red will be cheering for the U.S.

Zach's Projected Medalists:

Gold - Canada
Silver - U.S.
Bronze - Sweden
4th - Russia

Brian's Projected Medalists:

Gold - Canada
Silver - Russia
Bronze - US
4th - Sweden

Will's Projected Medalists:

Gold - Russia
Silver - Sweden
Bronze - U.S.
4th- Canada - Cuz they lost Stamkos

Ryan's Projected Medalists:

Gold - U.S.

Silver - Canada

Bronze - Sweden

4th - Russia

OLYMPICS: Shaun White - Half-Pipe Conditions

I'm totally into the Olympics. What's more entertaining in the sports world, then the world's greatest athletes coming together to compete on the biggest stage known to man? My two favorite events are ice-hockey and snowboarding so I'm writing a few articles to step out of my realm of DC Sports for a change. Today It's Shaun White and the half-pipe conditions.




When he arrived in Sochi and made a few practice runs, he made the decision to pull out of the 1st ever Olympic "Slope-Style" event. White released a statement regarding his decision:


“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in half-pipe for Team USA,” White said in the statement, given to NBC’s “Today.” “The difficult decision to forgo slope-style is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slope-style event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of.”


Although he has been training hard for the last year to compete in each event, to me, the decision doesn't come as much of a surprise. Why risk the possibility of injury and the exhaustion that the conflicting schedules would enforce, when you have a chance to set a world record? White has won back to back gold medals on the half pipe in the last two Olympics and a third would set a new record.


I'm sure the conditions of the slope-style course and the half-pipe may have contributed to his decision. White is one of many athletes who have complained about the conditions of the course and the pipe. In one of White's early practice runs, he fell and injured his wrist (not a big deal but scary) and Torstein Horgmo, a Norwegian snowboarder, actually broke his collar bone in a practice run.


With the Pipe event set to begin tomorrow (the 11th), final adjustments to the pipe will be made tonight and the athletes will have to make do with however it turns out. Adjustments will be hard with the  There is said to be a bump in the middle of the pipe that won't cause injury problems, but it could effect how strong the overall competition is.


Let's hope Shaun White can pull it out and bring home a 2nd gold for US in snowboarding.


Go USA!

Zach Hart
Shades of Red