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The 2026 FIFA World Cup Tournament has been nothing short of spectacular I started writing during the first week of the tournament and you all probably be seeing this by the time we crown the World Champion... well, actually ahead of the quarterfinals. Which means I’ve been letting it all play out and giving myself time to enjoy the tournament and form my own thoughts about it. By the time all the teams had played at least their first match, I had all my thoughts together and have this to say about it : there were things I absolutely loved and a good number of things I absolutely hated about this 2026 tournament. For this, I’ll get the negative stuff out of the way just so we can rip the bandage off and get it out of the way.

Things I hated :

1) The build up. Oh good GOD, the build up around the tournament was wave after wave of never ending “what are we doing” levels of news. if the blunder news wasn’t coming from FIFA, it was hearing about the US government. And if it wasn’t the US government (a true patriot of a country will ALWAYS stand by their nation and what their nation represents, NOT their government as the government does NOT reflect a nation), it was FIFA. And sometimes, it’d be both sides at once. Once we actually got the tournament underway, the disastrous build up became a thing of the past, but I am certainly not going to forget about how atrocious it was. What? Between the ticket prices being set by star power and where it was placed in the tournament, painting over a mural that was a gift to the city of Dallas back in 1999, FIFA deciding to ban refillable water bottles after they said they wouldn’t and then reversed the ban after online backlash, sending a top African ref back home, how Iran’s been treated leading up to the tournament starting… shall I go on?

2) The hydration break. Brand new for 2026, everyone involved touted “player safety” by putting two of these mandated 3 minute hydration breaks into every match. All of them. one 3 minute break in each half. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for player safety, but HERE’S THE THING : these two hydration breaks serve as nothing more than mandated timeouts and an arbitrary “divide the 2 halves into 4 quarter” breaks. These hydration breaks serve as nothing more than to disrupt the game flow and annoy me as a fan. And I’m not the only one who thinks that. Go anywhere on Social Media (or do a search on your preferred search browser) and look up “World Cup Hydration Break” and you will everyone talking about just how bad they are.

3) the 48 nation format. Let’s get this out of the way : I have no idea why FIFA decided this was what we were going to go with, but we’re going with it. I have no issue with the 48 nation qualifying for the World Cup. My issue is how FIFA went about it. And even when i propose ideas for how to make it work, there’s holes that bring the whole thing down. What FIFA did was go with 12 groups of 4, the top 2 out of each group advance, leaving 8 spots open as wildcard spots where the best 3rd place teams lock up their spots. That is way too complex for everyone. and the 2 ways to fix the complexity wind up having their own problems, as you’re asking the teams play more group matches which is a bad omen. option A) 8 groups of 6 teams, top 4 advance out of the groups. Simple, easy to understand Problem : You’d have 5 matches per team, and you’d have to schedule 3 group matches at the same time on the last match day to avoid any sort of scrutiny, thus putting one match behind a streaming paywall and sports I hate sports being paywalled in any way, shape, or form. and Option B is even worse with 6 groups of 8 with the top 4 advancing. “But it’s evenly divided like the 8 groups of 6 and it’s the same advance condition. So what’s the problem?” You’re asking players to go through SEVEN matches. AND you’re having to put 4 games on at the same time on the last match day. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice simplicity for more teams, and there is no way we should be asking players to play more group matches. Either FIFA should’ve stayed at 32 teams or the KO stage should’ve been set to 24 teams, top 2 out of each group advance.

4) The World Cup Song Catastrophe. This is gonna allow me to open up about my taste in music a little bit, and this is subjective, so stick with me here and let’s be civil about this topic. Every 4 years, the World Cup is heralded in with the official song, a tradition that began back in 2010 with Shakira giving us “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)”, and had been passed along to Pit Bull in 2014 with “We Are One”, then to Nicky Jam in 2018 with “Live it Up”, and then to Trinidad Cardona with “Hayya Hayya (Better Together)”. Me personally? I go back to the 2010 and the 2014 themes a lot. They’re fun. They scream World Cup to me. I did not like 2018’s theme and 2022 was only meh in my opinion. But I WILL say this : 2018 and 2022 are LEAGUES better at being World Cup theme songs than what was initially given to us. What was the first song FIFA offered up? “Lighter” by Jelly Roll. I hate the song, and I REALLY am not a fan of the artist either. The song got justifiably, and rightfully, roasted. It was called AI slop, a truck commercial song, and even a Dude Perfect song, which is an insult to the term “Dude Perfect song.” Because the songs Dude Perfect use i their videos are actually fun to listen to and are scattered across all my YouTube music playlists aside from all my Twitch stream playlists and one other playlist in particular. “Lighter” is not a fun song. And it’s not good. And seeing Jelly Roll’s name attached to a song (and i was NOT impressed with his song for the Sonic 3 movie, for the record) makes me want to absolutely scream. A couple of months later, and after a whole bunch of AI slop “songs” later that were nothing more than team roster roll calls to the same beat, cooler heads at FIFA prevailed and they tapped Shakira to come on back and grace with the new World Cup song “Dai Dai” and Shakira would bring Burna Boy along for the new song. SPEAKING OF MUSIC…

4) The World Cup Finals half time show. Why was this accepted to be a thing for the tournament finale game? Who looked at the World Cup Finals match and said “Yes, this is great, but you know what we really need? A halftime show!” I have some SERIOUS thoughts about this. and right off the rip? NO. No we do NOT want or need a halftime show on the world’s biggest stage. “But Alan,” I can already hear someone saying, “the Super Bowl halftime show is part of our American culture! how DARE you claim we don’t need this big part of culture represented on the world stage, you ignorant hack!” Okay, you can say that, but just because it works for the Super Bowl does NOT mean we need to have it put a halftime show on during the World Cup Finals. And now that I'm thinking about it? I bet you all the Fox executives were the one who proposed it and everyone else ran with it because they dollar signs. Speaking of Fox production choices, I saved the worst for last because i wanted to build up to it, so here you all go.

4) Fox Sports broadcasting. As a NASCAR and IndyCar fan, I am no stranger to Fox fumbling the bag on their sports coverage. And even worse for all of us American soccer fans like me, they (Fox Sports) were just gifted the broadcasting rights of USA coverage to the 2026 FIFA World Cup only because of how the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was aired in November and December, during the NFL season. and the whole coverage from the 2026 World Cup absolutely just reeks of Fox phoning it in knowing they very much won’t be back for 2030. And it stems all the way back to the opening ceremonies across all 3 host nations, and ESPECIALLY the opening ceremonies for the entire tournament when Mexico started it up. Instead of putting all the focus on the ceremonies like every other broadcast partner had done in prior events (and Fox themselves did in 2022), Fox decided to relegate the the opening ceremonies in full to live streams on their Fox Soccer YouTube channel while leaving the main broadcast to splice between the ceremonies and their talking heads who are adding nothing. STOP TALKING AND GET THE CAMERAS FOCUSED ON THE OPENING CEREMONIES!! That alone would be *bad enough*, but then it gets worse. You remember those hydration breaks I talked about? the ones that disrupt the game flow and were touted as “player safety” by everyone? I am CONVINCED Fox talked FIFA and forced all of the football/soccer federations involved in the tournament to sign off on the hydration breaks because Fox, in their infinite money search, PUT AD BREAKS IN THE MIDDLE OF SOCCER GAMES. Let me repeat that : THEY PUT AD BREAKS IN THE MIDDLE OF SOCCER GAMES. Soccer has always been a sport where the game is commercial free and the action is uninterrupted unless a whistle is blown for a foul or to card a player. That’s the entire standard and BARE MINIMUM knowledge required to cover soccer on TV. Yet, here’s Fox taking EVERYTHING that makes soccer a fun sport to watch and RUINING IT. How bad was it? In game 1 of the whole tournament between South Africa and Mexico, Fox ran an ad break over the hydration break and missed the game getting back underway after the hydration break. What makes it even more insulting as far as I’m aware is the how rest of the world (including the USA’s Spanish broadcast provider, Telemundo) ARE NOT RUNNING AD BREAKS OVER THE HYDRATION STOPS. I think FIFA needs to make it a rule that no advertising breaks should be aired while players are on the pitch, EVEN if it’s just for a hydration break. Also, FIFA’s president claims they aren’t making more money with the hydration breaks, and I’m not buying it considering the hydration breaks *ARE SPONSORED* by Coca-Cola, specifically Powerade, the Coca-Cola sports drink response to Pepsi’s Gatorade. If you weren’t missing the game action due to the ad breaks, you were missing the game action because Fox was running replays for way too long. Luckily for Fox, neither the hydration break ads nor running the replays for longer than they should’ve resulted in us missing a goal getting scored, but the possibility was there. I will say one positive thing about Fox that I did like and i hope this sticks for all future US broadcasters : have a live desk crew on location for highly touted matchups in the group and KO stages.

So that’s everything I hated about the World Cup tournament. So with all my anger spent, I actually DO have things I have throughly loved about this tournament.

1) The on pitch intensity. 48 nations qualified for this tournament and all 48 of them have shown they want to be on this stage and competing for the World Cup. This includes the 4 nations making their debut to the big stage of the World Cup in Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. This includes Scotland making their first appearance since 1998, DR Congo making their first appearance since LONG BEFORE they became the DR Congo. This includes the 3 host nations of Canada, Mexico, and United States, and includes everyone else I haven’t mentioned. Everyone showed up and came to play. Each game has been edge of your seat do not look away action packed thrillers. Even the nil-nil draws have their moments. heck, even the fans have bought in. Everyone has bought into the tournament and while it’s not perfect and it should be called out, the world has come together once again for the biggest sporting event in the world. And I am here for all of it.

2) The spectacle. Every major sporting event around the world is always a blend of competition and spectacle. It’s a fine balance all leagues have to walk. And the FIFA World Cup is no exception to a big sporting completion that is blended with spectacle. From the moment the host is selected, the planning phase begins. And with 3 host nations for 2026, 3 different opening ceremonies were planned. Each nation was given a chance to put their culture on display for the world to see, and it was beautiful aside from the song list for America’s opening ceremony, but that’s a minor nit pick. (hint hint, I’ll attempt to rank all songs from the FIFA World Cup tournament in an upcoming blog, including the unwanted and unneeded halftime show) And the spectacle just didn’t stop there. a new change for this year that I really liked is seeing the flags on the pitch and players stand next to them at mid pitch for the national anthems, which just ads to the spectacle.

3) The history. This entire tournament had so many historic moments and will go down in history for all the right reasons. Messi getting his first ever FIFA World Cup hat trick and becoming the all time FIFA World Cup leading goal scorer. Canada getting their first point, first win, first clean sheet, most goals scored by a CONCACAF team in the men’s World Cup, and Jonathan David being the first Canadian to score a hat trick in FIFA World Cup history. Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan making their World Cup debuts. DR Congo making the dance for the first time since 1974 when they were known as Yugoslavia. Scotland making the dance for the first time since 1998. The USA winning 2 consecutive group games for the first time since the inaugural tournament since 1930 and scoring 10 goals, the most goals ever for the USA in a men’s World Cup tournament. And beating a European team for the first time ever in the World Cup with a 2:0 clean sheet win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32. I could go on and on but there’s been so much history that happened and it’s hard to keep track of all of it. the on pitch action, like I said, the on pitch product when the game is going was octane edge of your seat action that left you amazed, wowed, and screaming for more.

5) The World coming together. This is proof that even though we are divided by language, continents, borders, religions, and literally everything else, soccer comes and unites us. And with that unity, we find peace. and with that peace comes celebration. With 48 different nations visiting, we are seeing various different cultures unite together and turned this into what I’ve dubbed as the best sleep over party we shouldn’t have been allowed to host, but the one we desperately needed to remind us all we are indeed a melting pot of all the cultures of the world, and being the world’s melting pot is exactly where our strengths are. And that the world is better when we aren’t putting politics ahead of anything. You have Scotland invading Boston and putting traffic cones on our statues, running Boston bars dry out of liquor, Hollanders (Netherlands) bouncing around from the right to the left and back to the right, Norway with their Viking Row. Everyone dancing in the streets and all the watch parties. And then you have all of our visiting tourists running wild over ranch dressing and trying out our food. It’s been so much fun to see all of it pop up in my social media feeds and just share it.

6) US soccer fever. BOY, DO WE NEED TO WORK ON OUR SOCCER CHANTS, BUT IT’S SO NICE TO SEE AMERICA EMBRACE THE SOCCER FEVER! I always long for a day where we embrace soccer being our top sport over NFL football (I am in the minority, fully aware), but that’s the thing : when we qualify for the World Cup, it *does* become our top sport, all other sports become irrelevant, so it does happen, and it only lasts as long as the US is in the tournament. As we saw with our round of 32 knockout game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, when the Nielsen ratings put the viewership at over 24 million people. Part of the reason of why soccer hasn’t taken over is because NFL is such a huge juggernaut and has all these huge stadiums that become cathedrals of sport hosting 70,000+ fans (not to mention owners of the NFL teams love strong arming cities into favorable deals for themselves) while soccer stadiums can seemingly only hold 10,000+ at most. The World Cup is using these mechas of sports in the US and it makes every match of the World Cup feel like a big deal because they are a big deal. We can get soccer to the top, BUT we have to really back our talk up and speak with our wallets and our time… and also MLS to get their act together and start moving the sport in a better direction. As in MLS, GET YOUR GAMES BACK ON OTA TV AND OFF THE STREAMING SERVICES!

This whole tournament was a genuine blast. If you missed out, I'm sorry that you did. The next tournament will be in 2030 and it's gonna be a long 4 year wait for this tournament to come around again. And hopefully... well, I just hope it's just as good as this one was.

#2026 fifa world cup

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Proud to be Colorado Sports Fan

To me, there will be no greater year in sports than watching my teams winning the crown.

In the ‘21-’22 NHL Season, the Colorado Avalanche went to the top of the west, they battled every step of the way, went up against the Lightning in the Finals, and they claimed the crown in 6 games with a 2-1 win in Tampa to hoist the trophy. In that moment, you think it can’t get any better. Deep down, I knew one team had a chance to finish the job and bring yet another title to Colorado, a title in a sport that hadn’t seen a Colorado team win it all seen since their days in the ABA.

That team was the Denver Nuggets. 47 years in the NBA, and only 4 trips to the Western Conference Finals to show for it. All season long, the Nuggets took on 82 games. In 82 games, they tore the West down with an impressive 53 W - 29 L season to take the top rank in the Western Conference. But the regular season means nothing. It’s the Playoffs where the true test for this team would begin.

Round 1 - Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that came in a wild card, Denver proceeded to steam roll to a 3-0 lead headed into game 4 with a chance to sweep. The Wolves won, and the Nuggets took it personally and put the series to bed in game 5 with a 112 - 109 win. The 2nd round is the next challenge Round 2 - Phoenix Suns, this team was 2 years removed from a trip to the NBA Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks where they fell in 6 games in that year’s finals series. Denver took game 1 by a score of 125 - 107, game 2 was a 97 - 87 win for the Nuggets, game 3 in Phoenix proceeded to hold Denver down to a 121 - 114 loss to make it a 2-1 series lead. Phoenix would tie the series in game 4 by handing Denver a 129 - 124 loss, but Denver would not go down as they blasted the Suns out of the water with a 118 102 win in game and then followed that up with a 125 - 100 win in game 6, the Western Conference Finals await. A 5th trip to the WCF awaits, and it’d be a 2020 rematch.

Western Conference Finals - Los Angles Lakers, or as I call them “one of the NBA cash cows.” The Lakers have won multiple titles, and last won it all in 2020, crushing the Nuggets in 5 games. A 4th WCF match against the Lakers, they won 3 of them. This is over right? Wrong, Denver would NOT go down the way they did in the past, they did NOT lie down. Game 1 - Denver holds off a late game surge to win 13, Game 2 - Denver barely edges the Lakers out to take a 2 - 0 series lead with a 108 - 103 win, Game 3 - out in L.A, the stars shining bright, and the Nuggets proceeded to bend but not break as they held the Lakers off again in a 119-108 win to take a 3 - 0 series lead. A sweep was seemingly inevitable, but game 4 was the closest battle yet. Back and forth late into the game and Denver was on the edge of defeat, but once again, the Nuggets made the moment magical and edged out the Lakers 113 - 111, taking a a 4-0 series sweep, Jokic getting the Western Conference Finals MVP, and a first ever NBA Finals trip NBA Finals - Miami Heat, 3 time Champions of the NBA. Last won in the 2012-2013 season, faced the Lakers in 2020 finals and came up short. They’ve been here before, and they got a team that’s never been here before in Denver. But once again, Denver would not go down. Game 1 - Denver ended the 1st quarter down 24 - 22, and proceeded to stay down 51 - 44 at the half time and Miami was feeling confident in winning this game. The 2nd half was a different story was Denver proceeded to find the net for 26 points to the Heat’s 20, and turned the ball game to a 71 - 70 lead for Miami headed headed into the final quarter of the game. In the 4th, Denver scored 24 more points to Miami’s 18, taking game 1 in a convincing 94 - 89 win. The historic first ever NBA Finals win for Denver, and making it three wins to go.

Game 2 - Miami wouldn’t go down quietly after the game 1 loss, ending Q1 on top 26 - 23, but Denver rallied off in Q2 to go up 57 - 51 at half time. 2 quarters left to the 2nd ever finals win. After the game’s 2nd half began, Denver picked up right where they left off and went up 83 - 75 with 1 quarter to go. But Q4 would not go my team’s way as Denver only put up 25 more points while Miami rattled off 36 points and gave the Heat a 111 - 108 win as Denver tried for a 3 point shot at the buzzer to tie the game, but it was just short. Game 3 - The NBA Finals would take a trip to Miami for the Games 3 and 4 and Denver would take game 3 by storm, after a 24 - 24 tie in Q1, Denver put up 29 points in both Q2 and Q3, and backed it up with a 27 in Q4 and scored the game 3 win with a 109 - 94 win. Win 2 of the NBA Finals, but the job isn’t done. There’s still 2 more wins to go. Game 4 - Friday night for game 4? Denver saw it as no challenge and they routed Miami all game long and aside from a DEN 55 - MIA 51 first half, it wasn’t even close as Denver won in a 108 - 95 take down. The series is now 3 - 1. Denver is now 1 game away from winning it all. Monday night would be the night where it all would be decided if we were headed to game 6, or it was all over in 5. Game 5 - This was it. This was clinch night, if you were gonna show up and win it all, THIS was the night. Monday night was prime time, and Denver proceed to go down 51 - 44 at the half time, and it looked like it was going to head to game 6 in Miami and possibly a game in Denver 7 where it’d be anyone’s guess who would win it all. But just like game 1, just like every other time it looked like it was over for the Nuggets, they rallied in the 2nd half and with a late game steal, Denver held on to win the game by a score of 94 - 89. There would be no game 6. Game 7 was no longer needed. It took 5 games. The series ends in 5 games. a 4 - 1 series win, and the end of a 47 year wait for my team’s first ever NBA crown.

I’m a much newer Nuggets fan, joined the Nuggets fan base before this magical run happened. And a much younger fan at 27 as I write this. I would keep up with this team and I never thought I’d see this team win. And I did. The Colorado teams are my teams. The Rapids, Avalanche, Nuggets, Rockies, Broncos, and Mammoths. Colorado is where I want to be, been that way since 2012, and even when I felt like I was at my lowest. I’ll keep dreaming, and maybe one day, my dream of living in Colorado will come true. Just like the Nuggets winning it all. Just the Avalanche winning it all. Just like me wanting to get NASCAR Cup Series and Indy Car Racing out there. The Broncos getting a 4th Lombardi. Like the Rockies *finally* winning the World Series. Like the Rapids winning a 2nd MLS title. My life belongs in Colorado, and I’ve known that for 11 years. I’m to the point where I more so believe that I live in Colorado more than I live in Maryland. My name is Alan Mooch. And I am proud to be a fan of all the Colorado teams. I long for the day where I can look out the window to a Colorado sunrise and I say “I’m finally home.” And these last 2 years were the best years in sports. The Avalanche and Nuggets winning it all put a smile on my face.

A Wait Well Worth It

Today was a great day to be a NASCAR fan.

For the first time in 26 years, a long lost speedway was found again. Before I go any further, I want to give you all a little bit of knowledge : I was only 1 year and 4 days old when the last race at North Wilkesboro Speedway took place. The track had been a main stay on the Cup schedule up until 1997 when Texas Motor Speedway took it’s place. So I didn’t grow up with the speedway like many of the older NASCAR fans have. But I always loved to hear about the stories of the speedway. It fascinated me to read and hear about North Wilkesboro Speedway.

And with Texas Motor Speedway being... awful, to say the least, I was one of the younger NASCAR fans (becoming a fan in 2002) was among the loud and vocal in recent memory who wanted to see the old track come back.

Well, I got my wish. And I’m really happy. For NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season coming in 2023, it was rumored yesterday that the All-Star Race, which had lost it luster over the years, was going to be headed to the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a track that SMI owns. These rumors were further fueled when it was announced by the track that all original plans of the revival plan were being set to the wayside and a huge announcement on the 8th, that being today, was to come. On top of that, the executives of Fox were telling NASCAR they wanted the All-Star Race to have a grassroots racing feel and possibly rotate it around like the MLB All-Star Game. Okay, sure. But the big hitting point is “grassroots racing” feel. As in short tracks. Today? That rumor was confirmed.

My take? This is a very decisive win for everyone involved. NASCAR taking Fox up on the offer to go for a grass roots race, SMI for being willing to not only go along with this, but also dropping a date from the Texas Motor Speedway, Dale Jr was a huge advocate for this...

I could go on, but what’s the point?

If you had asked kid me if North Wilkesboro was going to return, you would be met with “What’s North Wilkesboro?” Ask me that in 2017-2021, you’d be met with “Sure, if the people running SMI gets their heads out of their asses and realize Texas Motor Speedway is a piece of shit track that none of us NASCAR fans like this god forsaken raceway.” And then the announcement of the renovations plan came out and I was like “Maybe there is a chance the North Wilkesboro Speedway comes back, just not with the Cup cars.” And now? It’s coming back. This All-Star Race will be the biggest event and I certainly hope I can find a way to get to go. If I can’t go? I’ll have the online radio coming through for me. Either way, I’m hyped up for 2023.

NASCAR Street Race - My thoughts

So if you’ve been out of the loop, there have been rumblings in NASCAR about taking the Cup cars to the streets of a major city as far back as December of 2020. The rumblings had talks of Chicago being the lead off to this experiment.

I made a huge case for Denver to get a race in a blog I put together on May 8th, 2021. (Ugh. 2021. Get me away from that year.) If you missed that blog, I brought up the following. 1) Colorado’s love of sports 2) the star power of Colorado sports 3) Iconic sports venues, famous landmarks, and mountain backdrop

I did bring up some challenges that would come along with hosting a street race such as traffic, noise complaints, city could lose money, and the fact that Denver has the unique additional challenge of being 1 mile above sea level, making the thin air an extra challenge for the teams and drivers. But in that blog, I failed to point something out. Street racing really isn’t the best style of racing in the world when it comes to the top levels of racing... IMSA and IndyCar being the outliers as they have cars that are built to race on the streets. IndyCar races on the streets, while not always a thrilling race, provides good entertainment to be had and are really fun in person. I would know, I went to the 2011 Baltimore Grand Prix. NASCAR, on the other hand? We’re talking about a 1.5 ton stock car racing that is purpose built to be raced on tracks from the high banks of Daytona and Talladega to the tiny little short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville. NASCAR road course racing isn’t exactly the best nor is it that entertaining to watch a vast majority of the time. Looking at Sonoma in particular. Anyway, the rumblings have turned into a roar. It was confirmed yesterday that the NASCAR Cup Series will indeed be racing on the streets of Chicago. Want me to be perfectly honest? I’m not thrilled. The more I think about it, the less enthusiastic I am.

We got that street course race, yes. But Chicago? Really? You could’ve put a street race anywhere in the US (cough, cough, Denver, cough cough), hell, gone north of the US border to Toronto, south to Mexico City, and yet, you chose Chicago? Why? So you can chase a market that doesn’t care for the product? And that’s the only thing that has me not thrilled about it. The track itself, tested on iRacing, doesn’t inspire any confidence in this race being any good at all.

Credit to NASCAR.com for this track image, but I want you guys to look at it. There are 12 turns, and it looks like there will be absolutely no passing zones. Topping all that off, Road America, a race track that had long been wanting a Cup Series race, finally got it in 2021 on a major weekend, got it back in 2022, and are now losing it to... this. An attempt to chase the casual fans. To chase a market that probably doesn’t, and probably will never, care for NASCAR or racing in general. Road America had over 100,000 people show up to their 2021 and 2022 events and this is how they get treated? You give them the shaft due to TV ratings not matching up to every other race? Seriously? I can think of another track that should get the axe over Road America. Sure, the Road America race wasn’t all that great, but they made a case to keep their race date. And they lose it. At least cut Road America for a track that isn’t going to make you all look like you’re chasing the casual fans who don’t give a rip and a market that doesn’t care

Western Conference Finals Game 1 Recap

Well, holy *CRAP*, game 1 was a gauntlet for the Avalanche and Oilers. Where do we begin? How I give you the final score and then *how* we got here.

COL 8 - EDM 6

Okay, HOW did we get here? Well, here’s a highlights video that will show you how we got to that ridiculous score. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSpqH3DYfxo&t=1s Did you watch it? Yes? Awesome. Stick around and I’ll tell ya what you saw! No, you’d rather read me breaking down all the action and THEN watch it? OKAY! Let’s do it then! At 06:00 PM Mountain Time, the first puck drop of the Western Conference Finals would get the game under way and the attack was on for both teams. Shots being handed left and right but no team could score a goal, that was until Yamamoto went end to end, and then he would pass the puck to Evander Kane from the wing. With a slight breakaway, Evander Kane scores the opening goal of the game with 14:56 seconds to go in the first period making it a 1-0 Oilers lead. And oh boy, once that goal was scored, the hammer was dropped. The Avalanche would immediately launch a response to the Oilers goal by launching an all out attack that started with Byram on the Avalanche side of the ice, and it ended with a 2 on 1 offensive advantage where Alex Newhook found J.T. Compher to score the 1st goal for the Avalanche with 14:20 to go in the period. With 5:00 to go in the first, the Avalanche would launch another strike again, this time, it started with Makar behind the Avalanche net. It ended with Nathan MacKinnon flying in to pick up the puck in the offensive zone and burying it with 4:50 to go.

with 36.8 to go, the Oilers started with the puck in their own end with Kulak finding Connor McDavid on the wing and he does what he does best : Connor McDavid things. A no look pass to Draisitl, Driasitil hands it back to McDavid, McDavid passes it to Kulak, Kulak send the puck up to Hyman, and Hyman gets the puck behind Darcy Keumper and in the net for a goal and makes it a 2-2 game with 22.3 seconds to go. The tie game was short lived as 8.7 seconds later, Cale Makar blasted down the ice and buries the 3-2 go ahead. This goal was challenged by the Oilers coach for off sides, and it seemed like it did go off sides and would 100% be called back, but after review, the goal stood as called and Makar would officially give the Avs a 3-2 lead leaving the first period as no other goals were scored despite the Avalanche being on the power play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVCuzEiIDXA This video gives an in depth explanation as to why the Makar goal stood as a good goal, but the ruling should’ve been off sides and even I say that as an Avalanche fan. The Avalanche got gift wrapped 1 goal thanks to the NHL being the NHL and wanting the Oilers to get screwed at every corner (according to Edmonton fans) and the rule book being well... confusing. And the Avs on top of the go ahead goal from Makar standing as called, now have a power play that carries over into the 2nd period to go along with it. Speaking of the 2nd period, with 19:39 to go in the period, Cale Makar starts an attack in the Avalanche zone and skates down center ice, passes the puck to Rantenen, Rantenen passes to Nazam Kadri, Kadri shoots, shot blocked, BUT WAIT, Kadri has the rebound AND HE SCOOOOOOOOOOOOORES!!! YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU BETCHA!!! THE KADRI MAN CAN! With 19:28 to go, Kadri scores a power play goal and the Avalanche are up 4-2 after drilling home 2 unanswered goals in this game.

And the Oilers rolled back with a response of their own : with 17:01 left in the period, the Oilers start a play in their zone with Pulijuarvi stealing the puck from the Avalanche and taking a shot down ice, Keumper makes the block, but the puck made an unlucky bounce into open area of ice and McLeod was there to take the rebound and score the goal, making it a 4-3 game for the Avalanche. In a tightly contested game, the Avs had a 1 goal advantage and there was still a lot of game left to go. And the Avs would not take that goal lying down.

Nathan MacKinnon makes a nice backhand pass to Mikko Rantenen, who just came off the bench, and Rantenen buries it top shelf With 15:20 to go in the period, and gives the Avalanche a 2 goal lead once again with a score of 5-3. And the scoring onslaught from the Avalanche was on. Devon Towes takes a shot has it denied. Towes picks up the puck, passes it to Cale Makar, and Makar lets it fly on the one-timer and puts a laser shot into the net with 13:40 to go in the period, making it 6-3. Late in the 2nd period, battle for the puck along the boards in the Avalanche zone is won by the Avs defender Jack Johnson. Johnson pokes it to Logan O’Connor, who flies on the wing side, makes a pass to Andrew Cogliano and Cogliano scores a Coglion-GOAL. And thanks to Cogliano’s goal, the Avalanche make it 7-3 with a mere 3:40 left in the period.

Lost in the Avalanche goal frenzy was Darcey Keumper skating off the ice due to blurry vision with Pavel Francouz coming in to the game to finish what Keumper started while we all wish Keumper a speedy recovery and hope he’ll be alright. With 3:24 to go in the 2nd, there was a face off in the Avalanche zone. Face off was won by McDavid for the Oilers, Draistl takes a shot, blocked by Francouz, it’s still in the Avs zone and the Avalanche can’t clear it. Draisitl still has the puck, passes it to McDavid, and Connor McDavid puts the puck in the Avs net to make a 7-4 hockey game with 3:09 left in the 2nd period. And that goal would begin the Oilers 3 goal counter attack to the Avalanche goal flurry.

In the 3rd period, the Oilers scoring attack begins at 16:44 to go in regulation as the Bouchard begins the attack with the puck on the Avalanche side of the ice. Bouchard decides he’s going to pass it to Keith, who passes it right back to him. Bouchard decides to take a shot, and the shot is blocked by Francouz, but it was sent right back to Bouchard, so he shoots again, puck bounces off one of the Avalanche skaters, goes wide and finds its way behind the Avalanche net after bouncing off another Avalanche skater, and Kassain was there to pick it up. He comes from behind the net, passes it to Derek Ryan. He (Ryan) shoots the puck and gets it behind Francouz to make this a 7-5 game with 16:32 to go and the Oilers still weren’t done yet. Another Oilers attack starts up on the power play with Tyson Barrie taking a shot with 7:40 to go in the game, shot blocked and sent away by Francouz, Nugent-Hopkins picks up the loose puck and sends it behind the net where McDavid picks it up. He (McDavid) passes it to Hyman who just so happens to be in front of the net. Hyman winds up, fires, and DENIED BY PAVEL FRANCOUZ!!! CALM DOWN, AVS FANS, BECAUSE FRANKIE SAYS RELAX! That would be short lived relaxation as the puck was sent back to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Nugent-Hopkins passes the puck to Connor McDavid, McDavid makes a quick pass to Leon Draistil, Draisitl gives it back to no. 97 McDavid and he (McDavid) gives right back to Draisitl. Draistil makes a beautifully timed pass back to Nugent-Hopkins, who puts in the net behind Francouz with 7:24 to go in the 3rd period. It was now a 7-6 game, Avs lead by 1. The 3rd period rolls on with no scoring from either team and Edmonton pulling their goalie late into the period. With 61 seconds to go in the 3rd period and only down by 1 goal, the Oilers pulled their goalie and left the empty. With an extra attacker on, Edmonton was trying to tie the game. Time winding down and the Avs on the attack with mere seconds to go, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog finds his way to the Oilers side of the ice with the puck, shoots and HE SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORES! CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN, PUT THIS GAME AWAY FOR THE AVS WITH 21.4 SECONDS TO GO ON AN EMPTY NET GOAL! Time would expire and there’d be no more scoring. The Avalanche take game 1 of the Western Conference finals by a score of 8-6 with game 2 tonight at the Ball Arena in Denver. The Colorado Avalanche look for a commanding 2-0 series lead before the series heads to Edmonton on Saturday and Monday for games 3 and 4.

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