Everybody is working for the weekend.

File this under brimming with excitement: In the age of lame duck court-side reporters, isn't it a bit of fresh air to have Jalen Rose working the sidelines for TNT during the playoffs? Charisma, playoff availability, and 3/4 of a communications degree - I think Jalen will be ratings juggernaut as he turns out the first memorable side-line interviews in the post Kolber-Namath era. Craig Sager and Cheryl Miller be damned.

I will have more on the NBA later. Maybe tomorrow.

File this under 'did you just poop the bed?': why did the studio behind the English film version of The Rocket choose April 21 for distribution? Granted the film seems to be targeted to hockey historians and women - its just like a previously made Heritage Moment and it is sappy a la Cinderella Man - but wouldn't hockey fans in general be drawn to this film? And isn't this the first day of the NHL playoffs? I wonder why, when a Canadian film typically has shelf life of at most a couple of weeks in English theatres, a distributor would push this film out when the first weekend is a write-off for a large part of the targeted demographic? Mind you, i always thought that any film released between mid-January and late-April was a film that was marketable only in an unconventional sense. So perhaps with the Rocket, unconventional marketing calls for drowning the film in a slate of NHL playoff games. i dunno.

UPDATED!!!! Green is right; Red is wrong - and man, was i wrong. hilariously wrong.
My Quickee NHL Playoff Picks:
First Round
East
Ottawa over Tampa Bay in 5
Carolina over Montreal in 6
New York Rangers over New Jersey in 7
Philadelphia over Buffalo in 7

West
Detroit over Edmonton in 4
Dallas over Colorado in 5
Calgary over Anaheim in 7
San Jose over Nashville in 7 (it was 5 games not 7. but that is just splitting hairs)

Second Round
East
New York Rangers over Ottawa in 7
Carolina over Philadelphia in 6

West
Detroit over San Jose in 6
Dallas over Calgary in 7

Conference Finals
East
New York Rangers over Carolina in 6
West
Dallas over Detroit in 7

Stanley Cup
Dallas over New York Rangers in 6
Storyline: Bettman gets his big American market Stanley Cup; still, nobody watches.

Something to watch: Thanks to Gary Bettman pre-emptively calling out his officials, the refs are now even more important to the outcome of the game. No longer will refs just "let them play". Penalties will be called regardless of the score, time, or player. What could be scary, and what Don Cherry pointed out last night on Coach's Corner, will be if the officials will be so bent on sticking to Gary's mandate that they will call questionable penalties in crucial parts of games just to prove their loyalty to Gary. After seeing the Dan Boyle penalty in game one of the Tampa Bay-Ottawa series that lead to Jason Spezza's game winning powerplay goal, I think Don might be onto something.


Cool on the Inter-web:
Nice to see Midlake on the Toronto Star's Anti-Hit List for this week. Ignoring my conflict of interest with the song title, I know that 'Roscoe' will be on my Best of 2006 CD sampler. It's alt-rock-country at its psychodelic best.

How can you not make money on an alternative route/toll road in the traffic quagmire known as Toronto? I find this all a little suspicious. Mike Harris, you are looking well these days.

I heard about this film on the message board of the NBA Cares Celebrity Fantasy Basketball Challenge and thought it was an internet practical joke by Sam Jackson. Apparently, 'Snakes on a Plane' is really happening, and Sam Jackson is really in it. August 18th is the release date. And yes, the title really is that self-explanatory. Between now and then, expect tons of film-inspired, non-Studio promotion by people who find the film's title and premise too good not to skewer.