2011 Puck Pushers Trophy Presentation

Bonds' trial concludes; NHL Playoffs begin

The Barry Bonds courtroom drama is over - for now.

At this point all of you know what happened this past week. And undoubtedly many of you were left scratching your heads once you heard the final verdict. But let's start from the beginning...

Think about the most basic, essential part of this trial for a moment - the government was trying to prove that Barry Bonds KNEW something. They were trying to prove in a court of law that Bonds knowingly took steroids and lied about it to a grand jury. How in the world do you go about proving that someone knew something? How do you begin to provide evidence when you can't physically open up Bonds' skull and say "yep, right here, this portion of his brain is physically damaged because he lied under oath"? Without hard evidence, wasn't this a game of he said/she said?

Well, the government proved that it certainly was not a game, and a conviction was not a long shot. I give the prosecutors a ton of credit for formulating an argument and painting a detailed pictured that elicited at least one guilty verdict, let alone four. Analysts and commentators have been debating whether or not the prosecution won or lost this trial, and I cannot understand those who say they lost.

Sure, Bonds was only convicted on one out of four charges. But with the deck stacked against them the government worked their way into one guilty verdict, and nearly got two - one juror refused to agree to a guilty verdict for the 'unknowingly receiving injections' allegation.

The head-scratching part of all of this is the future and the question 'where do we go from here'? The other three charges are still in limbo, and the government is deciding whether or not to re-try Bonds on those same charges. Perhaps this is why I was left so unsatisfied once I heard the outcome - I might have to go through this again. I might have to see reporters outside of a courtroom taking pictures of the home-run king as he walks through a metal detector. I might have to watch a legal analyst give the daily report on courtroom proceedings and testimony. I might have to have my own personal debate on how large the circumference of a human head can possibly be.

But until then, only two words can describe my feelings...annoyed and unsettled. The true joy for me will come when Barry Bonds is no longer in the news, and this drawn out, excruciatingly time consuming legal process finally comes to an end.

The NHL Playoffs have begun and today I realized something - those damn Red Wings have a really, really good shot to make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals. In the last five seconds you have undoubtedly realized I'm not a Detroit fan, but I gotta acknowledge how good they looked today against the Coyotes (I was fortunate enough to get game 2 of their series on TV at my apartment).

I could break down teams and do some predictions, but I think the bigger underlying theme to the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the intensity, stress, and physical toll that players will endure in the coming weeks. We as fans appreciate that more than anything. Take Johan Franzen for example - in today's game, he gets absolutely crushed face-first into the boards by a Phoenix defender. Franzen's face was mangled, bloody, and gross. But he returned to the game in the second period and played the remainder of the game with 27 stitches and a giant band-aid on his face. I'm not a Detroit fan, and I really hope they somehow collapse against the Coyotes, but I gotta give credit to players like Franzen who are absolute warriors.

But just for kicks....San Jose over Buffalo in 6 games...