Big smile, cool nickname not enough for ‘Bruce Leroy’; Semerzier cruises at UFN 24

The cute stuff may work on reality television, but Alex "Bruce Leroy" Cacares was badly outclassed by WEC veteran Mackens Semerzier. In what was probably a must-win situation, Semerzier steamrolled Bruce Leroy winning via rear-naked choke in just 3:18 at Ultimate Fight Night 24.

Semerzier (6-3, 1-0 UFC) scored three powerful takedowns. He got the first just 57 seconds into the fight. Cacares got up with 3:30 left in the first and hit the deck again with 3:18 left. The final time he went down with 2:40 left, started the beginning of the end.

Semerzier fell right into the mount position and starting pounding away. Bruce Leroy turned away from the strikes and gave his back. Semerzier flattened him and even when Cacares threatened to slip out the backdoor, the Army veteran was able to get him back down and finally apply the finishing choke.

Cacares, who came up with the "Bruce Leroy" moniker himself, was a villian of sorts during Season 12 of TUF. He ruffled the feathers of eventual finalist Michael Johnson and several other fights from the show.

Tonight, he walked to the cage with Taimak, the original "Bruce Leroy" from the 1985 movie "The Last Dragon."

Hathaway bests McCray at his own game

Kris McCray is a one-trick pony and tonight in Seattle he got schooled at his strength. John Hathaway outwrestled McCray, taking him down repeatedly throughout the fight. The young Brit got a split decision victory, 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28.

McCray never came close to threatening a finish. Hathaway did in the opening round with a nasty toe hold. The 23-year-old from Brighton, England worked and twisted McCray's foot for 45 seconds. McCray held out and fought on.

"I was real close. I heard a couple pops and creaks," said Hathaway.

With better cardio, Hathaway (15-1, 5-1 UFC) sealed the fight in the third. He simply did more, staying active when he had top control. It wasn't the most spectacular victory, but proved Hathaway, without much of a wrestling background, can grapple on a high level.

After posting a huge win over Diego Sanchez at UFC 114, Hathaway was upset by Mike Pyle back in October at UFC 120. Including the "TUF 11 Finale," McCray has now lost all three fights in his time with the UFC.

Busted up eye causes Madsen to lose his first to Russow

Mike Russow isn't the prettiest fighter, but the guy finds ways to win. The Chicago cop won another fight, this time by ending the unbeaten run of Jon Madsen. On the advice of the doctor, the referee stopped the fight before the beginning of the third round because Madsen's left eye was nearly closed. Russow (14-1, 3-0 UFC) got the victory via TKO.

That makes 2-of-3 fights with the promotion that he's won via KO or TKO. In his previous 11 wins, he scored nine of them by submission.

Russow said he caught Madsen (7-1, 3-1 UFC) with an overhand right in the second and that's what made the eye blow up.

Related: Ultimate Fight Night 24, Korean Zombie, Leonard Garcia

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How Keyword Research and Competitive Search Fuels Display Campaigns

Posted By Jaime on Mar 4th, 2011

This article by Hollis Thomases originally appeared in ClickZ on February 22, 2011.

Traditionally, the worlds of online display advertising and search marketing have mainly operated in silos. The two tactics may both be part of the bigger online strategy, but the people involved with search generally do not really work in or understand display and vice-versa. Lately however, it feels like there’s a greater interest in fusing the two worlds together, maybe fueled by the diversion of traffic away from search and into social media and/or Google’s rebranding of its Content Network into Display Network. Regardless, when the search and display professionals come together, a lot can be gained from the sharing of information. Today, let me give my media planning brethren some tips from the search side.

Keywords Tell a Lot

For the online media strategist, an existing PPC campaign can be a goldmine of information. Keyword performance can help sculpt various directions of the campaign from its creative concepts, messaging and copywriting to identifying sites to target for placements or new niche opportunities. Don’t have an existing PPC campaign to turn to? Consider a bit of keyword research in the vein of a start-up PPC campaign for all the same insights mentioned previously.

Begin by using the same keyword research tools a PPC specialist would:

Web analytics: Understanding what keywords are already driving traffic to the site and where that traffic travels throughout the site and if that traffic converts into the desired action can be quite revealing. Doing a gap analysis of the advertiser’s objectives versus what they’re actually achieving should provide the media strategist with some informative insights and direction.Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool: The “granddaddy” of free keyword research tools, this tool allows you to gauge the popularity or importance of a keyword or keyword phrase based upon its search volume, while at the same time identifying other related keyword phrases. The tool lets you manipulate your query in all sorts of ways, for example, limiting results by geography, by type device accessing the search, by product category, and more. Once served, you can also manipulate and sort the data. In the below example, limiting results to the Anti-Aging category, I queried for some skincare keywords as searched for on mobile devices within the U.S. and then sorted by the most popular U.S. searches.

You can take your favorite keywords from this list and toggle over to the Traffic Estimator to get some projections on volume and cost, both of which the media buyer might want to use for perspective if you’re trying to deliver a direct response campaign through display advertising and needs to negotiate CPMs on an eCPA basis.

Google Trends: Media buyers looking to do mass marketing naturally gravitate to popular content for all the eyeballs it attracts. Similarly, Google Trends tracks and showcases what’s “hot” in search at the moment. You can capitalize on these trends if you can move quickly and have ad creative and budget at the ready.Twitter Search and Trending Topics: You can also gauge the current pulse of a keyword, especially more unique ones, by seeing how many tweets mention it. Do these tweets link to sites that might be useful for your media plan? Use Advanced Twitter Search to pinpoint more specifically if appropriate. Twitter’s Trending Topics – though often a jumble of nonsensical hashtags plus celebrity names – may also help identify opportunities for quick of-the-moment ad buys.

Useful Information From Competitive Search

In addition to datamining existing advertiser and generic public assets, it can be useful to apply the same techniques as above to some of the free and paid competitive search tools. Google AdWords’ Analyze Competition feature, SEMRush, and SpyFu are all free or quasi-free tools. The Search Monitor, a for-fee platform, gives all kinds of juicy information about competitors as well as trademark infringements and affiliate miscreants. AdGooroo, also a for-fee platform, has some similar elements as The Search Monitor along with a “Display Insight” feature which can definitely be exploited by a media planner/buyer.

Another Thing You Can Do With Keywords

I’m a big fan of contextual advertising, much of which is based on keywords, so your campaign may only perform as well as you’ve compiled a sound list of proven keywords to provide to your vendors. Your contextual network representative can tell you not only how many impressions they estimate, but also what related keywords you might have missed and other opportunities to exploit your list.

Want to hear more on this topic? Come hear me speak on the “Crossing the Digital Divide: The Leap from Search to Display” panel at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York next month!

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Video: Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk’s ‘grand larceny’ glove save

While watching this Devan Dubnyk(notes) save on Olli Jokinen(notes) of the Calgary Flames from Saturday night, keep in mind that the Edmonton Oilers goalie is 6-foot-6 … so this nimble move to snag the puck with his glove was pretty stellar:

There haven't been many "save of the year" candidates recently in the NHL, so this one should be in the mix. If Oilers teammate Magnus Paajarvi(notes) had a vote, Dubnyk would receive it; via CHED's Dan Tencer on Twitter, quoting Paajarvi tonight:

"If that isn't the save of the year, I don't know. He saved me because I was on the ice and would have been minus."

Killer reactions on that play from Dubnyk. This was one of those shots that, in real time, you're thinking is a tap-in for Jokinen. Dubnyk had other designs, apparently.

Related: Magnus Paajarvi, Devan Dubnyk, Olli Jokinen, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Puck Videos

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“All These Keywords in my AdWords Campaign Can’t Be Hurting, Can They?” WRONG! They Can!

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Mar 18th, 2011

When managing an AdWords campaign, one of the most common mistakes people make is piling on too many keywords.  Their assumption—that more keywords equals more chances for their ad to be shown and get clicked—seems like a logical one.  However, what they fail to realize is that having too many keywords is most likely dragging their Quality Score down.

These so-called “bad keywords” are easy to spot in your AdWords campaigns by checking the Status column:

The quality and relevance of your keywords and ads are the most important factors in your campaign’s ranking and performance.  An individual keyword’s Quality Score is determined by its click-through rate (CTR), relevance to its Ad Group, historical performance, and other relevancy factors.  Therefore, the higher the Quality Score of your keywords, the less you pay for each click on your ad.

In this light, you can think of your Google AdWords campaign as an equation with the Quality Score being the most important part:

Google’s Quality Score is intended to ensure search users that they will find the information they are looking for quickly and easily by showing only those ads which are most relevant to their search queries.

Here’s the official explanation on Quality Scores from Google:

The AdWords system calculates a Quality Score for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

A Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query — that is, every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad. Quality Score is used in several different ways, including:

Google recommends that accounts are best organized in the following way:

One campaignSeveral tightly themed ad groups10-35 relevant keywords per ad group2-3 relevant ads per ad group

The best way to improve your keywords’ quality scores is by optimizing your account.  Here are some specific things that you can do:

Make sure that each keyword in each ad group closely relates to the ad(s) and the landing page.Don’t use broad or general keywords since they tend to generate many impressions but very few clicks.Strive to optimize keywords with a low CTR.Vary the match types.Use keywords made up of two or three words.Include relevant variations (plural, singular, synonyms, misspellings, etc.).Get rid of low search volume keywords unless they are: A new productA competitor’s termSeasonalEvent-based keywords

P.S.  If you need help optimizing your AdWords campaigns for higher Google Quality Scores, we offer a full suite of PPC Campaign Management services.  Give us a call at (410) 942-0488 or submit an RFP to learn how we can help.

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Davis outlasts Nogueira to win UFN 24 main event

Phil Davis kept up the winning ways for Penn State wrestlers on Saturday night in Seattle, as he won his Ultimate Fight Night decision, 30-27, on all three cards over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. His alma mater won the Division I NCAA wrestling championship last Saturday.

Nogueira took the lead early, as he tagged Davis a few times in the first round. Nogueira's takedown defense was markedly improved from his last bout -- a loss to Ryan Bader -- as he stopped every takedown attempt from Davis in the first round. Davis, a Division I national champion wrestler at Penn State, was clearly frustrated by not being able to use his biggest weapon.

Davis' movement did not slow in the second round, but he still had a hard time getting inside to land any strikes. Nogueira continued to land punches here and there, just enough to keep Davis at bay. Finally, Davis managed a takedown in the final two minutes of the round. Though Nogueira came close to getting back to his feet, Davis kept him on the ground and punished him. He landed several punches to the head and body, then finished the round by throwing knees into Nogueira's side several times.

Nogueira's takedown defense wilted by the third round. Davis used a single leg to take Nogueira to the ground, and smothered him for at least a minute. Halfway through the round, they returned to their feet, with Nogueira stalking Davis around the Octagon. But Davis returned to his bread and butter and took Nogueira down again. He maintained in that position for the rest of the bout. Nogueira tried to kick Davis off, but couldn't do it.

After the fight, Davis was honest about his training camp.

"I was falling apart in this training camp. I had all types of injuries," Davis said. He wasn't surprised that Nogueira stopped his takedowns. "I know he's tough. He's resilient. He learns."

Heading into this bout, this match-up had been hyped up as a reincarnation of Shogun-Bones from UFC 128, since both Davis and the new light heavyweight champ, Jon Jones, are young, up-and-coming stars with wrestling bases. They were both fighting Brazilians who were stars in Pride.

Davis showed that he still has a while to go until he's ready for a title shot, but there's nothing wrong with that. He still is an exciting prospect in the UFC's light heavyweight division. He is now 9-0 in MMA, 5-0 in the UFC. Nogueira, the twin brother of former UFC heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, is now 19-5. This is his second loss in a row in the Octagon, as he dropped a decision to Ryan Bader at UFC 119.

Related: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Phil Davis, Ultimate Fight Night 24

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Foot infection made Zydrunas Ilgauskas’s feet even grosser than usual

Feet are really pretty disgusting, unless you're into that sort of thing, which is fine, because BDL accepts all lifestyles. But most people look at feet and see an unfortunate necessity of human life. Call me crazy, but I'm not a huge fan of a part of the body that stays locked inside a cloth and leather (or whatever your shoes are made of) tomb all day long. There is a reason why only the crazy people in med schools want to be chiropodists.

I mention these topics not to scare you from reading the rest of this post, but to note that feet are already among the worst body parts. So, for a minute, imagine that you had a terrible foot infection that doubled their size. Because that's what happened to Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskas(notes). From Brian Windhorst for the Heat Index (via Eye on Basketball):

Zydrunas Ilgauskas thought he had a blister on his foot and didn't pay close attention to it. But when he showed up for a game and the foot was twice its normal size and redness was moving up his leg, Miami Heat team doctors sent him to the emergency room.

What followed were a scary couple of days when Ilgauskas learned he had a type of strep infection and perhaps even the dangerous and antibiotic-resistant strain known as MRSA. He said he and the team have not been able to determine the source of the infection.

"I can deal with broken bones but when something from inside attacks you, I've never had that before," Ilgauskas said after taking part in shootaround with the Heat on Friday morning. [...]

Ilgauskas was in the hospital for three days and later had to receive follow-up IV treatments at home to rid the bacteria from his system. He also said he had an important MRI that looked at some hardware in his foot, which was part of a complex procedure to rebuild his foot that saved his career 10 years ago.

Wow, that is extremely disgusting and I'm almost sorry I brought it to your attention. I promise to write a post about puppy dogs and cotton candy for Monday. Don't worry, it won't be forced, because those are Stephen Curry's(notes) two favorite things.

Despite the fact that this story is pretty much the worst and I never want to read about it again, there are some important points to be learned here from Big Z's reaction to the injury. This man has had enough foot problems to test the most patient of souls -- they almost ended his career in the late-'90s -- but those injuries all involved bones. This ailment is far different, so much so that Ilgauskas imagines that it's eating his foot from the inside like some kind of structural defect. He speaks of it as far more insidious than a mere freak injury, even though it's much more a matter of chance than a broken foot.

Injuries are a fact of professional athletics, especially for insanely tall men. However, a new one can surprise even someone who's been through as much as Zydrunas, a man who seems to have come to terms with his weak feet. It's a potent reminder that a career in basketball is an emotional test as well as a physical one.

Related: Stephen Curry, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

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Vince Neil -- I Didn't Touch My Ex!

Sources close to Vince Neil tell TMZ the singer is quite adamant ... he didn't lay his hands on anyone during an alleged confrontation with his ex-girlfriend.

As TMZ first reported, Neil's ex-girlfriend filed a battery report with Las Vegas PD after she claimed Neil got physical with her and a friend.

But sources close to Neil paint a slightly different picture. We're told Neil is telling friends he was at the Las Vegas Hilton, but that's where his restaurant, Tres Rios Cantina, is located.

According to our source, Neil is telling people he bumped into his ex and did exchange words with her -- but he maintains he never touched her. In fact, our source says Neil claims it was her who got physical with him in the hotel lobby ... and he's now considering pressing charges of his own.

We're told Neil in confident the whole thing will be resolved shortly.

Cee Lo Green: 'I Could Have Gone Comfortably Numb A Long Time Ago' 'Sucker Punch': Girl Power On Steroids

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Olivia Munn Dazzles At The Opera; Her Show, 'Perfect Couples,' Gets Axed By NBC

Olivia Munn looked ravishing in a strapless black velvet gown by Yves Saint Laurent and black opera gloves at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City Thursday night.

The sexy star, who received word earlier this week that NBC would be pulling her sitcom, Perfect Couples, in favor of a new Paul Reiser show (which is called The Paul Reiser Show) was in town to see the gala premiere of Rossini's "Le Comte Ory" opera which was sponsored by Laurent.

After getting the news about her show Tuesday she Tweeted, "I Heart @NBCPerfect. Like goin on a great trip- amazing experience & memories, but eventually ends...Big Hug! Now onto the next adventure!!"

Perfect Couples hasn't been canceled yet; however Reiser's show is scheduled to make its debut on April 14, which leaves a couple of episodes of Couples unaired, and that's not a good sign.

But Olivia still features as a correspondent on fake news show The Daily Show; and she just shot a new Carl's Jr. commercial with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (pic below). She'll also star in the upcoming I Don't Know How She Does It, with an all-star cast, including Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Jessica Szohr, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers, and Jane Curtin.

Spent all day shootin NEW @CarlsJr campaign w/@KAJ33. So fun! And no. No, I dont c anything off in this pic. Do u?

Who better 2 go 2 my first opera w/than @emmyrossum? Cant understand a word, but Im clapping alot.

More: Celeb Photo Features | Fashion Photo Features

Click for more great Olivia Munn pictures:

© 2011 Starpulse.com Photo Credits: Janet Mayer / PR Photos Russell Crowe: 'Christchurch Needs Its Mates' Cee Lo Green: 'I Could Have Gone Comfortably Numb A Long Time Ago'

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Quickish morning after: Reaction to Ohio State’s loss

Quickish is a new quick-hit, real-time service that tips you off to the best analysis of the biggest stories in sports. From Quickish's editors, here is a selection of the best proclamations and exclamations coming off Thursday night's Sweet 16 games:

If Duke losing in the NCAA Tournament is a moment for national celebration, the game when the odds-on favorite to win the entire Tournament is bounced out in the regional semifinals is a moment for -- if nothing else -- this:

"Well, there goes my bracket." #afewmillionpeople
(Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan)

Check out other things people had to say during and after Kentucky's upset win over once-imposing Ohio State:

Ouch (but sorta true)
*So between that game and Jim Tressel, I'm guessing they're just going to start calling themselves AN Ohio State University.
(National Post's Bruce Arthur)

How they did it
*The Cats were the more athletic team, the tougher team, the hungrier team. Consider that Kentucky blocked 11 shots. Ohio State blocked one.
(Lexington Herald-Leader's John Clay)

The unexpected star
*It's the Josh Harrellson show, ladies and gentlemen. Not just a cute story anymore, the guy is dominating.
(SI's Stewart Mandel)

What a shot by Knight
*Brandon Knight couldn't have been defended any better by Craft. Hand was all over his face. Perfect contest. Tough tough shot for the win.
(DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony)

Buckeyes' worst game of the year
*Kentucky deserves plenty of credit, but George Mason would probably really like a crack at this Ohio State team too.
(Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Eisenberg)

All credit to Coach Cal
*Tonight is the latest reminder that John Calipari's recruiting and Calipari-ness overshadow his ability to coach a defense.
(Basketball Prospectus' Kevin Pelton)

More love for Calipari
*Maybe it'll take the rare season when Kentucky isn't the most talented team for people to appreciate Calipari is doing more than just stomping his feet and waving his arms on the sideline.
(Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel)

The reaction in Columbus
*The season can end in the blink of an eye or the flick of the wrist, but then the Buckeyes already knew that. And no matter how many times it happens, it always feels the same.
(Columbus Dispatch's Bob Hunter)

The big news after the loss
*Jared Sullinger says he will be back next year.
(CBSSports.com's Matt Norlander)

Sullinger, in his own words
"I'm gonna be here, gonna be at Ohio State next year... I'm a man of my word. That's period, point blank. I'm coming back."
(Jared Sullinger, via CBSSports.com)

Front Page: Lexington, Kentucky
"BUCKEYES SHOT DOWN"
(Lexington Herald-Leader via Newseum.org)

Video
*Watch the thrilling endings of both Kentucky-Ohio St and VCU-Florida St.
(CBS/TBS/YouTube)

Of course, the two great evening-enders eclipsed the first half of the night, two mind-numbing blowouts best captured by these messages while it was going on:

Yikes
*CBS announcers soon reduced to reading UNC and Marq.'s notable alumi list off wikipedia. Chris Farley v Andy Griffith-thats the matchup!
(NPR's Mike Pesca)

Yeesh
*How uncompetitive are these NCAA games? I'm now watching the Wizards on CSN.
(Sports Business Journal's John Ourand)

Blowout Humor
*NCAA: Even CBS is bored. They just did a live look-in to the empty Two and Half Men set
(Late Show's Eric Stangel)

It felt like it
*For anyone still wondering, Kansas won. I think the final score was 1 million to 6.
(ESPN's Pat Forde)

In a word...
*bored
(Basketball Prospectus' Ken Pomeroy)

But let's not end on such a dull note.

Here is the image of the night:
*VCU coach Shaka Smart, triumphant.
(via Mocksession)

For more quick-hit, real-time updates of the best commentary from all the best sources throughout the NCAA tournament, check out Quickish.

Related: Ohio State Buckeyes

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Cleveland Browns fan sues NFL in attempt to end lockout

Fans are getting involved in the NFL's labor battle.

A Cleveland businessman is suing the National Football League and its teams, claiming his right to buy tickets through his personal seat license has been violated because of the lockout. Ken Lanci, a self-made millionaire, has asked the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to overturn the lockout that is threatening the 2011 NFL season.

He is seeking $25,000 in breach of contract from the Cleveland Browns and the same amount from the league and its teams for contract interference.

In a phone interview with the Associated Press, Lanci summed up his complaint:

"It's a fight between billionaires and millionaires. There isn't any sympathy for multi-millionaires. It's just not going to happen. And somebody has to stand up and say, 'Enough's enough.'"

In other interviews he's called out the owners for being greedy and players for being ungrateful for making so much money when many in the country are suffering. But isn't he a millionaire himself? Was this lawsuit filed from a glass house?

I'm so confused. Between the billionaire owners and the millionaire players and the millionaire businessman who is calling out his rich brethren, I don't know who to root for. This is like watching a Soviet Union-East Germany hockey game from the 1976 Olympics.

Since everything I know about the law was learned from staying home sick from school and watching "Matlock," I can't speak to the validity of the lawsuit. However, on the surface it doesn't appear to have much merit. As I understand it, PSLs give buyers the right to buy season tickets. As long as there's a refund policy, where's the breach of contract. (And this ignores the fact that the lockout is still five whole months from canceling games.)

Kudos to Lanci for stepping up and trying to force the NFL's hand, but this isn't the way a lockout is going to end. It'd be more effective if wealthy fans like himself said they weren't going to buy tickets even if a lockout is averted. If enough of that happened, then the league might have to take notice.

Related: Cleveland Browns

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Trending Topics: Sometimes hate is a good thing in hockey

Trending Topics is a new column that looks at the week in hockey according to Twitter. If you're only going to comment to say how stupid Twitter is, why not just go have a good cry for the slow, sad death of your dear internet instead?

You need one of two things to make a regular season matchup really great.

The first are playoff implications, and for obvious reasons. Who wasn't glued to Wednesday's wild finish in Dallas, where Teemu Selanne(notes) and the Anaheim Ducks plucked two seemingly impossible points from a team with whom they're scrambling madly for a Western Conference playoff spot?

The second is bloodlust.

For all the blustery pronouncements that violence is bad for the sport and everyone's gonna stop watching boo hoo hoo, let's not all act like we won't tune in to see the Penguins and Islanders in their first game since the whole big dustup in a few weeks.

Likewise, you watched last night's Bruins/Canadiens tilt for sure.

And why? Because more often than not, genuine hatred between two clubs makes a sporting event, whether it's on the first day of the season or the last, enthralling appointment television.

(Coming Up: The "What Recchi Thinks" meme and your pearls of BizNasty.)

In Spain, they even have a term for it. It's commonly used to describe enmity between two football teams, their fans and their cities that is itself a near-living thing. There's a wonderful book about it by a journalist named Phil Ball — born in Vancouver, incidentally — called "Morbo."

That, the Spanish say, is the word. It's not just hatred for the sake of generating dollars and headlines, though it does that too. It's the feeling of rage that builds behind the eyes of any fan who sees their rival's logo, and that arises naturally when two combatants that just plain don't like each other clash time and again, never really gaining or losing any ground to the other in an appreciable sense.

But the greatest kind of morbo, the kind that steals away the attention of two entire cities for a whole night, is when the feeling extends beyond the stands and into the dressing rooms.

Teams that don't like each other tend to put on entertaining hockey games, whether the NHL's head of officiating is in the building or not. Not every game has to degenerate into a pastiche of dropped sticks and gloves, and no one has to be carted off on a stretcher. They can just plain not like each other, and that makes the games all the more gripping.

Especially right now, the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens have what you'd call mucho morbo. This was legitimately the third "Most Important Game of the Season" between the two teams. That was helped in no small way by the comments of both Mark Recchi(notes) and Milan Lucic(notes) the day before that game — clearly designed to take some of the heat off Zdeno Chara(notes) — and the hysteria that ensued. Everyone in the hockey world got sucked into it.

Was it right for Recchi to say that? Wasn't he just saying what everyone else thought at the time? Did he get baited into it? That was all discussed ad nauseum until it came time for the game to actually start.

In fact, it got so bad, so quickly, that the Bruins canceled their morning skate ahead of the game and didn't make any players available to the legions of Quebec-based reporters sent down from their home province, slavering for even the slightest quote that could be spun expertly into anti-Montreal or, better yet, pro-hockey violence rhetoric.

Not that the Boston media didn't do its part to build the controversy. After all, it was the media's leading questions that allegedly goaded Recchi and Lucic to the "taking in a movie three days after his concussion" talking point like they were well-coached PR flaks, and its columns that defended Chara's hit as part being nothing out of the ordinary or untoward, wondering too-casually-to-be-casual what all the fuss was even about.

As a result, the city was abuzz all day with Habs/Bruins chatter, most of it angry. People grilled me about it at the office, and they talked about it loudly in the streets.

The way it should be.

And sure, last night's resulting game didn't live up to the antagonism on which the hype built. They don't always do; how could they possibly? Last night's game could have been a beautiful, hard-nosed battle between two teams trying to show the other that they weren't going to deal with each other's crap. Or it could have been dulled by players afraid of incurring the wrath of the league's top disciplinarians ahead of the postseason.

Instead, it was a game the Bruins controlled from the outset and just continually widened with convincing possession and sure special teams.

In any event, we'd still have been hoping that, come the postseason, it would yield at least four more rematches of this wonderful rivalry, that is only rooted deeper with every passing contest.

That's morbo, and hockey, at its very best.

#RecchiThinks

So yes, Recchi stirred up some controversy with what has commonly become known as armchair neurology. Loudly wondering about the severity of another person's concussion on one instance of him going to the movies, and using that as an indicator of just how bad the symptoms could have been, brought his judgment into question for many.

So what else does Recchi think?

@TheRick625: Liz Taylor is a faker.

@Pat_Egan: the Japanese should have put on some swimmies and called it a day.

@jdickie: a buck for a candy bar is ridiculous! When he was a kid, they were only a nickel!

@MissingMalone: there is crying in baseball.

@DontTradeVinny: Clint Malarchuk just cut himself shaving.

@rshappy91: you can wear socks with sandals

@srichardson1980: you should turn down your hip hop music and pull your pants up.

Pearls of Biz-dom

We all know that there isn't a better Twitter account out there than that of Paul Bissonnette(notes). So why not find his best bit of advice on love, life and lappers from the last week?

BizNasty on getting quality minutes:

"Career high in ice time tonight. 19 minutes. #ThanksToWarmUps"

If you've got something for Trending Topics, holla at Lambert on Twitter or via e-mail. He'll even credit you so you get a thousand followers in one day and you'll become the most popular person on the Internet! You can also visit his blog if you're so inclined.

Related: Milan Lucic, Teemu Selanne, Paul Bissonnette, Mark Recchi, Zdeno Chara, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens

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Fans Pay Tribute To Nate Dogg In California

Hundreds of fans flocked to pay tribute to late hip-hop star Nate Dogg at a public viewing of his body in California on Friday.

The 41 year old died last week after a long battle with ill health and his loyal devotees were given a chance to say goodbye at the New Hope Baptist Church in his native Long Beach, California ahead of a planned funeral on Saturday.

Hundreds queued up outside the church as they waited to go inside and many left notes and tributes to the late star as they paid their last respects.

Nate Dogg's family has made 1,000 tickets available for his funeral at the Long Beach Cruise Terminal, which will be followed later in the day by a memorial service.

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NCAA Hockey: Union’s power failure; Michigan’s disputed goal

In which we recap the day's events in the NCAA tournament, via Puck Daddy columnist Ryan Lambert.

Ah, the inherent unfairness of a single-elimination tournament.

It's not really the world's hugest upset when a nine-seed drops an eight-seed from the NCAA tournament; but the way in which the Bulldogs of Minnesota-Duluth ousted the Union Dutchmen is quite remarkable.

At the end of the day, you can pin the 2-0 loss on any number of things, but the most notable is that Union's power play was, for the first time all year, completely and utterly unsuccessful.

The Dutchmen entered the day with by far the best power play percentage in the nation at 31 percent. That's 31. Thirty. One. Twenty percent is a good power play. Twenty-five is untouchable. And 31 is breathtaking. No one, to put it simply, scores on 31 percent of their power play opportunities over the course of an entire season.

And yet here was Union, scoring 51 times on 164 power plays, and that led many to believe that, whatever UMD did, it should not, under any circumstances, start taking boneheaded penalties. So what did Scott Sandelin's team do? It went to the penalty box three times in the first 9:07 of the game, which would seem to be an astonishingly bad strategy.

And yet, Union seemed completely unable to accomplish anything on the man advantage that had plagued opponents all year. In the end, it went 0-for-9 on the power play. It was just the ninth time all season that Union failed to register a power play goal, and certainly no one gave them more opportunity than the Bulldogs.

Offensive zone draws? They didn't win many on the power play. Not any that amounted to something worth noting anyway. Any shots they put together were from quite a distance, and never bothered Kenny Reiter, whose season-long stats are respectable but not impressive, and who comfortably made 32 saves to pick up his third shutout of the year.

An actual excerpt from my notes in the first period:

"At some point, Union has to admit that its power play just isn't working instead of forcing the puck low and losing it immediately."

In fact, most of Union's power-play time was spent digging the puck out from under its own faceoff circles, where UMD frequently dumped it after gaining it with alarming ease. In short, it seemed as though the Dutchmen had little to no desire to fight for the puck at all. "Oh it's along the boards?" the forwards seemed to say. "Let 'em have it then."

What's surprisingly about all this is that Duluth's first power play chance yielded an alarmingly easy goal, as left wing Kyle Schmidt put his stick on the ice and lazily deflected a soft shot from Mike Montgomery past Union's Keith Kincaid (he of the 1.98 GAA coming in). That was a convincing enough lead for the Bulldogs and Justin Fontaine's doubling of it early in the third period — also on the power play, incidentally — always seemed like it would be plenty.

In the end, both teams seemed eager to parade their way to the penalty box, but the team with the lethal regular-season power play was the one that ended up going home.

What that tells us about the relative strength of ECAC scheduling versus that of the WCHA is not for me to say, but let's just keep in mind that a season slate that includes juggernauts such as Niagara, UConn, American International and Army isn't exactly the kind of thing that fills out a team's strength of schedule to its absolute maximum.

In fact, that's the kind of thing that usually gets you into the tournament but bounced immediately, ridiculous power play or not. But such is the nature of any single-elimination tournament. If the bread and butter on which your entire season's work is constructed eludes you for even an hour, you can go ahead and start scheduling tee times.

The golf courses in Duluth, if they're open, will have to wait at least one more day.
Three stars

1. Jaden Schwartz, Colorado College

Boston College opened the scoring just 19 seconds into this first-round game, but Schwartz, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues, picked up a point on the next three goals of the game, all in the span of less than 3:30, to put the game firmly out of reach. By the end of the first period, CC was up 4-1. Through two, it was 7-2 to the Tigers, and Schwartz had added another goal, which stood up as the game-winner. No one expected BC, which had won two of the last three titles, to go down in an 8-4 flameout, but Schwartz, along with linemate and older brother Rylan (who also had four points), was merciless.

2. Kevin Lynch, Michigan

Nebraska-Omaha went up two goals in the first period, but Lynch (a Columbus Blue Jackets draftee) put the Wolverines on his back midway through the second and gutted out a controversial win. He scored not only the game-tying goal at 8:36 of the middle period, but added the overtime game-winner that took a full 10 minutes of review and, frankly, is still inconclusive. I can't find video of it at the moment, but there was not one angle that showed the puck definitively crossing the line. A lot of suppositions can be made, and it was probably the right call in the end, but we'll never know for sure.

From the Boston Globe, how Nebraska-Omaha saw it:

Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais said it was one of the toughest losses of his career.  "The referee said it was in and we have to accept that,'' he said.

Faulkner wasn't sure what happened.  "I swiped at the puck with my right leg,'' he said. "I'm not 100 percent sure if it went it. It's a bitter pill to swallow.''

Here's Michigan in the postgame comments:

3. Chad Ziegler, Yale

The No. 1 seed in the tournament shouldn't have to go to overtime against the No. 16 team, but that's what Yale was compelled to do against an impressive bend-but-don't-break performance from a resilient Air Force. Ziegler scored just 3:16 into overtime to ice the game, but did little to assuage concerns that the Bulldogs would run into serious problems against Duluth.

Ryan Lambert covers the NCAA hockey tournament for Puck Daddy. You can e-mail him here if you want, but you should definitely follow him on Twitter.

Related: Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues

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