Sports report, 4/18...

I got to see the Montreal Canadiens play the Boston Bruins, but I almost wish I hadn't. Montreal looked just awful, and wound up losing the game 5-1, giving Boston a 2-0 lead in the series. They move to Canada for the next game, so maybe the Canadiens will be able to give them a bit of a challenge, but I'm really not feeling like they're going to make any kind of a serious comeback in the series. They just looked bad out there last game.

In other hockey playoff results, Detroit dominated Columbus with a 4-0 shutout, to bring their series lead to 2-0, too. The visiting Rangers shut out the Capitals 1-0, to bring that series to 2-0. New York has pretty much completely turned around the "home ice advantage," and the Capitals look like they're going to be in dire straits as they move the series to Madison Square Garden. And Chicago edged out Calgary, 3-2, to also take a 2-0 lead in that series.

In baseball, the Blue Jays outlasted the Oakland A's in Toronto. It took them 12 innings to finally outscore their visitors, 4-2. That win brings the Jays' record to 9-4. Everyone else in the AL West followed the A's lead: The Angels lost in Minnesota by a final of 9-2; the visiting Royals knocked off Texas, 2-0; and the Tigers also made themselves unwelcome guests in Seattle, knocking off the Mariners 2-0. That leaves the AL West standings pretty much the same as before: Seattle leads the division at 8-4, Oakland holds down the middle spot at 5-6, and Texas and the Angels pull up the rear at 4-7 each.

Ichiro was hitless in the Seattle game, striking out twice in four at-bats. As usual with a goose-egg performance, he had no RBIs. Surprisingly, he also had a throwing error in the game. I know it's not realistic to think he'll go completely without an error all season, but it's still kind of surprising to see it on the stat sheet. He's now 4-for-17 for the season, stuck at 5 RBIs.

And, not that it really matters to my AL West standings, but the final score in that Yankees game wound up being 22-4. That's just really got to make the people with their spendy season Yankees tickets feel great about paying for that new stadium. Heh...