Is There a SportsProf Blessing?

SportsProf has talked about the jinx enough, but he wants to share with you perhaps a turnaround in the fate of his predictions or his actions. SportsProf was joking around with young SportsProf, a precocious little boy, and working with him on pronunciations of major sports figures. During the NBA season, and especially when the Sacramento Kings were hot, he would ask Young SP who his favorite NBA hoops player is, and with all the mellifluousness of a little boy, Young SP would thrust out his right arm and say, "Peja Stojakovic." Nailed it. Of course, the Kings ended up fading down the stretch, but this exercise in diction took place well before the Kings' problems, and even before Stojakovic was en route to having the MVP season that didn't turn out to be.

A similar thing, with better results, happened during the NHL playoffs, where SportsProf worked with Young SP on the pronunciation of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ruslan Fedotenko. This took place around the time of Game 5 of the NHL playoffs, and by last weekend Young SP was nailing the pronunciation. So what happened? Fedotenko became only the 8th player in NHL history to score 2 goals in Game 7 of a Stanley Cup final, and he was one of the heroes as the Bolts won their first Stanley Cup (SportsProf gives a big nod to Bolts' captain, Dave Andreychuk, who waited 22 years in the league before getting to his first NHL Finals, and to star Martin St. Louis, was was cut by Calgary years ago and had trouble making it past the third line on the Bolts but who has emerged, after lots of hard work, as one of the stars in the NHL).

Of course now the question is, what next? SportsProf is considering working with Young SP on the pronunciation of the name of Lakers' back-up frontcourter Slava Medvedenko, but SportsProf doubts that this player will be able to make that much of a difference in the NBA Finals. Still, given the iffy status of Karl Malone's knee, it might be worth a shot.