Dan Boyle

Dan Boyle, Boyle didn’t deserve to be the focus of one of those witty ad satires (History will be made) up on, the ones that are posted there with such amazing speed.

Boyle didn’t deserve to go into the pantheon of monumental sporting mess-ups, alongside Steve Smith, Donnie Moore, Jim Marshall, Ralph Branca, Fred (Bonehead) Merkel, on and on.

There is no doubt about what Boyle did. Just 51 seconds into overtime, Boyle, attempting to rim the puck around the back boards, instead ripped a high, hard backhand shot past his own goalie, Evgeny Nabokov, and just like that, a dominant 51-shot performance by the San Jose Sharks ended in a 1-0 loss, putting them down 2-1 in their Western Conference playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.

Instantly, you could see the anguish that moment was causing Boyle, who swung his stick in helpless frustration before skating to the players’ bench and slouching off to the locker room with his stunned teammates.

On the TV, you could see players asking each other what had happened. How had that one gone in, and so forth.

CBC announcers Mark Lee and Kevin Weeks initially spoke of the gamewinner as a freak goal by Ryan O’Reilly. It was only minutes later, after they saw the replay that Mark Lee saw that it was an own goal, on a no-doubt-about-it shot by Boyle.

You have to feel for Boyle, a nice guy and a splendid player who won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004, helped Canada win gold at the 2010 Olympics and has been a sparkplug these past two seasons in San Jose.

europe flights

the no-fly zone across much of Britain after Iceland’s huge volcanic eruption this week is set to remain in force over the weekend, placing yet more strain on road, rail and ferry networks already struggling to cope with thousands of stranded passengers.

Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, who met officials at the Civil Aviation Authority, Met Office, and National Air Traffic Services today, said: “It is likely that significant disruption to most UK air services will continue for at least the next 48 hours”.

Few, if any flights, are expected over the weekend in England and Wales and the shutdown could carry into next week. Tonight Ryanair cancelled all flights in the area until at least 1pm Monday, citing weather trends that show little sign of blowing the plume away.

The ash cloud continued to hang over England and Wales today, held steady by high pressure.

The verdict from Adonis was the most bleak assessment yet of the impact of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on British air travel. Senior officials from National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said the Met Office was continuing to meet every six hours to update the restrictions and was trying to find even the smallest window to get flights in and out.

Shortly after noon today, Manchester airport opened for 30 minutes, then closed again. One flight from Barbados and another from Vancouver landed, while a plane took off for Sanford in Florida in readiness to return stranded holidaymakers when airspace opened again. The break in the ash cloud was so short that there was no time for any passengers to board the plane.

A handful of flights did leave Prestwick airport, and restrictions across much of Scotland’s airspace were lifted at 7pm tonight after the ash cloud drifted south. Nats added that there might be an opportunity for some flights to operate soon from the north into Newcastle.

“Even if there is a hole, say for example over Cardiff, there could still be areas of volcanic ash beyond that which makes opening the air space unsafe,” said Deborah Seymour, a spokeswoman for Nats. “It is a complicated and constantly changing picture. We want to get UK airspace open as soon as we can, but it is our priority to ensure safety.”

Fine sulphurous ash fell across the Shetland Islands coating cars, and many residents reported sore throats after venturing outside. A coastguard rescue helicopter had to mount a risky mission to ferry a seriously ill patient on the Out Skerries islands to hospital in Lerwick through the ash cloud. The helicopter returned coated in the fine glass-like dust.

North-westerly winds today continued to spread the vast plume, closing yet more European airspace in Germany, Poland and as far east as Russia. Europe’s skies were becalmed with just 11,000 flights today , compared with 28,000 on a normal day.

Almost two-thirds of all transatlantic flights into European airports were cancelled and authorities shut down airspace over France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belgium. As the cloud moved east, flights were halted at Frankfurt, Europe’s third-busiest airport, and at 10 other German airports.

In Iceland, the volcano continued to erupt, but volcanologists said was it less explosive than at the beginning of the eruption on Wednesday, which blasted glassy abrasive ash, destructive to aeroplane jet engines, eight miles into the sky. The plume was now rising to a height of just three miles, and the volcanologists said this would deposit ash only in Iceland and in the surrounding waters. It was not high enough to travel thousands of miles across Britain and the rest of Europe.

Matthew Roberts, a glaciologist at the Iceland Meteorological Office, said they had not ruled out further big blasts but added: “There is currently no new material being added to the ash stream affecting aviation in Europe.”

He also played down fears that Katla, a neighbouring larger volcano in Iceland, to the east of Eyjafjallajökull, could be stirred into life.

“There is a historical and geological linkage of Eyjafjallajökull erupting together with Katla, but we don’t see any measurable evidence that a larger and more hazardous eruption is due,” he said.

Airlines have been counting the cost of the stoppages, with analysts estimating that British Airways was losing £10m a day. The International Air Transport Association said European airlines were together losing $200m a day. “It could not come at a worse time for the industry,” a spokesman for IATA said.

“European airlines have been the hardest hit financially, facing $2.2bn losses this year. This is going to make a difficult situation worse.”

Stena Line, the ferry company, said it carried 5,000 extra passengers to Ireland, and P&O cross-Channel ferries said they were fully booked until Monday. Every Eurostar train was full today, carrying more than 46,000 passengers.

Network Rail had cancelled some engineering works to allow train operators to run more services over the weekend, particularly on the east and west coast main lines and on routes to the channel ports.

A group of business people paid a taxi driver £700 to take them from Belfast to London after they became stranded. Some were medics who needed to get home to see their patients, said Joe Duffy, the driver. He arrived back at Belfast port this afternoon after spending 24 hours on the road, covering a distance 869 miles. “It is only once in a lifetime you get a job like that,” he said. “You have to keep the wheels going.”

stanley cup

The Stanley Cup Playoffs: wonderfully unpredictable

National Hockey League

What did we learn from the seven series-opening games that commenced the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs? In truth, nothing new.What did we learn from the seven series-opening games that commenced the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs? In truth, nothing new.

Rather, we were reminded again and again of one thing that is an article of faith among hockey fans and can’t be pounded enough into the heads of the ice ignorami: that the NHL’s playoffs are the best in professional sports. And of a related truism that even those of us who live and die with the sport — and make our livings from it — misremember every early April only to be reminded as soon as the first playoffs puck is dropped: in the short term (on any given night and in any particular series) nothing about the Stanley Cup Playoffs is predictable.

(For those of you in San Jose shaking your heads in disgust while muttering, “the Sharks floundering come playoff time is completely predictable,” let us refer you to the New York Islanders of 1976 through 1979 or the Detroit Red Wings of 1993 through 1996. Sometimes, you do have to lose in excruciating fashion in order to learn how to win.)

Alex Ovechkin scores 50 goals for fourth time in five years and leads the League in shots on goal for the fifth time in his five NHL seasons? Of course, he doesn’t hit the net — or goaltender Jaroslav Halak — once in the Caps’ Game 1 OT loss to Montreal.

The Penguins, coming off two straight trips to the Final, draw an Ottawa team that went 18-21-2 on the road and required a mid-season, on-ice dodge ball game on a rink in Manhattan’s Central Park to find itself? Naturally, the Sens win in overtime in a whited-out Mellon Arena.

Brian Boucher hasn’t won a playoff game — and has appeared in only four — since the Clinton administration? Of course, he outplays the winningest goaltender of all-time, Martin Brodeur, in Philly’s Game 1 snatching at New Jersey.

Phoenix, undoubtedly just happy to be here after six years of wandering through the desert playoffs-less, draws the closest thing the NHL has had to a dynasty over the last decade? What else but a poised and relentless Coyotes performance that grabs their Game 1 against Detroit at a jacked-up Jobing.com Arena?

And the Avalanche, icing a team full of youngsters who might still be eligible to play in the Colorado state high school tournament and a goalie who seems to be wearing down, go into the surly Shark Tank to face the battle-hardened and Cup-or-bust likes of Thornton, Marleau, Heatley, Boyle, Blake, et al? Naturally, the Avs pull one out on a last-minute goal with goaltender Craig Anderson performing superbly.

Seven series openers. Seven one-goal games — including two that go into overtime. Seventh and eighth seeds unbeaten — which of you scoring at home know it means that the first and second seeds are winless. Utter mayhem.

milwaukee brewers

Opening Day is here at last for the Milwaukee Brewers. Anxious to recapture the excitement of their wild card run to the playoffs two years ago, the Milwaukee Brewers open the 2010 season today against the Colorado Rockies at Miller Park. A rebuilt pitching staff and new pitching coach in Rick Anderson, Carlos Gomez in centerfield and Greg Zaun behind the plate are just some of the changes in the Crew this season. Manager Ken Macha hopes the new arms of Randy Wolf, Doug Davis and LaTroy Hawkins in the bullpen will provide enough pitching depth to challenge the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in the National League Central Division.

The Green Bay Blizzard outscored Maryland 23-7 in the 4th Quarter Saturday night to win on the road 46-45, improving to 4-1 on the Indoor Football League Season. Quarterback Jake Phillips scored the game winning touchdown on a one yard run to cap the rally.