Dale Earnhardt Jr

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not have a win under his belt yet this season, and we already are all aware the same is true for his past 76 Sprint Cup starts, but he is quietly putting together the best season of his 9 year career. The thing that has always been his downfall has been consistency, but this season he continues to put down great finish after great finish, and Sunday at Pocono was no exception.Dale Jr. was running Top5 to Top10 all day until pit strategy moved him further back.  But he continued trucking along, picking his way back up through the field,finishing a solid fourth at the tricky triangle that is Pocono. He has only finished outside the Top15 in two races thus far this season, and with Kyle Busch's 43rd place finish Sunday, he has climbed back within shouting distance of the point lead at 145 markers back.We are 14 races into the 2008 season and here are Earnhardt's current stats this season:Starts: 14Poles: 1Wins: 0Top5: 6 (Tied for 2nd most in 2008 Sprint Cup)Top10: 10 (Tied for most in 2008 Sprint Cup)Laps Led: 527 (Has led in all but four races in 2008)DNF's: 0Avg. Finish: 11.2 (Career Best)Those are some pretty impressive stats through 14 races, even though he hasn't been flashy like Kyle Busch or Carl Edwards have by pulling into victory lane, its alright because he is correcting the one thing we all used to criticise him on...beingconsistent.. Sunday night was supposed to be the answer to the question of whether or not Paul Pierce's knee would hold up, as his team faced off against the Kobe Bryant-led Lakers in Game Two of the NBA Finals.Evidently it did, and Pierce finished the game with 28 points and eight assists, leading the Celtics in a hard-fought, 108-102 victory.But, this game was not won by the players alone It was completely controlled by the referees. Bryant went out of the game early with two questionable fouls and sat for the rest of the first half.

This paved the way for the Celtics to begin their takeover.With Bryant on the bench, Boston was able to go on a spurt and take a comfortable lead. Other Lakers who got into foul trouble were Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher, two of the focal points of the Lakers offense.Watching the game, I witnessed Laker players being shoved, pushed, and slapped with no whistle blown. It was truly depressing to see such a one-sided game.Also, I don't call this coincidence when Leon Powe, a routine bench player for the Celtics, gets more foul shots (13) than the entire Lakers team (10)!I'm not saying that poor Lakers defense didn't put them into a hole they couldn't dig out of, I'm just saying a huge amount of bad calls frustrated the Lakers and put them into that situation.When Kobe received his technical foul with 8:59 left in the third quarter, I was not surprised to see this side of the MVP. His team was completely dismantled by the lack of calls going its way, therefore destroying this highly anticipated game.I was glad to see the Lakers pull off their near-upset when they cut the lead down to two, and hope to see a change in the way the games in the NBA Finals are reffed.Congratulations to the Celtics for their "hard-earned" win And good luck to the teams in Game Three.. The Associated Press has reported that Detroit Red Wings superstar goaltender Dominik Hasek will announce his retirement from the NHL Monday.The Red Wings have supposedly scheduled a press conference, and word is that the Hasek announcement will come then.If the report is true, then it marks the end of a truly remarkable career for one of the best goalies of all-time.The six-time Vezina Trophy winner as the league's top netminder, now 43 years of age, is only 11 wins shy of 400 in his career.

Hasek owns a sparkling 2.20 career GAA.Hasek didn't become a No. The first such incident came in that 1996-97 season, when Hasek took himself out in the first round against Ottawa. The legitimacy of Hasek's injury was questioned by some in the media, and even on his own team.The Sabres, the No. 2 seed in the East, eventually fell to Philadelphia in the second round.When Hasek played for the Ottawa Senators during the 2005-06 season, he injured his groin and didn't return for the playoffs. The Sens, the top seed in the East, floundered with unproven Ray Emery, and Hasek wasn't brought back.Despite the controversies though, Hasek also has been a team player. What hasn't been well-documented was the fact the "Dominator" actually reportedly refused half of his 2003-04 salary from the Red Wings when he was injured for most of that season.And, Hasek has an Olympic gold medal, which he won during the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.

By the way, Hasek dominated during that 1997-98 season, finishing with an amazing 13 shutouts in 72 games, both career highs.The "Dominator" was in goal against my Boston Bruins in Game Four of the 1993 Adams Division Semi-Finals, having replaced an injured Fuhr in the second period.Hasek, an unproven goalie at the time (he'd been traded by Chicago to Buffalo for mediocre backup goalie Stephane Beauregard), allowed only a goal as the Sabres rallied to eliminate the Bruins in the "May Day" Brad May game.It was Hasek's first career playoff win, and he would win 64 more in the postseason.Dominik Hasek: one of the best the NHL has ever seen The "Dominator" will definitely be missed.. Dale Earnhardt Jr. managed to pull off another top-five finish for himself and his crew at Hendrick Motorsports.Though it looked like a pit strategy was going to help Earnhardt off to a possible win with fewer than twenty laps to go, it seemed as though his tires just couldn't manage to outdo those with four fresh ones.The decision to stay off the pit road on the final caution of the race gained Dale a second place position for the last restart.After the green flag dropped, Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin came on strong, and got by Junior after a brief struggle fighting for the position. Earnhardt was obviously hungry for a win and was trying everything in his power to get his car back into victory lane.There was nothing for fans to complain about, though, Junior's had a great season in 2008 thus far. With six top fives and ten top tens, he's clearly doing just fine for himself.In an earlier article from the AP this year, Junior said that his main goal was just that, "consistency." He's definitely shown his fans that he hasn't forgotten his talent and never did, he just needed better equipment to work with He's definitely got that and it shows. I have a feeling a win is lurking around the corner for Dale Earnhardt Jr.