Absolutely Zero Common Thread
Posted by jtbourne on November 6, 2009 · 24 Comments
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By the way, congrats to the World Series Champion New York Yankees.
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Anze Kopitar is killin’ it so far this year, isn’t he? The unfortunate news for the Kings is that he can’t keep it up, strictly based on the fact that he’s on my fantasy hockey team, and that’s his jinx. I’m sure he’ll suffer some rare injury that requires the entire removal of his frontal lobe, or he’ll contract some other selfish condition that’ll really damage my fantasy stats.
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Best picture ever:
What of it?
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I like that the Minnesota Wild logo is shaped like some sort of a cat, because it reminds me I’m not the only person who occasionally makes really bad decisions.
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I’ve realized that when I’m older, I’m going to have old-guy-eyebrows that young folk will describe as “unruly”.
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Kevin Weeks on NHL on the Fly is indescribable. Not because he’s so good, or because he’s so bad, but because I literally can’t figure out how to describe him. I think I like him, but he’s clearly as camera-comfortable as the Bruins offense is dangerous. (Oh, and shout-out to my boy Carey Price, the best fantasy goalie in the league… when playing the B’s).
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Big weekend for the kid. I’m going to Ralphie May tonight:
Here would be a clip if Ralphie could put together one full minute of clean(ish) comedy for me to run.
Then ASU/USC tomorrow:
Might be fun. I dunno. We’ll see.
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Though I agree with New York Times hockey blogger Stu Hackel 98% of the time (some of the most comprehensive NHL coverage around, with a nice dash of opinion) we disagree on one thing -- he thought that the suspension (the rest of the season) was too long for the hit shown below. A fair argument, but I liked the decision. Check out Stu’s thoughts on a major league cheap shot in major junior, who knows… you may think it’s charging-with-zero-respect-for-anyone too.
I do agree with him that suspending a player for “as long as the person he injured is out for” makes zero sense.
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The kid was in critical condition in intensive care with a fractured skull after. What’s alarming too, is that the kid who destroys him hits the next guy he sees too, which to me is a step below pulling out his bicep after and flexing. Even worse, he has the f**king audacity to leave the game with his gloves on. F**k me, I’m fired up thinking about it. Congrats tough guy.
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Need a different type of violence to feel better? Enjoy the best hair pull in the history of pulled hair:
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I found that fun, for some reason.
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I’m sure it’ll be tweet-fest ’98 from me at the ASU game -- if you don’t already follow me on Twitter, you can do so by clicking here. Have a great weekend folks!
I'm a hockey player turned writer. After playing for Alaska Anchorage in the WCHA (NCAA), I carried on with a NHL tryout (New York Islanders in 2007) before spending a couple seasons in the AHL/ECHL. My father, Bob Bourne, won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders in the '80's, as did my fiancee's dad, Clark Gillies. I'm now a columnist for USA Today, Puck Daddy (Y!) and Hockey Primetime.com.
Yup, rest of the year is fine by me.
I don’t agree with the “out as long as…” thing either. But a year long suspension should be enough to get someone thinking, “Maybe this way of playing is not the best thing for my career.”
It’s one thing, however, to see this in minors; the NHL really needs to step up to the plate on this. I think you are on the right track with the blows to the head. It is a simple thing to enforce: go high, goodbye. The league can then look at the tape and determine if there was a charge, or if the player may have ducked/crouched and made the contact worse.
Sometimes it is the most glaringly simple things that escape the grasp of the powers that be. I love hockey for the speed, skill and violence. but no one, at least anyone sane and with a heart, can say that that is hockey. That is assault. Plain. And. Simple.
Isn’t the Wild logo a Bear?
The best part is that I don’t know, and you seem uncertain too. How much more awesome is that for illustrating my point that it succccckkkks?!
Yeah, and the mascot is no help either.
http://tinyurl.com/yg26vaz
Don’t be jealous of the mullet.
On the up side, I found out last night that the Wild now has ice girls. Sad that this was the best part of the evening for the team, huh?
That is the most non-specific animal-like entity I’ve ever seen.
The Wild logo is a bear. Some people absolutely love it. It’s got the north star, trees, river, rising moon – very Minnesota-ish. I’ve never liked it. I do love the bear claws they sell to kids at the game!
Yes – there are ice girls..I’m pretty sure they are under age so keep the oogling and lewd thoughts to a minumum.
Get your eyebrows trimmed when you get haircuts – keeps them tidy. My husband’s used to get unruly. Random hairs growing vertically or parallel to the floor…frightening…thought he was morphing into a schnauzer.
Yep, just-underage-girls is the best way to keep lewd thoughts to a minimum. Well established fact there.
I will admit, I like the scenic part of the logo. Represents Minnesota well (well, actually… “outdoorsy” more than “scenic”).
I don’t like it either Bourne, but the facts speek for themselves. Not sure if my facts are completely right but, a couple of years back, Minnesota Wild merchandise was the top selling in the league. Everybody in the stadium has a jersey. Had to do something right?
Fun fact: I picked Anze Kopitar in the first round of my fantasy draft.
…last year. Sigh.
RE: the soccer clip – since when did Sean Avery start playing for New Mexico’s women’s soccer program?
When the Wild introduced their third jersey a couple weeks ago, there was an article on the website that said the Wild and the Red Wings have been one and two in terms of merchandise sales for the past 10 years.
The outdoorsy aspects do represent Minnesota well – well Northern Minnesota anyway. We’d need cows and cornfields to represent the southern part of the state….
And I always thought that logo was a wolf!
About that hit – not to absolve the guy of blame at all at all, but if the NHL keeps glorifying/not punishing hits to the head, kids are going to keep imitating imitate their elders.
On a practical note, though, I’ve always wondered why so many hockey players are so cavalier about the way they wear their helmets. So many of them have such loose “chin” straps that they might as well not wear them at all.
Thank you J.B. I know that was difficult for you. I’ll drink a blaster or 5 in your honor tonight at work.
jl
Just wikopedia’d the Minnesota Wild Logo, and it says theres a huge debate on what the animal is? There is no right answer, but I think it definately looks like a Cat of some sort. I don’t know what bears in minnesota look like, but they don’t look like that up here in Canada.
From Sports Encyclopedia.com
Minnesota Wild Logo:
A Bear’s head with a sun setting over a forest, with a river winding through at it’s mouth, making the eye is the North Star, in tribute to Minnesota’s original NHL team.
“From Sports Encyclopedia.com
Minnesota Wild Logo:
A Bear’s head with a sun setting over a forest, with a river winding through at it’s mouth, making the eye is the North Star, in tribute to Minnesota’s original NHL team.”
I would say it’s because we are the North Star State. We don’t like to think about the Norman Green and Yellow.
And for the record, the name should have been “Brotens,” not “Wild.”
You know, I’ve never played fantasy hockey before, so it’s safe to say I have no idea what I’m doing, and yet I’m really high up in my group’s standings right now thanks to Pronger, Zajac, Bourque, and Hiller (now that he’s found his game again). If they keep this up, I could end up in second place – not bad for a beginner! (I like to think, anyways.) But if you have any tips, I’m open to them.
That hit? That guy should be done with hockey. Period. That was vicious and unnecessary. I love hockey, but nobody should die for it.
Also, I assumed the Wilds’ symbol was a bear, but a bear with some vague feline-esque quality. A bearcat, if you will. (And even if you won’t.)
And Weeks’ on the NHL Network … yeah, he still seems a little stiff. Not bad, but not comfortable, and certainly not as loosy goosey as some Canadian commentators – and I wish I could remember their names, but I honestly don’t – who once got so bored during a boring hockey game they started talking about which athletes were the “wimpiest”. (They decided baseball players.)
Justin, I am glad to see you’re continuing to bring up the head injury subject. It kills me to see the frequency with which hockey players get concussions, how lax the NHL has been in protecting the players, and how quickly the players return to the game. As a competitor of a different sport that is frought with head injuries (three-day eventing…its a horse thing…moving on…) it has only been in the last few years that people have gotten more serious about injury prevention, helmet technology, and concussion aftercare. This has been a great help, but you still see rampant head injuries, and most often outside of competition because people don’t wear their gd helmet! As we say, if you think your hair is more important than your brain, it probably is. That brings me to a question for you: do most players *really* care about protecting their head, or are they more worried about looking cool? I’m sure that a lot of players would like better rules and enforcement to help prevent these problems in the first place, but watching these guys who won’t wear a full cage (is it uncomfortable or something, or just doesn’t look cool? As far as I am aware it’s legal, and I know I would want something protecting my face!) and the ones who won’t even wear a gd *visor*, with the chin strap done up so loose that the helmet comes flying off before it can do a damn bit of good (poor/inadequate design of the retention harnesses also seems to contribute to this) I have to wonder how seriously the players take this issue. Insight?
to see you take on the issue of homophobia in hockey. I grew up watching my brother play and even when he was quite young I remember hearing this crap. It’s 2009 now…..can we grow up now??
P.S. Also glaad
P.P.S. thanks for jinxing the Coyotes into a good season. They beat my Blackhawks you bastard!
The thing that worries me the most is that the guys running the NHL played hockey – if they ever DID play hockey – in a game where guys weren’t wearing speed-skating skates, weren’t wearing body armor, and lifted beer cans instead of weights to stay in shape.
These guys like Mike Milbury blaming the victims and talking about current NHLers needing to sack up and take their medicine ought to strap skates on and go out for a head-hunting session with Willie Mitchell or Andrew Ladd. I’d like to see what they think about “getting their bell rung.”
I’ve been seriously concussed. It’s not something I’d wish on anyone, head down or not. I could run down a list of fun post-concussion symptoms I experience every day that would put the fear of God in these d-bags.
I completely agree with you about the hit and the suspension justin, it is about time a league made a stand about head shots. The only concern that I have is that it will take a few more injuries like this to get permanent changes made. Its not about having a rule about head shots, because the ohl has a rule in place, we need to change the mentality of the players. It seems like players think its not only ok to take a run at a player in a vulnerable position but that it’s there job to do so. I am all for finishing checks but there is no need to finish hard and high on a player that is in a bad spot.
Re the hit; Not a head shot, not even close. I’m not even sure it could be called charging. The suspension was a typical Dave Branch-OHL kneejerk reaction. That being said, I wish Ben Fanelli a successful recovery.
“Not a head shot, not even close” is an odd response to a hit that ended up in a fractured skull (the medical term for head, I believe) against the glass. I mean, logically you’d think “boy, that hit must’ve been close to his head…”.
The force of the hit knocked off Fanelli’s helmet, and drove his head into the stanchions that hold up the glass. Contact was made shoulder to shoulder. That’s how I saw it.
The hitter took waaaaaaaay more than 3 steps before hitting the victim. He startied speeding up from way above the faceoff circle. He went in with one thing on his mind: to kill. That’s okay if you’re in a warzone, but everywhere else, it’s reaaally not.