Post Taken Down – Apologies

 

Hockey Primetime: No column today as I’m going to be live blogging tonight’s game for HPT.  Come back at 8PM EST and join me here on Bourne’s Blog or over on their site - BYOB!

*****

My apologies on having to take down today’s guest post – I had planned on running that today (it was terrific, as the hundreds of you who read it in the first couple hours can attest), so I’m a little behind the eight ball now.

I guess there was some disagreement within the family about whether it should have been posted or not, and in the end, I think it’s just easiest to leave it at that.

If I learned anything from it that I can pass on: the pituitary gland plays a huge part in Post-Concussion Syndrome, and our writer contests that it should be checked in all cases where PCS extends beyond 30 days. 

 Anyway, sorry again about that.  Here’s an interesting link to help you pass the time:

New York Times - Can conjoined twins share one mind?

And here are three pictures, the first of which is a picture of a picture.  

The story: at a charity golf tournament last week, we basically drank beer on the course all day, then came in for the dinner and raffle.  You could buy these sheets with a bunch of little perforated-edged numbers on them, and one big one.  You put the little numbers in the bucket in front of what you wanted, and kept the big one.  I referenced the beer, because I skipped the trips and hotel stays and massages to win…. THIS:

Now that’s a badass kitty pic.  Bri hates me.

Next, my new carrrrr (still needs tint, as I mentioned):

And last, a pretty picture of a golf course in San Tan Valley (Queen Creek), AZ – Encanterra.

Multi-Columns and New Wheels

Yesterday was a multi-column day from me, hence no blog, but at least that leaves a glut of columns today if you care to read a couple.  The kid’s been busy with playoffs (and the thing I mention below)!

New Puck Daddy: Underdog status is a beautiful thing – looking at Tampa/Boston

New The Hockey News: Taking a look at 5-on-3′s in light of the Canucks scoring three times in one game on them

New Puck Daddy: It’s time for the stars to shine – all eyes on them heading into game five (posts shortly)

*****

So it’s finally done!  A couple months after having my car written off after getting hit from behind (not by Matt Cooke, fortunately), I’m back in a set of wheels.  A set that I much prefer and costs less, so I guess things happen for a reason.

I got an ’09 Jetta, sharp little thing.  Low mileage, sunroof, all that good stuff (thanks, silly bank that dared lend me money).  Only thing is, I got exactly what I wanted in terms of colour, which means all black with black leather seats.  In Arizona.  So that should be fairly hot.

As is basically mandatory here, I still have to get the windows tinted in the next week or two, then I’ll chuck a pic up to show ya’ll. 

*****

I’ll be tweet happy during tonight’s Canucks/Sharks game if you care to join me here.  I promise a big ‘ol funtimes blog tomorrow!

Column: How The Sharks Can Neutralize Canucks D

 

New Puck Daddy: Sharks need to play more puck possession hockey to neutralize the Canucks skilled d-corps

*****

As a special bonus, I’m doing TWO posts for Puck Daddy today – the second will be the post-game wrap up, so swing by to check that out after game three.  That also means if I’m writing again tonight, I ain’t doin’ more right now.

Before I go though: Boogaard’s death was ruled to have been caused by mixing alcohol and oxycodone.  If there’s any positive in this tragedy, it’s that it at least appears to have been accidental.

*****

Because I love this stuff: you don’t have to watch the full first video (though I suggest you catch Busta’s verse in the middle), but check out how fantastic the cover is.  Maybe better?

Playing With A Snapshow – No Way To Stop The Inevitable

 

New Puck Daddy: hey, your boy’s on the main Yahoo! sports page today apparently, wwwwwhut’s up. On coaches willingness to adapt, and why Tampa needs to throw a new look at Boston for a few periods in game three. (Puck Daddy – post up a little later than usual today)

*****

Yesterday, notoriously wise offensive threat Ben Eager played like a moron. (/Reads over post from two days ago, starts fresh).

In last night’s game, Ben Eager took some really un-wise penalties that cost his team, and didn’t represent himself very well in the process (especially the part where he talked smack to Luongo after he pulled his team within four, which is widely considered to be the worst lead in absolutely nothing).

Playing with a meathead teammate is tough, because you know them so well off the ice.  But often, they keep doing things that make you go “y’know, I just never associate Off-Ice You with whoever that guy is.”

The tough part is, you can often feel it coming, like they just get a look in their eye or something, but you’re still not allowed to Minority Report them and give them shit.  Comments like “take it easy out there, don’t do anything stupid” don’t imply that you respect their level of intelligence or commitment to the team very much, so they get snappy.  As a guy who, 90% of the time was one of the more cool heads on the bench, I’ve been told to shut the truck up more than a few times.

And regardless of if something gets said in advance or not - and again, you can see it coming (hell, we can often see it coming from our homes watching TV) – your Dan Carcillo or Ben Eager or Micheal Haley or Whoever is going to act anyway.  It’s an incredible phenomenon that these guys are almost oblivious to their own very obvious anger.  They just get lost in the moment.

I don’t give those guys a lot of credit, as others do, for “pre-meditating” their madness – I don’t think Eager saw Bieksa fight Marleau and thus vowed to run a Sedin.  I think watching Marleau fight a guy who probably shouldn’t fight him made him angry, and he would’ve thrown that hit on whomever happened to be in his way, because he was upset.  Anger makes logic go bye-bye, and since physical play is part of his role, we end up with stuff like this:

 

 As many of the Canucks said (I think they probably talked about this after the game), they didn’t think the hit was suspension-worthy.  I doubt they say that in the regular season, but given that it’s playoffs?  They WANT that dude in the lineup. 

Sure, he’s scary to play – a man of that size that skates like that is an absolute force, but anytime you have a guy who’s willing to let the Sedins run a powerplay on his short-handed teammates repeatedly, you want him to stay in the lineup.

But anyway, enough about the guy - anyone think the Sharks are going to make this series interesting?

Following Up On Tyler Seguin

 

I think I have to go back and touch on yesterday’s column, don’t I?  I mean, after last night’s debacle of Seguin awesomeness it feels sort of mandatory.

If you haven’t read it, basically the message was this: the Bruins should keep Tyler Seguin’s minutes down – he can become a great player, but he’s just not ready to take on a bigger role yet.  It’s all about development at this point.

Then Seguin went out and set the world aflame using his stick as a blowtorch, scoring two goals and two assists in a single period, and suddenly finds himself the topic of every other article on the internet (according to my loose calculation) because of his big breakout moment.

Phew.  Well don’t I look like a moron.

Now, in the wake of that chaos, I feel the need to do two things: first, I need to have a smile at the hilarious juxtaposition of my column and his game.  I mean, I came off looking like a real tool there, folks, there’s no shaking that.  I deserved the public shaming I endured on twitter, and it probably shouldn’t end for a few days (I also deserved the Puck Daddy comment section of the article, which had 10 comments before the game, and 55 more after it).   /hindsight’d

But secondly, I’d like to attempt to defend myself, which I’ll do after a major qualifier, which please, I’d like you to listen to:

I saw something in Tyler Seguin’s game last night that I hadn’t seen before.  I always thought he was going to be a good NHLer, but last night sold me that he’ll be great.  On top of that, I find him charming in interviews, and I just generally like the kid, okay?  I’m not trying to take anything away from him as a player or a person or from Boston.  We heard that right?  Bourne is pro-Seguin.

Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t carry on with number two, defending myself.

The headlines from around the hockey community today range from “Tyler Seguin is making Claude Julien look bad,” to “a star is born.”

The second headline, as I mentioned above, I agree with.  The first – with apologies to friend Joe Yerdon – is patently untrue.

The implication from not just Joe, but many, many Boston fans, is that by scoring these points in two games Seguin is proving he should’ve been in the lineup since the start of playoffs.  Well, as the Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont pointed out, in the 23 games leading up to playoffs, Seguin tallied a statline of 1-0-1, as in, one single goal and no assists over 23 games, barely trailing the likes of offensive greats like George Parros, who doubled his point total.  And that’s from a guy – Seguin, I mean – with a ¾ of a season under his belt whose role is strictly to produce offense.

What sane coach dresses that?  He doesn’t have the other attributes at his age and size (he’ll fill out, but for now he still looks like the teenager that he is) to make up for not producing.  He’s not gonna suddenly become a dump and chase guy; that’s the complete opposite of the direction the B’s want him to go.

Acknowledging the fact that he wasn’t contributing is just healthy coaching.  And now that he’s in the lineup with fresh legs in round three, Boston fans should be thanking their coach for doing the right thing with the suddenly-much-hungrier Seguin.

My contention in my first article on him is that it’d be best for his development if his minutes are kept low, and he isn’t asked to take on any more than he can handle. 

And, as it should be, last night he racked up a measly 13:55 – an improvement over his nearly-10 minutes in game one by a bit, but still, not by a ton.

When he was clearly seen to be on fire, Julien used him more.  Outside of that burst, ice time was back to status quo, and that’s perfect.  His coach is putting him in a position to succeed, and he’s answering the bell like only a great player can.

His second period was one of the single best periods of hockey I’ve ever seen a player play, and I mean that.  He has that gear that others don’t.  And while it’s awesome that he has that in him, it’s not always going to be like that.  We were treated to something special last night.

I’ll backpedal a step here on my original sentiment, which he deserves, and say he definitely appears ready to handle more than I thought he could.  That’s what players of his caliber do, I suppose – surprise, impress, exceed.

But I still contend that if the B’s hope to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup in June, they can’t be reliant on the young guy for consistent offense.  For now they need to take what he can give – which may occasionally be what we just witnessed – and not much more. He’s on his opponents radar now, so  the work is just getting started.

*****

And just because his game was that awesome, that incredible….I give you his goals:

Craziest part of his two breakaway goals (including game one): he doesn’t really even fake a shot before going to his backhand.  He’s just skating so damn fast he’s almost able to deke it around Roli before he can get deep enough in his net.

Craziest part of this goal is the raging confidence: he feels how things are going for him, and knows he’s doing something special.  Even if that shot ends up being a save he gets credit for how incredible he’s playing, so he’s got nothing to lose.  He doesn’t even look back at the pass option.  As soon as he got it, he knew exactly what was happening next.  Awesome.

Thoughts On Boogaard’s Passing, Growing As A Writer

 

New Puck Daddy: Seguin and player development: the dude’s just not ready for a bigger role, yet

*****

When I started writing about sports, I did it the way people talk about sports and athletes in general, which seemed like the obvious things to do.  Sidney Crosby’s great, Matt Cooke’s a prick, etc. etc.

That type of black and white opinion-sharing is tailor-made for the blog world, especially when it comes to team-centric blogs.  Half the people just want to read things that confirm their personal opinions (what a great writer!) so it’s easy for, say, a Hurricanes blog to appeal to Hurricanes fans.  “We got jobbed by the refs last night,” “Cam Ward is underrated,” all that stuff is fine and plays well to an agreeing audience.

I’ve never been a flag-waving superfan of any NHL team, as much as I love the Islanders – for proof, you can pull up basically anything I’ve ever written about the team over the past couple years, which has been in disarray (but appears to be rounding some sort of corner with a potential new building and player development. Okay maybe I’m a little biased). 

But I digress.

Point is, since I’ve never really been a super-passionate, blind fan (no disrespect to those who are) it was easier for me to transfer my writing to a site like Puck Daddy, where the people reading are fans of different teams.  It’s allowed me to write in a grey shades, so you know when I do take a hard stance on something, I mean it.

Problem is, I’m not as good at going grey on players.  In fact I’m awful at it.

I played the game at a high enough level to decipher who’s good from who’s bad, and I never quite shook the tendency to make harsh judgements about the guys I was competing against.  It was part of being a player – you kinda have to think you’re better than your opponent, and maybe that’s stuck with me.

All that is a long way of saying – and thanks for joining me on that long journey to get here - that I’ve come to regret the way I fairly regularly talk about players.

When I read that Derek Boogaard died – and very possibly due to something that could be related to mental issues (I won’t get too into that whole thing since we don’t know anything yet, it’s just one of the possibilities that made me take a look in the mirror) – I realized it’s very likely that I never once typed, or said a nice word about the guy.

And that’s not the worst thing in the world, as long as I kept it to being about him as a player, where nothing has changed – I still don’t think he was a very good one – and not about him as a person.  I simply didn’t know him.

Point is, it occurs to me that writing about players doesn’t have to be so….”team-centric-blog-like” - not long ago on twitter I explained to someone why I thought he was a useless goon (that feels gross to type right now).  And there I was days later, reading quotes from people who actually knew the man in real life.

By all accounts, Derek Boogaard was a charitable, kind, well-liked teammate, and I have no doubt that that’s true.  “Useless goon?” That’s just ignorant.

I hope hearing a constant barrage of words like mine (which were unnecessarily harsh) had nothing to do with his passing – after the season he said he was embarrassed about his season, and we know he was in the NHL’s behavioral health and substance abuse program, so it’s crossed my mind.  I’d hate to think it was people like me, in the media, that made him feel that way.

By all logic he was just a guy who saw a path to fulfill his dream of playing in the NHL and get rich, and he did what he had to do to get there.  And while I don’t have to respect his chosen line of work, I do have to admit to myself I’d have probably done the same thing, if given the option.  And he got it done.

I hope whatever news we learn about his death in the coming weeks tells a different story, an accident, a condition, just anything better than my worst fear about how it happened.

If it turns out to be something other than that, I can still take the same lesson away from this.  I’m learning to grow as a writer, and the latest step is to tone down the personal attacks.

RIP to the boogeyman.  And condolences to his family and friends.

*****

By the way, his family is donating his brain to the study of concussions in sports, which I think is excellent news.

Eastern Conference Final resumes tonight friends, let’s hope it’s a doozy!

Praise For Pavel, Sharks Questions, Boston/Tampa

 

New Puck Daddy: A tribute to Pavel Datsyuk. This was quite fun to write, I think you’ll enjoy it (unless you’ve somehow found a way to dislike Pavel Datsyuk, in which case you need your head rearranged.)

*****

It’s game seven day, hurray!

Prior to the series, I picked the Wings.  Since then, I’ve been all over the map trying to figure these two teams out.  After game three it was a matter of explaining to myself why the Sharks are so damn good.  It was a fairly easy sell – after the team’s talented ”big three,” guys like Couture, Setoguchi, Pavelski and Clowe are terrific “secondary” scorers some teams would be happy to call their top guys.

And now I find myself having to figure out why aren’t the Sharks a better team, because it was so easy to convince myself they were in cruise control.

Marleau has taken his lumps since Roenick shone the bright light of TV on him, and deservedly so.  But it has to go deeper than one players failings (when you have like, six guys that are expected to produce offensively, it’s inevitable one or two might not tear it up, there’s only so much puck do go around).

I dunno, it’s fairly bizarre.  Interesting to see what happens if they find a way to not advance tonight.  But, winning heals everything, and a clean slate with a conference finals boost would certain cauterize any wounds.

*****

It’s almost time for Tampa Bay/Boston to fire up their Eastern Conference final, so some thoughts on that:

For starters, I think it really hurts Boston that they’ll be without Patrice Bergeron – I’ve lauded praise on their offensive depth in the past (while at the same time pointed out they don’t really have a stud), but it’s in the faceoff circle and the d-zone that his absence will be felt.

By the way, thought that just popped into my head before I carry on: Tampa has four (three for sure) players who would be the top offensive player on Boston (if Simon Gagne were healthy), and the Bruins outscored them as a team this year.  Describes how they go about business nicely I think.

Anyway, without Bergeron, the series gets tighter.  Tampa looked to be in machine mode against Washington on top of that, and there’s reason to believe that with the ever-underrated Dwayne Roloson in net, that they should be able to give the Bruins fits.

That said, I think it’s Boston’s time.  This team suffered through a playoff collapse last year and desperately patched the holes before trade deadline, which I think they accomplished nicely.

Here’s a big secret too: Tomas Kaberle doesn’t suck.  He’s not going to struggle like this forever, meaning it can only get better for him (the way it got better for Lucic after a slow first round).  He hasn’t played at playoff pace in awhile, give him a hot sec.

It’s going to be a battle, but in the end, my money is on the B’s.  I’ll say it goes seven, just to demonstrate how serious I am about it not being a walk for them. 

It should be a fun series, things are shaping up nicely for the matchups!

A Column: Looking at the San Jose Sharks Failure to Communicate

 

New Hockey Primetime: Y’know, what the title of the column is.  A video breakdown of what’s going wrong for the Sharkulars in the d-zone. (Should be us soon friends! Until then…. Hockey Primetime).

*****

Todd Reynolds and the Gay Marriage “Debate,” and A Terminology Fix?

 

New Puck Daddy: Some technicalish hockey stuff, on how teams tighten up during close games

*****

Howdy folks! 

If you missed Elliotte Friedman’s constantly praise-worthy “30 Thoughts” column this week, you can find it here.  Dude knows what he’s talking about.

Anytime you make 30 separate points, people aren’t going to agree with everything, and I’m no different – I quibbled with two things he mentioned this week (a higher total than usually, impressively).

My first minor beef that gives me an excuse to rant:

I’m sure most of you are up on the story about the sports agent (Todd Reynolds) who tweeted from the company account (@UptownHockey) that he was saddened to learn that Sean Avery had spoken out on a PSA for “Equality for Everyone,” which is a sentence I can’t believe I just had to type.  Avery was supporting gay marriage (which will always be wrong, Reynolds explained), cause, y’know, EQUALITY FOR EVERYONE.

Anyway (and yes, I realize the sensitivity meter is jacked up a little high from me on this one, but it’s really just a good jumping off point for me) Elliotte wrote a fairly harmless sentence in his post worth chatting about:

It’s a passionate debate with a lack of intelligent reaction on both sides.

While I’m not sure there’s a “lack on intelligent reaction” from the side that’s for equality – try pulling up the thoughts of Bruce Arthur (radio), Greg Wyshynski (linked above), and Joe Yerdon to get started - I’m almost certain that the word “debate” in there is giving one side of whatever-you-want-to-call-this-madness too much credit.

Not to get too strong in my tone here, but it’s kind of like “debating” with your toddler at the grocery store about whether you should save your money or buy 50,000 boxes of Sugar Bombs cereal.  Logic prevails pretty handily (as much as I love sugary cereals).

The only points I’ve heard against gay marriage in the past day or two involved something about it being a slippery slope before a man can marry a horse (no seriously, someone said that, I’ll try to find the link), and then Todd Reynolds implying on TSN Radio (which I’m on tomorrow at 11amEST to discuss this) that he’d be okay if gay couples ”found a way around it, maybe call it something different or something.”

Gayrriage?  Shmarriage, maybe?

That’s not a debate.  That’s nonsense.

I understand the religious aspect that needs to be mentioned – I grew up with religion as a part of my life so I get it, but frankly, I don’t feel the need to get into my beliefs to defend the stance that as long as we’re here on this earth, and nobody knows anything for damn sure, we need to treat one another like equals.  That’s what everything boils down to.  Do unto others and all that good stuff.

And that argument doesn’t lack intelligent reaction.  That’s flat-out logical.

As George Takei frequently tweets, gay rights are human rights.

*****

My second, and far more minor quibble is on a comment that I’m seeing damn near everywhere, especially on twitter (follow me here, or I’ll kick my kitten) – something to the effect of “can we please stop using the term “mild” concussion,” or as he put it,

“Can we please stop using the term ‘minor’ concussion. No such thing.”

Now, those of you who read my stuff fairly regularly know I’m sensitive to the serious nature of concussions.  No two are alike, and the same hit affects different players in different ways. 

That said, medical staffs are often able to project, based on a player’s symptoms and how they do on the baseline concussion test, a very rough guidline for their return.  If Marc Savard gets Matt Cooked again, and is periodically blacking out and on the verge of puking while repeating himself, he’s in a worse pickle than a guy who’s a little foggy and feels okay on the treadmill two days after the big hit.

When the media wants to know the severity of the concussion, they need to be told somehow, don’t they?  There has to be some way to say “not as bad as many of them,” without people assuming they’re trivializing a concussion.  I don’t think we need to get too sensitive over the terminology. 

We know none of them are fun to have, but anything - ”low-grade” or any other term is going to sound the same way.  They all suck, but some will clearly take longer than others to recover from.

*****

Sorry for the serious tone today friends, but those are the current topics, it appears.  Until Sharks/Wings tonight that is!  Will we see a game seven?

Accidental Goals, Roenick’s “Gutless” Comments

 

New The Hockey News: explaining why players dive, and want refs can do to minimize the problem (The Hockey News)

*****

When red-hot Predators forward Joel Ward stole the puck on the penalty kill, then threaded Canucks’ forward-playing-defence Mikael Samuelsson with a pass to David Legwand, I raved about the terrific play, especially given that it ended up in a short-handed goal.

But when I saw the replay a couple times the other day, I noticed just how bad Legwand’s shot was (not that I could/would do any better of course, just hear me out) – the goal went in under Luongo’s arm, which made me think of something.

When a good player shoots on a terrible goalie, or on one that is just learning the position, sometimes the goalie will make a save because he’s in the wrong place, or didn’t know he should move, or whatever.  You deke left and go right, but the goalie wasn’t quick enough to even get out of the way yet, which actually happens sometimes in rec hockey.

Well, that must’ve been how Roberto Luongo felt on that shot.  He was all prepared for a well-placed shot, and bam, a mis-fire (I HAVE to assume mis-fire – can’t imagine anyone on a clean breakaway choosing six hole as option 1A) goes in off his body.

Goalies, does this happen often?  I know the odd change-up goes in, but are you ever like “alright, this guy should obviously go top shelf here,” so you take it away, and the shooter whiffs one under your glove?  Fuck that must be frustrating.

Yes, go celebrate like crazy, you scored BECAUSE YOU’RE BAD.

(Note: he may have scored a goal slightly luckier than that one later.  Note number two: I’m not calling Legwand bad, as he isn’t.)

*****

Our boy over at Puck Daddy Greg Wyshynski had a nice take on the Jeremy Roenick situation, basically claiming that JR didn’t go far enough in his comments about Patrick Marleau (he called him gutless, which is crazy over-the-top).

Roenick played with Marleau, and could’ve offered so much more insight into the guy and what the real problems are with the way he’s playing instead of going for the shock jock approach of near-slander.

My take: I’m all for people saying inflammatory things on TV.  Analysts are often too safe and boring, so when they’re not, we shouldn’t call for their heads, we should debate their words.  I don’t want to see JR do that less, I want him to do it  more – at the same time, I reserve the right to call him an idiot when I think he’s being one.

And in this case, you really shouldn’t call any other player “gutless” on TV.  I mean, that’s as offensive a term to a hockey player as nearly anything.  He had five points in the first round, including assists on two overtime game winners and another game-winning goal, so the guy wasn’t exactly shrinking then.  He’s not playing well right now, granted.  That’s beside the point though – we don’t know if he’s hurt or what, so to go right to calling it a character issue is a touch biting for a guy who’s scored a few big goals in the past.  Just because a guy is suddenly struggling to produce doesn’t mean he suddenly became a coward.

And yes – as Wysh put it, if you’re going for it, at least give us a little more evidence to back it up.

*****

Enjoy this pic I’ve stolen from Puck Daddy.  Hilarious!  More playoff hockey tonight!

Oh Crap It’s Almost Summer, What Wings/Flyers Need To Win

 

New Puck Daddy: Ryan Kesler is a flat-out horse, and the Canucks will need him to be to win the Stanley Cup

The Glambourne Project, part IV: In which we ramble about about each playoff series, all of which are near ending. We also devote way to much time to the Capitals.

*****

I kinda like the piece above.  Or at least I liked writing it, whichever.  Give ‘er a glance if you get  a sec.

So the Canucks have the Predators with their back against the wall.  Also against the wall: the potential for the second round to provide much drama.

So, if all the series are over by Saturday, can they just start the next round a few days later?  As in, could hockey be done before July?  That’d be cool, save for the part that I have zero job security and no hockey isn’t great when it comes to that.

Worse still, when this round ends, we have to face a harsh reality: hockey, as we know it, is essentially over.

Oh sure, there’s a game here and a game there, and there’ll be some great drama, but the facts are, round one and two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are the highlight, the climax, the summit of the hockey season.  It’s when we’re guaranteed nightly, passionate games between the best teams.  It’s when we get QUADRUPLE HEADERS on TV.  And then…..it all just sort of drops off.

The regular season is fine and fun and all that stuff.  The conference finals and finals are always great.  But in a couple days here, it’s all over.

Well that was gloomy for a Friday.

*****

Philly and the Red Wings have their backs against the wall tonight (I wrote about that yesterday here, if you missed it).

As most people know, “Keys to the Game” type advice is almost always guesswork.  Okay, it’s always guesswork.  But if you don’t use a blog for crap like guessing, well, then, you’re doing it wrong.  So let’s guess!

In my opinion, here is what those two teams need in game four if the wanna live to play another day:

The Flyers

Well fuck, let’s get the obvious out of the way and say that whoever’s in net probably needs to get themselves in front of a couple pucks.  But let’s just assume for a second that their goalie won’t play well (Bobrovsky will probably pitch a shutout since we’ve all talked about their bad tending so much), because have little reason to believe he will.

Thus, their defense needs to keep shots to the outside, and block out the forwards heading to the net for rebounds.  Boston isn’t the most skilled team in playoffs, but they crash the net well and make life difficult for tenders.  The d need to make life as easy on Sideshow Bobrovsky as much as possible.  Body position, body position, body position.

They’ll need to see more jam from Mike Richards, who’s usually near-impossible to contain in playoffs, but hasn’t risen to the occasion yet.

In the end, they’ve got enough fire power to score – they just need to take care of the other end first.

Detroit

Two of the three games from this series have gone to overtime, so it’s obvious the team’s are fairly evenly matched – that means the Wings are one change away from taking at least one from the Sharks.

That change needs to be the play from the secondary scorers.  The Mule (Johan Franzen) is notoriously a playoff HORSE, and thus far has 2 goals and 1 assist in six games played.  After Datysuk’s 9 points in 7 games, no other player is even at a point a game.

With the Sharks getting big goals from more than just their big guns, the Wings secondary scoring needs to step up and match or beat their production.

*****

My old junior team, the Vernon Vipers, is close to winning a THIRD consecutive national title.  That organization is rock solid and it’s a nice little town – if anybody out there has a kid looking to play junior, I’d highly recommend it.

*****

What’s going on at the World’s?  Does anybody care?  No?  Okay, good talk.

UPDATE: (Apparently Canada beat the Americans in a shootout today.  …..kay.)

*****

Frieeday, Frieeday, gotta get down on Frieeday.

The Caps Need a Change, Canucks/Preds, CAT PICTURE

 

New Puck Daddy: Being on the wrong side of a sweep and what a coach can do to turn it around

*****

Round two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs have been downright weird, bordering on disappointing.  And it’s strange, too, because it’s not like any of the games have been particularly bad (save for the Caps/Lightning first game, IMO), it’s just…. they keep ending with the same guys out in front.

Are the Detroit Red Wings really going to get swept by the San Jose Sharks?  I can’t believe what I’m seeing.  There wasn’t a person out there who thought this series wouldn’t see a fifth game, and most were fairly sure it could go the distance.  Good thing I didn’t bet on round two (sorry about that, i’ll go crazy next round) - I had the Red Wings winning, and the series going seven.  Not even close.

Thankfully, we do have the Canucks/Preds series, which resumes tonight.  Nashville is sans Steve Sullivan, which hurts them quite a bit - when your roster isn’t exactly laden with offensive stars, you need all the pieces you can get.  That team is sort of built like a big Jenga tower – with all it’s blocks, it’s big, solid and impressive, but each block you slide out of the base weakens the thing, until eventually you can blow it over.

Hopefully for Preds fans, their building is still strong enough to stand up to a push from the Canucks.  I have a hunch it still is, and for entertainment value, all of us want to see this thing go long.

*****

So on Wednesday, I wrote for Hockey Primetime that Bruce Boudreau should be fired if the Caps get swept, which they did, and it’s an opinion I still hold. 

On twitter the last couple days, person after person – basically everyone other that Greg Wyshynski and the odd Caps fan – has come out in defense of the guy, saying he shouldn’t be fired.

Look: no team is perfect, and I acknowledge the Caps may have a few (very) minor flaws.  But if it’s good enough to be the best team in the Eastern Conference after 82 games, there are going to be playoff expectations.  Two straight years they failed to come anywhere close to those, not only failing to win the Conference in playoffs, but failing to even advance to the Conference Finals.  FOUR years in a row they’ve won their division and never seen the third round.

Well…..that’ll do, thanks.  Move along.

Saying the guy, for whatever reason, hasn’t been able to get done when it counts is an understatement.

Also keep this in mind: saying the team needs a change, as I have been, is not calling him a bad coach.  It’s not calling him a bad guy, which from all accounts, he decidedly is not.

It’s the simple math that if you’ve tried to jam the square peg in the round hole a bunch of times and it still doesn’t fit, maybe try something different.

I hope for Caps fans a new coach comes in and something clicks there.  The players could use a TSN Turning Point, and a new leader could be just what they’re looking for.

*****

Here’s a couple personal pics for ya – the first is of Bri and I with her folks at our favourite pub (notice top right above Buck Hunter, my Dad’s Uni – signed to the 27 year old bar owner “to the son I always wanted but never had.”)  Clark brought his jersey to put alongside it – we’re fixing this Boston bar just yet!

The second pic is, of course, Jiggs sleeping.  Which he now does almost exclusively in the guest sink during the day.  Odd little fella.

*****

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I’m in Arizona, so it’s sort of a big deal apparently.  I’m in the “not really sure why we’re celebrating, but will take an excuse to have a margarita” camp today.

Some Thoughts on Pronger, Caps/Lightning, Canucks/Predators

 

New Puck Daddy: Undisciplined play from a teams’ leaders can kill a dressing room, also, *cough*Flyers*cough*

*****

If I may explain today’s Puck Daddy article – I realize Pronger hasn’t played a ton, but he has played three of the last four games, and managed to anger me enough to write that.  After watching his behaviour against Buffalo, followed by his antics in the early part of round two’s first game, I was FURIOUS when he took van Riemsdyk away from the very unthreatening Marchand situation like a wise old vet showin’ the young kid what to do.

Don’t take any penalties kid, they just took one and we don’t want to give up that opportunity!

I was just like….you f***ing hypocrite.

Van Riemsdyk is going to be a star in the league, and what’s he supposed to think after that?  He saw big #20 blow it for him and his teammates twice in the past three games, so what, he’s supposed to respect Pronger’s wishes?  Look up to him, learn from him?  He should’ve slashed Pronger for the condescending “now now, young man” when JVR was just getting his back.

I dunno.  Obviously I know Pronger’s a stud d-man that I’d like to have on my team.  But let’s not act like he’s not a selfish hockey player out there. 

*****

Today I had to do a two-minute bit for TV, and let me tell you, I did very, very poorly. I need to do that shit more so I don’t get all panicky when I mess up once – I’m tellin’ ya, it was like a trainwreck once it started.  Here’s a rough version of the punchy lil’ monologue, Passing Thoughts on Washington/Tampa, Vancouver/Nashville:

*****

In the Eastern Conference semifinal the Washington Capitals are dangerously near getting knocked out of playoffs with an upset.  And yes, I did cut and paste that sentence from an article I wrote in one of the previous three years. (*modified for print )

Bruce Boudreau said after the game two loss that “Alex Ovechkin wasn’t doing very much,” and that “it’s easy to put a d-man on a forward,” adding that Eric Brewer was doing a good job shutting Ovy down.

To reiterate, ERIC BREWER.

That’s like saying Lebron is having trouble getting to the hoop and dunking because I’M guarding him.

He failed to mention that the Caps powerplay is doing really well, by the Boston Bruins standards (11.1%).  He also missed that Nick Backstrom is having a heck of a playoff run, if he were precisely no one (7GP, 0G, 2A, 2PTS).

In the Western Conference, the Vancouver Canucks are headed to Nashville to play game three after losing game two on home ice in overtime.

If you like fast, offensive games, than this series has been like…..watching neutral zone play in soccer, really. 

But if it’s goaltending you like…..well, then, you’re just weird.

But both goalies have been terrific in this series, giving up a mere two total goals each after two games, with the only difference being that fans in Nashville LOVE Pekka Rinne, where fans in Vancouver LOVE that they have a good backup goalie.

…..They just don’t trust that starter.

It should be a star-studded affair in Music City, with plenty of celebrity cameos – you’ll see Carrie Underwood….you’ll see Vancouver’ Green Men….the only thing you won’t see is Barry Trotz neck.

*****

 Eh, kinda corny, but it didn’t sound so bad when I recorded myself doing it.  Live….eh, lets not go there.  Anywho, so I’m pulling myself together after that.

I’ll be watchin’ the games ‘n’ tweetin’ tonight.  Follow me here.

Random Personal Ramblings

 

New USA Today: Tampa is winning the battle of depth play at forward - those gents have been the difference in the Washington/Tampa series to date

*****

I sat beside my father-in-law (to be) yesterday and watched the Capitals/Lightning game, and somehow we got talking about Osama bin Laden, and whether he’s alive or not.  Weird, right?  Clark got on a “how is it possible that we can’t find this one person given the resources and time they’ve put into it” rant, and I fully agreed.  It was tough to grasp, and we both wanted to hear someday that he’d been brought to some form of justice.

Clark and his wife Pam went to something like 20 funerals after 9/11, and made no bones about the horrible things they wanted to happen to that embodiment of evil.

Celebrating a death (and not in the Irish way) feels different, but in this case, it feels oh-so-right (many people have quoted Mark Twain today – “I never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure”).  I know nobody stops by this blog for any political thoughts or anything, so let me just say something simple:

I’m proud and thankful to be North American, and while I don’t always agree with the government’s decisions to go to war, I’m grateful to those who put their lives on the line to serve and protect our freedoms.  We’re extremely lucky people, and my thoughts go out to those who weren’t so lucky almost a decade ago in New York.

*****

Did you happen to catch Seth Meyers at the White House Correspondent’s dinner the other day?  The guy was priceless.  It’s twenty minutes, but well-worth your time.

*****

The Tampa/Capitals series started out like a house on…. a street somewhere, sitting there quietly.  Man was it a dud.  They woke up for the second contest, but you have to wonder – how the crap does that happen?

They both just went through the first round, then suddenly they forget the needed tempo?  Bizarre.  Interestingly, I thought the Tampa/Pitt series was one of the least interesting from round one, despite it going seven games, so maybe Tampa is perfecting the
“lull your opponent to sleep, periodically slap them in the face with a big goal from a superstar, then lull them back to sleep again” technique.

*****

So on Friday I had the distinct privelege of playing golf with Jim McMahon – we were partners and shared a cart, playing Clark and Darren Veitch.  I’m not sure how many of you know about McMahon, what with being my hockey friends and all, but he’s a Superbowl winning quarterback who was a part of the Superbowl Shuffle video (just after 2 min mark).  I’ve never met a man quite like him.

He is vulgar, unrefined, and an absolute effing beauty.  He is entertainment value wrapped up in one person like I’ve never seen.  I was convinced Bri’s dad was the most entertaining man on the planet until this guy started telling stories.  Apparently he played in the well-known celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe….and pooped his white pants while not wearing underwear.  He also puked while on the tee-box at the same tournament.  These stories are endless, and he could care less who hears ‘em.  He’s just a fantastically fun gong show.

It’s a total namedrop and I have no reason to be blogging about it other than it was just a crazy neat experience with a funny guy.  Anyone got any McMahon stories out there?  There has to be some, even if you are hockey fans.

*****

The Gillies left last night on the red-eye.  We had a nice trip as usual – now, it’s back to work, and back to hockey.  Looking forward to tonight’s contest!

Reflections and Predictions

 

New Puck Daddy: On Luongo, and bouncing back from getting scratched

*****

Some reflection, before more predictions:

In the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, my predictions went—-wait.  8-0?  Can that possibly be right?

Deeeeeaaamn.  I shoulda bet on that, I guess.

I guess it’d be pretty hard to finish below .500 at this point, so I got that going for me.

And where’d we end up on the gambling?  Not where we were trying to get, team.  There’s some work to be done ahead.  (I’ll make the new bets today/tomorrow and post them.  Gamble along with me, friends!)

Bet one: Detroit Red Wings and Phoenix Coyotes will play MORE than 5.5 games

This bet was so quickly lost and so incredibly wrong they should require me to deposit more money and give it to them. 

Outcome: Detroit swept Phoenix. LOSS.

Wager: $10 to profit $5.71 ($15.71)

***

Bet two: Jordan Staal will tally more than 3.5 points

I thought this series would go long, which would mean he’d have a lot of games (and minutes) to score. I was right.  Staal ate the offensive big one.

Outcome: He had three points.  LOSS.

Wager: $10 to profit $8.70 ($18.70)

***

Bet three: The Montreal Canadiens will lose in the first round

I escaped this one, as did the Bruins, by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin. 

Outcome: B’s pull it out in overtime.  WIN.  Here comes the comeback.

Wager: $10 to profit $4.55 ($14.55)

***

Bet four: Of the eight 5 through 8 seeds, LESS than 2.5 will advance

BOOM.  I even called the teams that wouldn’t make it.  Not to toot my horn, but, BLAAAAAAAAAAT /poorly blows into a trumpet.  That’s as right as I’ll ever be.

Outcome: Nashville and Tampa made it, no one else. WIN.

Wager: $10 to profit $12 ($22.00)

***

Bet five: Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins will play MORE than 5.5 games

Comback complete. 

Outcome: Series went seven games. WIN.

Wager: $10 to profit $5.26 ($15.26)

Total wager: $50

Outcome: The outcome of all my efforts were hilarious – I made a profit of $1.81.  Yes, one dollar and eighty-one cents.

I guess it’s better than moving in the other direction, though.  Time to step my game up in round two!

*****

My predictions will post on Puck Daddy, and when they do, I’ll link to it.  That contains my explanations, which I feel some of my picks need (like the length of the Washington series).  As follows, however:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Washington Capitals vs. (5) Tampa Bay Lightning: Washington in five (not a knock on Tampa, Washington looks gooood)

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (3) Boston Bruins: Boston in seven  (Can’t bet on Philly’s goaltending.  Just can’t.  Also, took B’s to make finals, soooo)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (5) Nashville Predators: Vancouver in six (six was generous to Nashville I think)

 (2) San Jose Sharks vs. (3) Detroit Red Wings: Detroit in seven (rested vets, Datsyuk is super-human)

*****

Who ya got?

« Previous Page — Next Page »