Drunk Russians, The Final 24/7
Posted by jtbourne on January 6, 2011 · 10 Comments
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New Puck Daddy: comebacks, and three ways to prevent them from happening against your team. I kinda like my last few PD posts, which is good, because I thought a few before that were pretty damn “meh.”
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Not the prettiest team in the tourny, is my guess.
Not sure if anyone out there heard or not, but apparently Canada puked away a three-nothing lead in the gold medal game at the World Juniors in Buffalo.
Don’t know if anyone heard or not, but that pales in comparison to the awesome story about the Russian junior team getting kicked off their Delta flight for being too loaded.
As Barry Petchesky of Deadspin pointed out: not hungover that morning, drunk. And they don’t exactly take your BAC before letting you board a plane. You have to be over the top, belligerent-level drunk to get denied. So those kids GOT AFTER IT somewhere in Buffalo last night, as underagers. Good hustle, young’uns. Enjoy your extended stay in Buffalo.
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Bri and I are re-watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I gotta say – enjoying it much more the second time (and I liked it a lot the first time).
I read The Hobbit as a young punk, but never the LOTR books – because of that, the first time through these movies was a mess of names and places. Saruman and Sauron? Orc and Oroki? Who Aragon if he’s Strider? Isengard, Gondor, Rohan, WTF?
Round two is going swimmingly, I just think it’s a tremendous story. Very much enjoying it.
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Last nights 24/7 was like, the greatest show ever, if you’ll permit me to sound like a valley girl for a second.
Always a neat spectacle, but man that's a deep seat.
The neatest part (for me) was how they captured the sport of hockey at the end, explaining that “it won’t sit still for a portrait,” or something like that. It’s on to the next city, the next arena, and never stops. It’s was an amazing series of shots and quotes at the end that was damn near tear-inducing. If you haven’t seen it, hockey fan, you really need to, ASAP.
As I mentioned on the twitters before, for a guy who’s family has relied so heavily on sport to make a life, that stuff hit me hard. Whoever wrote that stuff deserves a hug, or at least an email from me.
(Here’s Wyshynski’s great review of the episode)
So here you go, HBO:
A standing O from me, on a job that lived up to the highest expectations, then exceeded them. /actually stands and claps a few times
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So, Breeze and I are headed to meet the potential new cat today. We can’t get him ’til the 22nd, but if we like him, we’re gonna commit. Pics will be taken and tweeted, don’t worry. Our cat needs some stimulation, and we can only play hide and seek so often with him.
Also, we’re thinking about honoring Marcel the Shell with Shoes on and naming the cat Allan.
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My boy Nathan Lawson gets his second NHL start tonight! Right on right on right on.
Public humiliation diet: 206.4. Chip chip chippin away to a number that starts with “1.”
I'm a hockey player turned writer. After playing for Alaska Anchorage in the WCHA (NCAA), I carried on with an NHL tryout (New York Islanders in 2007) before spending a couple seasons in the AHL/ECHL (last year was 2008-09). 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 the web editor for theScore's hockey blog "Backhand Shelf."
as someone who plays on 2 teams that take the ‘beer’ part of ‘beer league’ very seriously, im very happy that the russians celebrated with such… um, vigor? and yes, they are an ugly bunch. shockingly so.
“Orc or Oroki?” You are referring to the Uruk-Hai (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Uruk-hai)
Yes I’m a geek. Why do you ask?
Marcel = awesome. Glad you found him/her/it.
btw, YOU also seriously rock on Wysh. Well-reasoned, well-spoken, well-reasoned, and FUNNY. Merci beaucoup.
I do hope you’re watching the extended version of LOTR. And yes, I’m the geekiest geek who ever geeked. (Went to the LOTR Oscar party after The Return of the King, got kissed by Gamling and witnessed a Haka by the New Zealand contingent. One of the most amazing nights of my life.)
And yay for the Russians (for winning, not so much their celebration). I know Canadians are devastated, but it’s the best thing that could have happened for the international game.
Loved the PD column today JB – really interesting. Methinks the Pens were employing some of those tactics in the second, and especially the third period of the WC…
I had the JWC on the second TV (yes, we strive to be like a sports bar in our house) while watching the Pens absolute shellacking of the Lightning. Wasn’t recording it – but began to for later viewing once the Russians tied it up. Sorry but I wanted to see some Canadian ass get handed to some Canadians after the US/CAN game…
My housemate and I were talking about the Russians getting drunk after the game (as in “for sure it will happen”) – soooooo funny that they executed so “well”!
LOVE the nod to Marcel the Shell for cat naming.
My husband has participated in not one, but TWO LotR marathon watching sessions (with his equally geeky friend/boss) – I just drift in and out saying “Oh *Sam*” and “Mr Frodo!”. Read the Hobbit a few times but could never quite make it thru the Trilogy – so I found the movies not terribly compelling. Guess I’ll give it a second chance at the next RingFest.
And yes, I did stay up and watch the final 24/7 all by myself last night after cruising thru the hockey coverage of the Pens game. Gotta love that Flower (and Cooke too)! As I told my mom after the WC, it’s just as well it wasn’t picture perfect (the rain, the temps, the loss) as maybe that will make some of the Pens/Sid haters step off. While I didn’t enjoy seeing my boys come off as a bunch of whiners during the game, I did like the fact that it seemed a “rounded” picutre of both teams and organizations (of course, reading your PD column today gave me a little solace about the Pens behavior in the game…
).
I agree with you about the end of the program – and even expecting as much, I have to say that it surpassed my expectations. Well done HBO!
Canada puked away a three nothing lead in the game, but from what I’ve been reading in the news coverage around WNY today, the Russians puked away what they imbibed in the airport bathrooms. Something about “airport cleaners were called to clean up v*mit in the bathroom”… or something to that effect. The boys just can’t hold their liquor, hee hee
I wonder if they got some info on the best places on Chippewa for underagers from Patrick Kane?
I make everyone I know that I can possibly make do so watch Marcel.
Agree wholeheartedly on 24/7. Absolutely incredible series. Hell, at no point in my involvement in hockey have I ever had anything resembling a hope or a prayer at ever doing anything in the sport, basically just playing house hockey, rec leagues, and spending the past 10 seasons (holy shit! I think I might be old. crap.) coaching kids, and I still damn nearly teared up at that end montage.
The whole series was just so ridiculously well done, and also well-timed. We got to see the contrast between a winning and losing team, and then got to see those same teams reverse roles to a certain degree. That let so much of the character of those players and coaches come to the surface, and really showed how huge momentum is. So awesome.
Honestly, I could watch an hour long show every week of these people just putting together slow motion game clips over music. It’s unreal how well they build drama and just plain make everything seem just exactly the way games unfolded in my dreams when I was a kid. I need more.
Also, Dan Bylsma. So impressed with him basically every time he was on screen.
Re: the final episode of 24/7 — watched it late, thus the late-to-the-party comment — but I actually did cry at the end over the sheer poetry of the game caught so perfectly.
Happy sigh.