Some Hockey, Some Football, Some Weekend

You catch the highlights of the Flyers/Rangers game last night?  Can we kindly ask Carcillo to go play in a different league?  What an embarassment.  No better fit for that orange and black though, I guess.

Ugh.

He fought Avery and Gaborik, saying after the game (about the Gaborik fight): “I didn’t really expect to fight who I fought, but it worked out okay.  I don’t know who on that line would have been able to help him though.  Once he dropped his gloves, I was pretty much just licking my chops.”

He looks like some creepy Spanish explorer with that dumb mustache. 

And they call me, El bagodouche.

(Abba) Zaba

You know what’s crazy about watching highlight packages these days?  Last night, two huge rivals, major NHL teams going head-to-head in Madison Square Garden, Sean “Celebrity First” Avery fights El bagodouche Carcillo, and and as he’s getting off the ice, I see the back-up goalie open the gate for him.  Wait, who’s that?  It was, from small town Yorkton, Saskatchewan, a quiet, polite and funny ex-junior-teammate of mine, Matt Zaba.  It always takes a few seconds to process when you see someone you know where you don’t expect to, like when two TV shows do a crossover and suddenly Ray Romano is on King of Queens.  But that’s the way it is now.  Buddies and teammates just make ESPN cameos.  Crazy.

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I’m not sure what I liked more about this clip: How much Rafa likes it, or how much the commentator is enamoured with the whole situation (he can barely breathe he gets so giggly).  Either way, it’s a great clip. (By the way, how did one jagoff from Jersey get me to think about him everytime I use a commonplace word like “situation”.  It’s just such. a great. nickname.)

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I could poop I have such a great weekend ahead:

A tad bloody, admittedly

Tonight: Another Dexter-athon. 

There is simply no better way to watch TV than a box set, and if you stumble upon a show you like, what a treat.  I was fortunate enough to have not seen a SINGLE STAR WARS before 2009, so I got to take them all in, one at a time, over a couple weeks with Bri.  I still haven’t seen more than a show or two of Lost either.  It’s just the greatest, commercial-free, plot-following hidden pleasure a TV can provide.  So yes.  Dexter tonight.  And wine.  Muchos, muchos wine.

Saturday:  ASU/U of A college basketball

Tolja.

ASU is number one in the Pac-10, and is playing their crosstown rival, U of A.  Around here, you pick one horse and ride it, so after buying ASU gear to attend a football game earlier this year, I’m currently aboard a horse named Sparky (plus its twice as sweet cause the Sun Devil hand sign is, essentially, The Shocker).  My uncle/editor/mentor/business-advisor/unpaid-slave Ken got me tickets for my birthday, so Bri and i will be hitting that game up!

Sunday:  J   E   T   S   JETS JETS JETS!  …..And Vikings Saints is gonna be S -I-C-K   SICK SICK SICK! 

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Football predictions:

Saints 31, Vikings 30

This game is going to be epic. 

It makes some sense to pick the Favres Vikings.  Their pass rush should be able to put enough pressure on Brees to limit the time he needs to find a receiver, and by all logic, the Vikes deadly offense is playing a sub-par defense.  I could see the Saints stressing about Favre and forgetting Peterson can do serious damage everytime he touches the ball.  (BTW, is there a better celebration in sports than Jared Allen’s “calf roping” move?  No.  There’s not…. sorry for the grainy video)

That said, it’s amazing how quickly everyone writes off the Saints success from this season like they’re a tenth place team that got lucky a bunch of times.  It’s tough to win every night in the NFL no matter who you’re playing, but they damn near did it…. every night.  We saw the Vikings have a few horrible tackling games this year and lose – the only times we saw the Saints lose, they were depleted with injuries or mailing it in (er, sorry, resting guys for the playoffs).  They’ve got a ton of weapons, and Brees knows how to use ‘em.

The game will be high scoring, and close, but a field goal wins it after a late game push by Brees and the Saints.  And Favre retires after the game, only to un-retire before leaving New Orleans.

….sighhhhhh.  Here it comes….

I'll make the first "JarMarkus Sanchez" joke. There, done.

Jets 17, Colts 24

The Jets are going to end the season by torturing their supporters, as per usual.  Colts will score to go up seven, but the Jets will have the ball and ample time to get downfield and tie the game up.  Sanchez will finally be put in a situation where if he doesn’t get it done, we won’t get it done.  And then he’ll throw a pick, just so everyone in the entire state of New York can question him and the Jets for the entire off season.  Ouch.

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Post houseguests/New Years/Christmas and all that, life has finally settled back into something normal.  I’m back to a fourty hour writing week, and need more work to fill that time (and money to pay those bills) - if you, or anyone you know could use some Bourne-infused text, hit me up at jtbourne@gmail.com

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That’s all folks.  Thanks for another great week, and hope your weekend is full of Jet chants and booze!

Brand New, Brand New, Brand New

Before I launch into stuff – how about me buying a new car?

Brand New – Rhymefest featuring Kanye West

It's 115 damn degrees here somedays, black them windows out, please...

As of a week ago, I was looking at these unforseen expenses: A crown for my front tooth ($1,100), two new (after market) tires w/ alignment ($700+), and registering my car in Arizona ($200+).  Turns out minor league hockey insurance isn’t as bad as the rumours make it out to be, cause they stepped up on the tooth, and the new car not only lowered my monthly payments, has lower interest,  and put me in an ’09, but it also took care of my tires and registration.  Sweet.

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So, I love that Bourne’s Blog readers are passionate about their beer.  At some point, we’ll have to steal a page from Botta’s blog and have a meet and greet (where we only drink good beer, right guys?).  And by meet and greet, I mean schedule it like a year in advance, in Vegas, at the Sportsbook in Caesars or something (maybe to watch the Islanders in the first round of playoffs this year?).  I’m just spitballin’ here.

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I made my debut visit to www.dontevenreply.com yesterday, and most definitely will be back.  Much like textsfromlastnight.com (parental advisory, once again), it’s basically a way to pass time by reading about people doing/saying hilariously inappropriate things.

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The Jets are talking about picking up Brandon Marshall from the Broncos, gotta love that.  My first Fantasy Football draft is on the 11th, and I’m at the peak of my football knowledge game right now (yet I keep insisting the Blackhawks will win the Presidents Trophy in the NHL, apparently damaging my credibility in that sport).  After a meeting with Jay Dieffenbach, the Pro Sports Editor of the Arizona Republic, it’s becoming increasingly clear that my sports writing future doesn’t have to hinge on the whims of Gary Bettman and the Coyotes.  Go Jets.

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Should we start looking into a Bourne’s Blog fantasy hockey league?  Admittedly, I know nothing about setting one up or how to run one, but I’m fairly certain that as a college educated human I could figure it out.  Just a feeler really.  You in?

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Bri signed the lease on our new apartment yesterday in the Chandler/Tempe area.  To put the awesomeness of our gated community in perspective, the pool has beach sand leading into the shallow end.  But here’s my question to salespeople: Do we really have to do the whole “oh, this special just came out today”, “oh, I just got approval from my manager…” thing to get a fair price?  After four days of that BS, we haggled 10 free weeks rent, a $300 credit and another discount on a year lease (taking our monthly payments down over $230 bucks a month in the process).  Take that, desperate Arizona real estate.

So – apartment, car, engagement ring…  Did I just get domesticated?  …Wait… married guys still get to go party and crush beers after hockey games right…?  … I just… um… wait… where am I…

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Random thought a million people have had:  Why isn’t there a centrist party in the US?  I have to believe the biggest population of the people aren’t strictly left or right; not many folks are that cut and dried.  Would it be so absurd to represent moderate views?

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My new article is up today for The Hockey News.  I’d definitely recommend this one, it’s a neat players-only insight that sheds some light on how we raise money for the end of the year party, aside from fines.  Hope you like it!  The Hockey News: Put in on the Boaaaard, Yes!

The Upside of Unhealthy Love

I love people who love sports.  A lot of people like sports.  But it’s those few die-hards that cross the line to “love” that makes watching fun.  And I’ve learned that it’s fun to be so committed to a team, or a game, or a program that if affects your mood for the night.  Sure, that means sometimes you get put in a funk on a night that could have been fun, but there’s nothing like your team winning on a night where people are primed to go out.

I learned from Keith Johnson in Utah.  I was always a sports fan, but I just watched, and picked the team I wanted to win any particular game with very little rhyme or reason.  Not KJ.  Red Sox, Giants, and UConn basketball, everybody else can burn in hell.  I lived with him in 07.  The Red Sox became World Champs, and the Giants won the NFL Championship.  You should see the video of him dancing on our coffee table after the Giants won.  He didn’t even enjoy the game, just sat there in silence, misery even.  It seemed inevitable that the Patriots would find some way to get it done.  He was so sick that the Giants were about to lose, and they were about to lose, that he didn’t even get up for the David Tyree catch, he was so certain it wasn’t really happening, or it was going to be overturned, something.

My Uncle Ken has been a fan of St. Johns basketball since they were, um, good.  I used to get St. Johns t-shirts for Christmas when I couldn’t have told you if it was a sports team or a religious figure.  These guys were clearly getting something out of their sick committments.  So I decided to make the leap.  And like some bad relationships, the good part is just so so good.

My teams are the Isles (shocker), the Jets (is it a problem that I like the Patriots too?  It’s tough not to love Boston sports), and the Mets.  It hasn’t been a pleasant ride recently with the Mets, what with the consecutive stomach punches they’ve dealt their fans in the last two seasons, but I’ve enjoyed the ride.  I always chuckle a bit when I walk into a deli in NY for lunch (which is daily when I’m there) and hear someone, in their best I-can’t-believe-that’s-not-a-parody-of-an-Italian, say:

“How bout the F#$%? Mets last night?”

When your team wins, it can change the whole mood of the day.  Have you ever been a part of a big group of people yelling at the TV and high-fiving?  On the togetherness scale it’s comparable to church.  Any game can be made interesting if somebody in the room truly cares.  People pick up on his energy and support him or her.  So why not be that guy?  Every time your team is on you can recruit new friends and fans, get into it, grab a beer!  I know I’ve got friends at home who are Canuck fans that truly care about the team’s success.  The difference, as a friend told me, is that no game makes you think  oh, oh this is good, oh, oh, this is bad more often than hockey.  The energy in a room full of true hockey fans is electric.

But the east coast is an amazing culture to root with.  The New Yorkers get a lotta bumps about being rude, but even when they’re nice it seems to comes off as rude.  I’ve found they’re no-less decent than my hometown of Kelowna.  In general it’s a smart, funny group that I really want on my team, even with having to listen to them pour abuse on Brett Favre like gravy on potatoes.

So I went from an ankle on board to the whole body, and I’ll be on the bandwagon through thick and thin.  When I move to Boston, I think it’ll be fun to argue with the mass-holes about both of our ridiculously over-budgeted teams.  I’ve got a Sox hat and a Green Monstah shirt, but not because I want the Sox to win, I just love the sports culture in Beantown.  It’s a young group of obsessive fans, and since I don’t hate the Red Sox (Yankees fans do that), they’re a fun group to drink with.  It’s a blast to have a sports conversation with people who know their stuff, and can personally call plays.

“Watch this, Strahan gets fired up after a pass down the field, he’ll go offside here”

TWEEET!  Offside.

Wow.

Go NY Jets-Mets-Isles!