My Hockey Sh!t List
My Hockey Sh!t List
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m one of those hockey junkies that needs it to live, like blood, or oxygen. I have some great loves in hockey and some all-time favorites; Gretzky will always be my favorite player ever. The Detroit Red Wings will always be my favorite team. I’m totally immersed in the return and rebirth of our own Winnipeg Jets.
But, as I have some great favorites, I have some things in hockey that I depise with as much passion as the things I really love in hockey.
And here’s my Top 5:
#1: The Toronto Maple Leafs
Why, you ask? Yes, I know they’re a Canadian team, but when you’ve grown up in small-town Manitoba and one of the three channels you got on TV was CBC and your hockey was limited to Hockey Night In Canada for nearly 20 years, you get sick and tired of the CBC’s constant shoving of the Maple Laughs down our throats pretty quick. That, combined with the TSN’s (aka Toronto Sports Network) doing the same thing as well in recent years, and my Maple Leafs Suffrage-Meter has peaked out, nay, exploded, and I’ve had quite enough.
Oh yeah, and they suck.
They suck so much, their name has been taken OFF the Stanley Cup because they haven’t come close to it in almost 45 years.
It’s a shame, too, that Nazim Kadri and James Reimer (OPTIMUS REIM!!) got stuck in such a shitty organzination. The only times I watch Leafs games is if I get to enjoy my Wings whipping their asses, or if the Jets happen to be playing them.
#2 The Montreal Canadiens
Why? See #1 above. The only reason they get the #2 spot and aren’t tied for #1 with The Bugs is that they have P. K. Subban. PK is AWESOME. Finally, a talented kid that has the guts to stand up to the vets and play like he can every night. Love his attitude, and he’s fun to watch.
#3 Philadelphia Flyers Fans
Screw you, you bunch of disrespectful assholes for booing the Canadian National Anthem at the 2012 Winter Classic. The least classy fans in the NHL.
#4 NHL Officials
Normally, I’ve been a proponent of the officials in the NHL. They’ve done pretty excellent work, raising their game over the past several years from the mess that we had in the 90′s and early 2000′s.
But what in the HELL is happening this year? I have never seen such inconsistent application of the rules in the NHL, not only from official to official, but by the SAME official in the SAME GAME! One guy mows an opponent over from behind, and gets a penalty. Awesome! Next period, another guy mows an opponent over from behind, and there’s no call.
Blatant, blatant, obvious, calls are being missed. Calls SO bad that my mom, who really doesn’t even watch hockey since I stopped playing nearly 20 years ago, could make these calls. Things happening right in front of an official that are not being called. And to think, this is why they put TWO officials on the ice in the first place!
Come on, folls. You really need to sharpen up.
#5 Daniel Carcillo
Nah, he doesn’t deserve his own logo.
The guy gets suspended for an unreal *10TH* time for boarding an Edmonton Oilers player. $775,000 for 11 points and 82 PIM – almost two minor penalties per game so far this year? I’m glad he’s on a one year deal and maybe not only Chicago will not re-sign him for next year, but the rest of the league will smarten up and no one else will sign him either.
So there you go. The Top 5 Craptastic Things About The NHL right now.
If the list changes I’ll update it, but for now, there you are!
What Happens In Vegas…
… gets plastered all over the internet for everyone to see.
Rather than spend hours writing a ginormous blog post about our Vegas trip, we thought we’d show you instead. We spent days wandering up and down the Strip, checking out the various hotels and casinos, catching shows, hitting up Fremont street, and of course, taking hundreds of photos.
So, grab a beverage or two, sit back, and (hopefully) enjoy the videos!
GO JETS GO!
FINALLY…. I HAVE GONE BACK… TO AN NHL GAME!
It’s been 16 years since I’ve last seen a live, regular season NHL game.
Sure, I went to one of the exhibition games when the Phoenix Coyotes played the Edmonton Oilers here in town a few years ago, but that was exhibition. Not since October 15, 1995, when the Detroit Red Wings came to down and played to a 5-5 OT draw had I seen a regular season game.
Tonight, November 17th, 2011, that all changed. The Winnipeg Jets made their return to the NHL this season, and even though I didn’t purchase season tickets, I was fortunate enough to be drawn in the public ticket lottery to purchase tickets for one of six November games, and since Alexander Ovechkin was coming to town with the Washington Capitals, why not take the chance to see one of the best as I cheered on the Jets?
All I’ve heard through the first bunch of home games this year from fans, family, and friends who’ve attended is that it’s not just watching a hockey game, it’s an experience. Even though we have a smaller arena at 15,000 seats, I’ve been told it’s LOUD. The fans are crazy. The city has been bitten hard by the NHL bug, and we’re all just happy to have the game back in town.
So, I prepared for that. I’m like the fans I’ve heard talking… “So what if they lose? The NHL is back, baby!”
Stephanie and I got to the game and took our seats – excellent seats, by the way, first and second row in the middle level. Yup, we sat one behind the other, because there’s so few tickets available to the public, so pickin’s were slim. But at least we got to sit together. As the teams stepped onto the ice for the start of the game, man, you could FEEL it. When the announcer bellowed out “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome… YOUR… WINNIPEG JETS!!” the place… just… went… NUTS. It was awesome!
From even before the opening faceoff, when during the national anthem the crowd SHOUTED out the words “TRUE NORTH!” during the “true North strong and free” in Oh Canada, the crowd, all 15,000 strong, was in to every single moment. From cheering and letting out huge “OHHHHHHH!’s” every time a Jet laid a hit, made a good shot, or came up with a close play around the net, to cheering good saves by our goaltender or nice offensive plays, to giving the officials shit for questionable calls, to booing the absolute HELL out of Alexander Ovechkin, the crowd was HOT.
And to sidebar about Ovechkin… well, I lost a lot of respect for him tonight. Love or hate him, the guy is an amazing offensive player, but that’s ALL he does. When he’s on the ice, he doesn’t play defense. He just cherry picks in the high slot or the blue line waiting to take off with the puck. If he gets hit, he cries about it. He will start shit and get both teams in a scrum, but then he’ll turn and skate away from it all. When he’s losing or getting mad, he gets all upset. There was one play where he got his stick lifted by a Jet, and he thought there should have been a slashing penalty called on the play. The play continued on, and he left the ice. *Half a period later*, when the second was over, he came back on the ice and straight to the official to bitch about it, but the ref would have nothing of it and even demonstrated to Ovy how the Jet was just trying to lift his stick. It was awful. And that’s a bit sad, since he’s so talented and I was a fan of his, but now after watching him play for a full game and not just seeing highlights of greatness on TV, I have to say that he’s a big whiny bitch and I really don’t care for that all that much.
Anyway, back to the game and the crowd.
OH. MY. GOD… when the Jets scored a goal – when they lit the lamp 4 times during the game, the response from the crowd can only be described as an ERUPTION. It was that nuts. I found myself LEAPING out of my seat when we scored, it was that awesome.
It goes without saying, the fans in this city are hockey fans, and they are Jets fans. The crowds are amazing, and to be part of 15,000 people screaming “GO JETS GO” at the top of our lungs all in unison is just something that has to be experienced. It’s incredible. If you get a chance to go, don’t even worry about winning or losing. Just go and be part of that atmospshere. It is simply INSANE.
As for the team itself, we’re a young team that’s starting to come together. We have a lot of offensive talent. We have a fantastic goaltending core with starter Ondrej Pavelic and backup Chris Mason. I will even go so far as to call Pavelic an elite goaltender. He is that good. He’s solid, he moves side to side very well, his positioning allows him to stop pucks he can’t see and has no business stopping, and has great reflexes and ability under pressure. Our defense is solid. If this team can stay together for three or four years, we could seriously have a playoff team that makes the second and third rounds.
We do have to fix a couple things though. As a team, we have to take the body more. We don’t finish a lot of checks, and spend a lot of time skating with people and trying to play the puck, swinging our sticks at them or poke-checking instead of just playing physical game and then taking the puck after we’ve taken the man out. The other thing we need to correct defensively is making deadly cross-ice passes, or trying to make a long pass up the middle. We end up turning the puck over more often than we do making the play, and that is *extremely* costly in our own end.
If we can correct those two major issues, the smaller things will iron themselves out as this team grows and some of the younger players get some more experience. Bfyuglien and Enstrom are solid D-men, while Flood and Oduya show signs of excellent play as well. Up front, Nik Antropov is an offensive force, while Glass, Wellwood, Wheeler, and Slater all are young guys playing well and will become excellent players with more experience. Evander Kane is simply exciting to watch, and at 20 years old, is poised to be a superstar with the right supporting staff, and that staff is growing right in front of our eyes.
This team is going to finish well this season, and in 3 or 4 years, could very well be a force in the NHL. I can’t wait to see it happen. What a fun night of NHL hockey! I can’t wait to go back! Some pics are below!
The Greatest Thing Ever
It’s fitting that this post, the greatest thing ever, was posted from the greatest smartphone operating system ever, Windows Phone 7.
Ok, enough fanboyism, because Norko won’t let me hear the end of it.
Imagine this, if you will…
*may contain horrible reproductions of the Scottish accent (YOU try it in print!) and may also contain some cursin’.
A bunch of Scottish sheep herders are sitting around one day, a few too many pints have been consumed, and they’re bored. All the chores are done, the dogs have been trained, and the sheep have all been tended to.
So one guy up and says Ach, wee Willie, what do yeh think we should doooo this evenin’?
And Wille replies, I haven’t got the faaaayn-test of ideas, Andrew. I’m just happy the beer is flowin’.
Suddenly a third guy replies… I’ve got it Sonny Jim… we’re gonna play Pong with the fuckin’ sheep.
I shit you not. Ok, well, I’m not sure that’s exactly how the conversation went. I may have taken some creative license there, but as The Rock says, I guaran-damn-TEE that there is Pong being played. With sheep.
And that’s not even all. Just watch the video. There is even more greatness within.
You can thank me later.
*no sheep were harmed in the making of this video. I think.
http://www.wimp.com/sheeplight
Mobile Applications – WP7 vs. The World
I was doing a little thinking this morning about the mobile space and WHY people choose one device over the other. I hear all the time that people choose Apple’s iPhone over Windows Phone 7 because there’s more apps and games available in the Apple Store than there are in the Windows Marketplace.
The selling point is that Windows Phone 7 lags far behind in their marketplace because WP7 only has just over 30,000 apps in the marketplace, while Android and iOS boast in the hundreds of thousands.
I’m not sure about Android because I’ve never used their app store, but with Apple, that number is at least partially inflated, as trial and full version apps are treated as seperate apps, and are counted as such. With WP7, the trial and full version are the same app – when you get the trial, you actually have the full version, but it’s feature locked until you pay for it. I know that doesn’t make up for the difference, but just food for thought.
Also, WP7 has been on the market less than a year. Apple has had it’s app store for over 3 years, AND… WP7 has reached those 30,000 apps FASTER than both Android and Apple hit their 30,000 milestone – and that count is not artificially inflated like Apple is.
There’s an iPhone and an iPod Touch in our house. I’ve spent hours in the Apple app store, and let’s face it… a lot of those “hundreds of thousands of apps” are, well, crap.
Plus… studies have determined that 90% of the apps that users determined are the top must-have apps – are available in the Windows marketplace.
Microsoft is aggressively courting iOS, Android, and (former) WebOS developers to come over and give WP7 a try. Who knows? In the next 2 and half years, WP7 might just hit that “hundreds of thousands” of apps that Apple and Android have now.
So, are WP7 and Apple REALLY that far apart in the app space? I don’t think so. With a little time for WP7 to mature like iOS has already had, I think we’re going to see a whole different ball game.