Final Four

Well, now that both my favorite teams are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs (Devils lost in 5 to Ottawa and the Sharks lost to Detroit in 6 tonight), I now have to choose which of the remaining four teams to root for.

A logical choice might be the Anaheim Ducks since they're in the Sharks' division but there's too strong a rivalry with San Jose and I fear that not even my admiration for long-time fave Chris Pronger will overcome it.

The Senators might have a chance since they're the lone remaining Canadian team and I do have a soft spot for the teams from north of the border. But I'm not that familiar with the Ottawa players so they're a long shot for my attention.

Buffalo has a few players I like and I could get behind the little-guy, little-town feeling of the Sabres. However, their uniforms might just be too horrid to stomach.

Which leaves me with Detroit who displayed their quality in the series against the Sharks. Tonight's decisive defeat could have left a bitter taste in my mouth but we all knew that San Jose was done for after the crushing blow of Game 4. The Wings came from behind many times and persevered through injury after injury in this year's playoffs. Here's to hoping they can give Anaheim the what-for and go on to play for the Cup. Go Wings!

Next to the Last Minute

I thought surely yesterday's Sharks/Wings game was headed for an overtime period after the Wings came back from again being two goals down in the first period to tie it up early in the third. But a next-to-the-last-minute goal at 18:36 by the crafty Pavel Datsyuk put the Wings ahead tying the series at one game apiece.

The Shark Tank will be loud and exciting tomorrow night for Game 3. I'm looking forward to watching our old crew on FSN Bay Area. I hear Drew Remenda is back from Hockey Night in Canada to do color with Randy Hahn. I feel sorry for those of you who have to watch it on VS.

My other team, New Jersey, was able to win their Game 2 in overtime to even that series with the Senators. I fear for them because Ottawa seems so very very good. Brodeur and the D will have to be better for them to come out winners in that round.

Sharks Win! Sharks Win!!

After two quick goals (within 24 seconds) halfway through the first period, the San Jose Sharks shut down the Red Wings with some good defense and even better goaltending from Nabokov (34 saves) to win the first game of the second round. The not-a-sellout crowd at the Joe didn't have much to cheer about and weren't a factor even though San Jose has rarely won in Detroit.

The Wings seemed to really miss Holmstrom in front of the net. We'll see if his injured eye will let him get on the ice next time out.

Game 2 is on Saturday. On NBC. In HD. At noon (PDT). Make your plans.

A Pack of Pucks

TagFest: Hockey

The trade deadline is coming up on Feb. 27 and already things have been heating up. Yesterday the Western Conference-leading Nashville Predators (it still feels weird saying that) acquired the right-foot-ailing Peter Forsberg from the Eastern Conference bottom dwelling Philadelphia Flyers. His contract is up and the Flyers need bodies so they had to move him. We'll see how much he actually contributes to the Preds' cup run.

Both my teams are well-situated for the home stretch. New Jersey is second in the East and leads the Atlantic by 5 points over a hot Pittsburgh squad who beat them tonight. The Pens have gotten at least one point in each of their last 15 games. Now that's impressive.

The Sharks are in 5th place in the West and are still chasing Anaheim for tops in the Pacific Division, only 3 points out now. However, they're only 6 points ahead of the 8th place team so they can't slow down. Losing tonight to Columbus (14th in the conference) is simply not acceptable. I'm wondering if they'll make any moves before the deadline. They need to score some goals (two consecutive shut-outs!) and having Marleau out with an injury is not helping things.

Sure is nice...

to be able to listen to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the past when it was televised by a different network I had to mute the sound.

It was really annoying because I love the sounds of hockey—the click-clack of skates and pucks and sticks. But what was even more annoying, and the reason I was forced to mute the TV, was the then play-by-play voice of hockey on ESPN, Gary Thorne. I loathe him. I loathe his voice, his smarmy attitude, his cloyingly saccharin laugh.

I was so concerned when OLN took over televising the NHL that they would hire this guy that I emailed them. I don't know if they listened to me, or perhaps thousands of others also voiced their concern, but happily OLN & NBC hired the excellent Mike "Doc" Emrick who also does the play-by-play for the New Jersey Devils. And he's working with John Davidson, another quality hockey voice and personality. They even have Mark Messier during the final series. And he's looking good!

Now if they would only replace that horrible sideline reporter woman. But at least she's not Gary Thorne.

Too Much

Oh! The hockey game just went into overtime. Both it and the A's game are on in HD tonight. It's just too much good stuff.

I'm taping the A's game and watching the Carolina/Buffalo game live. I don't particularly care which team wins. I'm going to be for the Oilers in the Finals anyway.

Shave It Off

I love hockey.

I love the hockey playoffs even more.
(Oilers win the West!)

But I do not love hockey playoff beards. They're just not attractive.

I don't blame the players. They're only growing them because it's the playoffs, not because they think they look good (I hope). So it's not reflection on them as individuals. I just wish they would do something else other than grow facial hair. It's getting so bad even fans are getting into it. Okay, some of those images are pretty funny.

One year the Sharks were playing the St. Louis Blues in the playoffs and instead of growing the traditional beard, the Blues players dyed their hair blond. Even one guy who shaves his head got into the action by dyeing stripes into his bushy eyebrows. It wasn't a good look. Plus they lost to the Sharks. I didn't see the blond hair the next year.

Triple OT

I pity the poor hockey writers in the East who had to stay up to watch the Sharks lose in triple overtime to the Oilers last night. I pity the Sharks players and coaches and equipment staff more. Momentum is definitely on Edmonton's side now. To play for 42 minutes of overtime and lose will be hard for the Sharks to recover from. It's a really good thing they won the first two games. So not all is lost.

I expect this series will last a long time while Anaheim is in a position to sweep Colorado tonight and be sitting around waiting for their Conference Finals opponent. My preferred teams are losing in the second round. Colorado and New Jersey will never recover from being down 0-3. We'll see if they can even win a game. I thought the Devils were going to pull it off on Monday with that last minute goal only to see (the beautiful) Eric Staal tie it up with 3 seconds left. It was fitting that they lost in OT. And last night I could hardly watch the game (even tho it was in HD) it was so depressing. Where is the team that won 15 straight games. Is Brodeur injured?

Hockey Playoffs

There's a highly unusual situation in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs this year. All four of the top seeds in the East made it through while all the lower seeds in the West won their first round series.

One result is that San Jose, the five seed, will have home ice advantage throughout the Western Conference finals (if they can get by Edmonton). Pretty cool.

Also, there are no teams in the Eastern or Central time zones left in the West (Detroit, Nashvile & Dallas all lost). This will make for much better travel schedules for the remaining teams. It's still far to Edmonton though.

Games start up tonight. The Devils play tomorrow morning but San Jose doesn't play until Sunday. I can't wait!

Sharks Are Through! Devils Are Through!

Both my teams were able to win four games in their first series before their opponents did, advancing themselves to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Devils made it look easy, sweeping the Rangers in four. They get to rest up while their unknown opponent is still fighting for their playoff lives. They could play anyone left in the East except Ottawa.

Similiarly, the revved up Sharks, by beating Nashville in five, could play anyone left in the West except Detroit. If Detroit makes it, that is. Edmonton is up on them 3-2. They play Game 6 tonight in Canada. Let's hope for a Game 7!

I was so happy to see Colorado win yesterday. Now normally I would not be cheering for the Avs but they were playing the hated Dallas Stars. Oh, it was so lovely to see Marty Turco and Mike Modano lose in five games. Ha ha ha! Nice try, Pacific Division champs. And I'm really rooting for Calgary tonight. Beat those Ducks!

Sharks & Devils, Oh My!

My two favorite teams, the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference and the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern, are both off to great starts in this year's race for the Stanley Cup.

The Sharks lost the first game to the Nashville Predators who scored four power play goals. But the Sharks have come back to win two in a row and will take a 2 games to 1 lead into Game 4 tomorrow night. Go Sharks!

The Devils have won their first two games in a dominant fashion over their local rivals, the New York Rangers. They play Game 3 tonight in Madison Square Garden. Go Devils!

A Friday Evening

I ended up going over to watch hockey at the sports bar with Katherine. We were going to take a bus but I said I'd prefer to walk. It seemed like a nice evening though a bit chilly. We had gotten just as far as the Metreon (a building containing restaurants, a cinema and shops) when it starting raining on us. Neither of us had correct change for the bus so we ran inside. Once inside the food court we both realized we were hungry so we sat down for a bit. By the time we were done the rain had stopped so we walked on over to the bar.

Katherine's not into sports and I'm not into drinking so she hung out with people she knew from Colorado and I tried to watch the game on the monitors. I wasn't that successful so I took off after about an hour. I decided to walk along the Embarcadero to the BART station. It was nice walk and took me around 45 minutes. I got home and watched the end of of the game on my DVR. Turned out to be pretty exciting. I'm sure the guys in the bar had a good time. I've decided I'm not a big fan of watching sports in bars. I like to hear the games, especially hockey. There's just something about the click and clack of the puck on the stick and the swish of the skates and the crash of bodies into the boards.

So on the way home on BART I was finally able to get back into the book I was reading, Island by Thomas Perry. What an excellent book. Perry writes stories about generally good people who prefer to work outside the law. Island is the story of a couple who run cons. After stealing a great deal of cash from a mafioso, they escape to the Carribbean where they begin a multi-year project of building an island from stratch on top of an unmapped shoal. The characters are likable and the plot is ingenious.

The first Thomas Perry books I read were his Jane Whitefield series: Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face-Changers, and Blood Money. Jane is in the business of helping people disappear. I won't say more. Check them out for yourself.

The Olympics Are Over—Back to Normal TV

I loved the Olympics. I really really did. But I'm glad they're over. I missed having instant hockey when I got home from work. The NHL is back and the Sharks are on in HD. It's a good line-up for me tonight: The Amazing Race 9 starts up, Gilmore Girls is a new episode, the guys are singing on Idol. An excellent night of just sitting around.

Okay, I'll miss the curling. When are they going to start televising more curling? Oh if I only got TSN or CBC here in Cali. And I'll miss Olympic Ice. Now that was cracklin' good TV.

Standard High Defnition

NBC is simulcasting its regular Olympics broadcasts on the local NBC stations with an HD broadcast. Luckily for us, all the venues have HD capability so everything (well, everything so far that I've seen) has been in HD. And my local cable company added Universal HD at the last second so I'm getting a lot of the hockey in HD too.

I'm starting to get really really spoiled. HD is starting to become my standard viewing level. So when I watch something that's not in HD, it just looks weird. I used to get excited when I got to see a hockey game in HD (the puck! I can see the puck!) but now it's old hat. I'm sure gonna miss the Olympics.

Olympic DeVeR Fever

This will be my first Olympics with a DVR. And with the NBC family of networks providing unprecedented coverage, my disk is going to fill up quickly, especially once the men’s ice hockey tournament starts up on the 15th. USA, MSNCB and CNBC are going to carry every game, mostly while I’m at work. I may not be getting much sleep the next couple weeks. Maybe I should pump up the airbed and just sleep in the living room.

My Favorite Martin

Congrats to my fave Paul Martin on being named to the "taxi squad" as a reserve for the men's Olympic ice hockey team heading to Turin in a few days. He celebrated with a goal and two assists against the Lightning last night. Woo hoo!