Author Archives: admin

Superbowl Sunday! Who ya got?

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Yet another Superbowl Sunday is upon us… may you all eat, drink, and be merry.  Enjoy the game, enjoy the commercials, enjoy the halftime show (yeah, right), and above all, BE SAFE.  Especially if you’re going out to watch the game.

It’s also yet another year that neither one of my teams (Bills, 49ers) has made the big dance.  So, I needed to come up with a couple lists to help me determine my rooting interest.

Reasons to root for Green Bay:

  • Starting running back James Starks is a hometown kid, representing both Niagara Falls and the University at Buffalo
  • The Packers have a long and storied history, and are proof that a small market can be a success in a big-time sports league
  • Green Bay’s starting quarterback isn’t a rapist
  • Green Bay fans aren’t bandwagon jumpers (See: Penguins, Pittsburgh)
  • Aaron Rodgers is possibly the best QB in the league right now (and it kills me that the 49ers picked Alex Smith over him in ’05)
  • Clay Matthews is a scary talent and is probably the best new linebacker in the league since Patrick Willis

Reasons to root for Pittsburgh:

  • Pitt is a blue-collar city just like Buffalo, and is easy to identify with
  • The Steelers have just as much tradition as Green Bay
  • Troy Polamalu’s hair

So based on that, I’m going with Green Bay.  Go Packers!

I Can Almost Smell the Azaleas

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Apparently, the scent has actually been bred out of most azalea blossoms.  But that’s not the point.  The flowering shrub and the golf course that helped make it famous – Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters – will be featured prominently in Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’12.

I have but one response:

WOOT.

Any videogame golf aficionado knows that Augusta – quite possibly, along with Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, the world’s most famous golf course – has been the most-requested addition of any golf game over the last decade.  The folks who run Augusta, though, are famously protective of their image, and to date haven’t allowed any representation of their pride and joy that was less than perfect in any way.

And as a golf game nut, that’s what has me so excited about this.  That protectiveness likely means that Augusta in Tiger Woods ’12 will need to be near-perfect to pass muster.  Not only can I finally play the world’s most exclusive and picturesque golf course from the comfort of my couch, but it’s also very likely to be an amazing experience.  About as good as it gets without actually being there, anyway – which is a notorious difficult achievement whether as a player or a spectator.

Is it March 29th yet?

New Year’s Goals ’11

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Another year has come and gone, and that means it’s time for everyone to make New Year’s resolutions that they will invariably not stick to.

My one and only resolution: to have goals, not resolutions.

My reasoning?  Calling it a “resolution” seems, to me, to be a more obligatory state of affairs.  Calling it a “goal” feels much less serious and allows a little freedom to be over-aggressive.  Such as, “my goal is to run a marathon”.  What are the chances of me actually doing that?  Slim, of course.  If it’s a “resolution”, I feel like I have to do it.  If it’s a “goal”, and I progress towards it but ultimately fail, I’m fine with it because it at least inspired me to try.

That’s just me.  I’m weird.  But you knew that.

So without further ado, my New Year’s Goals for 2011:

  • Blog more. Both here, and at my totally awesome Sabres blog, Roll the Highlight Film. Facebook and Twitter has replaced most blogging for me, and that’s unfortunate because sometimes I want to express something in more than a sentence or two.  Or seventy.

Blog posts made on this site in 2010: zero.  And just like that, goal #1 is achieved.  See how easy that is?  Boom.  I’ll move on:

  • Be the best dad I can possibly be to my kids, Sarah (3) and Tyler (2.5 months).  If you know a thing about me at all, you know I love my kids dearly.  We are blessed and lucky to have them.  I don’t ever want a day to go by where they don’t know that.

At this point, my blogging was interrupted so I could start up Sarah’s MobiGo and show her how to play her Shrek game.  2 for 2.  Go me.  Moving right along:

  • Be nicer to my wife.  (She made me put this one here.)
  • Officially, I lost 24 pounds (212.5 – 188.5) for the year.  I was as low as 182.5 at one point.  I would like to get down to 170.  First step towards this goal is tossing out all the leftover Christmas cookies sitting around the kitchen.  (To everyone who made us Christmas cookies, they were really tasty and we thank you, but you have to start somewhere, right?)
  • I’d like to control my emotions a bit better, specifically my temper.  Getting mad about stuff that’s out of my control doesn’t fix anything.
  • Declutter, especially in the basement storage area.  My house is overrun by junk.
  • After 16 years I finally got myself out of credit card debt last year, and I’d like it to stay that way.
  • Save at least $4K towards a new car while I double up the payment on the van to get it paid off two years early.  The objective here is to avoid ever having two car payments at one time – a situation I affectionately refer to as “budget suicide”.
  • Finally finish (and start, for that matter) the media server project I’ve been putting off forever.  Essentially, the idea is to have a low-noise, low-power box that can store ripped DVDs and the like and stream them all over the house, to any TV or any device.  Why do I want to do this?  Because DVDs (and really, physical media of any kind) annoy me.  They get lost and scratched up, especially with a toddler in the house.
  • Find a way to be less concerned about what I’m not doing at any given time.  I find that constantly thinking about what I should be doing cripples my ability to focus on what I’m actually doing at that moment.
  • Be as apathetic about politics as humanly possible, unless they affect me directly.  I can’t think of a bigger waste of energy than political BS.
  • I want to watch the Buffalo Sabres win the Stanley Cup. Sadly, this goal depends on a certain blue and gold-clad hockey team pulling their heads out of their rear ends.
  • GS to 60K.  If you don’t know what that means then don’t worry about it. :P
  • I have one more goal that I unfortunately can’t mention or else it won’t be successful.  I’m only writing this down as a reminder to myself about said goal, and not to be some sort of jerk who says “Nyah nyah I have a secret and I’m not telling you”.

Happy New Year to all.  If your 2010 wasn’t the greatest, I hope 2011 is an improvement for you.  If your 2010 was awesome, may 2011 be even more awesome.

Why the new Facebook "privacy" update sucks

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When Facebook makes changes, there’s always a huge outcry from people who want things the way they were.   I usually find such an outcry laughable.  I’m not laughing right now.

Here’s a short list of the scummy things Facebook has just done with the new “privacy” update:

1) “Everyone” now means “the entire web”, not just Facebook users.

2) Thus, when making a status update, setting it visible to “everyone” – which is DEFAULT, unless you changed it – now means “the entire web”.

3) Facebook now considers your profile picture, current city, friends list, gender, and fan pages you’ve subscribed to “publicly available information”.  YOU CAN NO LONGER CONTROL WHO SEES THIS INFORMATION.  If you think this isn’t a big deal, you are very naive and dead wrong.  If you allow people to search for you on Facebook, any random person can now find you and discover all of your interests.   A stalker can look you up and find what city you’ve moved to.  Or, perhaps you subscribed to the fan page of a controversial issue that you might not want co-workers to see; they can now.

4) Since Facebook apps have access to all of this newly attainable “publicly available information”, this means that any scumbag developer out there can now harvest all of this information, which is really handy for things such as identity theft.  This includes apps that YOU do not use, but your friends do.  I cannot reiterate this point enough.  ANY app that is added by ANY of your friends now has access to your name, profile picture, current city, friends list, gender, and fan pages you’ve subscribed to, AND YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THIS.

If you’d like to find out precisely what apps can see about your friends – even people that have never used said apps – have a look at this quiz provided by the ACLU.  If you’re not worried about the ACLU harvesting your information, that is. ;)

Here are a few links where this is discussed:

PC World:

“Information set to ‘everyone’ is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations.

“The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to ‘everyone.’ You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings. If you delete ‘everyone’ content that you posted on Facebook, we will remove it from your Facebook profile, but have no control over its use outside of Facebook.”

CNN:

Until now, you had the option of restricting much of that information. That option has been removed.The ramifications, as the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation sees them:

“For example, you might want to join the fan page of a controversial issue (like a page that supports or condemns the legalization of gay marriage), and let all your personal friends see this on your profile, but hide it from your officemates, relatives or the public at large.” You cannot do so now.

The foundation says: “These changes are especially worrisome because even something as seemingly innocuous as your list of friends can reveal a great deal about you. In September, for example, an MIT study nicknamed ‘Gaydar’ demonstrated that researchers could accurately predict a Facebook user’s sexual orientation simply by examining the user’s friends list.”

ACLU of Northern California:

Even if your Facebook profile is “private,” when you take a quiz or run any other application on Facebook, that app can access almost everything in your profile: your religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation, pictures, and groups. And these apps may have access to most of the info on your friends’ profiles too—which means if your friend takes a quiz, they could be giving away your personal information, even if you’ve never used an app!

EFF:

Facebook previously offered a solution to users who didn’t want their info being shared with app developers over the Facebook Platform every time a one of their friends added an app: users could select a privacy option telling Facebook to “not share any information about me through the Facebook API.” That option has disappeared, and now apps can get all of your “publicly available information” whenever a friend of yours adds an app.

Facebook defends this change by arguing that very few users actually ever selected that option — in the same breath that they talk about how complicated and hard to find the previous privacy settings were. Rather than eliminating the option, Facebook should have made it more prominent and done a better job of publicizing it. Instead, the company has sent a clear message: if you don’t want to share your personal data with hundreds or even thousands of nameless, faceless Facebook app developers — some of whom are obviously far from honest — then you shouldn’t use Facebook.

I demand that Facebook gives us the ability to control what we consider to be “publicly available information”.  If they don’t do this, I’m closing my account.

Dick Jauron fired: My take

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The inevitable has finally happened, and Dick Jauron is (mercifully) no longer the head football coach of the Buffalo Bills.  Bills fans are most certainly starting fires and overturning cars in celebration as we speak.

My quick take on what led to Jauron’s downfall:

- Injury mismanagement.  Every team has injuries, but the Bills’ injury problems always seemed worse.  Why?  Because Jauron mismanaged the IR, in part by putting injured players on it in September who were ready to play by November (Crowell last year, Posluszny in his rookie year).  Also, too many non-contact practices leave the team in poor shape to withstand the season.

- Clock mismanagement and bad play-calling.  Jauron simply gave away several games off the top of my head: Denver, season opener ’07; Dallas, MNF ’07; Cleveland, MNF ’08; and the second Jets game last year.  No clock awareness and no ability to make the correct decision at the right time.

- The complete and utter absence of anything resembling a clue on the offensive side of the ball, which in turn led to the inability to develop a quarterback.

- What kind of coach seriously says that  “You better have guys that are self-motivated, because if you have to motivate them, the odds are it’s not going to happen for you”?  A LOSING coach.

Add all this up, and you’ve got a guy who has a 60-82 lifetime coaching record.

Dick Jauron may be a nice person – heck, Chris Berman once said you won’t find a better human being – but he is not a good football coach.  And fortunately, as of now, he’s no longer OUR football coach.

NHL 2009 Playoff Predictions – West – First Round

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San Jose Sharks (1) vs. Anaheim Ducks (8)
Records: Sharks, 53-18-11 (117 pts); Ducks, 42-33-7 (91 pts)

Season Series: Sharks, 3-3-0; Ducks, 3-3-0

Analysis: New Sharks coach Todd McLellan must be feeling a lot of pressure right now.  The Sharks desperately want to shed the label of playoff chokers, and the way the Sharks rolled through the regular season suggested they’re on a mission to do exactly that.  But now is the time to put up or shut up.  Get bounced before the conference finals, and this season will be yet another wasted year.  On the positive side, home ice is a significant advantage for the Sharks – having lost only five games in regulation at HP Pavilion all year – and Evgeni Nabokov is a rock in goal.

The Ducks struggled mightily (Get it?  Hyuk hyuk) just to make it this far.  They just haven’t been consistent enough.  The top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Teemu Selanne/Bobby Ryan is as good as it gets, but goaltending has been a concern.  Jonas Hiller has clearly outplayed incumbent JS Giguere, but former Conn Smythe winner Giguere is the one with playoff experience.  What’s a coach to do?  Even Ducks coach Randy Carlyle doesn’t know who he’ll start yet (as of this writing).

Who I’m rooting for: The Sharks have always been my Western Conference team, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Who will win: These two teams really, really hate each other, so it’ll be fun to watch. The Sharks are more complete and consistent, but the Ducks won’t go down without a fight. Sharks in 6.

Detroit Red Wings (2) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (7)
Records: Wings, 51-21-10 (112 pts); BJs, 41-31-10 (92 pts)

Season Series: Wings, 3-2-1; BJs, 3-3-0

Analysis: The Wings won the Central Division for the 250th year in a row, they’re playoff-tested, they’ve got an unbelievable amount of talent, they’re healthy, and all their good players are signed for the next million years.  No #7 seed will ever have a shot of knocking them off any time soon…. but wait, we’ve found a chink in the armor!  It’s goaltending.  (Isn’t it always?)  Likely playoff starter Chris Osgood had a rather abysmal goals-against average of 3.09.  I haven’t looked at all the stats, but that’s gotta be the worst GAA of any starting playoff goalie since the lockout, or at least in the bottom five.

It was a little weird finally being able to write “Columbus Blue Jackets” in a playoff preview up there.  Columbus was the last NHL team to have never made the playoffs, so they’re probably happy just to be here.  But here’s something little-known outside Ohio: the Jackets are actually good.  The BJs have a ton of confidence in likely Calder Trophy winner Steve Mason, who led the league in shutouts.  Coach Ken Hitchcock won a Cup in Dallas with his defensive system, which the Jackets are playing to perfection.  Trade-deadline acquisition Antoine Vermette, clearly the best center on the team, has clicked well with Rick Nash and in fact has fit in much better than he ever did in Ottawa.

Who I’m rooting for: Definitely Columbus. I’m no Hitchcock fan, but they’re an easy team to get behind and their long-suffering fans deserve to see playoff success.  Plus, I get to chant “Let’s go BJs”.  How can you go wrong there?

Who will win: Welcome to the playoffs, Columbus.  Unfortunately, you get to play your most hated rival – a team that is better and more experienced than you in every way (except goaltending, at least as far as experience is concerned).  Good luck with that.  As much as I’d like to see the BJs win, and as possible as it is that Mason steals a game or two, it won’t be enough. Wings in 5.

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs. St. Louis Blues (6)
Records: Canucks, 45-27-10 (100 pts); Blues, 41-31-10 (92 pts)

Season Series: Canucks, 2-2-0; Blues, 2-2-0.

Analysis: You know how everyone assumed New Jersey would fold like a tent if Martin Brodeur ever went down with an injury?  Well, the same thing happened to the Canucks and Roberto Luongo when he hurt his groin in November – but unlike the Devils, Vancouver did in fact suck without their best player.  When he returned after the All-Star break, Luongo and the Canucks played lights-out, taking advantage of a Calgary team in disarray and storming back from 13 points down to steal the Northwest Division.  They’re on a roll right now, the top six forwards have been playing great, and there’s that Luongo guy too.

Hands up – who expected the Blues to make the playoffs?  Didn’t think so.  Low expectations for St. Louis’ season got even lower when Erik Johnson tore his ACL in a freak golf cart accident before the season even began.  Freak accidents come in pairs apparently, because starting goaltender Manny Legace got hurt tripping on a red carpet laid out for Sarah Palin just two weeks into the season.  As if that wasn’t enough, forwards Andy MacDonald and Paul Kariya missed a lot of time with injuries of their own. Yet despite all this, St. Louis turned in the season’s best second half, going 25-9-7.  Led by a bunch of kids like TJ Oshie, David Backes, David Perron, Patrik Berglund, and half a million other players you’ve likely never heard of that were forced to grow up in a hurry, St. Louis completed a stunning turnaround to move up from last place in the West all the way to 6th.  Chris Mason replaced the waived Manny Legace in goal and started the final 38 games, playing very well and going 24-8-6 over that stretch.

Who I’m rooting for: The Blues.  Partially because of Jay McKee, partially because Chris Mason won me a fantasy championship, but mostly because they’re a fantastic story.

Who will win: St. Louis’s reward for being the hottest team in the NHL is… getting
to play the second hottest team in the NHL (23-7-2) in the first round.  Some
reward.  Vancouver is more experienced, Luongo is healthy, and although St. Louis may get Kariya back soon, they’re still mostly a bunch of kids without much playoff experience.  Except for Keith Tkachuk, who has never won anything of note at any time during his career.  Canucks in 6.

Chicago Blackhawks (4) vs. Calgary Flames (5)
Records: Hawks, 46-24-12 (104 pts); Flames, 46-30-6 (98 pts)

Season Series: Hawks, 4-0-0; Flames, 0-3-1

Analysis: Hawks fans must have been praying for Bill Wirtz’s death. Don’t believe me?  Hawks fans actually booed during a tribute and moment of silence for Wirtz during the 2007 season opener.  The Hawks were rarely, if ever, competitive under Dollar Bill’s ownership, but that culture has changed since his son Rocky took the reins.  Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews blossomed into superstars, Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet were signed, and Joel Quenneville replaced Denis Savard as coach.  Huet and Nikolai Khabibulin form a nice 1-2 punch in goal, Martin Havlat has stayed (relatively) healthy, and Patrick Sharp has progressed.  Why, the Hawks even started showing home games on TV!  In short, there’s a lot to like about this team.

Calgary started strong, but has backslid considerably.  They built a big lead in the Northwest, then started to fritter it away with a four-game losing streak to begin February, and in the end cost themselves the #3 seed by failing to hold off Vancouver, sealing their fate with a 4-1 loss to the Canucks in the 80th game of the season.  The trade deadline brought in Olli Jokinen, which so far hasn’t worked out well.  Injuries are mounting at the worst possible time, and Miikka Kiprusoff hasn’t been good enough in net to stop the bleeding.  Jarome Iginla and Michael Cammalleri have been outstanding scorers, but it drops off a lot after that.

Who I’m rooting for: Gotta go with Chicago.  Not rooting for Kane and Soupy would be sacrilege for someone from Western NY.

Who will win: I don’t see Calgary bouncing back after blowing the Northwest Division title – that’s going to weigh on them heavily from a psychological standpoint.  The Blackhawks are less playoff-tested, but are a better team overall.  Blackhawks in 5.

NHL 2009 Playoff Predictions – East – First Round

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#1 Boston Bruins vs. #8 Montreal Canadiens
Records: Bruins, 53-19-10 (116 pts);  Canadiens, 41-30-11 (93 pts)

Season Series: Bruins, 5-0-1; Habs, 1-3-2

Analysis: The Canadiens began the year as the favorites to win the East, but instead celebrated their centennial by becoming the NHL’s version of the Dallas Cowboys.  The 100th anniversary expectations were apparently too much to handle because the Canadiens were an inconsistent mess, going 3-11-1 during one stretch in January and February.  Carey Price took a major step back in goal, Alex Kovalev was benched, the Kostitsyn brothers became linked to organized crime, quite a few players were widely criticized for being notorious partiers, and – in a move borne of sheer desperation – coach Guy Carbonneau was fired near the trade deadline despite insistence from GM (and now coach) Bob Gainey that he’d never do such a thing.  Only Octo-mom provided more ridiculous drama over the past few months.

The Bruins, meanwhile, were consistently the best team in the conference all year long save for a little slide in February and March, and for good reason: they have the best depth of any team in the East.  Players such as Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, and David Krejci had breakout years, Patrice Bergeron appears to have put his injury problems behind him, and they reloaded at the trade deadline with some guy named Mark Recchi.  (Anyone know if he’s any good?)  The defense with Zdeno Chara, Dennis Wideman, and Mark Stuart is solid, and Tim Thomas has his best statistical season ever, winning 36 games with a 2.10 (!) GAA and .933 (!!) save percentage.  The Bruins were #2 in the NHL in goals scored and #1 in goals against.

Who I’m rooting for: Bruins, I guess.  I’m not really fond of either team.

Who will win: Montreal will find a way to steal a game, but it’s hard to give them any more than that. Bruins in 5.

#2 Washington Capitals vs. #7 New York Rangers
Records: Capitals, 50-24-8 (108 pts), Rangers, 43-30-9 (95 pts)

Season Series: Caps, 3-0-1; Rangers, 1-2-1

Analysis: The Capitals built on last season’s rebirth, winning 50 games for the first time since 1985-86 and capturing the Southeast Division easily (not a major feat in years past, but the SE nearly fielded three playoff teams this year).  They scored the third-most goals in the NHL (#2 in the East), Ovechkin again led all goal scorers in the NHL with 56, and four players (Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, Mike Green) scored 70+ points, helping overcome somewhat inconsistent goaltending from Jose Theodore.  Many people assume the Caps are a one-man army, but their role players and defense are better than most people realize.

The Rangers, meanwhile, have been very up-and-down.  A 10-2-3 start was wiped out by a 2-7-4 stretch in January and February that helped get coach Tom Renney fired.  Since being taken over by John Tortorella and re-acquiring Sean Avery, the Blueshirts are a very different team, playing a more aggressive attacking style than that of the more conservative Renney.  The pre-Tortorella Rangers trapped a lot and were often accused of being New Jersey Lite; Tortorella’s Rangers are most certainly not that.  The big knock against the Rangers is a lack of goal scoring; Markus Naslund led the team with just 24, and in fact, Ovechkin had more goals than Naslund and #2 goal scorer Nikolai Zherdev all by himself.  Unless Henrik Lundqvist is Superman, the Rangers will need someone to find a scoring touch to have a prayer in this series.

Who I’m rooting for: The Rangers are the only other team I wouldn’t mind seeing in the Finals, but my huge mancrush on Ovechkin dictates I must root for the Caps.  If the Rangers win this series, they become my East team for the rest of the playoffs.

Who will win: The Avery and Tortorella factors make this somewhat tough to call, as the season series was played out before they arrived in New York.  But as long as Theodore doesn’t melt down, the Caps don’t let Avery get under their skin, and Lundqvist lets in a goal every now and then, the Caps can punch their ticket to Round 2.  Caps in 6.

#3 New Jersey Devils vs. #6 Carolina Hurricanes
Records: Devils, 51-27-4 (106 pts); Hurricanes, 45-30-7 (97 pts)

Season Series: Devils, 1-3-0; Canes, 3-1-0

Analysis: Yet another ho-hum 50-win season for the Devils, as Martin Brodeur carried them by playing in nearly every game and a set of 12 interchangeable forwards trapped the life out of opponents resulting in a ton of 2-1 victories.  I tell you, if Brodeur ever got injured that team would be exposed as a fraud… wait a minute, what’s that you say? Brodeur missed 50 games with an injured elbow?  Zach Parise finished 5th in the NHL in scoring… and plays for the Devils? Huh, what do you know.   The truth is, the Devils aren’t the defense-only team we’re all used to – they’re decidedly middle-of-the-pack now when it comes to goal scoring.  Hey, that’s a really big deal in Swampland!  The Devils have lots of depth at forward and defense, but their problem is momentum, ending the season on a 5-7-1 run in which Brodeur was very un-Brodeurlike.

Carolina, on the other hand, ended the season on an 18-6-2 tear since Valentine’s Day, including a nine-game winning streak in March and 12 straight at home.  Carolina is yet another team that showed its coach the door during the season, and this was yet another instance of it actually working.  A deadline-day deal brought Erik Cole back into the fold from Edmonton, rejuvenating both his career and Eric Staal’s.  Cam Ward has been unbelievable over the last couple months, and enough pieces are left from the 2006 Cup that lack of experience won’t be an issue.

Who I’m rooting for: New Jersey aren’t the trap hacks they used to be, but they still ruined hockey in the mid-90′s.  Carolina crushed my Cup dreams in 2006.  Do I have to root for either one?   Too bad hockey doesn’t have a double disqualification like wrestling.

Who will win: I’m going with the team that has more momentum.  The Devils don’t have their usual goaltending advantage in this series – remember that Cam Ward won a Conn Smythe three years ago, and he’ll outplay Brodeur.  Canes in 7.

#4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Philadelphia Flyers
Records: Penguins, (45-28-9, 99 pts); Flyers, 44-27-11 (99 pts)

Season Series: Pens, 4-2-0; Flyers, 2-2-2

Analysis: With the amount of talent Pittsburgh has, they should have easily won the East.  They boast two of the league’s top three scorers in Crosby and Malkin, for crying out loud.  Yet if the season ended in January, the Pens would be watching the playoffs on TV like the rest of us. What happened?  Injuries (Sergei Gonchar, Crosby), and apparently, Michel Therrien. His Valentine’s Day card from the team had a pink slip inside, and since replacing him with Dan Bylsma and adding Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz, all of a sudden the Penguins are as good as they’ve ever been.

Remember when the Flyers completely sucked a couple years ago?  Yeah, I hardly remember it either.  What a turnaround this team has undergone since 2006-07.   Mike Richards has developed into one of the best young captains in the league, Jeff Carter has become a goal scoring machine, and although they’ve been just fine without Danny Briere for the vast majority of the season, he’s now healthy as well.  The Flyers were playing so well that they actually had some difficulty getting him back into the lineup.  Goaltending is a question mark, but you could copy and paste that phrase from year to year and it would still apply.  The Flyers usually find a way to compensate.

Who I’m rooting for: My hatred of both teams runs very deep – the Flyers have always been dirty and Crosby is a diving, crying little punk – so I’ll go with double disqualification once again.

Who will win: By the numbers, these teams are as even as it gets.  First, note the regular season records above.  Pittsburgh scored 264 goals in the regular season; so did Philly.  Pittsburgh gave up 239 goals, Philly gave up 238.  Pittsburgh’s PK was 82.7%: Philly, 83%.  Pittsburgh’s home record was 25-13-3 and away record was 20-15-6.  Philly?  24-13-4
and 20-14-7.  And – get this – both teams play in the state of Pennsylvania!  How about that!

When the numbers are this close, I have to look at two things: goaltending and momentum.  Advantage: Pittsburgh in both cases.  Penguins in 7.

Ranking the best shorthanded goalies in the NHL

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Ryan Miller’s stats are the reason this is interesting to me.  Sure he gives up the occasional bad goal, but “Mr. Softee”, as the stats show, is one of the biggest reasons the Sabres’ penalty killing has been so very good this year.  And on a team that loves to take dumb penalties (I’m looking at you, Toni Lydman), that’s huge.

Ranking the best shorthanded goalies in the NHL – Puck Daddy – NHL – Yahoo Sports

New Year's resolutions

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Yeah, I know no one keeps ‘em.  But I’ll give it my best shot this year, as usual.

This is what I hope to achieve in ’09:

  • No more apologies.  I’m not sorry for anything anymore.  I do this too much and it paints a picture of me as someone who’s weak.  No one ever apologizes to me, so why should I?
  • By the same token, I’m going to be a better person and not do the things I would normally need to apologize for.   In all things, I want to set a good example for my daughter – including watching my mouth.  I cuss like a sailor and she’s just now starting to learn how to speak.  That ain’t good.
  • Be nicer to my wife.  I’m too hard on her for a lot of things.  I gotta learn to relax.
  • Be more productive at work – even if I don’t get rewarded for it.  I feel I do good work, but I could be better.
  • Improve my focus.  I have to accept the fact that I’m not a good multitasker, and cut out the distractions.
  • Speak my mind more often, regardless of the consequences.  I’m going to start by confronting my bosses about the fact that I got passed over for a raise in favor of a guy who sleeps in his chair at work.   I don’t want to be a doormat, and I’m going to speak up when I feel I or someone else is getting the shaft (like, for example, a couple weeks ago when I felt a co-worker was unnecessarily chewed out in a very rude fashion over email and I said nothing about it).  However…..
  • I’m not going to be relentlessly negative about everything.  Nobody likes that guy.
  • Get more sleep.  When I wake up in the morning craving brains, that’s not a good sign.  And on a related note….
  • Cut down on the things I get myself involved in.  I have too many interests and activities, and I fool myself into thinking I have enough time for all of them.  I’m a dad.  I don’t have that kind of time anymore.  I have to be more realistic.
  • Be more consistent.  I waffle too much in my opinions.  I’m going to pick a side and stick with it.
  • Blog more.   This has the added bonus of adding more stuff to my Facebook profile, since I’ve got that set up already.  (Hi, Facebook.)  I’m going to give it my best shot to do a weekly update type of thing.  I’ve said this in the past and always regretted not sticking with it.  I’m going to try a Monday schedule and see how it goes.
  • Increase my Xbox gamerscore to 25,000 by the end of ’09  – it currently stands at 15,535 after finishing off Gears of War 2.  And I’ll give it my best shot to do this legit; I’m going to actually play the games I already own, not seek out those with easy gamerscore. (As an aside: I know that the concept of gamerscore on Xbox 360 is silly to some, and turns others off.  I grew up in an era where games were played to achieve the highest score, not to simply finish the game.  Having your initials on the top of the leaderboard – we didn’t have room for a full name, for God’s sake – was a badge of honor, one you wore proudly.  I view Xbox Live gamerscore as an extension of that.)
  • Find ways to control my spending and expenses.  My credit card debt is obscene.
  • I’m not going to say I’m resolving to elmiinate my debt by the end of the year, but I want to make a big dent in it.  Lower it by 50%, at least.

I think that’s enough of a list to keep me busy.  Happy New Year, everyone.