12.6.08
Like I said... Sadly, I've gotten out of the habit of blogging, haven't I? I've never been the most prolific writer, or the best writer. I'd be the first to admit this. There's part of me that wants to make this post an announcement of my retirement, of sorts, from blogging. But I don't think that I can give up the dream just yet. So this is my announcement of something that's been patently obvious for the last several years...I'm not blogging as much as I used to; I don't have the time that I had five years back when I started this. I haven't forgotten about this (obviously) but haven't had (or made) the time to contribute to this.
Hockey! I've been following hockey ever since the early 1990s, and, being from northern Virginia, have been a Caps fan for all that time, cheering on the Caps out in Landover. (As an aside, I'm listening to the rebroadcast of the NHL Awards on XM...XM is the best thing I've ever subscribed to...it's absolutely wonderful). I spent the last three months following the Caps closely, going to see the game that Sunday afternoon in March against the Penguins where the Caps lost in the last 30 seconds (heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as the same old scene of mobs of Penguins fans in the building). I went to see the regular season finale against the Panthers...that Semin backhand pass to Fedorov was among the prettiest assists I've ever seen. And I don't think that I've ever been in any building that loud in my life during the last few minutes of the game, when they went and won the Southeast Division. And, I went to each of the home playoff games that didn't conflict with work. The short version of each:
- Game 1: At first, it was a continuation of the party against Florida until the awful second period. Then the roof blows off the place when Ovie's AWESOME individual effort wins the game with about 4 minutes left
- Game 2: There was a complete lack of energy in the crowd, I felt, and I sat next to a very nice Flyer fan and her little kid. It was good for them, since the team showed the same energy that the crowd showed, I think.
- Game 5: Wasn't there. Was at work, and one of my coworkers has an XM radio boombox, so we listened, and whenever I wasn't busy I'd make my way over, ask him how the game was going and listen. I nearly had a heart attack when Derian Hatcher (yes, Hatchers are still KILLING the Capitals franchise, it seems) scored to pull to within one. But we were pumped when the Caps closed game 5 out.
- Game 7: The building was jacked. The crowd was pumped. The PA announcer (my coworker's brother, no kidding) was loud, and energetic, and I think that he himself was worth about 30-40 decibels. It was a really tense game, and when Erskine (I think) didn't get called for tripping we thought we'd dodged a bullet...until Poti got called a few seconds later. I was completely baffled by the call, considering that the refs had put their whistles away for the previous 30 minutes of game action...naturally the Flyers scored to win the series (disappointing...but not nearly as disappointing as the fans throwing things onto the ice. A terrible end to a storybook season.
So what prompted me to post was the Awards Show: As a Caps fan, I was pleased to see Ovechkin win the Pearson and Hart (to add to the Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophies), and was thrilled (if surprised) to see Gabby win the Jack Adams...I think it was completely deserved, especially given where the franchise was when he took over at Thanksgiving. I think that Carbonneau and Babcock would have been equally deserving, and given the fact that each coached a full season (and each won their respective conference regular season title) I expected one of those to win the award. But, as I said, Gabby deserves it. And here's to him repeating next year, with another storybook FULL season from the Caps!
A couple of things that surprised me about the awards show:
- Maybe it's just the fact that I've never heard him before, but Vinny Lecavalier's English was far better (or maybe just far less accented) than I expected.
- Is it just me, or is Ovie's English far better than Pavel Datsyuk's (who happens to be, what, 8 or 9 years older than Ovie)?
- I was initially surprised to see Jason Blake's appearance, until I remembered WHY he won the Masterton.
- Bruce Boudreau's speech was rather stream-of-consciousness, now that I think about it.
- Gordie deserved that Lifetime Achievement Award as much as anyone...perhaps they could have given one to Red Kelly, too.
I kept track of the NHL this season, ranking teams based on their records. I essentially ignored the rule changes after the lockout, and rated teams based on what their point totals would have been prior to the lockout (i.e. 2 points for a regulation or overtime win, 0 points for a regulation or overtime loss, and 1 point for a shootout result, as this would have been a tie prior to the lockout). I included playoff results in this (2 points for a win, 0 points for a loss, however long it took).
Naturally, Detroit headed up the league. Pittsburgh was 3rd behind San Jose. Washington was the weakest division winner, coming in at 13th (5 behind Carolina, the highest-rated team to miss the playoffs).
Am also going to start rating CFL games in the summer. I figured what the hell, there are a total of 4 games a week to keep track of. It's easy to do and, if I miss my guess, will rather closely track the standings, considering that it's a full double round robin (with teams in each division playing each other 3 or 4 times). So we'll see how that goes.
For those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, welcome. For those (few, no doubt) reading it again, welcome back! And thanks to all of you.
And for those of you reading for my views of the presidential race, my feeling is somewhere between Beldar & Stephen Green. The only change I'd make to this is saying "F^*k", rather than "F^*k it". What an awful choice this year. How the hell did we ever get ourselves here?
More later,
Ryan
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