If this keeps up, I'm going to have to make some Kipper and Turco voodoo dolls and do mean things to them. I guess I should just be grateful I didn't pick Brodeur or DiPietro and STFU, right?
Anyway, in the Wildbloggers league, I lost with gusto and dropped to 5th place. Even if I hadn't forgotten to set my roster for Sunday, I don't think it would have helped me any. I got wolloped.
In the Russoville league, Jokinen and Iginla prove to be a solid leadership team, in spite of my goalies being Turco and Biron. Lord have mercy. I beat Kevin this week and jumped from the lowly basement slot to #7. Woohoo!
The Wild Message Board league had me losing just as badly as in the Wildbloggers and dropped down to 17. Ouch. And this week I'm up against angelina_e, who is one formidable chica. Here's hoping she forgets to set her roster for a few days.
Gonna lose this week in football, too, unless Steve Breaston and the Cardinals defense pull off a helluva game tonight. Got 25 points to make up. ETA: Done! Amazing. Squeaked by with like half a point...
The lovely and charming Scott, The Canadian Goalie, brought me his old stuff tonight. Sounds like the pads need some straps and I'll need a jill and goalie pants and a dangler to wear with my player lid, but that's about it, assuming the rest of it fits okay. He included his old mask but the chin is busted up and it's not safe to wear, but I put it on anyway when I got home just because I've never worn a goalie mask. It was smelly and awesome!
Anyway, I'm completely stoked and probably also completely naive as to what I've gotten myself into, but that's okay.
Had a great practice (even got a sick backhanded goal on one of the drills... I think backhanded goals are my thing... the goalies assume I've got no aim on the backhand but it actually seems a bit better than forehand for some reason) and then we did two 20 minutes periods of scrimmage that were really fun and I felt like I was skating well and had a little more puck action than usual (for me).
Got a throbber of a headache though. Advil needs to start working pronto.
Alright, I suspect I'm in the minority given the bellyaching I'm hearing about the new NHL p0licy around injury disclosure, but I've read it all and still fail to see why fans are remotely upset about this.
Now, granted, Wild Assistant GM Tom Lynn has been his usual direct, no-mincing-words self on the subject, which is rubbing Wild fans the wrong way. I can see why it comes across abrasive and arrogant to fans, but I appreciate his candor and directness. Seems like Riser's the good cop, Lynn's the bad cop. That's fine with me. Somebody's gotta be the asshole.
And I'll be honest, I agree with Lynn on the injury policy. As a fan, I don't need to know what the injury is and I think any observant fan can look at a player's skating and/or traveling status (through beat reports and such) to get a reasonable sense of the severity of the injury.
I don't understand why paying fans are so deserving of the details of a player's injury. They're out. They're not playing. What else do you need to know? If you have tickets, they're still out regardless of the reason. If you're thinking about buying tickets and you're only going to see that player, as mentioned above, it's pretty easy to get a gauge of the player's status.
Since this has started, I've not once felt deprived of the information I needed to make decisions around this team. Granted, I'm not buying tickets to NHL games too much but if I were, it wouldn't be based on whether one or two players were in or out of the game.
What am I missing here? Help me out, because people whose reasoning I usually have a good deal of respect for are up in arms and I'm just completely taken aback by it.
Now, from a beat reporter's perspective, I get why Russo and others in the media are frustrated and pushing back in their way. It's an insult to their intelligence when they can clearly see players limping around the locker room, icing this or that body part, etc. to have to dance around what they know to be true. That goes against the mentality of a journalist.
But fans? I don't get why you're upset. What difference does it make other than assuaging your curiosity? What decisions are you making differently, or are having difficulty making, as a result of this change?
The only good thing about this game was the interview with Constantine in the first intermission, which will provide lots of quotes for my PHN article.
Beyond that, the team played down to the level of BY FAR the worst team in the AHL. I'm guessing that was a long, quiet drive to Syracuse last night for today's game at 2 p.m. Central. ---------------
For the first hand report, from Nick in New York, go here. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst Aeros games ... ever? Bad sampling and I'm not sure Constantine should be thrown under the bus quite so hard. I believe in him, but his team is strug-gul-ing right now to find the will to pay the price.
Here's some music to listen to while you read this post. I'm in a Willie Nelson mood today:
So, I went to the eye doctor yesterday. I've always had very good vision, just a very slight nearsightedness that bothered me in college a bit trying to see the board at the front of the big classrooms at UT. So I hadn't been in about 7 years, but no biggie.
The only thing I knew I had wrong is that my binocular vision was a bit off. For instance, when they tested my vision at the DPS for my driver's license, I couldn't see the test properly in the little viewfinder thing. But it's never really been an issue for me in normal everyday life, so I never dealt with it. I just avoided situations where hand-eye coordination was critical.
And now that I'm looking at putting myself in goal, I figured I could just play some catch, do a little juggling, and I'd get better at seeing the puck. But I guess in the back of my head, I was kinda feeling like the problem was getting worse (stubbing my toe more often, watching TV with one eye at night because when they're tired, they even less want to focus on the same thing at once) and felt like it might be problem for playing goal.
Well, it turns out I have pretty jacked up binocular impairment. This just means that the two images my eyes see don't come together to form one image in my head like it does for most people. It forms two and my brain has to filter one of them out. So, you can imagine how difficult under those circumstances it is to put your hand on something that's hurtling toward you with considerable velocity when your brain is trying to assess which image is the right one and convey that to the rest of the body to get in front of it.
It's a significant issue for a goaltender. And of course, now that I know what it is and how bad it is, I'm constantly aware of it. Such is the fixation of a hypochondriac like me.
I had a little meltdown about it this morning but am getting a grip on myself and forging ahead. After some research, it turns out that there's something called Vision Therapy and there's a well-respected practitioner here in Houston, who even has a sports vision specialty. The only catch is that, as far as I can tell, this therapy is not covered under either vision insurance or regular medical insurance. It really should be treated like physical therapy or something of that nature but I don't think it is. It isn't a deal-breaker but it's a factor. As if goalie gear isn't expensive enough, I gotta now go drop $? to get binocular vision.
The good thing is that apparently, once you're treated, you're treated for life. It's not a problem that comes back over time or that you have to keep getting treated to maintain.
So, I'm probably going to see about getting a consultation with these folks and see if it would be beneficial to get treatment, but I'm also still going to get in net as soon as possible. I figure what better way to gauge improvement than by putting my vision to the ultimate test. So, let me apologize to my team in advance for my deformed eyeballs.
And those glasses I thought I needed? Apparently my distance vision is still as good as it was in college, so anything I miss watching the game from press row is just me being an inattentive dumbass. Now THAT is a let down...
Okay, I feel better. How about a little goaltending song? Ahhh, to be back in a Hip mood. Yes.
Here's a great pic of Jesse Schultz from the game tonight. Thanks to MattJohnsonFan for sharing these! I will say this... I went to dinner at Houston's tonight and had the French Dip. One guess as to what we jokingly call that dish...
-------
Okay, finally sitting down after a busy, stressful morning. More on that later.
The Aeros 3-1 win over Hamilton last night left me with the following primary thoughts:
I'm surprised they won. Last year's Aeros were atrocious after 4 game-less days. And the team had a few new guys in the line-up, one of whom (John Scott) was coming off a long, untested injury. The other being Valette, who is up on a PTO. And the Aeros are missing Krys Kolanos, who was on an impressive 5 goal streak before being called up to the Wild. AND, Hamilton is a good team with an 8-3-1-0 record and playing at home.
BUT, they did have Locke and Hamilton back in the line-up, lots of rested bodies, and a pretty bad taste from Sunday's game lingering in their mouths for 4 days. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
Neither team played as well as they can in the first two periods. Very sloppy, lots of turnovers, lots of bouncing pucks, lots of missed passes. Both teams were lucky that the frumpy play was going both ways, otherwise, someone was gonna get blown out. Yet both teams showed good hustle and emotion all game. Just one of those games.
This Aeros team is figuring out defense. Slowly but surely. You could see it in the way they defended in the third period after the second Aeros goal. It was clearly, "We have this. We have to keep it." Reminiscent of last year's team (in a good way).
It felt weird to be playing against Shawn Belle. Valette laid a HUGE hit on him that sent him flying early in the first period. Then later in the game, he and Scotty had some words. That's just one of those parts of the game that's hard to reconcile sometimes. I liked Belle, for better or worse, though I like having Locke on the team more, but it's still just weird. And I'm sure it was weird for Locker, too, going back to Hamilton and facing off against so many of his friends.
Stick penalties were a problem for the Aeros, with 6 hooking or tripping infractions and only 3 for Hamilton. At least Scotty only got one of them.
Antti made it extra special to win this game. Thanks man! You just keep testing the hockey gods!
Brusty looked rusty to start, but got his groove on soon enough, though he certainly induced a few near-heart attacks with his aggressive style... gotta get used to that again--as much as I enjoy it, it's still kind of a white-knuckle ride with that guy.
The Aeros out-physicaled (apparently that's a word, according to my spell check... really thought it might not be) the Dogs in the third, especially after the second goal. Never the less, I miss Cal.
Beyond that, if you want the goal-by-goal perspective, read this and this. (And FTR, who gets upset when a team can't get longer than a 4 game win streak? Is that really something to get down on a team about? Especially when you've had 3 such streaks this early in the season? SRSLY!)
A few more things:
Lundy was still wearing the C. Is it a perma-C? We'll C. Heh.
Dear Hamilton Bulldogs Video Crew: Please WIPE THE LENS on your center ice camera! It's filthy!
Seems Olvecky got hurt early in the game and is DTD for now.
The Chron write-up doesn't say it but Ryan Hamilton's goal was a beauty... nice breakaway up the middle with two defensemen trying to backcheck and failing. One of those God Bless Hockey moments. Especially coming from a guy like Hamilton who usually does his best work right around the net.
Tonight the Aeros face the Rochester Americans, who, um, aren't exactly setting the world on fire. But they do have Riley Emmerson now. That could be interesting.
Can you tell I've been in training for work all week? Technical writers think in bulleted and numbered lists, ya know.
Read more...
I still hate Colorado and their fans from the playoffs last season. So, the Wild's game against them last night was something of a catharsis. Ian Laperrier got soundly and quickly whupped, as we say down here, by Craig Weller and, man, that felt good. I know Lappy's a good guy if he's on your team but he isn't on my team, so he can suck it.
And it was great to get what I would call a pretty decisive win. Cal didn't get an official star of the game, but he got one of the Strib's three stars.
3. Cal Clutterbuck, Wild: Four more hits gives the physical right winger a team-high 37 in 10 games.
Backs was Off. The. Hook. as he has been pretty much all season except the one game I got to see in person. Not that I'm bitter or anything. But anyway, the team needs to forget about Gaby for now and get that goalie signed. Hards doesn't have it like Backs has it, I don't think. Tired of waiting on Hards to be "the goalie of the future."
And Pouliot got another goal, and the "I Told You So"s are starting. He does look to be responding to Lemaire & Co. and had a good game last night. Having good games has never been his problem though. It's been stringing good games together instead of going invisible after he feels like he's "done enough." To me, this is his first game where he looked like he belonged up there. So, lets see how it goes before we get out the silver polish and start shining the Calder for him, eh?
(And I'm editing to add that, while I'm happy he's scoring goals and making the Wild better, there is a part of me that just makes me SO angry that he couldn't be bothered to do this in the AHL. We needed his offensive talent SO BADLY last season in Houston and he just floated and floated. If there's a part of me that does want him to stink it up in Minny, it stems from that. I feel like Jennifer Aniston... Brad Pitt didn't want to make babies with me but he'll go off with Angelina and have 10 kids. Bastard.)
Anyway, poor Mr. Conduct is sick and has been up all night coughing. I finally got out at about 4:30 and got him some cough drops that seem to have quieted him right now. Wish I'd done that about 8 hours ago before I took Benedryl and then got about 3 very interrupted hours of sleep. Guess I'll put On the Fly on and try and pass out on the couch for a while.
Anyway, in the Wildbloggers league, I lost with gusto and dropped to 5th place. Even if I hadn't forgotten to set my roster for Sunday, I don't think it would have helped me any. I got wolloped.
Posts
