Oh, and four more things...

First of all, when when a sweaty joint like Houston is 2 days away from a hard freeze that's supposed to last a couple of days, why, when I go to Lowe's and Home Depot today, do they not have

• Plant covering fabric
• Outside faucet covers, and
  
• Space heaters

all right as you walk in the door?

I went looking for all three today and came up completely empty handed. So I guess I'll just sit and freeze in my first floor office (thermostats are on the second and third floors... I'm wearing my Edmonton Eskimos hoodie---hood up---as I type this), and manually wrap my pipes and fruit trees. At least that option is free, but it's a pain in my ass for sure.

Just seems like they could capitalize on a little hysteria, right?

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Second of all, if you're on Twitter and you dig goalies, you need to be following @MikeMcKenna56.

Nothing mind blowing there, unless you just want to stare at his picture, which I'll admit to doing (but surely didn't NEED to admit to, right? You knew already. He's gorgeous.) But he does give a nice little slice of life of an AHL netminder. And he's got good grammar. Bonus!

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I've talked about this before but I'm on a tear about it today. A fresh year gets everybody all reflective about their accomplishments (or, usually, lack thereof) and there's a self-improvement vibe in the air. Be more positive, be more productive, be skinnier and happier and then everything will be great.

It's the "positivity" bandwagon... Tony Robbins and inspirational quotes and all of that... that really sends me over the edge. I read a quote from Apolo Ohno on Twitter today saying, "“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.” Try it for a full 2 days."

Huh? It just seems so disingenuous.

Personally, I value someone being genuine vs. someone being positive. I appreciate the need to reframe a crappy situation as "challenging" but really, if it's crappy, it's also still crappy. You can acknowledge that something is crappy while also realizing that it will get better and you'll likely gain something personally by going through it.

Am I making sense here? I just hate to second guess what someone is really feeling or thinking vs. their behavior or words.

What if people were challenged to just be genuine? Wouldn't that be more interesting?

Just a thought.

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Bourney had a great take on goaltending today, and my reaction to the bold part was "EXACTLY!!!":

The tendency for beat writers and analysts is to forget the most important fact: context is needed for every evaluation of goaltender performance. Just because a goalie makes 46 saves doesn’t qualify it as a well played game. Just because a goalie gets over the coveted 90% save mark doesn’t mean he played well either. It comes down to “should he have stopped THAT shot”, each one as an isolated incident. On any given night, maybe the answer to all 50 shots taken is “yes”.

Of course, that doesn't leave credit for making saves that were nigh on impossible. And this is part of what makes studying goaltenders so interesting. They are like fingerprints, every one a little different, in different situations. They have to be seen in action, in context, to be understood.

It's kinda how I felt about Khudobin on Sunday. Yeah, he stopped a ton of shots, but he missed some he should have had. And probably stopped a couple he shouldn't have. Unfortunately, in the math of goaliedom, that doesn't equal out. You still have to get a few you shouldn't but you really do HAVE to get all the ones you should.

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Sometimes it feels so good to say, "Fuck you" and just mean the hell out of it, doesn't it? I wouldn't recommend trying it for a full 2 days, but I do suggest being positive about it.

"Fuck you. Wait... am I positive about that? Yes. Yes, I am. Fuck you."

Ahhh.... that felt good. Naptime?

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