Well, my team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, didn't make the Stanley Cup final, but that doesn't mean we still can't do some hockey round these parts, so, welcome once again to the glog. Tonight's feature game is Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final (unless NBC preempts it for something) between the Anaheim Ducks and the Ottawa senators. This is game 3 of the best of 7, and Anaheim leads the series 2-0.
Some may wonder why I should mention the possibility of preemption, well in the conference finals NBC did break away from a game just as it was going to overtime to instead do prerace coverage of the Preakness Stakes. Yes, they broke away not for a race, but prerace coverage of a horse race. The fact that the game between Ottawa and Buffalo was the series clincher for Ottawa (they won the series 4 games to 1) made it even worse. I could almost excuse it if maybe the series would continue regardless of the outcome, but with a team in Buffalo facing elimination, to break away to talk to some horse jockeys is just ludicrous. Of course, there is some rationale behind it, hockey is a sports that is almost negligible here in the states, save for those cities that have teams. It hasn't, unlike football, or even baseball or basketball, captured the nations fancy, it is very much a niche sport unlike in Canada, so the fact the finals come down to a team from the US and a team from Canada means there will be millions of Canadians rooting for the home team versus dozens of Americans.
While we wait for the game to start, we do have a new change meter total, the new total is $15.56, as we added our first ever bill, a $1 marker to the kitty. Cool stuff indeed.
I have stayed away form the blog recently, save for adding content from other places. Lots of stuff going on on this end of things and not all of them good, so I have been just keeping quiet until I didn't feel like going off on some vile rant that would have scared the kiddies off. Anyway, I had mentioned that I was supposed to have a sit down at work to talk about what I was making, and three weeks later, well, I am still waiting on that sit down. As a result, I have fired off resumes to other stations, 770 AM WABC in New York City and 620 KTAR in Phoenix. I can only sit on my ass for so long before I have to get up the impetus and go looking elsewhere in my field of employment. I did get a part time job, something that I probably need, even though I have gotten a little comfortable in this current schedule of only working one job. I am going to be working at Target starting Monday. Just part time stuff and they seemed to be really cool about working around my availability,
Anyway, it seems like the talk of me at least sitting down to discuss my situation with management at the radio station is just that, talk. It gets even better. One of the duties I have taken upon myself at the station is that when Lynn is off, I am the one that goes and finds replacement hosts. It is one of the reasons, though a minor one, that I am on the air from time to time. Lynn actually first suggested it, and I waited until I had the approval of both the program director and the station manager (who is now working with our stations in Florida), so those that should have been in the know were in fact in the know. Lynn was going to be taking time in May, so I emailed the PD and our acting station manager Alan about who would be sitting in, including myself on the 25th (the last show I imbedded to the page). After the show Alan asks to speak to me and I am thinking maybe we will be having the talk I have been waiting a couple of weeks for, instead it is to ask me why I hosted the show, even though I notified him 3 weeks prior that I would do it with nary a word mumbled about it. Now Lynn is to be taking a week off in June and to be honest, I don't want to book a single guest host if I am going to be second guessed on it. Technically, programming is not my job, I (and Doug's producer Greg) were doing it in hosts absences because it needed to be done. And it is not like I abused my opportunities to be on the air, I have hosted 4 times in a year, Lynn gets at least 3 weeks vacation time, not including sick days, so if I hosted, it would not be that I was making myself the first choice for the job, rather I would use me to fill holes in the schedule. Still, it is a pain, I have no budget to work with, so anyone I get is working for free and exposure, nothing more and if I am going to be second guessed on who I get for free, I'd rather get no one.
Well, we are in hockey pregame, I should go get some smokes and come back, so be right back.
Back, and minus a shirt. It has been incredibly warm here recently. Bad enough that since I live by myself, I have no problem walking around in varying degrees of undress, but it has been in the mid 80s and humid the last few days, making the idea of undress even more appealing.
One of the coolest parts of hockey games in Canada is the national anthems. Because the sport involves two countries, both anthems are sung before the game, but the Canadians have it down, as they always sing along during the Canadian anthem. I have always liked their anthem anyway, but it is really cool prior to a Stanley Cup game, the singer literally stops and just lets the crowd take over.
A little fantasy baseball update, I am still in 9th place, this isn't looking good a full third of the way through the year. The only plus is that I lead in stolen bases, so I may get $10 back, woohoo.
The game is underway.
Not sure what to expect, Anaheim has pretty much dominated play in the first two games of the series, but this is the first game of the series being played in Ottawa and the crowd should give the Senators a boost. The prevailing theory is that a road team has to weather the first ten minutes of the game until the energy of the crowd is settled down a bit and everyone is into normal game time situation. As I say that, Anaheim gets off a great shot that Ray Emery makes a glove save to keep it scoreless So much for that theory.
Ottawa take the first penalty of the game, not a good thing given they have yet to even score an even strength goal in the series, they don't need to be playing a man down. Last game they managed only 16 shots total and only four scoring chances and in the first game Ottawa only goals came on the power play.
Did I not say that going a man down wasn't a good thing? Anaheim scores on the power play and the game is just a few minutes old and already the Ducks lead 1-0. Andy McDonald is credited with the gaol and Teemu Selanne gets the assist and we have our first TV timeout, 6 minutes into the first period. Anaheim is leading in shots 4-1 and any jump Ottawa hoped to get from playing at home seems to be pretty much negated at this point.
Turns out it wasn't a TV timeout, Anaheim took a penalty, but they killed off the penalty, so it remains 1-0 despite the roughing penalty to Brad May. Sorry, if I as at the game someone would say I went to the concession stand, instead I went to the microwave and hooked myself up with two hot dogs. Ottawa has been dictating the play since the penalty to May, even though May has returned from the penalty box, but it is a lot of sound and fury and to this point signifying nothing as Anaheim remains in front 1-0 almost halfway through the first period.
Much like last years glog during the Stanley Cup finals, I need to make note of the fact that NBC has once again done a piss poor job promoting their coverage here in the states. I am sure if they were running a Law and Order rerun, we would have seen dozens of commercials about it, but because it is hockey, nary a mention.
Because of the humidity, there is a chance a thunderstorm could pop up and kill my electricity at any moment. I am taking to backing up this entry as I go, but if I get pulled away due to lack of power, I will pick up as soon as I can.
Matching penalties for both teams and we skate 4-4 for 2 minutes, a roughing call against Ottawa and a diving call against Anaheim. Ottawa has picked up the pace after being a little sluggish in the opening minutes taking a slight lead in shots, but I have to wonder how warm it was in Ottawa today. I am seeing a lot of people fall on the ice making cuts, that is usually because the ice is a little off, maybe a little slushy due to temperature.
As I say that the ice may be an issue, Ottawa goes on an extended run in the Anaheim zone, no goal to come of it, but Ottawa is definitely dictating tempo right now. As I type that, they finally cash in on a deflection Ottawa has tied the game at 1. Giguere got a small piece of it, but it goes off of him and into the net and we are tied and after starting down in shots 4-1, Ottawa has outshot Anaheim 8-2 since them. Chris Neil gets credit for the goal which Sportsline is saying is unassisted but I expect that to change, there was definitely an assist on the gaol, I just don't know who had it. I am good at this, the correction is made of the webpage, assists to Chris Kelly and Andrej Meszaros.
I finished the feast of the hot dogs, which was quite tasty. I know, people can tell me that you don't know what all is in a hot dog, I just know there is tasty goodness in them, that is all I need to know.
The last goal by the way was 5 on 5 so that was Ottawa's first even strength goal in the series. And we have gotten to just about the end of the first period, just a couple of second left but it looks like we will be tied after 1 period at 1-1. Ottawa leads in shots but not on the scoreboard. Both teams should be relatively happy with the first period, Anaheim made a good showing in their first road game of the series, and after getting down early, Ottawa should be happy that they managed to dictate play for a while and get the tying goal. All and all not a bad first period, the question remains if anyone in the states is actually watching it.
While in our first intermission, I will blather incessantly, about not much in particular. Yesterday I had to take my pee test, yes, Target drug tests their potential employees, so I had to go prove I could pee, and that when I did pee I wasn't all whacky with the cracky. I should have passed, I haven't had a good drug in my system in years. Funny thing though, since yesterday was the first day of the month, I had to go buy my bus pass for June. Good thing I got paid at the radio station yesterday, I had cash on hand to do just that once I cashed my check, but until I cashed it, I had to pay coins to ride the bus, so I paid for my ride to the pee place from work, 2.25 with a transfer and after peeing, I decided that I would walk back to get my bus pass, from Greenfield to Squirrel Hill, just a short jaunt along Murray Avenue. As I am crossing the bridge from one neighborhood into the other, I see a billboard along the road, it is for Rold Gold Pretzels. The billboard says "Our pretzels are as big as small dogs." How the hell is that appetizing? When was the last time you reached into a bag of snacks and said, "Hmm, this is almost like Spot?" Or when was the last time you looked at your pet and said, "Damn, I am hungry now." I swear some people that go to college for this type of thing should demand a refund, because if that is the best you can come up with, then your college tuition would have been better spent invested in the stock market, where at least the chance of a return on the investment could take place.
They have Sidney Crosby in the booth between Pittsburgh. This might draw some interest in Pittsburgh if they had promoted the coverage of the game. Pittsburgh actually has the best local TV ratings of any team in the NHL when it comes to a home team's games, but then this is a crazy sports market, even the Pirates, as miserable as they are, can get some decent local TV and radio numbers for their baseball games.
Rich and I went out last night. It was good to get out, have a few beers, relax and throw some darts and shoot some pool. I am very easy to entertain ion that regard, just a simple night out is fine for me. Most women I know would have hated it, especially since we just went to my local dive bar, rather than any place overly fancy. I saw Rich after getting my bus pass, I was doing some grocery shopping and he said that his wife is back in the hospital, so we stopped by to see her since she is in my neighborhood, most of the big hospitals in Pittsburgh are in Oakland where I live. We stopped by for a while to see how she was doing and all seemed to be okay, I never say great when people are in the hospital, because if they were great, one wouldn't be in the hospital to begin with, but she seemed to be in good spirits talking to everyone and being alert. One of Rich's daughters stopped by as well, she was going to be spending the weekend at their grandmothers, and Rich's other daughter was at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, which I may be visiting on Sunday..
More later, back to the game.
The second period starts much like the first ended, Ottawa has started again in the Anaheim zone, dictating tempo of the game. Anaheim has rallied back however, getting a shot to bounce off of the post beside goaltender Ray Emery. We have our second set of coincidental minor penalties, so for the second time this game we skate 4-4. Lots of end to end action during the 4-4, but no scoring. It is the type of stuff I like to watch, but because there is no scoring, sports fans here in the states hate it. One of the reasons soccer will never get a foothold here is Americans have no patience for sitting through and hour and a half of 0-0 action. Regardless of what is happening on the field, to them the ultimate action is actual scoring, so a 0-0 game is very boring here. Mind you there are games where shutouts occur here, but because of their rarity, that is what makes them exciting, if they were commonplace no one would watch.
Anaheim scores about 5 minutes and 20 seconds into the second period and the Ducks now lead 2-1. Not panic time for Ottawa, still plenty of hockey left and they have played well to this point, but the last thing they want to have happen is to fall behind 3-0 in the best of 7 series. Corey Perry gets credit for the goal, his 5th of the playoffs. for the record the previous goals, Andy McDonald's was his 7th and Chris Neil's was his 2nd.
And just as I tell you that Ottawa has been playing well and it wasn't panic time yet, they strike right back to tie the game at 2. Anton Volchenkov gets his second of the playoffs just 27 seconds after the Anaheim goal. This has been a pretty good game to this point and I am sure this glog isn't doing it quite the justice that it deserves. But my page was begging for original content, and who am I to ignore begging? Well, I guess who it is doing the begging. I will be the first to admit, if I see someone on the street asking for change, chances are I am not kicking up coins but if they have better shoes than me, there is no way at all they will get money from me.
While I talk about things other than hockey, hockey happens and Anaheim scores again and the Ducks have their third lead of the game, 3-2. Ryan Getzlaf gets the goal, his 7th of the post season, and an assist to Corey Perry who had the last goal for Anaheim. Again, no need to panic for Ottawa, but they at some point have to quit playing from behind in this contest, as the game is almost halfway over, we are approaching the 10 minute mark of the second period. One of the things that will have to change for Ottawa is that their scoring line of Alfredsson, Spezza and Heatley are going to have to contribute. Going into the series, they were the highest scoring line of any in the playoffs and yet tonight they have no goals or assists and 2 penalty minutes.
Ottawa has picked up the pace again, they really aren't playing bad hockey to be losing at this point, but this is the Stanley Cup Final, chances are bad hockey would keep you from getting this far. Ottawa has started throwing the body around as well as they just threw two huge checks, maybe trying to establish a little more of a physical presence, but again, not much to show for it on the scoreboard, they still trail 3-2. The hard work did result in penalty, Scott Neidermayer gets 2 minutes for roughing, so maybe a power play will get the tying goal for Ottawa. They failed to score the last time they had the man advantage, and this has been a pretty clean game so far, so those few opportunities with a power play, Ottawa needs to take advantage of. Speaking of opportunities, Anaheim takes another penalty, so for 5 seconds we skate 5 on 3, then it will be 1:55 more of 5-4 action. Anaheim kills the first penalty off, so we are back to 5 on 4 action. We have a potential tying goal, but it will be reviewed to see if it was kicked in. After all folks, this isn't soccer, you can't kick the puck in the net. It can go in off a skate, but there can't be a distinct kicking motion that results in a goal. The call on the ice was no goal, but the review judge can overrule him, though I don't see it happening here, I will go out on a limb and say the call will stand and it will remain 3-2.
It's official, I have no idea what I am talking about as they overrule the on ice official and call it a goal. Credit Daniel Alfredsson with the goal and it is now 3-3 and the line that I said needed to produce does indeed produce the tying goal on the power play. With a little more than 23 minutes of hockey time left, we are right back where we started with a tie score.
A mere two minutes later and we have yet another goal, and it is an Ottawa marker, giving them their first lead of the game, 4-3. The goal actually goes off of the stick of an Anaheim defenseman before going in the net, but since you don't get credit for scoring against your own goaltender, the goal goes to the last person from the other team to touch it, in this case it will be Dean McAmmond getting his 5th goal of the playoffs. Ottawa almost scores again in the remaining seconds but a huge shot glances off the iron and deflects wide and after 2 periods of action the Senators lead 4-3. Both teams are credited with 11 shots that period, very reflective of how it went with lots of opportunities at both ends of the rink. By the way, I failed to mention that the goal by Alfredsson was his 11th goal of the playoffs, which I think leads all players in the post season.
From the last intermission, since Rich's daughters were away, we went and had a few beers, maybe a few too many,, but it was a good time. I need to work on my pool before shooting anyone again, I didn't shoot bad last night, just not great either. I can play better and I ill be the first to admit I don't mind losing if I play well and just run into someone playing better, I do mind if I don't play to my ability. Last night, i thought given I haven't shot much recently, I was happy with how I did. We ended up going back to Rich's house afterward, a little bit of a hike from Oakland, it is about a 15 to 20 minute walk, but part of that is the steps from hell, a huge climb over 100 steps. And of course I was still wearing my work clothes, which yesterday was a black shirt and black pants, so I was a heat magnet. By the time we got there, I was drenched in sweat and I think we were there for maybe 10 minutes before Rich passed out. I was hungry so I ordered food, but Rich didn't stay up for it. I would say more pizza for me, but I ended up eating the breadsticks first and then Rich's daughter came back and we split the hoagie, and by then I was full. I think I had maybe one or two slices of pizza throughout the night, I fell asleep on the floor and as I will sometimes do, woke up throughout the night, ate a little something and went back to sleep. Unlike smoking in bed, you can't burn the house down with pizza, though I guess I could have choked, but alas I didn't or this blog would be much shorter.
Since today is my last day of freedom before I go back to having two jobs, today Rich and I tinkered with his Diablo game. I helped him out a little with an Amazon he created and then when I made it home, I joined him online with the sorceress I have created. I hadn't played much with her recently, so it was good to run around and kill some stuff. It was either that or come home and do more job applications. While I do have the part time gig, I have decided to keep looking and if something better is out there I am going to take it. I know Fed Ex is looking for part time package handlers, and since I do such a good job handling my package, it would seem to be a natural fit. Okay, that was a cheap laugh, but they pay almost $9 an hour to start, so it is something I want to look at and they contacted me about how to apply when I answered an ad they had in the Sunday paper a week ago. Had I not had to go for interviews at Target, I probably would have already done it, but since they gave me the online applying option, I can do it from the comfort from my own home.
Third period is underway. And we start with a breakaway for Ottawa just 30 seconds in but Giguere makes the save and it remains 4-3. It should be noted that the breakaway as set up because of another player falling on the ice, I really have to wonder about the skating quality of the ice this evening. You usually don't see that happening as much as it has so far in this game.
Ooooh, Dean McAmmond just broke in to the Anaheim zone and took a shot on goal and received a shot as well, an elbow to the head and he hits the deck and the game is stopped while they tend to him. He is being helped from the ice, no stretcher but one person on each side of him so he doesn't fall while skating to the bench. If this were the regular season, I am sure this would have led to a fight of some sort. Then again I spoke too soon, as three different scrums break out. Lets see how this all breaks out penalty wise. It looks like the only penalty called will be against Anaheim for roughing, which means that Ottawa get another power play and if they could covert here it would be huge to have a 2 gaol advantage here in the third. As it is, it is 2 minutes that Anaheim will play short handed when they still need to get the tying goal at some point. Time will become a factor at some point, it isn't yet, there is still 16 minutes left.
As soon as I type that, Anaheim almost scores short handed, only a great save and second save off of the deflection by Ray Emery keeps the game at 4-3. A very good penalty kill for Anaheim, now they have to take the momentum from that and see if they can turn it into something while playing at even strength. Instead they take another penalty, and a pretty dumb one at that with the puck in Ottawa's zone, so Ottawa gets the man advantage again.
Anaheim killed off the penalty, but now we are down to less than 12 minutes remaining and while they kill the penalty, they can't get the puck out of their own zone and Ottawa does score the goal, not a power play goal but a goal nonetheless and they have the two goal advantage as its 5-3 Senators. Anton Volchekov gets his second goal of the game and third of the playoffs. Chris Kelly did get his second assist of the game on the goal as well.
Ottawa take a penalty, maybe not the brightest move here, you have a two goal lead and less than 10 minutes to play. The powerplay is short lived however as Anaheim takes a penalty just 22 into the power play so we will skate 4 on 4 for a minute and 38 seconds. Anaheim can't be giving away opportunities this late down two goals.
During the last ADT commercial, we see a troubled woman who gets scared when her house alarm goes off, she gets out of bed and calls the appropriate authorities that someone may be breaking into her home. She and her daughter are huddled together and then they show what I assume is the next day with her and her husband and kid outside the home during daylight and I ask myself, where was the husband while the house was being broken into? Out banging his secretary?
Less than 6 minutes left in the game, we are all back to 5 on 5 hockey, but Anaheim's task is getting progressively harder as they still trail by two goals and the clock is definitely not their friend here. I will say the commercials to tonight's game by and large have been better than last year, when I blogged about the Dodge commercial with the dog's ass hanging out the car window. We haven't been subjected to animal rectum this evening, and that is a good thing.
Well, that should just about be it, Anaheim has taken yet another penalty, with just 4 and half minutes left, even if they kill the penalty, that will take two minutes of time off of the clock. I will give credit to the referees, they at least didn't sallow their whistles this evening, that used to be the rule of thumb in the NHL, late in a game you could almost kill someone and nothing would be called, here it is less than 5 minutes to go and a team down 2 gaols still gets hit with a penalty.
Anaheim kills the penalty but their is less than 2 minute left. Anaheim has pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker for the last little bit of hockey.
With just 10 seconds left, Ottawa takes a penalty, so in theory Anaheim will skate 6 on 4 for the last ten seconds, but nothing comes of that very abbreviated power play and the game ends with the Senators victorious 5-3, though Anaheim still leads the best of 7 2 games to 1.
Hope everyone enjoyed my ramblings, time to post the blog.
