Weekly MVPs

This will be an ongoing blog to chronicle the fantasy hockey team.  Every week I will select one guy from my roster for a better than average performance and chronicle it here.  I say better than average, because when you are in 9th place out of 10 teams, nobody gets credit for an outstanding performance.

 

Because this idea just came to me, I will do the past weeks here then ad future weeks to the comments section.

 

Anyway, onto the list.....

Week 1  Record 6-2-2 MVP Martin Broduer G - 2 wins, .097 GAA, .951 SV

Week 2  Record 7-3-0 MVP Martin Broduer G - 2 wins, 1.96 GAA, .920 SV, 1 SO

Week 3  Record 4-4-2 MVP Marcus Naslund LW - 2 G, 3 A, +3, 2 PPP

Week 4  Record 3-6-1 MVP Shea Weber D - 2 G, 1 A, +2, 2 PIM, 1 PPP, 1 GW

Week 5  Record 4-5-1 MVP Alex Auld G - 2 wins, 0.97 GAA, .956 SV

Week 6  Record 2-7-1 MVP Devin Setoguchi RW - 3 G, 3 A, +1, 4 PPP, 1 GW

Week 7  Record 3-5-2 MVP Devin Setoguchi RW - 2 G, 2 A, +3, 2 PIM, 1 PPP, 1 GW

Week 8  Record 2-7-1 MVP Nikolai Zherdev RW - 1 G, 5 A, +1, 9 PIM, 2 PPP

Week 9  Record 0-10-0 MVP Paul Stastny C - 2 G, 5 A, +5, 2 PIM, 1 PPP, 1 GW

Week 10  Record 1-7-2 MVP Craig Anderson G - 2 W, 2.61 GAA, .927 SV, 1 SO

Week 11  Record 4-5-1 MVP Pavel Datsyuk C - 3 G, 4 A, +6

Week 12  Record 2-7-1 MVP Pavel Datsyuk C - 3 G, 2 A, +2, 2 PPP

Week 13  Record 5-3-2 MVP Rick Nash LW - 2 G, 7 A, +7, 2 PIM, 1 PPP, 1 GW

Week 14  Record 4-3-3 MVP Ty Conklin G - 2 W, 0.50 GAA, .978 SV, 1 SO

Thank you, Shea Weber

First off, hats off to the one person in the room who actually got the silly reference in the title of this blog, and that one person would be me, so excuse me while I pat myself on the back for that one.  As for what it means, we will get back to that at some point.

Since I have a few minutes to kill here, thought I might jot a few notes of news that have been rattling around in my cranium for the past few days and I managed to not put into the last blog.

I am in the process of working myself out of a job at the radio station.  Right now the two big things I have going for me is that 1) I am the only idiot willing to get up on a regular basis for work at 5am, which usually means a 4am fall out of bed time and 2) the people with the Wachovia show (the paid program I produce on Tuesday and Thursday morning) continue to sing my praises, and if there is one thing you don't want to do, it is piss off a paying client.  They are so happy that they are thinking of picking up a third day, probably Wednesday mornings, though that is still in the very talkative stages at this point.  All of that being said, my workload is starting to diminish somewhat.  I had mentioned previously about our format switch, from an all talk format to a business talk format, well the thing is, most of our old programming was piped in via satellite, which you have to sign a contract in order to get.  Some of the bigger name shows require you to pay a fee to carry them, but for the most part you get the shows on a barter deal, that is, they give you the programming for free, and you make sure all of their national advertisers clear their spots on your station.  The syndicator then goes to the advertiser and says, "Look, we are getting your spot to clear in "x" number of markets", and they use that number to set their advertising rates.  It is one of the reasons that most of the stuff on your dial isn't live and local, it is cheaper by far to just plug in a dish and pay no one, or maybe one person to babysit it than to pay talent and put on a show.

Sorry, iced tea is done brewing, I'll be right back.

As I was saying, as part of our contractural agreement, when we ended our broadcasting of the shows, we were required for the next 90 days to carry all of the spots that normally would have aired had they still been on the station.  And who got the job of recording all of those spots and making sure they ran?  Why that would be me.  I was recording over 4 hours of just commercials every week, which is quite a project, but I managed to get it done, and this is the last week I have for those spots and I just put the last 75 minutes of them in today.  Of course that means I have a lot less work to do, unless I can find new stuff for me to do.  I started a project of clearing out all of the out of date stuff from our production studios.  It may sound simple, but there is stuff in there that is 8 and 9 years old, so it is going to be a time consuming process.

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Day Two (Electric Boogaloo)

Okay, onto something completely different, this from the nobody asked me but department.  If you run a bank and you claim that you need no government assistance but the government forces you to take $25 billion dollars and then you come back and say, well, we may need another $25 billion to keep from failing, haven't you already, in fact, failed? 

Does Pamela Anderson actually have a vagina, or is it really a bag of holding?

As we tick away the last month or so of Pittsburgh's 250th year as a city, one has to ask if in another 250 years will we be celebarting 266 consecutive seasons of losing Pirates baseball?

Consumer spending last month reached its lowest point in 25 years, yet during the same month consumer confidence went up.  Can we now assume that we are confidently not spending our money?

Way back during the primary campaign, I said that I was proud to be a Democrat because of the field of Presidentioal candidates that we put forth and would have happily voted for many of them,and Barack Obama seems to be sharing that sentiment, choosing from that field his Vice President (Joe Biden), Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) and Secretary of Commerce (Bill Richardson). One is left to wonder how much John Edwards regrets fucking around on his cancer stricken wife as he probably would have been on the short list for Attorney General.

Enough of that already, I need to explain away the title to this blog at some point.  It all goes back to my fantasy sports teams.  First, I want to say that the fantasy football team lost this week, but still clinched one of the 6 playoff spots with an 8-4 overall record and with two games remaining I sit 1 game out of first place, with the last game of the season seeing me play the first place team.  All of a sudden, I am thinking a first round playoff bye may be in the offing for me.

As for hockey, well the losing and climbing continues, as I went 3-5-2 yet moved up a spot in the standings.  As for the title to this blog, it is a pun on an old investment firm commercial known as Paine Webber, where at the end of the commercial the person talking would say 'Thank you Paine Webber".  I had the same thought Sunday night from my defenseman Shea Weber, as I went into Sunday looking in bad shape, the week's record stood at 1-6-3 and all I had playing were two defensemen, including one Mr. Weber.  All he did was net two goals and an assist and move me from  1-6-3 to 3-5-2, a three point swing that moved me from finishing the week in 9th place overall, to finishing in 5th overall, so thank you, Shea Weber.

Okay, bedtime is fast approaching here, so I am going to call it a night and sit down with my iced tea and my book.  Remember kids, reading is fundamental.

 

 

Everything I touch turns to goaltenders

We start today's entry with a little fantasy hockey story.  Those that have been with me for a little while rmight remember back to my fantasy hockey draft.  For those that haven't, I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am not going to rehash the entire entry, suffice it to say that coming out of the draft I had three goaltenders with which I was pretty happy, Martin Brodeur, Manny Legace and Martin Biron.  Going in reverse order, Biron got off to an awful start this year, going from a starting goaltender to being in a platoon situation where it is a 50-50 chance that he will start on any given night.  That might be okay for some, but if I am only going to get a 50-50 chance at a start, I will opt for a better goaltender, so I cut him and signed Nikolai Khababulin, another goaltender in a platoon situation, but for the Chicago Blackhawks, and his numbers seemed to be better than Biron's.  Next up was Legace and I have covered previously what happened to him, tripping on a carpet rolled out for Sarah Palin and ending up on the disabled list for a couple of weeks as a result.  That lead to the signing of Alex Auld to fill his place while out.  Just when it seemed my run of goaltender bad luck would end, Martin Brodeur, who I drafted in the first round, tears a muscle in his arm and is out for 3 to 4 months.  Can I wave the white flag of goaltender surrender yet?

Okay, that out of the way, lets get to the meat of the blog entry shall we.  Fantasy hockey, I went 4-5-1 last week, the overall record after 50 games is 24-20-6, and amazingly, despite having a losing week, I moved up from 4th to 3rd place overall.  Of course this week I have the first place team, with my slew of wounded goaltenders in tow as I try to stop three straight weeks of .500 or lower hockey. 

At least I am doing better than I expected in football, where I rolled up another win and now sit with a comfy 7-3 record.  With just 4 weeks left in the regular season, I have a three game lead over 6th place, and the top 6 teams make the playoffs, so all is looking up there.  Actually, I am only 1 game out of first, as two teams are 8-2 overall and the top two records receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs.  That would be nice, but I will be content with just qualifying for now.

Life has been pretty much same old same round these parts, save for me giving up the part time job, at least for the time being.  There was just something about spending almost as much time traveling to and from work as actually working that didn't fit into my schedule all that well.  They told me if I wanted i could reapply for my job, but I haven't as of yet.  I may at some point, but I would rather find something a little closer to my apartment.  I realize that it isn't the most opportune time to be job huntng, but I'll roll the dice and take my chances.  Worst case scenario, I could always go back, and the work wasn't terrible, just the travel to and fro.

The extra time in my schedule does mean that I will get to lunch with Lynn tomorrow.  We have seen each other a handful of times since the station let her go, and have been in touch via email about once or twice a week, but this will be the first time we have gotten to sit down and blab since the election, which should make for some interesting conversation.  Plus I know she has something in the works about getting a new show, though it is still in the haggling stage, so I don't want to go into too many details and jinx it.  Suffice it to say, there are a couple of options that she can explore.

Sorry, took a break there.  Yahoo has the Penguins game on tonight, so I was watching the first period of the hockey game, and while that was going on I went ahead and made some iced tea, which is currently chilling in the fridge. 

I haven't been by the Neverending blog recently, but I will say I just finished a pretty funny book called "Death: A Life" which is supposed to be an autobiography of the entity known as Death.  I saw it the other day when I was going all Barnes & Noble-y and bookstores are like bakeries to me, I can press my nose against the glass and just salivate.  After convincing myself that I could only have one book, it became a tossup betwen that and another Andrew Vachss.  Not that Vachss would have been a bad choice, but I think I did pretty well for myself.

I am still saving my soda caps.  I am actually trying to get back up to at least 90 points in Pepsi, as there giveaways are ending in December, and the goodies I am eying are 90 points or more.  Coke isn't ending any time soon that I am aware of, and I am torn between buying new music or doing another giveaway on here.  I am not sure if anyone grabbed the last prize (free month of Gamefly), so I am wary of putting a prize out there that is unclaimed.  I have an idea of what to select also, and I think it would be a rather cool prize, but just the same, I haven't added any free music in ages, the last thing I redeemed from either Coke or Pepsi was the Ric Flair DVD from Pepsi, and that wiped out a good portion of that account, though I must admit it was well worth it.

I have had occasion recently to run into Poe's Law, and if anything goes to show just how damned stupid the electorate is, it is this.  A brief definition of Poe is in order, so here it is - Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing.  The reason I have been running into Poe is that I have been posting the stuff from the Red State Update guys from time to time, as I am sure you are aware.  As funny as I think they are (and I will admit I find them pretty damn funny) if you go to Youtube and actually read the comments some morons post with those videos, they think that Jackie and Dunlap are serious.  What is truly scary is I am quite sure some of these idiots spend part of their time breeding future idiots to take their place.  Forget radical Islam as being a threat, it is radical stupidity that must be stopped.

Well, took another break to watch the second period, and after two periods of hockey, I am afraid to watch the third.  While I won't get all gloggy on you, suffice it to say, Pittsburgh was leading 3-0, and managed to give up four consecutive goals, including two while they had the man advantage and they now trail 4-3.  How in the hell do you give up two short handed goals in one game let alone one period?  What is worse was that on one of them, despite having 5 guys to Philadelphia's 4 on the ice, they gave up a three on one breakaway.  That is damn near mathematically impossible.

Anyway, I took time from the here to make some dinner also, just some quickie tuna casserole crap.  Nothing fancy, but then I am only cooking for one, fancy isn't required. 

I usually watch The Office if I am home Thursday nights, one of the few TV programs I will watch, and if I am being lazy I will just leave the channel on as the rest of the lineup pipes through on Thursday night, which brings me to 'ER".  I'll admit, I kinda used sorta liked the show in the "it ain't that bad" way, but now it is just sad.  It is like waiting for Old Yeller to be put down, they are so sad now they are bringing back dead characters (paging zombie Dr. Green, paging zombie Dr. Green) just to get people to tune in.  When your show reaches that point, just pull the fucking plug on it already.  It would be like having "Leave it to Beaver" still on TV.  Actually that show would be better if it were on TV now. I can imagine Ward sitting at the dinner table, with his face hidden behind the daily newspaper just wondering what kind of drugs he was on when he named his son Wally, and even worse, named his youngest son after a sex toy.  What else could a Beaver Cleaver be after all? And why the hell are his kids still in the house, don't they have lives?  Then again, try picking up women when your names are Wally and Beaver and you can understand why they still live in their parent's basement.  Meanwhile June has to be thinking to herself, why must I always be so understanding to these people?  Why can't I just once slap the spit out of their mouths when they get into another mess?  Just how stupid are they, it's been what, 40 some odd years and they are still pulling inane shit.  Come to think of it, I would like that show better than "ER" at this point, as long as they don't have a guest appearance by zombie Dr. Green.

Took time out again for the third period, we are now tied 4-4 going to OT.  I swear it seems like every game the Penguins play ends up going to overtime.  I can't remember the last time they won in regulation.  Just as I type that the announcers say it's the 8th time the Penguins have played an OT game already this season.

With nothing decided in OT we go to a shootout.  Man, I have to quit staying up for these games.  Especially with a busy day on tap for tomorrow.  And after 6 rounds of shootout action, the Pens win 5-4.  I hope when they post video highlights, they get some closeups on the saves in the shootout, because both goaltenders were really good.

Anyway, I have been tinkering with the Pogo badges, got the Greenback Bayou one done, but I have barely started Freecell Solitaire.  I have tinkered with the new Yahtzee game, I am up to level 5 or so.  Good game for getting tokens, but getting spins, which is what you need to advance  can be tough.  Personally I found it harder with wilds than without, but that could just be me. 

Oh well, I think it is bedtime for me, time to have a glass of iced tea and call it an evening.  I have been wondering when I should do another Ask Matt Anything, I think I will hold off a while.  I don't want to become dependent on them for blog content. So I gues there is still plenty of time to think up new questions.  There is also plenty of time for me to think up new answers.  Anyway, time for me to scoot.

 

Penguins - Rangers (with thanks to Yahoo Sports)

Greetings all! Hope you don't mind, but I figured I might stop by this place while I watch some TV on the computer. Seems that the game that Yahoo Sports is broadcasting is the Rangers-Penguins matchup from Madison Square Garden. This is the second time this year I have seen the Penguins on Yahoo, which is a surprise of sorts, because last year they were blacking out local broadcasts, then again, we are getting the New York feed, so that may be why I am able to watch it.

This is the second sporting event for Pittsburgh teams today, as the college football team is just finishing up getting its ass kicked by Rutgers. I'll admit, I was starting to second guess myself about my consistent calling for the firing of Dave Wannstedt, as after blowing a 10 point lead and losing the season opener to Bowling Green, hardly a football powerhouse, Pitt had rolled off 5 consecutive wins to get to 5-1 and looked to be in a good position to at least run the table in the very weak Big East Conference. With a conference title would have come a BCS game and maybe the first sign of promise that the team was finally getting better, but sure enough Pitt played down to the level of their competition, actually worse than their competition given they lost, which is par for the course of a Wannstedt led team, and they got their asses kicked, 54-34 to a very bad Rutgers team.

Okay, hockey game is underway and the feed is working. From a fantasy perspective, I have a couple of Rangers on my team, Marcus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev, and of course Miroslav Satan for Pittsburgh, thus the fantasy team's rallying cry this year "I Have Satan on My Side".

The other night I learned that my fantasy team will be voting Democrat in the upcoming election. Seems Sarah Palin was in St Louis for a campaign event the other day and that night she was invited to drop the ceremonial puck at the St Louis Blues hockey game. During the setup for the puck dropping, they rolled the carpet on the ice for her and Blues goaltender Manny Legace had his skate caught up in the carpet and he ending up pulling a hip flexor muscle and is on a day to day basis as far as playing. Of course, Legace is also one of my goaltenders, and nothing does less for your campaign platform that to take out my fantasy hockey team.

Actually, the fantasy teams have been doing okay to this point, the football team is 4-3, and given I expected about a .500 record for them, I am not complaining yet. It would be nice if my roster could sneak into the playoffs, but it isn't something I expect.

Penguins have the games first power play tonight, the hockey game remains scoreless almost 8 minutes in and shortly after the penalty ends, Pittsburgh gets the games first goal, Darryl Sydor gets his first of the year and it is Penguins 1-0. The announcers are giving assists to Kris Letang and Tyler Kennedy, though I haven't seen official confirmation of that yet. Of the three, I would say Letang has the most fantasy value, though Kennedy has been decent early on. Despite the goal, Sydor has been useless to this point, he has been in and out of the lineup, almost always as a healthy scratch.

As for my fantasy teams, after two weeks we sit at 13-5-2, good for third place in the ten team league. I am up against the second place team this week. and this early in the year, I will take a 5-5 week against the teams above me. Maybe later in the year if I am clawing for one of the top 6 spots for teh post season I will worry more about positioning, but for now I just want to be even with the good teams. Wins will come against those guys that eventually start to neglect their teams as the season progresses. I know at least two guys that I am not even sure they have looked at their roster yet, let alone went about the process of setting a day to day lineup. Those are the guys I want to go 10-0 or 9-1 against.

I am glad I didn't call this a glog, because while I am watching the game, I am not doing a whole lot of commentating on it, and the first period is almost over. The game itself is almost being evenly played, only one penalty so far, Wayne Redden getting two minutes for cross checking and the goal came as the penalty ended but Redden unable to get back into the play, so it was of the non power play variety even though Pittsburgh still had a man advantage in the actual end of the ice where play was commencing. But shots are almost even, 8-7 in favor of New York as the first period comes to a close. The assists that were originally credited on the first goal by the announcers have not been officially credited by the NHL, as the puck also deflected off of a Ranger before going in the net. I will keep you posted on that.

By the way, while we are in our first intermission, thank yous out to everyone who took part in the first Ask Matt Anything. I can't speak for yous all, but I had a blast and what I expected to last a minute or so went on for a solid two hours far beyond my expectations. As a result, I will do one again in November, just not sure of the date and time yet. That will depend on my schedule, which may be changing in the near future. I had a couple of overnights at the radio station this past week, which meant I ended up taking time off at Walmart, not sure how happy they are with that, not that I care all that much, but I haven't ben there yet since I took the time off, so I don't know how happy or sad they are with me. Worst case scenario I will be back to one job, best case nothing happens and I work two jobs. All in all it gets nothing more than a shrug of my shoulders from me.

As for dinner tonight, I am opting for leftovers of a disaster I made the other day involving pasta, butter, garlic and spinach. Originally it tasted pretty crappy, so I added a can of chicken broth to it in order to make it almost wedding soup like it and it got better, still not great, but better. The thing is, I hate wasting food, something I picked up as a kid when I had to clean my plate because we didn't waste food, and as a result, I am still trying to finish this stuff a few days after first making it.

Second period is underway while I am shoveling spinach into my face. I snuck away from my hockey page on Sportsline while the intermission was taking plcae, so now I am in the process of sneaking back. I use it for the technical stats stuff while I blog, because unlike when I used to cover he Penguins, nobody hands me a stat sheet between periods. Those were so nice, and would come in handy at a time like this, but they won't deliver those to my apartment, so I am stuck with whatever the web can offer.

Looks like a penalty has been called, slashing on Nikolai Zherdev, 2 minutes for slashing. Seemed a little ticky tacky to me, but the two minutes does help the fantasy roster and it does give the Penguins their second power play of the game.

Radio work has been blah since the format change. I am producing three shows now, two on Sunday and a paid program Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nothing that will get me any mike time, the Sunday shows involve gardening and a nature show, two things I know nothing about and the paid program is a financial advice show, nothing better than trying to push a financial show during an economic downturn. then again, we are no longer about ratings, we are about checks clearing. As long as they want to buy time, we will sell.

Matt Cooke takes the Penguins first penalty of tonight's contest a holding call, and the Rangers will get the power play. The Penguins second effort with the man advantage resulted in nothing so the score is still 1-0.

The game is better than halfway over, from a hockey fan's perspective it has been good, lots of skating and flow to the game, from a typical American sports fan perspective it would suck as only one goal has been scored. Don't believe me about American sports fans, look at the World Series taking place between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay right now. The first two games were very good baseball games, but the lack of a large TV market and no 10-9 contests and the ratings are all but awful. Pitching, defense, fundamentals, for all that people complain about when it comes to those things in baseball, nobody wants to see them on TV. Look at game two where Tampa scored three of their runs on two RBI ground outs, hitting the ball to the opposite side so the runner from third could score, and a squeeze bunt. Baseball fundamentals to be sure, but as the saying goes, chicks dig the long ball, and those have been few and far between.

I saw that Texas won today in college fotball, they will remain #1 in the next poll, but I have always had a soft spot for their opponent, Oklahoma State. Back when they had Thurman Thomas and then after him, Barry Sanders, and they just were always cool to me. Even when they stunk. The last few years they have been getting better again, blowing leads to Texas the last couple of years and this year they entered the Texas game undefeated, but they lost again, 28-24. they juist can't get that monkey off of their back, for whatever reason.

While I was blabbing on things of no consequence, Pittsburgh scored again, Sidney Crosby getting his thrid goal of the season and Pittsburgh leads 2-0. That is Crosby's 12 point of the young season, he has 9 assists to go with the three goals,

Meanwhile, more crap happens while I am typing, the Penguins take two penalties before a stoppage of play, so for two minutes the Rangers will skate witha 5-3 advantage, Brooks Orpik gets two minutes for slashing, Mike Zigmanus gets two minutes for interference. This is a biig chance for the Rangers to get right back in this contest but the Rangers fail to score despite the 5-3, Marc Andre Fluery was really good in net for Pittsburgh there and the score remains 2-0. The Rangers tallied 7 shots, none of them got behind him during the two two minute penalties.

We have reached the second intermission and Pittsburgh leads 2-0.

Rarely do I promote Yahoo services, but their hockey coverage has been even better this year than last, at least early on. I had some problems with feeds last year, not including games that were blacked out for local reasons, and this year, absolutely none. They have increased my connection speed to 1200K and the full screen view has looked almost like I was in fact watching the game on TV. Plus, I have yet to link up on a game where the video feed didn't work, which did happen from time to time last year. For Ralph, you may want to know that the next game scheduled is the Detroit-Los Angeles matchup on Monday night.

For the record, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Goligoski got the assists on the Penguins second goal.

I finished the spinach slop I had made. I would like to think that by cleaning my plate I get a cool dessert, but that would mean I have to go out and get a cool dessert and I don't feel like getting off of my ass right now.

I am trying to think of anything else that has happened around these parts since the last time I have blogged anything of consequence. I have been tinkering with some games a little more, I picked up another level in Diablo 2, I am up to 84 now, and in baseball I am just getting more and more frustrated. The last time I mentioned it, I was hoping to win a Triple Crown, leading the league in homeruns, RBIs and batting average. Well, it turned out that I won the latter two and on the last day of the season I hit two homeruns to tie for first in that category as well, but after my game completed, Todd Helton (who is with Kansas City through computer orchestrated trades) hit one more to beat me by one. That being said, the Devil Rays won their division and qualified for the post season, where they drew the Oakland A's in the first round in a best of 5 series. I split the first four games, and came back from 3-0 and 5-3 deficits in the final game to win 10-7 and move on. Next round was the very same Kansas City Royals and I dominated them in a best of 7 series, winning 4-0. Over the course of those 9 games, Joe Random (my character) hit over .400, had three homeruns, 8 RBIs, 9 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Definitely decent numbers, but every time I would opt to "simulate to next appearance" thinking it would be in the World Series, Joe gets demoted to the minor leagues before game one. Mind you the minor leage season is over, so I am just getting snubbed. No matter how many times I try it, the same thing happens. As a result, I saved the file right there (before I get demoted) and created a new one where I do get demoted, but as a result I bad mouth the team and get cut. In the off season I have four contract offers to choose from and I have signed with the Detroit Tigers, if for no other reason than the opportunity to kick Tampa's ass during the regular season. I have started off slow, I am hitting about .250, but I do lead the team in HRs and RBIs and I am playing everyday, though at the DH spot.

Third period is underway here, Pittsburgh still leading 2-0. The shots to this point are even at 24 a peice and both teams have had two power play opportunities, the only noticeable difference is on the scroreboard.

For those that were wondering, as long as the NHL makes the highlight videos available on Youtube, I will be posting all of the Penguins videos this year.

The Rangers get a power play, Brooks Orpik is sent to the box, 2 minutes for slashing and all of 7 seconds into the power play, the Rangers score to make it 2-1. Marcus Naslund with the goal, which does help me, it is a goal and a power play point, and with 13 minutes left in the contest, it is now a one goal game.

Sorry, I have been getting wrapped up in the game and not paying attention to my typing duties. While we started the third period relatively even, the Penguins are being outshot here in the third period 11-2. It is almost like they are just trying to hold on and protect the lead rather than play they way they did when they got the two goal lead to begin with.

Rangers get another power play, this time the penalty on goalie Marc Andre Fleury for playing the puck outside the goaltender zone. The goaltender isn't sent off the ice when he commits a penatly, rather someone else is asked to serve the penalty for him. Regardlesss, it does give New York a man advantage for 2 minutes.

The Penguins kill the power play, and less than 7 minutes remain in the game, and Pittsburgh is trying to still protect a one goal lead. The third period, from a strictly level of play perspective, is definitely all Rangers. And this marks the longest I have been able to sit down and watch a hockey game all season. I have caught bits and pieces, mostly on Yahoo, but either I have to go to work or the game is a west coast game and is on so late that I can't stay up for all of it.

For those of you that have been wondering why I haven't picked an Asshat the last few weeks, it is because, while I would like to pick someone inviolved in the current financial crisis, there are so many that it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Just too easy.

2 minutes left and Fleury makes another save. The Rangers should be pulling the goaltender pretty soon and as I type that Fluery makes a series of saves while the clock is ticking down. Sure enough the Rangers do pull the goaltender and with 8 seconds left the gambit pays off as Nikolai Zherdev scores, helping my fantasy team and also sending tonight's contest to overtime, as we are tied 2-2. It is an odd feeling to both be happy for your fantasy team, but alos depressed as a fan of the home team. As a bonus, I am thinking Naslund will get an assist on that goal, which helps me even more. They haven't posted it yet, but it looks like Naslund had the primary assist on that rush up the ice.

OT underway and Pittsburgh has the first good scoring chance, Crosby setting up Ruslan Fedentenko in front but Henrik Lundqvist makes the save and we play on in the 5 minute overtime. Again the Penguins with a chance, Crosby in front and the backhand shot is stopped, followed by a shot from the point and Lundqvist makes the glove save to end the rally.

1 minute left in overtime and we may be headed for a shootout. Shootouts are cool in that no game ends in a tie anymore but suck because the stats in shootouts don't count so it doesn't help me from a fantasy perspective. Crosby gets a couple more cracks at the very end of overtime, but Lundqvist again is up to the challenge and we remain tied at 2.

Bring on the shootout. the question is who will shoot for the teams, as each team lines up three shooters to make a rush at the goaltender and whichever team converts the most shots wins. If it is tied after the first three shooters, then teams continue down the roster, one player at a time until one team comes out on top.

Lets start shall we,;

Round 1

New York Nikolai Zherdev - shot saved

Pittsburgh Kris Letang - shot saved

Round 2

New York Nigel Dawes - shot saved

Pittsburgh Petr Sykora - shot saved

Round 3

New York Freddie Sjostrom - goal

Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby - shot saved

New York wins shootout 1-0 and the game 3-2 in overtime. As always, as soon as Youtube makes the video available I will add it to the collection.

And for the time being, I will shut my trap and do the spell check thing. Nite everyone.

The 2008 Argonauts, the frozen pond edition

It is time to meet the 2008-2009 Argonauts hockey roster. At some point we will do a season recap on the baseball team, but for now we look forward to the white hot competitive action that is hockey starting Saturday. 10 teams entered the league this year, and showing how good I am at the commissionary position, I got to draft 9th (memo to self, cheat on draft order next year). This means all of the stud offensive talent would be off the board by the time I picked (I am looking at yous Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin) so I had the honor of doing what the Steelers do far to often on draft day, rather than draft for need, they take the best player available. Thankfully, unlike the Steelers, with a roster of zero people going in, any player drafted is also filling a need. That being said, a quick rundown on who ended up on my roster before we drop the puck and get this thing started. Starting with our first pick........

1) Martin Brodeur G - This is about as safe a pick as you can make in hockey. Remarkably consistent in goal, he has won 40 or more games in 7 of the last ten years (the other three were 39, 38 and 38 wins). Rarely will a take a flier this early in the draft, and having someone this consistent fall to the #9 spot was perfectly fine with me.

2) Pavel Datsyuk C - Consistently has gotten better in every year in the league, last year was his best to date, registering 97 points (31 G, 66 A) and with the addition of Marian Hossa to the Red Wings roster, that total could improve again this year.

3) Rick Nash LW - Maybe my first reach of the draft taking him this early, but has totaled 30 or more goals in three of his 5 years in the league while surrounded with less than stellar talent and left wing is usually the offensive position with the least amount of depth when drafting for fantasy purposes.

4) Paul Stastny C - Youth and depth in the same package, as this pick solidifies my center position, and while he has only been in the league two years, he has averaged over a point per game during that span (149 points in 148 career games).

5) Alexander Frolov LW - Probably a little early for him to be taken, but like I said before, left wing is probably the hardest to draft for given the lack of talent there, he has tallied 20+ goals in each of the last four years and has a career +/- number of +30 while playing for the less than defensively capable Los Angeles Kings.

6) Miroslav Satan RW - This was my first real reach pick, he has only scored 40 or more goals once, has never tallied more than 75 points in any season and is coming off of his worst year (16 G, 25 A) in the league since his first two years, despite playing in 79 games last season. That being said , he will start the year on the Penguins first line, with Sydney Crosby as his center, which should provide ample opportunites to add to his paltry totals of last season. And really, it is going to be so cool to buy a jersey in Pittsburgh black and gold with the name Satan on the back.

7) Nikolai Zherdev RW - Posted his best year of his career last year in Columbus (26 G, 35 A) in just his fourth year in the league, he did what any Blue Jacket with a modicum of talent should do, which is, get out of Columbus. Now with the New York Rangers, he will be surrounded with a much greater array of talent to work with, there is no reason he shouldn't improve on last years totals.

8) Markus Naslund LW - Another guy who hopes that moving to the Rangers will be a benefit to his career. The question is will I get the Naslund of the last two years, who didn't score more than 60 points, or the previous 4 years, where he never had less than 75. This is a depth pick, we only start two left wings so it won't make or break my roster, but when taking a flier on someone, it is always nice to take one on a guy that has performed in the past as opposed to someone who has never performed.

9) Martin Biron G - Goaltending is a tricky thing, I would say it is always better to draft a starting goaltender from a bad team than a backup from a good one, because you will get more starts and chances for wins from the guy who plays every day. It is like drafting a closer in baseball, even a closer on a bad team can get you decent numbers. The fact Biron plays for the Philadelphia Flyers, Eastern Conference runners up to the Peguins last year, means I don't even have to worry about him playing for a bad team per se. His numbers last year were respectable, 30-20 (9 OTL) with a 2.59 GAA and a .918 save percentage while recording 5 shutouts, while playing in 62 games, the most he has played in in the last 6 seasons, so he hasn't gotten the wear and tear that some goalies in the league have over that span.

10) Jonathon Cheechoo RW - Coming off a disappointing season (23 G, 14 A), he is still young by NHL standrads, entering just his 6th season and is only two seasons removed from a 93 point season (56 G, 37 A) and like Naslund, I would rather have a guy that has performed in the past than one who hasn't.

11) Andrej Meszaros D - In the league, we start 2 C, 2 LW, 2 RW and four defensemen. Obviously, I haven't addressed the last need yet, because, after the first couple of defensemen on the board, you pretty much reach the Eli Whitney stage of the draft, they are all interchangeable parts. Still I need 4 of these guys, so this was the first one I took, and in his three years in the league he has been remarkably consistent, with point totals of 29,28 and 27.

12) Dustin Byfuglien D, LW - This was a cheat pick of sorts, he qualifies as a defenseman as that was his position through his career but last season Chicago started playing him on the left wing as well, which gives him multiple uses. Given the Blackhawks plan on playing him primarily on the wing this year, including on the power play, I can in essence plug in an extra offensive guy in a defensive slot. He did pick up 19 goals in his dual role last year, which is more than most defenseman tally.

13) Manny Legace G - This is for depth at the goaltender position, as while we only start two goaltenders on any given day, the more starts you can roll up in a given week, the better your chance of tallying wins. While St Louis isn't a good team, remember what I said about goaltenders on bad teams, Legace has had a winning record in goal in each of the past eight seasons, including going 27-25 last year with a 2.41 GAA and a .911 save percentage and 5 shutouts. For a third goaltender, I will take those numbers.

14) Jordan Staal C, LW - More depth, this time at the center position. I wouldn't have taken him even this early if he had played the role he did last year for the Penguins as third line center, as it only resulted in 28 points (12 G, 16 A), but the Penguins plan on playing him on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora, which should result in an output more along the lines of his rookie season (if not better) when he tallied 29 goals (42 pts).

15) Ruslan Salei D - Two defensemen down, two to go. One category that I hadn't addressed yet was penalty minutes. I hate getting a guy that is only a goon, because he kills you in every other category, he usually gets no points and ruins your +/- number. That being said, Salei has nabbed 424 penalty minutes over the last four years but kept his +/- at an even 0. Heck he has even chipped in 96 points over that span, so it seemed to be a safe if uninspiring pick.

16) Martin Erat RW - Another depth pick, nothing more. Consistent, getting 57 points each of the last two years, and 49 in each of the two before that, I probably won't play him unless he is the only guy available on a given night. Not that I dislike the guy, I just think I have better options on my roster.

17) Shea Weber D - I am at the point of filling out my roster, just needed one more defenseman to fill out my four starting slots and I am taking a flier on this guy. In his only full season in the NHL, he posted a respectable 17 G, 23 A but in his three years in the league, he has only play over 60 games once.

18) Stephane Robidas D - My last pick and it is simply a depth one. The good thing about Robidas is that his last season was probably his best one, the bad thing is his best season only equated into pedsetrian numbers, the only bright spot being that of his 9 goals last year, 7 came on the power play, and power play points is one of our categories.

There you have it kids, a blog entry that you didn't want to raed, but because I run this page, I felt I should write.

Oh, it is so on.......

And you can be part of it, if you so wish.  I am setting up a fantasy hockey league on Yahoo, just for shits and giggles and I am extending invitations to anyone who happens by this page and wishes to join. Mind you, the maximum number of teams for the league is 14, and last I checked, I was one of the 14, leaving just 13 spots remaining.

The address to sign up for the festivities is http://hockey.fantasysports.yahoo.com/hockey/register/joinprivateleague_league_select?.scrumb=

In the league ID box enter the number 39942

The password is bigp76460

The draft will be online live this Sunday (Sept 21) at 9pm EST, or you can have Yahoo draft for you by either rating the players yourself or letting Yahoo select based on its own preseason ratings.

In any event, the invitation has been extended and I do believe it is "Game On!".

 

Hey now, I'm an All Star

Tonight's entry is my mid season report. Just as I am known to put my fantasy sports stuff on the page, when it comes to baseball I also like to take a look back and see how things went from draft day until the All Star break, which is what passes for the mid point of the season, though technically it is a few days after the numerical midpoint. That being said, I start with what I wrote that March day regarding this years draft and I then added how it has went so far. So, Peabody, Sherman, to the Wayback Machine if you will.

 

For those of you that have been frequenters of the blog for more than a year or so, you know around this time of year I hop into a fantasy baseball league. Usually my friend George and I team up, as the league is actually two separate leagues and is broken into an American League only and National League only drafts. George has missed the last couple of years, relegating me to just one team, so I am not sure if I can rely on him for this years National League draft, but the American League draft was this Sunday, and I wanted to make sure I was part of at least half of the festivities. The rules are pretty generic, it is a rotisserie - auction draft with a $260 salary cap to fill 23 positions and then an additional 8 rounds of free agent selections after the completed auction. The final results, with the amount of my winning bid for each player;

First off, George actually did make it to this years draft, though he brought one of his classmates with him, so I am assuming I am on my own, which is fine, there were times when we were working together that I was calling the shots for both teams in the past. This way, by doing this by myself, I am under no pressure to do well, other than the pressure I place upon myself. For the record, at the season's mid points, I am in third place overall, which is good for some cash, and I lead the league in batting average, runs batted in, runs scored and stolen bases, which would be good for an additional $40. Now to break down the individual picks and how I did. (Note: the stats I post are not reflective of how the player has done this year, only how they did while I had them active)

Vladamir Guerrero - 37 (15 homeruns and 50 RBIs at the break, not bad numbers, but you would expect more out of a guy you dumped $387dollars on on draft day)

BJ Upton - 30 (44 RBIs and 27 stolen bases to this point, plus the added bonus that at the beginning of the year he was eligible for being slotted at 2nd base (to qualify for a position you had to play it 10 games last year or 5 this year), next year he will be only outfield, but I like the idea of getting to plug quality outfielder numbers to what is usually a weak infield position.)

Ichiro Suzuki - 32 (This is usually the easiest pick I make on draft day, he is good for runs scored, batting average and stolen bases, this year is no exception, .304 average, 63 runs scored, 34 stolen bases.)

Justin Mourneau - 27 (Would like to see a more homeruns (14 so far) but no complaints about his batting average (.323) or RBI total (68))

Casey Kotchman - 13 (If he would have kept hitting like he did in April, I would be much happier,. His average is decent, but his lack of power (7 HRs) has most weeks relegated him to the bench)

Gil Meche - 9 (My drafting strategy for pitchers is get guys who can get at least 10 wins, if by starting 9 pitchers every week I can get my club in the 90-100 win range, I will roll the dice and take my chances with the other numbers. So far he has just 5 wins for me, his only redeeming quality is the 82 strikeouts, second on my team to this point.)

Matt Garza - 8 (7-5 record and an ERA under 4.00 (3.96) are good enough for a rather cheap investment of $8)

Rocco Baldelli - 5 (The next time I draft this guy, I want someone to reach across the table and just slap the fuck out of me. His history is that of someone who has potential but is injury prone, needless to say I draft him and sure enough, he has a medical condition that may keep him from ever playing baseball again. I did manage to cut him and pick up Jesse Litsch in his spot, who has earned 6 win so far, but man was this a wasted $5)

Alexis Rios - 27 (The problem with drafting potential is that sometimes it doesn't rear it's ugly head. There was all kind of fantasy geek talk about how this would be his breakout year, but other than his stolen bases (22), his homeruns (3) and average (.273) are very pedestrian)

Matt Stairs - 3 ( Dropped when I picked up Grant Balfour two weeks ago, he was okay when I did play him, certainly worth the meager $3 investment (6 HRs, 16 RBI, 21 runs scored))

Vernon Wells - 19 ( Might be dangerous if he could stay off of the disabled list (twice so far this year), with 8 HRs and 40 RBIs in limited playing time)

Kevin Millwood - 3 (I had hoped that for my small investment of $3 I might get the Kevin Millwood who used to pitch for the Braves, instead I got the same one that pitched last year for the Rangers, (4-4, 5.35 ERA, 1.75 WHIP))

Kenji Jojhima - 7 (Another huge disappointment, signs a new contract this year and goes out and posts numbers that are just abysmal, .220 average, 3 Hrs, 20 RBIs, he has effectively found his way to my bench)

Dustin Pedroia - 5 (one of my draft day steals, though not the best one, for a $5 investment I have a guy who is hitting .313, with 9 HRs, 47 RBIs, 67 runs scored and 9 stolen bases. If you would have told me at the beginning of the year I could get a guy who would hit over .300, and have a chance at a 20-20 season (20 HRs and 20 stolen bases) and could score 100+ runs, I would have said you were on crack)

Bartolo Colon - 4 (Not long for my team, he started the season in the minor leagues, so I dealt him for Armando Galarraga (2-2 in 7 starts and a 3.59 ERA), all and all a decent GM move on my part)

Brendan Harris - 3 (A riddle wrapped inside an enigma, wrapped inside a shortstop. Everytime I think this will be the week I bench him, he does just enough to merit the $3 investment I made in him (5 HRs, 32 RBIs, 40 runs scored)

Evan Longoria - 11 (Started the season in the minor leagues, but his bat forced Tampa Bay to promoted him to the big club and he has been Rookie of the Year worthy since the promotion, .273 average, 16 HRs, 52 RBIs, 44 runs, 6 stolen bases. Proof that sometimes it pays to be patient with guys on draft day, as I am sure a few were scared away because he was staring the year in the minor leagues)

Andy Pettite - 4 (Over the last month he has become the ace of my pitching staff, the only guy I have who has double digit wins (10), and leads the team in strikeouts (91))

Joe Blanton - 3 (The opposite of Pettite, this guy is a fucking embarrassment, I regularly bench him now, yet he has still started enough games for me to post a complete suck ass 4-11 record. If ever there was a guy on my team I would trade to Guantanamo Bay for 2 terrorist prospects and a fatwa to be named later, it would be this guy right here)

Clay Buchholz - 1 (This is another, like Longoria I drafted on potential, he started the year poorly (I managed to get a 2-2 record out of him) before being sent to the minor leagues, was just called back up to the Boston Red Sox before the All Star break, so he may get a chance to redeem himself yet)

Mark Buerhle - 2 (Like Millwood, I drafted him based on what he did in the past, unlike Millwood, he has pitched like the Buerhle of old, picking up 6 wins and a 3.68 ERA in games I have started him)

Brian Bannister - 1 (did about what I expected of him going 7-7 over the first half, I tend to use him in weeks where he will get two starts and the matchups give him a decent chance of picking up at least one win, not bad for one dollar)

Greg Zauhn - 6 (took simply because I needed to fill out my second catcher slot, about the same numbers as Johjima in 70 less at bats)

And for free agents

Alexi Casilla (Probably didn't show enough patience with him, as he too began the year in the minor leagues, I dealt him away for Eric Hinske when Vernon Wells went on his first DL stint)

Joel Zumaya (Started the year on the DL, held him as long as I could, eventually dealt him for Marco Scutaro, who I then dealt for Greg Smith, who has been okay for me, posting 3 wins and a 3.50 ERA)

Carlos Quentin (Can you say steal of the draft? Originally scheduled to back up Jerry Owens in Chicago, won the starting job when Jerry Owens was hurt to start the season and has posted MVP like numbers, 22 HRs, 70 RBIs, 62 runs scored, 5 SBs, this is the epitome of a draft day steal, and he didn't cost me anything)

Ross Gload (Never played for me, dealt him for Brad Wilkerson, who I then dealt for Max Ramierez, who I then dealt for Matt Joyce. This roster slot must be cursed or something, though I just picked up Joyce this past week, so maybe I can salvage something out of the spot yet)

Dan Johnson (This guy is testing my patience, but in a good way. Cut by Oakland to start the year, he was picked up by Tampa Bay, when they sent him to the AAA minor league club. He has posted some decent numbers in the minor leagues, I am hoping that Tampa either calls him up or trades him to a team that needs a first baseman, but pretty soon I will have to cut him loose, as all he has done so far this year is eat up a roster spot)

Manny Delcarmen (Solely took as a flyer, by and large middle relievers are useless, they don't pitch enough to get wins, and they don't close games to get saves. I was hoping he might poach an early save or two, when he didn't I dealt him away for Ben Francisco, who has gotten me 7 HRs, 29 RBIs and 31 runs scored since I picked him up)

Brendan Morrow (Another example of me being less than patient, started the season as a middle reliever, was there long enough to see me deal him for Rod Barajas when Greg Zauhn ended up on the 15 day DL. Of course after I dealt him, Seattle's closer, JJ Putz went down and Morrow was promoted to closer, so I have missed out on about 9 saves so far)

Wilson Betemit (This was simply a stop gap pick for me, until Longoria was promoted, he did exactly what I expected, which was little to nothing. Dealt for more guys who have contributed nothing, this is what happens when you are the last pick in the draft I guess)

And there you have it, my midseason report card. I sure hope they grade on a curve this year.

I am out of clever titles

Hopefully everyone had a good Easter. No complaints here, though from a sports perspective, it was a less than stellar week for me. My NCAA bracket for work is over before it begins this year. After the first weekend, I have lost two of my final four teams (Pitt, Georgetown), so there is no chance I can make up any ground in the second and third weekend of the tournament. This weekend, the field of 64 was whittled to 16, I have already lost 6 of the final 16, 3 of the final 7 and two of the final 4. As the lingo goes, my bracket is definitely broken.

Fantasy hockey was no better, I went 2-4-4 in the semi finals, which means I get dumped to the third place game rather than playing for the championship. The final week of the season is actually two weeks long, so there probably will not be an update on my progress for a while. Mind you a win in the third place game still gets me a trophy for my fantasy sports profile, a loss gets me nothing other than the knowledge that I finished 4th out of 12 teams.

So with all of that badness taking place, the holiday was still quite good. I got to work around 10:45 am and shortly after I got there, my phone rang and it was my mom saying they were coming down to see me. I like spending time with my family, and since it was a holiday, I figured my mom probably made me an Easter basket again. No matter how many times I say not to, she still does it. As a kid, rather than hunt eggs, we would hunt for our baskets Easter morning, and in some ways it was almost like a mini Christmas, my mom would buy lost of candy, but there would also be presents as well. At least now it is just candy and a card, so I guess she has cut back somewhat. Anyway, they were going to stop by and see me at work, which means I will be having a short work day, because usually if my parents come to see me there, I tend to leave with them. So I scrambled to make sure I got all of my work done, I still had a commercial feed to put into the system when they arrived, but I was mostly done. They wanted to go to lunch, and since I was still relatively flush with cash from my weekend winnings, I figured I would spring for the wholesome eatings. We ended up at Golden Corral, which is a buffet type place, you pay one price and then you eat as much as you want. I will just say I ate too much. Between pot roast and then Bourbon Street chicken, I was stuffed. It more than made up for my disastrous fantasy sports weekend.

I think I have solved some of my disillusionment with the radio show as well, I booked us so full of guests this week, that hopefully I will not have to deal with ye olde chronic complainers. We had two guests today, two more on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, two on Thursday and 3 on Friday. Take that whack jobs. I have started booking guests for the following weeks as well. I'll be honest, guests make my job easier, we get fewer calls for me to screen and I don't have to know anything, because unlike normal banter between Lynn and I, when she interviews someone, I don't get involved on air at all. I just sit back with my coffee and run the board, which is fine with me. A quick look at my schedule and it looks like I have 6 guests already lined up for next week. Go me!!!

I even got an email from a listener today. This is not common, I am not one of the on air talents per se, but still sometimes, it shocks me to find that people are out there looking for me. One lady called the show one day and said she was shocked I had a beard. Apparently she googled my name and found the photo I submitted to WQED when I was on TV. Well today, someone saw a post I made on a local radio forum page, I will sometimes chime in if I think that there is a question worth answering, and he tracked down my email address to ask my opinion on something. Since I am not inundated with emails, unlike on air talent, I took the time to fire off a lengthy response.

I picked up[ my paycheck from my part time gig today, it looks like they want me to work 3 nights again this week. Originally, I was getting every other Friday, but one of the cooks left, so the one cook who was looking for more hours was also dishing Thursday nights and he and I alternated on Fridays, now that we are short handed, he is cooking every night, so the other part time dishwasher, lamont has been getting Thursday nights and I have been getting all of the Fridays. The thing is, Lamont wants the hours, so last week I gave him my Friday, I don't know if he will want it again this week or not, if he does, he can have it, if not, I will work, it really doesn't matter to me either way. I don't have to be up Saturday morning, so I can lay in bed as long as I want, I don't have to be back to the radio station until Sunday.

Anyway, since I had a couple of shekels again, I did my stop by the bar after work to have my consumption of the afternoon beverage. Again I played the poker machine and again I won, $25 in, $80 out. That paid for my beer and my lunch and continued my run on winning. Mind you, I do lose money from time to time, I just tend to cut my losses most days. I will watch people in there dump literally hundreds of dollars into a machine in the chance they may win something. A couple of weeks ago, I was in there and this guy had literally been playing the machine for the better part of a week. Everytime I would stop by, he would be playing the same machine. I talked to some of the regulars and they told me he was into the machine for over a grand. Mind you, I say he had some numbers that I certainly would have cashed out on, but he was so far in the hole, that rather than cut his losses, he would play the machine down to nothing again, then dump even more money into it. Just craziness I say. I have a simple rule I live buy, "Don't bet the rent." If I have a few bucks and can afford to play, that is one thing, if I am just dumping good money after bad, that is quite another. I basically have a set amount I am wiling to lose, if I blow it, I blow it and walk away, if I win something, i don't get too greedy, I take a decent amount, maybe throw an extra 5 spot to the bartender if I am doing really well (like today) and come home.

I have been playing more with surfthechannel.com. I have noticed a lot of crappy links in there that just don't pull up a video, or it takes so long (most of the servers that supply the shows are in China and regulated by the Chinese government) to get a video to play, that I just move on to something else. that being said, i did get to watch some old West Wing episodes. Damn I miss that show. I looked to see if there were any Homicide episodes and it looks like just the one that I posted from Youtube earlier, "The Subway" so I have been relegated to West Wing and family Guy episodes for the time beings. Mind you there is a lot of other stuff on there, but I am just beginning to play with the links. From what I have appraised so far, the most reliable server seems to be tudou.com, whereas servers such as blip.tv seem to be almost useless.

I haven't picked an Asshat yet, I am open to suggestions for the past week. It would be easy I guess to dump on Rev Wright, but those of us that follow the political campaign more than from a distance could see that Barack Obama's church would end up being an issue for him, I have been getting info on it for better than a year now, just as the Tony Rezko trial will prove to be an issue for him as it unfolds, but the Chicago newspapers have been covering that story for a year and a half now. I have a hard time treating those as new items, let alone items that have happened in the past week when they were common knowledge to me for quite some time.

Lastly, another .08 to the change meter, the new total stands at $34.46. And I have scooped up some more Pepsi and Coke points as well, I haven't purchased anything, but I rest comfortably in the knowledge that if I want to be the ultimate dork, I can get a Pepsi belt buckle for free. Woohoo indeed.

Well off to internet TV and then bed. Nite all.

Your 2008 Argonauts hockey roster (as of 2/25/08)

Another winning week (the 8th non losing week in a row), a 6-4-0 effort against the league's #1 team means that my fantasy hockey team is up 21 pts over the 7th place team in seeking the last playoff spot.  For the season the record stands at 98-83-29.  Since I haven't mentioned the roster in a while, it's time to meet the guys that make me competitive on a weekly basis.

 

Argonauts

Pos	Player
C	Viktor Kozlov (Was - C)
C	Paul Stastny (Col - C)
LW	Patrik Elias (NJ - C,LW)
LW	Chris Kunitz (Anh - LW)
RW	J.P. Dumont (Nsh - RW)
RW	Nikolai Zherdev (Cls - RW)
D	Wade Redden (Ott - D)
D	Michal Rozsival (NYR - D)
D	Mattias Ohlund (Van - D)
D	Jaroslav Spacek (Buf - D)
G	Ty Conklin (Pit - G)
G	Miikka Kiprusoff (Cgy - G)
BN	Pavel Datsyuk (Det - C)
BN	Tomas Holmstrom (Det - LW,RW)
BN	Todd Bertuzzi (Anh - LW,RW)
BN	Marty Turco (Dal - G)

 

 And with that I have to scoot, I am at work after all, so a quick post and a change of the music on the homepage is all that will get accomplished this morning.

Getting caught up, much to your chagrin I am sure

Well, it looks like I have the place all to myself. Not my apartment mind you, but rather the radio stations plural. carol is off again this week, which means I can either call a cab and come in in the morning or go the cheap route and pull an all nite shift. Tonight it will be the all night shift, thank you very much. The novel thing is, usually there is someone working the FM station whose job it is to monitor all three stations, basically just to make sure they stay on the air. The thing is, our FM station is doing its Christmas charitable endeavor this week, a campaign for Make a Wish that involves live broadcasts on location during the day and the part timers that would are pulled in to run the board during those broadcasts, leaving no one to run the board in the evenings. The result is there is no one here and they are relying on the automation to run all three stations. Good luck with that I say, I know how much the automation screws up our station, putting it in place to run all three is just courting audio disaster, but I suppose it saves a couple of pennies.

Anyway, I didn't come here to bitch about radio, I did that in the last entry thank you very much. rather, let's get back to the business of blogging, which I have been neglectful in.

I guess I will begin in the realm of sports, because they have been good around these parts recently. The Pitt basketball (ranked #9 nationally) remains undefeated after a couple of close games, a 6 point win against crosstown rival Duquesne and a 1 point win at Washington after it was ruled that a last second shot was actually released after the buzzer preserving the victory for Pitt.

Likewise the football team ended its season on a positive note, something I don't say about Pitt all that often when it comes to Pitt football, but they pulled a huge upset, defeating West Virginia 13-9. WVU went into the game ranked #2 in the country and, with a win, would have been playing for the National Championship in January. The loss ended the title aspirations for WVU and sent the Pittsburgh fans into a frenzy here in Pittsburgh. Mind you, Pitt-WVU is a rivalry to begin with. It is called the Backyard Brawl given the relative closeness of the two schools, separated by only 60 or so odd miles, and this year marked the 100th meeting between the two schools in football. I don't know what they joke about in West Virginia when talking about Pitt, but here, we tend to use a lot of redneck, incest related insults when referring to our football rivals to the southwest. Prime example was a joke I told while at work prior to kickoff of the game;

How does a mother in West Virginia know her daughter is having her period?

Her son's dick tastes funny.

Yes kids, there is no love lost in these parts when it comes to the West Virginia folks.

Anyway, after Pitt won, a horde of students watching the game (it was played @ WVU) poured out into the streets to celebrate, apparently losing sight of the fact that Pitt's record for the year was only 5-7. Still the mob was unruly enough that we locked the doors at work and wouldn't let anyone in, which is good because the mob opted to set fire to a car outside the bar and block traffic in the street, forcing the police to come out en masse, though their presence did little to curtail the revelers. I snuck out the back door at work after my shift, opting not to challenge the masses, but rather avoid them.

Yet there is more sports to talk about, I should become a reporter or something. I haven't even gotten to the fantasy stuff, crikes this could be long. remind me to never take a week off again. After a bad start to the season, the Penguins have righted the hockey ship to a certain degree. There are currently 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, making the overall mark now 15-12-2. Currently they are on a 4 game road trip, three in western Canada against Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver and then a game back here in the states against Philadelphia. For the first time in their history, the Penguins won all three games in their western Canada swing, winning two of the games in shootouts.

And finally, the Steelers where things are so so with the professional football franchise. They are undefeated at home and abysmal in road games, yet they still have a two game in their division with three games to play, so chances are they will make the playoffs, which is when I might start paying attention to them, for now I have my fantasy teams to worry about.

Speaking of which, I have two weeks worth of updates to get out of the way. Let's start with the office pool, something that I have considered myself pretty much out of a few weeks ago. I still question my chances, but at least I haven't quit on it, going 11-5 two weeks ago picking games and an even better 14-2 this week. I have cut the deficit down to just 4 games now, but I only have three weeks to make up that difference. For the season I am now 134-74 picking games this year.

Yahoo football, I lost last week 131-75 and for the first time in ages, I am no longer in first place, instead dropping to second overall. This week however I pulled out another solid win, 129-80 to complete our regular season 10-4 and enter our playoffs as the #2 seed.

In the bar league, last time I had wrote I had clinched a playoff spot, but where I would be was still yet to be determined in the seeding process. A win would give me the #3 seed, a loss and it would be up to everyone else to determine just where I would enter the playoff bracket. the only thing I did know was that I would not get a first round bye in the playoffs, as only the 1 and 2 seeds get those. Well as luck would have it, I lost the last week of our regular season, as did everyone else that could have taken the #3 spot from me, so it was a no harm, no foul sort of loss. I ended the regular season there with a 7-6 mark, and this week marked the first week of our playoffs. The thing is, a loss this week and there is no way I could win money, we only pay out for the top three teams. A win and I would at least have a chance to play for money, whether that be ultimately in the championship game (with a second win) or in the consolation game for third place (with a loss). Well, I would like to thank the patriots for beating the Steelers in that regard as Wes Welker contributed to my winning effort with 20 fantasy points in a 131-76 win. Up next is a matchup against the #2 seed, who lead the league in points scored this year, having both Ladanian Tomlinson and Tom Brady on his roster, and he posted a 10-3 record during the regular season. We played each other once during the regular season, way back in week #2, a game I lost 134-126.

Lastly fantasy hockey, where I remain in 6th place, going 5-3-2 two weeks ago and 4-6 last week. For the season I am now 43-42-15 overall, which I guess is okay, I wish it were better, I am just 4 ts out of 7th place and missing the playoffs, but I am also only 8 points away from 4th place so it is safe to say everyone is still pretty bunched up at this point.

I should update the change meter, I haven't done that in a while. Adding to the total will be another 26 cents so we now sit at $33.48. Come Jan. the change meter celebrates it's two year anniversary on the page. Cake and ice cream for everyone, provided you have cake and ice cream in your home to eat. Me, I will probably have ramen noodles to celebrate. For now I will just have them for dinner and leave you to other more interesting pursuits than my blathering.