NOT Racist

But most definitely sport-ist:

If you saw this pic standing alone (and you ARE, Gentle Reader), you'd be forgiven for thinkin' it came from the pages o' NatGeo in some sorta article about South African ritual dances.  But no, it's from a CBS News slideshow titled "The NFL's Most Rabid Fans."  Or sumthin' like that.  My first thought was rabid is rabid and there isn't such a thang as "most rabid."  You just shoot 'em... those poor animals so afflicted... period, end o' report.

My second thought?  You RARELY see these sorts o' thangs at hockey games.  Yeah, there IS some occasional weirdness, but it's weirdness I can really get behind.  Or in front of, as the case might be.  Example:

I rest my case.

Public Service

I may have piqued your interest in hockey, what with all my scribblings, rants, moans, groans, and magnificent videos of beautiful goals and bloody fights over the past six and a half years.  If I have stimulated your curiosity... and if you're not interested in following the Beloved Wings (you twisted, misguided, and wholly uninformed soul, you)... then here's just the thing for you: a handy flowchart titled "Which NHL team should I root for?"

Click to embiggen

"Because we always win!"  Heh.  (Note:  Purists and other pickers o' nits will note this flowchart is out o' date, what with the inclusion of the Atlanta Thrashers now Winnipeg Jets.  But the attached legend is close enough.)

h/t: A tweet by JessicaRedfield ("I'm determined to make everyone an NHL fan," sez she), re-tweeted by GeorgeMalik.

Your Usual, Customary, and Reasonable Hockey Post

I got a link to this lil blurb in the mail today from NHL.com:

They are celebrated as the Original Six -- the half-dozen NHL clubs that pre-date the 1967 expansion and hearken back to a different era. But not since the early days of expansion have the Original Six been on track to be as dominant as they've been this season.

Entering this weekend, four of the top five teams in the NHL standings are members of the Original Six. Detroit, a 3-2 shootout winner at Phoenix on Thursday, is first with 63 points, one ahead of a group of three teams that includes the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks, and two points in front of the Boston Bruins -- who have played only 44 games, fewer than any team in the NHL. Only the St. Louis Blues, the other team in the three-way tie with 62 points, breaks up the Original Six party.

How unusual is it to have the Original Six so heavily represented among the NHL's elite? Very.

It may be unusual but it's also very cool.  Yeah, I'm one of THOSE fans... the few, the proud, the snobs who think the Original Six play the best hockey.  Well, except for the major suckage that is the Habs and the Leafs, although the Leafs are better than usual this year.  I can cut the Habs a sprout because of their history and by that I mean the most championships in any major sport, except for those Yankees (that would be 27 World Series wins to Montreal's 24 Stanley Cups).  Ya gotta give the Habs credit for that, even in this "what have ya done for me lately" world.

Speakin' of "what have ya done for me lately"... here's Big Bert with the game winner last night:

The Wings are undefeated in the shoot-out this year (4-0) and have won too many games that way, to my way o' thinkin'.  It's BEST when you totally dominate your opponents, but two points is two points... much better than one, or none.

Just Hockey

Tough Guys can score too... as the title sez:

Number Two, Bay-bee... Numbah TWO.  That's Darren McCarty scoring the game winning goal that gave the Beloved Wings their first Stanley Cup in 41 years.  It's also my personal all-time favorite goal.  Apropos o' not much... my only Red Wings jersey has 25 on the back, and that's an indication of just how much I like McCarty.

h/t:  The Usual Hockey Source.

Mixed Emotions

The NHL announced the All-Star game roster today, about which, this:

Added to the roster Thursday were five goaltenders, among them the Red Wings' Jimmy Howard, who leads the League in wins, and the Blues' Brian Elliott, who is second in the League in goals-against average and save percentage.

I mentioned the fact that Howard wasn't even on the All-Star ballot some time ago and expressed my outrage in a suitable manner.  That oversight's been rectified but I still have some outrage left:  Nick Lidstrom is NOT on the All-Star roster and that is unforgivable.  How the league justifies omitting a six-time Norris Trophy winner, currently ranked #14 among the NHL's 274 active defensemen, is beyond me.  Yeah, I know:  I'm a Homer.  But, seriously?  Dustin Byfuglien (-8 on the season, so far) gets in and Nick doesn't?  WTF?

Well, at least Pavel made the cut.  I suppose I should be grateful.  (/sarcasm) 

Of Limited Interest

"Limited interest" unless you smoke cigars, at which time there's this excerpt from an e-mail I received from cigar.com...

By now, nothing should surprise us with the way the government views our hobby. The last few years were some of the most important and influential in the long history of the cigar industry. Between taxes, smoking bans, and regulations, the government keeps trying everything in their power to regulate the cigar industry into oblivion. As enthusiasts, we carry the torch of defiance through these troubling times and we hold firm in our beliefs of our beloved hobby. But the fight is not over...

Currently, the FDA is trying to insert itself into our hobby; they proposed a bill that would dramatically alter the way we all enjoy premium cigars. Some of the regulations include banning walk-in humidors at your local tobacconist, banning any non face-to-face tobacco sales (which means mail order and internet sales), banning color advertisements for cigars, banning the words "cigar" or "tobacco" from advertisements and store fronts, and forcing manufacturers to submit blends for "testing." That's a lot of bans, huh? So what does this all mean for you? You'll have to go to "speakeasies" to pick up cigars, which you won't be allowed to view with your own eyes, only to find out the new blend you wanted isn't available yet - it's still going through "testing" with the FDA.

In short, this is a call to arms. A bill filed under the name Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act (H.R. 1639 and Senate Bill 1461) is now being proposed to protect all of us. Please use the link below to contact your local congressman and urge them to support this act. In these turbulent, economic times, the government seems more concerned with regulating your hobbies and leisure activities than getting the economy in order and balancing the budget. It's your time to speak up and get your voice heard! Use the link below and let freedom ring: Fight to Stop the FDA Click Here

There's more at the link, including a nifty little app that will send an editable message to your Congresscritters.  Which I did, of course.

―:☺:―

Back to Firefox...   I noticed some weirdness between IE9 and Blogger over the last few days and my initial reaction was to think it was just Blogger bein' Blogger, where the occasional episode of weirdness and petulant dysfunction isn't exactly unknown.  First it was the "quote" button's apparent non-function... I fixed that by editing the HTML, inserting the "blockquote" command and "end blockquote" command in the appropriate places.  Then I tried to put up a post with video from yesterday's Bruins-Canucks game and Blogger simply REFUSED to accept video from either the NHL or The Tube O' You.  I posted a couple o' drafts and wound up deleting both, mainly coz the missing video was the point of the whole post.  Today it was Blogger refusing to include the image you see above, cut and pasted from an e-mail I received from cigar.com.  IE9 also wouldn't import the link in the final quoted paragraph.  So that famous lil lightbulb went on over my head and we opened up FF, cut 'n' pasted the quoted bits above and everythang was cool.  How weird, eh?

Oh.  Mr. Gates?  You're fired.

―:☺:―

Here's that video I tried to post yesterday:

The fight in the vid above is one of the longest hockey fights I've ever seen.  The linesmen didn't intervene, mainly coz they were tied up refereeing three OTHER fights.  While it wasn't an old-fashioned bench clearing brawl it was the next best thing and there were 48 minutes in penalties handed out for that lil scrum, including a game misconduct.  That was an excellent hockey game... fisticuffs aside... featuring world-class goaltending, a penalty shot, and an outcome that was in doubt until the final horn sounded.  It was also the best game I watched yesterday, given the Beloved Wings lost a close one in Toronto.  But we don't wanna talk about THAT.

A Miserable Excuse for a Post

Well, OK.  Only because Sunny ain't got any new stuff.

And there's this...

Coz it's that time o' year.

Pretty Cool

"Our Way of Life"

Well... yeah.  There's one very brief overhead view of an arena in this vid where 20,000 people rise to their feet as one, arms in the air, cheering, after a goal is scored.  I've been there and seen... done... that and there's damned few sights in life that compare to that spontaneous spectacle.  There are times when I sure do miss Detroit and The Joe.

h/t:  The Usual Hockey Source.

"It Was a Good Hit, It Was a Clean Hit"

All us homers know suspect the refs have it in for our team(s)... but Flyers fans might could be right about that.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're still mucking about in the archives and today we played Pete Townshend's White City album, which is where this song comes from...

I want the first call on your kiss
Answer me one question:can you promise me this
I want my defences laying in your hands
I don't want to rest in the palm of another man
I don't want your secondhand love

We won't go into the deeper meaning, if any, of the lyrics to this tune... I like it for its instrumentation and melody, not to mention Townshend's impassioned vocals.  Let's just say I relate and leave it at that.  I relate to the entire album, actually.  "White City" came out a couple o' years after I left Ol' Blighty but the song-cycle resonated with me (and still does), given as how I'd passed White City any number of times when driving into London from my home in High Wycombe... and on the tube, of course.  White City was and prolly still is one of those "no-go" zones you find in any large city in the industrialized world and I never ventured into the place, kinda like certain areas of Dee-troit, which calls up more of those "I can relate" feelings.

Still and even: one of Townshend's best efforts.

―:☺:―

 

Comin' up later: Hockey Night In Portales (and Leavenworth, Kansas), wherein the Beloved Wings (4-0) face the hapless Blue Jackets (0-5-1) at The Joe.  Tonight's game is as close to a gimmee as the Wings have had in this young season and I'm anticipating a victory.  The Wings will be tested tomorrow night, however, as they play a back-to-back game against the Caps, in Washington.  I watched the Caps (6-0) methodically take apart the high-flying Flyers (4-1-1) last evening and they thoroughly thrashed the Flyers... it wasn't even close.  I got a great deal o' satisfaction out o' that game; it pleases me GREATLY to watch Pronger lose.  Yea, verily: Schadenfreude Я Us.  And speakin' o' Schadenfreude... there was more o' the same in last night's nitecap as I watched... gleefully... the 'Hawks (4-1-1) paste the Hated Avalanche (5-2), at home in their barn.  I dunno what to say about a team that can win five games on the road, only to come home and lose.  Again.  What to do?  Play more games on the road?  I guess...

Miscellaneous Ramblings

First, the important stuff:  SN2 is 43 today.  Here's the birthday boy and some old Zoomie, taken last year at the Naval Recruiting District, Pittsburgh Change of Command ceremony in Buffalo, NY:

He's still serving at half-pay, too.  Happy Birthday, Sam!

―:☺:―

Our desk was delivered late yesterday afternoon and we got started on putting the last piece of El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington together.  Which is to say the desktop computer and its peripherals are assembled and in place.  Witness:

Looks pretty spiffy, eh?  Well, it's ALL about camera angles, coz here's what ya don't see in the above two pics...

And that's only part o' the mess.  We'll be a couple o' few days sorting this out...

―:☺:―

The Beloved Wings got off to a good start last evening, beating Ottawa 5 - 3 at The Joe.  Needless to say, the home crowd was pleased, as was YrHmblScrb and SN1.  We did our usual hockey thang, which is to say we watched the game together but separate, taking full advantage of the unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes we each have in our cell phone plans.  SN1 and DIL Erma surprised me with an early Christmas present as well, gifting me with the NHL's Center Ice package.  I was MOST pleased and grateful, especially since Fox Sports Dee-troit was blacked out in my viewing area.

Speaking o' hockey and thangs, here's your Exit Question:  How do you know a REAL hockey fan when ya see one?

Exit Answer:  When his neighbor knocks on the door in the middle of the game to ask if he'd like to accompany her to her favorite watering hole for a drink and dinner and he DECLINES, saying "Any other night I'd be right there... but tonight is Opening Night!"  (The Lady understood, bless her heart.)

FINALLY!

If ya need me I'll be parked in front o' the teevee for the better part o' the next couple o' days.  But don't expect me to pay much attention to ya if ya call at an inopportune time... unless it's to watch a replay and say sumthin' like "GREAT goal!" or "Damn... What a hit!"  Otherwise?  Save your time and breath.

My agenda:

The best thing about hockey season this year is I now have satellite teevee, as opposed to Comcrap cable, which offered NOTHING for hockey lovers beyond Versus and the odd game on NBC.  This year?  We have Versus, NBC, and ALL of the Fox Sports local channels... which means we'll be watching the beloved Wings' opener tomorrow night.  In the meantime we shall warm up by watching Bawston beat the miserable Flyers and their new Captain Lurch, followed by the Canucks mercilessly thumping the Flightless Birds.  Hopefully.  Part o' the fun o' the game is watching the teams you hate actively dislike lose.

Drop the puck!  Let's Go Red Wings!!

Pretty Cool

That's the Winnipeg Jets' new logo, otherwise to be known in future as the first North American military air force (ed: see comments) themed hockey club*.  From a Jets press release about the logo:

The design for the new logo, which was developed in partnership with Reebok and the NHL, was inspired by the logo of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

“True North Sports & Entertainment felt it was important for the new Winnipeg Jets to develop a strong new identity,” said Mark Chipman, Chairman & Governor of True North Sports & Entertainment. “We felt it was important to authenticate the name Jets and we believe the new logo does that through its connection to our country’s remarkable Air Force heritage, including the rich history and relationship that our city and province have enjoyed with the Canadian Forces.”

Pretty cool, eh?  A logo ain't nearly enough to get me to change my hockey allegiance but I just might buy a hat.  Then again, I think I said the same thing when San Jose came into the NHL a few years back... so mebbe not.

* The Jets ain't the first hockey team in the world with a military image.  Who could forget those dominant Moscow Central Red Army teams of yesteryear?

h/t:  the usual (hockey) source.

What IS It With These Canuckistan Hockey Fans?

OK... I can kinda-sorta see the method to the madness when it comes to the Cup Finals, but THIS?

So, how hot are Winnipeg Jets tickets for the team’s inaugural season in the reseller’s market? Sizzling hot.

Try $3,280 for a lower-deck seat for the home opener against the Montreal Canadiens on the popular ticket reseller site Stubhub.com. And yes, that’s for one seat in the 100-level.

A pair of these puppies for the opening game will run you $6,560. Ouch. The cheapest ticket on StubHub for that game is $844 in the upper decks. Yes, one ticket.

Ticket prices for Jets home games drop off markedly after that.

[...]

Resale tickets in markets like Montreal and Toronto are pretty pricey even without the novelty of having a new team in their town. A top ticket for Montreal’s home opener Oct. 13 against Calgary on the resale market would cost you $500.

In Toronto, their home opener against the Habs is going for a staggering $1,143 on resale.

In Edmonton, a lower-deck ticket on the resale market for the Oilers home opener is $399.

So that gives you some perspective on just how hot this ticket market is.

In Canada, mebbe.  Small-market teams in the US ain't doin' so hot right now or so I've heard, and this does not bode well for hockey.  I don't wanna see another lock-out, thankyaverymuch.

(h/t for both links to the usual [hockey] source)