Assorted Friday (Well, Pretty Much Just NHL) Thoughts Vol. 1

Hey Rick Nash, no thanks. Columbus kinda sucks. I like it in San Jose.

Let’s just get into it, shall we…

• This “Rick Nash to the Sharks” business is driving me more insane than should be humanely possible. It’s an obsession, I tell ya. (Yes, I’m sick, I know.) I’ve been dissecting every single word and article and tweet from anyone and everyone all in an attempt to wrap my head around the idea that one of my favorite players in the league could be making his way to teal town. I’m still in awe that the Sharks are even in the conversation…prominently, at that.
• With that said, I am not on board, and I’m sticking by what I said in my previous post. I just can’t justify losing the American Hero (Joe Pavelski) to someone with a larger cap hit and has yet to prove himself in the playoffs.
• One of the golden rules as a sports fan is to not get emotionally attached to players considering the fluidity of player movement with free agency/trades and what-not. Teams change and players leave. Besides Patrick Marleau, I’ve got to think Joe Pavelski is probably the next player to whom most fans feel emotionally attached to, especially considering all the big goals and moments he’s had with the team in his short career, all with the Sharks. And yeah, count me in as one of those fans.
• And with that, I’m probably going to have a brain aneurism in the next 3 1/2 days or so from NHL Trade Deadline madness.
• Columbus sucks, man. I can’t believe they traded Jeff Carter for Jack Johnson (+ a 1st). Yeah, Carter is not having a great year, but he was playing in hockey hell. Jack Johnson sucks. I have him on my fantasy team, and he sucks. ::goes to check fantasy team:: and he’s a minus-1 today. He sucks.
• He did get 4 PIMs, though.
• He still sucks.
• When Philly traded Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, I was confused. How are you going to trade your Captain and Assistant Captain (both who are under 30) in the same offseason? I didn’t understand what they were doing at all, neither did a lot of people, apparently. Then, the whole “dry island” story came about, and the news of how Richards and Carter were pretty hardcore party boys. Then, I realized, “dude, Philly still has Claude freakin Giroux — they’ll be fine.” So it became pretty apparent that the reason Philly wanted to jettison both from their town was because they wanted to spit them up, like those two troublemakers in class who have to sit on opposite sides of the room. Gotta keep them apart so they don’t cause anymore ruckus.
• And as hard as Philly tried by sending Carter to hockey oblivion, and Richards to California where most people are surprised hockey exists, even through all of that, Richards and Carter are getting reunited…in arguably, the biggest party town in the country. I guess they’re just meant to be together.
• I retweeted this tweet because I thought it was hilarious and fitting. Mostly because picturing a bleach blonde Carter leaving drunk messages for his BFF Richie sounds hilarious by just reading it.
• In all seriousness, Carter to the Kings blows. I may be softening on the Nash to SJ deal after all…
• Nope. Not softening. Please don’t send Joe Pavelski to Columbus, DW. He doesn’t deserve it. No one deserves that kind of torture — well, except for maybe Alex Burrows. But he’s the only one.
• I guess I’m going to be able to see the final iteration of this team on Tuesday since I’m going to the game against the Philadelphia Flyers. (I think there’s some irony there, but I can’t figure out what it is.)

I don’t even know what else to say. All I know is that whatever happens, the trade deadline is going to send me into a tizzy, as if it hasn’t already. Godspeed, ladies and gents…godspeed.

Why The NHL Trade Deadline Will Probably Kill Me

Hey Joe Pavelski, you down to switch places? Columbus is totally cool brah.

I’ve been a fan of exactly 4 teams my entire life. Well, 5 if you want to include the Packers, but they mainly serve as my NFC team. And no, I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon last year or this year. I’ve been a Packer fan since the mid-90′s. I even briefly wrote about it in my Tumblr here, here and here.

Wait, I thought this was a hockey post…???

And it’s not like I have to name them — you need only read a couple posts on this blog to find out who they are. But for those lazy ones who don’t like to read, those aforementioned 4 teams are the Raiders, Warriors, A’s, and Sharks. I’ve been through highs and lows, ebbs and flows, good years, bad years, JaMarcus Russell, “WE BELIEVE”, Giambi not sliding, 2009 NHL playof– oh wait, never mind, no…that never happened. That’s a whole lot of passion and fandom collected over my short lifespan.

Okay? Get to the point.

Clearly, I have spent a lot of time and attention to my teams (something I’m going to have to start re-evaluating if I want to have a life). I’ll admit it, my obsession is a little over-zealous at times, but hey, we all have our vices right?

Vices? JaMarcus? You’re losing me, hun…

And while I’ve tried to come up with a creative lede to this post, I’ve ended up rambling about something that doesn’t really have much relevance to the topic I want to speak about. So we’re just going to ignore what I said above, and flat out say what I’ve horribly tried to transition to: Rick Nash. If you’re really feelin lazy, I have bullet points somewhere after the jump if you’d just like to start there. Also, I have some exciting news at the very end of this post, if you wanted to check that out, too.

SuperBowl XLVI Reflection: That Was It?

Just a hunch, but something tells me this SuperBowl won't be as fondly remembered as last time...

There was a point during the NFL playoffs this year where I felt I wasn’t going to be able to watch the SuperBowl. That point came the moment I realized there was a very strong possibility that the Patriots could play the 49ers for the title. I was desperate for the Giants to beat the Niners in the Conference Championship game for reasons even I think are ridiculous, in hindsight, but the following actually happened:

1. I was becoming a very mean and spiteful person, probably losing some friends along the way. (Well, if I’m being honest with myself, they weren’t REAL friends anyway.)
2. My mood was getting progressively worse with every Niner win. I swear I needed a valium or zoloft or something to calm me down because I was getting way too serious about a stupid football team.
3. Much to my dismay, I was actually cheering for the Patriots in their championship game only because I had to think of which team of the two (them or the Ravens) had the best chance of beating the Niners should the Niners advance. In my mind, the Pats were that team (although, I may have been wrong in that assertion). Consequently, if the SB ended up being Pats vs the Niners, I was convinced I would burst into flames if I had to cheer for the Patriots two weeks in a row. I know what blasphemy is, and I know it’s a sin. So I told myself I just wouldn’t watch the game if that were the case.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about any of that.

I was glad I didn’t have to avoid the SuperBowl this year, and I could watch it in peace.

But I wasn’t exactly excited about the game. In fact, I found myself gradually becoming disinterested in the game as the two weeks went by. The ESPN propaganda machine was in full-force spouting out wall-to-wall bullshit about this being another great New York-Boston rivalry, and the greatness of Tom Brady and whether or not Eli Manning is elite and is the greatest defense ever and blah blah blah. To be honest, I don’t know if that’s true because I avoided ESPN for two weeks, but I have to think that was close to the coverage on the channel.

Even though the revenge factor was in play, the game still did not have the same allure as the 2007 matchup. The fact that the Patriots were undefeated and lost to the (at-the-time) lesser Manning brother who threw a prayer into the air that was caught on the helmet by a guy who is no longer in the NFL was a story only told in Hollywood. The league couldn’t have written a better script than that. And for Raider fans, that game closed a chapter* (not the book yet) when Brady was pummeled by a guy named Justin Tuck in the end, who, ironically, put down Brady in a key moment on Sunday, as well.

*That chapter is probably titled “Karma’s a bitch and his name is Tuck. Suck it, Brady.” 

The ill-advised safety via intentional grounding was exhilarating at the beginning, but then the game just kind of lost steam and became a defensive enigma. I actually fell asleep for part of it. I did wake up to see Madonna though. Two thoughts: 1) Way better than the Black Eyed Peas (but that’s not really that hard to top) and 2) For a 50-year old, that grandma moves better than either you or I can. Gotta give Madge props for that. And as bonus thought: 3) M.I.A. flipped off the camera? Big whoop. No one will ever top Janet so stop trying.

To keep myself awake, I made a couple prop bets. My cousin bet me this: the Patriots will run 3 running plays in a row. I said no. To hedge my bet, I said Eli Manning will throw a 40-yard pass in the 3rd quarter. He said no. Neither of it happened, so we broke even. Oh we also had an informal prop bet (or I guess it’s just a drinking game) that every time they showed a non-football celebrity or the owners box, that we’d drink. It gave me a decent buzz, but it probably made me fell asleep.

Sure, the end got exciting for a bit there. Ahmad Bradshaw’s touchdown was one of the funniest and most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. Gravity was not his friend. It was surreal to think that he could have possibly been the first person ever to be crucified for scoring a touchdown, but it was even crazier to think if he had sat down at the 1-yard line, wouldn’t it have been even more awful(ly hilarious?) if the kicker missed the FG? In retrospect, even though that wasn’t his intent, he did the right thing. Got as many points on the board as possible.

Many people will point to Manningham’s tightrope sideline catch at the biggest moment in the game, but to me, the biggest moment in the game was a missed one. Sure-handed Wes Welker missed a bulls-eye pass from Brady. 9 times out of 10, he makes that catch, and I think this was an even bigger shock than the Manningham catch. Granted, Manningham’s catch was spectacular, I’m not trying to downplay it. But Welker lost out on a HUGE miss opportunity for the Pats, and it was there I think they lost the game.

But other than all this, the game wasn’t all that thrilling. I didn’t even feel that much of satisfaction when the Giants won. It was more of a semi-enthusiatic, slightly disinterested kind of apathy. I also didn’t really remember any of the commercials, unlike the Darth Vader Volkswagen one last year. But we did figure out the formula for the commercials this year — cute animals do something cute and/or funny. Those will usually elicit a high approval rating from the audience.

And yeah…I really don’t know what else to say about that.

How about The Darkness? THE DARKNESS!

And seriously, a phone with a pen stylus? Really Samsung? What year is it 2005? I think it’s about time both Samsung and RIM throw in the towel. They’re both fighting a losing battle.