Sunday, December 11, 2005
Thoughts...
...having watched my first Senators game of the year:
Yes, the competition in the Olympic Golf Tournament would be difficult, but clearly, qualifying as the U.S. "player" would be even tougher. That's basically Canada and curling in a nutshell. Kleibrink was down by 2 going into the 10th end this afternoon, and scored 3 for the outright win. As part of the final ceremonies, Team Kleibrink was actually asked to take off their Team Kleibrink jackets and put on some new ones: Canada. It got a little dusty in here for a minute.
Sunday it's Gushue/Russ v. Stoughton for the men's Olympic berth. I'll be cheering for Stoughton, but I'll be happy with either.
Flames get to take their 40 points in 31 games and enjoy a week off. Next game is next Saturday, hosting Boston. Look forward to a lot of filler on this weblog. Go Flames, and goodnight.
- Chara. Wow. What a player. Redden wasn't playing tonight, but I find it impossible to believe that he could be as important to the Sens at Chara. (And I love Harry Neale's interesting and meaningful compliment: "He is the most improved player I've ever seen.")
- As I suspected, the "chemistry" from the Alfredsson-Heatley-Spezza line comes entirely from Alfredsson. This is no doubt an unfair thing to say just from watching hockey games on consecutive Saturdays, but Spezza would be better on the Olympic team than Crosby? You Gotta Be Shitting Me.
- Yes, I love Alfredsson. Sens 2nd best skater.
- Emery was solid; you couldn't tell if he was great or not though. The only play of the entire game where a better, more experienced goalie might have made a better play was on the winning goal, but who knows. And that was after allowing only 1 goal in 63+ minutes.
- Mush played terrific for Calgary in Hamrlik's stead.
- Amonte for his 400th NHL goal. I think he turned around after the game in San Jose at the end of October: I love him now. Nails, and wheels.
- Calgarian Shannon Kleibrink and her rink for qualifying for February's Olympics in Italy. There's something incredible about (A) legitimate "Olympic trials", where the winner goes and everyone else stays home, and (B) a sport where a 37-year-old with glasses really can be the best in the world.
Yes, the competition in the Olympic Golf Tournament would be difficult, but clearly, qualifying as the U.S. "player" would be even tougher. That's basically Canada and curling in a nutshell. Kleibrink was down by 2 going into the 10th end this afternoon, and scored 3 for the outright win. As part of the final ceremonies, Team Kleibrink was actually asked to take off their Team Kleibrink jackets and put on some new ones: Canada. It got a little dusty in here for a minute.
Sunday it's Gushue/Russ v. Stoughton for the men's Olympic berth. I'll be cheering for Stoughton, but I'll be happy with either.
Flames get to take their 40 points in 31 games and enjoy a week off. Next game is next Saturday, hosting Boston. Look forward to a lot of filler on this weblog. Go Flames, and goodnight.
Comments:
I want Gushue to win, just because I so want to see Russ Howard at the Olympics. He will blow the roof off the curling arena.
While I like Stoughton, he won't bring nearly the same level of excitement to curling as Howard's moose calls.
I'm not sure I followed you: do you think Spezza would be better than Crosby or not?
Also, it got dusty here too, until they unveiled the Canada jackets that were blue and white. Blue and white? WTF? Since when did Canada have the same colours as Finland and Greece?
Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but Canada's official uniforms should, at bare minimum, contain the colour red.
Blue and white?
Umm, Alfredsson wasn't even playing on the first line for like the first month, and Spezza and Heatley were still lighting it up. He may have been in charge last night, but your point isn't exactly scientific.
I stand corrected, Andy. I just remembered the accounts from Game 1 v. Toronto where they moved Alfie up into "Bochenski's place" and they scored a couple.
Anyway, I'm not that impressed with Spezza.
Yeah the unis are nowhere near as cool as what we saw in the last couple of Winter Olympics (and the scarf was kind of red, but I hear you). It's all part of The Bay's ongoing campaign to become every Canadian's least favourite place to shop.
I wonder if Russ Howard would become some kind of Italian folk hero?
Spezza was also bad in Vancouver the night before, but it was mentioned on the HNIC broadcast that he was hurt and was a game-time decision to even dress for the Calgary game.
Me thinks there's probably a lot more to his game than we've seen on this Western swing.
All I know from these last two games played out West is that the Senators sure look a lot less like a "team of destiny" once they stop facing all their cushy intra-division opponents.
And I wouldn't call Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo or Boston (well, at the start of the season) 'cushy intra-division opponents'.
Am I the only one who clicked on this thread, forgot the curling references immediately, and wondered why Sacamano was talking about Blaine Stoughton in the first message?
Yeah, I probably am...
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I want Gushue to win, just because I so want to see Russ Howard at the Olympics. He will blow the roof off the curling arena.
While I like Stoughton, he won't bring nearly the same level of excitement to curling as Howard's moose calls.
I'm not sure I followed you: do you think Spezza would be better than Crosby or not?
Also, it got dusty here too, until they unveiled the Canada jackets that were blue and white. Blue and white? WTF? Since when did Canada have the same colours as Finland and Greece?
Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but Canada's official uniforms should, at bare minimum, contain the colour red.
Blue and white?
Umm, Alfredsson wasn't even playing on the first line for like the first month, and Spezza and Heatley were still lighting it up. He may have been in charge last night, but your point isn't exactly scientific.
I stand corrected, Andy. I just remembered the accounts from Game 1 v. Toronto where they moved Alfie up into "Bochenski's place" and they scored a couple.
Anyway, I'm not that impressed with Spezza.
Yeah the unis are nowhere near as cool as what we saw in the last couple of Winter Olympics (and the scarf was kind of red, but I hear you). It's all part of The Bay's ongoing campaign to become every Canadian's least favourite place to shop.
I wonder if Russ Howard would become some kind of Italian folk hero?
Spezza was also bad in Vancouver the night before, but it was mentioned on the HNIC broadcast that he was hurt and was a game-time decision to even dress for the Calgary game.
Me thinks there's probably a lot more to his game than we've seen on this Western swing.
All I know from these last two games played out West is that the Senators sure look a lot less like a "team of destiny" once they stop facing all their cushy intra-division opponents.
And I wouldn't call Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo or Boston (well, at the start of the season) 'cushy intra-division opponents'.
Am I the only one who clicked on this thread, forgot the curling references immediately, and wondered why Sacamano was talking about Blaine Stoughton in the first message?
Yeah, I probably am...
Post a Comment
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