settling in to the Caps game tonight, I’m proud to say I’ve watched all the locally televised games this year — 3 for 3, and I listened to them beat up on the Canucks on the radio (crappy AM radio, no less). I’ve got tix for six regular season games locked in, which is about how many games I typically see spread out over two seasons.
good times.
Let’s Go Caps!
Go Leafs Go!
Filed under I believe that hockey is our future
it’s local — very local — but it’s good. Coach Boudreau is looking for a new car, and he needs a REALLY BIG CUP HOLDER:
and so the Mercedes ML has a Stanley-Cup sized cup holder pop-up in the rear luggage compartment… made me LOL…
that’s good stuff. a description of Coach’s debut here.
— turns out it’s not Coach’s debut; he was #7 for the Presidents vs. the Cheifs in Slap Shot. awesome.
Filed under I believe that hockey is our future
I figured my boys might like this one… this was posted under the heading Does anyone else miss Belak?.
Leafs are 1-0-0. WOOT.
Filed under hockey, homies, I believe that hockey is our future
— the name of an economics paper by Haisken-DeNew and Vorell (two Germans); and surprisingly no mention of whether anyone has done similar studies of European hockey.
Tyler Cowen summarized the paper thusly:
In other words, there are substantial incentives for violence in hockey.
Well, duh.
But not just strategic incentives or marketing incentives, this study demonstrates that there are monetary incentives for players to be violent, “These estimated per-fight premia, depending on fight success ($10,000 to $18,000), are even higher than those for an additional point made.”
I don’t think this argument holds up if you look at the list of top-paid players. Are there any in the top-10 that are drop-the-gloves fighters? I’m guessing it’s all big-scorers and goalies.
And then the paper outlines financial penalties against players and teams that should effectively offset the incentives:
By introducing a “fight fine” of twice the maximum potential gain ($36,000) and adding this amount to salaries paid for the team salary cap (fines would be 6.7% of the team salary cap or the average wage of 2 players), then all involved would have either little or no incentives to allow fighting to continue.
— finally ridding fighting from hockey, I suppose. No question as to whether that is a desirable thing for the game, but given the introductory paragraph it’s clear these guys don’t think much of the North American enforcement-style game.
A good discussion follows in MR’s comments — if you a fan of the game, check them out.
Another interesting response.
yeah, that’s how bad of a hockey fan I am. I was looking at the blog stats and the recent hits are all on my “Best Hockey Songs of All Time” thread… so I figured I should check where the Stanley Cup Finals stand, and it turns out they were decided yesterday.
now, I could hide behind the defense that we lost power for 29 hours (yesterday afternoon until this evening), therefore missing the news yesterday and today and, obviously, the game last night. but the truth is that yesterday morning I didn’t even know they were heading into game 6 and the Red Wings were a game away from eliminating the Penguins.
I’m having a hard time feeling shame about this. there are precious few sports that compel me to watch the playoffs if I don’t have some kind of connection with the team. baseball? I haven’t sat through an ALCS or World Series in years, though I might watch if it was the Orioles (ms.st4rbux would be watching) or the Blue Jays (strictly for nostalgic reasons — “The Drive of ’85”, 1992/1993). basketball? I haven’t cared less since… ever. I take that back, since Michael Jordan and the Bulls won #1 and #2. I’ve watched more NASCAR in the past two years than any of baseball and basketball combined (…not that there’s anything wrong with that).
the NFL is the exception — having grown up with the CFL, there’s really no nostalgia factor. I’m sure the regular season games and the SuperBowl are broadcast throughout Canada, but I can’t recall a single memory of SuperBowls VII thru XXV. (now XXVI was a blast, drinking Brador and belting out “Hail to the Redskins” through the quaint cobblestone streets of Quebec City, all the way back to the hostel — that was after living in the US for a year, visiting Quebec with Americans on a ski trip…).
but, get this — I watched NFL playoff games (plural) every weekend the last couple of years. planned my weekends around them, practically, even after the Redskins got knocked out. the NFL just has a superior product; specifically, big games on the weekend. baseball, basketball, and hockey have to spread their games throughout the weekdays. I have to give up some of my favorite sitcoms and dramas to follow a playoff series (ok, maybe with Tivo this isn’t exactly true). football generally has top-billing on the local sports-news, so it’s easy to get a handle on what’s happening this week — and they have 5 days to hype the next game. that’s a recipe for success.
this year, my nostalgia team didn’t make the NHL playoffs, but the local team did. the Caps kept me in the playoff chase for almost 14 days — not quite long enough to grow out a playoff beard* — but that was it. when their run ended, so did mine. I didn’t watch another game of hockey this year.
OK, I’ll go to the box. I’ll feel shame. but every year, it gets easier to care less.
* Wikipedia has an entry for “Playoff Beard“, and even a section for Fan Beards; sadly, no hockey fans are mentioned.
Filed under I believe that hockey is our future
so I get home from the Caps losing Game 7, only to be greeted by “The Day After” (aka “TDA”) on SciFi.com (also a channel on basic cable). it is well known that if I find TDA on TV, I can’t possibly turn away — it’s burned into me as a result of seeing the TV-movie on it’s original airing back in the 80’s. I think they edited this version, as I don’t remember seeing the bride-and-groom being incinerated as they kiss (one of the early memories that sent me crying to the bathroom when I was 10…)
it’s literally mind-numbing to think that we were ever that close to nuclear armageddon… or the horrific after-effects of nuclear radiation. but I’ve written about this before, haven’t I? but beyond the obvious shock-effect — in my dreams, I’ve smelled the ionized air and the fallout. how do you explain that? I’ve sat underground listening to the victims above (again, in my dreams). how many else have lived though the same, even though it wasn’t the real thing? I know this is no where near as bad as if it ever had have happened — but how many of us have been victims of this war that never happened? and maybe, how much better is the world for having scared us so much.
and damn if the Caps couldn’t have pulled off a win against the Flyers. I mean, the F’ing FLYERS.
Filed under Uncategorized
I’m heading downtown to see if I can find last minute Caps tix; if not, I’ll watch the game at the Turtle or Clyde’s or something… wish me luck.
Filed under Uncategorized
Bill Barilko disappeared that summer,
he was on a fishing trip.
The last goal he ever scored
won the Leafs the cup
They didn’t win another until 1962,
the year he was discovered.
I stole this from a hockey card,
I keeped tucked up under
my fifty mission cap, I worked it in
to look like that
The song’s lyrics describe the mysterious disappearance of deceased Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Bill Barilko. Barilko, who donned the blue and white Maple Leaf sweater for five seasons, scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal for the Leafs over rivaled Montreal Canadiens in the 1951 cup finals. Four months and five days later, Barilko climbed into a small, single-engine airplane with friend and dentist, Henry Hudson. The plane disappeared between Rupert House and Timmins, Ontario, leaving no trace of Barilko or Hudson.
Eleven years later, on June 7, 1962, helicopter pilot Gary Fields discovered the plane wreckage roughly 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cochrane, Ontario. Barilko was finally laid to rest in his home town of Timmins, the same year that the Maple Leafs won their next Stanley Cup.
The song’s lyrics also reference the honorary “fifty mission cap”, mentioned in the song’s title. The fifty mission cap was the leather hat given to the aces of the Allied airforces in World War II to signify their participation in 50 aerial missions.
I’ve always imagined that Gary Fields was wearing his Fifty Mission Cap as he looked for, and eventually spotted, the wreckage — but then he wouldn’t have a hockey card that explained the Stanley Cup drought and the Leafs winning again in ’62/’63… and I get a little worried that the “Fifty” part of the song might mean Toronto needs to wait another 9 years to win the Cup.
Does anyone know who scored the winning goal for the Leafs in 1967?
Anyhow, this song gets the #1 spot because at least three times, the lyrics is repeated: “Won the Leafs the Cup…” Good times.
Filed under Uncategorized
Some say this song is about Gordon (lead singer, The Tragically Hip) and his brother the goalie (“I had the dream of having no room” to shoot and score…); I read somewhere else that it was about two people stuck in a relationship, feeling abandoned (“like, if you need me you’re on your own”). That makes me think the song is best not over-analyzed; just appreciated for capturing the spirit of the game.
Here’s the lead singer, talking about how shots from 95 feet can fool you, as an intro to the song:
I hear your voice ‘cross a frozen lake
a voice from the end of a leaf
saying, ‘you won’t die of a thousand fakes
or be beaten by the sweetest of dekes’
Seriously, “beaten by the sweetest of dekes”?! You will never hear a hockey reference like that in a rock/pop song, not in a thousand years.
Oh to join the rush
as the season builds
Jump into the rush
as the seasons build
Of course, a goalie can’t join the rush — they’re stuck at the lonely end of the rink. Unless he’s talking about the rush of the playoffs. GO Caps GO!
Heaven is a Better Place today was written as a tribute to Dan Snyder, a center for the Atlanta Thrashers who died in a car accident at age 25. He was thrown from the Ferrari 360 Modena driven by his teammate Dany Heatley after hitting a wall.
The song was a reflection of the way teammates had to carry on after the loss: “hoping” that they’re not the type to dwell, “hoping” that they’re “fast healers”, not knowing how to express themselves (“less crying and more trying”) —
Given that it’s a tribute to Snyder, there should be no doubt that this is a hockey song, even though this line seems to mix references with football:
If and when we get into the endzone
Act like you have been there a thousand times before
I’m surprised, as a Toronto Make Belief fan, he wouldn’t say “If and when we get into the playoffs…” And I know the attack and defensive zones can be called end-zones in hockey, but “act like you’ve been there before” is what you usually hear when NFL’ers embarrass themselves with post-touchdown posturing.
Also, according to Wikipedia:
“Heaven Is a Better Place Today” doubles as a tribute to Dan Snyder, a player for the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team who died in an automobile accident nine months before the album’s release and, as Downie would reveal, for young men being sent to war.
Surprisingly, I can’t find a video or concert performance online… Complete lyrics:
Here’s a glue guy, performance god
A makeshift shrine, newly lain sod
Hardly even trying gives the nod
I sure hope I’m not the type to dwell
Hope I’m a fast healer fast as hell
Heaven is a better place today, because of this
But the world is just not the same
If and when we get into the endzone
Act like you’ve been there a thousand times before
Don’t blame don’t say people lose people all the time anymore.A toonie to the busker and a husky ‘keep it comin’ under my breath
But then said, ‘though, if you wouldn’t mind,
Less crying and more trying more trying and less crying’
I’m not the type to dwell
I’m a fast healer fast as hell
Heaven is a better place today because of this
But the world is just not the same
Oh if and – if and when we get into the endzone
Act like you’ve been there a thousand times before
Don’t blame don’t say people lose people all the time anymore.If and when we get into that endzone
Act like you’ve been there a thousand times before
Don’t change but don’t say people lose people all the time anymore.It’s just not the same because of this
It’s not the same
Discussion at SongMeanings.
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