The only downside to the lockout ending was that I had to come back to the realization that Lidstrom is still retired.... and that the Wings replaced him with Carlo Coliaccovo.
Zetterberg is the new captain of the Wings. I'd say having been groomed for the position by Steve Yzerman and then Nick Lidstrom is a pretty good way to learn the ropes.
I'm not having much luck so far this year with sporting events. My tickets for game 5 of the Tigers/Yankees ALCS got washed away (almost literally) when game 4 was rained out and cancelled, delaying game 5... and then the Tigers swept them anyway. Plans for an NFL roadtrip were put on hold for the ball game and have since fallen through, and my tickets and hotel room for the NHL Winter Classic ended up having as much value as an apple on Halloween.
Speaking of Halloween, there was a report that a kid in London found a razor blade in a candy. Once they find the guy who did it they should hand him over to the kid's father, with no time-line or consequences for the father.
Egg nog and clamato juice... no use for either of them without booze being involved.
A good waste of a few minutes each day is the "Top Shelf" on www.mandatory.com. Pretty funny stuff.
I watched The Hunger Games and it was good, but I still don't understand how a weird movie like that had such huge mainstream success. Maybe there are more nerds out there than we think.
I was at 2 Christmas parties that had that stupid fireplace tv channel playing ..... the tv's were on the wall ... above a real fireplace.
I like this commercial with Tiger and Rory....
So the Raps signed DeRozan to a 4 year extension earlier this season. I think he's a good player and he has improved every year with the team, but is he the answer as the "scoring wingman"? If he's not your all star and the go-to guy at the end of the game, then that means Bargnani has to be and that might not work out so well.
Breakfast Pitas might be the best food on earth... and one helluva great hangover meal.
New Year's Eve party was a lot of fun, but I could have cared less for the actual countdown at midnight. It just seemed to interrupt every one's conversation and forced lots of unnecessary handshakes and hugs. Also, Times Square in New York seems like my worst nightmare.
I can't believe I'm about to say this but I think Phil Kessel and Brian Burke get a raw deal. Why do people hate Phil Kessel so much? It's because he's dumb right? If you are expecting him to be Johnathan Toews or Pavel Datsyuk you are in trouble, but if you expect him to be what he is - a consistent 30+ goal scorer (at the age of 26), then what's the problem? Tell me how many players scored at least 30 goals in 4 of their first 6 seasons? I don't know either but it's a short list. As for Burke, I think people forget how badly buggered up the Leafs system was when he took over from JFJ. NO prospects, draft picks, cap room, decent roster players. Nothing. That takes time to fix. Not every move Burke made was great, but he did make quite a few good ones (including a couple that involved getting rid of some of the bad moves - see Francois Beauchemin), not to mention their farm system is in good shape now and they have lots of cap room. I guess all of that was trumped by being a big jerk-bag.
Stick it in your ear: Eddie's Rush by Ultimate Spinach.
You gotta love Duck Dynasty. I know it's mostly scripted or staged but it's still funny. I can't help but talk like them after watching it for a while. Hey, it's just good stuff, Jack!
I think you should be allowed to throw people out of your way when you are Christmas shopping.
What's next Anthopolous? Gonna slash beer prices at the Dome 50% this season too? Wow, what an offseason! I mentioned a year ago that the Jays needed to make a big move to take advantage of the MVP type seasons that Bautista has been having. Well they have definitely done that and I really like how they made it happen. Yes, it sucks to give up d'Arnaud and even Syndegaard, but well worth the risk in my opinion. Those guys are great prospects - but they are still just prospects. There was a time when it would have seemed crazy to trade Alex Rios, Travis Snider, Brett Cecil, Dustin McGowan and even Russ Adams when they were all top gems in the Jays farm system. The point is prospects are risks as well and the timing and price for acquiring Dickey is well worth it in my opinion. If they had hung on to all of their prospects and waited for them to turn into stars, then the window for Bautista and other veterans would have closed. With all the change to the Jays lineup, what does it do to guys like Romero, Lawrie, Arencibia and Rasmus now that they basically have no pressure to carry the load? Either way, I can't wait for the season to start.
A cool app to get for your iphone or ipod is Songza. It's free and offers tons of playlists to stream for any occasion, mood or music style. Looks like a lot of fun to play with and I have already found a couple new tunes with it.
How many people woke up January 1st and decided to postpone their New Year's resolutions until at least January 2nd?
Too bad the World Jr's were in Russia this year. I love watching that tournament every year, but you're drunk if you think I was gonna get up at 4am to watch any of the round-robin games... unless I'm still up at 4am, but then I would be the drunk one.
Once Canada got smoked by the US and had to play for Bronze it might as well have been for 10th place.
Why is it called a "round-robin" anyway? Who is robin?
I have always been up before the kids on Christmas morning and had to wait for them. Well my kids took care of that streak in fine fashion this year... 1st one in at 4am, 2nd one at 5am and then we finally gave in at 6:30am.
"Hey, that not-winter, but not-nice weather was great!" - signed nobody.
I wonder if people are ready to give up on Colby Rasmus because they don't believe he has the talent or because he's weird?
This Zeppelin interview on Letterman is really cool, but I have no interest in the new Celebration Day box set. Every song on there is one I have already heard an older live version of and from the original album, so to pay just to hear how they sound at age 63 doesn't seem very enticing.
Did anyone else think Dave Nonis looked like he just $hit his pants when he was being introduced as the Leafs new GM?
Here is something I haven't been able to say in almost 20 years: The Jays may have just as good of a chance to make the playoffs as the Red Wings.
Ugly sweater parties are underrated and funny.
Cheers,
Bonesminded
