This morning came the news that former NHLer Bob Probert died suddenly yesterday at age 45. Well, maybe not entirely suddenly - Bob seemed to have been working on dying for most of his life. ( I think Mitch Albom summed up Probert much better than I could. )

Followed a vehicle home much of the way today. This fellow must have issues. His license plate is USA Hockey sponsored tags (I had no idea MD issued those; may have to look into that) and his license plate frame was...Montreal Canadiens.

One or the other dude. You can't have both.

What was that, Capitals? Seriously, WTF? The best team in the regular season and it wasn't even close? Dominating all season long against all comers? Prohibitive favorite for the Cup?

Eliminated in the first round by an 8 seed that barely made the playoffs.

Again, WTF?

My original plan for today was sleeping in and going to a charity hockey game where some of the ex-Capitals I used to know were playing. Instead, spent most of the day shopping for a sofa. We think we found one, but we'll see - in the store it was the perfect shade of green, but fortunately for us, the store manager let us take swatches home. In ( Read more... )

According to the early ratings returns, 80% of Canadians watched the Canada/US gold medal hockey game Sunday. Let me say that again: 80%. You couldn't get 80% of Americans to agree the sky is blue, much less watch the same TV program.

Wow.

Interesting that both the men's and women's hockey finished in the same order (Canada/USA/Finland). But I'm not sure whether or not I'm happy about the men's gold medal game. The final second tie-up and OT were exciting as heck, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have preferred that Canada won it in regulation so that the game wouldn't be won by Sidney ( Read more... )

Normally, I don't root for the US teams in sports. I don't care for the mentality in the USA that only the Americans count. But in the case of ice hockey, it's the Canadians who make me feel that way. The attitude that if they put together a team of All-Star NHL players they should be given a gold medal without actually playing galls me no end. So ( Read more... )

Something new to make me feel old. The retirement of NHL goaltender Olaf Kolzig ( Read more... )

But apparently the Caps didn't need me in red last night. Ovechkin and Varlamov handled everything just fine, thanks. And dueling hat tricks. Nice game.

Although, Crosby complaining about people throwing hats after a hat trick? Huh? Yo, traditionalists, your golden boy just trashed one of your most cherished traditions.

Had two biggies today - went with the only red shirt I could find for the Caps/Pens game and nearly had a few heart attacks watching. I suspect the Caps' defense is going to be thoroughly ripped by the coaching staff tonight. But not half so much as the Pens' D will be. Awesome save by Varlamov on Crosby. Most happy with the end result as well ( Read more... )