List of things that have hit my head this weekend

1) Bob's ceiling on his stairwell
2) Some jerks stick last night in the hockey game
3) The ceiling in my car not too long ago :)

Been a tough week to be Justin's head.

End of the year post

Christine posted this a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to do this, so here we go...



WITH 2007 COMING TO AN END



1. Have you had any relationships this year? I was 18 days away from another "no" in this column, then something amazing happened....



2. Have you had your birthday yet? Yes



3. Kissed two people in the same night? yeah right (that's sarcasm...so.... no)



4. Been on a diet? actually less likley than 3



5. Pulled an all nighter? did a 17 hour poker session at Canterbury park (noon to 5am) a few weeks back (ended $25 to the good for all that work)



6. Drank Starbucks? no, if you think the gasoline cartel is smart, wait until the coffee people catch on. Then Starbucks will be even more expensive



7. Went Camping? Ha, no



8. Bought something(s)? Upgraded my late uncle's stereo, few other new apartment related pruchases.



9. Met someone special? yes.



10. Been out of state? Only to Western Wisconsin. I'm fairly sure I haven't gone further east than Onalaska, WI possibly West Salem, WI. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.



12. What are you thinking about? Enjoying my day off.



___________________________________________________________



HAVE YOU

1.) Hugged someone? Of course, my hugging arms are kind of slutty.



2.) Slept in someone elses bed? I slept on my brother Jordan's floor because I was too lazy to drive the 3 miles home on a couple nights. Also I've stayed at Bob's when visiting Winona.



3.) Got a job? Makin' copies, and I deliever mail, ship, recieve, and now data and billing entry has been added to my repritoire.



4.) Loaned out money? Yeah



5.) Gotten in a car accident? No, got a flat tire a few weeks back. and I had a flat last New Years Eve.



6.) Gone over your mobile phone bill? nah, I just click to pay it



7.) Been called a ####? actually we use perfect language toward one another in the Adult Hockey Association.... NOT!



8.) Done something you regret? Any regrets are temporary and can be rectified



__________________________________________________________

LAST :Last Person you hugged? Heather.



Last Person to call you? Bob.



When was the last time you felt stupid? Whenever I think of the 7 years it took to finish school.



What did you do today? Not much, then a lot of stuff. (it's still the mroning, but that's my prediction)



.___________________________________________________________TEN FACTS :



01. Hometown? Let's go with Cottage Grove, MN, but everyone knows this answer is always long in my case.



02. Natural hair color? Scalp.



03. Initials? JSJ



04. Hair style? Growing out what's left and covering it with a santa hat/hockey helmet until new years.



5. Eye color? Blue



06. Height:5'10", 170lbs (ding for all you fans of "The Dan Patrick Show")



07. Pets: None



08. Mood: happy



09. Where would you rather be: nowhere else

10. What was the last thing you drank? Water (that is like the boringst answer ever)

__________________________________________________________

TEN THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE:01. Have you ever been in love: Yes.



02. Do you believe in love? Yes.



03. Why did your LAST relationship fail? the fact that she broke up with me put a damper on it.



04. Have you ever been heartbroken: yes



05. Have you ever broken someone's heart: Yes



06. Have you ever fallen for your best friend? Sorry Matt, but no.



07. Have you ever loved someone but never told them? I'd actually say no to this one, it usually finds a way out.



08. Are you afraid of commitment? That may be a bit of an understatement



09. Have you had more than 5 different serious relationships in your life? I do claim 5 exes, how serious those were in retrospect is a matter of some conjecture



.___________________________________________________________



4 EMOTIONS



01. Are you missing someone right now? yes

02. (Christine must have lost #02)

03. Are you eating anything? No.

04. Do you like someone right now? yes.

On Yesterday's women's world cup match....

Little backgroud, for those of you who turn off sportscenter after the first 8 minutes.

Yesterday the U.S. Women's national team was blow out by Brazil 4-0 in the world cup Semifinals. Before the match it was announced that Regular goalkeeper Hope Solo was going to be benched in favor of 1999 world cup hero Brianna Scurry. Scurry gave up a few bad goals after which Solo said those are saves she would've made. Solo also was very critical of Coach Ryan's decision.

Normally such critizisms of a player and a coach seem quite unseemly (see Terrel Owens). However, the manager's decision was so poor in this I'm actually willing to defend Solo on this, however I still think it was wrong for Solo to throw Bri under the bus like that, I think her critisizims of Ryan are spot on. What follows in an excerpt from a post I made on the ESPN soccernet boards.

"Cleary, Ryan was the selfish one in all of this. The only reason to bench a keeper with 300 straight shutout minutes is because Ryan wanted to make the semifinal about him. Ryan wanted to make the shocking move that would prove brilliant when the U.S. beat Brazil. He wanted the glory, and this in part is fueled by his huberis that the U.S. can win regardless of who's back there. This blew up in his face, and Julie Foudy on the ESPN broadcast was absoulty right that if this plan was in the back of his mind, why didn't Scurry get a start in one of the first round matches?

A decision this horrible is a result of an ego-manical manager, that had 5 days to overthink this, and at the spur of the moment decided this could be his shot at glory, to do the unthinkable and hope it works out.

And what's so stupid about this is the underlying belief that U.S. were certain to beat Brazil no matter what. The rest of the world of women's soccer has caught up since 1999, and the U.S. were fortunate to outlast England in the quarters (in part due to fine Keeping by Solo, especially in the 1st half).

But when you look at it from this perspective, I don't really have a probelm with Solo calling Ryan out, especially if his motives were questionable. I agree with the OP that this is about the team, but Ryan put himself in front of the team. To make his mark, to get the good press, and it blew up collassaly."

NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN THE NFL POOL

Just a little reminder, if you want to make your NFL Picks you can still pick 6 of this weeks remaining 15 games. Most selections are due by 11.55a (5 minutes before the 12.00p games). Fill out the form at http://www.justinworldonline.com/nflpickem/.

NFL Pool is born...

justinworldonline.com is hosting the 2007 NFL Pick'em. Visit http://www.justinworldonline.com/nflpickem to enter!

"Superbad" The movie

I've seen promos for a new movie called "Superbad" coming out next week. I just get the feeling the reviews are pretty much going to write themselves on this one.

It's my birthday

I'm 25 today, thanks for asking, here are some August 4th random fact with famous people.

I share a birthday with Red Sox, Turned Blue Jay, turned Yankee, turned astro, turned Yankee again but only on a partial season basis pitcher Roger Clemens. He now starts his baseball season two months later than everyone else. Born in 1962 that makes him older than even Me.

On this day in 2001, Lorenzo Music passed away. Best known as the voice of Garfield in the long running cartoon series and prime time schedules. Early in his career he was a writer and production assistant on the Minneapolis-set "Mary Tyler Moore Show" This lead to his getting the role of "Carlton your doorman" on "Rhoda", where he never appeared on camera, but his distinctive voice made it's way into america's mainstream. It was shortly after that he voiced my favorite cat and it is still his voice I hear when I read the cartoon strip (now available on my facebook page every day!).

For other August 4th funfacts visit the day's wikipedia page (I know it's wiki so no guarantee of accuracy, but still): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_4

Before the good news get lost...

Wednesdays bridge collapse is one of those rare events that brings everyone together, where the whole community shares a sense of sadness, and we all do our best to support one another. While I think this helps us benefit each other, once people come together something horrible happens. Politicians try to tear it apart.

Before too long somehow this tradgedy is going to be politicized, and certain (and useless) political figures on the left and right are going to take cheap shots and blame each other for this finger pointing. This is what makes me sad about the political system in this country. Instead of being leaders, politicans think in terms of "how can I use this newfound community to further my carrer." In modern politics, politicans are nothing more than parasites that feed on those that elect them.

But before this happens, and now that the enormity of the tradgedy has set in I think it's important to remember much of the good news that came out of this.

1) Minneapolis Good Samaritans, those on the scene at the time of the crash in conjunction with emergency workers were very brave in trying to rescue as man people as possible. So special thanks to those citizens, in conjunction with the emergency responders, fire persons and even the police (it takes a lot to get me to praise a cop these days, but I must give credit here). Without they're bravery undoubtedly more people would've lost their lives..

2) Missing people, it seems the death toll isn't going to end up nearly as high as first speculated. As it seems most of the people that were deemed missing now are being accounted for. So it seems fewer people were trapped in the river than originally speculated. I know it's tough to consider this good news knowing people did lose their lives this way, but all things considered this could've been way worse than it's going to end up being.

3) MnDOT, while ultimatly this is the organization being set up to take the fall in this, they should get a little credit now for keeping our roadways moving during the past two days of rush out. Their good idea to turn MN-280 into a temporary expressway did a good job to get the usual I-35W commuters to I-94. While the highway is only 4 miles long (running from I-94 in St. Paul to MN-36 is Roseville, near the MN-36/I-35W interchange), and 3 miles were already freeway, turning the signals on the northernmost mile to green really made a difference. This thinking shows that while MnDOT is going to take at least some of the blame for this collapse they still are looking to help Minnesota commuters move forward.

Before too long we're going to face the ugly blame game as to what happened, and we look to find scapegoats, and not neccesairly because the targets are responsible, but because the targets are convienent politically. Before we have to deal with this, take a second to remember these examples of good things that came out of this.

It is the spirit of those brave people that day that give me hope for this society, I draw no such hope from the politicans that govern us.

A heavy heart today in the mini-apple

As many of you are well aware a great tradgedy has befallen the city of Minneapolis. Yesterday evening the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi collapsed into the river. So far only 4 deaths have been confirmed, however I would speculate they will find more once they dive in to search for the cars that are still believed in the river.

Considering the size of the bridge and how many cars possibly fell, I'm amazed at how many people have survived. It is nothing short of miraculous. However, I feel sorry for those who have lost their lives. The fact that there were lane closures on this bridge due to construction probably reduced the number of the cars that would otherwise be on the bridge in a typical rush hour. However some are speculating that the shifting of traffic to the outer edge during the closures may have contributed. We won't have answers to these questions for a very long time.

It's just shocking to me that something we take for granted is suddenly gone. There are several bridges over the river. I had last crossed this particular bridge about two weeks ago, traveling from on of my company's sites in Northeast Minneapolis to one near Uptown.

For the latest...

Minneapolis Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/

St. Paul Pioneer Press: http://www.twincities.com

Google News Search: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=I-35w+Bridge+Collapse+Minneapolis

I've been Simpsonized!

I visited the http://www.simpsonizeme.com/ website and uploaded a facebook photo and I look like this. I'm not sure how much like me this really looks, I'll let you guys be the judge. Anyway it's kind of fun, however I had to break facebook tradition and actually appear awake in this one. Oh well. Enjoy the movie this weekend.

Independence Day thoughts from Ronaldus Magnus.

"Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15."

-Pres. Ronald Reagan

Left, or Right, everyone have a great Independence Day!

Cher Barbie?

I hear there's a Cher Barbie out. I wonder if there's more plastic in the original Cher?

Matt Wins First Ever Playoff Pool!!

Here are the final Standings

O: Anaheim v. Ottawa - ANA wins 4-1

f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry
Rnk> Player: (Tot, R3+O)
(f) 1> Matt (200, 150+50)
(b) 2> Mom (187, 137+50)
(f) 3> Justin (148, 138+10)
(f) 4> Jen (139, 129+10)
(f) 5> Jered (97, 97+0)

Thank you to everyone who participated! Watch for our football pool this far!

Stanley Cup Playoff Pool - Round 4 Update

Okay, standings through 4 games of the finals

O: Anaheim v. Ottawa - ANA leads 3-1

Here are the standings,

f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry

Rnk> Player: (Tot, R3+O)
(f) 1> Matt (180, 150+30)
(b) 2> Mom (167, 137+30)
(f) 3> Justin (148, 138+10)
(f) 4> Jen (139, 129+10)
(f) 5> Jered (97, 97+0)

Another Nail in the Predators Coffin...

As I have been daily following the sudden sale of the Nashville Predators, a story just came out that I believe signals prospective owner Balsillie's intentions of moving the team to Canada. The CBC and TSN are reporting that Balsillie has re-activated a deal with the city of Hamilton that gives him exclusive right to negotiate a team for the area, and would give him greater control of the arena, (if you want more details CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2007/05/31/balsillie-hamilton.html, TSN: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=209447&hubname=nhl).

This is another news story that fits my theory.

1) Balsillie purchased the Preds with the intention of moving them (this has been pretty obvious to everyone after this is what likley blocked his acquisition of the Penguins).

2) The NHL is not as interested in protecting Nashville the way it did Pittsburgh.

3) Balsillie already knows the Board of Governors is going to back his move once he can terminate the Nashville lease. (I don't really know why the Preds fans are pinning their hopes on the sale being defeated)

now the fact that's he's got an arena deal in place lets me believe this....

4) I believe Balsillie is planning on breaking the lease with the city regardless of the attendance. Seriously there isn't the political pressure in Nashville for the city to support the team, the Preds fans (as good as they are, I won't resort to southern slander in this post, though there are anti-yankee people I met in North Carolina that would provoke me into it, but that's another topic) are in the minority. Can you imagine the political suicide it would be to buy up tickets for a billionaire owned sports franchise? Only the 14,000 or so that are attending games wouldn't kill them at the polls.

On the flip side, the non-hockey-loving majority would probably gladly take an extra $15-$20 Million settlement (read "bribe") on top of the exit fee to release the Preds from their lease, regardless of attendance figures (maybe as early as this summer as to avoid a lame duck season). This is the sad thing of it all. As much as the fan-base supports the team, the city doesn't, the big time music-companies don't, and the media doesn't, and I think that's been an obsticle in their growth.

What Balsillie's agreement does is open a possible place to park the Preds, either on a permanent basis, or until a new building can be built (remember that little 25 acre parcel in Cambridge).

5) Balsillie is planning on working with the Leafs and Sabres on a fee (again read "bribe") for infringing on their protected territory. Hamilton clearly lies within the 80km limit of both cities, but making a deal with the copps coliseum means he's willing to work something out, even if it's on a temporary basis (as one would assume it takes about 2 years to build a building). And perhaps Hamilton might become a permanent home, it is a larger metropolitan area than the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area. Remember with the Board of Governers (which is made up of one representatve from each team) has the power to approve any relocation or sale. In a revenue sharing era they are very motivated to ensure the success of as many franshises as possible (in other words it is in their best interest to approve any move that would turn a team from a revenue sharing drain to a contributor).

So if Balsillie is posturing to move the team to Hamilton, it may make it more appealing to the leafs when they land in cambrige. With my assumption that the BoG is already on board, if the long term plan is to land them in Cambridge, the BoG can nudge Toronto by saying "at least we're not letting them move to Hamilton" to make it a little more palatable.

...the bottom line is I believe everything the media is speculating on Basillie already has a plan for. My assumptions just make too much sense. The most likley way I could be wrong is assumption #2, meaning in fact BoG is interested in protecting Nashville, and is willing to kill this sale the same way they did the Pens sale. But I don't think Balsillie pays $220M for a frachise valued at $140M if he doesn't know the BoG is on board.

...one other good thing that comes of this is that this may be the first uprising of the BoG against Commisioner Bettman. That they are no longer rubberstamping his expansion/relocations desires as they were in the late 90s. They aren't buying the argumen that this non-trad hockey market invasion is necessary for league health. And that his current deal (reportedly 5 years longer) is his last, as they are starting to see the error of this overzealous, underreasearched, expanson fee grab that is the southern growth.

The expansions/relocations that were authorized before Bettman's term (Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Dallas, San Jose) have been quite succesful, note both south and north cities included, Florida being the only failue, and that's really only been realized in the last 3 or so years. Bettmans relocations/expansions Nasvhille, Atlanta, Phoenix, Carolina have been suspect at best. Denver was a success, and Minnesota and Columbus have been good (Minnesota's was obvious however). Bottom line, the BoG is no longer blinded by collecting the expansion fees, and no longer doing whatever Bettman wants. Nashville is just the first domino to fall, Atlanta and Phoenix (return of the Jets!!?) are not far behind if this deal goes through.

Back on topic, the only thing I see Keeping the Preds from Canada is if during a Baltimore Colts style move, the spirits of those midnight Mayflower vans overcome them and they accidentially land in Indianapolis.

(drawing this comparison to the Preds potential method of midnight moving, don't mistake this as supporing the NHL in Indy, they're too small).

Anaheim Ducks, unworthy finalist, bad for the "New NHL"

I feel I need to better explain my position that I think the Ducks are the dirtest team in the NHL.

The Ducks were the most penalized team in the league during the regular season, the Ducks' Teemu Selanne was caught using an illegal stick in the last week of the season (http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=270404025), the Ducks are the most suspended team in the playoffs. One of the aforementions suspensions involved an incident where Chris Pronger led a hit with his elbow against the Wings' Tomas Holsmtrom (http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=270515025). With the Ducks trailing 4-0, Rob Niedermeyer and pronger sandwiched Holmstrom against the boards, with Pronger's elbow flying. It doesn't get much cheaper than that, especially given the game situation. After the Pronger incidend Ducks GM Brian Burke (former NHL punishment czar and Canucks GM) had the nerve to spin it by saying if you look at it from an end view it wasn't that bad, however from any other it was ugly, including the referee standing feet away. How insulting is that.

This is completly different from the situation in 2003, the Ducks last trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. I thought they represent the West quite proudly. And Guigere v. Brodeur was a 7 game goaltenders' duel for the ages. Some people think I'm still sour about the Wild's first round exit at the hands of the Ducks, however I didn't feel that way after the Ducks swept the Wild in 2003, I definatly was willing to admit the Ducks were the better team then.

The Ducks are shaming everything the "New NHL" stands for, and there success is in fact bad for the leauge. Cause once GM's see something that works, they copy quickly, and all the work to get the dirty hits and clutch and grab style out of hockey may ultimatly be undone.

Stanley Cup Finals Preview

STANLEY CUP FINALS
Ottawa v. Anaheim

Let's start the Preview with how they got there. The Ottawa Senators finished the regular season red hot. They have dispatched the offenivsly loaded Pens, the defensivly loaded Devils, and the increadably deep Buffalo Sabres in 5 games each (12-3 overall in the playoffs). The Anaheim Ducks beat the suddenly offensivly dormant Minnesota Wild, the always offensivly dormant Vancouver Canucks, and the too old to go deep Detroit Red Wings. I don't know why the media are making the Anaheim Ducks the prohibitive favorites, the Senators 12-3 run is far more impressive.

The Senators we found out are as deep as the Sabres, this will prove valuable as the season goes on. The Anaheim Ducks are tough, they don't give much away, and Jean-Sebastein Guigure is playing like a goalie expecting a $7M/yr deal when he becomes a free agent this summer. Ottawa's Ray Emrey has seems to have improved as these playoffs go on, but he still gives away some adventurous rebounds, so far the D in front of him have been doing a great job of keeping them out of harms way, but the Ducks are tougher in front of the net than anyone the Sens have seen. Anaheim hits hard, and they play tougher defense than than anyone Ottawa has seen so far (New Jersey was capable of being this tough, but didn't show it at all against the Sens).
But Ottawa has more weapons and is capable of rolling 4 lines without giving up much talent, they are no slouches in their own end either, this is something Anaheim hasn't seen.
The question is will Ottawa continue to generate enough offense against the hard hitting Ducks, and can Emery help his team enough to keep them in close games.

This series will be a lot of back and forth, but I think it benefits the Sens the longer it goes.
I predict the Cup returns to Canada for the first time in 14 years.
Ottawa in 6.

NOTE: This was written before the start of game 1, but held out due to the closed ballot in our Stanley Cup playoff pool.

Stanley Cup Finals Predictions

Okay last round last chance, here it is!

STANLEY CUP FINAL
Series O: Anaheim v. Ottawa

Predictions are due by 6:30pm Monday (30 minutes before the start of game one). It is 10 points per game, so anyone can still win!

Winona Players: If you care to vote by closed ballot send a message to Bob Spencer on facebook. He will keep the selection secret until after the game starts.

Mpls Players: Please give your Pick to Jordan Jelinek, he will keep your selecton secret and report it when the game starts!

Good Luck!

Relocation Ramifications of the Predators sale

If as JW!O expects, the Preds do exercise the "cure clause" in their lease with Nashville this season, the Preds may be one year away from relocation. Prospective owner billionare Jim Basillie (who signed a letter of intent with current owner Craig Liepold to purchase the team for a reported $220M), tried to buy the Penguins earlier this year. However, that deal fell through because the leauge wanted to attach too many clauses that would make it tough to relocate the team if an arena deal could be reached. In essense the NHL kind of protected Pittsburgh by attatching too many conditions to the sale for Basillie's liking.

However, I believe Nashville will not enjoy such protection because it's fans have not been filling their building the way the Penguins had been, and this sale is more likley to be approved even with an understanding a relocation is possible to probable. The Predators still have a lease with Nashville, but my last post outlined how they can get out of that. So if we're down to one season in Nashville what can happen.

The speculation may surprise you. Most of it is that Basillie wants to move a team to Southern Ontario. Currently Ottawa and Toronto have NHL teams in Ontario and are the two largest metropolitan areas in the province. The third largest is Hamilton, with about 682,000 in the metropolitan area (which makes it about the size of the Quebec City, or Winnipeg metropolitan areas, Canadian Demographic info click here) Hamilton does already have an NHL-quality building in place, the 17,500 seat Copps Coliseum (currently home to the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs). However, Hamilton lies within a 50mi (80km) protected area of both the Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Which means these teams would likley have to be compensated to relinquish claims in order to put a team there.

One other idea is to put the team in the Kitchner, Ontario metropolitan area, one reason is that this area contains the city of Waterloo, Ontario which is home to Basillie's company Research In Motion. Also this area lies outside of Toronto's protected area, but still within 30-40 miles of Hamilton. (Trouble visualizing this? click on the map I made, using Google MyMaps feature) Also there is spec based on the fact that Basillie has purchased 25 acres in Waterloo, perhaps to build a new arena from the ground. However Kitcher is considerably smaller than Hamilton, and for this to work, one would speculate they'd be counting on drawing current Leafs fans from the Hamilton area.

If they go this route, the team would probably well served to call themselves the Ontario Predators (in the case they don't change the name), or South Ontario Predators instead of the Kitchner-Waterloo-Cambridge-Hamilton-London-Guelph-Brantford Predators.

The other ideas include a return of the NHL to Québec City or Winnipeg (The two largest Canadian cities without NHL teams). They already have a 15,000 seat arena (MTS Centre) ready in Winnipeg, however that may be too small for the NHL, especially since the Preds are already drawing 13,000 plus in Nashville. For that to work prices would have to be higher than average in Winnipeg (which is probably possible because Nashville prices are among the lowest in the league) to compensate and anything less than a sellout would be unacceptable. Québec City is in a similar situation, however their Colisée Pepsi (formerly the Colisée de Québec, the home of the Québec Nordiques until 1995 when they moved to Denver), is much older and doesn't enjoy the club and luxury seating of Winnipeg's MTSC.

If the team is to stay in the States Kansas City has to remain the front runner. It was their offer for the Penguins that ultimatley forced the city to improve their arena offer. Kansas City has a beautiful new building (Sprint Center) with no anchor tenant. There is some sentiment to return to Hartford, but honestly I believe that has more to do with the wishes of Bristol, CT based ESPN than anything. Also there has been speculation on Houston, Seattle, and Portland, and even Vegas,as viable NHL cities (see their demographic info here).

Why I bring this long list of cities up? Because I believe the relocation of the Predators is just the beginning. The Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers, and Phoenix Coyotes should also be candidates to move once they see how the Preds have improved their situation.

These are the recent relocations and expansions under Commisioner Gary Bettman, these relocations/expansions were rushed, and based on population data alone, but not about how marketbale hockey is to these populations bases. This is why these relocations/expansions have not worked out as well as say San Jose, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, and Dallas (kills me to admit it, but the stars did succede in a post Bloomington world, though not nearly as well as the Wild are doing now, buisness-wise). However, all of these happened BEFORE Bettman, and would apper better thought out than Bettman's team moves/additions. I'm not even trying to make this a North-South thing, there are some so called "southern" teams that have done quiet well on the Pre-Bettman list.

Bettman's expansions/relocations have been motivated by demographic research that only factored in the size of a market (athough that wouldn't appear to be the case for Raleigh/Durham as the 40th TV market in the US), and not the demand for NHL hockey there. Which is why attendance has just been poor in these areas. I believe the expansions were motivated by millions in fees paid to the current owners, but underestimated the potential long term damage to the league. Under Bettman, only Minnesota and Columbus are expansions/relocations that have long term success, Carolina and Anaheim are starting to come around.

Teams are failing more than Gary wants to let on, and we're going to see teams need to move to stay healthy. Hopefully they get it right, cause the instability is bad for the game, but in these 4 cases (Nashville, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Florida) absolutly necessary. The Preds sale will prove to be the first domino to topple.

Original TSN Story: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=208743&hubname=nhl

Nashville Predators sold

Thursday the blogosphere was rocked with news of the sale of the Nashville Predators to Research in Motion CEO Jim Basillie. This has fueled speculation as to whether the team will relocate. Basillie attempted to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this year, but the league attached too many restrictions to the sale for it approval, namley making it nearly impossible for Basillie to relocate the team.

Basillie's company is famous for the development of the BlackBerry device, and is based in Waterloo, Ontario. The spec is that with the Preds struggling (average attendance 13,815 about 2,000 below the leauge average according to this ESPN.com story, Basillie is buying the team planning to move them to this area of Canada. Further speculation is fueled by the report he acquired more than 25 acres of land in Waterloo, potentially to build a new arena from the ground up.

The Nashville Predators have a "Major League" (as in the 1989 film about a fictional Cleveland Indians team facing the same problem) type clause in their lease, where if the attendance drops below a certain level, the team may leave the city (which operates the Sommet Center, that just signed a new naming rights deal). Since last years attendance was below 14,000 the team may exercise a "cure clause," essentially giving the city 1 year notice that if attendance doesn't climb above 14,000 per game the lease terminate upon payment of an "exit fee" and they are free to move. This also give the city the opportunity to make up the difference if they decided to keep the team in Nashville.

The "cure clause" has to be activiated withitin 30 days of the end of the season. This means the Middle of June as the Preds played their last game in the first round being eliminated by San Jose. This means current owner, Wisconsin buisnessman Craig Leopold, has to make this decision as the sale won't be finialized until the end of June after the leauge has had a chance to improve it.

Comment...

It is my belief that the clause will be exercised. It is also my belief that there is no desire on the part of the city to exercise their bail-out option. So the "cure season" will be on in 2007-2008, and it can go a few ways.

First, it can go the movie route, where they tank to ensure they don't sell tickets. The lopsided Petr Forsberg trade lends some credence to this theory. The Preds sent most of their prospects to Philadelphia to acquire Forsberg, he was rather ineffective with the Preds and there seems to be little believe that Nashville plans to re sign him. (In the mean time one of the players that became a Flyer in this trade, Scottie Upshall, has already re-uped with Philly).

Second, Basillie may try to save the team. If he goes that route, he will instantly have raised the value of the franchise if he can get attendance raised. The Preds have potential for about a 30% increase in ticket sales (from 14K to capacity of over 18K) and the incidentals that go with that. It is widley speculated that his motives are to move the team, but he's a buisness man, and won't sneeze at this instant profit realization if it's possible.

Third, if we have really already seen the maximum support the Preds are going to get from the Nashville community, it really won't matter either way. What gives this theory credence is the Predators have been among the leagues elite (not just above average, but eliete). The Preds had the 3rd best record in the NHL last regular season. There misfortune in part has been being drawn into the Central with Detroit (though this has provided an actual rivalry between the do), they've had record good enough for division titles, but always behind Detroit. Also they have drawn San Jose twice in the playoffs, and the Sharks are a great playoff team, leading them to first round exits. Still this is a team that's good enough for better support than 13K per game, and that just hasn't been realized here.

My feeling is we're in case 3, there isn't pressure on the government to lift the team to keep them, which means a "Save the Preds" type of drive may not be effective. While we are talking about 200 fans per game however, however if the government isn't feeling the pressure, there are probably not enough fas that will, and they're won't be the same "farewell tour" feeling as there was with the North Stars in their final dates, or the Penguins until they were saved on the final week of this season.

This is now too long for one post, I will speculate on the relocation ramifications of this sale in the next one...

Stanley Cup Playoff Pool - Round 3

Okay, sorry this has taken me so long following the conclusion of Round 3, but here are the standings, featuring a new leader.

M: Buffalo v. Ottawa - OTW wins 4-1
N: Detroit v. Anaheim - ANA wins 4-2
(f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry

Rnk> Player: (Tot, R2+M+N)

(f) 2> Matt (150, 100+25+20)
(f) 1> Justin (138, 123+5+10)
(b) 3> Mom (137, 107+5+25)
(f) 4> Jen (129, 94+25+10)
(f) 5> Jered (97, 97+0+0)

At 10 points per game in the finals it's still anybody's pool. The series Begins on Monday between Buffalo and Anaheim. I'll post the series post tommorow, and I will figure a way to do a secret ballot if necessary.

Stanley Cup Playoff Pool, Round 3 Update

Okay here are the Standings so far for round 3.

M: Buffalo v. Ottawa - OTW leads 3-1
N: Detroit v. Anaheim - Tied 2-2

f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry
Rnk> Player: (Tot, R2+M+N)
(f) 1> Justin (138, 123+5+10)
(f) 2> Matt (125, 100+15+10)
(b) 3> Mom (122, 107+5+10)
(f) 4> Jen (119, 94+15+10)
(f) 5> Jered (97, 97+0+0)

Matt and Jen are gaining ground, largly due to Ottawa's crushing of Buffalo so far, if the Sabres don't make it closer there could be some lead changes. And remember it's 10pts/game in the finals so it's gonna be close.

J the TV Critic (fall schedule and other randomness edition)

NBC released their fall schedule today, I'm thrilled that "The Office" and "1 v. 100" will be back next fall.

Speculating on the other networks, I really hope I haven't seen the last episode of "How I met Your Mother" on CBS tonight. This is the smartest show on TV. And the story is getting really good. The ratings started this season strong, but trailed off a bit in the second half of the season. For my other CBS favorite "Two and a half men" it seems to be a lock to be renewed.

If you agree with me on HIMYM click here: http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_thanks.shtml, if you don't well you just hate the awesome things in life.

Fox, announced they'll be bringing back the Brad Garrett comedy "'Til Death"! I'm happy about that. I really would like to see more "The War at Home" (the first so called "irreverant" comedy I've ever loved), but they seem to be up in the air about that. Of course my favorite cartoons, "The Simpsons" (I am sick to death of "Simpsons" haters just because the show has been on for 18 years, it's still got it, and it's still better than 90% of of what's on TV.) and "Family Guy" are both signed through 2008-09.

Oh and in what's new news, ABC debut's "National Bingo Night" on Friday. Bingo? On TV? Yeah not gonna work, this is such a bad idea. I guess I shouldn'tve been too suprised to find out that Kmart is one of the major sponsors ($10,000 GIFT CARD grand prize, woo hoo!). It now occurs to me I don't watch anything on ABC anyway now.

Oh this is weird, in former big TV star news, I came across this trailer for a Dreamworks animated film called "Bee Movie" (http://www.beemovie.com/). No doubt trying to catch some of the same fire as "Madagascar" (which starred Chris Rock and David Schwimmer among others). But I must admit Seinfeld starring in a movie like this is quite surprising. In the Q & A during his "I'm telling you for the last time" perfomance, he admits he doesn't like the idea of being in a movie, saying, "If you're watching a bad movie, it's two hours, if you're in a bad movie, its like two years....I'm afraid I'd be the one on screen looking at the audience like 'this sucks, doesn't it'". I hope the movie's good, but my first impression is something doesn't seem right.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/nationalbingonight/index?pn=prizes

On a meloncoly note, Bob Barker is saying goodbye soon, he as a "Price Is Right Million Dollar Spectactular" on CBS Wednesday night. I'll be sure to catch that.

Other info from:

http://www.thefutoncritic.com
http://www.tv.com

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL
#1 Buffalo v. #4 Ottawa

This could prove to be the best series of the entire playoffs, both teams are rather similar, and arguably the two best teams in the league. They both boast good offenses, and young but capable goaltenders. The Sabres defense has become better in the playoffs, and that helped them stay in games where the offense dissapeared against the New York Rangers. The Sabres however dissapeared in games 2 through 5 in the Rangers series, and they simply can't afford to do that against Ottawa. Ottawa was every bit as stifling to New Jersey as they were against Pittsburgh. I have to give a slight edge to Ryan Miller in goal for the Sabres, he's been a little more consistent, and Ray Emery seems to be fighting pucks, and giving too many rebounds away. However the Sens D has helped secure these rebounds to minimize their effect. This one will be close, but I will stick with the Sabres.

Buffalo in 7

WESTERN CONFERENCE
#1 Detroit v. #2 Anaheim

I keep thinking Detroit is too old to go deep in the playoffs, and they keep proving me wrong. San Jose wasn't the same after losing Game 4 in the final seconds and overtime. For the Ducks they boast a great defense, but anyone can stifle the offensive-dead Vancouver Canucks. Detroit controls the puck well and will be a different look. It'll be close, and getting anthing past Guigre will be tough. But I like the Wings to be back to the final for the first time in 5 years.

Detroit in 7

Stanley Cup Playoff Pool Round 3

The Conference Finals are set! Here are the matchups, make your picks.

Eastern Conference Finals
Series M: #1 Buffalo v. #4 Ottawa

Western Conference Finals
Series N: #1 Detroit v. #2 Anaheim

For the Schedule...
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=304243

Picks are due Thursday by 5:30pm CT (30 minutes before the start of Game 1 of Ottawa v. Buffalo). Remeber each time your team wins it's worth 5 points, plus a 5 point bonus if your team wins the series. Good luck!

Stanley Cup Playoff Pool, Round 2 Final

Round Two of the pool is over. Here are the results:

Series I: BUF v. NYR - BUF 4-2
Series J: NJ v. OTW - OTW 4-1
Series K: DET v. SJ - DET 4-2
Series L: ANA v. VAN - ANA 4-1

(f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry
Rnk> Player: (Tot, R1+I+J+K+L)
(f) 1> Justin (123, 72+15+15+6+15)
(b) 2> Mom (107, 56+15+15+6+15)
(f) 3> Matt (100, 64+15+3+15+3)
(f) 4> Jered (97, 46+15+15+6+15)
(f) 5> Jen (94, 58+15+3+15+3)

Conference Finals are set, we'll be playing for 5 points per game in Round 3, and 10 points per game in the final, so plenty of time left :). I'll put the matchups in the next post, make your picks there :)!

NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Pool - Round 2 Standings

Okay here are the first standings of Round 2. Matt and Jen made the same picks, and I, Jered and Mom also made the same picks, but different from Matt and Jen.

Series I: BUF v. NYR - BUF 2-1
Series J: NJ v. OTV - OTW 2-1
Series K: DET v. SJ - SJ 2-1
Series L: ANA v. VAN - ANA 2-1

(f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry
Rnk> Player: (Tot, R1+I+J+K+L)
(f) 1> Justin (96, 72+6+6+6+6)
(b) 2> Mom (80, 56+6+6+6+6)
(f) 3> Matt (79, 64+6+3+3+3)
(f) 4> Jen (73, 58+6+3+3+3)
(f) 5> Jered (70, 46+6+6+6+6)

I'm way ahead, all the rest of you are getting closer :)!

NHL Conference Semifinals Preview

Eastern Conference Semifinals

#1 Buffalo v. #6 New York Rangers

Buffalo took good care of the spunky team from Long Island. Now the best team in the NHL moves the act to the New York team that plays Broadway. Both teams are well rested, the Sabres winning in 5 and the hot Rangers winning in 4. The Rangers Sean Avery was talking a little trash this week about how they're going to hit Buffalo harder every time. I think this is a little premature on his part. The Rangers cruised past Atlanta, but Buffalo is leaps and bouds better. It should be a good series, and the Rangers should put up a fight, but the Sabres are just too deep for the Rangers.

Buffalo in 6

#2 New Jersey v. #4 Ottawa

I think the Lighting exposed some vunerabilities in New Jersey. If Martin Brodeur isn't solid, we can see that the Devils D can be beaten by the likes of Tampa Bay Forwards. Enter the Ottawa Senators with threats of 4 scoring lines, and a team that held the best rookies in the leauge off the board in the first round. If the Devils win this series it will be becasue Brodeur outplayed Emery, but I don't think Brodeur can do enough.

Ottawa in 6

Western Conference Semifinals

#1 Detroit v. #5 San Jose

So Detroit outlasted Calgary in 2 ots to win game six and send the flames home for the summer, despite being beat up. The Sharks are 3 lines deep and made good work of the Predators. However, this is not the Matchup the Sharks wanted, they were certainly rooting to get Vancouver or Anaheim (had a lower seed than them advanced). However the Red Wings got bead up pretty good in their series, and the Sharks boast a great offense and good goaltending.

Sharks in 6

#2 Anaheim v. #3 Vancouver

Two teams I hate, the Ducks just userped the 'nucks for the top spot on the teams I hate board. But the Ducks play great defense which will spell disaster for a Vancouver offense that went missing for two games in the Stars series. Unless the refs give Vancouver the same kind of treatment the Ducks got in their opening round, this will be over pretty quick for Vancouver, I'm not holding my breath for them.

Ducks in 5.

Stanley Cup Playoff Pool - Conference Semifinals and Standings

Okay sorry I was away this weekend and there's little time to make your picks, so here are the round 2 matchups, leave a comment on this post to make your selections

Eastern Conference
I: #1 Buffalo v. #6 New York Rangers
J: #2 New Jersey v. #4 Ottawa

Western Conference
K: #1 Detroit v. #5 San Jose
L: #2 Anaheim v. #3 Vancouver

Selections are due at 5:30pm CT, as the rounds first game, NY Rangers at Buffalo is tonight at 6pm. Each game the selected team wins earns 3 points and a 3 point bonus if the selected team wins there series, so there's a total of 60 possible in this round, good luck. (note: look for my preview and picks at about 3:00pm).

Here are the final Round 1 Standings

(Rnk>, player, Total, A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H)
1> (f) Justin, (72,10+10+10+10+10+2+10+10)
2> (f) Matt, (64, 10+10+10+10+10+2+10+2)
3> (f) Jen, (58, 10+10+10+10+4+2+10+2)
4> (b) Mom, (56, 10+10+10+2+10+2+10+2)
5> (f) Jered, (46, 10+10+0+2+10+2+10+2)

Ben and Nicole

I just wanted to write a quick congratulations to Ben Nelson and Nicole Van Tassel for their wedding on Saturday, 21 April 2007 in Monticello, MN. I was honored to be a guest at this ceremony. I've known Ben since I was a Mass Comm Student, and I met Nicole once they started going out. I also served with Nicole for two years on UPAC (one on her activities committee, and one when she was director). I have the best wishes for them both.

Wild Affirmation

Superstision in pre-mature hubirus be damned. I'm on the Wild comeback bandwagon, and inspiration struck me to write a parody to the tune of Savage Garden's Affirmation...

"Wild Affirmation"
New Lyrics by Justin Jelinek

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe a fight should only end at Derek Boogaard's hands
I believe Chris Pronger's on the ice whines like a little child
I believe that Ducks need to be hunted in the Minnesota Wild
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe Wes Walz playing with ten stiches makes good fans scream

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe we need appreciate the grit of our Brent Burns
I believe they're no better than the Wild on the other side
I believe we'll fight to the end and then they'll want to hide.

I believe we'll soon find out why the Ducks are not so mighty
I believe they crossed the blueline 'round the State of Hockey
I believe that hell hath no fury like a Lemaire Scorned
I believe that Nick-y-B's a calming awesome force in goal
I believe the struggle with bias referees is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree breathe West Coast air.

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe we need appreciate the grit of our Brent Burns
I believe they're no better than the Wild on the other side
I believe we'll fight to the end and then they'll want to hide.

I believe Rolston and Bouchard bring the Wild happiness
I believe God endorse Gabs and Pav joined they impress
I believe we will find a way to come back and beat the Ducks
I believe that Teemu and Brad May are worthless cheating f**ks.

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe we need appreciate the grit of our Brent Burns
I believe they're no better than the Wild on the other side
I believe we'll fight to the end and then they'll want to hide.
..........

I wrote this in about two hours.

NHL Pool Standings

The leader came down to the night's last game, but San Jose just defeated Nashville, so I am going to update the standings through Wednesday's games

A: BUF v. NYI (BUF lead 3-1)
B: NJ v. TBY (Tied at 2-2)
C: ATL v. NYR (NYR win 4-0)
D: OTW v. PIT (OTW lead 3-1)
E: DET v. CGY (DET lead 2-1)
F: ANA v. MIN (ANA lead 3-1)
G: VAN v. DAL (VAN lead 3-1)
H: SJ v. NSH (SJ lead 3-1)

(f)-facebook (b)-blogspot

Rnk> Player: (Tot, A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H)
(f) 1> Justin (42, 6+2+10+6+4+2+6+6)
(f) 2> Matt (40, 6+2+10+6+4+2+6+4)
(f) 4> Jen (38, 6+2+10+6+2+2+6+4)
(b) 3> Mom (36, 6+2+10+2+4+2+6+4)
(f) 5> Jered (26, 6+2+0+2+4+2+6+4)

Comments...

I'm leading mostly because I'm the only person to take San Jose, and Jered is so far behind only because he was the only one to take Atlanta (that sweep is gonna hurt). Jered and Mom stand to gain some points back if Pittsburgh should mount a comeback, otherwise the top of the table looks destined to be jammed. Next round it's 3 points per game, this round will be over on Monday, which is when I'll make my next update.

-J

Pool Results (through Su, 15 Apr 07)

Okay here are the first standings, I will try and update the standings following games on Sundays and Wednesdays throughout the playoffs.

Series A: BUF v. NYI- Tied 1-1
Series B: NJ v. TBY - Tied 1-1
Series C: ATL v. NYR - NYR 2-0
Series D: OTW v. PIT - OTW 2-1
Series E: DET v. CGY - DET 2-0
Series F: ANA v. MIN - ANA 3-0
Series G: VAN v. DAL - DAL 2-1
Series H: NSH v. SJ - Tied 1-1

(f)-facebook entry, (b)- blogspot entry

Rnk> Player: (Tot, A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H)
(f) T1> Justin (20, 2+2+4+4+4+0+2+2)
(f) T1> Matt (20, 2+2+4+4+4+0+2+2)
(b) 3> Mom (18, 2+2+4+2+4+0+2+2)
(f) 4> Jen (16, 2+2+4+4+0+0+2+2)
(f) 5> Jered (14, 2+2+0+2+4+0+2+2)

All right I will try and do the next update after Wednesdays results.

NHL Playoffs Preview... Conf. Quarters...

EASTERN CONFERENCE
(#1) Buffalo v. (#8) New York Islanders
The big question mark for the Islanders is how far can they go without Goaltender Rick DiPietro. They have won their last 4 games for their dramatic playoff push (beating Toronto by 1 point for the final spot). The Sabres didn't end their season that great, but they had the first seed in the East locked up. I think Buffalo is the pick to win the Stanley Cup, and I think that they're depth and speed is eventually going to overwhelm the Isles. But I've got a feeling the boys from Uniondale aren't going to go down too easily.

Buffalo in 6

(#2) New Jersey v. (#7) Tampa Bay
The Bolts are not even a shadow of the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2004. New Jersey boasts the best defense in the Eastern Conference and until further notice, the best goaltender in the league in Martin Brodeur. Now a lot of people believe that the Devils are due for some bad Karma after firing Julien in the last week of the season for his Atlantic division championship effort this season. Regardless of who's behind the bench, the Devs are destined to beat the Bolts. Tampa Bay simply can't generate the offense it'll take to down the Devils, and mistakes in their own end will probably tip them out. There will be some close games, but Jersey will win 4 of them pretty quick.

New Jersey in 5

(#3) Atlanta v. (#6) New York Rangers
Congratulations to Atlanta on their first playoff appearance in their 9 seasons of existence. However, I have to believe the experience of the New York Rangers is going to win out here. The Thrash did add Keith Thachuck after the St. Louis fire sale, but for veterans, they just can't compare to the Broadway Blueshirts Jager, Avery, and others. King Henrik is still young between the posts, but we know what he's capable holding teams to very few goals, I think the Rangers are still motivated by their late seasons collapse last year and they realize a minor upset of the Thrash is within reach.

New York Rangers in 6

(#4) Ottawa v. (#5) Pittsburgh
This is going to be the most competitive of the 8 series. The Senators have not had any playoff sucess since losing that tough eastern conference final to the Devils in 2003. But Sens are a deep team and they've been every bit as hot as the Penguins. The Penguins have a ton of firepower and boast scoring champion Sidney Crosby in just his sophomore season. However there are indeed questions on the back end for the Penguins and I think the youth of this team is going to show more than the desiders of the media that want the Pens to go deep. The Pens will be a condentder for many years to come, but they drew an unfortunate first round matchup with the Sens.

Ottawa in 7

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(#1) Detroit v. (#8) Calgary
To say the Red Wings have been succesful in the post season in recent years is quite an overstatement. They have not one a playoff series since lifting the cup in 2002, and they've been favorites in each instance. However, the Red Wings have drawn the one team that has no shot of winning the Western Conference. The two chances the Flames have are if age catches up with the Red Wings yet again, and if they have troubles between the net (Hasek's injury and Osgood's inconsistency) but aside from that, the Red Wings play very well as a team in both ends. This is the year they do away with the first round choke-monster.

Detroit in 5

(#2) Anaheim v. (#7) Minnesota
HOMER ALERT! We know who I'm gonna take here, so I'm just going focus on making the rather unlikley case. This series will also be close, almost as close as the Ottawa-Pittsburgh tilt. The teams split 2-2 in the regular season. It was in Anaheim where Marian Gaborik got hurt, and that has somewhat been attributed to their poor ice conditions. So that's a little scary. However the Wild are the only team in the playoffs that boast 3 legitamate scoring lines, which will play off toward the end of this series. The biggest caveat is if the Wild will face the Jean-Sebastian Giguere (expected to return from his family medical issues) that just the team out for 3 straight games in 2003. However the Ducks have more waddled into the playoffs, and have had trouble winning games that were important to their Pacific Division title (however, they did finally beat Columbus to get there). On the Other hand the Wild have won their last three straight (albiet against Edmonton and St. Louis who aren't going to the playoffs) I think the Wild have the depth to beat Ducks, though this is Goaltenter Niklas Backstrom's first Stanley Cup playoffs, he doesn't seem to have the fragile mindset that dooms other young goaltenders in their first series'.

Minnesota in 6

(#3) Vancouver v. (#6) Dallas

The Vancouver Canucks should thank the Florida Panthers for Goaltender Roberto Luango. Bertuzzi for Luango is the most lopsided trade since Boston sent Joe Thorton to San Jose for....who?...I forgot. Luango has carried this team to the Northwest crown with stellar play. On the other side, Dallas Goaltender Marty Turco has been marrred by playoff woes. In the end I think the Canucks play better defensivly, and whether it's Turco's fault or not, the Stars are probably going down.

Vancouver in 6

(#4) Nashville v. (#5) San Jose
This is also going to be a very tight series. The I did dub the Sharks the most improved team at the trade deadline. Their acquisition of Bill Guerin (also from the aformentioned Blues Firesale), and made them extremly deep in terms of forwards (almost as much as the Wild). If they get good goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov or Vesa Toskala, they will be tough to beat. Nashville made headlines at the deadline by acquiring Petr Forsberg from the Flyers. It remains to be seen how much impact he's really going to have. The Preds gave up a lot for him (in fact they did most of the Flyers rebuilding work for them in this deal). I just have to like the Sharks here.

San Jose in 6.

REST OF BRACKET (subject to change for the purposes of my pool)...

WESTERN CONFERENCE
*Minnesota over Detroit (in 6)
*San Jose over Vancouver (in 4)
San Jose over Minnesota (in 6)

EASTERN CONFERENCE
*Buffalo over New York Rangers (in 5)
*Ottawa over New Jersey (in 7)
Buffalo over ottawa (in 7)

STANLEY CUP FINALS
Buffalo over San Jose (in 5)

*Note: The top seed remaining after the conference quarterfinal is always paired with the bottom seed remaining in the conference semifinals. And the other two teams are paired in the other Semifinal

----
Editor's note: This blog was posted at about 8pm ct, 2 hours after the start of the Buffalo and Ottawa game, however I assure this was completed earlier in the afternoon about 3pm. -J

Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim at Cleveland Indians of Milwaukee

Since Cleveland is getting snowed in something fierce, the Indians decided to move their upcoming series with the Anaheim Angels to Miller Park in Milwaukee

http://www.shepherd-express.com/1bloglistingsbody.lasso?-token.blogref=1804.112112&-token.specificitem=2229.113121&-token.feedbackexpand=Y

Can't believe there aren't more "Major League" References going around (epecially because today is the day the "Wild Thing" special edition of the DVD came out). Since the movie that featured the Cleveland Indians was in fact shot in county stadium, weird huh? Anyway Ms. Hasse is the only columnist I found that picked up on this, way to go!

Justin's Stanley Cup Playoff Pool

Okay the playoffs start Wednesday, make your picks for who will win each of the 8 playoff series'. For each game your teams win you will get 2 points, if your team wins the series you will get a 2 point bonus for a total of 10. There are 8 series so 80 points are possible, leave your picks in the comments section.

Eastern Conference:
#1 Buffalo v. #8 New York Islanders
#2 New Jersey v. #7 Tampa Bay
#3 Atlanta v. #6 New York Rangers
#4 Ottawa v. #5 Pittsburgh

Western Conference:
#1 Detroit v. #8 Calgary
#2 Anaheim v. #7 Minnesota
#3 Vancouver v. #6 Dallas
#4 Nashville v. #5 San Jose

Picks are due by 5:30pm CT on Wed, 11 April (30 minutes prior to the start of the first game between Ottawa and Pittsburgh, For the full playoff schedule: http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=298698)

Future rounds (Per game, series possible, total round possible)
Conference Semifinals (3, 15, 60)
Conference Finals (5, 25, 50)
Stanley Cup Finals (10, 50, 50)
Overall Total Possible: 240

Also look for my series predictions on Wednesday.

Last Day of the Season Thoughts

The Wild play their final game of the regular season tonight in St. Paul against the St. Louis Blues. The Wild are flying after back to back wins over Edmonton (though the once mighty oil are a pathetic 1-17-1 since trading Ryan Smith away, and cleary have been mailing it in since).

Tonight's game against the Blues actually will prove a decent test. As the Blues have gotten considerably better since the trade deadline, they will be a force next season, but it's too little too late for them this year. The Wild need to stay focused, and put forth their best effort, which Coach Lemaire says he hasn't seen this week.

Playoff implications... The Wild have already clinched their playoff spot this year, they still have an outside shot at the Northwest division title, but they will need a lot of help. The Wild Can finish with 104 points with a win in their finale tonight. The Northwest leading Vancouver Canucks have 103 and two games remaining. This afternoon at San Jose (3pm CT) and tommorow evening at Calgary (9pm CT). Coupled with a victory tonight, the Wild would need Vancouver to gain one point or fewer in these two games. The Wild would lose the tiebreaker at 103 because they would've won fewer games than the Canucks (45 to 46), but would win the tiebreaker at 104 because they would have identical records (48-26-8), but the Wild have the better head to head record against the Canucks (12 points to 8).

Lou Lamarillo Fires coach and gutless NHL commentators

New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamarillo fired head coach Claude Juilen this morning. Julien was in his first season as the Devils' Head coach, the team has 102 points with 3 games reamaing, leading the Atlantic division and in 2nd place (behind only Buffalo) in the NHL's eastern conference. Lamirillo is going behind the bench for the remainder of the season. He did something similar in 2000 firing Peter Ftorek and replacing him with Larry Robinson with 8 games remaining. The Devils did go on to win the Stanley Cup. However Robison resigned in december of last season citing personal reasons (though now I have to question how voluntary that resignation was), Lamarillo took over as head coach and the 6th seeded devils "upset" the slumping New York Rangers in the first round.

Now I think this is a pretty stupid thing to do with the playoffs starting next week. The Devils are the best defensive team in the Eastern Conference (giving up just 2.47 goals/game). The team has been injury ridden, that had a rather rough March, they were temporarily passed by the hot Pittsburgh Penguins in the Atlantic division race. The Devils have had to battle through injuries to key players like Eilas and Gomez, I just don't know what Juilen did to deserve this, nor do I get what Lamarillo is hoping to gain.

Now I just watched the Versus 1st intermission show with Keith Jones, Brian Engblom, and Bill Clement, and for whatever reason they're defending Lamarillo in this. He is the longest tenured GM in the league, having been with the club since 1987, and they keep saying "he's such a hockey guy he must know what he's doing" and echoes to that effect are popping up all over the 'net. First off all he did was upset a slumping Rangers team last season when he took over as coach, that being the only playoff series they've won since raising the cup in 2003. I just don't know why he gets a pass for being so stupid. And that it seems not one columnist has come out to challege this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=2823081

If you look closley as this article by ESPN.com columnist Scotty Burnside, he hints that since he won a playoff series over the Rangers last year this move would be considered a success if he can repeat that in this years playoffs. Well anyone that knows hockey well can see plain as day the Eastern Conference playoffs are basically Buffalo, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, and 5 scrubs (maybe I'll give Ottawa some love as a dark horse). But as long as Jersey avoids these teams in the first round (which a #2 team should do, if they finished 4th they would draw Ottawa). there's no way they were going to lose.

I think Lamirillo is just trying to make this about him (see Kobe running Shaq out of town and the success of Miami and the medeocracy of LA since), and he's goign to win an easy playoff series and claim victory, which will make it tough for columnists to take shots at him. Well I think they're all gutless, you know what they're doing in New Jersey is wrong, and I'm not afraid to say it (although I don't have the readership of ESPN.com, I'll admit it). If these team doesn't get to the East finals, this has to be considered a failure, and if they shoudl be beaten by some Eastern conference scrub in the first round, oh should Lamarillo pay for this in terms of being able to hire serious candidates in the future. As for being scared to critisize this and giving Lamirillo a pass, I think the NHL media should all be ashamed, I'm calling all of you out Jones, Burnside, Clement, Engblom.

This one speaks for itself....

http://www.twincities.com/soucheray/ci_5534545?nclick_check=1

All I'll add is it seems to me the Democrats are acting like drama queens for no good reason, they're going to have their protests, with the encouragement of the great city of St. Paul. But for whatever reason they always like to take the posture of the viticm, I just don't get it.

OT in the NFL

The owners are actually considering a change in the overtime format for this coming season after reviewing a study that shows that teams winning the coin toss won 62% of the overtime games last season. The proposal (that was ultimatly defeated) was to move the kickoff in overtime back to the 35 yard line (where it was before the 1994 season for all kickoffs). I think this proposal misses the point, I have the best idea, I offer it to the NFL free of charge.

It's clear that winning the coin toss before overtime offers too much of an advantage since they can win on the first possession on a field goal. I have they answer, they should play one more period and they should play to 7 points. So if a game is tied 27-27 after regulation, the first team to 34 would win the game, if neither team scores 7 points in the OT then the result at the end of the period stands (whoever leads wins, if it's tied its a tie).

This offers the elements of sudden death that any touchdown (with an extra point, talk about a high pressure kick) would end the game. However the days of getting a good return, and pushing the ball 30 yards to FG range and kicking on 3rd down would be over. Teams could still kick field goals under my proposal, but then they would also have to play defense. What this creates is the situration that a team wins and the game ends on any touchdown (a good element of sudden death), but teams can't lose games by simply giving up a field goal (unless it's 3 FG in one quarter, which would be very rare, but I think an okay result for an automatic victory), which I think are the two things fans are missing from the current strict sudden death games.

A couple downsides, there might be a few more ties if teams trade even field goals though overtime (downside only because for whatever reason American Sports Fans reject the tie as a result for whatever reason), I think that'll probably be the difference of a tie every 6 years or so now to a tie every 4 years. The other thing is that more overtimes would be longer and would probably have to go closer to 10-15 minutes to produce a touchdown instead of the 3 mintues the one drive games go (those are still possible if they end in TDs). This might make CBS mad because they have to push back "60 Minutes", Fox probably wouldn't care as they schedule the whole hour until 8et for "The OT" their postgame show so they wouldn't have much problem if the game were to run long.

I think this is a simple enough plan that offers the best of all sides, it would play more like 4th quarter football, than the quick current full sudden death game. I know there's football fans that read this, what are your thoughts.

Wild in great spirits, despite contraversal streak-ending loss..

Last night the Wild lost a scoreless tie in a 2 round shootout to the Calgary Flames. There was contraversy in the 1st period after an apparant goal on a Mark Parrish tip was called back because it was played by a high stick. There really haven't been any clear replays as to why this was called back, this is the only one that's shown it's even possible that Parrish played the puck with a high stick. (http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=201845&hubname=nhl, click highlights under "Related info"). All the other views seem to support it should've counted, but in a post game interview even Parrish conceded the call was close, but given the replays I don't see how the refs found a way to call this goal back.

That wasn't the only source of contraversy, Calgary couldn't stay on their feet, and Referees Justin St. Pierre and Marc Joanette saw fit to reward this diving behavior with pathetic penalties on Kim Johnssonn and Brent Burns. Meanwhile Calgary got away with more holding the sticks than I could count.

Despite all of this, based on what was written in the papers it seems the team is farily content with the result. They did play very well, and the regulation tie was enough to put them in the playoffs after Colorado's loss to Vancouver about an hour later. The Wild haven't been beaten in Regulation in 10 straight games and they rematch the Flames on Thursday night.

http://www.twincities.com/wild/ci_5536099

Fighting in the NHL

This past month has been a terrible month for injuries and suspensions in the NHL. There have been a lot of fights and suspensions, so this will be a pretty link heavy post as I am going to give my take on a few incidents and the video will be available to you to make your own judgements and comments.

#1) Ottawa at Buffalo, 22 Feb 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYqPZhlL4Jo

I thought the Senators' Neil hit was late on the Sabres' Drury, probably should've been penalised, I wouldn't say it was vicious enough to warrant a suspension, and I think the Sabres had a reasonable response. But I don't think Neil was completly blamless, it certainly wasn't clean, and he did have the elbow up (though its tough to tell if that's how he struck Drury). Though Sabres' goaltender Martin Biron (now with Philadelphia) was quite outmatched by Senators' goaltender Ray Emery. The teams played again two nights later, they did have a couple minor incidents, but nothing that relates to this video.

#2) New York Rangers at New York Islanders, 8 Mar 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dHzSzexrb0

(Note: To see this in real time, you need to watch the upper right side of your screen, as the camera pans right, if you miss it there are replays).

I think this was disgraceful and the NHL needed to punish Chris Simon. I think they did okay giving him the longest suspension in NHL history (because the Bertuzzi penalty in 2004, three years to the day incidentally, had no teeth because he was suspended one year but it was during the lockout). He got the remainder of the season with a mininum total of 25 games (the balance the Islanders don't play will be carried into the start of next year) which I think is okay, but I think 30-40 would've been better. Still short of the Bertuzzi incident, I think this is the worst in NHL history to use the stick as the weapon. Simon certainly could've fought the Rangers Hollweg if he thought the hit was dirty (though I don't even think that's the case). But there's no reason ever to swing your stick at player blinsiding him.

#3) Dallas at Nashville, 17 Mar 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upeLPWApt6w

(Note: The camera didn't catch this incident live, the first replay is at about :50 that caught it clearly.)

The commentary on this incident has infuriated me to know end. The common sentiment is that this was a dirty hit by Tootoo on Robidas (though there are some execptions NBC's Brett Hull, and Versus' Bill Clement among others), they completly ignore why this video is so damning for Robidas. After Tootoo hits Modano, Robidas skated over, and was going to charge Tootoo and hit him from behind, he is leading with is hands up, all Tootoo did was see him coming and preempt Robidas with a punch of his own. Tootoo got 5 games for this which I think is outrageously long. The fact is no one out there is speculating on how horrible an incident this would've been had Tootoo not known Robidas was coming. Again Robidas is skating toward Tootoo, while Tootoo is still facing the boards, Robidas has about a 20 foot head start as he's charing Tootoo, Robidas is planning to blindside Tootoo, and everyone is coming to Robidas defense only because he's the one that got hurt. Five games for Tootoo is outrageous the only two reasons there could be a suspesions is that Tootoo didn't drop the gloves and hitting Robidas with the glove on is worse than not (though honestly one wonders if he even had the time to do so), and secondly Tootoo did hit Robidas in the head and the NHL is starting to crack down on the head shots. I think a 1-2 game suspension woudl've been more appropriate, and if Robidas wasn't stopped by Tootoo's preemtion, I wonder how long Robidas would've got. But with Tootoo's suspension, the NHL is probably overreacting to the Simon incident, though this is completly different, Holleweg had no intention of engaging Simon after the hit in question, it's obvious Robidas was going to blind-side Tootoo (in a sense by hurting Robidas, Tootoo probably saved Robidas from a suspesion. Side note, Modano certainly should've been penalized for a slash on Tootoo's back after Tootoo laid out Robidas.

#4) Philadelphia at New York Rangers, 21 Mar 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enj_6Br9gQQ

This was just unfortunate that the Rangers' Colton Orr was able to knockout the Flyers' Todd Fedoruk with the one punch. Fedoruk will likley miss the season at this point, however, he has caused some injuries on the Rangers earlier this season, and even managed to run afoul of the Wild's Derek Boogaard earlier this season. I don't believe the NHL has taken any action, nor should they on this incident, it had a violent ending, but is was a consenual fight, the men were facing one another, no one broadsided the other. Though it is bad that Fedoruk was taken off in a stretcher.

Final thoughts, I believe Fighting very much has a place in the NHL. It's the late hits in #1 that the referee needs to punish, and the cheap shots as in #2 the NHL needs to work to eliminate. In #3 Tootoo was defending himself and should've been let off easier because of that, and in #4 it was a fight wiht an unfortunate ending, but I don't think anyone was really at fight for starting this particular incident. But this is one fans thougts, I'd like to hear comments from others.

J the TV Critic (Game Show Edition)

The game show's have been making a comeback this year.

"1 v. 100" (NBC, on hiatus) - This is a great show (the format has been knocked off of Europe, surprise, surpise) A single contestant faces a mob of 100 people and they all have to answer multiple choice questions. When the player answers correctly he or she eliminates the members of the mob that are incorrect, and wins money for each player eliminated. If a player eliminates all 100 he or she wins $1 million.

Hosted by Bob Saget, he has the right personality for this one. He's certainly not "Danny Tanner", he's a little edgier in this show and not afraid to needle the mob members that miss questions. This is one to watch, too bad the show's last episode aired last week and is on hiatus, but I hope this one is brought back. 4 of 5

"Identity" (NBC, Friday 7c) - Giving a game show to Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) was a stroke of brilliance. He is so right as a game show host, he's funny, and he has quite a dominating stage presense. The object is for a player to judge 12 contestants based on their appearance and match each one to a series of Identities. The game itself I think has problems that hurt the show. I think it moves too slow, the players spend too much time talking out what eventually comes down to judgemental instincts. It's not like the logic patterns that put the drama in "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". I just don't think this one has staying power, but for the love of God, when this one is over, find another show for Penn! (Maybe Ben Stein's old producers could reformat for a little of win "Penn and Teller's Money", okay not the best Idea, but I'm trying to help). 2 of 5.

"Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader" (Fox, Thursday 7c) - This one is great. You'll be a little confused if you watch this assuming the 5th graders on the panel and the contestant have an adversarial relationship (a la "1 v. 100"). The contestent picks one of 5 students from a panel and they both answer questions from grade levels 1 through 5. The brilliance of this show is in the "cheats". This is how the students can help the contestant though a "peek", a "copy" (ah the classics) or a "save". By the way, Jeff Foxworthy a great game show host?, who knew. But he's just right, the man who describes being a redneck as simply "lacking a certain sophisication", is still playing the role of being not so bright, yet he isn't afraid to needle a contestant struggling with a 1st grade question. There is so much more I could write on how good this show is, but I'll leave it here. 5 of 5.

"Deal or No Deal" (NBC, Monday 7c) - I hate to blow the lid off of this one since it's such a big hit, but I find this show too simplistic. The constestant picks one suitcase from 26 at random that has an amount of money in it. Then the constestant finds out how much is in there by deduction, opening the cases that aren't selected. As the amounts are eliminated, there is a banker that is trying to buy the case from the player sight unseen based on the possible amounts remaining. If the player sells the game is over, but the player may hang on to the case until the end and win what's in there.

If you know about statistics, you've probably figured this one out. The case the constestant has picked has an expected value of the average of the remaining amounts. The bank never offers the expected value, so players that are selling are usually slightly the worst of it (though my brother Jordan, who has watch this show more than me and is better versed in stats than me, says the bank has on occiation made an offer that's in fact positive EV). So the only game is to see recognize if the bank is offering you a deal that's better than your case's EV, or if the risk is so far below the bank offer that's is worth taking slighty the worst of it to avoid a big loss. The latter question is the very human element of this show, the source of the drama, and I suppose the reason its a hit. It just doesn't do it for me. 2 of 5.

JustinWorld! Online, The Latest...

Those of you who have given up on every reading my justinworldonline.com page, I don't blame you. It's been dormant for a nearly a year. I don't think I designed my page very well, also I think I planned on including way more content than I could handle at the time. Also I am finding the godaddy.com web hosting a little difficult (but hey it's free).

To address one of the issues, I have started a blogspot.com blog with my gmail account which will replace the free blog account from godaddy.com. I found that difficult to use as well, it's tough to navigate godaddy functions once you've logged in imo, and the blog wouldn't show comments on the particular entries, which I found annoying. My blogspot.com blog (available at http://justinworldonline.blogspot.com/) will address all of those issues.

Also, using and Atom feed I will set this up to feed my Facebook notes (this is in fact a test for that), and eventually this will feed a new justinworld.com homepage. So hopefully this will help me better manage my online presence.