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Girardi and Del Zotto Taunt Caps Fan

Eric — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:50:43 +0000

Oh, Caps fans. You’re such lovely human beings. From the way you bang on the glass every time the puck comes near. To the way you wouldn’t know to chant, “Let’s go Caps!” without some douche with a horn signaling you to do it.

How about this guy giving the Rangers the finger as they celebrate Gaborik’s overtime goal?

Wait, what’s that? Oh look! Dan Girardi is wishing the guy a good night while Del Zotto lets him know who’s number one!

I hope you guys enjoyed the game last night. At least those of you that stuck around to watch it.

FUCK YEAH, GABBY!

Eric — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:53:22 +0000

My posts have been all youtube videos lately but I DON’T CARE. That was the most awesome thing ever.

Taking on the Experts 2012 – Conference Semifinals

Eric — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:58:13 +0000

It’s day seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and I’ve finally figured it was time to put up the picks of all the “Experts.” I mean, I already posted our picks the other day, but why bother with searching on ESPN, Yahoo! Sports and Puck Daddy to see what their picks were? You can do so right here when we attempt our:

Here’s how it works. Throughout the playoffs, we will be predicting the winners of each series and comparing our picks to those of the experts around the sporting world.

Here are our predictions for the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Series	Eric	Marc	Aaron	Rory
#1 Rangers vs. #Capitals	Rangers in 6	Rangers in 6	Rangers in 7	Rangers in 6
#5 Flyers vs. #6 Devils	Flyers in 6	Devils in 6	Flyers in 5	Flyers in 7
#2 Blues vs. #8 Kings	Kings in 7	Blues in 7	Blues in 6	Kings in 6
#3 Coyotes vs. #4 Predators	Predators in 5	Predators in 6	Predators in 6	Predators in 5

ESPN Expert Picks:

Suck it, Paul Grant!

Yahoo! Sports Expert Picks:

You can also find the Puck Daddy writers’ picks by clicking here.

I will keep standings based on how many correct picks each expert makes. For each correct pick, the expert will receive two standings points. If the expert correctly guesses the winner AND the number of games the series lasts, they will get one additional point.

But Eric, doesn’t that mean there will be a magical third point that is given out sometimes and not others?

Yes, but if it works for the NHL, it works for us.

The standings will be updated as each series is completed.

Unfortunately this year, I have decided not to accept reader submissions. It is just too much work for me to add you all to the standings.

Let’s Get Pumped

Eric — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:56:06 +0000

Ahead of game one today at The Garden, here are a few songs heard at MSG throughout the years.

That Was AMAAAZIIIING!!!!!!!

Eric — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:41:06 +0000

Just got back from game seven. That was:

High five!

Taking on the Experts 2012 – Conference Quarter Finals

Eric — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:17:26 +0000

Here’s how it works. Throughout the playoffs, we will be predicting the winners of each series and comparing our picks to those of the experts around the sporting world.

Here are our predictions for the First round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Series	Eric	Marc	Aaron	Rory
#1 Rangers vs. #8 Senators	Rangers in 5	Rangers in 5	Rangers in 6	Rangers
#2 Bruins vs. #7 Capitals	Bruins in 6	Bruins in 7	Bruins in 6	Bruins
#3 Panthers vs. #6 Devils	Devils in 5	Devils in 6	Panthers in 7	Devils
#4 Penguins vs. #5 Flyers	Flyers in 5	Penguins in 6	Flyers in 7	Penguins
#1 Canucks vs. #8 Kings	Canucks in 6	Canucks in 6	Kings in 7	Canucks
#2 Blues vs. #7 Sharks	Blues in 4	Blues in 7	Blues in 6	Blues
#3 Coyotes vs. #6 Blackhawks	Coyotes in 7	Blackhawks in 6	Coyotes in 7	Blackhakws
#4 Predators vs. #5 Red Wings	Predators in 6	Red Wings in 7	Predators in 6	Predators

ESPN Expert Picks:

Gone this season are Matt Barnaby E.J. Hradek. New to the club are Craig Custance, Paul Grant (who picked the Senators, that douche!), Joe McDonald, James Murphy, Jesse Rogers, and Katie Strang.

Yahoo! Sports Expert Picks:

Yahoo! writers not joining the party this year are Ross McKeon and Matt Romig.

You can also find the Puck Daddy writers’ picks by clicking here.

But Eric, doesn’t that mean there will be a magical third point that is given out sometimes and not others?

Yes, but if it works for the NHL, it works for us.

The standings will be updated as each series is completed.

Unfortunately this year, I have decided not to accept reader submissions. It is just too much work for me to add you all to the standings.

I Assure You We’re Open!

Eric — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 05:41:30 +0000

It certainly has been a while, huh?

Well it’s not like I don’t have an excuse. I’ve been incredibly lazy! Actually, I decided to change my major at school and wanted to focus more on my school work than I had in the past. This may come as a surprise to many, but when your favorite team is playing well it becomes harder to write critically about them.

Aaron, since his trip to the World Junior Championship, has been travelling the world! Currently, he’s studying abroad in Germany. All I have to say about that is that I’m pretty sure that I did college completely wrong.

Marc is a lawyer so he’s always incredibly busy.

Rory, is Rory.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was the get our playoff picks out there for all to see. Yes, I know, you’ve been dying to see them. And yes. I’m sorry it took me so long to post them. I promise that these picks were all submitted before the playoffs started.

Eric:
Rangers in 5
Bruins in 6
Devils in 5
Flyers in 5
Canucks in 6
Blues in 4
Coyotes in 7
Predators in 6

Marc:
Rangers in 5
Bruins in 7
Devils in 6
Penguins in 6
Canucks in 6
Blues in 7
Blackhawks in 6
Red Wings in 7

Aaron:
Rangers in 6
Bruins in 6
Panthers in 7
Flyers in 7
Kings in 7
Blues in 6
Coyotes in 7
Predators in 6

Rory:
Rangers
Bruins
Devils
Penguins
Canucks
Blues
Blackhawks
Predators

In the coming days I’ll post the picks for ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, and Puck Daddy. As always, you can keep up with the Expert Picks Standings by clicking here or by clicking on “‘Expert’ Picks Standings” at the very top of the page.

Side Note: This year I decided not to include anyone else in this because it’s just too much work for me to collect all the picks and compile the standings for over 35 people.

Behind the Scenes at the World Junior Championship Part 2

Aaron — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:21:06 +0000

Welcome to Part 2 of Aaron’s adventure as a volunteer at the World Juniors in Calgary. Part one can be found here. Team Canada has just arrived and as usual they are in the semifinals, and Finland has delayed their choke job game and moved past 5th place. Good for them. I think.

It’s hard to not stop and stare when the members of Team Canada enter the ream. Every single member of the team has been drafted, save for one but he is draft eligible in 2012 and is going to be a top 10 pick, and Hockey Canada makes sure they command an audience. By that I mean their first appearance in Calgary was no in a game, but rather in a short 45 minute media scrum. These scrums are when members of the media gather to ask players questions and usually it is one giant, controlled clusterfuck. Media personnel are every where trying to get the quotes they need, demanding that certain players face their wrath, and trying to get the perfect camera shot of them.

It’s our job to make the that their requests are honored, every last one of them. It’s amazing that in the era of blogging how many accredited members of the media there are. It seems everyone and their mother is trying to cover this tournament. And god forbid they don’t get their interviews. I don’t mean that sarcastically, I learned rather quickly that it’s a pain in the ass dealing with scorned media members.

Back to Team Canada. Their arrival in Calgary with Finland and the Czech Republic marks the beginning of the medal round: aka the games that mean something. That means that most of the media personnel that was covering Canada in Edmonton has ventured down to Calgary. AKA, my job just got a hell of a lot more interesting and I actually have to do it.

For the first stage of the tournament we just had to manage the press box (make sure they didn’t run out of popcorn and soda) and take interview requests. Now that Canada is here, we needed to label every seat of the main pressbox, the overflow press box, and the four auxiliary press boxes. This is for the assigned seats that we didn’t need to enforce during the first group phase. There simply weren’t enough reporters to have to care. Now we have to make sure members of the non-canadian media (yeah it’s really funny how that works) aren’t sitting in the main pressbox because they have been assigned to the auxiliaries.

On top of now babysitting the media, we need to continually make sure everything is going smoothly in all the press boxes, and then make sure all media personnel are taking care of for the postgame conferences, which just got a hell of a lot harder to manage. Being down there it is cool to interact with players (I give them head nods and they respond!), but you forget how cutthroat journalists are. Every cameraman is trying to get a shot of them coming out of the lockerroom (sorry thats for TSN only, you guys aren’t cool), and when you tell them to stop they barely listen to you. Thank god for my awesome gold vest (except its poofy and ugly as fuck), which means they have to listen to me because I was training to do this job (I really wasn’t because I’m from out of town but THEY DON’T KNOW SO SHHHHH).

I didn’t even have to bear the brunt of the media clusterfuck today. I worked the first relegation game (Denmark almost won!), and the first quarterfinal game (ok I stayed in the media lounge not in the Saddledome to watch the Winter Classic), so I did not have to deal with the media at Canada’s first official practice. Apparently guys were sneaking on to the bench in the practice arena to get quotes!

Overall, I’ve had a fucking blast here and can’t believe the tournament is over in 3 days. Part of me doesn’t want to leave, because I don’t have to deal with anything in my normal life, but then I remember how damn expensive everything is here and my wallet hurts. The being able to drink legally is a nice touch, but I an keep being used to that due to me going abroad next semester. Yes I will still be watching the Rangers and being around so stop fretting. Just needed to get that out of the way.

Well I’m working almost every game left in the tournament except one semifinal and one relegation game, so expect part 3 to be a media orgasm, slash hockey amazing adventure. Go Sweden, and may you read this while enjoying the best College Football in the land. Remember, they are all secretly paid, and Andrew Luck is better than everyone in the world (including you). HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!

Behind the Scenes at the 2012 World Junior Championships Part 1

Aaron — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:34:53 +0000

This is a three part feature that will be running at 5-hole as a behind the scenes look at the World Juniors. I am currently a volunteer at the tournament, and basically the only out of towner from the United States. Part 2 will run after Canada’s first practice at Calgary, and Part 3 will cover the Medal Round. No I cannot tell you why the US Team sucks and if Sven Bartschi will play in Switzerland’s next game. Go away.

Starting Boxing day every year the nation of Canada shuts down for about 10 days. The reason why? The annual World Junior Hockey Championships. Every year the best 10 teams of U20 players in the world, usually the next generation of NHL stars, gather to compete to see which country has the best crop of young players. Basically its pretty much a huge fucking deal in Canada, while the rest of the world just hopes to knock them off and play some good hockey.

Being one of the 10 people in the United States who actually knows about this awesome tournament, I naturally applied for a ticket package. Yes, you had to apply for a ticket package. For the 2011 tournament in Buffalo, I bought a package in October 3 months before the games, booked a hotel, and got to watch a lot of awesome hockey. For Calgary/Edmonton I didn’t even win the opportunity to attempt to purchase a ticket package. Apparently over 100,000 people applied for packages, which is just insane.

Facing a World Juniors-less Winter Break, I naturally did what anyone would do: apply to be a volunteer. Yes, I was willing to schlep my New jersey born ass up to Calgary or Edmonton, Alberta just so I could watch some 19 year olds play hockey. Personal Note: I am well aware this is basically the reason I don’t have a girlfriend now. I guess I used the right buzzwords or something because a few months later I got an email from Hockey Canada saying that I was on the Media Ops team for Calgary! Woo! Hockey Winter Break alone in Calgary Accomplished!

After a tedious registration process, in which the government of Canada kept denying a background check for me, I booked my flight and hotel with about a week to go. Seriously, I handled this all wrong and almost didn’t even get to go because of my stupidity. A few days before the tournament, I flew out to Calgary and explored the city. That was fun, then on Boxing day it was time to start volunteering! Problem is, I had no orientation, no uniform, and had to take a taxi out to my first shift! Disorganization aside, its been awesome learning what I’ve been doing on the job because I lucked into an awesome volunteering position here.

The job of our team is essentially to cater to the media and facilitate them in anything they need. We make sure everyone is in the right seats in the press box, the press box is stocked with their usual amenities, figure out what interview requests they have, make sure the requested players show up for interviews, and help the media cover practices. Our job is to be in the press box for the games, and as it has been pretty quiet so far (Canada is still in Edmonton while I am in Calgary) we basically get to watch all the games in the pressbox when we are not at the practice facility. I never want to watch a hockey game anywhere else. Hey Eric can you work on getting accreditation for us? Awesome, thanks.

When we are not being the media’s bitch at games, we help make sure the media is not doing anything dumb at practices (its very hard when they are open), and that their interview requests are taken into consideration. Overall its been really cool being behind the scenes. I’ll have more fun stuff to talk about when Canada arrives, but as for now it hasn’t been that crazy and I am just enjoying the tournament. Stay tuned for part 2, and um I got nothing on the USA. We blow.

Rangers Roundtable Christmas Eve Edition!

Aaron — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:09:02 +0000

As the Rangers head into the Christmas break, It was my turn to ask the questions for our Rangers roundtable! Sorry this is a few days late, but I am actually in Calgary! I’ll be Volunteering for the World Juniors this year instead of being a spectator and as usual I will be posting about it on 5-hole. Get pumped. Here are the questions:

1. 3 of our projected top 6 defensemen are now out. Is it time to make a move for a veteran defensemen? Should we just hope that Erixon or Bickel can fill a temporary void? Can Wade Redden be called up (kidding, but not)? Does this team need tinkering?

Aaron: I don’t think Slats needs to make a huge trade for a defensemen. A nice solid back end guy will replace Eminger. Don’t trade away the pieces that are vital, if we can move someone like Fedotenko, Christensen, Avery, etc for a nice 5th defensemen and only lose like a 5th+ round pick, do it Slats.

Eric: Make that 4. Apparently Jeff Woywitka is injured now. Tim Erixon was just recalled after being sent back down. Does Scott Niedermayer feel like playing some games on the cheap? Luckily, Marc Staal is no longer wearing a no-contact jersey in practice. He’s close.

David: Now it’s four, but with Staal appearing to be on his way back, I think they can weather the storm for a week or so before they make any serious moves. Any trade they make will be a stopgap move though, so expect more of the Woywitka/Stralman types if moves are made.

Marc: The defense will be OK as long as Dan Girardi-Ripken is in the game. I’m really really excited about Staal coming back because the defense has already exceeded the (admittedly, low) expectations I had for them this year.

2. The Rangers got really, really lucky against Phoenix this past game. What noise did you make when you first see the puck go in?

Aaron: I screamed so loud I woke up my entire house.

Eric: I think I said “Holy shit!” like Bluto in Animal House after they give the horse a heart attack. I actually happened to be watching the game with a buddy of mine who had never watched hockey before. He thought that was pretty cool too. At first he had no idea what was going on though.

David: I couldn’t watch the game. Life happens sometimes.

Marc: Hate to say that I wasn’t watching live. But I echo Sam Rosen when he said, “And this one is going to overti–WHOA THE PUCK WENT IN”

3. Brad Richards: best offseason signing or best signing since the Lockout?

Aaron: Best offseason signing. Tied with Gaborik for best since the Lockout.

Eric: He’s pretty good, but the greatest offseason signing is “The People’s Champ,” Aaron Voros.

Personal note: Aaron Voros was a horrible, horrible hockey player, but will always hold a special place in my heart from being 2 goals away in his first season in NY from making a guy on Rangerland forums drink dog urine. Good times.

David: Best offseason signing. Best signing since the lockout is Biron.

Marc: I say Brad Richards is the best Rangers free agent signing that I can remember (off the top of my head, thinking for 18 seconds). He is a game-changer.
4. How is it that the Rangers are better at converting on 5 on 4s than 5 on 3s? We have a two man advantage!

Aaron: Stop sliding the puck across the crease and get the puck in the net! During the PPs we are shuffling the puck, and MDZ and Girardi seem to be confidently shooting the puck and generating chances. If guys like Dubinsky and Boyle got their heads out of their asses they could chip in a few goals along with Cally, Richards, Stepan, and Gaborik who are doing amazing. It would just be nice to get a gimme goal on a 5 on 3 is my point.

Eric: The Rangers have this problem with collapsing their D too close to the net on 5-on-3′s. That allows the defending team to not have to move so much. On a 5-on-4, the Rangers cycle much more and force the opposing four to move.

David: It looks like the Rangers are shooting themselves in the foot a bit in 5 on 3 situations. There’s significantly less movement when they are up two men, and they always try for the backdoor play. That’s worked, and it’s pretty when it does, but there has to be another weapon in the arsenal so teams can’t anticipate. The point men on the two man advantage, in my opinion, are playing too high, which gives more reaction and adjustment time for the opposing PKers. In the end, it’s about player/puck movement and getting shots on net.

Marc: One adjustment they can make is to get the D more involved. If you watch the 5-on-4, the D controls the play and makes the entry passes (think MDZ or Richards making plays from the point). On the 5-on-3, the Rangers seem to let the 3 forwards control down low but don’t stretch the defense by getting our own D-men involved. I have confidence they’ll figure it out.

5. Finally, 24/7: Awesome, or super duper oh my god this is amazing awesome?

Aaron: Holy fack, this fackin program is so fackin ahmazing. I love it!

Eric: I never want it to end!

David: All of the above?

Marc: 24/7 is so good that I don’t understand why there haven’t been a half dozen copycat shows by now. If you’ve ever played on a hockey team, even though the NHL is obviously a whole other level of hockey, you can identify with what you’re watching on the screen because IT IS 100% REAL. No bullshit producer feeding lame-ass made-for-TV “reality” lines. Just real hockey players/coaches/staff, etc playing hockey, shooting the shit at practice/in the locker room, and having fun on road trips. Also, I’m pretty sure Torts and my old Coach would be buddies because they both like to tell their players “don’t shit your pants.” Even if you’re a fan who’s never played, it’s so cool to see behind the curtain at what the players do and how the sausage is made. Just all-around A+++ television.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Think we’re all idiots especially me? Let us know. Anyway here’s a picture of your league leading goal scorer Marian Gaborik smiling to send us off: