We'll go a little long on this links section, since some new ones got posted up yesterday after my Caps links post. Tonight, the Caps wrap up a five-game road trip in Toronto and from there, they only have two games in the next 8 days, both at the Phone Booth (March 27 vs. Tampa and April 1 vs the Islanders). So here's some Caps news from around the internets. Enjoy suckas.
- To make up for the possible loss of Semin and Professor Matt, the Caps have called up goalie Darren Machesney and the wonderfully named Steve Pinizzotto. To make room, Simeon Varlamov was sent down to Hershey for salary cap reasons. According to Tank, Semin and Bradley are doing better. With a name like Pinizzotto, he's already my 5th favorite Cap. Sounds like something out of "The Godfather" or something. "Find out more about this...Pinizzotto character."
- Couple of Caps related items from Dan Steinberg over at DC Sports Bog. First post is about the large numbers of Caps fans that swarmed Raleigh, North Carolina to attend Saturday's Caps-'Canes tilt.
- Yesterday I posted the highlights from the last time the Caps played in Toronto. Here is a less happy memory, the last matchup between these two teams at the Phone Booth, which resulted in a 2-1 Leafs victory.
Since the Caps are in the heart of NASCAR country to play the former Hartford Whalers tonight, I figured I'd throw a Ricky Bobby reference out there. Here's all the links that are fit to quit to get ready for tonight's Caps-Carolina Hurricanes match.
- One more from Tank - former Chicago Blackhawks and current San Jose Sharks forward Jeremy Roenick has no problem with Alex Ovechkin's celebrations. High praise from the greatest video game hockey player ever and the man who made Wayne Gretzky's head bleed in "Swingers."
- Since we're talking Ovie and celebrations (again), here's Tom Boswell's take.
Good morrow there Hangarmaniacs, all, what, 10 of you. Thats an increase from 5 so we're taking baby steps. Here's a round of links from the Good Guys: Ravens Edition. Because in Ravenstown, our girls look like this... ...and this... ...while in Steeler Nation, where inbreeding is not only accepted, it's encouraged, they look something like this... ...and this... And yes, longtime readers will know that I have made this joke before, but I don't care. I'll post this shit every week if I could guarantee to piss off one Steeler fan. Anyway, why were we here? Oh yes, linkage.
- The Ravens apparently requested not to play a prime-time game in Pittsburgh this year. I know Sheeler fans will say the Ravens are scared or some nonsense but I see where the team is coming from here. Three out of the past four years the Ravens have had to play a Monday night game in Pittsburgh. In the last two years the powers that be have almost treated the Ravens as a homecoming opponent for the Steelers. Who wants to be treated like that year after year? Plus, if nothing else it means we don't have to see these godawful uniforms again...
- Corey Ivy has signed with Cleveland. I don't think I have ever been happier to see a Ravens player sign with a division rival. Look, Corey Ivy is a courageous guy and seems like a nice enough man. But we Ravens fans saw way too much of this... ...for anyone's taste.
- Finally, here's a piece from NFL head of officials Mike Pereira on some rule changes for next year. Much like the NHL, the league is looking to cut down on blows to the head and two rule changes in particular are relevant to the Ravens since they happened in this year's AFC Championship Game. First, is a new rule that would flag crackback blocks to the head, like this hit from the aforementioned AFC Title game by Limas Sweed on Corey Ivy. BTW, looking back at it, how was this not a penalty at the time as its clearly a helmet-to-helmet shot?
The second rule change would penalize hits on defenseless receivers to the head with the shoulder. This one seems like it would be hard to enforce but I see where they are going. The league is trying to cut down on scary blows to the head like this one by Ryan Clark on Willis McGahee, again from the title game.
'Cause I wanted to make it three for three in the links posts/English bulldog pics department. One more hockey post for now and then I promise the next few will involve something else. Here are some links to The Good Guys - Caps Edition.
- Apparently Mike Green isn't as alright as he said he was after last night's win in Tampa. The Caps can not afford to lose Greener for any length of time.
- Poor Quintin Laing. Guy gets called up from Hershey to fill in for Boyd Gordon (out 3-4 weeks) and promptly gets hurt in his first game with a torn spleen (ouch!). Laing is out for the rest of the season.
'Cause who doesn't love UGA or English bulldogs. I've wanted to get a bulldog for sometime now and whenever I get one, I want it to look like UGA. Only instead of a University of Georgia jersey, I want to get it a Caps, Orioles and Ravens jersey for the different seasons. The spiked dog collar is choice as well.
Here are some Caps links for ya in preparation for tonight's game with the Tampa Bay Lightning. I'll have a postgame recap as soon as the game ends. I know you will be panting like a dog in anticipation.
- Speaking of bulldogs, Billionaire Ted Leonsis is also singing the praises of Brooks Laich. The Owner also raises the good point that Brooksie was acquired for Peter Bondra during the great fire sale of 2004.
While we're doing links posts, here are some from the largesse (is that a word?) that is the Caps blog-o-sphere.
- On Frozen Blog has this laughable advertisement on Fox Sports Carolinas for Saturday's Caps-Hurricanes game. The laughable part is not the "They took what was ours" line. No, it's the "Our Team. Our Tradition" tagline. Your tradition? You are the former Hartford Whalers. People would probably like you more if you were still the Hartford Whalers. After all, who couldn't love the mighty Whale. They were mentioned in "Mallrats." They were the worst team in the history of video game hockey but they had character, damn it. The Carolina Hurricanes are shite. You know what? Cue up the fucking "Brass Bonanza." Long live the Whale! Down with Carolina!
- Tank with a nice piece on Caps forward Brooks Laich. You gotta love Laich, who I thought was the Caps best player on a consistent basis in last year's playoffs and is the sort of blood and guts guy that will NOT be intimidated by the Philadelphia's and Pittsburgh's in the playoffs this year.
- More from Tank on holding the Panthers shotless in the 3rd period last night.
As we posted up here yesterday, per the Baltmo Sun, former Eagles TE L.J. Smith is set to join the purple and black, provided he passes a physical tomorrow. I posted my own opinions of Smith yesterday, but I figured I'd give you some legit facts about the new guy. Thankfully I had the Philadelphia Eagles 2008 media guide in my office at the day job. So here are some other facts about your soon-to-be newest Raven from the Eagles media guide:
- "An athletic, playmaking tight end with good pass catching ability..."
- "Partook in Russian Kettlebell training once a week during the 2008 offseason under the direction of Carlos Bradley, a former Chargers and Eagles linebacker. 'I could only do it one day per week. It's tough. I wouldn't recommend doing it twice or more in a week. You just can't do it. Sometimes I just wanted to quit during the workout. It's a total body workout.'"
- "Aspires to one day produce his own music and would like to learn more about the audio and technical parts of the business. 'The world would be a boring place without music. Music can inspire people in so many different ways.' Favorite artists include Biggie, 50 Cent/G Unit, Brian McKnight and T.I."
- "Started playing the guitar during the 2006 offseason. After mentioning to a friend that he wanted to learn to play, his friend gave him his first acoustic guitar." "Let's duet L.J."
- "Is the proud owner of a miniature English bulldog named 'Jiggz.'" "This almost makes up for the guitar L.J."
-"Enjoys watching 'The First 48' and 'Family Guy.'" "It's game night. We're playin'...sex!"
- "Full name: John Smith III; L.J. stands for 'Little John.'" "YEEAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"
Sorry for the late start to the blogging day but the day job was so busy today I needed a break from words for a little while. I'm ready for more though now so I'll be bringing the posts fast and furious tonight. For starters, here are some links to the Good Guys - Orioles edition.
It's a fairly low-risk, high-reward signing for the Ravens. Smith had trouble staying healthy and consistent during his six years with the Philadelphia Eagles but here, he will be looked at as an additional down-the-middle threat for QB Jersey Joe Flacco. Smith has always looked the part of a great tight end but his production hasn't always matched the skill set. He should see more passes in Cam Cameron's offense but won't have the pressure of being a #1 TE. All told, like I said before, a very low-risk, high-reward kind of signing.
Additional Ravens stuff:
- The Ravens will meet with the recently released former St. Louis Rams all-pro Orlando Pace. Not sure where Pace fits into this picture, unless its as a backup to Jared Gaither. If Pace were to come aboard, the Ravens have a logjam at the tackle spots with Gaither, Adam Terry, Willie Anderson, Oniel Cousins and David Hale - the latter two were drafted last year but didn't play much. If Pace were signed, it would likely mean the end for Willie Anderson, which is a shame because I thought Willie played well there last year.
We're doing another new gimmick with the links, one I think I'm going to stick with - splitting the links up into separate categories: Good Guys links (Caps, O's, Ravens, Towson Tigers), Non-Good Guys links, Non-Sporting links and YouTube clip you can swing your heavy metal hair to. Other than Good Guys links and the YouTube clip I might not do every category every day.
So here's the Caps links for ya. The boys are on the ice now against the Florida Panthers and we'll have a recap later. Anyway, we'll give this section of links an international flavor and since it's St. Patrick's Day... "Fu*k me, I'm Irish! Actually I'm some skank from Pittsburgh but look...green! I'm Irish!"
Time for another lazy links post. This may be it for today as far as posts since the day job is going to take up much of my time. Thus, no game recap from Caps-Thrashers tonight unless I manage to get out early. I can hear the weeping from Delaware to Slovakia now. I'm going to do this in a little different format, so if you like it, let me know. And if you don't like it well, IDONTGIVEAFUCK! "Sasha, what the fuck are you doing?"
-Radhames Liz - future bullpen arsonist. If he doesn't have Jorge Julio written all over him I don't know who does. And yes, I am still bitter at Julio for murdering my fantasy baseball team a few years back.
- JP and Peerless have previews of tonight's game, which will be on Versus at 7 pm.
-Also, Peerless rightfully calls out Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, aka NBC's Pierre McGuire and "Mad" Mike Milbury for the dated criticism about Jose Theodore. The "Caps can't win the Cup with Theodore" stuff is about as dated as a 90s Mike Myers movie.
-R.I.P Ron Silver. Loved you as Senator Darren McCord in the Jean-Claude Van Damme blockbuster "Timecop." Silver also delivered the immortal line from the short-lived Fox TV show "Skin" -"HIS FATHER IS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY!!!"
- From the Icon - The lack of creative imagination in Hollywood continues. Now we are apparently getting a "Macguyver" movie. Other than Patty and Selma from "The Simpsons" is there anyone out there excited about this?
There won't be a lot of posts today, I'll be watching the Caps game at 3 and then head to the rink to play my own game at 6:45. I might be able to squeeze a recap in there but I also might not be. But since only 6 of you read this thing anyway, it's probably not one of your bigger deals in life. Anyway, since it's Sunday and pretty girls=hits, I will forgo the usual Booker T picture and bring you Amanda Bynes, if for no other reason than she wore a Ravens t-shirt in one of her movies (not sure which one, I just remember seeing the trailer and being stunned she was wearing it). Since I couldn't find any pics of Amanda wearing said Ravens shirt, this shot will have to work...
-Ray Lewis' agent says he "might" return to Baltmo. Translation: "He's coming back with his tail tucked firmly between his legs."
"Asked about the Bill Guerin to Washington rumors -- which one of my sources shot down this morning, Boudreau said: 'We have Kozlov, Semin, Fehr, Bradley and Gordon as our right side. I think that's pretty good.'"
- One last bit of Caps news before I head down to the Greene Turtle to watch today's game (Thanks Easton F'n Cable!). Don Cherry of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ripped Alex Ovechkin for his celebrations. I won't give you the whole Cherry autobiography for those that don't know who he is, that's what Wikipedia is for, but in a nutshell, he's sort of like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly meets Howard Cosell. First, here's Cherry, nicknamed Grapes', comments..
Now, I've been a fan of Grapes since I got his first Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Hockey video back in the early 90s. I think I know enough about him to know that anything he says must come with a grain of salt. His disdain of Europeans and guys with visors comes from a time when Euros, specifically guys like Ulf Samuelsson, Alexei Kovalev and Tomas Sandstrom, were known for taking dives, cheap shots and show-boating.
Now many of the commenters on the CBC's Hockey Night In Canada site, where you can watch Cherry's "Coach's Corner" segment, and on the WaPo's site are ripping Grapes a new asshole, and deservedly so. After all, it's clear this rant is either 1) xenophobic or 2) a very poor attempt to stand up for his buddy Sidney Crosby that came off as nationalist, racist and xenophobic. Because good old Canadian boys, like say...
Tiger Williams
Mike Foligno
Theo Fleury
and Mike Richards...
...would never celebrate excessively. Look, we've tried it the Joe Sakic way. Sakic is a great guy and a great player. But nobody outside the greater Denver area is saying, "Boy, Joe Sakic is in town, I gotta go see him!" Nothing against Sakic, but he doesn't exactly move the Q rating a whole lot. Hockey has had enough humble guys, it's part of the appeal of the sport for a lot of people. What the league needs is some oversize personalities. And no, I do not mean a bunch of Sean Avery's. I mean guys that aren't afraid to have fun, smile and show some flair. Everyone that watched the All-Star Game skills contest would probably agree that Ryan Getzlaf had a much better trick shot than Ovie. But Getzlaf treated it like a chore, whereas Ovie took the time to ham it up and have fun with the whole thing. That's what the league needs. If I haven't made my point yet, allow me to try to express it through this story.
On March 8 my friend and former co-worker Jermaine "Bunky" Murray will be attending his first hockey game. Bunk is a 25 year old African-American male that has maybe seen 15 minutes of hockey in his entire life. He's a football and basketball guy. Not exactly the type that gravitates towards hockey. But he willingly paid $80 to go to a Caps game because he WANTED to see Alex Ovechkin skate, hopefully score a goal and maybe do one of his celebrations. Isn't that what we, as hockey fans want? To get new fans and people interested in the game? I know that's what I'd like to see.
The bottom line is, Grapes is popular because he says stupid, ridiculous and outrageous things. No different than Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Olbermann or Cosell in his heyday. Anybody that says things that are that mean-spirited, bitter and jealous, it means that the person saying them is either an internet blogger or a someone that needs professional help. And while I'm not above making fun of someone, making fun of the insane just isn't my style. But Grapes, Mr. Ovie may want to have a word with you... "I must break you."
This morning I'll send a few links up related to the sports teams collectively known as "the good guys" (that would be the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles and Washington Capitals for those who haven't figured it out yet). This is lazy blogging at its finest, but since I'm doing this while on the clock, there's no time for a long dissertation. For the few of you that like that sort of thing, I'll be back later tonight with an Orioles related post and a recap of tonight's Caps-Flyers tilt. Until then, enjoy...SUCKAAAAAASSSSSS!!!!!
- Japer's Rink has a preview of tonight's Caps game. Let's see how the team responds to another rivalry game. Surely, the Flyers will not fold like a tent when the Caps play a little rough with them like Pittsburgh did.
- Ken Murray of the Sun has the antidote to all Ravens fans out there fretting over this Ray Lewis to the Jets or Cowboys business. Personally, I couldn't agree with Murray more on this one. The other thing, if you read Peter King's piece and see some of the ESPN coverage on the possible "Ray to the Cowboys" thing, do you notice a certain glee these national nitwits have when talking about it? Funny how some of these same nitwits were calling Ray a murderer nine years ago. I see, but he's ok now that he may be signing with the national media's beloved Jets or Cowboys. National media, meet my middle finger.
-I try to keep this site apolitical, but reading this story on Yahoo!, I couldn't resist. A "Where Are They Now" on officials from the Bush Administration. I hope when they do this 10 years from now, prison is included for some of them. I'm looking at you Dick Cheney.
-Finally, our YouTube clip to swing your heavy metal hair to is "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" by Prong.
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