Wednesday, April 1, 2009

spinning a mid-week yarn...

i've been clearly slacking off with posts here and feeling a lot of guilt about it. i'm over two weeks behind on my sunday feedbacks, and i've been AWFULLY quiet on the flames' recent trouble puttin' em in the win column... the reason ? i've been working stupidly long days and decided that the 'spare' 5-or-so hours each day are better spent sleeping than blogging....

i was working with a couple of dudes who were key crew on the dark knight (and will remain nameless). one of the guys was a bit of a jerk with a crazy sense of entitlement, but the other was a genuinely nice down-to-earth human being.... too bad he was a canucks fan.

in the professional work-related emails that went back and forth between this guy, me, and my boss, it became clear where his NHL allegiences lay. it wasn't rocket science to figure it out --he lives in vancouver and ended one email with "The hockey game is starting in 2 minutes, I must sign off now." i forwarded this one to my boss (there was some pertinent work info contained in the body of the note), and acknowledged "he sounds like a canucks fan: therefore he is my enemy." my boss, in her response to his work-related queries, added "Just a heads up, walkinvisible knows more about hockey than any chick you'll ever meet. She will also make certain your room sucks and you get the worst seat on the plane if you say anything like 'yeah vancouver!' or 'flames are fizzling' And never mention anything about lombardi."

[this amuses me mostly because my boss, though acutely aware of my passion for the flames, knows pretty much nothing about the sport other than what i babble on about on a day-to-day basis. she often refers to "gretzky's team" (not "the coyotes" or "phoenix") as her favorite, and has a surname that nobody could pronounce until the emergence of her namesake as a star in the NHL a few years ago.... but i digress....]

the day of the guy's flight from vancouver, he sent a message inquiring (among other things), "The wings are town! Are you nervous ?"

my response ?

"i'm nervous as hell about detroit.... But I doubt we'll score on ourselves on a delayed penalty so I guess things could be worse...."

;)

well, that was over a week ago now. it was just after the canucks' humiliating loss in phoenix, and the last time i remember feeling confident in my flames in any capacity, or cavalier enough to insult vancouver's team... the really upsetting part is that, even two weeks ago when the pesky 'nucks were climbing in the standings, the flambés knew that their destiny was in their own hands; that they needn't concern themselves with vancouver losses, so long as they took care of their own wins.

well, that sure didn't happen.

and now things ARE worse...

i'm planning to write a pre-game tomorrow, and get back into the swing of things... i went to the SJ game the other night and there ARE some positives (none of which include vandermeer or leopold) that the boys can build on.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would also be happy if Vandermeer were to experience the remainder of the regular season and playoff run from the relative comfort of the press box.

March was frustrating. The horrible road trip aside, I watched the Flames put in game-win-worthy performance after game-win-worthy performance (St. Louis, Pittsburgh, San Jose) and yet still lose.

Meanwhile Vancouver was the polar opposite - winning despite game-losing efforts against St. Louis, Dallas and Minnesota. That's a 12 point swing.

On the upside this practically guarantees Vancouver's playoff choke. However my patience for their regular season demise grows thin.

Word verification: gisms. Yeah.

Anonymous said...

Moses Sundin will lead the Canucks deep into the playoffs after helping them clinch the NW.

Mike H. said...

I saw the funniest april fools joke in the paper today... something about the Canucks leading the NW division. I laughed my a$$ off all morning, cuz I know that is totally IMPOSSIBLE.

(By the way, anyone who threatens to pop my bubble of denial risks a bloody nose. Fair warning...)

walkinvisible said...

i agree with anonymous #1... at least i THINK i do. vancouver should not beat the jackets or the hawks (whomever they play), except that they have that goaltender i will only love when he dons a red maple leaf, and those annoying redheaded twins who i can't STAND (mostly because i want to say they suck but in all honesty, they're actually pretty effin' talented).

all in all, it's pretty grim.

Anonymous said...

WalkInvisible: In my view the Canucks have more fundamental problems in their on-ice play than the Flames. I refer you to behindthenet.ca:

Vancouver's 5 on 5:
http://www.behindthenet.ca/2008/basic_5_on_5.php?sort=9&mingp=50&mintoi=&team=VAN&pos=

Calgary's 5 on 5:
http://www.behindthenet.ca/2008/basic_5_on_5.php?sort=9&mingp=50&mintoi=&team=CGY&pos=

Now I'm not the best analyst in the world but those corsi figures look awfully ugly for the Canucks and quite reasonable for the Flames. For reference, here are the 5 on 5 stats for Detroit and San Jose:

http://www.behindthenet.ca/2008/basic_5_on_5.php?sort=9&mingp=50&mintoi=&team=S.J&pos=

http://www.behindthenet.ca/2008/basic_5_on_5.php?sort=9&mingp=50&mintoi=&team=DET&pos=

Nobody can outdo Detroit, but we're pretty close to San Jose in terms of outshooting opponents. In this six game stretch and in the playoffs, I'd much rather be in the Flames' position of good even strength play which can be reasonably sustained through hard work, than in the Canucks' position of hoping the coins land heads for them every game.

walkinvisible said...

y'know, kent --you can post as yourself... (just kidding, anon... but kent over at matchticksandgasoline is a big fan of the corsi stat ---for good reason).

i started a pretty good rant on the corsi here but will actually take it to a pregame post.

:)