Monday, April 19, 2010

monday randoms: overtime

- i've been subconsciously boycotting hockey of all sorts lately ---i was in yellowknife when the flames' season ended, and far too busy with work to take interest in the first round matchups... now that i'm back to unemployed again, i've noticed that all eight of the playoff series are TOIGHT !!! a lot of one-goal games and a helluvalot of overtimes.... like, way more than normal.... is it just me ? the only other thing i've really noticed is that mike cammalleri is golden (in that wistful ponyboy-meets-robert-frost sort of way).... *sigh*... nothing gold can stay, indeed...

- dan boyle scored a pretty sweet game winner last night for the wrong effing team... total bummer cause a) i love boyle, b) i love wallin, and c) because i love boyle and wallin, i think it would be nice if the sharks made it to the second round. and also ? i've always maintained that games should be won, not lost ---i always feel so bad for the mistake-maker... (unless it's flames v. oilers game 7 1986, or a canuck-in-the-box).... anyhow, when mikeH and i were in vancouver, i really wanted a 2010 olympic tshirt emblazoned with #22's name on the back, but they didn't make that one for some reason.... they made iginla, luongo, crosby, niedermeyer and g**d*** pronger, but no boyle. i bet those would sell like hotcakes in colorado this morning.... ;)

mikeH is quick to point out that i (and the san jose sharks) have a "thing" for defensemen with own-goals:


let's hope that this trend doesn't mean that gio's gonna score on kipps, or that gio's gonna end up in NoCal once he hits UFA status next summer (cause i think he'll walk if daz is still at the helm)....

- speaking of gio, the best thing that's happened so far this spring is that he was invited to the world championships in may....

i'm not sure if you know this but he's kinda my favorite... this pic, btw, was taken post-olympic break and juuuuust before the flames got slaughtered by minnesota on home ice by a score of 4-0 (ie: the first game i've seen the fans show their displeasure with the team by walking out halfway thru the third period.... well, the first game since i watched the dude throw his iginla jersey over the glass to end the 2009/2010 season..... sorry, remind me again why darryl sutter still has a job ??)

- ohyeah. i've been meaning to post this since i sent it over to htp pal & OT host, pat steinberg, for some airplay a few weeks back.... it sums up my thoughts on why darryl sutter must be removed from his position, and why it must happen before the draft:
last year when the team was forced to dress a short bench because of blatant cap mismanagement, he should have been fired. he brushed off criticism and blamed injuries, but took no responsibility for spending to the cap and not leaving room for injury replacement... while he should have gotten pink slipped, he was given "one more season" to get it right.... 09/10 was his mulligan year and (last i checked) you don't get a do-over on a mulligan.

bear in mind that john ferguson jr handicapped the leafs for years to come, and had he been removed from his job even one year earlier, it wouldn't be so grim in toronto right now.


it's been a slow news week, what can i say.... ?

GO KINGS !!!
:)

[sutter(s) dismissal countdown: day 47]

7 comments:

Steinberg said...

Epic Outsiders reference...CBC had an intermission piece with Gary Roberts showing Mike Cammallerri's workouts. I was sad. Sigh.

I'm really excited to see Gio at the World's...he's a class guy and deserves to be there.

AND I believe I read that email on the air;)

walkinvisible said...

you probably DID read it on the air --i was at the bar by the time you got around to it, if i remember correctly....

gio is an elite defenseman and i've been touting it from the getgo... i hate daz a little bit every day for passing him over and signing anders eriksson instead (contributing in no small part to the miseducation of one dion phaneuf, IMO).

i had the good fortune to have drinks with tom rowe in february and he pointed out that it was obvious to anyone with eyes that gio was gonna be awesome, even back in the lowell lock monster days.... less than 24 hours after that conversation, gio dumped joni pitkanen over the boards and practically into tom rowe's lap...

i love being a girl, and i love being RIGHT (especially around actual hockey people)...

ps: tom rowe thinks i should scout.
pps: tom rowe rules.
ppps: how effin' bored ARE you, pat ?

;)

Steinberg said...

Oh, see, you had the luxury of going to the bar after hockey games. I, however, did not...unless I was broadcasting FROM a bar, in which case, I didn't have the luxury of taking advantage of the fact that it's a bar.

I really do believe Brent Sutter and Ryan McGill were a huge part of Giordano's evolution this season. Confidence was shown in him, he was used correctly, and he flourished from there.

walkinvisible said...

while i think it's clear that keenan hated the guy, and i'm a big big fan of ryan mcgill's work, there is really only so long you can keep a guy with talent underwater....

i think gio would have flourished eventually regardless, but the confidence of the current staff definitely helped speed up the process... i'm still not certain he was "used correctly," however, since he showed he was more than capable playing with jaybouw when sarich was on the shelf early in the season, and there was little doubt in my mind those two were far more reliable than the dion/reggie pairing that brent/gilly steadfastly refused to split. he made sarich look competant in the final months, but i think we can all agree that gio would have improved jaybouw's game down the stretch, and a staios (*ugh*)/sarich pairing with less minutes would probably have helped the cause....

Steinberg said...

Yeah, maybe...but I think there's something that often gets left out when it comes to the confidence that Sutter had in Giordano, because I know that he's a huge, huge fan.

Sutter used Giordano with everyone because he was comfortable doing that. When Pardy and Kronwall and Johnson were rotated through the lineup, they always played with Giordano because Sutter felt most confident putting a new guy with Giordano.

So, I think you also have to look at that when talking about how he was used.

walkinvisible said...

i think it's cute the way you call him "giordano." i think, from now on, we should skip the short-form nicknames and call the guy "mr.giordano."

;)

Steinberg said...

Hey, I believe I called him Gio in the first comment!