Sports Tuesday

The second week of the NHFFFL season is in the books- and since I'm the only official, we aren't having replacement problems!  All but two of the games this week were intra-owner games.  the two inter-owner games involved Laurie and KC.

In one of those, the Sunset Rangers stayed unbeaten and pulled into #1 in the rankings, pulling away on 2 Willis McGahee TDs to top the Angels 45-31.  The two Dwayne Bowe "let 'em score we're 30 points ahead" scores got the Rangers into that position, but the Angels made a game of it with Monday night TDs from Demaryous Thomas and Roddy White.

The other inter-owner matchupd saw Matt Prater's three extra points be the difference in the Clock BBQs 35-33 edging of the Elks. New acquisition CJ Spillers' two TDs led the winners, but were more than balanced by Steve Gostkowski's 14 points.  But, as with the Pats, it was the one he missed that decided the game.

The KCAs got bounced from the top spot with a 49-41 loss to the Aguas.  The KCAs led 40-18 going into Sunday night, but the Aguas rallied with 2 Vernon Davis TDs, 13 from K Jason Hanson, and Matt Ryan's 6 against the Broncos.  The rookie duo of RGIII and Doug Martin once again led the KCAs with 24 points between them.

In the other all-Chris game, the B2s picked up 23 Thursday night, and rallied behind Ben Rothlesburger and Mike Wallace Sunday afternoon, to mash the Ducks 47-36. Mason Crosby and his teammates on the Green Bay D collected the 23 on Thursday.

The all-Laurie matchup had the Greenwoods rally from an early deficit to handle the winless Beagles 32-23.  David Akers put up nine Sunday night to seal the deal.

The all KC matchup was the reeealy big shue this week.  Buzz racked up 24 points from his three RBs, and Seattle's D and K Steven Haushicka (or something like that) combined for 18 more- and they lost!  Porkchop got 27 from their running back corps, another 21 from the receivers, topped off with 15 from K Lawrence Tynes, and won 69-51.



So if you went by my betting system, three teams covered (Rangers, B2s, and Porkchops) and three teams straight lost (KCAs, Elks, and Beagles).  This week, you have Aguas by 6 over the Beagles; KCAs by six over the Angels; the Rangers by 12 over the 'Woods; 'Chops by 7 over the Clock BBQs; Ducks by 2 over Buzz in the somebody's-gotta-win game; and B2s by 4 over the Elks.


In the KHL, things have slowed down for New Lokomotiv (but it's still the only hockey in town!)  Friday we were broadsided by Torpedo 6-3. After Maxim Trunyov tied the game at 1-1 after one period, Torpedo tallied three times in a seven minute span of the second to go up 4-1.  In the next five minutes Niklas Hagman scored his 2nd and Alexei Kalyuzhny, a vet who spent the last few years with Jaromir Jagr in Omsk, cut it back to 4-3, but Torpedo got goals late in the last two periods to cause the final margin.

Sunday we had our home opener in front of a SRO crowd of 9,000, but could not solve Atlant goalie Stanislav Galimov, and dropped a 2-1 decision.  Daniil Apal'kov got his 3rd goal in the first period, but Atlant beat our net minder Vitaly Kolesnik 2 of their 9 third period shots on goal.

So now, Loko has 2 wins, a shootout win, and 2 losses, dropping them to a three way tie for 8th in the conference in points, with twin Dinamos Minsk and Riga.  League newbe Lev Praha (Prague) is on top with 4 wins, a shootout win, and a loss for 14 points, 6 more than Lokomotiv.  Next up for us is Spartak, who has three wins a shootout loss, and 2 losses for a third place tie at ten points.

In the meantime, the list is growing larger of locked-out NHLers coming to the KHL.  At present, here is the list:  Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Ottawa's Sergei Gonchar have joined Mettalurg Magnitogorsk; New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk will be joining SKA St. Petersburg; Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk is going to Ak Bars Kazan; Edmonton's #1 draft pick Nail Yakupov returns to his home team of Neftekhimik; Alexei Ponikarovski of Winnepeg and the Flyers' Ruslan Fedotenko are going to Donbass; Nik Antropov, who last played for Atlanta, has signed up with Barys Astana; Kaspars Dougavins of Ottawa is going home to Dinamo Riga; and other players have signed in the Czech league with Jagr and Tomas Plekanic of the Canadiens going to the club Jagr owns in Kladno, and the Flyers' Pavel Kubina going to Vitkovice.

Others I just found include Jiri Hudler of Calgary going to first-place Lev and Toronto's Nikolai Kulemin joing Malkin and Gonchar in Magnitogorsk.  This means that the rumours of Sidney Crosby joining Malkin at Metallurg are dead, since their is a three-player limit and Kulemin makes three.  A rumour that is still active is that the big money owners of CSKA (Red Army Moscow) will be getting Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. A group of players are also headed for Swiss National League A, with brand new Ranger Rick Nash heading for Davos along with San Jose captain Joe Thornton, and Logan Coture headed for Geneva.  Other less founded rumours have players joining up with old teams in their homelands, Including Frolunda in Sweden, Kalpo in Finland and Jokerit also in Finland.

 

February Flotsam

Just some odds and ends to put on the air.


First, for those who read the "In support... "blog a few days back, Average Girl decided that the support of her followers was greater than the disgust of the few, and resumed the contest. However, just minutes ago, she posted this:


My unbelievably beautiful, wonderful and incredibly kind sister-in-law had something horrific happen to her and she almost lost her life yesterday. She is currently in the intensive care unit, and as such, I will be delaying the Battle of the Blogs for a day or two or longer while our family deals with this.



I hope to join with all of you in praying for Tracy's SIL and their entire family. Some things really do take a back seat.





Two days ago, Scrappy and I bundled up, taking the mighty camera with us on a quest to see what the world under 16 inches of snow looked like. It quickly became more of a "if we get home alive" sorta ordeal whose exertion made several layers of bundling unnecessary.

That is Stony Run Creek.

As you can see, the aminals haven't kept up with local trail-shoveling laws.

They hardly touched what in warmer days was their main track into the woods, but did stamp down this one nearer the north entrance.

And this is where some unfortunate decided to wipe out across from our parking lot.

Once we hit California road, I said enough is enough and decided we'd follow the plex road back home. However, the Plex had only plowed from building to road, which meant half of our remaining journey would be just as bad as what had went before. When you go out in 20 degree weather and come home soaked in sweat, it's time to revise your hiking plan- which we did on Saturday and Sunday.

I wanted to touch on a couple of celebrity deaths. Chuck Tanner, manager of the mid 70s Pirate "fam-i-lee" died this week. Chuck also managed my A's in 1976,

and we TRADED him the next year for catcher Manny Sanguillen.

The other is Betty Garrett, an actress known for many things; but for me she was Archie Bunker's nemesis Irene Lorenzo on All In The Family.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the hockey game that broke out in the midst of the brawls between my New York Islanders and my son's Pittsburgh Penguins Friday night. This nastiness, wrapped around a 9-3 Islander rout of the Pens, was brought on after the events of a few games past when their goaltender broke our goaltender's face with one punch. The Isles were bent on all sorts of revenge, and seem to have gotten it; 346 penalty minutes were mostly concentrated in 3 big brawls, and included 15 fighting majors, 10 10-minute misconducts, a 5 -minute elbowing with intent to injure, and 11 game misconducts, 2 of them on Eric Godard of the Pens. One guy for the Isles racked up 32 minutes worth in the one big fight, and a teammate got 29 in the same melee. One Islander found himself with a ten game suspension (Trevor Gilles) as did one Pen who came off the bench when his goalie and an Islander went at it. The Isles also got another suspension, and were fined $100,000, a big deal for the cash-poor wreck that the once proud 4-time cup champs have become. Not being afraid of violence for the greater principle in sports, I'm of mixed opinions on the incident; but, I will say, EVERYONE KNEW something like this would happen at this game. The fact that it happened to such a degree shows that nobody really cared until it got out of hand. If I were king of the NHL, and disposed to end such shenanigans, I would have also fined the refereeing crew- because this crap never, I repeat NEVER happens if the crew does a competent job of handling it. And I would have suspended BOTH coaches and fined BOTH teams. Although he can hardly be considered a neutral party, Pens owner Mario Lemieux seemed to agree:

"The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed," the Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner said in a statement released on Sunday. "We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players. We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action."

The NHL announced just before midnight on Saturday suspensions for Islanders forwards Trevor Gillies (nine games) and Matt Martin (four games), and Pittsburgh's Eric Godard (automatic 10-game ban for leaving the bench).Lemieux, however, said Campbell didn't go nearly far enough and the Hall of Famer who won two Stanley Cup titles as a Pens player questioned whether he still wants to be involved with such an outfit.

"If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it," he said. These remarks will surely irk NHL's front office, and Lemieux could soon be the target of his own disciplinary action in the form of a fine.
(Courtesy Fanhouse Sports)

One thing the league should look at is the fact that Godard got 10 games off for going to the aid of his goalie while all on-ice personnel were busy waltzing at the other end, while 2 Islanders drew instigator penalties, which cost just 2 minutes in the penalty box. Once upon a time, the man off the bench penalty was hailed as the cure all for bench clearing brawls, and it by and large works. If the league really wants to eliminate these ballroom events, then those who get hit with instigator and third-man-in penalties need to be similarly disciplined. Though not impartial, Lemieux was right about the league not going far enough. If they would have suspended goalie Brent Johnson for injuring Rick DiPietro in the FIRST PLACE, none of this would have happened. Once again, the NHL has tripped over that fine line they try to walk between what "puts fans in seats" and what "is an embarrassment".

World cup update

Ok, so Saturday, the USA finished off with a 10-0 rout of the Kazakhs, and added to that Sunday a 4-0 blanking of France of which score IIHF said "flattered France", i.e. it could've been much worse. France then beat Italy on Saturday 2-1, but the Italians beat the Kazakhs 2-1 on Sunday. Thus, anything could still happen in the Relegation round- although the worst that could happen for USA is a four way tie that would be broken by goal margin and we're +14. In the main rounds, Russia beat Germany 3-2 on Saturday and followed it up with a 6-1 rout of Denmark. Evgeny Malkin had a goal and an assist as the Russians continue a 23 game world cup win streak. The Swiss claimed a 3-2 win over the Czechs on Saturday; also on Sunday, Latvia broke open a game that was scoreless through 2 periods with 2 empty-net goals to beat struggling Norway 5-0. Belarus finally got another win, though probably too little too late as it went to OT when the Germans scored with less than a minute left to tie and were trying to win with time running out in OT and coughed up the puck and the Latvians scored on a 3-man breakaway. But the difference between a regulation win and an OT win is 3 pts to 2 pts, and that point will likely mean the end of the Belarussians. Finally the Swedes won a lackluster 3-1 game over a disappointing Canadian group. Russia now leads one group with 12 pts, double that of second-place Finland and Denmark. Germany's 4 pts lead a trailing group of Slovakia (3) and Belarus (2); in the next round, the bottom two from each group are out and the top 4 go on. In the other group, Switzerland and Sweden each have 9 pts, but the Swiss have a game in hand. Canada is third with 6, and the Czechs, Latvians, and Norse all have three.

I decided to see what all the divisions in the IIHF look like, and here is what I found. The bottom group, division 3, consists (or will next year) of Luxembourg, the UAE, Greece (who were supposed to host this years division 3 shindig but amazingly couldn't find the money- go figure), South Africa, Mongolia, and Armenia, along with Turkey and Israel, who got bounced out of division two . Then comes division 2, with Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Mexico, Romania, China, Iceland, New Zealand, along with Ireland and North Korea who rise up from division three and Serbia and Croatia, who fall from division one. Division one then is Ukraine, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, the UK, South Korea, along with Spain and Estonia coming up from division two and whoever loses the relegation round after Tuesday's last games.
Those two losers will then be replaced amongst the big-boys group by Austria and Slovenia.

The Blackhawks Knocked off San Jose 3-1 today to open the NHL semis. I'm hoping they can find a way for both teams to lose in the other semis, but I guess I'll have to root for Montreal because, being a New York Islander fan, I'd sooner cheer for space aliens come to exterminate the entire planet than the Philadelphia Flyers.

Got the weather center up and running with a lot of very appreciated help. Very cool. And one last note: the Reds beat the Cards again today 7-2 and took over first place in the NL Central. What a very nice weekend.

As if there needed to be another reason...

...for our nation to kick the UN the hell out of this country, try this one on for size:


NEW YORK — Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."
Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women," according to its website.
Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states — including the United States.
The U.S. currently holds one of the 45 seats on the body, a position set to expire in 2012. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. did not return requests for comment on whether it actively opposed elevating Iran to the women's commission.
Iran's election comes just a week after one of its senior clerics declared that women who wear revealing clothing are to blame for earthquakes, a statement that created an international uproar — but little affected their bid to become an international arbiter of women's rights.
"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," said the respected cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi.
As word of Iran's intention to join the women's commission came out, a group of Iranian activists circulated a petition to the U.N. asking that member states oppose its election.
"Iran's discriminatory laws demonstrate that the Islamic Republic does not believe in gender equality," reads the letter, signed by 214 activists and endorsed by over a dozen human rights bodies.
The letter draws a dark picture of the status of women in Iran: "women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women's admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws."
The Commission on the Status of Women is supposed to conduct review of nations that violate women's rights, issue reports detailing their failings, and monitor their success in improving women's equality.
Yet critics of Iran's human rights record say the country has taken "every conceivable step" to deter women's equality.
"In the past year, it has arrested and jailed mothers of peaceful civil rights protesters," wrote three prominent democracy and human rights activists in an op-ed published online Tuesday by Foreign Policy Magazine.
"It has charged women who were seeking equality in the social sphere — as wives, daughters and mothers — with threatening national security, subjecting many to hours of harrowing interrogation. Its prison guards have beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and raped female and male civil rights protesters."
Though it touts itself as "the principal global policy-making body" on women's rights, the makeup of the commission is mostly determined by geography and its membership is a hodge-podge of some human rights advocates (including the U.S., Japan, and Germany) and other nations with stark histories of rights violations.
.
The activists' letter sent to the U.N. Tuesday argued that it would be better if the Asian countries proffered only one candidate, instead of elevating Iran to the commission.
"We, a group of gender-equality activists, believe that for the sake of women's rights globally, an empty seat for the Asia group on (the commission) is much preferable to Iran's membership. We are writing to alert you to the highly negative ramifications of Iran’s membership in this international body."
A spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which oversees the commission, did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment. (courtesy FoxNews)

Do I really need to comment on this? The same people who bring you "observers" in the Congo that aparently observe nothing other than local rape customs, the same people that bring you global warming "experts" who are aparently only experts in creating fairy tales, and the same people that want you to think that Israel is only a good citizen of the world so long as they take every murder, every, bomb, and every protest their lazy Palestinian antagonists dish out without responce, now want you to believe that President Iamanutjob of Iran will bring greater equality to the world's women. I have a suggestion: let him start by working on Nancy Pelosi's equality.

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And now, our final Euro-hockey note: TPS Turku, 6th place finishers in the S-M Liiga's regular season, win their 11th Finnish championship with a 6-2 over HPK Hameenlimma. So if my memory serves, this means that out of 13 leagues we followed this season, only France, Switzerland, and Denmark had their season champion become their playoff champion. The curse of being best also hit the NHL with Washington's brilliant (hee hee) performance aginst 8th seeded Montreal. I'm sure we'll hear once again all that stuff about the Caps' "window of opportunity" closing. I don't know about the window closing this year, but the screen door sure did. Perhaps, if they had come into the playoffs without the expectation that the league's lower lights would roll over and die for them, they may have gotten farther. Clue fer you, Ovechkin and co.; you aren't the Yankees. Teams don't wilt at the drop of your name. You still need to play the game that brought you there. Until you learn how to play with the target on your back, you'll be on the golfcourse in May more often than not. Now, we'll have to see if the second place Blackhawks can learn the lesson too.