Posts
Hello. Betcher wondering where I've been, eh? Just a long weekend with nothing major to say. Hope everybody eligible to went out and voted to make our country better. I do want to say one thing on this topic. One of our three-way races here locally involved a Republican who got national attention- not wanted attention- during a debate when the discussion of abortion and rape came up. He tried to explain that even though God and man sees rape as a reprehensible act, that if a baby is created thereby, it is God's will that that baby enjoy life. Because, as Christians, we believe God takes the bad things of this life and uses them for good for those who believe. The liberal press took the ambiguity of the statement to twist it and claim he was saying that rape is God's will, and his democrat challenger jumped right on the bandwagon. However, the Libertarian challenger wrote a lengthy statement defending the Republican, explaining that A) whether or not he agreed with his intention, he realized that a debate is a highly charged, stressful atmosphere in which to express complex beliefs on a stopwatch, and B) as it turns out, he did agree with the statement. Where the Democrat kept basically silent and let the national press attempt to destroy his opponant with innuendo, the Libertarian showed integrity, ethics and guts. That is why, despite the Republican being my favored candidate in all areas, I voted for the Libertarian for having the courage that I doubt either of the others would have had in a similar circumstance.
Anyway, onto my sports report. We had three big throwdowns this week in the NHFFL. The KCAs put up 57 points, with Doug Martin scoring 30 all by himself- but it was not enough to top the red-hot Fiery Beagles. Aaron Rodgers, Brandon Marshall, and Robbie Gould all hit double figures in a 67-57 win that kept them tied atop the leaderboard and gave them 6 straight wins after an 0-3 start.
In the second big game, the Aguas kept their share of the Purple Div. lead, and their tiebreaker advantage, with a 46-39 over an ever-more-desperate Rangers squad. The Bears' D did the heavy lifting for the Aguas, putting up 21 points against woebegone Tennessee.
The third big contest pitted the Porkchops against Gold second-place B2s. In a tight contest, it was Reggie Bush's TD that gave Porkchop a 38-31 win and the league's best record at 7-2.
This made the other two Gold games that much more important, as the Elks walloped the Ducks 64-25 behind the NY Giants' D scoring 19 and backup QB Carson Palmer posting 14. Also, Buzz took advantage to move into second with a 52-30 pasting of the Clock BBQs. The WR corps put up 30, with newcomer Randall Cobb and Eric Decker each scoring twice.And even the Greenwoods moved back into contention in the Purple with a 31-20 win over the Angels who, in a week where defences averaged 8.5 points with 4 teams topping 10, the Angels got 1 from Miami.
With the playoffs just three weeks away now, the Rangers, Clock BBQs, and Elks really need to step it up- and so far, only the Elks are managing it. Next week is the second cross-division week, and we lead off with the biggest game so far this season- the Beagles vs the Porkchops! The B2s fight for their playoff lives against the Aguas; The Elks and Rangers face off in a pivotal game for both sides; also, it's KCAs/Clock BBQs, Buzz/Angels, Greenwoods vs Ducks.
As for Lokomotiv, Friday was another OT affair. In fact, our boys have played 15 games out of 23 as 1-goal matches and seven have gone OT, six of those to the shootout. We are now 7-0 in OT after Friday's game in Ufa that matched us against Salavat Yulaev. They took a quick 1-0 lead but stellar denfeseman Staffan Kronwall tied it at 6:50 of the first with his 5th goal. My boy Emil Galimov put us up 2-1 with his second goal in regulation this year (he had two shootout goals coming into this one. That came late in the second and set up a fairly wild third period. Tomas Rolinek, a Czech in his first year with Salavat after spending the last four with Magnitogorsk, got his first of the season to tie things at 2-2 at 9:44 of the final stanza. Artyom Anisimov, a lockout player from Columbus, part of the big Rick Nash trade this spring, put us back on top with his second goal at 15:57, but Rolinek struck again with less than 2 minutes left to send us into OT, and then the shootout.
Curtis Sanford, making his second start, held off both Salavat shooters- including Rolinek- while Galimov collected his third SO goal and NHL vet Viktor Kozlov put it away with his score for a 4-3 win.
Our record (combining all the OT categories into one for W-L-O) is now 11-5-7, and puts us into a three-way tie for the league's second best in points (47) with Traktor (14-4-4) and Magnitogorsk (14-3-5), behind league leader Dynamo Moscow (14-4-5, 51 points). Speaking of Dynamos, Dinamo Riga becomes the sixth team this season to fire their coach. Pekka Rautakallio joins the coaches of Spartak, Avtomobilst, Dinamo Minsk, Lev, and Atlant on the unemployment line.
The league took three days off to help Swiss club Ambri-Piotta celebrate their 75th anniversary this week. A group of Russian vets played the club to a 6-6 tie in an exhibition match, taking some of the sting off a season that sees Ambri-Piotta mired in 11th place (of 12) in the Swiss NLA, 5-12-3 and 27 points behind leader Geneva Servette. As a result, Lokomotiv's next game is tommorow against Slovan at home.
And speaking of the Euro leagues, here's a quick look at the leaders around the continent.
Asia: Oji's Eagles are 12-0-1, leading by 7.
Austria: The Vienna Caps (12-3-4) have a narrow 31-29 lead over VSV and Zagreb.
Czech: Plsen (11-2-6) has a five-point lead in the Extraliga.
Denmark: SonderjyskE (10-2-0) are off to their usual lead.
Finland: The top 8 are within 6 points of each other, with JYP Jyvaskyla (11-6-4) and Saipa (10-6-5) at the top.
France: Undefeated Angers (7-0-1) leads Briancon by a point; traditional power Rouen (4-4-0) is in a group tied for 7th.
Germany: Kolner (10-5-3) has a 4-point lead in the DEL. My Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is mired in last at 4-10-3.
Italy: Val Pusteria (14-2-0) is running away in Serie A with a 10-point lead.
Norway: Valerenga (11-1-4) has a five point advantage over Stavenger.
Poland: Sanok (16-2-3) has run off to a 16 point lead. In fact, one team (Torun, 1-12-1) has already folded.
Slovakia: Zvolen (15-11-3) has run off to a 12 point lead, with the traditional powers Kosice and Banska Bystrika well back in the pack.
Sweden, another tight race sees the top 6 within 7 points of each other, with HV71 (11-4-4) currently on top.
Switzerland: As I mentioned, Geneva Servette (14-2-4) are out in front, up 9 points.
UK: a three-way tie at the top between Nottingham (8-3-4), Belfast (9-2-4), and Sheffield (6-5-6).
And there you have it! Pray for our nation today, that we may be granted a government blessed by God rather than the one we deserve.
Showing posts with label hockey in Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hockey in Europe. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Eurohockey update
Well, after this week we will have only 5 more champions to crown, as 7 more have won their leagues. Nottingham's Panthers lead off our list of champions. They won their one-and-done battle with Cardiff 2-0 to win their third EIHL title and second straight, finishing 40-12-6 overall.They were founded in 1946 and added one championship in the old English National league . Their playoff success comes despite never having finished better than third save once.
Pardubice took the Czech Extraliga, winning the last two games handily to take the series against Kometa Brno 4 to 2. Pardubice (35-24-12) has three championships and 3 runners up in the league's 19-year history. Founded in 1923, they also have three Czechoslovak titles. Pardubice is a town of 90,000 give or take in North central Czech Republic, first mentioned as a monastery town way back in 1295. It went from a sleepy village to a not-so-sleepy town after an important railroad line went through in 1845.
Rouen took there second straight Ligue Magnus title in France, and 4th in the last six years. The Dragons (28-10-3) rolled through games 5 and 6 against Grenoble (who won the other two in that span) took win the finals 4 to 2. Rouen's team, founded in 1982, now has 11 titles to their credit. (PS in case you hadn't noticed, I'm only doing "travelogues" for the cities that haven't won in the three seasons I've been doing these.)
In Italy, second-place Bolzano did to 1st place Val Pusteria what they did to 8th seed Fassa and 4th seed Cortina- swept them in 4 games to win the Serie A championship. Bolzano's Foxes (35-13-7) win their 18th title since their founding in 1925- the latest being in 2008 and 2009. Bolzano is a city of 104,000- one of the largest in the league- in the extreme north of Italy. Founded in 1190, they were a Bavarian city for centuries, becoming Austrian in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. It went to Italy after WWI, and the largely German population was diluted in the twenties and thirties when Mussolini embarked on a campaign to triple the city's Italian population. Sadly, it also was home to a nearby concentration camp during WWII.
In Norway, Stavanger's Oilers took their second title in three years (they lost in the finals to Sarpsborg last year), topping Lorenskog 4 to 2. Stavanger (47-8-4) has dominated the league since dethroning Valerenga two years past.
In the Elitserien, HC Brynas (37-24-11) topped Skelleftea 4 to 2 to win their 13th championship, but first since 1999. Brynas is based in the northern city of Gavle, population 71,000. It was founded in 1446 by Christopher of Bavaria. Bavaria, you say? Yes, the King of Denmark (and Sweden and Norway, in those days) had a Bavarian count for a papa and a Pomeranian (North coast of Poland, not the dog) princess for a mama. One thing I have to share with you about Gavle is "the Goat."
The history of the Gävle goat began in 1966. Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of placing a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas goat of straw in Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle. On 1 December the 13-metre tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat was erected on the square. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the goat went up in flames. The goat has since had a history of being burnt almost every year, 2005 being the 22nd time it was burnt. Burning the goat is an illegal act and not welcomed by most citizens of Gävle, but undoubtedly this is what has made the goat famous. In 2006 the goat was covered in a flame-resistant coating to prevent arson, enabling the goat to remain standing throughout that winter.
Finally on the winners, in Switzerland we had the battle between 5th seed (and perrenial champ) SC Bern and 7th seed ZSC Lions from Zurich. And not surprisingly, Bern had opened up a 3-1 lead after four games. But then ZSC won 2-1 SO in Bern, 6-3 at home, and again 2-1 in Bern to take the title. Zurich, who had ended the regular season 19-19-12, finished 31-22-12 overall. Founded in 1930, ZSC ("Zurich Skating Club") now has 7 NLA championships, the last in 2008.
Zurich, the financial center of Europe and Switzerland's largest city at 372,000, was populated since at least 15 BC. For centuries it was the political hub of the nation, and was bombed in WWII by accident despite being a neutral.
Two more series were to be decided today. In Denmark, Odensee had been up 3-1 on defending champs Blue Fox Herning, but BFH took the next two 2-0 and 3-0 to send the series to game seven.
Also to be decided today is the Slovakian championship, with Kosice hosting Slovan Bratislava in game seven.
In Finland, JYP Jyvaskyla trails the Penguins of Lahti 2 to 1 after Lahti won game three 4-1.
And in the KHL, it is Avangard Omsk with a 3 to 2 lead on Dynamo Moscow. After splitting the first 4 games and scoring seven goals between the two teams, they had a relative explosion in game five, which Avangard took 3-2.
BTW Taurus of Neftekamsk, who took out Donbass in the semis of the VHL, has beaten Ruby Tyumen 3-2 OT, 4-2, and 5-2 to take a 3 to 0 lead in the VHL finals. Neftekamsk, you may remember, was the first team that New Lokomotiv beat in its season opener.
UPDATE: We have our two latest winners. One is a repeat- Blue Fox Herning blanked Odensee 4-0 for the Danish championship (Odensee being shut out the last 61:22 of the series). This puts Herning with 16 championships- 7 this century. BFH finishes 35-19-3.
The other is Slovan Bratislava who stunned Kosice 2-1 OT for their 8th championship, 7 in the Slovak Extraliga. The Belasi ("Sky Blue") finish out at 43-19-8.
Bratislava is another of those places that has been inhabited forever. Known usually as Pressburg, it was part of Great Moravia, Hungary since the 10th century, part of the Hapsburg Monarchy of Ausrtia since the 1500's. A crossroads of history, it fell to Napoleon's army in 1809. By the time of WWI it was 42% German, 41% Magyar (Hungarian), and 15% Slovak. Lying right on the corner of Austria, Hungary, and the new nation of Czech-Slovakia, it was hotly debated until 1-1-1919, when the Czech Legion occupied the city and settled the issue. It was officially named Bratislava on March 27th of that year. It was the capital of Hungary from the fall of the Hungarian Kingdom at Mohacs in the 1500's until 1756, and was the Capital of Slovakia in both periods of independance. A city of 462,000, it is sister-citied with Cleveland, Ohio.
In March, Slovan applied for membership in the KHL, as did its Extraliga league-mate HK Poprad. Poprad shares the city with Lev Poprad in the KHL, but Lev is expected to move to Prague in 2012-13, where it will share the city with Slavia and Sparta in the Czech Extraliga.
Pardubice took the Czech Extraliga, winning the last two games handily to take the series against Kometa Brno 4 to 2. Pardubice (35-24-12) has three championships and 3 runners up in the league's 19-year history. Founded in 1923, they also have three Czechoslovak titles. Pardubice is a town of 90,000 give or take in North central Czech Republic, first mentioned as a monastery town way back in 1295. It went from a sleepy village to a not-so-sleepy town after an important railroad line went through in 1845.
Rouen took there second straight Ligue Magnus title in France, and 4th in the last six years. The Dragons (28-10-3) rolled through games 5 and 6 against Grenoble (who won the other two in that span) took win the finals 4 to 2. Rouen's team, founded in 1982, now has 11 titles to their credit. (PS in case you hadn't noticed, I'm only doing "travelogues" for the cities that haven't won in the three seasons I've been doing these.)
In Italy, second-place Bolzano did to 1st place Val Pusteria what they did to 8th seed Fassa and 4th seed Cortina- swept them in 4 games to win the Serie A championship. Bolzano's Foxes (35-13-7) win their 18th title since their founding in 1925- the latest being in 2008 and 2009. Bolzano is a city of 104,000- one of the largest in the league- in the extreme north of Italy. Founded in 1190, they were a Bavarian city for centuries, becoming Austrian in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. It went to Italy after WWI, and the largely German population was diluted in the twenties and thirties when Mussolini embarked on a campaign to triple the city's Italian population. Sadly, it also was home to a nearby concentration camp during WWII.
In Norway, Stavanger's Oilers took their second title in three years (they lost in the finals to Sarpsborg last year), topping Lorenskog 4 to 2. Stavanger (47-8-4) has dominated the league since dethroning Valerenga two years past.
In the Elitserien, HC Brynas (37-24-11) topped Skelleftea 4 to 2 to win their 13th championship, but first since 1999. Brynas is based in the northern city of Gavle, population 71,000. It was founded in 1446 by Christopher of Bavaria. Bavaria, you say? Yes, the King of Denmark (and Sweden and Norway, in those days) had a Bavarian count for a papa and a Pomeranian (North coast of Poland, not the dog) princess for a mama. One thing I have to share with you about Gavle is "the Goat."
The history of the Gävle goat began in 1966. Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of placing a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas goat of straw in Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle. On 1 December the 13-metre tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat was erected on the square. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the goat went up in flames. The goat has since had a history of being burnt almost every year, 2005 being the 22nd time it was burnt. Burning the goat is an illegal act and not welcomed by most citizens of Gävle, but undoubtedly this is what has made the goat famous. In 2006 the goat was covered in a flame-resistant coating to prevent arson, enabling the goat to remain standing throughout that winter.
 |
| The 2009 Goat. |
Finally on the winners, in Switzerland we had the battle between 5th seed (and perrenial champ) SC Bern and 7th seed ZSC Lions from Zurich. And not surprisingly, Bern had opened up a 3-1 lead after four games. But then ZSC won 2-1 SO in Bern, 6-3 at home, and again 2-1 in Bern to take the title. Zurich, who had ended the regular season 19-19-12, finished 31-22-12 overall. Founded in 1930, ZSC ("Zurich Skating Club") now has 7 NLA championships, the last in 2008.
Zurich, the financial center of Europe and Switzerland's largest city at 372,000, was populated since at least 15 BC. For centuries it was the political hub of the nation, and was bombed in WWII by accident despite being a neutral.
Two more series were to be decided today. In Denmark, Odensee had been up 3-1 on defending champs Blue Fox Herning, but BFH took the next two 2-0 and 3-0 to send the series to game seven.
Also to be decided today is the Slovakian championship, with Kosice hosting Slovan Bratislava in game seven.
In Finland, JYP Jyvaskyla trails the Penguins of Lahti 2 to 1 after Lahti won game three 4-1.
And in the KHL, it is Avangard Omsk with a 3 to 2 lead on Dynamo Moscow. After splitting the first 4 games and scoring seven goals between the two teams, they had a relative explosion in game five, which Avangard took 3-2.
BTW Taurus of Neftekamsk, who took out Donbass in the semis of the VHL, has beaten Ruby Tyumen 3-2 OT, 4-2, and 5-2 to take a 3 to 0 lead in the VHL finals. Neftekamsk, you may remember, was the first team that New Lokomotiv beat in its season opener.
UPDATE: We have our two latest winners. One is a repeat- Blue Fox Herning blanked Odensee 4-0 for the Danish championship (Odensee being shut out the last 61:22 of the series). This puts Herning with 16 championships- 7 this century. BFH finishes 35-19-3.
The other is Slovan Bratislava who stunned Kosice 2-1 OT for their 8th championship, 7 in the Slovak Extraliga. The Belasi ("Sky Blue") finish out at 43-19-8.
Bratislava is another of those places that has been inhabited forever. Known usually as Pressburg, it was part of Great Moravia, Hungary since the 10th century, part of the Hapsburg Monarchy of Ausrtia since the 1500's. A crossroads of history, it fell to Napoleon's army in 1809. By the time of WWI it was 42% German, 41% Magyar (Hungarian), and 15% Slovak. Lying right on the corner of Austria, Hungary, and the new nation of Czech-Slovakia, it was hotly debated until 1-1-1919, when the Czech Legion occupied the city and settled the issue. It was officially named Bratislava on March 27th of that year. It was the capital of Hungary from the fall of the Hungarian Kingdom at Mohacs in the 1500's until 1756, and was the Capital of Slovakia in both periods of independance. A city of 462,000, it is sister-citied with Cleveland, Ohio.
In March, Slovan applied for membership in the KHL, as did its Extraliga league-mate HK Poprad. Poprad shares the city with Lev Poprad in the KHL, but Lev is expected to move to Prague in 2012-13, where it will share the city with Slavia and Sparta in the Czech Extraliga.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Eurohockey update
Two new champions this week as things wind down in the northern hemisphere's hockey world. Things are just beginning to ramp up down under, though, as the Aussie hockey season opens April 28th with Adelaide hosting Canberra, Melbourne hosting Mustangs IHC, Newcastle hosting Gold Coast, and the battle of Sydney between the Ice Dogs and the Bears.
First off, those that are yet in the semis include the German teams I mentioned last week which kick off today; in Finland, #4 JYP and #6 Jokerit, along with #2 Lahti Penguines vs giant killer Espoo Blues (#8) kicked off last week with both JYP and Lahti holdiung 2-0 leads.
Everybody else has at least reached their finals. The Czech Extraliga features Pardubice vs Kometa Brno, who added the scalp of #2 Plsen to their belt- a 7-2 game 5 win giving Brno the win after previously knocking out #1 Sparta Praha in the quarters.
In Denmark, the long awaited finals between Blue Fox Herning and the Odensee Bulldogs starts today.
In France, the home teams have one all games; Rouen is up 3-2 with today's game in Grenoble.
In Italy, #2 Bolzano took game one Thursday, 3-2 over #1 Val Pusteria.
In Norway, the top 2 teams- Stavenger and Lorenskog- are tied at a game apiece. The KHL's finals were established earlier today when Avangard Omsk beat Traktor 1-0 for a 4-1 victory. Traktor won the opener, but only scored once in the last three games. They'll face upstart Dynamo Moscow, who tore through West Champ SKA St. Petersburg 5-4 OT, 2-1, 3-1, and 6-1.
The Slovak finals are set, with #1 Kosice facing #3 Slovan Bratislava.
In Sweden, #2 Skelleftea beat AIK 5-3 today to advance to the finals against #4 Brynas.
Switzerland features a #5 vs #7 final. The 5, defending champ SC Bern, took out #3 Freibourg to face Zurich, who topped their quarterfinal win over #2 Davos by taking top seed Zug in the semis 4 games to one. The final has been split by the home teams after two games.
In the UK, Belfast celebrated tearing through Dundee in the first round (5-0, 9-0) by Losing to 3-seed Cardiff 4-3 in the single game eliminations. Cardiff goes to the finals against today's Nottingham-Hull winner.
And that brings us two our two newly crowned Champions. First, one of the new follows for us is the Belarus Extraliga, where Mettalurg Zhlobin beat Neman Grodno 1-0 in a decisive game six to win their first BXL championship in the 19-year old league. Zhlobin finishes the year at 51-9-4.
Zhlobin itself is a small town of around 75,000 in the south-central area of the country. Described by their unofficial website as "519 years, 9 months, and 4 days old", it's main claim to fame is being the home of giant steel maker BMZ.
First off, those that are yet in the semis include the German teams I mentioned last week which kick off today; in Finland, #4 JYP and #6 Jokerit, along with #2 Lahti Penguines vs giant killer Espoo Blues (#8) kicked off last week with both JYP and Lahti holdiung 2-0 leads.
Everybody else has at least reached their finals. The Czech Extraliga features Pardubice vs Kometa Brno, who added the scalp of #2 Plsen to their belt- a 7-2 game 5 win giving Brno the win after previously knocking out #1 Sparta Praha in the quarters.
In Denmark, the long awaited finals between Blue Fox Herning and the Odensee Bulldogs starts today.
In France, the home teams have one all games; Rouen is up 3-2 with today's game in Grenoble.
In Italy, #2 Bolzano took game one Thursday, 3-2 over #1 Val Pusteria.
In Norway, the top 2 teams- Stavenger and Lorenskog- are tied at a game apiece. The KHL's finals were established earlier today when Avangard Omsk beat Traktor 1-0 for a 4-1 victory. Traktor won the opener, but only scored once in the last three games. They'll face upstart Dynamo Moscow, who tore through West Champ SKA St. Petersburg 5-4 OT, 2-1, 3-1, and 6-1.
The Slovak finals are set, with #1 Kosice facing #3 Slovan Bratislava.
In Sweden, #2 Skelleftea beat AIK 5-3 today to advance to the finals against #4 Brynas.
Switzerland features a #5 vs #7 final. The 5, defending champ SC Bern, took out #3 Freibourg to face Zurich, who topped their quarterfinal win over #2 Davos by taking top seed Zug in the semis 4 games to one. The final has been split by the home teams after two games.
In the UK, Belfast celebrated tearing through Dundee in the first round (5-0, 9-0) by Losing to 3-seed Cardiff 4-3 in the single game eliminations. Cardiff goes to the finals against today's Nottingham-Hull winner.
And that brings us two our two newly crowned Champions. First, one of the new follows for us is the Belarus Extraliga, where Mettalurg Zhlobin beat Neman Grodno 1-0 in a decisive game six to win their first BXL championship in the 19-year old league. Zhlobin finishes the year at 51-9-4.
Zhlobin itself is a small town of around 75,000 in the south-central area of the country. Described by their unofficial website as "519 years, 9 months, and 4 days old", it's main claim to fame is being the home of giant steel maker BMZ.
The other winner is Austria's Black Wings Linz (42-16-9) who swept KAC 3-2, 6-2, 4-1, and 3-1 after Klagenfurt won the opener. For BWL, celebrating their 20th season, it is their second EBEL title.
Linz, in the north of Austria, was founded by the Romans as Lentia, and was first mentioned as Linz in 799 AD. At one point in the 1400's the most powerful city in Central Europe, it was recently most noted- and not positively- as the home town of both Adolph Hitler and Adolph Eichmann.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Eurohockey update
First off, we have our second champs. They are the Oji Eagles of the Asia League. They finished a 3-1 series win over the Nikko Ice Bucks with a 4-3 OT win. Nikko had knocked off Anyhang Halla of Korea in the first round, while Oji beat the Nippon Paper Cranes 3-0. Oji, who finishes 26-7-9, have dominated Japanese hockey, racking up 34 All-Japan Championships, 13 Japan League titles, and this, their second Asia League crown.
Oji plays in the city of Tomakomai on the north island of Hokkaido. The pictures above show Midorigaoka Park and the port. Here's more from their English website:
The Tomakomai Port was opened in 1963 as the first large-scale, man-made excavated port in Japan, and was designated as an important port in 1981. Today, it has become an important port not only for industry but also as a distribution center, handling about one third of Hokkaido's total cargo volume, and is playing a great role in the development of Hokkaido's economy as the largest international trading port in northern Japan.
Various corporations, involved in a wide range of industry, including oil refining, automobile, electric power,lumber, chemical, nonferrous metals, and assorted feed locate their operations on the waterfront of the Tomakomai West Port which has been improved to cope with the modernization of freight traffic, forming a large coastal industrial area. Above all Toyota Motor Corporation Hokkaido started operation there in October, 1992, and is expected to grow as an extensive industry.
Tomakomai is a City of 174,000 on the south edge of the island. Well north of the quake/tsunami area, they received only minimal damage.
Next, a look at leagues that have reached their finals. In Austria, Black Wings Linz and KAC Klagenfurt split the first two games, both 3-2; But then the regular season champs topped KAC 6-2 at home and 4-1 in Klagenfurt to take a 3-1 lead.
In Belarus, Zhlobin leads Neman Grodno 3-2, all of the games 3-2 wins except Zhlobin's 5-2 game three win in Grodno.
In Denmark, Blue Fox Herning was the bane of SonderjyskE yet again, taking them out in the semis 4-1 to advance to the finals against Odensee. The series begins next Saturday.
In France, season champ Rouen faces seventh seed Grenoble in the finals. Grenoble makes the finals after twin upsets over #2 Dijon in the quarterfinals and #3 Chamoix in the semis. And in the finals, they are trying to do it again: after Rouen won 4-3OT and 8-2 games at home, Grenoble won the next two games in the south of France, 5-4 and 6-4.
Thursday, Val Pusteria and Bolzano, the 1-2 teams in Italy Serie A, kick off their final.
It will be a Tuesday kickoff in Norway's GET-Ligaen between the top 2 teams, Stavenger and Lorenskog.
#1 Kosice and #3 Slovan Bratislava start their finals a week from Sunday in the Slovak Extraliga.
The rest of the leagues look like this:
In the Czech Extraliga they've reached the semis. 8th ranked Kometa Brno, who upset top-ranked Sparta Praha 4-2, faces #2 Plsen and lead them 3 games to one, while Pardubice and Liberec are even at 2 apiece.
Finland is only in the first round, but Jokerit (downing IFK 4-0) and JYP Jyvaskyla (over Assat 4-1) are through to the quarters. First place KalPa looked good too, winning the first three against Blues Espoo, before dropping the next two 3-1 and 5-2.
In Germany, ERC Ingolstadt faces Adler Mannheim and Eisbaren Berlin takes on Straubing Tigers in the semis. Straubing knocked out my Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg 4-0 winning the games in Wolfsburg 2-1 and 3-1 and the two at home 7-0 and 7-3.
In the Elitserien, #1 Lulea got tagged out by #7 AIK 4-1 in the quarters. The semis feature Skelleftea vs AIK and Brynas vs Farjestads. Skelleftea and Brynas each lead their series 2-1.
In the UK, they have a two-week playoff. Each series is a 2-game best goals match, the quarters this weekend and the rest I believe start Friday. Nottingham and Braehead started early, with Braehead winning the opener 3-0 and Nottingham taking today's game and the series 5-1 (a 5-4 win). The others have played game one and decide things tomorow.
Finally, in the KHL, the East semi show Traktor and Avangard with a win apiece. In the West, Dynamo Moscow has won 5-4 OT and 2-1 matches against SKA St. Petersburg in what may be a major upset.
Just to put a bow on the VHL season, for some reason they have the top contender in each conference playing the other guy in the other conference. Thus, Diesel gets Ruby Tyumen while Taurus gets Donbas. Not only that, but Taurus ambushed Donbas 5-1 in their series opener. Wow!
That's it for this time. Next time, we'll have more champions, and maybe- since they don't have the schedule up yet, a look at this year's Aussie League!
The Tomakomai Port was opened in 1963 as the first large-scale, man-made excavated port in Japan, and was designated as an important port in 1981. Today, it has become an important port not only for industry but also as a distribution center, handling about one third of Hokkaido's total cargo volume, and is playing a great role in the development of Hokkaido's economy as the largest international trading port in northern Japan.
Various corporations, involved in a wide range of industry, including oil refining, automobile, electric power,lumber, chemical, nonferrous metals, and assorted feed locate their operations on the waterfront of the Tomakomai West Port which has been improved to cope with the modernization of freight traffic, forming a large coastal industrial area. Above all Toyota Motor Corporation Hokkaido started operation there in October, 1992, and is expected to grow as an extensive industry.
Tomakomai is a City of 174,000 on the south edge of the island. Well north of the quake/tsunami area, they received only minimal damage.
Next, a look at leagues that have reached their finals. In Austria, Black Wings Linz and KAC Klagenfurt split the first two games, both 3-2; But then the regular season champs topped KAC 6-2 at home and 4-1 in Klagenfurt to take a 3-1 lead.
In Belarus, Zhlobin leads Neman Grodno 3-2, all of the games 3-2 wins except Zhlobin's 5-2 game three win in Grodno.
In Denmark, Blue Fox Herning was the bane of SonderjyskE yet again, taking them out in the semis 4-1 to advance to the finals against Odensee. The series begins next Saturday.
In France, season champ Rouen faces seventh seed Grenoble in the finals. Grenoble makes the finals after twin upsets over #2 Dijon in the quarterfinals and #3 Chamoix in the semis. And in the finals, they are trying to do it again: after Rouen won 4-3OT and 8-2 games at home, Grenoble won the next two games in the south of France, 5-4 and 6-4.
Thursday, Val Pusteria and Bolzano, the 1-2 teams in Italy Serie A, kick off their final.
It will be a Tuesday kickoff in Norway's GET-Ligaen between the top 2 teams, Stavenger and Lorenskog.
#1 Kosice and #3 Slovan Bratislava start their finals a week from Sunday in the Slovak Extraliga.
The rest of the leagues look like this:
In the Czech Extraliga they've reached the semis. 8th ranked Kometa Brno, who upset top-ranked Sparta Praha 4-2, faces #2 Plsen and lead them 3 games to one, while Pardubice and Liberec are even at 2 apiece.
Finland is only in the first round, but Jokerit (downing IFK 4-0) and JYP Jyvaskyla (over Assat 4-1) are through to the quarters. First place KalPa looked good too, winning the first three against Blues Espoo, before dropping the next two 3-1 and 5-2.
In Germany, ERC Ingolstadt faces Adler Mannheim and Eisbaren Berlin takes on Straubing Tigers in the semis. Straubing knocked out my Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg 4-0 winning the games in Wolfsburg 2-1 and 3-1 and the two at home 7-0 and 7-3.
In the Elitserien, #1 Lulea got tagged out by #7 AIK 4-1 in the quarters. The semis feature Skelleftea vs AIK and Brynas vs Farjestads. Skelleftea and Brynas each lead their series 2-1.
In the UK, they have a two-week playoff. Each series is a 2-game best goals match, the quarters this weekend and the rest I believe start Friday. Nottingham and Braehead started early, with Braehead winning the opener 3-0 and Nottingham taking today's game and the series 5-1 (a 5-4 win). The others have played game one and decide things tomorow.
Finally, in the KHL, the East semi show Traktor and Avangard with a win apiece. In the West, Dynamo Moscow has won 5-4 OT and 2-1 matches against SKA St. Petersburg in what may be a major upset.
Just to put a bow on the VHL season, for some reason they have the top contender in each conference playing the other guy in the other conference. Thus, Diesel gets Ruby Tyumen while Taurus gets Donbas. Not only that, but Taurus ambushed Donbas 5-1 in their series opener. Wow!
That's it for this time. Next time, we'll have more champions, and maybe- since they don't have the schedule up yet, a look at this year's Aussie League!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Hockey update
Well, we have our first European champion of the season, and we have just one league still playing the regular season. Our foot-draggers are the UK's EIHL, with another 2 weeks to go and Belfast (37-5-8) still a three point leader on Sheffield.
Norway's GET-Ligaen are in the quarter finals, with #1 Stavenger (35-6-4) and runner up Lorenskog having both swept their first round opponants.
Lulea (25-13-17) won the tight Swedish Elitserien race, but trail 2-1 to AIK in their quarterfinal match.
Eisbaren Berlin (26-16-10) beat Kolner 4-3 SO to win the German DEL by 2 points over ERC Ingolstadt, with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg coming in third.
In Finland's S-M Liiga, Kalpo Kuopio (34-16-10) won a tight five team race and they are about to start their first round.
Same story in the Czech Extraliga where Sparta Praha (27-7-18) took the regular season title.
Slovakia is in its second round, where Kosice won a 2-1 OT game against Banska Bystrika to move on 4 to 1.
The KHL has advanced into the quarters after SKA (32-11-11) and Tracktor (amazingly, the same record) won their respective conferences. (Side note: my Automobist team finished a woeful 9-30-15, only better than Vityaz in the league.) SKA rolled past Red Army in the openning series, and is up 2-0 on Atlant in the quarters after 7-1 and 4-0 victories. The other Western quarter has Torpedo, who won a hard-fought set against Riga, versus Moscow Dynamo, who had swept Minsk 4-0 in their first round. In the East, Traktor easily handled Yugra and now faces Ak Bars Kazan, who finished off Salavat Yulaev's dissapointing season. In the other quarter, Avangard Omsk, fresh off a 4-0 sweep of Amur, meets Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who took out Barys Astana in round one.
France's Ligue Magnus is in the semis, with regular season champ Rouen, having finished off Amiens in a 3-2 series, faces their 2011 finals opponant Angers, who followed up a 3-game sweep against Caen in the first round with a 3-1 victory over Briancon in the second- after spotting them a game one loss. In the other semi, we have Chamoix, who cruised past Gap 3-1, against Grenoble. Grenoble, who finished the season 7th, lost the first two games against #2 Dijon before stringing together 3-2, 2-1 OT, and 5-2 wins to upset the favorites.
Asiago will not come up with another improbable playoff run in the Italian Serie A. After winning last year's final against Val Pusteria after a series-winning victory for V P was voided on a technicality, V P made no mistakes in their quarterfinal series, winning 4-2, 4-1, 7-0, and 2-1. They will play Alleghe in the semis, while Bolzano and Cortina meet in the other semi.
SonderjyskE and rival Blue Fox Herning face off on the Danish AL Bank Ligaen semis, and BFH has already took game 1 2-1. The other final has Odensee vs. AaB Ishockey.
Belarus' Extraliga had three phenominally dominant teams this year, and all three- season champ Zhlobin (41-5-4), second-place Neman Grodno, and third place Gomel- are through to the semis.
In the Swiss National League A, Zurich upset #2 Davos in the quarters, and now face season champ Zug in the semis, while defending champ SC Bern plays Fribourg.
Two leagues are already in their finals. One of those is Austria's EBEL, where Black Wings Linz rolls into the finals against a KAC Klagenfurt team that had to knock off #3 Red Bull Salzburg in the quarters and #2 Medvescak Zagreb in the semis.
The other is the Asia league, where the Nikko Ice Bucks, down 2-0 to perennial tough guys Anyang Halla, with Halla outscoring them 10-3, upset Halla in Korea 3-2. Then they followed up with 3-0 and 4-3 wins to take the series and face season champ Oji Eagles in the finals.
Finally, our first champ this year comes from the Polish League, where HC Sanok, who won the season with a 29-10-3 mark, went 8-1 in the two-round playoffs to win Sanok, who entered the league in 2004, had never won a playoff series, had never won more than 19 games, and had had one winning record and two trips to the playoffs (their first season, everybody went to the playoffs) before this season. In fact, their overall record is 57-143-31, so this is a real feel-good story.
Sanok is a town of about 39,500 in the extreme southeast corner of Poland. First mentioned in 1150, it was in a mixed ethnic area and was in fact heavilly Ukrainian until right after WWII, when both Soviet and Polish authorities agreed that deportation was a better option than Ukrainian separatism. Its most striking feature is a Castle in Gothic style dating from 1523.
.jpg)
Norway's GET-Ligaen are in the quarter finals, with #1 Stavenger (35-6-4) and runner up Lorenskog having both swept their first round opponants.
Lulea (25-13-17) won the tight Swedish Elitserien race, but trail 2-1 to AIK in their quarterfinal match.
Eisbaren Berlin (26-16-10) beat Kolner 4-3 SO to win the German DEL by 2 points over ERC Ingolstadt, with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg coming in third.
In Finland's S-M Liiga, Kalpo Kuopio (34-16-10) won a tight five team race and they are about to start their first round.
Same story in the Czech Extraliga where Sparta Praha (27-7-18) took the regular season title.
Slovakia is in its second round, where Kosice won a 2-1 OT game against Banska Bystrika to move on 4 to 1.
The KHL has advanced into the quarters after SKA (32-11-11) and Tracktor (amazingly, the same record) won their respective conferences. (Side note: my Automobist team finished a woeful 9-30-15, only better than Vityaz in the league.) SKA rolled past Red Army in the openning series, and is up 2-0 on Atlant in the quarters after 7-1 and 4-0 victories. The other Western quarter has Torpedo, who won a hard-fought set against Riga, versus Moscow Dynamo, who had swept Minsk 4-0 in their first round. In the East, Traktor easily handled Yugra and now faces Ak Bars Kazan, who finished off Salavat Yulaev's dissapointing season. In the other quarter, Avangard Omsk, fresh off a 4-0 sweep of Amur, meets Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who took out Barys Astana in round one.
France's Ligue Magnus is in the semis, with regular season champ Rouen, having finished off Amiens in a 3-2 series, faces their 2011 finals opponant Angers, who followed up a 3-game sweep against Caen in the first round with a 3-1 victory over Briancon in the second- after spotting them a game one loss. In the other semi, we have Chamoix, who cruised past Gap 3-1, against Grenoble. Grenoble, who finished the season 7th, lost the first two games against #2 Dijon before stringing together 3-2, 2-1 OT, and 5-2 wins to upset the favorites.
Asiago will not come up with another improbable playoff run in the Italian Serie A. After winning last year's final against Val Pusteria after a series-winning victory for V P was voided on a technicality, V P made no mistakes in their quarterfinal series, winning 4-2, 4-1, 7-0, and 2-1. They will play Alleghe in the semis, while Bolzano and Cortina meet in the other semi.
SonderjyskE and rival Blue Fox Herning face off on the Danish AL Bank Ligaen semis, and BFH has already took game 1 2-1. The other final has Odensee vs. AaB Ishockey.
Belarus' Extraliga had three phenominally dominant teams this year, and all three- season champ Zhlobin (41-5-4), second-place Neman Grodno, and third place Gomel- are through to the semis.
In the Swiss National League A, Zurich upset #2 Davos in the quarters, and now face season champ Zug in the semis, while defending champ SC Bern plays Fribourg.
Two leagues are already in their finals. One of those is Austria's EBEL, where Black Wings Linz rolls into the finals against a KAC Klagenfurt team that had to knock off #3 Red Bull Salzburg in the quarters and #2 Medvescak Zagreb in the semis.
The other is the Asia league, where the Nikko Ice Bucks, down 2-0 to perennial tough guys Anyang Halla, with Halla outscoring them 10-3, upset Halla in Korea 3-2. Then they followed up with 3-0 and 4-3 wins to take the series and face season champ Oji Eagles in the finals.
Finally, our first champ this year comes from the Polish League, where HC Sanok, who won the season with a 29-10-3 mark, went 8-1 in the two-round playoffs to win Sanok, who entered the league in 2004, had never won a playoff series, had never won more than 19 games, and had had one winning record and two trips to the playoffs (their first season, everybody went to the playoffs) before this season. In fact, their overall record is 57-143-31, so this is a real feel-good story.
Sanok is a town of about 39,500 in the extreme southeast corner of Poland. First mentioned in 1150, it was in a mixed ethnic area and was in fact heavilly Ukrainian until right after WWII, when both Soviet and Polish authorities agreed that deportation was a better option than Ukrainian separatism. Its most striking feature is a Castle in Gothic style dating from 1523.
.jpg)
And here's another pic from the city's website I just had to share...
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sorry, Al; Sorry, Dude
This lead is more of an Al Penwasser or Simple Dude gig, and I had to "build my own" since I didn't have the camera with me. Still, the irony was too much to pass up. A pickup truck passed us on the way home from work tonight. The door was emblazoned with something like this:
U.S. GOVERNMENT
Rage against the machine??? YOU ARE THE MACHINE, FOOL!!!
___________________________________________________
Alrighty, now I'll tuck in the latest Lokomotiv report. The last tune up for the outdoor game (more on this later) was this morning in Angarsk, where 6,104 fans (who hadn't seen their team play Yaroslavl since 1967) watched a scoreless first period. Halfway through the second, Oleg Yashin netted his 11th to give the visiting good guys a 1-0 lead.
Then, mysteriously, the roof caved in.
In a 1:13 stretch starting at 12:30 of the second, Ermak got goals from Pahudin Gimbatov, Maxim Yushkov, and Anton Nikonorov to blow out to a 3-1 lead and send Nikolai Lozhkin to the showers early. The two teams traded goals in the third, with Denis Ignashin pushing the score to 4-1 a half-minute into the period, and Emil Galimov scoring on a penalty shot at 13:09. But the story here was Ermak goalie Andrei Gavrilov. He held firm despite Lokomotiv outshooting the home team 26-9 in the third and 51-26 overall. Not a good outing for us, but a nice win for Ermak, whose coach Alex Zhdahin was celebrating his birthday as well.
The last preparations were finished on beautiful Central Stadium, situated on Holiday Island smack in the middle of the Yenisey River in lovely downtown Krasnoyarsk.
The venue has seating for 22,500, and word is that 17,000 of those tickets are sold. Now, having a stadium in the middle of a river has its downsides, as the Soviets learned here in 1966:
But fear not, as daytime temperatures for gametime are supposed to be 10 degrees F. Not the warmest of days, but beats the hell out of the 35 below a week or so ago, and I am told of an old Russian saying that goes, "A true Siberian is not the one who isn't afraid of cold, but the one who dresses right".
Finally, on the VHL website they had a neat little poll about the game. "What do you expect to find at the Russian Classic?" 43.44% chose "spectactular hockey"; 25.35% went with "record attendance"; 15.24 % were hoping to get the keys to a Toyota being given away; 12.13% wisely chose "frosty weather"; and a puzzling (to me) 3.84 % chose "hot drinks". I guess vodka doesn't count as a hot drink, eh?
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
U.S. GOVERNMENT
DEPT OF INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
And the irony comes with the sticker on the tailgate, which was in the neighborhood of this:
___________________________________________________
Alrighty, now I'll tuck in the latest Lokomotiv report. The last tune up for the outdoor game (more on this later) was this morning in Angarsk, where 6,104 fans (who hadn't seen their team play Yaroslavl since 1967) watched a scoreless first period. Halfway through the second, Oleg Yashin netted his 11th to give the visiting good guys a 1-0 lead.
Then, mysteriously, the roof caved in.
In a 1:13 stretch starting at 12:30 of the second, Ermak got goals from Pahudin Gimbatov, Maxim Yushkov, and Anton Nikonorov to blow out to a 3-1 lead and send Nikolai Lozhkin to the showers early. The two teams traded goals in the third, with Denis Ignashin pushing the score to 4-1 a half-minute into the period, and Emil Galimov scoring on a penalty shot at 13:09. But the story here was Ermak goalie Andrei Gavrilov. He held firm despite Lokomotiv outshooting the home team 26-9 in the third and 51-26 overall. Not a good outing for us, but a nice win for Ermak, whose coach Alex Zhdahin was celebrating his birthday as well.
The last preparations were finished on beautiful Central Stadium, situated on Holiday Island smack in the middle of the Yenisey River in lovely downtown Krasnoyarsk.
Finally, on the VHL website they had a neat little poll about the game. "What do you expect to find at the Russian Classic?" 43.44% chose "spectactular hockey"; 25.35% went with "record attendance"; 15.24 % were hoping to get the keys to a Toyota being given away; 12.13% wisely chose "frosty weather"; and a puzzling (to me) 3.84 % chose "hot drinks". I guess vodka doesn't count as a hot drink, eh?
Monday, February 6, 2012
The super game
No, not that one… although I will have some comments here in a bit. My boys from Yaroslavl were at home in front of the usual packed house of 8,900 to face Dynamo Balashika, whom as I said earlier is not a real strong team.
The boys almost put it away in the first minute of the game. Dmitry Maltsev scored in a scramble just 26 seconds from the opening face-off, his 4th of the year; and off the face-off from that, two quick passes had Daniil Yerdakov out at the edge of the circle and he blasted one past beleaguered goalie Dmitry Voloshin for his fourth goal with Lokomotiv and 15th on the year, and it was 2-0 before the first minute was out. Things settled down, relatively, until Emil Galimov scored his 8th, rolling nearly the length of the rink at 6:12 to make it 3-0; Forty-five seconds later, Oleg Yashin scored on a breakaway for his 10th of the year and a 4-0 margin. Needless to say, at this point we bid farewell to Mr. Voloshin and greeted Alexandr Cherepenin in the Dynamo goal. The period ended the same, with Lokomotiv scoring on 4 of 13 shots in the period- all 4 goals on just 5 shots against poor Voroshin.
In the second stanza, we upped the margin to 5-0 at 2:11 on a Rafael Akhmetov score, his 5th, on a power play. But then with Lokomotiv a man down, Maxim Erokhin got a PP goal to put Dynamo on the board. Then things suddenly got dicey; Nikita Lohzkin was screened on a shot by Dmitry Goldenkov that made it 5-2, and then Daniil Romantsev lost a pass out front and Ivan Ivanov slammed it home to cut the margin to 5-3. Dynamo had 16 second period shots, and what looked like a rout suddenly got scary…
…Until the third period. Dynamo found itself getting just 5 shots on goal in the third, and Daniil Apelkov netted his 2nd with just 7 seconds left, and the boys had a 6-3 win.
After the game coach Vorobiev was interviewed. One of the q/as was as follows:
Can I say that in VHL "Locomotive" can play at least on par with any competitor? - you can say anything. Another thing - as it happens. One game can beat any opponent, due to a crazy mood, for example, or luck. Also, any meeting can be and play - what if the opponent goalkeeper before the game something to eat. On what the team is able to show playoff games. Only they will answer the question - Does the team matured, we became man ...
The boys are off till Sunday, when they draw Kazzinc-Torpedo, with Donbass one of 2 non-Russian teams in the VHL. The game will be played at Torpedo’s home in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere in the interview Vorobiev mentioned that the long road trip earlier in the year Left both goalies with “butterfly”. The interviewer grilled him on bringing up a certain hot goaltender from the youth team, but Vorobiev said that it had been discussed and decided against. Several times, in fact, as the interviewer seemed unwilling to let it go. But this is my fourth season following Russian hockey, and one thing I learned early was that in Russian, goaltender and scapegoat tend to be interchangeable.
Next, my brief comments on the Giants’ SB win. Once again, the officiating embarrassed itself in places. The midfield official that looked right at that Patriot pass interference in the fourth and held his peace, if I were king of the world would have been immediately escorted from the stadium. I thought Tom Coughlin was going to fly through the air after him! Second, KC bugged me all day about Eli being a hall of famer. I told him at the beginning of his late TD drive, “If he can get a TD here, I’ll agree with you.” When Eli got them the TD, I said, “Okay, I said it, I’ll stand by it.” Finally, my postgame post on Facebook- “Now New England goes from being ‘the team that won 4 super Bowls’ to ‘the team that got beat by Eli twice.’”
Congrats to Fumble, winner of Most Valuable Pup at Puppy Bowl VIII yesterday! The best part of any Super Bowl Sunday is the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.
Finally, and totally unrelated to sports in any way (except extreeeeeeeemly tenuously), I give you this late-breaking news story:
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (CN) - A college student claims he was injured when a fraternity member in a "drunken stupor" decided "that it would be a good idea to shoot bottle rockets out of his anus," and did so, "but instead of launching, the bottle rocket blew up in the defendant's rectum, and this startled the plaintiff and caused him to jump back," and fall off the fraternity's deck.
Louis Helmburg III sued The Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Inc., of Huntington, West Virginia, and Travis Hughes, a fraternity member, in Cabell County Court.
Helmburg claims - in a statement it would be difficult to deny - that "firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity," which exposes both defendants to strict liability.
Okay, the lawsuit is breaking, the incident happened last May. Get your education at the U of West Virginia, where scientific tests have conclusively proven that “firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity”.
The boys almost put it away in the first minute of the game. Dmitry Maltsev scored in a scramble just 26 seconds from the opening face-off, his 4th of the year; and off the face-off from that, two quick passes had Daniil Yerdakov out at the edge of the circle and he blasted one past beleaguered goalie Dmitry Voloshin for his fourth goal with Lokomotiv and 15th on the year, and it was 2-0 before the first minute was out. Things settled down, relatively, until Emil Galimov scored his 8th, rolling nearly the length of the rink at 6:12 to make it 3-0; Forty-five seconds later, Oleg Yashin scored on a breakaway for his 10th of the year and a 4-0 margin. Needless to say, at this point we bid farewell to Mr. Voloshin and greeted Alexandr Cherepenin in the Dynamo goal. The period ended the same, with Lokomotiv scoring on 4 of 13 shots in the period- all 4 goals on just 5 shots against poor Voroshin.
In the second stanza, we upped the margin to 5-0 at 2:11 on a Rafael Akhmetov score, his 5th, on a power play. But then with Lokomotiv a man down, Maxim Erokhin got a PP goal to put Dynamo on the board. Then things suddenly got dicey; Nikita Lohzkin was screened on a shot by Dmitry Goldenkov that made it 5-2, and then Daniil Romantsev lost a pass out front and Ivan Ivanov slammed it home to cut the margin to 5-3. Dynamo had 16 second period shots, and what looked like a rout suddenly got scary…
…Until the third period. Dynamo found itself getting just 5 shots on goal in the third, and Daniil Apelkov netted his 2nd with just 7 seconds left, and the boys had a 6-3 win.
After the game coach Vorobiev was interviewed. One of the q/as was as follows:
Can I say that in VHL "Locomotive" can play at least on par with any competitor? - you can say anything. Another thing - as it happens. One game can beat any opponent, due to a crazy mood, for example, or luck. Also, any meeting can be and play - what if the opponent goalkeeper before the game something to eat. On what the team is able to show playoff games. Only they will answer the question - Does the team matured, we became man ...
The boys are off till Sunday, when they draw Kazzinc-Torpedo, with Donbass one of 2 non-Russian teams in the VHL. The game will be played at Torpedo’s home in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, and elsewhere in the interview Vorobiev mentioned that the long road trip earlier in the year Left both goalies with “butterfly”. The interviewer grilled him on bringing up a certain hot goaltender from the youth team, but Vorobiev said that it had been discussed and decided against. Several times, in fact, as the interviewer seemed unwilling to let it go. But this is my fourth season following Russian hockey, and one thing I learned early was that in Russian, goaltender and scapegoat tend to be interchangeable.
Next, my brief comments on the Giants’ SB win. Once again, the officiating embarrassed itself in places. The midfield official that looked right at that Patriot pass interference in the fourth and held his peace, if I were king of the world would have been immediately escorted from the stadium. I thought Tom Coughlin was going to fly through the air after him! Second, KC bugged me all day about Eli being a hall of famer. I told him at the beginning of his late TD drive, “If he can get a TD here, I’ll agree with you.” When Eli got them the TD, I said, “Okay, I said it, I’ll stand by it.” Finally, my postgame post on Facebook- “Now New England goes from being ‘the team that won 4 super Bowls’ to ‘the team that got beat by Eli twice.’”
Congrats to Fumble, winner of Most Valuable Pup at Puppy Bowl VIII yesterday! The best part of any Super Bowl Sunday is the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.
Finally, and totally unrelated to sports in any way (except extreeeeeeeemly tenuously), I give you this late-breaking news story:
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (CN) - A college student claims he was injured when a fraternity member in a "drunken stupor" decided "that it would be a good idea to shoot bottle rockets out of his anus," and did so, "but instead of launching, the bottle rocket blew up in the defendant's rectum, and this startled the plaintiff and caused him to jump back," and fall off the fraternity's deck.
Louis Helmburg III sued The Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity Inc., of Huntington, West Virginia, and Travis Hughes, a fraternity member, in Cabell County Court.
Helmburg claims - in a statement it would be difficult to deny - that "firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity," which exposes both defendants to strict liability.
Okay, the lawsuit is breaking, the incident happened last May. Get your education at the U of West Virginia, where scientific tests have conclusively proven that “firing bottle rockets out of one's own anus constitutes an 'ultra-hazardous' activity”.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The latest, the hard way
Well, I hate to post stuff so back to back like this, but blogger had to be reminded at 5:45 pm that 7:33 am had already come and gone. So actually, this is on time and my lovely perusal of Obama’s latest attempt to be the Grinch that stole Religion is late.
In any event, Lokomotiv notched another win, this time against an outclassed Ryazan club. Ryazan, a farm team for Atlant, managed only 17 shots against Nikita Lozhkin, who stopped them all. The rest of this report is a bit strained because google toolbar’s auto-translate feature broke while I was still reading, so much of what I learned I had to shop around for a translator and paste. Nevertheless here is what I gleaned. Just past the 3 minute mark of the game, Loko got its first goal- and by the translations I found, either Maxim Osipov scored sprawled on the ice or while having sex on the floor. (true story, those were two of the choices.) In either event, it was his first score as a Railroadman.
At 16:37 of the first, Oleg Yashin put in his 9th of the year to up the game to 2-0. Kiril Kaputsin hit him out front with nobody at home and the Ryazan goalie having missed a chance to lay on the puck for the easy goal. Daniil Apalkov on yet another pass into clear space from Rafael Akhmetov to push it to 3-0 at 15:08 of the second period. The goal was Apalkov’s first, and he followed it up with a perfect pass to Maxim Zyuzakin on a shorthanded situation, who tallied goal # 5 on the year to close the scoring at 4-0. One of the team’s best offensive performances, having put up 35 shots on goal, it was also Lozhkin’s 3rd shutout and second in a row. Nikita is 6th in the league with a 93.0% saves percentage and 5th with a 1.77 goals-against average.
Daniel Apal'kov
• Club: Lokomotiv
• Number: 43
• Position: Forward
• Height: 185
• Weight: 87
• Birth Date.: 01.01.1992
• Citizenship: Russia
• Age: 20 years 1 month
• Clubs by season:
Locomotive (11-12)
Next up for Lokomotiv is Dinamo Tver, a farm team of Dynamo Moscow, just down the road. It is a continuation of Loko’s grand tour of the league’s dregs, as Tver is 9-24-9. Lokomotiv itself is 8-3-3 and has a pretty good hold on third place in the conference. The game is on Sunday, so a bit of rest for the boys.
Also, before the translation gave out, I saw that tickets for the VHL’s first ever open air game between the Falcons of Krasnoyarsk and Lokomotiv on the seventeenth of this month went on sale today. All proceeds are going to the families of the crash victims, and the special price is 50 rubles per ( aprox. $1.65). I just checked, and it continues cold in the deep heart of Siberia, it is –29 F at 9 AM there- but the rest of the week they will be nosing close to and into positive numbers.
In any event, Lokomotiv notched another win, this time against an outclassed Ryazan club. Ryazan, a farm team for Atlant, managed only 17 shots against Nikita Lozhkin, who stopped them all. The rest of this report is a bit strained because google toolbar’s auto-translate feature broke while I was still reading, so much of what I learned I had to shop around for a translator and paste. Nevertheless here is what I gleaned. Just past the 3 minute mark of the game, Loko got its first goal- and by the translations I found, either Maxim Osipov scored sprawled on the ice or while having sex on the floor. (true story, those were two of the choices.) In either event, it was his first score as a Railroadman.
At 16:37 of the first, Oleg Yashin put in his 9th of the year to up the game to 2-0. Kiril Kaputsin hit him out front with nobody at home and the Ryazan goalie having missed a chance to lay on the puck for the easy goal. Daniil Apalkov on yet another pass into clear space from Rafael Akhmetov to push it to 3-0 at 15:08 of the second period. The goal was Apalkov’s first, and he followed it up with a perfect pass to Maxim Zyuzakin on a shorthanded situation, who tallied goal # 5 on the year to close the scoring at 4-0. One of the team’s best offensive performances, having put up 35 shots on goal, it was also Lozhkin’s 3rd shutout and second in a row. Nikita is 6th in the league with a 93.0% saves percentage and 5th with a 1.77 goals-against average.
Daniel Apal'kov
• Club: Lokomotiv
• Number: 43
• Position: Forward
• Height: 185
• Weight: 87
• Birth Date.: 01.01.1992
• Citizenship: Russia
• Age: 20 years 1 month
• Clubs by season:
Locomotive (11-12)
Next up for Lokomotiv is Dinamo Tver, a farm team of Dynamo Moscow, just down the road. It is a continuation of Loko’s grand tour of the league’s dregs, as Tver is 9-24-9. Lokomotiv itself is 8-3-3 and has a pretty good hold on third place in the conference. The game is on Sunday, so a bit of rest for the boys.
Also, before the translation gave out, I saw that tickets for the VHL’s first ever open air game between the Falcons of Krasnoyarsk and Lokomotiv on the seventeenth of this month went on sale today. All proceeds are going to the families of the crash victims, and the special price is 50 rubles per ( aprox. $1.65). I just checked, and it continues cold in the deep heart of Siberia, it is –29 F at 9 AM there- but the rest of the week they will be nosing close to and into positive numbers.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Win some, lose some
I just got done watching the “play by play “ on Lokomotiv’s Sunday game, but let me start with the Friday game. This was the one against struggling Krystal Saratov. In front of 8900 home fans, this one was all Lokomotiv. Dmitri Maltsev gave us the 1-0 lead, coming around from behind the net, at 9:50 of period 1. Then came a pair of blueline shots redirected into the goal, both by Daniil Romantsev (his 2nd and 3rd of the year) at 5:35 and 12:14 of the 2nd. In the third, Daniil Yerdakov got his 14th (3 with Loko) at 17:22 to finish off a 4-0 win. Nikita Lozhkin picks up his 2nd goose egg of the year, stopping all 27 shots and dropping his goals-against average to 2.90.
Today’s game was also a homer against Dizel (Diesel) Penza who were 21-13-7 coming in). And things didn’t go so well at first. Dizel dominated most of the first period, and beat Pavel Shegala on a shot by Nikolai Lukyanchikov at 5 seconds left in the 1st. It would be Lukyuanchikov again at 2:11 of the second, and Konstantin Maladin at 7:28 to put the visitors up 3-0. But it was a stronger period for the good guys, With Vladislav Kartayev just fanning on a shot from Alexi Kruchinin and Emil Galimov having one ricochet over the net and into the stands.
However, Dizel goalie Alexandr Polukeev was not so fortunate in the third. Kartayev took one out from under his glove and stuffed it in at 2:39, and then tipped a long pass behind him at 8:39, his third and fourth of the season. At 10:53, a pass bounced off Galimov and Maxim Zyuzyakin rammed it home for his 4th and a 3-3 tie.
They went through to OT, and other than a double minor- Pavel Lukin for us and Alexi Potemin for them ( I believe for holding and roughing, but translate turns it into “delay arms” and “rudeness”)- the OT was uneventful and we went to the shootout.
Both of the first shooters- their Vladimir Ivantsev and our Daniil Yerdakov- scored, but the next two each failed and the first pair came up again. This time, Palukeev stoned Yerdakov, but Ivantsev scored and Dizel won 4-3.
Next up is a Wednesday home game against HC Ryazan, another struggling team like Krystal at 12-22-8. Also, a big announcement for February 17th:
The “Russian Classic” outdoor game at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia between us and the homestanding Sokol (Falcons). Now last year on February 17th in Krasnoyarsk it was 21 F; I checked that yesterday because when I looked to see how cold it was yesterday, it was –35 with a high forecasted today of –26 F. Currently, which would be closing in on midnight there, it is –33; but fear not, because they’ll actually have an above zero high (1 above) by next Saturday. Frankly, if I were having an outdoor game, I think I’d have it somewhere warmer than the midst of Siberia, but then again I wouldn’t sit outside for the Super Bowl, much less hockey.
Today’s game was also a homer against Dizel (Diesel) Penza who were 21-13-7 coming in). And things didn’t go so well at first. Dizel dominated most of the first period, and beat Pavel Shegala on a shot by Nikolai Lukyanchikov at 5 seconds left in the 1st. It would be Lukyuanchikov again at 2:11 of the second, and Konstantin Maladin at 7:28 to put the visitors up 3-0. But it was a stronger period for the good guys, With Vladislav Kartayev just fanning on a shot from Alexi Kruchinin and Emil Galimov having one ricochet over the net and into the stands.
However, Dizel goalie Alexandr Polukeev was not so fortunate in the third. Kartayev took one out from under his glove and stuffed it in at 2:39, and then tipped a long pass behind him at 8:39, his third and fourth of the season. At 10:53, a pass bounced off Galimov and Maxim Zyuzyakin rammed it home for his 4th and a 3-3 tie.
They went through to OT, and other than a double minor- Pavel Lukin for us and Alexi Potemin for them ( I believe for holding and roughing, but translate turns it into “delay arms” and “rudeness”)- the OT was uneventful and we went to the shootout.
Both of the first shooters- their Vladimir Ivantsev and our Daniil Yerdakov- scored, but the next two each failed and the first pair came up again. This time, Palukeev stoned Yerdakov, but Ivantsev scored and Dizel won 4-3.
Next up is a Wednesday home game against HC Ryazan, another struggling team like Krystal at 12-22-8. Also, a big announcement for February 17th:
The “Russian Classic” outdoor game at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia between us and the homestanding Sokol (Falcons). Now last year on February 17th in Krasnoyarsk it was 21 F; I checked that yesterday because when I looked to see how cold it was yesterday, it was –35 with a high forecasted today of –26 F. Currently, which would be closing in on midnight there, it is –33; but fear not, because they’ll actually have an above zero high (1 above) by next Saturday. Frankly, if I were having an outdoor game, I think I’d have it somewhere warmer than the midst of Siberia, but then again I wouldn’t sit outside for the Super Bowl, much less hockey.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Wastebook finale, and some other stuff.
Okay, I’ve gleaned the last couple of funnys from Wastebook for you today. Though what I’ve posted is far from everything, it is the best of that which will make you laugh while you cry.
#27- One of the many things the stimulus bill brought us was a $96,000 bill to give the kindergartners of one Maine district (around 300 of ‘em) IPad2’s for classwork. Let’s put aside the facts that 1% of K kids can read words in context, 2% can recognize some words, and 4% can do the simplest of adding and subtracting, according to the Dept. of Education; set aside that a Facebook poll of the district said that 95% of parents (7624 of 7981) thought it was a stupid idea. $96,000 by 300 kids means they paid $320 apiece for an item I found on Overstock.com for less than $44. Martin savings- $83,040.
23- The National Institute of Health (which obviously doesn’t cover mental health) gave $356,933 over a 2 year period to examine the possible link between cocaine and risky sexual behavior by studying the effects on the sex drive of Japanese Quail. Why Quail? “Because, “ a researcher says, “the birds readily engage in reproductive behavior in the lab.” IOW, they don’t care who they fool around with in public. Given that, I have to wonder how much riskier behavior quail on cocaine can manage. And was the study sckewed by lack of condom availability?
Martin savings: look at the warrant pics of people busted for cocaine possession. Find out how many kids they have. Think about whether YOU’D want to have sex with him/her, and do the math. 75 cents for a newspaper.
A double-popper, #s 19 and 33. 19 is how one billion dollars in credits have been given by the IRS for household energy efficiency improvements to people who have never owned a home, including incarcerated prisoners and children as young as 3. Over 30% of these credits, according to the IG in charge of taxation, have gone to people with no proof of ever having owned a home- and the IRS is not only not able to verify any claims, but doesn’t even require proof!
Martin savings comes in on #33- the IRS was also found to have 22,486 items in various warehouses that HAD NOT BEEN TOUCHED IN at least 18 MONTHS! The rental on these warehouses costs the IRS $862,000 per year! Sell that crap and hire a couple of agents to check into these credit applications.
-----------------------------------------------------
I got a request from Mynx to look into the Australian Ice Hockey League. The top league down under, they are a semi-pro league- no salaries, but some vehicles, hotel, and other such paid for by sponsors. They also differ from most in playing 15-minute periods instead of 20. Their season runs on weekends from mid-April to the beginning of September.
Beginning this year, the league was split into two conferences. the Northeast contains the Canberra Knights; 2 teams from Sydney, the Bears and the Ice Dogs; the Newcastle North Stars (kinda odd to be NORTH stars in Oz, but whatever); and the Gold Coast Blue Tongues (no, the mascot isn’t a chow, but a lizard indigenous to the area). In the Southwest we have the brand new Perth Thunder; the Adelaide Adrenaline; and two squads from Melbourne, the Mustangs IHC and the two time champion Melbourne Ice. The Ice won the last championship against 4-time champ Newcastle in a playoff that is a 4-team, single elimination tourney. Melbourne started out on a 6-1 streak to open the season, and solidified their hold with a 5-game win streak in July. The Ice blew out Adelaide 8-3 in the first game and edged Newcastle 3-2 in the championship.
The league also announced that they would this season have a “Trans-Tasman Champions League” with the top two from their league playing a round robin with the top two from New Zealand.
-------------------------------------------------
The Austrian League has started their “second phase” leading into the playoffs. The top six play a round robin to determine playoff placement. Black Wings Linz, who won the regular season with a 24-7-9 mark, get 4 bonus points going in; second place Medvescak Zagreb gets 3, and 3rd and 4th get 2 and 1. Zagreb in one of 5 non-Austrian teams in the 11-club circuit, hailing from Croatia. Also in the 6 team RR are Alba Volan Fehervar (from Hungary); Red Bull Salzburg, the two time defending champs; KAC Klagenfurter; And Olimpija Ljubliana, one of two Slovenian teams. Linz has picked up where they left off, downing Zagreb 2-0 and Olimpija 4-0. RBS is struggling, as they have all season, with an opening loss to KAC 6-4 and a 7-1 drubbing by Alba Volan.
The bottom five also have a RR, with the top two going to the main playoffs, while the bottom of the bottom gets relegated next year. These five include Orli Znojmo from the Czech Republic; the Graz 99ers; my VSV Villacher; the Vienna Capitals; and Slovenia’s Acroni Jesenice, which is in such a bad way monetarilly that the president of the club was forced to resign under fan pressure, and the club and the mayor of the city had to give assurances at the end of the season that they could afford to play in the playoffs. Graz is leading this group, with a 3-2 SO win over the Caps, and 4-0 over VSV , who also lost to Orli. That loss, 3-2, surprised the league since the last regular season game was a 7-0 win by VSV in Znojmo, and the playoff loss was in Villach.
#27- One of the many things the stimulus bill brought us was a $96,000 bill to give the kindergartners of one Maine district (around 300 of ‘em) IPad2’s for classwork. Let’s put aside the facts that 1% of K kids can read words in context, 2% can recognize some words, and 4% can do the simplest of adding and subtracting, according to the Dept. of Education; set aside that a Facebook poll of the district said that 95% of parents (7624 of 7981) thought it was a stupid idea. $96,000 by 300 kids means they paid $320 apiece for an item I found on Overstock.com for less than $44. Martin savings- $83,040.
23- The National Institute of Health (which obviously doesn’t cover mental health) gave $356,933 over a 2 year period to examine the possible link between cocaine and risky sexual behavior by studying the effects on the sex drive of Japanese Quail. Why Quail? “Because, “ a researcher says, “the birds readily engage in reproductive behavior in the lab.” IOW, they don’t care who they fool around with in public. Given that, I have to wonder how much riskier behavior quail on cocaine can manage. And was the study sckewed by lack of condom availability?
Martin savings: look at the warrant pics of people busted for cocaine possession. Find out how many kids they have. Think about whether YOU’D want to have sex with him/her, and do the math. 75 cents for a newspaper.
A double-popper, #s 19 and 33. 19 is how one billion dollars in credits have been given by the IRS for household energy efficiency improvements to people who have never owned a home, including incarcerated prisoners and children as young as 3. Over 30% of these credits, according to the IG in charge of taxation, have gone to people with no proof of ever having owned a home- and the IRS is not only not able to verify any claims, but doesn’t even require proof!
Martin savings comes in on #33- the IRS was also found to have 22,486 items in various warehouses that HAD NOT BEEN TOUCHED IN at least 18 MONTHS! The rental on these warehouses costs the IRS $862,000 per year! Sell that crap and hire a couple of agents to check into these credit applications.
-----------------------------------------------------
I got a request from Mynx to look into the Australian Ice Hockey League. The top league down under, they are a semi-pro league- no salaries, but some vehicles, hotel, and other such paid for by sponsors. They also differ from most in playing 15-minute periods instead of 20. Their season runs on weekends from mid-April to the beginning of September.
Beginning this year, the league was split into two conferences. the Northeast contains the Canberra Knights; 2 teams from Sydney, the Bears and the Ice Dogs; the Newcastle North Stars (kinda odd to be NORTH stars in Oz, but whatever); and the Gold Coast Blue Tongues (no, the mascot isn’t a chow, but a lizard indigenous to the area). In the Southwest we have the brand new Perth Thunder; the Adelaide Adrenaline; and two squads from Melbourne, the Mustangs IHC and the two time champion Melbourne Ice. The Ice won the last championship against 4-time champ Newcastle in a playoff that is a 4-team, single elimination tourney. Melbourne started out on a 6-1 streak to open the season, and solidified their hold with a 5-game win streak in July. The Ice blew out Adelaide 8-3 in the first game and edged Newcastle 3-2 in the championship.
The league also announced that they would this season have a “Trans-Tasman Champions League” with the top two from their league playing a round robin with the top two from New Zealand.
-------------------------------------------------
The Austrian League has started their “second phase” leading into the playoffs. The top six play a round robin to determine playoff placement. Black Wings Linz, who won the regular season with a 24-7-9 mark, get 4 bonus points going in; second place Medvescak Zagreb gets 3, and 3rd and 4th get 2 and 1. Zagreb in one of 5 non-Austrian teams in the 11-club circuit, hailing from Croatia. Also in the 6 team RR are Alba Volan Fehervar (from Hungary); Red Bull Salzburg, the two time defending champs; KAC Klagenfurter; And Olimpija Ljubliana, one of two Slovenian teams. Linz has picked up where they left off, downing Zagreb 2-0 and Olimpija 4-0. RBS is struggling, as they have all season, with an opening loss to KAC 6-4 and a 7-1 drubbing by Alba Volan.
The bottom five also have a RR, with the top two going to the main playoffs, while the bottom of the bottom gets relegated next year. These five include Orli Znojmo from the Czech Republic; the Graz 99ers; my VSV Villacher; the Vienna Capitals; and Slovenia’s Acroni Jesenice, which is in such a bad way monetarilly that the president of the club was forced to resign under fan pressure, and the club and the mayor of the city had to give assurances at the end of the season that they could afford to play in the playoffs. Graz is leading this group, with a 3-2 SO win over the Caps, and 4-0 over VSV , who also lost to Orli. That loss, 3-2, surprised the league since the last regular season game was a 7-0 win by VSV in Znojmo, and the playoff loss was in Villach.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday morning, you sure look fine..
And last night’s title bout- 5 inches of snow vs a severe thunderstorm at 2:20 AM with somewhere between .33 and .89 inches of rain-
-and it’s thunderstorm by decision!
Here, somebody made you a snowman, Alisa! He seems to have had a rough night…
The view from Scrappy’s Landing. It was weird to listen to the ice cracking from the melting, the current, and stuff dropping from the trees.
Now there are three ways we use to cross the feeder to get on the greenway trail- the bridges at the Plex; our little crossing at the stream; and the wooden bridge down from the landing. The little crossing was full enough of water that I had to find a dryer place to jump across, but the wooden bridge (which can float away in times of flood) was pretty secure.
It would have taken probably 3 times the snow to melt to put that one in trouble.
Meanwhile, they continue to work on the bridge over the St. Joe in order to put in the path beneath it that will link the greenway to Shoaff Park…
Hopefully they’ll have it done before the erosion at the river bend knocks out the trail.
Two days ago, the 9 AM temp was 10.5. Today it was 47. Welcome to Indiana.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Some other notes- in nosing around the hockey world, I saw that Austria’s EBHL had finished the regular season and went on to stage 2- where the top 6 teams do a round robin to determine playoff seeding, and the bottom five do likewise, with two teams getting the last two playoff spots and the last one getting relegated. Black Wings Linz won the season title, and my VSV Villacher team is in the “other five”. I’ll deal with this a bit more when I do my next hockey update.
Also, I brought up the other day the Israeli league, which I don’t regularly follow as the quality of club hockey at McMillan Ice Arena here in Ft. Wayne is better. But I brought it up because they used to have the one team that might be worse than AHL’s China Dragon. That team used to be Bat-Yam 2; Now it is in the city of Holon, where they are known as (I can’t make this stuff up) the Jet Turtles.
They are the ones who got beat 19-0 on opening day. That game was apparently 5-0 after 2 periods, but then they put in their backup goalie (one Yoav {Knuckles} Friedman, who apparently tried out once for Ontario of the ECHL, with predictable results) and he managed to give up 14. One commenter on International Hockey Forums mentioned that there was a video available, but it mainly focused on the goaltender. To which another commenter rightly noted that when he gives up 14 goals in a 20-minute period, there’s not a whole lot of opportunity to look elsewhere. Holon has gone on to lose their next 2 games 12-0 and 13-0, and even China Dragon has played a couple of relatively close games.
___________________________________
Finally, a note about JoePa. I thought about doing a full blown tribute here, but talked myself out of it. Not because of that pervert Sandusky, but because of the tales of his dictatorial rule over the university that have come out since. Mind you, you can’t touch as many lives for the positive as he did without having something good within you. But apparently you had to be a member of the football “family” to rate that treatment. So, as is true for all of us, in between those who want to put him up for sainthood and those who wish he’d lived long enough to do jail time, the truth lies. I still am uncomfortable about how the university treated him at the end; but what you sow, that shall you also reap. And before you know it, the crop’s all in. Something to think about before your combine gets fired up.
-and it’s thunderstorm by decision!
Here, somebody made you a snowman, Alisa! He seems to have had a rough night…
The view from Scrappy’s Landing. It was weird to listen to the ice cracking from the melting, the current, and stuff dropping from the trees.
Now there are three ways we use to cross the feeder to get on the greenway trail- the bridges at the Plex; our little crossing at the stream; and the wooden bridge down from the landing. The little crossing was full enough of water that I had to find a dryer place to jump across, but the wooden bridge (which can float away in times of flood) was pretty secure.
 |
| The view from the wooden footbridge. |
Meanwhile, they continue to work on the bridge over the St. Joe in order to put in the path beneath it that will link the greenway to Shoaff Park…
Hopefully they’ll have it done before the erosion at the river bend knocks out the trail.
Two days ago, the 9 AM temp was 10.5. Today it was 47. Welcome to Indiana.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Some other notes- in nosing around the hockey world, I saw that Austria’s EBHL had finished the regular season and went on to stage 2- where the top 6 teams do a round robin to determine playoff seeding, and the bottom five do likewise, with two teams getting the last two playoff spots and the last one getting relegated. Black Wings Linz won the season title, and my VSV Villacher team is in the “other five”. I’ll deal with this a bit more when I do my next hockey update.
Also, I brought up the other day the Israeli league, which I don’t regularly follow as the quality of club hockey at McMillan Ice Arena here in Ft. Wayne is better. But I brought it up because they used to have the one team that might be worse than AHL’s China Dragon. That team used to be Bat-Yam 2; Now it is in the city of Holon, where they are known as (I can’t make this stuff up) the Jet Turtles.
They are the ones who got beat 19-0 on opening day. That game was apparently 5-0 after 2 periods, but then they put in their backup goalie (one Yoav {Knuckles} Friedman, who apparently tried out once for Ontario of the ECHL, with predictable results) and he managed to give up 14. One commenter on International Hockey Forums mentioned that there was a video available, but it mainly focused on the goaltender. To which another commenter rightly noted that when he gives up 14 goals in a 20-minute period, there’s not a whole lot of opportunity to look elsewhere. Holon has gone on to lose their next 2 games 12-0 and 13-0, and even China Dragon has played a couple of relatively close games.
___________________________________
Finally, a note about JoePa. I thought about doing a full blown tribute here, but talked myself out of it. Not because of that pervert Sandusky, but because of the tales of his dictatorial rule over the university that have come out since. Mind you, you can’t touch as many lives for the positive as he did without having something good within you. But apparently you had to be a member of the football “family” to rate that treatment. So, as is true for all of us, in between those who want to put him up for sainthood and those who wish he’d lived long enough to do jail time, the truth lies. I still am uncomfortable about how the university treated him at the end; but what you sow, that shall you also reap. And before you know it, the crop’s all in. Something to think about before your combine gets fired up.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Uhhnn… Sorry, I must have blacked out…
Sorry, this post has nothing to do with the protest against SOPA (although I was one of those who sent the letter to his congressman- and, said congressman has posted on facebook that he plans to vote against it), I just couldn’t resist the tag line. So lat me get on with my pirating.
Former Umpire Marty Springstead died at home at the age of 74. Marty was one of the true good guys, a well respected official (which puts him ahead of 99% of NFL refs this year).
Next, The CBS evening news led off with perhaps the stupidest thing I have EVER heard on broadcast television:
“The cruise ship captain under fire for abandoning his vessel while thousands of passengers scrambled for rescue has reportedly come up with an explanation for his flight - he accidentally tripped and fell into a lifeboat.”
COME. F’N. ON.
I tripped and fell into a lifeboat. That’s why the commander of the coast guard spent a half-hour vainly trying to order my yellow ass back onto the ship. So now not only is he a craven coward, but also a blatant liar. Sorry to be unforgiving, but It will be a fine day when he adds “Convicted felon” to the accolades he won with this trip.
As of right now, Cashbox has not gotten their server back up. Rest assured, that with a little warning and scads of extra time (yep, another early weekend due to lack of work), I will be doing… something… this Friday. Not sure what, but I just had an idea and if I remember it long enough I might just try it. Assuming SOPA doesn’t stop me.
Now, I realize that I do my hockey posts for my own entertainment. My followers include those who dislike hockey, those who don’t understand hockey, those that can’t skate (me neither), and Lord help us, Philly Flyers fans. Never the less, I have an addendum to last night’s post, in particular the glancing blow I dealt to the Continental cup tourney. It seems that once they got to the Sunday games, they weren’t going by goal differential amongst all four teams, but only the differential in the games between the three teams still in it. Thus, when Yunost won, they needed a Rouen win of 2 goals or less. Donbass needed a win, and they trailed Rouen 3-2 with less than three minutes left, which would have given the cup to Yunost. But Rouen scored twice IN THE LAST 2 1/2 MINUTES to get their 3-goal margin and the cup! And the game was in Rouen, can you imagine what that arena must have been like when that last goal went in?
Tune in tomorrow, when- at Average Girl’s request, I will do a post about yoga, and… what? That got blacked out? Pirating charges? Oh well, maybe I’ll just raid wastebook for more bon mots instead.
Former Umpire Marty Springstead died at home at the age of 74. Marty was one of the true good guys, a well respected official (which puts him ahead of 99% of NFL refs this year).
Next, The CBS evening news led off with perhaps the stupidest thing I have EVER heard on broadcast television:
“The cruise ship captain under fire for abandoning his vessel while thousands of passengers scrambled for rescue has reportedly come up with an explanation for his flight - he accidentally tripped and fell into a lifeboat.”
COME. F’N. ON.
I tripped and fell into a lifeboat. That’s why the commander of the coast guard spent a half-hour vainly trying to order my yellow ass back onto the ship. So now not only is he a craven coward, but also a blatant liar. Sorry to be unforgiving, but It will be a fine day when he adds “Convicted felon” to the accolades he won with this trip.
As of right now, Cashbox has not gotten their server back up. Rest assured, that with a little warning and scads of extra time (yep, another early weekend due to lack of work), I will be doing… something… this Friday. Not sure what, but I just had an idea and if I remember it long enough I might just try it. Assuming SOPA doesn’t stop me.
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| They're calling it "Le Miracle de Rouen"! |
Tune in tomorrow, when- at Average Girl’s request, I will do a post about yoga, and… what? That got blacked out? Pirating charges? Oh well, maybe I’ll just raid wastebook for more bon mots instead.
Monday, January 16, 2012
The boys in Orsk
Before we get to this morning’s game, I have a few notes and going’s on to tell you about. The Continental Cup, which involves clubs from all over Europe, had its “superfinals” – a four team round robin for the championship- over this weekend. The finalists were our good friends from Donbass, the perrenial French champs Rouen, the Belorussian Extraliga champs Yunost Minsk, and Italian kingpins Asiago. Friday it was Donbass edging the Belorussians 2-1 and Rouen blowing out Asiago 6-0. Saturday Yunost surprised Rouen 4-2 and Donbass took its turn at the Italians 6-2. So three teams had a chance at the crown on Sunday, with total margin being the tiebreaker. Yunost took out Asiago 4-1 leaving them 4 goals to the good and and essentially eliminated. They needed a Donbass loss by 2 AND a Rouen tie, which of course could not happen. Rouen needed a 2 goal win to tie Donbass; what they got was a 5-2 win, earning them their first cup championship. Defending champ Yunost finished second, leaving Donbass third.
Which brings us to our game in Orsk. Lokomotiv coach Vorobiev said before the game: “ We arrived in Orsk on the eve of the match. Did not even see the city, just rested from the road. The match at Chelyabinsk was very heavy, we had time to recover. The mood of the team, battle. The guys are working, trying, but they are not used to playing against adult players.” The three game losing streak was endangering their seeding in the upcoming tournament, and they desperately needed a win to close their road trip.
Orsk, for its part, is hockey crazy; Not only did they sell out the 4,600 seat arena, but sold almost 1,000 SRO tickets at the door at game time! Special pricing made the tickets cost ($ equivalent) 1.88 to 3.76. The pricing was explained by officials as, “it’s about the prestige of the full stands. By the time we pay everyone, we don’t make any money.”
The game opened with Orsk’s Anton Buhanko (which, amusingly enough, comes through google translate as “ a loaf of Anton”) scoring at 3:41 of the first for a 1-0 home team lead. But at the 14-15 minute mark, two skaters from Orsk drew penalties, and Egor Martynov scored on a shot from the blue line to even things at 1-1 at 15:50. Still, Orsk escaped from the first with a lead when the league’s leading goal scorer, Roman Muzychko, beat Pavel Shegala while lying at the side of the goal for his 22nd and a 2-1 lead.
The second period was scoreless, with Orsk goalie Sergei Magarilov stopping Daniel Romantsev on a penalty shot.
The third, however, belonged to Emil Galimov. His 5th of the year came at 5:13 of the final stanza and tied the game 2-2; his second, on a shot from way out where he was hoping to set up a rebound but Magarilov whiffed on it, came at 13:37 and gave the kids a 3-2 win.
Afterwards, Vorobiev said, “We played well in Chelyabinsk, but had no luck. Tonight, we were lucky.”
The kids now have 9 days off before they return home to play Lada Togliatti, who played in the KHL the first season before being demoted.
Which brings us to our game in Orsk. Lokomotiv coach Vorobiev said before the game: “ We arrived in Orsk on the eve of the match. Did not even see the city, just rested from the road. The match at Chelyabinsk was very heavy, we had time to recover. The mood of the team, battle. The guys are working, trying, but they are not used to playing against adult players.” The three game losing streak was endangering their seeding in the upcoming tournament, and they desperately needed a win to close their road trip.
Orsk, for its part, is hockey crazy; Not only did they sell out the 4,600 seat arena, but sold almost 1,000 SRO tickets at the door at game time! Special pricing made the tickets cost ($ equivalent) 1.88 to 3.76. The pricing was explained by officials as, “it’s about the prestige of the full stands. By the time we pay everyone, we don’t make any money.”
The game opened with Orsk’s Anton Buhanko (which, amusingly enough, comes through google translate as “ a loaf of Anton”) scoring at 3:41 of the first for a 1-0 home team lead. But at the 14-15 minute mark, two skaters from Orsk drew penalties, and Egor Martynov scored on a shot from the blue line to even things at 1-1 at 15:50. Still, Orsk escaped from the first with a lead when the league’s leading goal scorer, Roman Muzychko, beat Pavel Shegala while lying at the side of the goal for his 22nd and a 2-1 lead.
 |
| How do you stop a guy who scores from HERE? |
The second period was scoreless, with Orsk goalie Sergei Magarilov stopping Daniel Romantsev on a penalty shot.
The third, however, belonged to Emil Galimov. His 5th of the year came at 5:13 of the final stanza and tied the game 2-2; his second, on a shot from way out where he was hoping to set up a rebound but Magarilov whiffed on it, came at 13:37 and gave the kids a 3-2 win.
Afterwards, Vorobiev said, “We played well in Chelyabinsk, but had no luck. Tonight, we were lucky.”
The kids now have 9 days off before they return home to play Lada Togliatti, who played in the KHL the first season before being demoted.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Hockey update
Much to your delight, I got bored during the Giants game and decided to see how the Eurohockey world is doing. I'll start in the KHL (Russia) where the West Conference shows SKA St. Petersburg running away. They are now 23-5-9, and at 82 pts have an 11-pt lead on Dinamo Minsk. Traktor Chelyabinsk holds the lead in the East with a 21-8-7 record and 5 pt lead over Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Moving west, I'll go to 2 new leagues I found access to. The Belorussian Extraleague is led by Metallurg Zhlobin with a 29-4-3 record and 91 pts, 5 better than HK Homiel. At this point I will remind you that for simplicity's sake I put everything OT, whether win, loss, or draw, into the third column. Also, since I'm bloviating, I found two lists on the relative strength of these leagues. One is from the NHL Central Scouting, and is based on talent; the other, based on average payroll and looking at if a player could actually make a living just playing hockey. It ranks the top 7 and gives the rest "also can make a living" status. With the NHL obviously at the top of both, and ignoring minor and junior leagues, I can let you know that Belarus was on neither list, while the KHL was second on payroll and 3rd on talent.
The other new league is the Polish Hockey League, currently led by KH Sanok, 21-6-1, at 65 points leading Krakow by 10. Then would come Finland's S-M Liiga ( 4 by talent, 5 by payroll), where we find Kal Pa rolling to a 24-7-6 record and 11 point lead over Lahti.
Austria's EBHL, 9th on the talent list, is being led by Linz right now; a 25-9-8 record for 54 points, leading surprising Medvescak Zagreb by 10. Just to the north is Slovakia's Extraliga (8th on talent, also making enough on payroll), where Kosice (24-12-2) and Slovan Bratislava (24-11-3) are tied at 76 pts and the top 4 are all within 6.
The Czech Extraliga, 5 on talent and 3 on payroll, also has a fairly close-knit group at the top with Sparta Praha (19-6-12) a 3 point leader on Plzen. That brings us to Sweden's Elitserien (#2 talent, #4 payroll), where Skelleftea is the leader du jour at 17-10-9 and 63 points, with the top 5 all within 6. A different story in Denmark's AL-Bank Ligaen, with SonderjyskE fleeing the rest of the league at 23-4-3, 73 points, and a 20-point lead over Odensee, with defending champ Herning back in 4th.
The German DEL (7th on both lists), shows Eisbaren Berlin at 18-8-7, 67 points, one point up on Adler Mannheim. My Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is 5th, 10 back. Heading south, the National League A of Switzerland (6th on both) has 5 teams within 6 points of the top, with EV Zug (18-6-13) leading Freibourg by one. In Italy's Serie A (10th on talent, also making it on payroll), Val Pusteria continues to lead the league at 19-7-6, 66 points, 5 over Bolzano.
Norway's GET Ligaen (an also making it league) has Stavenger as usual on top, at 25-4-2, 79 points, a 16-pt lead on Valerenga. France's Ligue Magnus (another also making it league, though I don't see how with their short schedule) has perennial power Rouen on top at 12-1-2, 27 points, 3 more than Briancon. And England's EIHL is lead by the Giants of Belfast, at 26-4-3 and 55 points, 5 better than Nottingham.
Not to be forgotten is the Asia League, which also got "making it" mention. Anyang Halla, the Yankees of the Far East, are 15-5-8, 57 points, leading the Oji Eagles by 6.
And mentioning the Asia League reminds me of everyone's favorite whipping boys, the China Dragon. So, once again, let's visit the Worst Teams In The World list.
9 teams met my requirements for badness, and I've ranked them by their average margin of defeat.
#9- Nitra of Slovakia: 6-25-7, av. loss by 1.4.
#8-Avtomobilst Yekaterinburg (KHL): 5-24-7, av. loss by 1.6.
#7- Vitebsk of Belarus: 6-23-7, 2.3.
#6-Manglerud of Norway: 5-23-3, 2.5.
#5- Fife Flyers of the UK: 4-22-4, 2.9.
#4-MMKS Podhale of Poland: 2-20-6, 3.1.
#3- Torun of Poland: 5-20-3, 3.3.
#2- Frisk Asker of Norway: 3-25-3, 4.4.
#1- China Dragon, Asia League: 0-23-1, 5.4.
All of which reminded me of a few years back when I was making fun of the nasceany Israeli league, especially the woebegone Bat-Yam team. Well, this year, it took them till after Thanksgiving to even start their league, and their website has not updated past those first games. One of those teams got clubbed 20-0, but one game is not a league so enjoy your title, China Dragons!
Moving west, I'll go to 2 new leagues I found access to. The Belorussian Extraleague is led by Metallurg Zhlobin with a 29-4-3 record and 91 pts, 5 better than HK Homiel. At this point I will remind you that for simplicity's sake I put everything OT, whether win, loss, or draw, into the third column. Also, since I'm bloviating, I found two lists on the relative strength of these leagues. One is from the NHL Central Scouting, and is based on talent; the other, based on average payroll and looking at if a player could actually make a living just playing hockey. It ranks the top 7 and gives the rest "also can make a living" status. With the NHL obviously at the top of both, and ignoring minor and junior leagues, I can let you know that Belarus was on neither list, while the KHL was second on payroll and 3rd on talent.
The other new league is the Polish Hockey League, currently led by KH Sanok, 21-6-1, at 65 points leading Krakow by 10. Then would come Finland's S-M Liiga ( 4 by talent, 5 by payroll), where we find Kal Pa rolling to a 24-7-6 record and 11 point lead over Lahti.
Austria's EBHL, 9th on the talent list, is being led by Linz right now; a 25-9-8 record for 54 points, leading surprising Medvescak Zagreb by 10. Just to the north is Slovakia's Extraliga (8th on talent, also making enough on payroll), where Kosice (24-12-2) and Slovan Bratislava (24-11-3) are tied at 76 pts and the top 4 are all within 6.
The Czech Extraliga, 5 on talent and 3 on payroll, also has a fairly close-knit group at the top with Sparta Praha (19-6-12) a 3 point leader on Plzen. That brings us to Sweden's Elitserien (#2 talent, #4 payroll), where Skelleftea is the leader du jour at 17-10-9 and 63 points, with the top 5 all within 6. A different story in Denmark's AL-Bank Ligaen, with SonderjyskE fleeing the rest of the league at 23-4-3, 73 points, and a 20-point lead over Odensee, with defending champ Herning back in 4th.
The German DEL (7th on both lists), shows Eisbaren Berlin at 18-8-7, 67 points, one point up on Adler Mannheim. My Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is 5th, 10 back. Heading south, the National League A of Switzerland (6th on both) has 5 teams within 6 points of the top, with EV Zug (18-6-13) leading Freibourg by one. In Italy's Serie A (10th on talent, also making it on payroll), Val Pusteria continues to lead the league at 19-7-6, 66 points, 5 over Bolzano.
Norway's GET Ligaen (an also making it league) has Stavenger as usual on top, at 25-4-2, 79 points, a 16-pt lead on Valerenga. France's Ligue Magnus (another also making it league, though I don't see how with their short schedule) has perennial power Rouen on top at 12-1-2, 27 points, 3 more than Briancon. And England's EIHL is lead by the Giants of Belfast, at 26-4-3 and 55 points, 5 better than Nottingham.
Not to be forgotten is the Asia League, which also got "making it" mention. Anyang Halla, the Yankees of the Far East, are 15-5-8, 57 points, leading the Oji Eagles by 6.
And mentioning the Asia League reminds me of everyone's favorite whipping boys, the China Dragon. So, once again, let's visit the Worst Teams In The World list.
9 teams met my requirements for badness, and I've ranked them by their average margin of defeat.
#9- Nitra of Slovakia: 6-25-7, av. loss by 1.4.
#8-Avtomobilst Yekaterinburg (KHL): 5-24-7, av. loss by 1.6.
#7- Vitebsk of Belarus: 6-23-7, 2.3.
#6-Manglerud of Norway: 5-23-3, 2.5.
#5- Fife Flyers of the UK: 4-22-4, 2.9.
#4-MMKS Podhale of Poland: 2-20-6, 3.1.
#3- Torun of Poland: 5-20-3, 3.3.
#2- Frisk Asker of Norway: 3-25-3, 4.4.
#1- China Dragon, Asia League: 0-23-1, 5.4.
All of which reminded me of a few years back when I was making fun of the nasceany Israeli league, especially the woebegone Bat-Yam team. Well, this year, it took them till after Thanksgiving to even start their league, and their website has not updated past those first games. One of those teams got clubbed 20-0, but one game is not a league so enjoy your title, China Dragons!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
howsabout a hockey update?
Since we've last visited the KHL, SKA St. Petersburg has widened its lead in the Western Conference. (A reminder- for simplicity's sake, any game going into OT will be massed in the third column of their record by myself.) SKA has rung up a 4-0-2 record in November, including an 8-1 demolishing of Spartak in which SKA spotted them the first goal and then netted 3 in a 1:46 span of the second period.
Dynamo Moscow continues hot in 2nd place- their only loss of the month a 2-1 loss to Nefthekhimik where goalie Tuomas Tarkki stopped 36 of 37 Dynamo shots. Torpedo has won three straight to inject itself into the leader board, a point behind slowing 3rd-place Dinamo Minsk. That streak includes back to back shutouts, 1-0 against Salavat Yulaev and 5-0 against Neftekhimik. Atlant, with their spanking-new coach tops that, winning 4 straight close matches- three of them by 3-2 scores- to pull within one of fifth-place Severstal. Following them are Red Army and Dinamo Riga, then collapsing Spartak. Spartak has gone 1-5-1 in November, being outscored 20-7. Lev's brief renaissance has fallen off, a mix of losses and OT losses dropping them to 7-14-5. The thug factory in Vityaz continues to be conference doormat, their only RT win this month so far a 3-2 win over Spartak (go figure).
In the East, Amur remains in the hunt despite a bad slump that was finally snapped in a 2-1 win over Avangard. Traktor continues to have the league's second best record at 15-6-3 ( SKA being best at 19-2-6). They kept ahead of Amur with back to back wins over Lev and CSKA. They are followed by Avangard and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who is on a 4-game winning streak. The bad news for double-M is that they came against Yugra Metallurg Novokutnesk, Amur, and Sibir, who've combined to have a 4-10-8 month. Barys is in fifth, having just had a streak ended by a Red Army 4-2 win. Ak Bars continues to struggle, losing 4 of 5; Yugra trails them in 7th. Salavat has not found a solution in a new coach; they did rebound to beat Traktor 4-0, but that was the sole RT win, and the 3 losses include a 7-3 pasting by Moscow. "The other Metallurg" is next, followed by Sibir, who has lost a good start by going 0-4-1 in the month. Last place belongs to my woebegone Automobilst team. It's not that they aren't trying- they split 2 OT games and all three losses were by one goal. The lone RT win was a 4-2 affair against Minsk which they had took the lead with a Ilya Malyushkin goal with just 1:02 left, then hit the empty net with 0:19 remaining.
And here, for the first time this year, is my patented Eurohockey update!
England's EIHL is being led by Belfast's Giants, 5 pts clear of Nottingham.
France's Ligue Magnus as usual led by Rouen, with Chamonix and Briancon hot on their tails.
In the Swiss National league A, Fribourg, SC Bern, and Davos are all tied for first, with Kloten's Flyers just 3 back.
Italy's Serie A is topped once again by Val Pusteria; Asiago, who snuck into the playoffs and then won them 2 years running, is mired in a 5th place tie, 9 points back.
In Germany's DEL, Adler Mannheim leads by one over Hamburg; my Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is puttering around in 7th.
Norway's GET-Ligaen has Stavenger again on top, and with a vengeance. The 18-2-0 Oilers are 16 points clear.
Sweden's Elitserien is led by HV71 by 3 points.
In the S-M Liiga of Finland, Kal Pa holds the top spot by 5.
SonderjyskE once again is running away early in the Danish AL-Bank Ligan, 16-2-2 and 10 points in front. Blue Fox Herning, who caught them to win it all last year, is third, 14 back.
Austria's EBHL is 54 games in (each team) already, and the top powers from last season are right there - KAG Klagenfurt holding a 10-point lead on Red Bull Salzburg.
And finally, the earthquake-recovered Asia League is led, as per usual, by Anyang Halla, 1 point up on the Nikko Icebucks.
And now, for your entertainment, I begin a feature on the worst teams in these leagues. We won't count perpetual doormat China Dragon of the Asia League, because no one can match their 0-12-0 record and average score against of 7.5 to 1.5 (The range here runs from a 5-3 loss to Anyang- the only game they've topped 2 goals- to a 14-0 thrumping against Nikko) . In all honesty, there are only three contenders right now. Villard in France is getting outscored at a 5.7-1.1 clip, but are only 8 games in (0-7-1). The Fife Flyers of the EIHL are a better challenger, with a 1-13-3 record and a usual score of 5.8 to 1.7. But right now, the top contender for worst team in Europe is Frisk Asker of Norway, with a 2-18-0 record, and an average score against of 6.4 to 1.8. That's 128 goals against in 20 games! Now I don't feel so bad about Automobilst (which, in the end, was the reason I did this in the first place.)
Dynamo Moscow continues hot in 2nd place- their only loss of the month a 2-1 loss to Nefthekhimik where goalie Tuomas Tarkki stopped 36 of 37 Dynamo shots. Torpedo has won three straight to inject itself into the leader board, a point behind slowing 3rd-place Dinamo Minsk. That streak includes back to back shutouts, 1-0 against Salavat Yulaev and 5-0 against Neftekhimik. Atlant, with their spanking-new coach tops that, winning 4 straight close matches- three of them by 3-2 scores- to pull within one of fifth-place Severstal. Following them are Red Army and Dinamo Riga, then collapsing Spartak. Spartak has gone 1-5-1 in November, being outscored 20-7. Lev's brief renaissance has fallen off, a mix of losses and OT losses dropping them to 7-14-5. The thug factory in Vityaz continues to be conference doormat, their only RT win this month so far a 3-2 win over Spartak (go figure).
In the East, Amur remains in the hunt despite a bad slump that was finally snapped in a 2-1 win over Avangard. Traktor continues to have the league's second best record at 15-6-3 ( SKA being best at 19-2-6). They kept ahead of Amur with back to back wins over Lev and CSKA. They are followed by Avangard and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who is on a 4-game winning streak. The bad news for double-M is that they came against Yugra Metallurg Novokutnesk, Amur, and Sibir, who've combined to have a 4-10-8 month. Barys is in fifth, having just had a streak ended by a Red Army 4-2 win. Ak Bars continues to struggle, losing 4 of 5; Yugra trails them in 7th. Salavat has not found a solution in a new coach; they did rebound to beat Traktor 4-0, but that was the sole RT win, and the 3 losses include a 7-3 pasting by Moscow. "The other Metallurg" is next, followed by Sibir, who has lost a good start by going 0-4-1 in the month. Last place belongs to my woebegone Automobilst team. It's not that they aren't trying- they split 2 OT games and all three losses were by one goal. The lone RT win was a 4-2 affair against Minsk which they had took the lead with a Ilya Malyushkin goal with just 1:02 left, then hit the empty net with 0:19 remaining.
And here, for the first time this year, is my patented Eurohockey update!
England's EIHL is being led by Belfast's Giants, 5 pts clear of Nottingham.
France's Ligue Magnus as usual led by Rouen, with Chamonix and Briancon hot on their tails.
In the Swiss National league A, Fribourg, SC Bern, and Davos are all tied for first, with Kloten's Flyers just 3 back.
Italy's Serie A is topped once again by Val Pusteria; Asiago, who snuck into the playoffs and then won them 2 years running, is mired in a 5th place tie, 9 points back.
In Germany's DEL, Adler Mannheim leads by one over Hamburg; my Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg team is puttering around in 7th.
Norway's GET-Ligaen has Stavenger again on top, and with a vengeance. The 18-2-0 Oilers are 16 points clear.
Sweden's Elitserien is led by HV71 by 3 points.
In the S-M Liiga of Finland, Kal Pa holds the top spot by 5.
SonderjyskE once again is running away early in the Danish AL-Bank Ligan, 16-2-2 and 10 points in front. Blue Fox Herning, who caught them to win it all last year, is third, 14 back.
Austria's EBHL is 54 games in (each team) already, and the top powers from last season are right there - KAG Klagenfurt holding a 10-point lead on Red Bull Salzburg.
And finally, the earthquake-recovered Asia League is led, as per usual, by Anyang Halla, 1 point up on the Nikko Icebucks.
And now, for your entertainment, I begin a feature on the worst teams in these leagues. We won't count perpetual doormat China Dragon of the Asia League, because no one can match their 0-12-0 record and average score against of 7.5 to 1.5 (The range here runs from a 5-3 loss to Anyang- the only game they've topped 2 goals- to a 14-0 thrumping against Nikko) . In all honesty, there are only three contenders right now. Villard in France is getting outscored at a 5.7-1.1 clip, but are only 8 games in (0-7-1). The Fife Flyers of the EIHL are a better challenger, with a 1-13-3 record and a usual score of 5.8 to 1.7. But right now, the top contender for worst team in Europe is Frisk Asker of Norway, with a 2-18-0 record, and an average score against of 6.4 to 1.8. That's 128 goals against in 20 games! Now I don't feel so bad about Automobilst (which, in the end, was the reason I did this in the first place.)
Friday, November 11, 2011
khl update
Well, actually, this isn't really an update, as they've been shutdown for some Euro-tour* since Tuesday. But there is something off the league website I wanted to share.
On Monday, at the offices of the Kontinental Hockey League, the Disciplinary Committee held a meeting to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident which took place during the previous day’s game between Dinamo Minsk and Vityaz. Toward the end of the game, after Dinamo scored its third goal, some Vityaz players initiated several conflicts on the ice, after which a further confrontation took place, this time between local supporters of the Minsk team and the head coach of the visiting team.
Having heard all versions of the incident and studied all the available material (including the official game report, the report from those overseeing the game officials, a letter from the Director of Vityaz, video footage from the game, representations made by both clubs, video footage posted on the Internet, and television footage), the KHL Disciplinary Committee decided on a number of measures to be taken against those who participated in the aforementioned disorder:
At this point, they list the infractions that were handed out game time and for the most part upheld to FIVE- count'em five- players on the Vityaz side. It continues:
- with regard to Vityaz head coach Andrei Nazarov: the Committee decided to rescind one punishment of a game penalty (25 minutes), for his confrontation with the spectators, and instead a game misconduct penalty (20 minutes) for ill-disciplined behavior, but to uphold the other game penalty (25 minutes) imposed on him by the officials for offensive behavior. In addition, Andrei Nazarov must pay a fine and is disqualified for two games.
Now, those of you that have followed my KHL stories thropugh the Aeons know that Vityaz is the alleged "Russian Mafia" team, and stocks itself with the low-rent thugs of a dozen leagues, so even the aforementioned crimes are not terribly surprising. What the KHL does next, though, is something I wish to God American sports would do:
The refereeing of the game was analyzed and judged to be unsatisfactory. The KHL Disciplinary Committee regretfully acknowledges that refereeing errors directly contributed to the unfortunate incidents at the end of the game. The referee and the linesmen face disciplinary action and will also be financially penalized.
I have long been an advocate of referees being PUBLICLY responsible. The poor showing of NFL refs this year and the constant joke that Big Ten and Pac-12 officials are in every major sport BEG for this to be instituted. Somehow in America, we've developed the idea that the game official should be publicly sancrosant, and it allows them to hide when their actions allow outcome of a game to be affected (such as the Big East game in which both on field and replay officials claimed that an extra point- clearly shown to be good on film- was missed, costing a team a win in regulation ion a game they lost in OT. I'd still like to know when beer sales in the replay booth are suspended after THAT one.) At least in MLB, umpires are honest enough to admit when they f up. C'mon, NCAA and NFL!
Don't be afraid to discuss referee discipline- IT CAN ONLY MAKE BETTER OFFICIALS!
The Kontinental Hockey League must also mention the ill-disciplined behavior by a group of Dinamo Minsk supporters, which was particularly unexpected in view of the good reputation earned by hockey fans in Minsk, thanks to their previous friendly and exemplary behavior, their appreciation of hockey and the respect shown towards players and coaches from all teams. While in no way excusing the behavior of some the Vityaz team, the KHL must condemn as unacceptable the actions of a certain group of spectators.
The Disciplinary Committee examined a proposal from some of its members that Dinamo Minsk should play a number of games without spectators (WOW!); however, the Committee decided that it would be unjust to deprive thousands of supporters of the chance to watch their hockey team because of acts of disorder committed by a few hundred. In accordance with KHL regulations, financial sanctions will be imposed on HC Dinamo Minsk.
Can you imagine watching a Cleveland Browns or Philly Flyers game without any fans??!! Kudos to the K for even considering such an act!
The Kontinental Hockey League also expresses its dissatisfaction with the performance of the Dinamo Minsk security staff, and with regard to this issue further measures will be taken.
Man, they just aren't pissing around here!
*In an effort to not be the stupid American, the Euro Hockey tour is a set of 4 mini-tourneys between the national teams of Russia, Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic, spread out in four short bursts over the course of the season. This current set-to is a round robin that openned Thursday and plays in Sweden and Helsinki. In the openers, Alexander Radulov got 2 goals, the second in a shootout, to give Russia a 2-1 win over Finland; while former NHL star Peter Nedved and current star of first-place Amur Jakub Petruzalek scored 2 times each for the Czechs in a 5-2 win over Sweden. It'll be Russia /Sweden and Czech/Finland tomorrow and Russia/Czechs and Sweden /Finland Sunday tro round it out.
On Monday, at the offices of the Kontinental Hockey League, the Disciplinary Committee held a meeting to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident which took place during the previous day’s game between Dinamo Minsk and Vityaz. Toward the end of the game, after Dinamo scored its third goal, some Vityaz players initiated several conflicts on the ice, after which a further confrontation took place, this time between local supporters of the Minsk team and the head coach of the visiting team.
Having heard all versions of the incident and studied all the available material (including the official game report, the report from those overseeing the game officials, a letter from the Director of Vityaz, video footage from the game, representations made by both clubs, video footage posted on the Internet, and television footage), the KHL Disciplinary Committee decided on a number of measures to be taken against those who participated in the aforementioned disorder:
At this point, they list the infractions that were handed out game time and for the most part upheld to FIVE- count'em five- players on the Vityaz side. It continues:
- with regard to Vityaz head coach Andrei Nazarov: the Committee decided to rescind one punishment of a game penalty (25 minutes), for his confrontation with the spectators, and instead a game misconduct penalty (20 minutes) for ill-disciplined behavior, but to uphold the other game penalty (25 minutes) imposed on him by the officials for offensive behavior. In addition, Andrei Nazarov must pay a fine and is disqualified for two games.
Now, those of you that have followed my KHL stories thropugh the Aeons know that Vityaz is the alleged "Russian Mafia" team, and stocks itself with the low-rent thugs of a dozen leagues, so even the aforementioned crimes are not terribly surprising. What the KHL does next, though, is something I wish to God American sports would do:
The refereeing of the game was analyzed and judged to be unsatisfactory. The KHL Disciplinary Committee regretfully acknowledges that refereeing errors directly contributed to the unfortunate incidents at the end of the game. The referee and the linesmen face disciplinary action and will also be financially penalized.
I have long been an advocate of referees being PUBLICLY responsible. The poor showing of NFL refs this year and the constant joke that Big Ten and Pac-12 officials are in every major sport BEG for this to be instituted. Somehow in America, we've developed the idea that the game official should be publicly sancrosant, and it allows them to hide when their actions allow outcome of a game to be affected (such as the Big East game in which both on field and replay officials claimed that an extra point- clearly shown to be good on film- was missed, costing a team a win in regulation ion a game they lost in OT. I'd still like to know when beer sales in the replay booth are suspended after THAT one.) At least in MLB, umpires are honest enough to admit when they f up. C'mon, NCAA and NFL!
Don't be afraid to discuss referee discipline- IT CAN ONLY MAKE BETTER OFFICIALS!
The Kontinental Hockey League must also mention the ill-disciplined behavior by a group of Dinamo Minsk supporters, which was particularly unexpected in view of the good reputation earned by hockey fans in Minsk, thanks to their previous friendly and exemplary behavior, their appreciation of hockey and the respect shown towards players and coaches from all teams. While in no way excusing the behavior of some the Vityaz team, the KHL must condemn as unacceptable the actions of a certain group of spectators.
The Disciplinary Committee examined a proposal from some of its members that Dinamo Minsk should play a number of games without spectators (WOW!); however, the Committee decided that it would be unjust to deprive thousands of supporters of the chance to watch their hockey team because of acts of disorder committed by a few hundred. In accordance with KHL regulations, financial sanctions will be imposed on HC Dinamo Minsk.
Can you imagine watching a Cleveland Browns or Philly Flyers game without any fans??!! Kudos to the K for even considering such an act!
The Kontinental Hockey League also expresses its dissatisfaction with the performance of the Dinamo Minsk security staff, and with regard to this issue further measures will be taken.
Man, they just aren't pissing around here!
*In an effort to not be the stupid American, the Euro Hockey tour is a set of 4 mini-tourneys between the national teams of Russia, Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic, spread out in four short bursts over the course of the season. This current set-to is a round robin that openned Thursday and plays in Sweden and Helsinki. In the openers, Alexander Radulov got 2 goals, the second in a shootout, to give Russia a 2-1 win over Finland; while former NHL star Peter Nedved and current star of first-place Amur Jakub Petruzalek scored 2 times each for the Czechs in a 5-2 win over Sweden. It'll be Russia /Sweden and Czech/Finland tomorrow and Russia/Czechs and Sweden /Finland Sunday tro round it out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
