SaucyJack

Now there’s a school with a tough travel schedule. I did look it up: with a couple of exceptions, AK-Fairbanks play two games against an opponent when on the road. Conversely, their guests come way up north to play two. Makes sense. Reminds me of the old 21-team NHL’s Smythe Division before the massive Sun Belt expansion. Whenever LA traveled to Winnipeg, and vice-versa, it would be two games, so as to cut the season’s travel burdens between those two squads’ eight contests against each other, in half. Two road trips a year, not four.

Last night’s home loss to NJ was a very bad sign for the Washington Capitals Hockey Club. To me, a very bad harbinger of things to come. I watched about the last half of the contest. Saw the Caps tie it 3-3 only to let the visitors score 3 unanswered from that point. The Caps are missing a D-Man and a goalie (but having three total) but they’re pretty much full strength. Even Ovie is beginning to adjust to getting a few goals with the wrister instead of his now-ineffective slapper. ==> But it is the same ‘ol same ‘ol…no matter their energy (good last night) they lack sufficient level of “deke ‘em out” fancy-move offensive skills. Not enough of their high quality chances end up in the netting. Their shootout attempts often look pathetic, as if they’d never played pond hockey when they lived as kids in Canada. The only way they make the Cut in April is if they wear themselves out winning a sufficient % of games through too-high-for-regular-season effort. Then they’ll get gassed 1st round. And this is the most optimistic scenario. Not enough to shed away Backstrom, Oshie, Ovie, Carlson…any young’uns in their place need well-honed dipsey-doo fake-em-out skating (and sniping) prowess. Need the Skill Average of the team to rise, apart and distinct from effort.

Ah. If not for the Treaty of 1818, Minot would still have been British and by extension, Canadian today. But both sides decided they didn’t like natural curvy borders in favor of artificial straight lines that ignored geography. Oh well…

Didn’t see last night’s loss at MSG, but read that Santa took the coal back: Miro played 12:52, had one great chance stymied, and briefly played an all-Russkie shift late with Kuzy and Ovie.

Christmas Break being over, Metro NYC marked the return of play in what might be called (Very Different) Tales of Three Cities (?!), with all three clubs on home ice: Islanders clobbered 7-0 (vs Pens) Rangers clobbering 5-1 (vs Caps) Devils eke-ing in OT 4-3 (vs Jackets) Quite the varying experiences tonight up in Big Apple Area…hot apples, cold apples, and room temperature apples…

It is wrong that Gretzky’s 46 WHA goals (putting him at 940) do not count. Hell, 43 of those came as an Edmonton Oiler of the WHA. It is fairly odd that Gretzky’s first 3 professional goals were for a team in a state (Indiana) known for basketball and without much of any grassroots hockey play or development (peewee, high school etc. Notre Dame at collegiate level, true, but that’s Cultural Michigan. “Michiana” as they call it up there.) Oh to have attended one of the few (8) Indianapolis Racers game in 1978 before The Future Great One went on to Alberta, saved a game program, maybe got the Phenom to sign it. Priceless that would have been as time went on.

I read this morning that, after last night’s shootout loss to Tampa Bay, the Capitals put coal in Miroshnichenko’s and Lapierre’s stockings…along with rides back to Hershey PA.

If WaPo reader comments had more weight than coaches’ decisions, Anthony Mantha would have been playing in Hershey this season. So many had nothing but bad to say about him. Now look: Mantha is 6th in points, 3rd in goals, and 1st in +/- on the squad. Someone out there must coin a nickname that captures this style of play. Hmmm…”Crazy 8” been around forever, including as a kid’s card game. ”Lazy Eight”. (Yeah, that’s the ticket.)

Guess who broke a drought and scored an OT 4-on-3 PP game-winning goal tonight? He decided to change things up. Still in his office on the left circle, he TWO-timed it, took his time, and wristed ‘er into the netting for the Caps’ second OT win in 2 nights.

10:14 last night and 9:46 tonight. I only saw chunks of the 3rd periods and without sound, so I don’t have a good grasp on how involved he got in play. I need to watch extended highlights with sound.

They’ve paired him with Kuznetsov since his English still isn’t so great, and Kuzy is apparently sufficient in English (and Russian of course.) But what I am hoping is that this line pairing acts also as a “reverse improvement” too. I.e., let’s hope Miroshnichenko displays a good work ethic that rubs off on Kuznetsov!

They’ve decided to let him out of south central Pennsylvania…at least for a while. Hope he acclimates to the Potomac Swamp country! https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/12/19/ivan-miroshnichenko-capitals-nhl-debut/

The Bruins being of most interest to those in the Commonwealth, I hereby deny the pending move of the Capitals to Alexandria Virginia.

I almost commented further on this last night. Then I saw this in the WaPo reader comments for the game recap article. Can’t say it any better myself: ” There should be a rule in OT preventing a team from skating out of the offensive zone with the puck, not tipped or anything. Like over and back in basketball. The Caps controlled the puck for 4 minutes out of 5 by just circling back. It’s a good strategy if the rules allow it. But it is boring.“

Ya know what else? He’s missed his last six shootout attempts. Why Coach Carbery left him off the shootout list tonight. Can’t deke worth a damn any more. PP drought is different. I often can only watch the 3rd periods per late dinner time responsibilities so I can’t judge if his once superb one-timer has abandoned him. Something to watch for in future games.

But they win the shootout in the end. Flyers dominate at end of regulation, edge to Caps in OT. About as close as one would suspect. Dylan Strome (along with Tom Wilson) are two keys of any successes the Caps have enjoyed this year. That said… …Strome’s shootout attempt was just awful.

No, that would require everyone drive to the games, as there is no Metro there. (But it is close by the new Potomac Yards arena site; take US 1 south for a short bit, take I-495 “Beltway” East across the Potomac River, and the National Harbor is there in Oxon Hill, MD very near the Southeast DC line on the east side of the river.) I’ve not been to either locale. The subway stop opened a half year ago. Potomac Yards area is just west of a bunch of railroad tracks by the river (hence the “Yards”), has townhomes, and some typical retail. Google Maps shows a Target that might be retail space for sale. Maybe they tear it down for more arena space. Correct. I remember 15 years ago, before all the local department stores closed or became Macy’s, doing some Christmas shopping at the old Woodward & Lothrop around 11th or 12th street, just a tad west of the arena. Not a ton else around it, and the whole place closed at either 5 or 6. No nightlife in those streets. I suppose that’s mostly right. Chinatown didn’t expand. A bunch of restaurants did pop up south of the arena on 7th Street for a few blocks , but how much business do they get except on game nights? The huge Washington Convention Center is just north, that probably helps the restaurants some. ——————————————— Apparently crime downtown has risen since the pandemic. And carjacking surely discourages driving. Arena or not, it is hard to see what can be done to increase downtown visitation. (Museums abound but none super close except for the National Portrait Gallery.) Every suburb now has typical and ample retail outlets. Before broadband took off in the early 2010s, big cities could draw people in to visit amazing book and music collections like a huge Borders, or the truly amazing Tower Records that was located right near George Washington University. (Immense rooms with immense collections for pop, jazz, rock, and classical. Immense!) With all that killed by Internet Broadband, city centers are just not terribly unique or enticing any more. As Tony Soprano often said, “Whadda ya gonna do?”

Who knows? Are the Flyers playing the Good Capitals that recently defeated the Kings in LA and drubbed the Rangers in DC? Or the Mediocre Caps that just lost to Dallas at home in OT, and sustained narrow wins in Anaheim and Chicago? Or the Bad Caps who lost in San Jose then totally got thumped in Las Vegas and Phoenix? Making a wager here is little different than betting on roulette.

Well sure. How dare Muriel Bowser and the City offer mere chump change of 1/2 billion dollars of public money to The Billionaire? Surely all can sympathize with Mr Leonsis for wanting an additional 100 million. But noooooo said the Silly City to that extra 20% of taxpayer financing.

This morning, billionaire sports club owner Ted Leonsis, along with Virginia Guvnah Glenn Youngkin, announced a non-binding agreement to move the Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria Virginia’s ‘Potomac Yards’ area, just south of Reagan National Airport, as early as 2028. We’ll see. Early reviews from all the WaPo user comments include: 1) What, another billionaire getting tax breaks? 2) Traffic is already horrendous enough in the Northern VA suburbs of DC. 3) Virginia taxpayers ain’t gonna stand for the extra hits to their wallets. 4) Considerately more inconvenient for all the Maryland fans commuting over the Metro. Yes, they’ll expand the Potomac Yards station capacity, but now a risk of Marylanders stranded at the DC transfer point if games run late and the last Red Line trains heading north have left. 5) Ruins being able to stop off for an early dinner in Penn Quarter or Chinatown (6th/7th Street corridors) that are right by Capital One Arena. 6) A financial and developmental disaster for the struggling District of Columbia and its ‘downtown district’ - first Covid now this. 7) All still needs approval from the local legislative bodies. ——————————————— C’mon Ted, you got yer Caesar’s Sportsbook right in yer arena, and now you own the TV network (Monumental Sports). Now you want more Corporate Wellfare too? Keep the teams in D.C., dude. Keep them more central, and where Metro Access is already well established at a high capacity.

TOPIC 1: Good grief…who knew…that those LA Things were road-undefeated going into last night’s game on The Island? Their 11-0 road record got slightly tarnished in OT last night. But still no zero-point results after 12 road visits. Remarkable!! (King-like, even.) TOPIC 2: Watched the end of Minnesota-OhioState last night. Curiously, I looked up the BigTen standings. Although confusedly organized, I figured out (and as confirmed by announcer commentary) that College Hockey does it Right!!! That is, rewards make sense; standings are the proper “zero sum game”, where all games are ‘equal’ granting 3 points total: 3 for reg win, 2 for OT/SO win, 1 for OT/SO loss, 0 for reg loss. So one big upside to College Hockey is that “following the horse race” is much more fun and interesting, in that a reg winner gains something (1 pt) on an OT winner on any given night…as it should be!!! Just makes the pro game look even more stupid in this regard. And for so frigging long now. Well, idiocy abounds in the world…

Strange ending to regulation tonight in the Stars-Caps 4-4 deadlock: both teams seemed to risk a loss by trying to score before the OT. Whaah?! You’ve got 1.5 points (on average, you win half of your OTs) in the mathematical bag. Yet you’re risking dropping 1.5 (to zero pts) for the smallish chance that you raise a mere 0.5 ( to two pts). What a stupid gamble! (Especially for an inter-conference contest where point difference means squat between the two squads.) When will it sink in, after 25 or so years of this bush league standings rules, that you’ll likely win the Presidents Trophy by playing 82 draws, all going to the OT/shootout phase? You’d garner 123 standings points, on average (winning half of the OTs.)

Many buttons have fallen off the past two games (outscored 10-1) and they likely need strings attached to their mittens, too. At least one goaltender for sure, as Charlie Lindgren has stolen more than one win so far this season. (Without him, I’ll guess you’d have ranked them lower.)

And they needed all of them! (Anaheim nearly pulled off a miracle; narrowed the lead to 1 with 27 seconds left; then got a great look in the high slot through a maze with maybe 5 ticks remaining. Went wide.) Wilson can actually play, actually make a funky move to fake out a goalie, unlike many of his teammates. (I fear that Ovi is one of those, nowadays.)

Tom Wilson with a Hat Trick in DisneyTown, in his 700th career game. We know You love him. Rejoice, Forum!