Archive for the 'Misc' Category

19
Oct

Long Time No Type

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Misc

Yea, it has been forever and a few weeks since I last posted something here, been kind of busy and haven’t even watched too much hockey. It is a far cry from last year, but I guess since they won, I don’t have that itch like I did. Just like the Angels in 2002 and I don’t watch any baseball now. It is different with hockey though, so I do not worry about it.

Really, what I have been doing is waiting, waiting for my new platform to be developed. Wordpress is nice and all, but it takes too much rigging to get things to work well, so I have moved on to Joomla! Joomla will allow me to have the community site I have wanted since last year and I wont have to tear apart PHP code, these really smart people already did that. So I have a small preview of what the front page is going to look like when it is all said and done. Not much to look at really, but it’s all about what lies beneath and beyond the front page.

preview

Ugh, what a let down huh? I created that banner myself and had a little bit of help from my buddy Jason, he made Selanne and the Cup glow a little bit. My Photoshop skills reflect my freehand skills. Limited is the nicest word I can come up with, other than suck. Patience is a virtue and I am waiting for things to come along with Joomla, those guys are almost done.

As for the team…

George Parros officially has more points than he has shots on goal. When you get stats like that, you know that the team will pull out of its early funk. Just need to get everyone healthy, then it is time to steam roll. A deserved salute to Brad May for taking on Booger. His punch last year was cheap and he is still a dick, but he owned up. And to anyone saying he just hung on, shut up. Why don’t they just “hang on” to Boogard and see how many fractured bones their face endures before slipping into a coma.

28
Jul

Project Penner

By Daniel 1 Comment
Categories: Misc

As I started reading Brian Burke’s first public words about this Dustin Penner signing, I started to think why is this such a big deal. Everything I read has this notion that the Ducks need to sign Penner, they need to know if the two stars are going to retire, that way we can get Dustin signed. Sorry, he isn’t worth $4.3m right now. The stats have been posted, Earl Sleek over at the BoC did some great number crunching as usual and even came up with a pounds per dollar sum, lol. It is crazy to think that Penner would get paid that much money, given his rocky road to get to this level. I am not one to believe in things like your placement in the draft should dictate your salary, your play on the ice should. He had a great rookie year, no doubt, but why did he have such a rough trek to the NHL?

From watching him play all year, he sometimes has a lazy mentality, but all the tools to dominate. Who is that big with such good hands? He dishes, he scores and he is fucking huge. Randy Carlyle has put him in the dog house a few times for what was reportedly not giving 100% and showing up late. Dude, stop living on the beach, you should be showing your teammates and the executives that you are committed to the cause. I think if he had done that all season, gone out and been a terror in front of the net and punished people, Burke would have an easier decision to make. If a possessed Penner shows up every game, you have to look at what John Leclair, Keith Tkachuk and even our very own Todd Bertuzzi have done in the past. Leclair had three 50 goal seasons in a row, Tkachuk had two and Bertuzzi peaked at 46. Dustin Penner is younger, bigger and more talented than any of those three.

 Memories: Remember when he scored the goal that killed Canada?

So Burke has to question all of this. Does he take a big risk on a player that has literally limitless possibilities and jeopardize the stability of his team or does he take draft picks in what is said to be a deep draft in 08? The more and more I wrote here, the more I think that he needs to take a risk on this kid. This might crush the return of Teemu Selanne, even if Niedermayer retires. So thank you Kevin Lowe, you stupid prick, you have created a really stupid trend. Every RFA with similar or beyond numbers is going to want the same inflated, baseless contract that you tendered to Penner.

This also flies into the territory of bumping up the salaries of Ryan Getlaf and Corey Perry next year, when you know someone will easily offer Getzlaf $5m+. Todd Bertuzzi needs to come off the books already and he hasn’t even played a game for the team…

23
May

Ducks vs Senators - The Blog Wars

By Daniel 2 Comments
Categories: 07 Playoffs, Blog, Ducks, Hockey, Misc and Stanley Cup Finals

                                        Chris Pronger                                                                             Danny Heatley

             VS           

Playoff Beard.com

Oh man, this is going to be a blast. My buddy Dan (–who sent me the team picture on the previous post, happy now?–) asked if the Senator blogger’s were going to be like the Red Wings. Now, I really didn’t seek out anyone last series, I just sit back and do my own thing and let things come to me. But I was curious, so I took a gander at what a Senators blog might be saying, a confident group I must say.

Their first 2 series were forgone conclusions and almost impossible to watch. I thought the Wings lost that series more than the Ducks won it.

Then some argument about how Zetterburg and Datsyuk each had six points and flew around the ice uncontested. They have played better forwards in Buffalo and in Pittsburgh and the Ducks powerplay is mediocre. The Ducks hit early, but not late in games and not for a whole series. And Carlyle is as a good a coach as Niedermayer, Pronger and Giguere.

Objection! - Sustained! - Your honor?!? - What counselor?

The Penguins and Devils weren’t exactly awesome competition either. Detroit’s studs scored on the powerplay for 150% of their points, free roaming I think not. Buffalo may be deeper as far as all around 1-4 lines, but yea right, who has been as talented and as sized as the PPG line? I am not sure what to say about the powerplay line, I think the Senators should take some penalties and test that one out. I wont even talk about the physicality of the Ducks, that was just stupid to say that. As for Randy Carlyle, whatever, that one will be determined when this series is all over and Ottawa got a sniff at winning more then one game.

We have too many days now to sit at our desks or on the couch and bitch at each other about how kick ass our respective teams are and how much the other team sucks. I can not wait to hear the jokes about Disney, cartoons, video games, the movies and the market that the Ducks play in. We already know that California is not a hockey market, we don’t give a damn, that, along with the Coach Bombay jokes are over ten years old. I fell like I am in junior high hearing ‘Yo Momma’ jokes, oh snaps, heard that one before.

Believe this though, the series wont even be close. Ray Emery isn’t half of any of the three goalies the Ducks just roasted.

08
May

Detroit Rock City

By Daniel Closed
Categories: 07 Playoffs, Ducks, Hockey and Misc

What is it? What is it?

It’s a series against the Ducks

OH NO!

Congratulations to the Red Wings, but I think the bus has made its final stop. I am going to do some reading before I make a real post about this, plus it looks like a busy day at work. Oh well, there is always lunch time.

26
Apr

You Sunk My Battleship

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Articles, Misc and Players

This should show you what I do on my 10 minute lunch break. According to this article,  Teemu Selanne is going to face charges in Finland for lending a boat to someone who was not licensed to operate it. You would think since he is a huge star in Finalnd that the Finnish media might get the team name right. Nice boat though, that sucks. I knew I would find something stupid to post today.

16
Apr

The Good Ole Days

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Articles, Blog, Hockey and Misc

Remember back in the day when you could tune to ESPN and catch nationaly televised hockey games all the time and when it came to mid-April, it was pretty much the only thing you could watch on ESPN? Now, we know those days are gone, but what was one of the things that caught your ear, you just knew by that sound that something hockey was coming? The damn ESPN NHL theme of course, then Gary Thorne and Bill Clement would come on…I know, I know…heaven. Since I miss that sound, I took the liberty of ripping it from a video I found on YouTube and posting. It is the official ringtone of people who call me and like hockey. It should be my default, but I like my other one too.

So go ahead and snag it here!

13
Apr

Fun Post - Carlye, Coach and Teammate

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Articles, Hockey and Misc

I am sure that most of you have heard that Randy Carlye and Teemu Selanne were once teammates for a season when Selanne was a rookie. Selanne tried to pay Carlyle for the #8 jersey he wore and Carlyle declined. Carlyle retired the next season and the #8 became available. So now to how this is relevant to anything…in a couple degrees of separation.

About two weeks ago I bought a Playstation3, I bought a couple games in preperation for Metal Gear 4 coming out later this year. Now EA’s sports division said they hated the PS3 and would not develop for it about 4 months ago, probably because it is a hard platform to develop on before Sony released a good SDK and more of the PS3 API. NHL2k7 is a wreck from what I hear so that is a no go. I went looking for NHL 08 news and what do you know, in September EA will release it for the PS3. So how does this have to do with Carlyle and Selanne? I am almost there, wade through my bullshit for a minute longer.

In my search for NHL 08 news, I found this classic website dedicated to NHL ‘94. In an ode to the Battle of California post in August 2006 about the best hockey video game, I dedicate this post to jamestobrien. This website has set up a tournament played year around based on NHL ‘94 that you play over the internet. Now if you are trying to dig out your old SNES or Sega Genesis to look for the ethernet port, stop now because it doesn’t exists. This magic happens on your computer through the wonderful world of ROMs. Which are basically just image rips of the cartridges played through an emulator. Now, legally you have to own the game to play it, but whatever. The site has links to the emulators for each system, all you would have to do is find the ROM, which is a quick Google search away. But that is bitchin’ if you ask me. They even have updated rosters to this season, good times!

Now, that the whole post has been shot to hell and drug on, lets get to the point. This page lists the roster for the 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets. Selanne is a starter for the Jets with a rating of 90. Carlyle is not a starter, with a rating of 44. 44? I guess he lost a step or two since winning the Norris 13 years before, maybe that is why he didn’t make NHL 95. I hope the climax was as good for the you as it was for me, now I need a towel to wash up.

PS: Brian Hayward had the worst rating of any goalie in the game with a 38…

11
Apr

Ducks Media Blitz

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Articles, Ducks and Misc

Seems as if the L.A. Times and O.C. Register have pumped out more articles on the Ducks these last few days then they have the entire season. Isn’t there a Lakers game you dicks should be covering? Hockey got the shit end of the stick again this year, despite the Ducks having the best season in their history. Reporters covering games were cut, TV coverage was dismal, ratings sucked compared to other teams. Is this even a hockey market? There comes a time where it takes more then the marketing department for the Ducks to sell the game and team to the people. The media in Southern California has really dropped the ball on this one.

Much like the baseball team across the 57 freeway, the fans and media do not give a damn until the team is in the thick of something good. I was an Angels fan in 2003 and for a decade before that, a very big Angels fan at that. I watched every game I could squeeze around a Mighty Ducks game. When they beat the Yankees, I knew it was pretty special and I became even more involved. It was amazing to see the coverage that the team received in the media and how the fans miraculously started showing up to the stadium. in 2002 they averaged 28,463 a game and 2,305,565 for the season. 2003 saw an increase of 37,791 a game and 3,061,094 for the season, with an increase after that. Now I give no care to how the Angels do, they peaked and now I do not give them any time.

I will have to give the media some credit for that rise, they covered the Angels a lot. But also just the fact that it was baseball, it is an easier game to grasp for a casual fan. Hockey is very niche, but has a similar concept to sports that are very Orange County…soccer and water polo. If you make an effort to cover the Ducks on news casts, newspapers and online outlets it would only help. The Ducks could also help themselves soon by getting a new network to cover games or at least make sure the games are in high definition, this is Orange County, everyone has a HD TV.

The Samueli’s should not have to lose a couple million each year for a franchise that is doing quite well. It is nice to have net worth of $2 billion, but losing a million here and there is like having a nagging bill that you can’t get rid of until you sever ties with the service you are paying for. Maybe a Stanley Cup should bring the noise.

09
Mar

Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Ducks and Misc

So I was browsing around trying to good image of the webbed D in the Ducks logo and was pretty unsuccessful, but I found some other interesting images in the process.

How many people went to Anaheim Bullfrog games when the RHI was around? The company my dad worked for had some awesome club level seats at center ice for everything that went on at the Pond and I would watch anything hockey. So we went to most of those during the season, it was not as fast as ice hockey but I enjoyed it a lot. I think my most memorable time was in 1997 when the Bullfrogs won it all and the players were throwing sticks in to the crowd. I went with my mom this game and I remember complaining, almost crying, that I wanted a stick. Remember, club seats, how irrational I was at 15, actually, what a baby…haha. Anyways, I thought about that moment when I saw this picture, so I figured I would post something. Another stupid fact, the cheerleaders were called the pollywogs, how original.

Now, some stuff about the Ducks, because that was the whole reason I was on this adventure.

I remember when the announcement was made on January 26th that the team would change its name, colors, jersey and logo. So I was always on the lookout for what it would look like, maybe some voting by the fans or something. To my knowledge that never happened, which was surprising, but that is how they did it. In April I found the picture to the right, my initial thought was that they sucked, both of them. I was thinking that the crest would be that Duck Hunt logo and the arm patches would be the other part, how extremely non-threatening. I could see the opposing team simulating gun shots and jumbo-tron’s showing videos of the classic game when they scored on Anaheim. Kind of funny when you think about it, that would have been great to see at the Staples Center, those old NES light guns would be at all the tailgate parties.

My personal favorite is this one, because I have no idea where it came from. The filename is Draft-AnaheimDucks2.gif and I found it on one of those picture sharing sites, I want to say Flickr, but I don’t remember. I kind of like it to be honest and I did not know that ducks had talons…It almost looks like a the Philadelphia Eagles logo, but I still think it is very fresh looking. Maybe this will be the third jersey down the line or something. But if I were to pick a third jersey, it would be the one from last year, because that was a solid looking piece of fabric. I almost went to the Ducks team store and bought one when they had that huge sale on old merchandise, but I figured since that was still at markup cost, I would pass. Lets see what happens with this one, maybe it does get used in the future or maybe it is just some hardcore fan with some artistic ability and time on his hands that made this one.

23
Nov

Google Video Update

By Daniel Closed
Categories: Hockey and Misc

Google is doing a lot better with its NHL games, it is actually posting games in a Teemu Selanne - 500th Goalrelatively good time after the game was played. On Tuesday they posted the game against Phoenix, much faster then the week or two it took when they first started posting. The video quality is not too bad either, but should never be watched on anything other then a computer monitor.

 

YouTube has also joined the fray, but since Google owns them, I just say Google. This page is basically filled with game highlights, player/coach interviews, weekly league highlight packages (goals, hits, saves). I haven’t seen any interviews or locker room stuff, but I am sure it is comming.

Really what it looks like is going on is the NHL has taken its video highlights that it posts on every game and also gives it to YouTube. YouTube throws advertisements via Google AdSense, surfers randomly click on links and Google gets a check, then Google gives the NHL as cut. Pretty smart, the NHL doesn’t have to do much, YouTube even takes the bandwidth costs.

Next is the streaming of live games in decent quality, I would actually pay for that. Plus I would want the game to be downloadable as well, within an hour or two after the final whistle blew. It should also be streamable to mobile devices, like my phone. If you have an unlimited data plan on your phone, this would be so cool to do. But I would love to be able to download it for later viewing if I wont be home. I bought a Zune the day it came out and I put the Fedoruk - Boogard fight on it, it looked good. As a last ditch effort, I wouldn’t mind watching the game on it.

Keep up the good work Google, you guys fucking rock the boat. So check out full NHL games on Google Video, even have some classics…The official YouTube page for the NHL partnership is here.

« Previous Entries