Obituary - Queen's Homecoming

Please read Neate Sager's post from Out of Left Field, explaining to a tee my feelings on Queen's administration canceling changing the date of Homecoming to late May.

And shed a tear for the moving of this school's greatest tradition, and no I don't mean Aberdeen.

The thing about the Aberdeen party is this:
Queen's students go to the street, mull about for a while, then leave.
Non-Queen's students spend hours on the street 'waiting for something to happen'.

Here's the letter I sent to the Carleton Charletan* last month explaining my feelings on this in response to an article on their journalists had written on our Homecoming (why the fuck did they have a reporter at Queen's Homecoming. Carleton is unassociated....).

Thanks McGill, Carleton, Ottawa, Western, U of T, Ryerson, York, Laurier, Waterloo, et al, you fucked it up for us.
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* I don't know why they called me "Amrit A.", I gave them my entire name. High-quality newspaper eh?

The Guillotine Game

Ouch. I really don't know what else to say after that one. Well, I can think of a few things.

Mike Tirico has now made The List after blatantly jinxing Rian Lindell by mentioning "Wide Right."

I mean, how dare you. That's almost as bad as mentioning the Music City Miracle right before a kick off with little time remaining. And I guarantee had Tirico not jinxed Lindell, the announcers would have mentioned the Music City Miracle.

The Bills didn't really have any business winning that game, considering the lackluster game Trent Edwards had tonight. By the end of the 1st quarter, I would not have been surprised to see JP Losman under center (as painful as that sounds). Leodis McKelvin had a chance to end it with an interception that was in his hands, and then Reggie Corner had a chance to grab it after it popped up off of McKelvin's body. Corner also missed a big chance to blindside Brady Quinn on a corner blitz (yes, Reggie Corner plays corner back, as is dutifully pointed out and made fun of every time his name is mentioned by the announcers), but he slipped coming around the corner, I think, and allowed Quinn to get the ball off. The rookies (McKelvin, Corner and Steve Johnson) all had some great contributions tonight. I hope Xavier Omon (Div. II record holder for TDs) and Demetrius Bell (Karl Malone's illegitimate son) get into the action this season as well.

McKelvin did have a great kickoff return or a TD and completely changed the atmosphere of the game. Marshawn Lynch rediscovered his Beast Mode with a great TD reception where he bounced off 7 or 8 guys, and then a great run in the 4th quarter where he bounced off 4 or 5 and then dragged 2 more down to the goal line to set up Edwards' rushing TD.

But it all comes back to the Guillotine. Once Tirico mentioned "Wide Right," every Bills fan immediately had the memory of Scott Norwood come back, and those ghosts haunted the normally automatic Rian Lindell.

This game is up there with the Nick Folk Game, the Sage Rosenfels Game, the Kevin Everett Game, and the 2004 season finale.

These of course rank below Wide Right and the Music City Miracle, but these loses hurt. Bad.

The only thing that could have made this better is if Gus Johnson could have been commentating instead of Mike Tirico. Gus gets it. Just look at some of his clips on Youtube. You will not be disappointed.

As for the rest of the Bills season, I really do not see how they can come back from this hole. They have to win out and finish 11-5 and hope every other team in the division falters.

Wow. I need a drink after that game.

Happiness is Ottawa in your rearview mirror...

Hey there, Amrit! How's 2nd last in the league treating you? Not great, eh? Well at least your guys released some nice new 3rd jerseys...

Yes, I know the Leafs are in 10th in the East and 20th in the NHL, but that is 8-10 spots better than expected. It is also 9 spots higher than Ottawa.

On top of that, this team has been genuinely fun to watch on a night to night basis. You never know who is going to be playing together, and you never know who is going to see the most ice. If you had told me that 18 games into the season, Matt Stajan would be the leading point-getter, I would have thought this team was screwed. Thus far, they have done it with hard work and Ron Wilson has really gotten a lot more from guys like Stajan or Steen than was expected. Although at this point, his attempts to coerce Jason Blake to play Wilson's way is like trying to draw blood from a stone, except this stone is due $20MM.

Mikhail Grabovski has been a complete revealation, and has thus far been 100% worth the 2nd and 5th round picks traded for him. It's a testament to how good Montreal is, that they could afford to trade this guy to a division rival. Him and the other 4 rookies (Nikolai Kulemin, Luke Schenn, John Mitchell and Jonas Frogren) have shown some flashes, but have also been prone to rookie mistakes.

I would have liked to have seen what Kyle Wellfed would have done with Ron Wilson as his coach. Wellwood lacked motivation, but getting released from Toronto and then waived again by Vancouver might give him the proper motivation.

Vesa Toskala has also not been on top form this season, having yet to really steal a game. The Leafs of playoff runs of the Pat Quinn-era were built on Curtis Joseph or Ed Belfour bailing out a subpar defense. The defense has been pretty solid, but Toskala has taken a step back from last season.

The single worst thing that could happen would be for the Leafs to hire Brian Burke in the next few weeks. I'd be afraid that he could talk himself into believing that this team is one piece away from a deep playoff run this year, and all they would have to trade is draft picks or top prospect(s).* Please, no more of that. No more Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft, Brad Boyes, Alyn McCauley and a pick for Owen Nolan. This team is not one piece away, it needs time to develop. I would be less upset if Burke was brought in at season's end, but I still believe Burke is an overrated GM. He did a very good job in Vancouver, but could never find a goalie better than Dan Cloutier. It was a glaring hole for years, and he just could not fill it. In Anaheim, he essentially took Brian Murray's team and then lucked into Chris Pronger. Since then, he has destroyed his cap room to the point where he was on the verge of trading Bobby Ryan to the Leafs with Mathieu Schneider just to get rid of Schneider's terrible contract. Also, trading Andy McDonald for Doug Weight was a payroll move.

All-in-all, this season has been fun and interesting to watch. From the re-emergence of Matt Stajan to the spazzing of Jason Blake, I hope this can continue for another 60 games.

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* I say "prospect(s)" because the only real prospect with any type of value would be Justin Pogge

A day later, but still good

So, Kill McGill didn't quite go to plan. Long story short: 3-0, one 'fight', outshot by a little more than double, and learning that the best way to climb out of a 3-0 deficit in the third does not involve spending half the period on the penalty kill.

That's about all I have to say about that, on the blog anyway. I should have a web article about the game going up soon enough, and Andrew live-blogged the hell out of that badboy over on Sporting Madness.

Also, I've decided that the press box at the Memorial Centre is easily the scariest thing I've ever set foot in, and odds are I won't do it again. Even Eric (the civil engineer) said that he couldn't work out how the balls it stays in the air. Needless to say, odds are I won't be watching a game in or under the bloody thing. Unfortunately I can't seem to find a picture of it, but that's all the more incentive to go out to a Gaels home game and see it for yourself!!!

New Sens jersey

Well, looks like I'm the first Sens blog that I know of to show this one off.

A shitty season, a shittier third jersey, it seems.

Nothing as bad as we all thought, mind you, at least it's not as bad as the SNES jersey we thought we'd be getting

I'm pretty tipsy at the moment, so I'm not going to keep going, but here's the link from the jersey.

Milway sent me the link*, ever thankful!

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* To Icethetics....helpful nevertheless!

Eventful week for those guys who make me embarrassed to wear my jersey

I used to wear my Sens jersey with pride. Of late, I've been wearing it for appearances.

This week has been abysmal for the Sens, absolutely abysmal*. A 4-0 drumming in Montreal, followed by a game against a team they were "more evenly matched with", at home no less, and they were on the receiving end of a 3-1 whoopin'.

Also - Daniel Alfredsson, our unflappable captain, finally flapped. After the Montreal game, apparently emotions were running high at practice as the team couldn't get it right... and he put his stick through the glass at The Bank. Again - he put his stick. Through the glass. This is bearing in mind that rink-glass can usually bear the weight of Derek Boogaard skating full-speed into another big dude without breaking**. It's good to finally see the boys showing a little emotion, but it's unfortunate that it didn't carry over into the next outing.

At any rate, I'm thinking the tension in that dressing room would require a chainsaw (or an electric poultry-cutter) to cut through. Jarkko Ruutu, God love him, is a fucking idiot for the hit on Laperriere, and he bloody deserves it. There's a line between trying to draw penalties and showing off physical dominance, and putting someone's life in danger. You learn that stuff when you get taught hitting. Jarkko: keep them elbows down and my love for you shall grow - but don't make us look bad.

So tonight provides the opportunity for redemption: the second half of the home-and-home with the Islanders, the Sens will be visiting Long Island. I have but one word of advice for you, oh mighty men in red: don't fuck it up.

Lastly - for Queen's hockey fans, I'll have something up on tonight's Kill McGill game up tomorrow. For students - puck drops at 7:30 pm, be there, it's free with your student card. There's really no excuse. Unless, of course, you're going to Dylan. But still.

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* Abysmal is a great damn word
** Boogaard putting himself through the glass in a rookie game between the Blues and Wild a few years back. After they replaced the glass, they put a masking tape man on the glass, I guess so he'd see the glass? Who the hell knows. Point is - Derek Boogaard only breaks glass when he makes contact with nobody. I'd love to see a fight between him, Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel. That would be awesome.

Keano takes the pundits over his knee

The other Keano, the one who's not playing anymore.

Roy Keane was invited onto ITV a little while ago to act as the colour guy for Celtic v Man U, but he responded by saying he'd rather be at the dentist*.

The angriest of the angry Irishmen has a poor history with television. It was an appearance on MUTV's (Manchested United's special channel, much like Leafs TV or one of those) which ended his 12 year stay at United. He has often vocally criticized the way matches are called, and has more than once admitted to turning the TV to mute when watching football.

All this reminds me of one of my biggest gripes when watching matches - commentators who can't decide who they're broadcasting to. I understand it's difficult to toe the line between good analysis and teaching analysis, but they need to figure it out.

It's especially bad in Canada, where we're subjected to some of the worst football analysis in the world. Honestly, I've heard more insightful comments watching football in India than the crap on Fox Sports World Canada, The Score, TSN or Sportsnet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm more than happy that I can finally watch football on TV rather than counting on internet streaming, but I'm finding myself switching the channel at halftime and watching the games on mute with music playing so that I'm not subjected to the stream of shite pouring from the speakers.

The halftime analysis from supposed experts is probably my biggest problem. I respect Craig Forrest as much as the next guy, but he's out there without a raft at halftime. Except for that English fella (apologies, his name escapes me at the moment) who did EURO, Gerry Dobson and his crew are the most useless providers of analysis and football news ever. It's painful to listen to them try to break down a half and set us up for the second half. The story is the same on the Score, when I'm watching the Footy Show or when they have live broadcasts.

Again, I'm more than happy that we're finally getting matches here, and it's absolutely a step in the right direction. But football is easily, along with hockey, the most popular sport among youth in this country. Kids understand what's going on and, for the most part, their parents do too. We can start to step into the next level of match analysis, people typically aren't learning the game anymore. People know it, people know good football, and the halftime analysis has no business explaining the offside rule or what constitutes a penalty. Discussing and arguing whether something is a penalty is fine, explaining the rule is dumb and unnecessary.

If anything, the poor quality of football analysis in this country is turning people off watching it, it's irritating to know the game and have to listen to that drivel. Craig Forrest and the other guy who's name I can't remember seem to actively try to up the level**, but they're constantly kicked down by their co-hosts, and the Footy Show is dominated by people who shouldn't be analyzing football. Honestly, that fella who looks like a fridge has never, in any of the episodes I've watched, said a helpful or analytical comment. He has a habit of summing up what happened, and pretending that he's analyzing.

Any road, let this article act as a public service announcement for channels who broadcast football: we understand what's happening, you seem to understand as well, please bring your programs up to our standards. Thank you.

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* I know dentists, I am friends with dentists, but in the chair you guys are bastards.
** Although, Craig, really, we understand you played in the Premier league. Your anecdotes are nice, but you don't have to remind us every week that you played.