Category: Hockey

No Score After One Period

The Bruins and the Maple Leafs are scoreless after one period in game three of their first round series.

Unrelated, this restaurant has the same plates that Jen bought when we redid the kitchen. Amazing!

Game Two: The Bruins Lose

The Leafs came back to take game two of the best of seven first round series. If Swayman plays goal in game three and wins, will we have a full blown goalie controversy? We’ll see. Game three is Wednesday (I think… isn’t it?)

Anyway, let’s chase those hockey blues away by listening to a newly mixed crappy song. Quarantine Tunes Volume Seven is done save for figuring out the actual running order for the 11 songs. More on that to come in the future though. For now, here’s the last song.

Game Two: After Two Periods

In game two of the first round playoff series between the Bruins and the Maple Leafs, it’s tied at two goals apiece after two periods.

The Leafs tied it in the last couple of minutes of the period. I almost jumped the gun and wrote a post saying the Bruins were up 2-1. Friggin’ Leafs.

Pastrnak had one of the goals for Boston. That’s good, at least.

Go Bruins

5-1 Final

I watched most of the first period and then just followed the score on my phone until I fell asleep during the third. The Bruins took game one from the Maple Leafs by a score of 5-1.

I am happy. One win down and three to go.

Game two is tomorrow (Monday) night.

Go Bruins!

1-0 After One

The Bruins are up 1-0 over the Leafs after one period in game one of the first round playoff series.

Here’s hoping they keep things up.

Go Bruins!

NHL Playoff Predictions

The first round of the NHL Playoffs start tomorrow. It’s time for my pointless, stupid predictions post. As is generally the case with pro sports these days, I have not been following the league as a whole that much, just my home town team. That means most of these predictions are very close to blind guesses on my part. Therefore I will also include a flip of a coin prediction and when it’s all over we’ll see if I was better at picking winners than randomness.

Are we ready?

As always, we will start with the Eastern Conference.

Panthers vs Lightning. The battle of Florida… in hockey… ugh. Nothing like cold weather spots in Florida. The Panthers had the better regular season, but I am optimistic that their luck is running out. I am going to pick Tampa Bay. It will probably go seven games, but the Lightning will come out on top. I promise this pick has nothing to do with the Panthers bouncing my Boston Bruins in the first round last year. Really. It has nothing to do with that. Now, which team does the coin pick? The rules are the higher seed (Florida in this case) is heads and the lower seed (Tampa Bay) is tails. It’s tails. The coin picks Tampa Bay.

Bruins vs Maple Leafs. I live in Boston. I root for Boston teams. There is no way I am picking against my Bruins. That’s a given. Beyond that, the Leafs have a killer offense, but it will not be a match for the Bruins defense and goalies. Sorry, Leafs fans. It’s going to be yet another in a long line of Boston wins over Toronto. Nothing personal, friends. The Bruins will just have your number again. The coin flip is heads so the coin picks the Bruins too.

The Rangers vs the Capitals. I hate both of these teams. I hate the Rangers more. That’s not why I am picking the Capitals this time though. The Capitals have been playing playoff intensity games for a while now. The Rangers breezed into the playoffs. The Capitals fought their way in. I think the momentum will carry the Caps through the first round. Probably not too far beyond that, but I’m looking for a serious upset here. The coin flip is tails so it also picked the Capitals. I see a pattern developing here.

Whalers vs Islanders. Okay, Robert. Stop calling the Carolina Hurricanes the Whalers. It’s not funny anymore. Then again… both of these teams were the parent club of the AHL team I used to have season tickets for. The Lowell Lock Monsters. Both teams pulled out on us and left my minor league team hanging. Due to that I can honestly say I friggin’ hate both of these teams. I want to pick the Islanders here, but they are from New York and I can’t pick a New York team without feeling gross about it. I’m considering it… but I think I am picking the Whale this time, even if it is painful to do so. The coin flip picks the Islanders though. Finally it picks the team I didn’t pick.

On to the Western Conference…

Stars vs Golden Knights. I don’t know. I really don’t. I want to pick Vegas but… no, I am going to pick Dallas. I could go either way with this one, but let’s officially pick The Stars. The coin flip picks Vegas.

Jets vs Avalanche. Again, I could go either way with this series. My gut is telling me to pick the Avs for the upset, but I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. I am going to pick The Jets and I will probably kick myself for doing so. The coin is tails again so it picks Colorado. That coin sure does love the underdogs, right?

Canucks vs Predators. Okay, I am going to pick an underdog this time. Nashville will take this one in an upset. As silly as it is to have an NHL team in Tennessee, I foresee a Vancouver choke coming. The coin flip agrees with me as it comes up tails for the fifth flip in a row.

Oilers vs Kings. Last but not least. I have always like The Kings. I haven’t always liked the Oilers as they beat my Bruins in the Cup Finals in both 1988 and 1990. Eventually something happened (I don’t know what) and I started to like them too. I am going to pick The Oilers this year. Sorry, Los Angeles. Edmonton is going to beat you. Nothing personal, it’s just business. Hockey business. The coin flip finally comes up heads so the coin picks Edmonton too.

There you have it, folks. My stupid, pointless, blind, uninformed predictions for the first round of the NHL Playoffs. It’s Stanley Cup tournament time. The best post season in all of professional sports. The games start tomorrow. The Bruins take on The Maple Leafs tomorrow at 8:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Go Bruins!

I Don’t Hate It

The Gibson Theodore… a lot of people hate it. I… I guess I… I guess I don’t hate it. I sure don’t love it, but I don’t think I hate it. I almost think it’s cool.

I’ll embed a video below that goes into depth, but the deal is that a few years ago Gibson unearthed a guitar design that was unused back in the golden era of the 1950’s and did a short, very expensive, run out of their custom shop. Recently they released a standard production model that is also grossly expensive, but a whole lot less expensive than the original version.

Yeah the body shape is kinda dumb. I liked the custom shop’s use of P90 pickups rather than the USA version’s use of humbuckers. I like the four knobs on the custom shop over the two master controls on the USA. I very much greatly prefer the bridge on the USA version.

I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t love it but I don’t really hate it. Weird, huh?

Change of subject: unrelated, both the Bruins and the Red Sox won today. The Red Sox snapped a really ugly four game losing streak. The Bruins… I think… clinched the Atlantic Division title… I think… didn’t they? No… did they? I knew they needed a win over Pittsburgh tonight, but I can’t remember if it was a win OR a Florida Panthers loss would clinch things, or was it a win AND a Panthers loss? Also, did the Panthers need to lose, or lose in regulation? I don’t remember. The Bruins won in regulation and the Panthers won in overtime. I guess I’ll find out the answer to this question in the morning. Whatevs, both of my teams won today. Happiness.

Back to the main topic. Where does the Theodore sit on my Gibson Guitar I-Want-One list?

  • Les Paul Junior
  • Les Paul Standard 50’s with P90 pickups
  • Firebird, but not a studio. I want the Firebird mini-humbuckers, not standard humbuckers
  • Les Paul Deluxe
  • Insert the Theodore here? Maybe.
  • Les Paul Special, or SG Special, or SG Junior
  • ES-330

Damn… that’s a long list. It’s also an insanely expensive list. Come on, Gibson USA. Help a brother out. Bring those prices down. I don’t want to start thinking about Epiphones. I’m a Gibson snob after all.

Curling

I just asked the wordpress.com A.I. Assistant this question: Why is curling a thing?

Curling has a rich history dating back to the 16th century in Scotland, where it originated as a popular pastime during the long winter months. The sport involves players sliding stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area, while teammates use brooms to sweep the ice in front of the stone to control its speed and direction. Over time, curling has evolved into a highly strategic and competitive sport, with a dedicated global following. Its appeal lies in the skillful combination of precision, strategy, teamwork, and the unique dynamic of the game being played on ice. Additionally, the social aspects of the sport, including camaraderie and sportsmanship, contribute to its enduring popularity.

This whole post is an inside joke kinda thing, but apparently there are people who play the sport of Curling in Georgia… a place that doesn’t have ice. Who knew? Atlanta has twice had an NHL team. The first one booked it out of town and ended up in Calgary, where there is a lot of ice. The other booked it out of town and ended up in Winnipeg, where there is also a lot of ice.

So yeah… curling… in Georgia. Who knew?

This isn’t meant to bad mouth Curling. During every Winter Olympics, whenever I stumble across Curling I find myself completely fascinated with it, even though I have zero knowledge of anything that’s happening. It’s kinda weird and almost creepy. Still, come February 2026, when we have the next Winter Olympics, you can bet your bottom (Canadian) dollar that I’ll find myself glued to the TV.

Speaking of the NHL, the Bruins got spanked by the Blues last night. It made me sad. I need the Bruins to go on a nice win streak. Granted, I’d rather they play crappy for a while now than have them do it in the playoffs like they did last year.