Category: Hockey

The Boston Penguins? The Pittsburgh Red Sox?

I’m a little conflicted about this one even though it makes zero difference to the universe from my perspective, and also because it’s not actually close to happening. But…

The Fenway Sports Group, the company that owns the Boston Red Sox, is in talks to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins.
(https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32646194/fenway-sports-group-advanced-talks-purchase-pittsburgh-penguins-source-says)*

Does this matter? No, no it doesn’t. I have no problem rooting for this company’s baseball team while rooting against their hockey team. None at all. The only things I would ask are that they change the name of the Penguins arena back to The Igloo because, let’s face it, that name pretty much rules. Second, once the seven year grace period mentioned in the article is over, MOVE THEIR ASSES TO BOSTON. If not Boston then maybe Hartford. I hate the Penguins with a passion. I don’t hate them as much as I hate the Canadiens or the Rangers, but I hate them. Still, if New York can have two teams, the Rangers and the Islanders (three if you count the Devils next door in New Jersey. I hate the Islanders too, and I also hate the Devils. I hear Jesus hates the Devils** too) then why the hell can’t Boston support two teams? Granted, New York is about 10031503135 times bigger than Boston, but anything those creeps can do, we can do better. Blah! Suck it, New York! Burn!

If you can’t move the Penguins to Boston, then move them to Hartford. For a couple of reasons. One, brass bonanza. Two, it would be fun to watch the Civic Center roof collapse on the Penguins. Three, as much as I hate them, I do sort of missing having The Whale right next door.

According to the article, there is a deal on the table but the Fenway Sports Group needs to approve it, and then the NHL also needs to approve it. I would guess that those two steps mean that any potential sale is still a long way off, and again it won’t effect us at all. Still… maybe it would be weird to actively root against the folks who own the Red Sox. That’s not going to stop me from happily doing it though. Go Bruins. Bite me, Penguins.

*Wordpress.com’s post editor keeps saying that I am successfully adding a link to that line of text, but every time I click publish and then click the link it opens to a blank page.

**Back in the days when my brother and sister and I were buying 10 game partial season ticket packages for the Boston Bruins we went to a game against the New Jersey Devils. There was a guy sitting up in the balcony near us who was chanting, at the top of this voice, “Jesus hates the Devils” and that guy, whoever and where ever he may be, gets an A+ in life.

Monday Monday

It’s Monday. November 15th. We’re halfway through November, which means we’re careening toward December and the holidays and winter and blah.

I had another bad night’s sleep last night. Less than six hours, and only about 60% in deep sleep. Blah. I feel like I am in a stage where I need to have a couple of bad nights before I have a good night. The night before last was good. So that means maybe Tuesday night should be okay?

The kids come home for Thanksgiving on Friday. Have I mentioned that? I think I might have.

The Bruins came back and won last night. There is nothing in hockey worse than losing to Montreal, so nightmare averted, babie. The Bruins have played the fewest games in the league, and now they are off until Saturday. Who is the add wizard who came up with this schedule?

Fear the Walking Dead last night was better than the week before but it was still laughably awful. It’s like driving past a car wreck now. I can’t look away, even though I really want to. I never considered myself a masochist before, but here we are. Granted, there were all those years of watching bad movies that were so bad they were funny. Fear doesn’t fall into that category yet. It’s just plain bad.

Okay. Time to go to work now. Have a happy Monday, everyone. Hang in there, Friday is only five measly little days away.

Sunday Night Stuff

I’m watching the Bruins play the Canadiens right now. We are down 1-0, six minutes into the second period. This needs to change immediately. The Canadiens, despite their playoff success last year, or maybe because of it, are awful right now. The Bruins haven’t exactly been stellar, but they are good enough that they should murderize Montreal. Gentlemen, let’s pick it up, shall we?

So I put together the mini-shed thing, and played some guitar, and wrote some music. I have not made Bellana’s bed, after washing her sheets yesterday. I still need to do that, but she won’t be here until Friday, so I have time.

I watched more Futurama. Lots of it. Not as much as yesterday, but still lots of it. Take it as given that it is one of the best shows ever. Is it better than The Simpsons? I think it might be. I don’t know.

I also started watching Foundation. When we were kids, Mike the Bass Player used to push me to read two books. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Foundation. I was in my 30’s before I finally got to Hitchhiker’s Guide and holy crap was Mike right. I still haven’t read Foundation. One review of the TV show that I heard was that if you read the book you’ll hate the show, but if you haven’t read the book you’ll love it. Okay, that works in my favor. Another review, from someone who loved the books, was that if you pretend the name of the show is something other than Foundation it is okay. I’ll take that.

Sticking with the TV theme, it’s Sunday and that means it’s Walking Dead spin off night. World Beyond is still kinda bland but mostly okay. There are only four episodes left (I think) and then the series comes to an end. It certainly doesn’t feel like a show that’s four episodes away from ending. (The Bruins just tied the game, 1-1 with 11 minutes or so left in the second) As for Fear the Walking Dead… the hate watch will continue. It has to be the worst show on television. I can’t imagine anything worse than this getting the green light to air. It’s atrocious and last week’s episode was so bad it was actually insulting. Two people having a conversation 10 feet away from a leaking, unexploded nuclear warhead without suffering any radiation issues. They are both twins. Sort of. One of them admits that she’s not really a twin. She and her brother were born on the same day but she’s adopted (hey show runners, I saw This is Us too!). The other guy hears this story but then tells her that because she’s a twin she has super powers and can tell when her twin is in trouble… but she LITERALLY just told the guy she’s not actually a twin. I mean… I usually don’t really proof read my blog posts, but I would still expect someone to proof read the scripts for a major television show, right? Plot holes and continuity errors (and leaking, unexploded nuclear warheads) are things to be avoided, right?

Changing the subject. I still have 17 minutes of exercise left to do. I don’t think I’ll finish before Fear starts, but I think I’ll stand up and pick off a few minutes right now. A perfect week is at stake!

Artificial Disk Replacement Surgery

Jack Eichel was traded from the Buffalo Sabers to the Vegas Golden Knights today. The reason for the trade had nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with healthcare.

Eichel needs surgery. He has a herniated disk. He wanted to undergo a procedure that had never been performed on an NHL player. The team wanted him to have a more common procedure. I have to imagine that conflicts like this are probably common. The team doctors want to do X and the player’s personal doctor wants to do Y. In this case the two sides refused to budge and it lead to a stalemate where Eichel didn’t get either procedure and the team traded him to get rid of him.

It all seems dumb to me, but what really surprises me is that based on the collective bargaining agreement, the team is 100% in the right. Now I understand that the team has millions of dollars invested in the player and all of that, but try to look at this from your own healthcare perspective. Imagine you have a condition that requires surgery. You and your doctor come up with a plan of action, and your employer says no and tells you that you have to do something different. Now imagine that you signed a contract that gives the employer that right.

Wow. I mean… wow. Do the other pro sports leagues have this right too? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.

Clawing Back to Life

Just another one of those days where the brain doesn’t want to function and something that feels like what the rumors say is the blues tries to take over. I have three things that are helping me claw my way back to life.

First, Jen. As always. As far as my mental state goes, I really don’t know what I would do without her.

Second, nowhere near as important as item number one, the Bruins are kicking the shit out of the Sharks right now. It’s 4-1 about halfway through the third period. Thanks, Bruins. I appreciate it.

Third, probably more important than number two, but still nowhere near as important as number one, I spent the last hour+ playing guitar. I put leads on the three songs that got vocals this morning, and then put rhythm guitars onto two more from the current batch of songs to re-record for the 2015 re-recording yadda yadda blah. My playing wasn’t great, but it was okay.

Now I have to get some exercise in. Ugh.

Obligatory guitar pics:

Remember That Thing?

Hey, remember when I used to post about writing shitty songs all the time? The Red Sox have totally distracted me from all of that.

I need to write at least one song this month and tonight in my baseball induced misery I wrote the melody and the lyrics for a new song. Aren’t you proud of me? Aren’t you sad that I’m posting about shitty music again? Yeah, sorry about that.

Car music in the morning?

When I sat down to write this literary masterpiece of a blog post I put the Bruins game on the radio. They were losing to Philly, 4-3 in the third. Almost immediately after I started listening, Philly scored to pad the lead to 5-3.

Sports wise, this is just not my night.

Not Fun

I stopped listening to the game in the sixth or seventh inning. I just couldn’t deal. I was so psyched yesterday morning and just crushed, sports fan-ily speaking, tonight. I still have a gamecast up on my computer even though I am not listening or watching anymore. Houston just scored twice in the top of the ninth to pad the lead to 9-1.

Oh, and the Bruins are down 2-1 after one period. Oh fer crying out loud.

One out in the bottom of the ninth.

The Bruins are now down 3-1.

Two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Three outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Game over.

The Astros are up three games to two with game six in Houston on Friday.

Shit.

Late Sleeper

I went to bed last night a little before midnight. I woke up once around 6:00 but went right back to sleep. Next thing I know it’s 9:00. Eight hours and 45 minutes of sleep, six hours and 30 minutes of restful sleep, and a sleeping heart rate dip of 30%. That might be the best night’s sleep I’ve had since I started paying attention.

We have a scheduled FaceTime with Harry this afternoon and we’re planning a Great British Bake Off watch party too. Other than that… we’re plans free. So some TV, some World of Warcraft? Maybe some more guitar. How about definitely some more guitar.

I started watching two shows that have pretty completely hooked me. Midnight Mass and Y the Last Man. Midnight Mass took a couple of episodes to grab me, but Y the Last Man was more or less instant. There is one more episode of Titans to go and I don’t know how many more episodes of What We Do in the Shadows. Walking Dead World Beyond is on tonight. That’s okay. Fear the Walking Dead comes back tonight too and I don’t know what to think about it. Season five is still the worst season of television I have ever made myself watch. Season six started out better but spiraled right down the toilet and may have ended up worse than season five. Why am I bothering with season seven? It can’t be worse, can it? At the same time, it can’t be good either, can it?

The Red Sox are not playing today. It’s a travel day. The Bruins finally opened their season last night and they don’t play again until Wednesday. No Boston sports for me tonight. Suddenly that feels weird.

I’m having a bad time with the intermittent fasting this weekend. I thought I was going to be driving to Vermont yesterday so I stopped the fast and had breakfast. Today I slept late and did it again. Two sub 16 hour fasts in a row. I think that was the first time I’ve done that in 13 months.

So what am I getting at with all of this?

It’s going to be a lazy Sunday and I like it. Go play your guitars, kids.

Red Sox Win Game Two

The Red Sox beat the Astros in game two, 9-5. They were up 9-0 early and kept letting Houston creep back, but they ran out of time. Game three is Monday night in Boston.

Now that the game is over we’ve moved on to the Bruins game. The opening game of the season is tied at one after two periods.

Just for completeness sake, UMass Lowell’s men’s ice hockey opening weekend was postponed because the other team had a Covid-19 outbreak.

And in closing, check out my cat.