Tag: Hockey

Back to Work

Well… I knew I couldn’t fight it. I punched into work a little before 9:00am and stuck the final nail in this year’s holiday season’s coffin. It’s over, folks.

The kids are still here. I figured they would have left by now so I am pretty happy. They did both sleep really late though so that might be the reason. I don’t care. I love it when they are here. Even when I am working and can’t go hang out with them.

Today has been really quiet overall. Not much to write about. The Bruins played twice over the weekend, finally coming back from the long Covid-19 shut down. I watched a few minutes of Saturday’s game against Buffalo and the little that I saw looked pretty awful. They straightened it out and won in overtime. I didn’t see yesterday’s game against Detroit but they spanked them pretty thoroughly. Here’s hoping that’s a sign of good things to come.

Major League Baseball is still locked out. I keep seeing stories tweeted out from all sorts of sources talking about the things such and such a team needs to do to improve and yadda yadda blah. I haven’t been reading the articles but I am really hoping they all boil down to something along the lines of “don’t be locked out.” Everything else is sort of superfluous* until that happens.

What else, what else… did I mention that all of my workout time that my Apple Watch tracked last week was on the exercise bike? I’m pretty sure that was a first for me. Does it mean anything? No. No, it does not.

I haven’t given much thought to the RPM Challenge this year. The only thing that’s come to me for something different to do is to use two guitars. I always double track my rhythm guitar parts. What if, instead of just tracking everything twice, I use a different guitar for each take? My Les Paul Standard would be playing in one ear, and my SG would be playing in the other. What about that for goofy nerdness? Maybe even use a different amplifier with each guitar. I’m thinking about it.

Okay, 2:00pm approaches. Time to wrap up this lunch break post.

*I had to pay $0.10 to use that word.

No Olympics for Us

I was really looking forward to the NHL sending players back to the Olympics this year but I really should have known better. It’s no use getting our hopes up about anything anymore. Here in Covid-land it’s all gone to shit and we’re just going to tread water in said shit for the rest of our days.

One year ago today I wrote this:

“Now we just have three work days, and a Christmas Eve to go before our first and hopefully last ever Covid-19 Christmas. Here’s hoping the little bastard goes down in history as a unique little blip on the universe. HoHoHo.”

Nope. It was most definitely not a unique little blip on the universe. It was a solid kick, square in the balls. Fuck you, universe.

Fuck. You.

Okay, so that got more dramatic than a handful of hockey games deserves, but on the scale of life, the universe, and everything… yeah, fuck you.

Hockey Takes an Early Christmas

The NHL was supposed to go on its Christmas break after the end of play on the 23rd. There would be no activity, including travel, until the 26th.

As it turned out, all of the games on the schedule for the 22nd had already been postponed due to the league shutting down individual teams for Covid outbreaks.

So the league and the players did the smart thing and decided to start the Christmas break early. It now starts at the end of play tonight (the 21st) and all of the games on the books for the 23rd, there are five of them, will be postponed.

I got my info from the players association’s news site.

Now while I think that their hearts are in the right place, I think they are coming up short. Personally, I think they should shut down until New Years Day. Let the infected players recover and then come back on 1/1/22 with the Winter Classic.

But that’s just me.

No Surprise Here

The Bruins were added to the list of NHL teams that are shut down until after Christmas. That brings us up to four postponed games.

No surprise here. This is a good thing. Get everyone through this. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks or so and all will be well.

The NHL is Falling Apart

The NHL is falling apart. Last night the Montreal Canadiens played a game without fans in the building. I believe it was at the Province of Quebec’s request but I am not sure of that.

Today, the NHL postponed Saturday’s scheduled game between the Bruins and the Canadiens. I don’t know if Montreal was going to close the building for that game too, but I do know that seven Bruins players and one staff member have been put into the Covid-19 protocol. The Bruins were allowed to play last night so I am curious if the postponement had as much to do the differing quarantine rules in the US and Canada. If I have things straight, players testing positive for Covid in the US need to quarantine for 10 days. In Canada it’s 14. So was the game postponed so that any newly positive Bruins players wouldn’t be stuck in Canada for an extra four days? I guess it’s possible. I also wonder if maybe the Province of Quebec pulled the plug. The Bruins are playing in Ontario on Sunday and that game has not been mentioned yet.

Now we get the news that the NHL has postponed all games involving the Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, and Colorado Avalanche through Christmas. Eight days. According to the article, the Panthers have the same number of cases among players as the Bruins, and they both have more than the Avs. Calgary leaves everyone in the dust. If the Bruins have as many cases as one of these three teams, why aren’t they included? Why hasn’t Sunday’s game in Ottawa been axed too? Is a longer shut down for Boston imminent? I would think so. For the sake of everyone’s health I would hope so.

What a mess.

The Olympics are looking less and less likely, especially if I am right about the issues with the lengths of quarantines. Word is that athletes testing positive during the games will be subject to China’s quarantine process which can run for up to five weeks. I don’t know the specifics, and I could have details wrong (I am basing this off of hearsay from half-listening to hockey podcasts while I work), but being stuck in China for a month would be a seriously tough pill to swallow for NHL players.

Again, what a mess.

Here’s hoping all of the positive testing players recover quick with a minimum of symptoms. Everyone involved so far is twice vaccinated so hopefully the vaccine is doing it’s job and keeping people from getting too sick. No hospitalizations, please.

Also, here’s hoping it doesn’t get worse.

Outbreak on Ice

The NHL shut down the Calgary Flames for Covid the other day. Today the Bruins, after playing Calgary a few days ago, had two players, including Brad Marchand, go into the Covid protocol. Then later the league postponed the Carolina vs Minnesota game for, you guessed it, Covid.

The debate is raging over whether or not the NHL is going to participate in the Olympics. How are they going to keep everyone safe in the viral incubator known as the Olympic village if they can’t keep everyone safe during normal operations?

They are talking about keeping everyone home. You know, I was really hoping for some NHL/Olympic hockey this year. It’s going to suck if they back out.

The depleted Bruins are playing Vegas tonight. Here’s hoping no one else gets sick. Covid is a prick.

ADDENDUM: Vegas is kicking the shit out of the Bruins. We are down 3-0 after one. Crap.

Finally in a Playoff Spot

The Bruins beat the Calgary Flames last night. On a three game Western Canadian road trip they took five out of a possible six points… even though they did get stuck with a loser point in a loss to pathetic Vancouver. However lame losing to Vancouver is, they had themselves a very successful little road trip and they have finally managed to get themselves into a playoff spot. As of last night they are in the second wild card spot in the East. They are the eighth and final spot.

Somehow having the Bruins in a playoff spot makes the air smell a little fresher and the sun feel a little warmer. Thanks, Bruins. Good work.

Worse than Lock Down

Next week we will hit the one year and nine month anniversary of my company sending us all home for Covid. Our 1.75th lock-down-aversary.

As bad as that is, do you know what is even worse?

Being in lock down at a time when the Boston Bruins lose to Vancouver. Talk about making things worse. They lost to the Canucks last night in a shootout. They are playing Edmonton tonight and it’s scoreless in the first.

Losing to the pathetic-as-hell Canucks isn’t bad enough to push me off the bandwagon, but it does suck out loud.

Here’s hoping for happier results tonight.

Mondays, Right?

I went to sleep at a little after midnight last night. A little later than I had hoped. I was awake around 6:00. A little earlier than I had hoped. The work day is half over and I am sleepy and want to go to bed. Oh well.

I have a half day booked for Wednesday. I forgot about that. Pretty cool, eh?

Tacoma FD did an episode in season two about blogging. I felt both seen and attacked and proud and super nerdy. I loved it. They also took a crack at dungeons and dragons, so they did out nerd me there. That felt nice.

What else… The Bruins are going to the west coast for a few games. That sucks. I am such an east coast snob when it comes to time zones. West coast games should start no later than 4:00pm pacific time. There. I said it. East coast snobbery at it’s finest.

What else? I would like to get more recording in tonight but I probably won’t. I have one song ready to mix. Maybe I’ll take care of that before bed. Assuming I don’t fall asleep around 6:30 or something. Finish work->make dinner->fall asleep. Plans, babie.