Tag: jinx

Over Confidence

First, to preface the rest of the post, I don’t give the faintest shit about the NBA. I don’t follow basketball at all. Not even a little bit. I was a bit of a Boston Celtics fan when I was a kid. Part of that was because my Uncle worked for the Celtics. If you ask him nicely he’ll show you his NBA Championship rings from 1984 and 1986. I am 100% serious about that. I’ve held them in my hands.

Okay, now that the prelude is over…

The Boston Celtics, prior to last night, had a three games to none lead in the NBA Championship series. I am so uninterested that I don’t even know who they are playing. Dallas? I think? Maybe? (A quick visit to espn.com tells me that it is indeed the Dallas Mavericks)

Game four was on Friday, last night, so the events I am writing about happened on Thursday. I was on Threads.com (which is owned by bookfayce and therefore makes me want to vomit when I think about it) and saw a post from someone I don’t follow… because that’s how the idiotic newsfeed works… talking about how the Celtics had the series wrapped up and Dallas barely even put up a fight. The gist of the post was something about discrediting claims that the Western Conference was the dominate Conference in the NBA. Again, I don’t care.

My lack of interest in the series does not supersede my being from Boston, and while I do not care about the league or the series, I am always down for a pro-sports championship in my city. I responded to the post on threads by cautioning against overconfidence. I wrote something about remembering the Boston Bruins blowing a three games to none lead in 2010 and thinking that maybe the poster should wait until the Celtics actually won the series before boasting about which team was more dominate. You know, be cautious in your optimism. Don’t be cocky like Bruins fans were in 2010… or Red Sox fans were in 1986. Dig?

Why is this of interest? Because last night was game four. The Celtics had a chance to end the series and win the league championship (for the 18th time, thank you very much) with a sweep. How did the game end up? The Celtics got friggin’ trounced and lost by 38 points.

Thirty-eight points.

So… maybe you should wait until the Celtics actually win the series before commenting on the strengths or weaknesses of their opponent. You know… don’t jinx it.

I know the person who posted the comment on threads was not a Bostonian, because those of us who live here effin’ know better (he said while having yet another waking nightmare about a ground ball up the first base line going through Bill Buckner’s legs).

Bad Luck Charm

The Bruins lead the Wild 2-1 half way through the third period.

I want to listen to the end of the game on the radio but I’m afraid the Wild will score twice within seconds of me tuning in.

It’s happened before. I’ve been the Bruins’ bad luck charm. If I don’t listen and they hold on to win then they should thank me for staying way.

Or something like that.

I am Bad Luck Again

It happens so often. I’m doing something and I put on a Bruins game and they immediately give up a goal. More often than not they give up the lead as well.

Tonight Jen and I had dinner, chicken and quinoa and roasted green beans, and then watched an episode of Cobra Kai. After that we had a watch party with Harry to see the new episode of The Book of Boba Fett. I approve of the episode in general but I am kinda done with the two time period stuff. I know how he escaped I know how he survived, now I just want to see The Sopranos in Space… except for the scooter kids. I’m done with them too.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, The Bruins. So after the watch party Jen went to the office to play some Warcraft and kill some bad guys. I retired to the bed room to put away some laundry and watch episode seven of Yellowjackets (WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING??). I opened up the NHL app on my phone and brought up the game cast (or whatever they call it) and saw the Bruins had a 2-1 lead over the Capitals. Awesome. As soon as the superlative formed in my tiny little brain the screen refreshed and Washington had tied the game at two.

Damn it.

Come on, Bruins. Let’s turn this around.

Jinx Part Two

Remember a couple of posts back where I said I was suddenly a jinx at work? Oddly enough, the word jinx came up again in a totally unrelated topic today.

I am actually afraid to mention it out of fear of actually jinxing it myself because irony is dead.

We have something in the works for my parents’ healthcare situation. We got some info today that if it happens would be a gift from the healthcare gods, but the person relaying the info actually said that they didn’t want to jinx it.

Holy shit snacks, please don’t let this be jinxed.

Please let the superstitious jinxing be localized to that one issue at work.

Pretty please.

Oh, and did I mention that Lizardfish covers Stevie Wonder’s Superstition? Is that enough to keep all superstitious coincidences at bay for a few decades? That’d be nice, m’kay.

Jinx

Twice in the last week or so someone at work has asked me about some obscure piece of functionality and I have replied that we don’t have to worry about it because no one on Earth uses that functionality and no one ever will… only to, a few days later, have a customer open a task because they are having a problem with that exact same obscure, never used piece of functionality.

It happened last week and it just happened again this morning.

I guess I am a technological jinx. I give up. I’m not answering questions anymore. I’m keeping my big, dumb, jinx mouth shut.

It’s My Fault, Sorry

I turned on the Red Sox game and the Sox were leading the Orioles 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Chris Sale had pitched four innings retiring 12 of 12 Oriole hitters, striking out eight.

Now that I was watching though… in the top of the fifth he walked a batter, gave up a hit, and gave up a run.  Why?  Because I am a jinx, plain and simple.

Sorry about that, Chris Sale.  Next time you’re half way through a perfect game I’ll put on the radio instead.

Stanley Cup Superstitions

Two years ago when the Boston Bruins were on their Stanley Cup run I developed a new superstition. If I ate a little Smartfood Popcorn on a game day, the Bruins would win. It worked for all of the wins in the third and fourth rounds.

I tried it in the Toronto series and it didn’t work. That was it for the Smartfood. What’s it going to be this time? I haven’t noticed anything yet. There aren’t even any candidates. I’m worried that I’m not doing my part to help. I’m worried that ill be the jinx without even realizing it.

(I’m not really, I’m just a serious hockey nerd. Deal with my nerdishness.)

The drop of the puck is just minutes away.

GO BRUINS!

Is Tuukka Rask Jinxed?

Let me preface this post by saying that I do not believe that Tuukka Rask is responsible for the Boston Bruins blowing a three games to one lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs in this year’s first round of the NHL playoffs.  Again, the losses in games five and six, and the necessity of a game seven later tonight are not Tuukka’s fault.  The Bruins lost those two games as a team.  No one player bares any more blame than any others (although Seguin and Marchand might have made a difference if they’d actually bothered showing up).  I am just commenting on a trend.

The Boston Bruins are currently playing their third playoff series with Tuukka Rask as their number one goalie.  In 2010 they played and beat the Buffalo Sabers in the first round with Tuukka in net.  In the second round they took a three games to none lead over the Philadelphia Flyers before blowing the series in epic fashion by losing four consecutive potential clinching games.  This year they are facing the Toronto Maple Leafs and jumped out to a three games to one lead.  In games five and six this weekend they had two opportunities to clinch the series and lost them both.

Do the math there and you will see that the Boston Bruins have lost SIX consecutive potential series clinching games IN A ROW with Tuukka Rask in net.
Why?

What is it about having Tuukka in net that makes the Bruins unable to win the most important games?

I recall having a similar discussion last year.  Tuukka’s goals against average and save percentage stats were stellar, but his win/loss record was pretty bad.  Why was it that the Bruins couldn’t, or wouldn’t, win in front of Rask?  I couldn’t answer that.  I thought that maybe he was just an asshole and maybe the rest of the team was seriously unmotivated when he was in net, but then we found out that Tim Thomas was a complete nut job and the team played like animals in front of him.

What is it about Rask?

I can’t think of a time when I saw Tuukka actually steal a game for the Bruins.  If I’m wrong about that please leave a comment with an example.  I want to be wrong.  Tim Thomas used to do it once in a while.  The Bruins would be outplayed for a solid stretch of time and Thomas would make saves that he had no business making and the Bruins would sneak in a goal or something and steal the game.  Tuukka makes big saves, but does he ever make super human saves the way Thomas could?  I don’t think so.  The Bruins needed huge saves to make up for their painful defensive lapses last night, and on at least two occasions Rask wasn’t up to the challenge.  Again, the goals were not his fault, but on a team that is contending for the Cup (which I do not believe for a second that the Bruins are) they sometimes need their goal tender to be a superman.  Rask doesn’t seem to have that ability.  At least not to my untrained eye.

Tuukka Rask reminds me a little of Roberto Luongo.  A fantastic goalie who is just. not. quite. fantastic. enough.

Game seven is tonight.  We shall see.  We shall see.

Go Bruins.