Tag: playoffs

Third Period

11 minutes left in the third period and the Bruins have a 3-1 lead.

A two goal lead.

Was it the great Johhny Bucyk who once said that a two goal lead was the scariest lead in hockey? I’ve also heard people say that three goals is the scariest lead in hockey, but I’ll take it at this point. I’m guessing an eight goal lead is not scary at all. I’ll take that too.

Eight minutes left in the third. The Bruins are starting to look like they are playing prevent defense and that’s a bad sign. Two goals is starting to look pretty scary right now, I tells ya.

Game Four

Bruins/Capitals Game Four of their first round series from the Gahden in Boston tonight. One period down, no score. What else is new? I was hoping the B’s would jump out to a 10 goal lead in the first few minutes so that we could have a stress-free game night experience. 33.3% through regulation and no luck yet.

It’s Nana Sitting night and I’m sitting in her living room watching the game. Jen and the kids are at home watching whatever they are watching on our swanky new 4K Apple TV which was delivered today. Our old Apple TV was getting buggy and weird. They announced the new one right at the exact time we were starting to think about replacing it. If I were a conspiracy theory loving red head, rather than the sane and rational cat that I am, I would think that was a bit too much of a coincidence. Nope. Not me.

Go Bruins.

Cough

Two hours ago I ate a granola bar. It feels like the teeny, tiniest little spec of granola, barely a molecule or two, has some how gotten stuck near the back of my throat. I’ve been coughing ever since. I brought a water bottle full of our delicious Poland Spring water, flavored with some delicious grape flavoring. I drank the whole thing while trying to dislodge the speck of granola. I failed. There’s no delicious spring water here at my parents house. I filled up the water bottle with tap water. Then I remembered I was supposed to bring a grape flavoring bottle with me tonight. I had some here, but not enough to adequately grape-ify my water bottle. Shit, cough cough. Shit.

The Bruins and Capitals are playing game three of their first round series. Similar to games one and two, game three has gone to overtime. The Bruins have been rolling in the overtime period with nothing to show for it. I could really go for a Bruins game winning goal right now. Two minute left in the overtime period. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this one. Shit, cough cough. Shit.

For the second consecutive Nana-Sitting night I am having all kinds of bad allergies. Sniffles, runny nose, the works. All of that on top of my stupid granola bar cough. Shit, cough cough. Shit.

I have a pimple on my left ear lobe. It hurts like furious, bloody murder. Shit, cough cough. Shit.

I wanna go home.

Grinds My Gears

What was I talking about?

I was about to write a post that rips off a Family Guy episode but Taylor Hall just scored a highlight reel goal in game three of the Bruins/Capitals series and it’s all I can think about right now. Ovetchkin scored a power play goal to put the Caps up 1-0 in the second period, and then the Bruins came right back and scored to tie it. The goal was fantastic, but the blind backhand pass that set it up was utterly spectacular. Was it Krejci? I didn’t see. I need another replay.

So what was I talking about? Oh yeah, wanna know what really grinds my gears? When I’m on gmail.com and I go into the spam folder to clear it out and in the instant that I click to delete everything, a new spam message shows up and I am left with one unwanted message when I should have zero.

Yeah, that wouldn’t have been an interesting post even if it hadn’t been interrupted by an awesome goal. I think the blind backhand pass that setup the Hall goal came from Craig Smith.

Seven minutes left in the 2nd and the Caps are putting on some serious pressure. Lots of back and forth in this game though. It’s a good game right now.

Go Bruins.

Game One Loss

I listened to the first period on the radio and I watched the overtime. The Bruins lost to the Capitals in game one of their best of seven first round play off series.

I fear that the reason they lost a game where the higher seed’s #1 goalie left injured in the first period might have had something to do with me wearing a Red Sox t-shirt instead of a Bruins t-shirt. It’s possible on some cosmic level that I messed things up. The Red Sox beat the Angels 9-0 so maybe I accidentally sent all of my super powerful red head vibes to the Red Sox when I meant to send them to the Bruins?

I’ll do better for game #2 tomorrow night.

Go Bruins.

Major League Baseball Post Season Wrap Up

The Dodgers are World Series champions.

I have mixed feelings. First, I was hoping they would end up being the new breed of eternal losers. Now that the Red Sox (and the Cubs, I guess) have ended their futility streaks, it was time to replace them with a new team that consistently comes close but never wins… well. So much for that.

On the other hand, Mookie Betts. I want Mookie to win it over and over again. I want the Red Sox to constantly be reminded of how they screwed up by letting one of the best players in the game go. I don’t want the Dodgers to be a dynasty, but if that’s the price I have to pay to see Mookie be a dynasty then so be it.

Anyway, there is the coin flip predictions to wrap up. The coins picked seven out of 14 series leading up to the World Series. Exactly 50% correct. With an odd number of picks to make it was never going to finish off at 50%. It was either going to be one above or one below.

How’d it turn out?

One below. A final record of 7/8. The coin picked the (Devil) Rays and they lost. That leaves the final success rate at 47%. Good job, totally random coin flips. You did exactly what you were supposed to.

Major League Baseball World Series Prediction

It’s coin flip time again. The League Championships are over and the pennants have been won and there were lots of sick comebacks, both successful and otherwise.

So how did I do? First, let’s recap. The coin flip predictions in the first round were even at 4-4. The second round was a slaughter at 1-3. That’s 5-7 on the playoffs so far. Now let’s see the third round results, shall we?

Astros vs Rays: The coin picked the Rays, which was nice because the Astros are cheating pricks (so are my Red Sox, but let’s not talk about that today). Who won? The Rays won! The coin was right!

Braves vs Dodgers: The coin picked The Dodgers. The Dodgers should win it all, right? They are awesome. Still… they’ve blown it in the playoffs in each of the last 4000 years, so how’d they do this round? They didn’t blow it! They won! The coin was right again!

I was 2-0 in the Championship round, which puts the coins at… 7-7! Exactly 50% correct! Which is what a coin should do! How cool is that? Now there is an odd number of series in the post season, so it’s impossible to finish at 50/50, but whatever happens in the World Series, I will be as close to 50/50 has mathematically possible.

Let’s let the coin pick one more time. Heads for American League champ, tails for National League champ…..

Rays vs Dodgers: It’s Heads, babie! The Rays, whom I loathe, unfortunately, will bring the World Series to the American League East yet again, and the Dodgers will blow it in the big show once more!

There you have it, boys and girls. The Tampa Bay (devil) Rays will win the World Series!

Major League Baseball League Championship Series Predictions

The coin flip picks experiment for the second round of the MLB playoffs is complete, and it wasn’t good. The Yankees lost, so that’s good though.

In the wild card round the coins ended with a record of four correct picks and four incorrect pics. 4-4. How did they fair in the second round (hint: not good)?

Astros vs A’s: The coin picked the team that invented the sign stealing scheme and used it to win a world series. I can’t complain too much because the guy who invented it also took it to Boston and won a world series with my beloved Red Sox…. so yeah, cheatin’ all around. Crud. The coin picked the Astros and the Astros won. My record is 1-0. Feels good? Don’t get used to it.

Yankees vs Rays: The coin picked the Yankees and as a result, once this is over I am taking the quarter in question outside to the sewer drain across the street from my house and dropping it in. Stupid coin. Fortunately, the coin was wrong and the Rays won. Unfortunately, I hate the Rays too… but at least the Yankees are out. That’s sweet. My record is 1-1.

Now for the National League slaughter………

Padres vs Dodgers: Someday I would like to live in San Diego, or at least visit much more often than we do. I would not like to live in Los Angeles. The coin picked the Padres (yay!) but the Dodgers won (boo!). My record is 1-2.

Marlins vs Braves: The coin picked the Marlins, but fate knew that the Braves were originally from Boston and thought I would maybe want a Boston-ish team to root for and the Braves won. My record is 1-3.

So the first round is 4-4 and the second round is 1-3 which puts me and my coins at a dismal 5-7. It looks bad, but two correct picks in the Pennant round could bring me right back to 50/50, right? Here goes!

Heads for the higher seed, tails for the lower seed….

Astros vs Rays: (please don’t come up tails, please don’t come up tails) Heads, we’re picking the Rays!

Braves vs Dodgers: (the Dodgers are a juggernaut and pretty much a shoe in to win the world series, please come up head, please come up heads) Heads! We’re rooting for Mookie Betts again and picking the Dodgers!

So there you go, kids. The Rays and the Dodgers. That’s my coin-flip-pick for the world series match up. If both series go seven games then we’ll have the results by October 19th. See you then!

Major League Baseball Division Series Predictions

It’s time for some more coin flipping! The first round of the MLB playoffs ended yesterday. How did the coins do?

Rays vs Blue Jays: I picked the Blue Jays. I was wrong.

Indians vs Yankees: I picked the Indians. I was wrong. I hate the Yankees even more now.

Twins vs Astros: I picked the Astros. I was right.

Athletics vs White Sox: I picked the A’s. I was right.

Dodgers vs Brewers: I picked the Dodgers. I was right.

Padres vs Cardinals. I picked the Padres. I was right.

Cubs vs Marlins: I picked the Cubs. I was wrong.

Braves vs Reds: I picked the Reds. I was wrong.

So the coins did exactly what they should have. Four right and four wrong for a 4-4 record. 50/50, as you’d statistically expect. Cool! Except for the part about the Yankees winning. That wasn’t cool. Lets all hope that the coin doesn’t pick them in the second round.

On to the Divisional Series! In the American League (Heads for the higher seed, tails for the lower):

Astros vs A’s: Astros. That’s too bad, again.

Yankees vs Rays: NOOOOO!!!! It’s tails… the coin flip picked the Yankees. Damn it. I don’t want to play anymore.

Now to change coins and pick the National League:

Padres vs Dodgers: Padres.

Marlins vs Braves: Marlins.

Ummmm… can anyone see what happened here? I picked the lower seed four times. All four coin flips came up tails.

Okay, fate. You’re obviously not taking this seriously but let’s see how you do.