Losses can be fun

The New Jersey Devils lost a 5-4 shootout game to the Buffalo Sabres in a game that generally defied the standard definition of Devils hockey with up and down the ice play combined with both teams using backup goaltending that alternated between great stops and soft goals...
Devils goals to Jason Arnott (5 and 6 power play),Jamie Langenbrunner (3) and David Clarkson (2).
The Devils will host Edmonton tomorrow night at the Rock.

Hell Raisers

1) Despite the loss,the Devils did pick up one point on the evening and the game was exciting to watch.
Could it be that the Devils are taking a step back to take two forward down the road with a change in playing style?
Not sure if I am willing to go that far,but this one was a good one that could have been better with...

2) Better play from Ilya Kovalchuk.
Kovalchuk had a chance to win the game late in the overtime on a breakaway and fired high over the net and then dribbled the puck off his stick in the end of the shootout end without making a shot.
I wont blame the loss on Kovalchuk,but those are glaring issues.
Is it possible that the pressure could be getting to the 100 million man?
Most likely,but this is a short blip on the radar considering Kovalchuk's history.

3) Mattias Tedenby made his NHL debut in the game and assisted on the first Arnott goal.Tedenby has to be the fastest skater on the team walking in the door and despite his size,I love his tenacity.
I look for big things eventually from Mattias Tedenby.

4) Stephen Gionta made his debut against the Rangers and stayed around despite the constant moves up and down the roster between New Jersey and Albany.
Gionta is an instant fan favorite between being the brother of former Devils Brian and a hustling style that usually makes fans.

5) Johan Hedberg didn't play poorly although a few goals were borderline soft.
Hedberg ranged from dazzling to marshmallow in this one.although the defense didn't help him much.

6) The defense was not very good and although that made for exciting hockey it didn't help very much for winning hockey.
Andy Greene and Colin White both made glaring errors to that led to Buffalo goals.
Considering the lack of experience on the Devils blueliners right now,the team needs more consistency from the few veterans that they are using right now.

7) Jason Arnott played with verve and toughness with two goals and was tossing the body around as well.Nice to see the veteran turning it on with the team needing it most....

Photo Credit-AP

Missing in Action

Sorry I have been MIA especially after the huge win for the Browns over New England,but time has been especially short this week with extra work and attempting to stay on my new workout regimen.
Believe it or not,I am doing reasonably well with it.

In any event,I hope to be back later today or tomorrow with a look at the huge Browns win and a Devils catchup with their loss to the Rangers and tonights game against Buffalo...

Pigskin Pickin Machine

The machine starts the lottery ball popping without an Ohio State game with the Buckeyes on bye with Texas Tech (4-4 2-4) hosting 12th ranked Missouri (7-1 3-1).
Tech looks to be hoping for a 6-6 record and a minor (very minor) bowl bid and pins their hopes on season ending wins over Weber State and Houston with the Raiders playing Missouri and Oklahoma in the next two weeks.
If there is an upset,it comes this week against the Tigers as I see then having little chance in Norman next week.
Tech pulls upsets in Lubbock against superior teams,so don't rule out an upset today,but it isn't likely.

Our game of the week is in the Mountain West as 3rd ranked TCU (9-0 5-0) travels to Salt Lake City and 5th ranked Utah (8-0 5-0).
The winner keeps their BCS title game hopes alive and likely adds the Mountain West crown as well.
The game has produced BCS bids for the winner in each of the last two seasons and will likely do so again.
In addition,this is the last time the pair will play with Utah going to the Pac 10 (or 12) next season.
I like TCU's defense a little better,but Utah does have the home field.
Looks like a good one...

Our Picks
Missouri over Texas Tech 41-21
TCU over Utah 17-14

The pros feature the Browns (2-5) and Colt McCoy starting again at QB against visiting New England (6-1).I know Browns fans are enthused with the win in New Orleans and the Patriot defense looks vulnerable and the bye week will be helpful in planning.
However,can the Browns use gimmick plays every week to overcome a weak passing game?
New England has had trouble against the pass and the Browns will have to likely throw some to win.

Seattle (4-3) hosts the Giants (5-2) after a awful game against Oakland for the Hawks.
Seattle always is better at home and has a history of dropping the Giants at Qwest Field,but the Seahawks have a first time starter in Charlie Whitehurst and a banged up and weakening offensive line against a team with a huge pass rush.
I don't like this matchup for the inconsistent Seahawks.

The game of the week goes to the battle for first place in the NFC South with 5-2 teams Tampa Bay and Atlanta hooking it up in Atlanta.
Raheem Morris and his comments on being the best team in the NFC aside,I see Tampa as a paper tiger as they have lost to the only two teams on the schedule with winning records and seem to specialize in close wins over bad teams.
Look for a huge day for Matt Ryan and if you have Falcon receivers on your fantasy team,get them in the lineup!

Our picks
Patriots over Browns 24-13
Giants over Seahawks 26-14
Falcons over Buccaneers 30-14

Reviewing the tape-Raided in Oakland

The Seattle Seahawks had a chance to cement a playoff run with a win over the Raiders in Oakland.Instead the Raiders smashed the Hawks with a huge second half and rolled to a 33-3 win that dropped the Seahawks to 4-3 on the season.
Seattle hosts the New York Giants on Sunday.

Puget Sounds

1) Crazy bounces contributed to the loss as Oakland had huge plays on both offense and defense off tipped balls,but the bottom line was that Oakland was more physical and dominated the line scrimmage.
That made more of a difference than any of the tips and bad breaks.

2) Two stats that make you see that it isn't your day.
Jason Campbell 300+ yards passing,Darius Heyward-Bey 100+ yards receiving.

3) Seattle didn't have a first down until three minutes to go in the first half.
That shows the dominance of the Raiders defense.

4) With Russell Okung out of the lineup,the offensive line isn't half as strong as the Raiders sacked Matt Hasselbeck eight times.
Hasselbeck was bad enough already completing just thirteen passes,the offensive line didn't need to have him destroyed as well.

5) Pivotal point of the game-With Oakland leading 3-0 in the second-Lawyer Milloy was waiting to grab an interception to end a Raider drive, David Hawthorne leaps in and knocks Milloy.That allowed Marcel Reece to grab the ball and run for a 30-yard touchdown.
Back breaker.

6) News today on Matt Hasselbeck missing the Giants game Sunday,so Charlie Whitehurst gets his chance to shine.
This was a needed move to begin with and the injury to Hasselbeck allowed Whitehurst his opportunity.

Road trip ends with a win!

The New Jersey Devils might have played their best game of the season all around and despite losing Martin Brodeur midway through the game,managed to defeat the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackawks 5-3 in Chicago.
The Devils finish the road trip at 2-4,which stinks,but is a whole lot better than 1-5.
Devils goals to Jason Arnott (4),Travis Zajac (2),Andy Greene (2 empty net),Jamie Langenbrunner (2 empty net) and Brad Mills (1).
New Jersey gets two days off before the Rangers hit the Rock Friday night.

 Hell Raisers

1) Martin Brodeur was working on a shutout before a Patrick Kane shot hit his right elbow and deadened it.
Brodeur attempted to play on and made one save before leaving the game in favor of Johan Hedberg.
X-rays were negative and it will be a Friday decision on whether Brodeur will start against the Rangers...

2) Johan Hedberg played pretty well in relief of Brodeur despite allowing three goals.
Hedberg allowed one with Chicago having an extra skater out late and the other two were redirections and rebounds.Nice job pulling this one out by the backup.

3) The Devils first goal was a sharp one too with a pretty pass from the corner of the net by Patrik Elias to the waiting Jason Arnott.
It was the type of the pass that recently would have seen Arnott stoned by the goalie,but this time all was smooth sailing.
Arnott's goal was his fourth and that leads the team much to my surprise.
Didn't seem like he had that many.

4) The play of the game goes to Brad Mills,who scored his first career goal by mucking around the net and digging a rebound of his own shot off Marty Turco for the lead later in the third period.
Mills showed tons of energy in this one and John MacLean noticed as Mills received plenty of ice time.Always nice to see the journeyman minor leaguer come to the big leagues and play well..

5) The defensive play of the night goes to Johan Hedberg for stopping Jack Skille on a breakaway that looked to be a sure goal with the old fashioned stacking of the pads.

6) This was a great win considering the play of late,being on the road and the competition level,but can they build on it?
The team still is understaffed although Anton Volchenkov is expected to return against the Rangers on Friday and that alone will be a huge help to the young and depth lacking defense.
Division rival,first game at home and a win gives (gasp) back to back wins.
There is something on the line.

Photo Credit-Getty Images..

Hagerstown Suns hire new GM and more from the inbox

We start the cleaning of the inbox with news of the Hagerstown Suns hiring their new General Manager.


Bill Farley joined the team in August,although I don't remember seeing him around based on his picture.
The first thing that I thought of when reading this was of former local DJ Bill Farley and thinking "why in the hell would the Suns hire him?",but they are two different people.
Best wishes to Farley and hopefully Farley will change some of the policies of the past-first off-Returning the grandstand seating price to the general admission cost and allowing anyone to sit there.
That would be a terrific start on things....

Farley's background appears to be in the food and beverage industry,so here is a free idea for him.
Arguably the worst thing about catching a game at the Muni is the interminable waits for food and drink in a stadium that you cannot see the game from the concession area.
How about adding some vendors that go through the stands with staple items similar to the big league parks?
This might go a long way to making the lines move faster and keeping the people that care about the game to be able to watch it.
Lord knows that through the years that the team has had tons of employees standing around and it would give them something to do as well and that looks even better to the fans.

The original ABA/NBA enforcer has passed on as Maurice Lucas died at the age of 58 from bladder cancer.
Lucas was most noted for his time with the Portland Trail Blazers and their 1977 title winning team as the power forward alongside Bill Walton in the Portland frontcourt,but to me,Lucas was better remembered for his time with my favorite ABA team,the Kentucky Colonels and before that with the Spirits of St.Louis.
Lucas once KO'ed the larger Artis Gilmore with a punch that sent the 7'2 Gilmore to the floor folded up like a lawn chair.
Farewell to the NBA's version of the Intimidator....

Also sorry to hear of the death of James MacArthur in Florida recently.
MacArthur played "Danno Williams" on the original Hawaii Five-O for all but the final year of the shows run.
MacArthur was 72.

Interesting read from the Columbia Journalism Review on MSNBC political director Chuck Todd.
Todd has been criticized for being the consummate Washington insider,but I like insiders-they have the best information and usually are dealing from fact not opinion...

A pancake machine? Well,Holiday Inn Express will have them coming soon for the guests at their hotel.The machines will be able to produce one pancake every eighteen seconds and that makes plenty of pancakes!!!

The latest from my youth returns as I found a site saluting the old restaurant chain-Red Barn.
Hagerstown had a Red Barn and the building is still around as Hong Kong Chinese restaurant.
When the Red Barn ( later known as the Farm) closed,this eatery moved in and has been there ever since.
Considering that the building is literally a short walk from here,I miss Red Barn a lot anymore!
I remember taking Cherie there a lot when we were dating and recall a few stops at the Ashland Red Barn when I was in the area as well.
Good food at a good price always attracts teenagers and young adults.
A cheesebuster or a big barney would taste great about now!

Stay tuned for an upcoming lists post in which the top five restaurants that I miss most will be one of the lists!



No recap on Ohio State this week as their blasting of helpless Minnesota was not televised locally.
I hope to have some Seahawk thoughts tomorrow on their pounding at the hands of the suddenly resurgent Oakland Raiders...

And finally,a plug to my good friend Brandon Siefken's Japanese Baseball Almanac.
I have been looking at mine all day and I cannot stop reading it.
The almanac covers about any stat you could want for the 2010 season and gives loads of information that baseball fans cannot find elsewhere.
If Interested,check here for ordering info.

Zach Parise out for three months!

Zach Parise underwent exploratory surgery and the findings were a mixed bag.

The good news was an injured meniscus in his knee,which had just a small tear and after repair,his knee should be far stronger over the long term.
The bad news is that Parise will miss the next three months of action and deals the offensively challenged Devils a devastating blow in their attempt to turn things around after a horrific start.
It was pretty clear to most observers that something was wrong with Parise as his speed seemed a bit down and he was not at one hundred percent.

This is a huge blow to the already struggling Devils,who have dropped two games in a row in losing to Los Angeles 3-1 and Vancouver 3-0 before finishing their longest road trip of the season tonight in Chicago.
Considering the issues on this team as a whole and I hesitate to make a statement such as this when you consider the point in the season that the Devils are in,but this may be a lost season.
That may not be an entirely bad thing either as sometimes in sports,a strong organization that has a fluke bad season can add an impact player that they rarely have the opportunity to add and keep themselves at the top for even longer.
The Devils could be in just that situation right now-everything that can go wrong does and the Devils wind up in a position that they would never dream of being in for the 2011 draft.
That is way down the road yet,but keep that in mind as the season progresses.

Time for a few notes from the last few days as I listened to the Kings loss via XM and was able to watch the defeat to the Canucks.

Brad Mills was added to the roster after the Parise injury.
Mills is a Tim Sestito type and nothing that will turn the season around,but is quite scrappy as he dropped the gloves against the Canucks Tanner Glass in what was a good one.

Jacob Josefson has a hand injury,but unlike the one suffered by Matt Corrente,this one looks to keep the rookie out for six to eight weeks.
Josefson tore a ligament in the hand against the Kings.

Anton Volchenkov looks to be returning to the lineup on Friday against the Rangers.Volchenkov's physical play and leadership has been sorely missed with the Devils having to play three rookies among their defense corps.

I have really liked what Matt Taormina has done this season,but he had a bad game against the Canucks as rookie mistakes led to the first two Vancouver goals.
His slip behind the net that caused him to lose the puck and a pass later gave the Canucks one goal and his passive play around the net allowed Ryan Kesler an easy path to another goal off a wild pass by Mason Raymond.

Plan to be back later with a cleaning of the inbox and maybe a look at the results from last nights election....