Just a quick catchup on some various arrivals from the signing front!
Football
Chiefs safety Eric Berry
Former Giants safety Bill Currier
Former Oklahoma guard Louis Oubre (from Oklahoma Hobby box)
Former Texas kicker Russell Erxleben (from Texas Hobby Box)
Former Texas running back Ernie Koy
Former Texas running back Ted Koy
Former Texas defensive tackle Brad Shearer
Former Texas quarterback Marty Akins
Former Colts head coach Ron Meyer
Former Oklahoma wide receiver Tinker Owens
Former Jets kicker Pat Leahy
Former Lions and Vikings running back Eddie Payton
Former Giants linebacker Carl Banks
Former Seahawks quarterback Jim Zorn
Former Oklahoma running back Billy Sims
Former Oklahoma running back Joe Washington
Former Oklahoma linebacker Jimbo Elrod
Former Browns quarterback Brian Sipe
Former Lions and Falcons quarterback Joey Harrington
Actress Jean Hale
Actress Morgan Fairchild
Actress Joanna Cassidy
The New Jersey Devils played very well and might have deserved better all things considered,but a goal seems inevitable as the Boston Bruins continued to rain opportunities down on Johan Hedberg and finally Nathan Horton cracked the dam with four minutes to go to tie the game at one.
A scoreless overtime and a shootout later,Boston had escaped with a 2-1 win and the Devils had to settle for one point on a night that they might have deserved two.
David Clarkson scored the only New Jersey goal (4) in the second period.
The two game mini-trip now over,the Devils return home Thursday against the Islanders...
Hell Raisers
1) Let's start with this-Johan Hedberg played great in his start.
Hedberg made several great saves and was as much as you could expect from the backup goalie.
If you get that type of efforts from the reserve backstop when he hits the ice,you will win more than you lose...
2) However,the final goal in the sixth round of the shootout that dribbled through the legs of Hedberg was not a strong one.
Things do happen,so it is tough to be too hard on Hedberg for one less than excellent play,but it was a softee...
3) The shootout showed just where Zach Parise will be missed most.
The Devils were the best team in the league in the shootout when they could run a three man start of Ilya Kovalchuk,Parise and Patrik Elias.
Without Parise,the Devils are going to go through a period of figuring out just who will be the third leg of the shootout and that will mean some struggles..
4) Tyler Seguin beat Johan Hedberg on the Bruins first shootout try,but he had to do the backyard style do-over after a fan threw something on the ice in mid-play distracting Hedberg.
It looked like a hot dog to me and the replay was the right thing to do.
Unfortunately,Seguin would again as Hedberg couldn't cut the mustard.Sorry...
5) Matt Anderson was recalled from Albany to make his NHL debut at the age of 30.
No word on how long Anderson will stay with the team,but anytime a longtime minor leaguer gets to play in the bigs,it's always a nice story...
6) Another night of scratching Adam Larsson.
This looks even worse when you see the impact that Dougie Hamilton has had in Boston from the same draft.
This needs to be addressed.
7) Stefan Matteau played his fifth game,so the decision on him must be made prior to Thursday's game against the Islanders.
I lean towards sending him back....
Confession time-I watch Battle of the Network Stars as much as I can on Monday nights.
Unless something I really care about is running against the ESPN Classic program,I generally cannot pull myself away.
I just cannot help myself.
Part of it is nostalgia,where stars did not mind going out to have a good time and did not mind looking silly or nonathletic if they had to.
Imagine that show being made today?
There is no way that happens as it would cost far much to get the stars to participate and embarrassments would go straight on youtube.
Plus you also have the memories of a time with five channels when this stuff almost mattered and was at least fun to watch.
Think people today are going to be smiling thirty five years from now thinking about American Idol or Survivor? I kinda doubt it.
The reason that I love this stuff?
It is just so campy!
Guys wearing shorts about three sizes too small,ladies running in tank tops without bras,smoking on camera and loads of politically incorrect comments are just some of the tidbits that you see on this show.
And the funniest thing? No one even bothered to think anything of it!
Some religious group would be screaming about the tight clothing,the anti-smoking people would be griping about cigarettes and about twenty different groups would be wanting apologies for statements.
And you have Howard Cosell as well!
Now that was quite a big deal in this time as Cosell was the voice of Monday Night Football and most big boxing matches in a day when boxing was so much more mainstream.
And he didn't look down on it either!
At least as much as you could watching Todd Bridges take on Scott Baio in a obstacle course race or watching Lynda Carter run pass patterns and try to grab touchdown heaves from Billy Crystal anyway.
Howard schmoozing and fawning over the celebs is just much fun with the little laugh that he does and the cutesy nicknames for the female "competitors" "Look at the determination on the face of Cathy Bach as she pulls on that rope"!
It sounds so much better when you say/think of this in full Cosell.
But for all of that,the success of this show really comes down to one man-our guy Robert Conrad.
Now I wrote about what a huge Wild Wild West fan that I am,but this is about ten years past WWW and Conrad is doing Baa Baa Black Sheep,which was a show that I did not watch,so that's a change for me at the time,but watching these shows 30+ years later,Conrad really is the star of the show.
Conrad struts around as people look at him scared to death,Conrad puts an imaginary battery on his shoulder constantly as he dares people to knock said imaginary battery off his shoulder from his Eveready battery commercials,Conrad threatening to take his team out of the competition and generally acting like this is the Romans vs the Greeks with lives on the line with most of the others looking on either bemused or wanting nothing to do with this maniac.
But as I talked about this with Ryan,he brought up one event that is especially interesting and it is not the one that most think about which was his match race with Gabe Kaplan of Welcome Back Kotter fame.
After Conrad's show had went off the air,he therefore could not captain a team or participate because of the stringent rules and regulations of the International Olympic Com,ummm Network Stars standards,but yet he showed up anyway,ranting,stomping around and in one memorable shot berating William Shatner and current shill for Gold William Devane for not taking this seriously enough!
Now that is entertainment!
All and all,it is a guilty pleasure I'm sure that some of you might enjoy whether is for the memories,the stars,the clothing,the behavior or just a sign of the times.
ESPN Classic shows Network Stars on Mondays at eight....
The New Jersey Devils battled back from two goal deficits and several defensive breakdowns to force overtime before the Montreal Canadiens Andrei Markov scored to hand the Devils their first loss of the season 4-3 in Montreal.
Montreal led 2-0 before a Patrik Elias goal (2) cut the lead in half.
The home squad then increased the lead to 3-1 before third period goals by David Clarkson (3,five on three power play) and Dainius Zubrus (1) tied the game and allowed the Devils to leave Canada with one point on the evening.
New Jersey is off today,will travel to Boston on Tuesday before a Thursday home game against the Islanders to finish the month of January.
Hell Raisers
1) Andy Greene set up the game winner with a penalty for holding one of my least favorite players,Erik "the flopper" Cole.
Greene didn't think he held Cole,who flopped to the ice,but Peter DeBoer had no issue with the call.
I thought it could have gone either way,but Greene needed to be smarter as the referees called the game very close all game for both teams and he should have realized that if it was close,it was going to be called.....
2) Andy Greene had a bad night as his puck miscue in the first period allowed a two on one for the first goal for Montreal.
These things happen,but it is something to keep an eye on.....
3) Martin Brodeur continues his strong play despite allowing four goals.
I would go as far to say that none of the four was his fault and his defense hung him out to dry on several occasions.
I would bet,though,that Johan Hedberg will get a start against either the Bruins or Islanders....
4) Patrik Elias scored his goal deflecting a Mark Fayne shot and kept a fast start alive.
Elias is a free agent at the end of the season and his season will decide the amount of an investment the team will put into him...
5) David Clarkson keeps his hopes of a strong season going as he too is a free agent at the end of the year.
Clarkson keeps doing the dirty work around the net,which makes him effective.
I was concerned that he might not do what he did last season and attempt to be a flashier player,thus far I am thrilled to say my concerns were for naught...
6) Clarkson filmed a new local commercial for a hockey store after a funny one last season that was shown during the game.
I think this one is even better than last season!
Slow news day so I decided to work on the satellite blog (SFGiantsProspects) found in the links page and toss in some thoughts on another childhood hero.
When I was in early elementary school,1st or 2nd grade,I as many of my classmates at the grooviest school in the county,Fountain Rock Elementary,(remind me to write about that place on a future slow day) watched a program that would never fly today.
My generation was the end of local television children's programming as it started with the beginning of television and slowly died out by the mid 1980's with the advent of cable networks.
Growing up in a rural area inside a somewhat rural county,television,as I've stated before,was a huge part of my life and one of the few good things was getting television from the Baltimore and Washington markets.
However,most of the time it was the smaller UHF stations that catered to children and the niche' markets.
That is not all that different than specialized networks today as I would wager that I spent tons of times watching terrific re-runs of old shows like Star Trek,ACC basketball and UHF channel WDCA 20 was the only place that you could watch the Washington Bullets or Washington Capitals.
But the main difference was the much weaker signal.
I had some problems picking up WDCA from River Road outside Washington, but we could not pick up WBFF, the Baltimore equivalent at all.
It was quite a while before my brother and I realized that in my aunt's bedroom, she could get WBFF.
That's right-we could pick up this station in one room in the house-go figure.
That fact is why I am writing about Captain 20 and not the Baltimore kids icon-Captain Chesapeake.
Channel 20 used Dick Dyszel as Captain 20 and they showed cartoons like the great Hanna Barbara stuff from the 1960's etc, with my first exposure to Japanese import cartoons Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and Kimba the White Lion along with things like monkey races to grab kids attention.
To this day,I often break into"who's the king of animals in Africa?" while the lovely Cherie and my kids look at me like I just fell from the sky.
I remember very well getting my Channel 20 Kids Card (sorry, have no idea what happened to it), which then made me eligible to have my name in a huge barrel which then had a name pulled out every day for a prize of some sort-sorry, kids never won one of those either.
Actually,in my entire life-I have won two prizes and only one of those was actually luck of the draw.
I answered a question correctly on the Mountain West conference website, which got me a t-shirt, which went to Ryan, so I see it here and there.
Dyszel played the role very well as Captain 20, but he might be better remembered for his run on late-night horror movies on the network as Count Gore De Vol to most.
Dyszel was a hit in both spots, but it was pretty clear to even kids that Dyszel was playing both roles, although I don't remember either character mentioning the other.
As I wrote earlier, local TV kids shows were pretty much dead by the time Ryan came along in the late 80s, so his only memories about stuff like that come from his nutty father.
They were campy and I don't know how well they would hold up on YouTube today, but I sometimes think they are going to miss some of the regional TV.
Good memories of Captain 20 and looking back at the groovy times of the middle 1970s.
Ilya Kovalchuk's goal (2) with twenty seconds remaining in overtime bailed the New Jersey Devils out of third period woes and lifted the Devils to a 3-2 overtime win at the Rock.
The Devils used a first period goal by Stephen Gionta (1) and a five on three powerplay tally by Patrik Elias (1) in the second to build a lead that was lost in a sloppy third period.
The Devils add two more points to the ledger and will travel to Montreal on Sunday....
Hell Raisers
1) Both goalies were terrific tonight.
Martin Brodeur had no chance on the first Washington goal and was otherwise excellent,while Michael Neuvirth was excellent for Washington as well.
2) Not pleased with the sloppy third period.
Too many dumb penalties like too many men on the ice,which happened twice and a bench minor to boot!
Some of that can be excused with the short camp,but those dumb mistakes allowed Washington to leave town with a point and kept them in the game.
3) Very nice game from Jacob Josefson,who made a slick pass between two defenders to hit Stephen Gionta on his goal and just missed two of his own.
Perhaps the time in Albany has helped Josefson's game because he seems much more confident on the ice..
4) Stephen Gionta's game was a strong one as well with the goal,which is an even strength because a penalty had just expired,but was really a shorthanded one and Gionta had five shots on the night.
The littlest Devil has played with energy and continues to make the best of what he has...
5) One issue that I will say needs to be addressed or will continue to rear itself is the fourth line or lack of one thus far.
Stefan Matteau will likely return to juniors next week and whichever of Krys Barch or Cam Janssen plays,there are holes that opponents will target.
I'm not sure what the answer is but some possibilities could include Bobby Butler from Albany,signing former Canadien Matthew Darche or an eventual deal.
None of those are guaranteed to solve this issue,but any of those are preferable to the status quo.
Time to dump the inbox out a bit and get caught up on a few things.
We start with 2012 DA14.
Just what is 2012 DA14?
It is an asteroid that will come close to earth on February 15 (Happy Birthday,Mom) that will be within the orbit of the moon and inside the orbit of geosynchronous satellites (they are 26,000 miles in the air) on that day,
It will not hit earth,it will not even be visible to the naked eye,but these things always bring to mind how we are truly one shot in the dark away from a world altering event.
Why this (asteroid impact) is not taken as seriously as it deserves to be,is mind boggling to me.
I really need to get a nice telescope sometime!
From a month or so,Voyager 1 is preparing to leave the solar system and is the most distant object that man has made from in earth in history.
That's reasonably common knowledge,but as Voyager hits the border,it is meeting some unusual particles from outside the solar system as it penetrates the edge.
The magnetic "pings" were different than scientists expected and will take some time to figure out (more along the lines of a guess) just what Voyager is meeting.
Voyager runs on a computer that,believe it or not,has the total amount of memory that is just enough to run the trip meter on your car!
Freaky!
The Cavaliers, and I know,I have been lax in Cavalier coverage, made a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies that basically gave Memphis salary cap relief and Cleveland added a piece to help the current team and a nod towards the future.
Cleveland sent seldom used forward Jon Leuer to Memphis for Marreese Speights,Wayne Ellington and Josh Selby.
The kicker a number one pick that might not be used until 2019,but eventually will be an unprotected lottery pick.
Speights will help right away with the loss of Anderson Varejao for the season as an inside body while Ellington could be helpful as a three point bomber off the bench and might enable the Cavaliers to move Daniel Gibson at the trade deadline.Selby is a young player that will either sit,be sent to Canton or eventually get released.
The pick is the big addition in the deal as Memphis is playing for the moment and down the road that could be a huge addition to Cleveland basketball....
I've written before about Thunder Rumble and the work that is done by Old Friends,so I just wanted the chance to link to some recent pictures of Thunder Rumble by Connie Bush of Tiger Eye Photography.
Simply beautiful work.
Thunder also races his neighbor and former Travers winner Will's Way often and usually beats the younger horse.....
I'd just like to thank Danny Rosenbaum again for his time in doing another interview with us.
We will have another interview in the next week or so with someone that we have never had before and we have three more on the horizon with only one of them having done one in the past!
If you enjoy the interview series,I think the next month or so is going to be a good run!
That catches us up for now back later tonight as the Devils take on Washington at the Rock!
