Category: Sports

Kyle Wellwood 1, Montreal 0

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The Leafs just eliminated the Canadiens from the playoffs. The Leafs themselves haven’t clinched a playoff spot; the Islanders could still take 8th with a win tomorrow.

The game itself, while tense, was terrible from a skill standpoint. 3 of Toronto’s first 4 goals were flukey, retarded bounces that just found their way in. Montreal couldn’t clear their own zone for shit in either the first or the third period, and couldn’t muster any offence when it mattered.

Really and truthfully, what this game came down to was one guy: Kyle Wellwood.With the Leafs trailing 5-4 late in the second, with Mike Johnson in the penalty box and 0:00 on the clock, Wellwood had the presence of mind to skate face-first into Steve Begin’s stick. The referees called that a double-minor, and Toronto scored on a 5-on-3. Wellwood then had the smarts to fall down when Saku Koivu’s stick neared his legs, resulting in another 5-on-3, and on that power play Wellwood tipped in the go-ahead goal on a point shot. Montreal never recovered from having their legs taken out like that, or from a late-game injury to their best offensive defenseman, and sputtered for the final 18 minutes. Two shitty teams played a horrible game, Toronto got back-to-back 5-on-3s in the third period and Montreal grasped defeat from the jaws of victory. Now the Leafs are forced to wait for the results of tomorrow’s game to see if it’s they or the Islanders who’ll finish eighth.

I have never, and will never again, cheer so hard for the fucking New York Islanders.

P.S.: Anyone wanting to chat with me about the game should think twice. In fact, anyone wanting to talk to me about anything at all for the next couple of days should probably just keep their distance. Unless you’re in my immediate family or sign my paycheck, I’m likely to be unpleasant for a while.

[tags]montreal canadiens, toronto maple leafs, new york islanders, nhl playoffs[/tags]

Cry havoc and let slip the clichés of sports

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It’s do or die. For all the marbles. A game for the ages. It’s crunch time, gut-check time, win-or-go-home.

It’s come down to this: the Leafs vs. the Canadiens, in the final game of the season, to see who gets to go to the playoffs…unless, of course, the Islanders squeak past them both. Anyway, considering it’s the first meaningful game between these two teams since 1979, the CBC must be thanking their lucky stars.

It should be noted that if the Leafs beat the Canadiens and knock them out of the playoffs, I will be hurling myself off the nearest parapet.

.:.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Raptors are officially no longer the Craptors. Long after clinching a playoff spot, they clinched their first division title last night by beating the 76ers. Granted, they’re in an atrocious division, but a 43-33 record is a heck of a lot better than how they’ve fared the last few years. Bryan Colangelo deserves a ton of credit.

.:.

The Onion AV Club pleads for the survival of Friday Night Lights. Seconded; it’s definitely one of the best shows on network TV these days. Salon made the same case a month ago, and Matt Roush from TV Guide seems to agree.

Bring it back, NBC.

[tags]leafs, canadiens, cbc, hockey night in canada, raptors, bryan colangelo, friday night lights, nbc[/tags]

"Crack & hookers. That's how to keep reformed suburbanites out and prices low."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Dropped off the paperwork & cheques at the lawyer’s office today, for which I expect we shall receive an impressive invoice. Monday we will have keys!

.:.

I’m sorry…Ice Girls? Ice girls?!?!? Look, nobody deserves to get spit on, but…c’mon. There should be no bare midriffs on the ice.

.:.

Great post on BlogTO about the shift, if only a slight one, toward Torontonians requiring less living space. Whether to save money or spare the environment, it seems like a few more people are foregoing the suburbs for the downtown.

The ever rising cost of housing in the city, along with increasing concern on how our lifestyle and choices affect the environment has got a lot of home buyers asking themselves, ‘how much space do I really need?’.

The National Post is running a three part series this week that examines the backlash against ‘living large’. People are coming back to the city by choice, and their leaving their white picket fences and second cars behind.

I’m of this mindset, obviously. For the last five years we’ve lived in a 650 square foot (it’s not like we have kids or a car to park) apartment downtown. My love for living downtown ruled out buying in the suburbs, and I never wanted to own a house (or a car) anyway. I grew up surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland, so living an hour from the city so that I could own a tiny patch of walled-in grass never appealed to me. We could’ve bought houses in mature, just-outside-the-core neighbourhoods like our friends CBGB and T-Bone did, I guess, but I like being right in the core…and I love my new view.

[tags]henrik lundqvist, blogto, toronto urbanation[/tags]

One lone bright spot in a locker room full of tripe

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OK, as much as I hate the Maple Leafs, I’ll now find it hard to hate at least one player: Boyd Devereaux.

Very few Maple Leaf fans likely know how passionate Boyd Devereaux is about Canada’s indie rock scene. A playlist he gave to the Star included offerings from the likes of Joel Plaskett Emergency, Black Mountain, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, The Sadies and Fu Manchu.

Wow. Well done, Boyd, especially considering you’re surrounded by Slayer (Bryan McCabe) and Christopher Cross (Todd Gill).

[tags]boyd devereaux, leafs playlists[/tags]

This sport (bett)ing life

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I tied for 2nd in my NCAA pool, so I get $100. Not bad; if Georgetown had’ve won their game I would’ve made $600. Oh well. I usually finish near the bottom so overall I’m pretty happy. I’m also in 1st in my NHL pool (after a hiccup late last week) and 2nd in my NBA pool.

The Canadiens won tonight, but so did the Leafs. Sigh…you just know it’s going to come down to the final game of the season between Toronto and Montreal, and I’m going to have a heart attack without ever having actually owned our condo. Ragh.

.:.

Shingles all gone now. Still have some marks, and my neck’s still a little sore, but basically I’m at the “now-dead skin falling from my body” phase. Yay!

[tags]ncaa pool, hockey pool, canadiens, leafs, shingles[/tags]

Well…it's not flesh-eating disease…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s shingles.

Seriously.

Because, apparently, I’m 72. What the hell?

Sigh.

I’m staying home the rest of the week because my co-worker, who I sit next to and probably have the most contact with in the run of a day, has never had chicken pox (which is the virus that causes shingles) and there’s a chance I could give it to her. This sucks, because I have a very busy week of stuff that I was looking forward to, including tomorrow night’s Rheostatics concert, their penultimate show.

Frack.

This just seems weird to me. Not the shingles themselves; apparently it’s not at all uncommon. Anyone who’s had chicken pox can get shingles, but it’s usually triggered by something. Here’s WebMD’s list of typical triggers:

  • Have a weakened immune system (such as people with cancer or HIV)
  • Are over the age of 50
  • Have been ill
  • Are experiencing trauma
  • Are under significant stress

Cancer: nope; HIV: nope; over 50: nope; ill: nope; experiencing trauma: nope; under significant stresss: not that I’m aware of. Honestly, the best that I (or Nellie) could come up with is that my body might be rather weakened by the recent drastic shift in diet. Whether that’s it or not, I can’t ignore the fact that I’ve been sick more in the past three months than I had been in the past three years. Maybe that’s coincidence, but when you consider that we haven’t done a great job of adjusting our diets (I know we don’t get enough protein, for example), it seems to be something that I have to address. So, reluctantly, I think I shall have to start eating fish again. Temporarily, until I can adjust my eating habits enough to be vegetarian and be healthy about it.

Goddammit.

.:.

OK, changing gears now: is it wrong that I want to eat Jesus?

.:.

The proposed 60-story condo on the southeast corner of Yonge & Bloor has become a proposed 80-story condo. Any new development on that intersection would be an inprovement. As (city councillor) Kyle Rae put it, “I sorely would like to hide the Royal Bank building on the northeast corner. It’s brutal.”

.:.

There’s so much stuff in the new Harry Rosen magazine that I want that my wallet has begun to glow, kind of like Frodo’s sword when there’s an orc nearby.

.:.

I’m with Serge Savard: hockey should be banned from fighting. It has nothing to do with the game. No other pro sport allows it, let alone condones it. If you’re excited about watching two guys fight, there’s another sport called boxing which I believe would be right up your alley. If I’m watching hockey I prefer skill plays and hard bodychecks to pre-arranged fights and tough-guy posturing.

[tags]shingles, chocolate jesus, toronto condo, yonge and bloor, harry rosen, serge savard, hockey fighting[/tags]

Coinstar, Battlestar and my latest star

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Today wasn’t quite as nice a day as was forecast, so we stuck to doing some errands, cleaning and (in my case) watching more basketball. We traded in a bunch of loose change ($120 worth, in fact), picked up our tickets for the two documentaries we’ll see at this year’s Hot Docs (Let’s All Hate Toronto and Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib) just before we move, got some excellent snacks at Cobs Bread, picked up a few groceries and got home just in time for the opening tip of the Florida/Oregon game. Since I finished my case study yesterday I can now relax until the season finale of Battlestar Galactica tonight.

.:.

Speaking of basketball, I’m doing quite well in my March Madness pool. I’m currently in 3rd, but I can take the $600 prize if Florida beats Georgetown in the final. If my calculations are correct there are also two other scenarios where I’d finish 2nd (for which I’d get $200) or tied for 2nd ($100).

I’m also doing well in my other (non-money) pools. I’m leading my NHL pool; some other guys got within half a point of me, but I’ve gotten some breathing room back, mainly by adding Jordan Staal to my lineup the other night. I’m starting to love that kid as much as Don Cherry does. In my NBA pool I’m only four points back from the leader, but I don’t think I can catch him. I probably could’ve if any of Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce or Dwayne Wade had been able to play a full season, mais c’est la vie. I’m just hoping to hang on to 2nd place.

[tags]hot docs, let’s all hate toronto, ghosts of abu ghraib, cobs bread, battlestar galactica, march madness, hockey pool, jordan staal, don cherry[/tags]

Shaved Head, one last time

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It’s been a very sports-oriented weekend thus far. Tons and tons of March Madness basketball and some hockey games. Tonight’s Canadiens/Leafs match is pretty much make-or-break for both teams’ chances of staying in the playoff hunt. Montreal’s still without their #1 goalie, so if they lose tonight, I think they’re all but done for the year.

Last night we took a break from the madness by having dinner and a beer at Volo, and watching a few episodes of Entourage. I haven’t been feeling great for the last 24 hours (don’t know if it’s the crazy weather changes or lack of sleep or what, but I’ve got a perpetual headache right now) so I don’t think the rest of the weekend will get much more adventurous.

.:.

One thing this tournament has reminded me of: I despise the word (and I use the term loosely) “stick-to-it-iveness”. I’ve heard it more than once*, and it drives me nuts. I have no problem with new words entering the everyday lexicon. What I do have a problem with is a using a disjointed mash-up designed for the addle-minded rather than suitable existing words.

Sigh…et tu, dictionary.com?

* It’s quite possible that whoever’s saying it is the same guy who keeps pronouncing “eschews” incorrectly. Somewhere that guy’s English teacher is cringing.

.:.

You may or may not know that the Rheostatics are, in my opinion, the most truly Canadian rock band of the past two decades (that’s right, more Canadian than The Hip); you also may not know that on March 30th they’ll play ostensibly their last concert ever, at Massey Hall. I didn’t get a ticket for that, but I did get a ticket for smaller show at their most recent and regular home: the Horseshoe. If you’d like a ticket of your own, you can get one from Six Shooter.

Anyway, the excellent Canadian indie music download site Zunior.com has something very cool on sale right now: a Rheostatics tribute album. It has songs by 13 artists, among them The Weakerthans, Weeping Tile, The Inbreds, Barenaked Ladies and Cuff The Duke. It only costs $8.88 and the proceeds go to charity; for a few extra bucks you can download the songs and get the CD. Quel bargain.

[tags]march madness, leafs, canadiens, sticktoitiveness, rheostatics, zunior[/tags]

On Bedford and Grand

Dan Dickinson3 Comments

Downloaded the Besnard Lakes album Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse tonight. I gave it a preview listen today at work and liked it as much as the one song I’d already heard: “For Agent 13”. I’m having a hard time classifying it, except to say that it’s…big. Lush is probably another word I’d use.

.:.

Sporting news: Montreal clawed back for a huge win tonight to stay in the playoff hunt. The Senators also did them a favour by beating the Rangers, but Toronto and Carolina both won to stay ahead of Montreal. If the Canadiens make the playoffs, it’ll be a minor miracle. Also: my March Madness picks are done and submitted. I never win these things, but it adds an interesting angle to the games.

.:.

Starbucks is launching its own music label. I figure this will be to music what the Oprah book club is to books…which is to say, not the ideal solution, but probably better than the alternative. Both Starbucks and Oprah tend to pick better than average, if somewhat safe, material (though some would disagree that Oprah’s latest pick The Secret falls into that category), and if people are going to slavishly follow some pop culture phenomenon, I’d rather it be Starbucks or Oprah than MTV or Britney Spears.

[tags]besnard lakes, montreal canadiens, march madness, starbucks music label, oprah, the secret[/tags]

Hopeless? Or just pathetic?

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This post on The Movie Blog earlier today might’ve had the best title ever: “Eddie Murphy To Do Fantasy Island Remake – We are Officially A Hopeless Society.”

.:.

I can’t remember who told me about Open Culture, but it’s one of the most useful, educational websites I’ve ever used. It pointed Nellie to a podcast that helps her learn French, while I used it to find podcasts from top business schools around the US. It also pointed me to this NPR debate entitled “Is America Too Damn Religious?” I haven’t listened to it yet (not having a commute makes it hard to find a 40-minute block of time to listen to something), but you know I’m going to dig it.

Anyway, whoever told me about the site, thanks.

.:.

OK, must go and watch Montreal try to scratch their way back into a playoff spot.

[tags]eddie murphy, fantasy island, open culture, montreal canadiens, nhl playoffs[/tags]