Some NHL Ramblings...
Well, the players got another coach fired in the NHL yesterday, but not the one who should have according to NBC's analysts on the terrible New York Rangers; the Penguins fired coach Michel Therrien. Therrien led the Pens to the Cup finals for the first time in 16 years, but the team is struggling this year. Is it the coach's fault? Absolutley not - Therrien could only work with what he was given.
Unfortunately, he was given a team with its top two defensemen out for extended periods before the season even started [Ryan Whitney, who was out until December, and Sergei Gonchar, who returned Saturday]. Management was outbid for nose for the net guy Ryan Malone, Marian Hossa spurned a chance to play all year with Malkin and Crosby on the power play to try and win a Cup in Detroit and the replacements Ruslan Fedotenko [who did have a couple OK years in Tampa and was warming before being injured] and Miroslav Satan [who hasn't done crap in the last five years] were not the sniper types needed to finish Sidney Crosby's unbelieveable passes. Jordan Staal's 29 goal rookie campaign has proven to be a fluke - so far - but I think he will be a dangerous third line center for years to come; maybe center the second line if the move is made to put Malkin permanently onto Crosby's line.
But Therrien made the best of things - Tyler Kennedy looks to be breaking out, Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski learned the ropes and inproved.
In the end, it's easier to fire the coach than replace 15 inderachievers. Still, I think Therrien got the short end of the stick on this one. Finish the year, then talk and see where things went wrong and if there needs to be a philosophical change. Yes, the Pens want to make the playoffs and have momentum and interest going into a new building next fall - but this is short changing the man who turned your team around.
Sorry Michel. Good luck in your future.
Stimulus and Fixes
I was watching the McLaughlin Group yesterday - yes, I like the chaos - and the commentators, both left and right, there were all ready commenting about how this stimulus package is flawed and won't do the job and we will be looking for another $ 500 billion - 1 trillion deal before the year is out. And all I can say is "What the fuck, Washington?"
Don't kid yourselves, this bill was loaded with pet projects and pork out the ass. Euless gets $ 785,000 to improve Softball World?Fort Worth gets $ 383.5 million for the Trinity Uptown Project [mislabeled "flood control" to get earmark priority] and $ 106 for swimming centers? $16.7 for "Zoo Infrastructure Revovantions: Walkway Renovations [2.37 mil]; Parking garage [14.4 m]." We need the Federal govenment to build a parking garage for the CITY ZOO????
What am I getting as a single dude? I get $ 400 of my money back in a tax cut. $ 13 a week! Whew, now I can go buy that gas guzzling car and go save General Motors!
Sunday, February 01, 2009
More Proof I'm Getting Old
If you were a kid in the 70s, you remember seeing, mostly on late light or on the independent channels on UHF - yeah, if you remember UHF, you must be old -commercials for "The Time-Life Collection." Now when I was kid, between re-runs of The Munsters and Leave It to Beaver, they were pushing The Big Band Era, something your grandmother would buy with Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman - basically old fossil music.
Now back then, these were two minute commercials, not like today with the half hour "Infomercial" with old Peter Fonda pushing The Flower Power Love Generation 14 CD collection or the dudes from Air Supply pushing Soft Rock [and I giggle when I fly by it thinking about the Yacht Rock thing on You Tube - "Gotta keep the smooth in, Templeman!"] or poor Tony Orlando slushing Greatest Love Hits of the 70's... oh, that just breaks my heart. Anyway, from the Big Bands, Time-Life Graduated to the Sock Hop Soda Shop Hits from the 50's to The Beat Goes On Moldie Oldies of the 60's and then moved to infomercials and began pushing The Brady Bunch Have A Nice Day Hits of the 70s...
But dammit, I was watching one of the many cable channels I do scroll through in search of meaningful late night entertainment [and there isn't much] and I see this 2 CD [well, 3 because they throw in a "bonus disc" if you pay by credit card now...]: Hard 'N' Heavy: Up All Night & Talk Dirty to Me and IT'S MY F'ING GENERATION!!!! Poison, Kiss, Judas Priest, Cinderella, David Lee Roth, Quiet Riot... tsk tsk tsk.
Now look, I am not going to buy this because, well frankly, I am trying to forget the hair metal. It's what we had and we didn't know much better. But I mean, damn! Now my nieces and baby sister will look at that and go - your music is old and it sucks! Like we did to grandma when she ordered The Big Band Era or Hillbilly Fever Great Country and Western Songs of the 50s. Not that they don't do that all ready. But I mean damn.
If you were a kid in the 70s, you remember seeing, mostly on late light or on the independent channels on UHF - yeah, if you remember UHF, you must be old -commercials for "The Time-Life Collection." Now when I was kid, between re-runs of The Munsters and Leave It to Beaver, they were pushing The Big Band Era, something your grandmother would buy with Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman - basically old fossil music.
Now back then, these were two minute commercials, not like today with the half hour "Infomercial" with old Peter Fonda pushing The Flower Power Love Generation 14 CD collection or the dudes from Air Supply pushing Soft Rock [and I giggle when I fly by it thinking about the Yacht Rock thing on You Tube - "Gotta keep the smooth in, Templeman!"] or poor Tony Orlando slushing Greatest Love Hits of the 70's... oh, that just breaks my heart. Anyway, from the Big Bands, Time-Life Graduated to the Sock Hop Soda Shop Hits from the 50's to The Beat Goes On Moldie Oldies of the 60's and then moved to infomercials and began pushing The Brady Bunch Have A Nice Day Hits of the 70s...
But dammit, I was watching one of the many cable channels I do scroll through in search of meaningful late night entertainment [and there isn't much] and I see this 2 CD [well, 3 because they throw in a "bonus disc" if you pay by credit card now...]: Hard 'N' Heavy: Up All Night & Talk Dirty to Me and IT'S MY F'ING GENERATION!!!! Poison, Kiss, Judas Priest, Cinderella, David Lee Roth, Quiet Riot... tsk tsk tsk.
Now look, I am not going to buy this because, well frankly, I am trying to forget the hair metal. It's what we had and we didn't know much better. But I mean, damn! Now my nieces and baby sister will look at that and go - your music is old and it sucks! Like we did to grandma when she ordered The Big Band Era or Hillbilly Fever Great Country and Western Songs of the 50s. Not that they don't do that all ready. But I mean damn.
