let the downward spiral begin

Okay, okay, it's not that bad. Except that I totally remember last October's game against the Panthers. For me, that game marked the beginning of the end for last season. Sure, we already sucked by that point (we had only won one of our first seven games) but this was the turning point of the season...the one game that summed up how the rest of the season would go.

And it was all Jokinen's fault. Him and that stupid forehead of his.

Anyhow, enough about the season that shall not be named. I took a page out of Nadine's book (almost literally) and made a few notes. Well, at least for the first period and part of the second. After that, I gave up and started reading photography books. Gah!

First Period

• The roaring Panther sound effect. Really?

• Lupul is up on the first line again. Cmon Stevens, I thought we were on the same page about Knuble here. Well...moving Mike to the 2nd line got him a +2 for the night, which helps with my fantasy team, but still...don't even think about making this permanent.

• First period...guys have their lead skates on again. And apparently, blindfolds now too.

• What on earth is up with this broadcast....there is an eerie fluorescent blue cast to the entire screen. It is making my eyes annoyed. Maybe that is why the Flyers are blindfolded.

• I hate Jokinen. He really is the one person in the NHL that I would punch.

• They should have pulled Marty 10 minutes in...

2nd period...

• insane PK work by Richards, Smith and Kapenen to kill off the four minute Eager penalty.

• The pass from Richards to Lupul was incredible...Lupul positioned himself perfectly

• The Carter/Umberger goal was totally insane too...

• What the heck is Bernie Parent doing in the crowd?

Third period:

• The photographic triangle is fascinating...is that where all my good pictures go?

• I wonder how my fantasy team is doing....oh good, Brind'Amour is having a good night

• If Jim Jackson says "here come the Panthers" one more time, I am going to punch someone.

I think maybe Marty lost this one on purpose, in order to build Nitty's confidence for tomorrow. Whaddya think?

OMG! I forgot it was Jordi's birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday to HLOG head bitch Jordi! She is now the ripe old age of [young enough to be my daughter].

Please head over to her blog and spam her with Birthday wishes!!!! Of course you'll need a vox account and all that but hey, it's Jordi!!!

Noooooooooooooo! Please, no!

See that seat, right next to the guy in blue with the bald spot? That is where I sometimes sit for Flyers games. Right next to the goal judge, who depending on the night is either a really nice guy who likes to talk trash or an old dude who steps on your feet when getting in and out of his booth.

Now, the Flyers (and everyone else) have removed the goal judges and banished them to the press box (poor guys, they had the best seat in the house)! In removing the goal judge seat, they freed up room for luxury seats. According to Tim Pannaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The new leather seats are deeper than other seats and have waiter or waitress service.

But there's a hitch. The seats are packaged with the lease of a suite for both Flyers and Sixers games. A midlevel suite and six goal-judge seats would cost $225,000, according to Shawn Tilger, vice president of marketing and communications for the Flyers.

Among the several changes this fall offered to season-ticket holders, this one affects the fewest but will be the most noticeable.

"The majority of our suites are sold," Tilger said. "What was intriguing to us was you could entertain clients in your suite, then rotate back and forth to the goal-judge seats."

Great, so now these seats are going to be owned by suits and used to entertain clients. I just loooooooove sitting next to those assholes. For a playoff game last year, the only ticket I could score was in a suite/box/whatever you call it. I wanted to kill myself. People there were not even aware that there was a playoff game going on. They were on the phone, or they were up and down 5 million times, or they sat with their seatmate and talked about TPS reports and sales figures and real estate. Hello! You are at a freaking hockey game! Watch some hockey! When I am at a game, I don't want any discussion. Even if I am there with you, I need you to shut up and watch. 9 times out of 10, if you engage me in conversation, I miss a goal being scored. Honestly! Talking is for intermission!

And with these seats, the up and down factor is going to be even worse: "you could entertain clients in your suite, then rotate back and forth to the goal-judge seats," according to the Flyers spokesman in the article. Ack! Please don't encourage these assholes to be up and down. Or at least make sure they wait until a stop in play.

*sigh*

Singing the Praises of the Washington Capitals!

Okay, I didn't win the first annual blogger playoff pool. But I didn't come in last. I was smack dab in the middle of the pack! And I did it all without even playing in the last round! Sweet! Take that, overachievers! Wait, that doesn't make sense.

It does chap my hide that Margee came in just ahead of me, but let's face it, she has been doing this whole hockey thing a lot longer than I have. But what the heck happened to Jordi? I think she must have given up after her embarrassing first round loss/humiliation. Poor Jordi, if it wasn't for bad luck she'd have no luck at all.

So here are my top 7 reasons the Capitals are great:

1) They are not the Penguins.

2) They did not sweep us this year, and for that I really love them! Oh wait, they did sweep us, it's just that we only play four games against them so it didn't feel quite so brutal. Ack!

3) Their AHL team is the Bears, arch rivals to my Phantoms, but I love that because those are great games to watch!

4) Ovechkin....Ov course!

5) They are going back to their old school colors this season! Yes!

6) Their chairman and owner, Ted Leonsis, is way cool, as evidenced by his interview with CapsChick.

7) They are not the Devils.

I was really hoping to come up with more than seven things, but oh well!