Wednesday, December 29, 2004
BARPF
Well, I guess there's a bit of Mariner rumblings, the pieces left to pick up after a Sonic loss, and the requisite hockey action.
Read on, won't you?
MARINERS
It's been a while since I've been able to take the chance to be snotty at an article about the Mariners (today's is Andriesen's), and I'm a bit rusty, so please bear with me. I think I reached for the sickbag twice while reading this article. The first time? That was after the mention of Aaron Sele. The second? That had to do with the placement of the phrase "pleasant surprise" in close proximity to Ron Villone's name. Yeah, it's a pleasant surprise when he leads the team in victories with EIGHT. I've been a big believer this whole time that his value to this team is horrendously overrated. I know when he started he was doing a decent amount of spot starting, but when he was a regular in the rotation, and he wasn't getting past the sixth, well, that doesn't make me much too happy. At least it didn't last season when he was getting four days' rest and then he'd come out and throw 5 2/3 on 110 pitches or something after the rest of the rotation imploded and the bullpen would be dog-tired and screwed until Madritsch's turn came up again.
The bottom line? "Effectively wild" is an oxymoron.
Sign Odalis Perez. Keep Villone out of the rotation altogether.
I guess I can toss in an obligatory vomiting to the notes tacked onto the end of the piece where the names of Darren Oliver and Todd Ritchie are mentioned.
SEAHAWKS
No Seahawk has ever led the NFL in rushing at the end of a season, but Shaun Alexander has the chance to do exactly that. He's sitting on 1616 right now. Three cheers for Shaun and three cheers for the offensive line.
Three more cheers for video game football. If ESPN didn't decide to make all of Bill Simmons' more-than-one-month-old columns exclusive to Insider members only, I'd link the article where he said that someone came up to Bo Jackson after some sort of speaking engagement, asked for his autograph, and then this autograph seeker lauded Bo for being unstoppable in Tecmo Bowl (or some old-school game, if Tecmo Bowl is incorrect). The other hilarious thing about the article is the paragraph about the attribute ratings of the players, and apparently Byron Leftwich was a bit sour on his rating.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
North Carolina beat UNC-Wilmington by a score of 96-75. In 24 minutes off the bench, Marvin Williams had 10 points (2-for-5 shooting, 6-for-8 from the line), 6 rebounds, and a steal. He also got whistled for a technical foul, one of three in a flurry of T's for North Carolina. The Tar Heels host Cleveland State tomorrow.
Huskies
Washington is off until opening Pac-10 play on New Year's Eve against the Cal Bears.
Bulldogs
Gonzaga won a huge game last night, and here's Jeremy's piece, which can also be reached by scrolling down two posts (if this isn't in the archive).
Sonics
For my thoughts on the game, scroll down one post or click here if archived.
Since I cranked out all that Sonicness earlier, I'll just try to see if the beat writers got anything that I left out.
Basically, I hadn't seen a defensive output that bad since the Seahawks in the Monday night game. You're not going to win many games by allowing 114 points. Rashard Lewis' too-little-too-late three in the waning seconds of the game accounted for his only points of the second half. Also, Ray Allen confesses that with Ron Murray now in the guard rotation, "there's no rhythm."
Jayda Evans says that the big Sonic run of the game that brought them to within 3 in the third quarter was a 15-5 run. But she also says that Ron Murray "also has played well" since coming back from injury, which (sans the one game) I heartily disagree with. I know any assessment of his performance right now is probably flawed since Antonio Daniels' first game back was last night. Theoretically with Daniels back, Ron Murray shouldn't have to bring the ball up the floor, which is a very good thing. Murray is more of a pure scorer than anything, and he's definitely not a point guard -- he's proved this on many occasions by holding/dribbling the ball on the perimeter for 10 seconds at a time in the halfcourt sets. The guy isn't one to make the extra pass, from what I've seen, and since his natural inclination is for scoring (he bricked 8 of 10 against Utah on Monday), it's a good thing that Daniels is back, because I don't want to see Murray as a point guard ever again this season. This leaves him officially now as the guy who's supposed to spell Ray Allen. We'll see how it goes. I guess the point here is that if there's a halfcourt set, I feel completely comfortable with saying that the ball has got to go through the hands of Ridnour or Daniels somewhere in the possession. I don't think the same about Murray, because he's a pseudo-ballhog. He's not a point guard. Welcome back, AD.
As for the Sonics' 17-point deficit in free-throw attempts, Frank Hughes says that Bill Kennedy is "a referee the Sonics have had problems with in the past."
Reggie Evans is half of the Evans/Fortson duo tabbed by Kevin Calabro as the Bruiser and the Crusher (though Calabro hasn't distinguished which is which). Evans works hard and does the dirty work down low in the first and third quarters, grabbing rebounds and occasionally putting back shots. I know I've brought this up multiple times, but I can't stress this enough -- Evans tweaked his free-throw technique a few games ago (maybe the Phoenix game) and now he's reaping the benefits. He's definitely getting a lot more arc on his free throws, most likely a byproduct of bending the knees a bit. Before we know it, Evans and Fortson together might shoot free throws a ton better than Shaq or Tim Duncan. They might already.
How about some press for Nick Collison? He put up some solid numbers in the back-to-back set and seems to get decent inside position and comes up with the occasional putback to boot. In other news, I can't even fathom any high school team of mine going 101-1. That's insane.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow at Atlanta
New Year's Eve at Charlotte
HOCKEY
Here's a short article on Keith Gerhart, the only play-by-play voice in the history of the Everett Silvertips. Of course, they've only been in existence since last year, but it's still true. I'm thinking it would probably be real hard not to be a total homer if one was to become a junior hockey broadcaster. Gerhart eats and travels with the team, and attends a ton of the practices, so I suppose the closeness to the team might make it hard to rail on the third-line defenseman every once in a while for coughing up the puck in his own zone.
Everett shut out Spokane, 2-0. The headline in the Times article proclaims that the T-Birds stood tall behind Wall, but there's a team mixup there. In any event, Mike Wall fended off 34 shots in the Silvertips' victory. Alex Leavitt scored the winning goal by rattling one off the post and past Jim Watt of the Chiefs in net. Leavitt also set up Karel Hromas for the final goal of the game. The Silvertips have six players not with the team due to international competitions. Spokane outshot Everett 34-24. Mike Wall stopped all 34 of his shots for the 'Tips, and Watt stopped 22 for Spokane.
Lethbridge beat Vancouver, 3-2. Lethbridge won their second game in two nights without their stud defenseman Brent Seabrook, who is playing for Canada in the World Junior Championships. In Giant coach Don Hay's opinion, the Giants were the better team for the first two periods, but the Giants ended up with the loss nonetheless. The Giants drew a 1-0 lead in the first period thanks to a Triston Grant one-timer. Vancouver scored their second goal in a "desperate" third period thanks to Mitch Bartley on the power play. However, the two Vancouver goals straddled the three-goal output by the Hurricanes in the second period thanks to a goal off the goalie's skate and a couple of turnovers. The Giants outshot the Hurricanes 25-14. Adam Jennings stopped 11 shots for Vancouver, and Aaron Sorochan stopped 23 for Lethbridge. Vancouver's normal starting goalie, Marek Schwarz, is the starting goalie for the Czech team at the World Junior Championships.
Portland beat Prince George, 3-2. The Winter Hawks held the Cougars scoreless on nine power plays en route to victory. On the scoresheet, the Winter Hawks scored the final three goals of the game to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the first period and take the win. With the win, Portland snapped both a six-game winless streak overall and a six-game road winless streak. There's a tiny bit of venom in Joel Scruggs' recap at the Portland site, but apparently the first period saw some questionable penalties along with the questionable award of a penalty shot to Prince George. Either way, Brett Parker scored twice to account for the Cougars' scoring, all in the first period. Cody McLeod pounced on a Brandon Dubinsky rebound late in the first period to cut the deficit in half, then McLeod stormed right out of the dressing room and tied the game 21 seconds into the second period. On a Portland power play, Adam Lukacovic of the Cougars giftwrapped the winning goal for the Winter Hawks by making an ill-conceived pass to Portland's Dan Da Silva, who potted the winner on a give-and-go with McLeod. Dustin Butler stopped 25 (16 in the final frame) in his 17th straight start. Portland's other goalie Blake Grenier was finally listed as a backup, but defenseman and team plus-minus leader Michael Sauer may need season-ending hip surgery. Portland outshot the Cougars 30-27. Real Cyr stopped 28 for Prince George, and as mentioned, Butler stopped 25 for Portland. I believe the Portland recap more than the boxscore in this case, because there's some discrepancies here between both.
Cleveland beat Manitoba, 3-2. Regular Manitoba goalie Alex Auld is with Team Canada in Switzerland for the Spengler Cup. Wade Flaherty started (and pitched a shutout) in the Moose net last night. As a result, Rob McVicar was called up from Columbus of the ECHL, and it was trial by fire for him in his first AHL start as he was peppered with pucks. The Barons took an early 1-0 lead halfway through the opening period, but Jason King tallied a shorthanded goal with Wade Brookbank doing some time to tie the game at 1-1. McVicar stopped all 15 second-period shots he faced, but the Moose were only able to get off six shots of their own in the other end. At one point from the end of the second period to the beginning of the third, the Moose killed off five straight Cleveland power plays. In fact Jason King scored once again shorthanded to get the Moose a 2-1 lead. With 1:05 left in the game, Cleveland pulled their goalie and it worked as Shane Joseph tied the game to send it into overtime. Cleveland finally made good on their seventh straight power play and tenth power play in the game as Ryane Clowe ended it for the Barons. Manitoba was badly outshot 45-21. McVicar stopped 42, and Dimitri Patzold stopped 19 for Cleveland. Ryan Kesler was the lone assister on both of the King goals; he was plus-2.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Everett at Seattle, Portland at Prince George
New Year's Eve: Seattle at Portland, Chicago at Manitoba, Tri-City at Puget Sound
New Year's Day: Spokane at Vancouver, Seattle at Everett, Portland at Tri-City, Tri-City at Puget Sound
There's all the pressures of being a good hockey player, there's the pressures of playing for a national team, etc. But it gets to a whole other level if your name is Chris Bourque. Yes, there's pedigree involved.
Canada beat Germany, 9-0. Rejean Beauchemin of the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) held the fort in net, stopping all 17 shots as the Canadians threw 52 pucks at Youri Ziffzer and Thomas Greiss, making good on nine of those shots. Anthony Stewart and Sidney Crosby scored twice each, and the other five goals went to WHL players. Andrew Ladd and Ryan Getzlaf of Calgary each scored, Clarke MacArthur and Cam Barker of Medicine Hat each scored, and so did Colin Fraser of Red Deer. Fraser's teammate Dion Phaneuf had three assists, and Nigel Dawes of Kootenay had two assists.
Russia beat Belarus, 7-2. Young Washington Capital draftee Alexander Ovechkin scored twice, and so did Roman Volshenko, to account for the bulk of Russia's scoring. The Russians came away with a 3-0 lead after the first period on goals by Sergei Shirokov, Ovechkin, and Voloshenko. Siarhei Kolasau scored for Belarus in the second period, but this was answered by Ovechkin's goal to give the Russians a 4-1 lead. Viachislau Shypila cut the deficit to two goals early in the third period, but then the Russians exploded for three of their own. Russia outshot Belarus 37-28. Andrei Kuznetsov stopped 26 for Russia, and Stepan Goryachevskikh stopped 30 for Belarus.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Czech Republic vs. Switzerland, Finland vs. Sweden, Belarus vs. United States, Slovakia vs. Germany
Tomorrow: Canada vs. Finland, Switzerland vs. Russia, United States vs. Czech Republic, Sweden vs. Slovakia
New Year's Day: medal round begins
---
Have a jolly-rific Wednesday, everybody.
Read on, won't you?
MARINERS
It's been a while since I've been able to take the chance to be snotty at an article about the Mariners (today's is Andriesen's), and I'm a bit rusty, so please bear with me. I think I reached for the sickbag twice while reading this article. The first time? That was after the mention of Aaron Sele. The second? That had to do with the placement of the phrase "pleasant surprise" in close proximity to Ron Villone's name. Yeah, it's a pleasant surprise when he leads the team in victories with EIGHT. I've been a big believer this whole time that his value to this team is horrendously overrated. I know when he started he was doing a decent amount of spot starting, but when he was a regular in the rotation, and he wasn't getting past the sixth, well, that doesn't make me much too happy. At least it didn't last season when he was getting four days' rest and then he'd come out and throw 5 2/3 on 110 pitches or something after the rest of the rotation imploded and the bullpen would be dog-tired and screwed until Madritsch's turn came up again.
The bottom line? "Effectively wild" is an oxymoron.
Sign Odalis Perez. Keep Villone out of the rotation altogether.
I guess I can toss in an obligatory vomiting to the notes tacked onto the end of the piece where the names of Darren Oliver and Todd Ritchie are mentioned.
SEAHAWKS
No Seahawk has ever led the NFL in rushing at the end of a season, but Shaun Alexander has the chance to do exactly that. He's sitting on 1616 right now. Three cheers for Shaun and three cheers for the offensive line.
Three more cheers for video game football. If ESPN didn't decide to make all of Bill Simmons' more-than-one-month-old columns exclusive to Insider members only, I'd link the article where he said that someone came up to Bo Jackson after some sort of speaking engagement, asked for his autograph, and then this autograph seeker lauded Bo for being unstoppable in Tecmo Bowl (or some old-school game, if Tecmo Bowl is incorrect). The other hilarious thing about the article is the paragraph about the attribute ratings of the players, and apparently Byron Leftwich was a bit sour on his rating.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
North Carolina beat UNC-Wilmington by a score of 96-75. In 24 minutes off the bench, Marvin Williams had 10 points (2-for-5 shooting, 6-for-8 from the line), 6 rebounds, and a steal. He also got whistled for a technical foul, one of three in a flurry of T's for North Carolina. The Tar Heels host Cleveland State tomorrow.
Huskies
Washington is off until opening Pac-10 play on New Year's Eve against the Cal Bears.
Bulldogs
Gonzaga won a huge game last night, and here's Jeremy's piece, which can also be reached by scrolling down two posts (if this isn't in the archive).
Sonics
For my thoughts on the game, scroll down one post or click here if archived.
Since I cranked out all that Sonicness earlier, I'll just try to see if the beat writers got anything that I left out.
Basically, I hadn't seen a defensive output that bad since the Seahawks in the Monday night game. You're not going to win many games by allowing 114 points. Rashard Lewis' too-little-too-late three in the waning seconds of the game accounted for his only points of the second half. Also, Ray Allen confesses that with Ron Murray now in the guard rotation, "there's no rhythm."
Jayda Evans says that the big Sonic run of the game that brought them to within 3 in the third quarter was a 15-5 run. But she also says that Ron Murray "also has played well" since coming back from injury, which (sans the one game) I heartily disagree with. I know any assessment of his performance right now is probably flawed since Antonio Daniels' first game back was last night. Theoretically with Daniels back, Ron Murray shouldn't have to bring the ball up the floor, which is a very good thing. Murray is more of a pure scorer than anything, and he's definitely not a point guard -- he's proved this on many occasions by holding/dribbling the ball on the perimeter for 10 seconds at a time in the halfcourt sets. The guy isn't one to make the extra pass, from what I've seen, and since his natural inclination is for scoring (he bricked 8 of 10 against Utah on Monday), it's a good thing that Daniels is back, because I don't want to see Murray as a point guard ever again this season. This leaves him officially now as the guy who's supposed to spell Ray Allen. We'll see how it goes. I guess the point here is that if there's a halfcourt set, I feel completely comfortable with saying that the ball has got to go through the hands of Ridnour or Daniels somewhere in the possession. I don't think the same about Murray, because he's a pseudo-ballhog. He's not a point guard. Welcome back, AD.
As for the Sonics' 17-point deficit in free-throw attempts, Frank Hughes says that Bill Kennedy is "a referee the Sonics have had problems with in the past."
Reggie Evans is half of the Evans/Fortson duo tabbed by Kevin Calabro as the Bruiser and the Crusher (though Calabro hasn't distinguished which is which). Evans works hard and does the dirty work down low in the first and third quarters, grabbing rebounds and occasionally putting back shots. I know I've brought this up multiple times, but I can't stress this enough -- Evans tweaked his free-throw technique a few games ago (maybe the Phoenix game) and now he's reaping the benefits. He's definitely getting a lot more arc on his free throws, most likely a byproduct of bending the knees a bit. Before we know it, Evans and Fortson together might shoot free throws a ton better than Shaq or Tim Duncan. They might already.
How about some press for Nick Collison? He put up some solid numbers in the back-to-back set and seems to get decent inside position and comes up with the occasional putback to boot. In other news, I can't even fathom any high school team of mine going 101-1. That's insane.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow at Atlanta
New Year's Eve at Charlotte
HOCKEY
Here's a short article on Keith Gerhart, the only play-by-play voice in the history of the Everett Silvertips. Of course, they've only been in existence since last year, but it's still true. I'm thinking it would probably be real hard not to be a total homer if one was to become a junior hockey broadcaster. Gerhart eats and travels with the team, and attends a ton of the practices, so I suppose the closeness to the team might make it hard to rail on the third-line defenseman every once in a while for coughing up the puck in his own zone.
Everett shut out Spokane, 2-0. The headline in the Times article proclaims that the T-Birds stood tall behind Wall, but there's a team mixup there. In any event, Mike Wall fended off 34 shots in the Silvertips' victory. Alex Leavitt scored the winning goal by rattling one off the post and past Jim Watt of the Chiefs in net. Leavitt also set up Karel Hromas for the final goal of the game. The Silvertips have six players not with the team due to international competitions. Spokane outshot Everett 34-24. Mike Wall stopped all 34 of his shots for the 'Tips, and Watt stopped 22 for Spokane.
Lethbridge beat Vancouver, 3-2. Lethbridge won their second game in two nights without their stud defenseman Brent Seabrook, who is playing for Canada in the World Junior Championships. In Giant coach Don Hay's opinion, the Giants were the better team for the first two periods, but the Giants ended up with the loss nonetheless. The Giants drew a 1-0 lead in the first period thanks to a Triston Grant one-timer. Vancouver scored their second goal in a "desperate" third period thanks to Mitch Bartley on the power play. However, the two Vancouver goals straddled the three-goal output by the Hurricanes in the second period thanks to a goal off the goalie's skate and a couple of turnovers. The Giants outshot the Hurricanes 25-14. Adam Jennings stopped 11 shots for Vancouver, and Aaron Sorochan stopped 23 for Lethbridge. Vancouver's normal starting goalie, Marek Schwarz, is the starting goalie for the Czech team at the World Junior Championships.
Portland beat Prince George, 3-2. The Winter Hawks held the Cougars scoreless on nine power plays en route to victory. On the scoresheet, the Winter Hawks scored the final three goals of the game to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the first period and take the win. With the win, Portland snapped both a six-game winless streak overall and a six-game road winless streak. There's a tiny bit of venom in Joel Scruggs' recap at the Portland site, but apparently the first period saw some questionable penalties along with the questionable award of a penalty shot to Prince George. Either way, Brett Parker scored twice to account for the Cougars' scoring, all in the first period. Cody McLeod pounced on a Brandon Dubinsky rebound late in the first period to cut the deficit in half, then McLeod stormed right out of the dressing room and tied the game 21 seconds into the second period. On a Portland power play, Adam Lukacovic of the Cougars giftwrapped the winning goal for the Winter Hawks by making an ill-conceived pass to Portland's Dan Da Silva, who potted the winner on a give-and-go with McLeod. Dustin Butler stopped 25 (16 in the final frame) in his 17th straight start. Portland's other goalie Blake Grenier was finally listed as a backup, but defenseman and team plus-minus leader Michael Sauer may need season-ending hip surgery. Portland outshot the Cougars 30-27. Real Cyr stopped 28 for Prince George, and as mentioned, Butler stopped 25 for Portland. I believe the Portland recap more than the boxscore in this case, because there's some discrepancies here between both.
Cleveland beat Manitoba, 3-2. Regular Manitoba goalie Alex Auld is with Team Canada in Switzerland for the Spengler Cup. Wade Flaherty started (and pitched a shutout) in the Moose net last night. As a result, Rob McVicar was called up from Columbus of the ECHL, and it was trial by fire for him in his first AHL start as he was peppered with pucks. The Barons took an early 1-0 lead halfway through the opening period, but Jason King tallied a shorthanded goal with Wade Brookbank doing some time to tie the game at 1-1. McVicar stopped all 15 second-period shots he faced, but the Moose were only able to get off six shots of their own in the other end. At one point from the end of the second period to the beginning of the third, the Moose killed off five straight Cleveland power plays. In fact Jason King scored once again shorthanded to get the Moose a 2-1 lead. With 1:05 left in the game, Cleveland pulled their goalie and it worked as Shane Joseph tied the game to send it into overtime. Cleveland finally made good on their seventh straight power play and tenth power play in the game as Ryane Clowe ended it for the Barons. Manitoba was badly outshot 45-21. McVicar stopped 42, and Dimitri Patzold stopped 19 for Cleveland. Ryan Kesler was the lone assister on both of the King goals; he was plus-2.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Everett at Seattle, Portland at Prince George
New Year's Eve: Seattle at Portland, Chicago at Manitoba, Tri-City at Puget Sound
New Year's Day: Spokane at Vancouver, Seattle at Everett, Portland at Tri-City, Tri-City at Puget Sound
There's all the pressures of being a good hockey player, there's the pressures of playing for a national team, etc. But it gets to a whole other level if your name is Chris Bourque. Yes, there's pedigree involved.
Canada beat Germany, 9-0. Rejean Beauchemin of the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) held the fort in net, stopping all 17 shots as the Canadians threw 52 pucks at Youri Ziffzer and Thomas Greiss, making good on nine of those shots. Anthony Stewart and Sidney Crosby scored twice each, and the other five goals went to WHL players. Andrew Ladd and Ryan Getzlaf of Calgary each scored, Clarke MacArthur and Cam Barker of Medicine Hat each scored, and so did Colin Fraser of Red Deer. Fraser's teammate Dion Phaneuf had three assists, and Nigel Dawes of Kootenay had two assists.
Russia beat Belarus, 7-2. Young Washington Capital draftee Alexander Ovechkin scored twice, and so did Roman Volshenko, to account for the bulk of Russia's scoring. The Russians came away with a 3-0 lead after the first period on goals by Sergei Shirokov, Ovechkin, and Voloshenko. Siarhei Kolasau scored for Belarus in the second period, but this was answered by Ovechkin's goal to give the Russians a 4-1 lead. Viachislau Shypila cut the deficit to two goals early in the third period, but then the Russians exploded for three of their own. Russia outshot Belarus 37-28. Andrei Kuznetsov stopped 26 for Russia, and Stepan Goryachevskikh stopped 30 for Belarus.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Czech Republic vs. Switzerland, Finland vs. Sweden, Belarus vs. United States, Slovakia vs. Germany
Tomorrow: Canada vs. Finland, Switzerland vs. Russia, United States vs. Czech Republic, Sweden vs. Slovakia
New Year's Day: medal round begins
---
Have a jolly-rific Wednesday, everybody.
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