Sunday, December 05, 2004
I DON'T SEE ANY SNOW
It's a weird day. It's not often I get back from the rink on a Saturday night and don't have to prepare myself for the Seahawks the next day. Look at it this way...the Seahawks can't spoil your Sunday, and you don't have to go through Monday all ticked off because the Seahawks lost.
Today, we look back on a Sonic win and take care of some hockey. By the way, the Tomahawks ran their record to 22-2 with a cliffhanger of a game.
MARINERS
Steve Kelley laments about the state of baseball after the BALCO grand jury testimony leaks, and harkens back to the days of his youth, when more attention was placed on the nuances of the game. He lists off a bunch of old-school baseball situations, but I'd have to say I must have gotten more second-guessing of the manager done with Bob Melvin at the helm last year as I have in my entire life as a baseball fan.
From the wayback machine, I dug up a post by Jeff Shaw in his San Shin days that has a little bit to do with the steroids thing, except from the 3rd of last March (the same day the Geoff Jenkins sweepstakes was officially over). I'd also be remiss to omit the two other present-day posts he has cranked out on the whole steroids-related cacophony.
Finnigan. There's your warning. What he has the Mariners slated as doing over the next week is just a bit disheartening to me, because I don't want Dan Wilson, Ron Villone, Carl Pavano, or Jaret Wright on this team next year. And since when was holding onto someone because he's the final holdover from the 1995 team a good thing? I know the article probably isn't meant to say that (it probably assumes we know Wilson is a solid defensive catcher), but the inclusion of 1995 is seemingly meant to tug at heartstrings or something. As watershed as 1995 was, this team has to move on eventually...that was nearly a decade ago. Finnigan also touches on the possible Yankee backlash on the free-agent market (i.e., Delgado/Sexson) if Jason Giambi doesn't come back to the team. Finnigan does link an official to the Mariners as saying the club could turn toward Adrian Beltre, which may tide over some of the Mariner fans that want him in a Mariner uniform. Keep in mind as you're reading that article that it's pretty long and seems to have a lot of information, but it's still a Finnigan article.
SEAHAWKS
Jeremy will knock this one down, so I'll just leave alone the fact that tomorrow's game marks the exact sixth anniversary of the play that ushered instant replay back into the NFL.
Also, Les Carpenter laments to the days of his youth much like Steve Kelley did, except in terms of Monday Night Football. It ain't what it used to be. If MNF can't beat Everybody Loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men, we pretty much know how far it's fallen in the Monday night pecking order. Does anyone remember the pre-Raymond days of CBS, where they couldn't do jack in the ratings? David Letterman was their whole network, and the comedies they ran were stalwarts such as Dave's World, Evening Shade, The Golden Palace (that's NOT quite The Golden Girls), Dudley, etc. This stuff was a worse idea even before anyone even thought of My Big Fat Greek Life. You know what the sick thing was? The CBS comedy with the most staying power out of that entire time period was probably The Nanny. Ugh. But enough with this TV tangent, right?
BASKETBALL
Huskies
They face Eastern at home today and hope to improve on their defense.
Sonics
For my take on the game, scroll to the post below this one or click here.
I like Danny Fortson, even if he did give the Mavericks some ammunition for the next time they play the Sonics. He said Vlad Radmanovic at the top of his game plays better than Dirk Nowitzki, and that Vlad can play better defense, and did last night. A good thing, though, was that Vlad's spike in rebounding helped lighten the load on Reggie Evans, who was playing with a hip pointer.
The Sonics didn't cave in the fourth quarter last night when Portland got within five. Danny Fortson made it through the entire fourth quarter until the reserves came in for garbage time. Another big feather in the Radmanovic cap was his defense against Zach Randolph, who was held to 5-for-14 shooting. Zach ended up with 16 and 12 boards, but he didn't get the chance to go nuts and didn't kill the Sonics like he has in the past. Also, the Sonics held Zee-Bo and Shareefer Madness (that'd be Abdur-Rahim) to a combined four points in the fourth quarter. Allen's 14 tied his season-low. In a somewhat odd stat, Vlad scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, and Daniels scored all of his seven points in the first half. The Sonics turned the ball over five times in the first eight minutes of the game, and took care of the basketball for 20 minutes before finally turning the ball over again.
Upcoming...
Wednesday at San Antonio
Thursday at Dallas
HOCKEY
In previous listings of the schedule, I'd forgotten tonight's Seattle game. My bad.
Swift Current shut out Everett, 2-0. Playing their third game in four nights, the Silvertips just couldn't dent the scoreboard. Shots off the posts, loose pucks behind the goalie, nothing went in. Everett was 0-for-7 on the power play, which seems to run hot and cold with this team. The Silvertips outshot the Broncos 19-18, with goalie Leland Irving stopping 16. Kyle Moir netted the shutout for Swift Current.
Seattle beat Tri-City, 3-2 in overtime. Aaron Gagnon had the hat trick to account for all three of the Seattle goals. Also coming through in the clutch was Thunderbird goalie Gavin McHale (Bryan Bridges had the night off), who put a pad on a Dylan Stanley penalty shot with 2:41 to go in the game. Gagnon found the back of the net for the winner with 31 ticks left on the clock. Seattle outshot Tri-City 29-27, and McHale stopped 25.
Kootenay shut out Portland, 3-0. Kootenay has a couple of NHL third-round draft picks. Both figured prominently in the Ice's victory. Jeff Glass, selected by the Ottawa Senators, turned away all 21 shots he faced for Kootenay. Martin Sagat, picked by the Toronto Maple Leafs, scored a goal on the man-advantage in the second period, and WHL third-leading scorer Nigel Dawes got goal number 19 on the season with an empty-netter in the third period. The Winter Hawks split games against defensive-minded Kelowna (win) and Everett (loss), and had the same thing happen to them last night that happens to many teams when they lose to these defensive units -- the losing team outshoots the other team (sometimes badly), but the winning team will get two or three of their 17 or so shots into the net, which as I've said on occasion reeks of Jacques Lemaire's Minnesota Wild. Last night, Portland badly outshot Kootenay by a 35-20 margin. Dustin Butler, starting his 10th straight game in the Portland net, stopped 18.
Vancouver and Kelowna skated to a 2-2 overtime tie. The Giants ran their unbeaten streak to a franchise-record seven games with the tie against the Kelowna Rockets, an aforementioned defensive team. Vancouver's scoring occurred on the power play, with Tim Kraus (one-timer) and Triston Grant putting the marks on the scoreboard. But in a not-so-defensive trait, the Rockets piled up 15 shots on Vancouver's Marek Schwarz in the first period, with the goalie warding off all of them. Also key to Vancouver getting the single point was the killing of four penalties. Kelowna outshot Portland 32-24, and Schwarz stopped 30.
Binghamton beat Manitoba, 4-1. Ray Emery of the Senators made all the key stops to snap Binghamton's three-game winless streak. This was despite their inability to get off a shot on goal until eleven minutes into the game. Jimmy Roy scored on a tip-in in the second period for his third goal of the season, but the B-Sens had already staked themselves out to a 2-0 lead. Binghamton's third goal, and probably the killer, was scored by Brandon Bochenski in the third period on what reads off on the recap like a gaffe of a Dan Cloutier goal -- puck is shot from the top of the Moose zone and goes in. A Denis Hamel empty-netter officially put away the game. Manitoba outshot Binghamton 24-20, and Alex Auld stopped 17 for the Moose.
Puget Sound beat Kootenai, 4-3. The score link is to the semi-game log thing I threw together. Maciej Michalik scored the winner with just 1:05 left in the third period to get the Tomahawks their 22nd win against two losses. The Tomahawks scored two goals right out of the dressing room in the third period, but the Colts scored two goals to tie the game at three before the Masher came through in the clutch with his first tally of the season. Puget Sound has a bye next weekend.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Swift Current at Seattle, Binghamton at Manitoba
Tuesday: Swift Current at Portland
Wednesday: Seattle at Kamloops, Vancouver at Kelowna, Spokane at Everett
Friday: Vancouver at Kamloops, Everett at Portland, Manitoba at Edmonton
Saturday: Portland at Kelowna, Seattle at Regina, Everett at Spokane, Kamloops at Vancouver
Sunday (12 Dec): Seattle at Brandon, Portland at Kamloops, Manitoba at Edmonton
---
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Root for the 49ers to beat the Rams, even though there's no way in hell it'll happen. We can hope it will, though.
Today, we look back on a Sonic win and take care of some hockey. By the way, the Tomahawks ran their record to 22-2 with a cliffhanger of a game.
MARINERS
Steve Kelley laments about the state of baseball after the BALCO grand jury testimony leaks, and harkens back to the days of his youth, when more attention was placed on the nuances of the game. He lists off a bunch of old-school baseball situations, but I'd have to say I must have gotten more second-guessing of the manager done with Bob Melvin at the helm last year as I have in my entire life as a baseball fan.
From the wayback machine, I dug up a post by Jeff Shaw in his San Shin days that has a little bit to do with the steroids thing, except from the 3rd of last March (the same day the Geoff Jenkins sweepstakes was officially over). I'd also be remiss to omit the two other present-day posts he has cranked out on the whole steroids-related cacophony.
Finnigan. There's your warning. What he has the Mariners slated as doing over the next week is just a bit disheartening to me, because I don't want Dan Wilson, Ron Villone, Carl Pavano, or Jaret Wright on this team next year. And since when was holding onto someone because he's the final holdover from the 1995 team a good thing? I know the article probably isn't meant to say that (it probably assumes we know Wilson is a solid defensive catcher), but the inclusion of 1995 is seemingly meant to tug at heartstrings or something. As watershed as 1995 was, this team has to move on eventually...that was nearly a decade ago. Finnigan also touches on the possible Yankee backlash on the free-agent market (i.e., Delgado/Sexson) if Jason Giambi doesn't come back to the team. Finnigan does link an official to the Mariners as saying the club could turn toward Adrian Beltre, which may tide over some of the Mariner fans that want him in a Mariner uniform. Keep in mind as you're reading that article that it's pretty long and seems to have a lot of information, but it's still a Finnigan article.
SEAHAWKS
Jeremy will knock this one down, so I'll just leave alone the fact that tomorrow's game marks the exact sixth anniversary of the play that ushered instant replay back into the NFL.
Also, Les Carpenter laments to the days of his youth much like Steve Kelley did, except in terms of Monday Night Football. It ain't what it used to be. If MNF can't beat Everybody Loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men, we pretty much know how far it's fallen in the Monday night pecking order. Does anyone remember the pre-Raymond days of CBS, where they couldn't do jack in the ratings? David Letterman was their whole network, and the comedies they ran were stalwarts such as Dave's World, Evening Shade, The Golden Palace (that's NOT quite The Golden Girls), Dudley, etc. This stuff was a worse idea even before anyone even thought of My Big Fat Greek Life. You know what the sick thing was? The CBS comedy with the most staying power out of that entire time period was probably The Nanny. Ugh. But enough with this TV tangent, right?
BASKETBALL
Huskies
They face Eastern at home today and hope to improve on their defense.
Sonics
For my take on the game, scroll to the post below this one or click here.
I like Danny Fortson, even if he did give the Mavericks some ammunition for the next time they play the Sonics. He said Vlad Radmanovic at the top of his game plays better than Dirk Nowitzki, and that Vlad can play better defense, and did last night. A good thing, though, was that Vlad's spike in rebounding helped lighten the load on Reggie Evans, who was playing with a hip pointer.
The Sonics didn't cave in the fourth quarter last night when Portland got within five. Danny Fortson made it through the entire fourth quarter until the reserves came in for garbage time. Another big feather in the Radmanovic cap was his defense against Zach Randolph, who was held to 5-for-14 shooting. Zach ended up with 16 and 12 boards, but he didn't get the chance to go nuts and didn't kill the Sonics like he has in the past. Also, the Sonics held Zee-Bo and Shareefer Madness (that'd be Abdur-Rahim) to a combined four points in the fourth quarter. Allen's 14 tied his season-low. In a somewhat odd stat, Vlad scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, and Daniels scored all of his seven points in the first half. The Sonics turned the ball over five times in the first eight minutes of the game, and took care of the basketball for 20 minutes before finally turning the ball over again.
Upcoming...
Wednesday at San Antonio
Thursday at Dallas
HOCKEY
In previous listings of the schedule, I'd forgotten tonight's Seattle game. My bad.
Swift Current shut out Everett, 2-0. Playing their third game in four nights, the Silvertips just couldn't dent the scoreboard. Shots off the posts, loose pucks behind the goalie, nothing went in. Everett was 0-for-7 on the power play, which seems to run hot and cold with this team. The Silvertips outshot the Broncos 19-18, with goalie Leland Irving stopping 16. Kyle Moir netted the shutout for Swift Current.
Seattle beat Tri-City, 3-2 in overtime. Aaron Gagnon had the hat trick to account for all three of the Seattle goals. Also coming through in the clutch was Thunderbird goalie Gavin McHale (Bryan Bridges had the night off), who put a pad on a Dylan Stanley penalty shot with 2:41 to go in the game. Gagnon found the back of the net for the winner with 31 ticks left on the clock. Seattle outshot Tri-City 29-27, and McHale stopped 25.
Kootenay shut out Portland, 3-0. Kootenay has a couple of NHL third-round draft picks. Both figured prominently in the Ice's victory. Jeff Glass, selected by the Ottawa Senators, turned away all 21 shots he faced for Kootenay. Martin Sagat, picked by the Toronto Maple Leafs, scored a goal on the man-advantage in the second period, and WHL third-leading scorer Nigel Dawes got goal number 19 on the season with an empty-netter in the third period. The Winter Hawks split games against defensive-minded Kelowna (win) and Everett (loss), and had the same thing happen to them last night that happens to many teams when they lose to these defensive units -- the losing team outshoots the other team (sometimes badly), but the winning team will get two or three of their 17 or so shots into the net, which as I've said on occasion reeks of Jacques Lemaire's Minnesota Wild. Last night, Portland badly outshot Kootenay by a 35-20 margin. Dustin Butler, starting his 10th straight game in the Portland net, stopped 18.
Vancouver and Kelowna skated to a 2-2 overtime tie. The Giants ran their unbeaten streak to a franchise-record seven games with the tie against the Kelowna Rockets, an aforementioned defensive team. Vancouver's scoring occurred on the power play, with Tim Kraus (one-timer) and Triston Grant putting the marks on the scoreboard. But in a not-so-defensive trait, the Rockets piled up 15 shots on Vancouver's Marek Schwarz in the first period, with the goalie warding off all of them. Also key to Vancouver getting the single point was the killing of four penalties. Kelowna outshot Portland 32-24, and Schwarz stopped 30.
Binghamton beat Manitoba, 4-1. Ray Emery of the Senators made all the key stops to snap Binghamton's three-game winless streak. This was despite their inability to get off a shot on goal until eleven minutes into the game. Jimmy Roy scored on a tip-in in the second period for his third goal of the season, but the B-Sens had already staked themselves out to a 2-0 lead. Binghamton's third goal, and probably the killer, was scored by Brandon Bochenski in the third period on what reads off on the recap like a gaffe of a Dan Cloutier goal -- puck is shot from the top of the Moose zone and goes in. A Denis Hamel empty-netter officially put away the game. Manitoba outshot Binghamton 24-20, and Alex Auld stopped 17 for the Moose.
Puget Sound beat Kootenai, 4-3. The score link is to the semi-game log thing I threw together. Maciej Michalik scored the winner with just 1:05 left in the third period to get the Tomahawks their 22nd win against two losses. The Tomahawks scored two goals right out of the dressing room in the third period, but the Colts scored two goals to tie the game at three before the Masher came through in the clutch with his first tally of the season. Puget Sound has a bye next weekend.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Swift Current at Seattle, Binghamton at Manitoba
Tuesday: Swift Current at Portland
Wednesday: Seattle at Kamloops, Vancouver at Kelowna, Spokane at Everett
Friday: Vancouver at Kamloops, Everett at Portland, Manitoba at Edmonton
Saturday: Portland at Kelowna, Seattle at Regina, Everett at Spokane, Kamloops at Vancouver
Sunday (12 Dec): Seattle at Brandon, Portland at Kamloops, Manitoba at Edmonton
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Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Root for the 49ers to beat the Rams, even though there's no way in hell it'll happen. We can hope it will, though.
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