Friday, February 26, 2010
USA / Finland: Tale of the Tape
Overall Scoring
| Brian Rafalski | 4 | Goals | 3 | Niklas Hagman |
| 3 Tied | 2 | Goals | 2 | 3 Tied |
| Ryan Suter | 4 | Assists | 3 | Mikko Koivu |
| Zach Parise | 3 | Assists | 2 | 4 Tied |
| Brian Rafalski | 6 | Points | 5 | Niklas Hagman |
| Zach Parise | 4 | Points | 4 | Mikko Koivu |
| Ryan Suter | 4 | Points | 2 | 9 Tied |
So as you can see by the numbers, in a short tourney, anything can happen. Suomi has only a single player in the top 25 in scoring, the USA has 3. Though the Fins do have 11 guys with over 2 points, the Americans have 10, so it's definitely a balanced attack.
Both teams also feature a couple guys that should be putting up far better numbers than they have up to this point; America needs Patrick Kane (1 point), Bobby Ryan (2) and Phil Kessel (2) to elevate their games, while I'm sure Finland would love to see more production out of Olli Jokinen, Teemu Selanne, and Saku Koiku, all of whom are sitting at 2 points.
Team Defense
| United States | Finland | |
| 5 | Goals Against | 4 |
| 1 (SUI) | Shut Outs | 2 (GER, CZE) |
| 20 | PIMS | 47 |
To be fair, Joni Pitkanen received an epic 27 minutes against Sweden for a facial delivered to Patric Hornqvist, so subtract that, and both teams have taken a similar amount of penalty time.
Also note that the Fins shutout against Germany was tended by Niklas Backstrom, where as the Starters shut outs have come in the Quarterfinals by scores of 2-0. Speaking of...
The Goalies
| Ryan Miller | Miikka Kiprusoff | |
| 4-0-0 | Record | 3-0-0 |
| 5 | Goals Against | 4 |
| 1.25 | GAA | 1.33 |
| 90 | Shots Against | 75 |
| 5 | Save % | 4 |
| 1 (SUI) | Shut Outs | 1 (CZE) |
| 2/1 | PPGA/SHGA | 2/0 |
Christ this game is even. How can you not be excited? This game very well could come down to how the role players for each squad perform. To this point, I'd have to say the Americans 3rd/4th liners have performed better, but this is the Olympics, anything could happen.
My prediction? 3-1 USA. Empty netter by Chris Drury seals the deal. Patrick Kane and Ryan Kesler with the others, Tuomo Ruutu for Suomi.
USA! USA! USA!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
So What Do You Think?
Oh my, the very first banner. Well, this one was taken down after Darren Pang got a hold of me, which in my mind was an honor. But apparently he didn't think it was nearly as funny as I did. Never heard anything from Farnsworth Bentley though, my guess is he'd be honored.
By the way, how freakin' ugly was that. My photoshop skills have improved eh?
Next of course we had a fan favorite, fat laughing Canucks fan. We know nothing about this man, other than he's fat, jolly, and has an innie. Frankly, that's all we'll ever want to know about him either.
Ahhhh the shortest lived of the banners. Why? Because, seriously, more than one person thought I was approving of the consumption of babies. How that even makes sense, I haven't a clue. It's that douchebag Bolts fan that enjoys the taste of human veal, not me. I just thought it was funny.
Taking classic Seinfeld and Brodeuring it, or is that taking class Brodeur and Seinfelding it? Either way, Marty, shut your pie hole.
Of course now we have the Olympic themed banner, fresh off the paint.net presser's, featuring the Mount Rushmore of American hockey: Ryan Miller, Zach Parise, Patrick Kane, and a truculent Brian Burke. The Bush inclusion? Well that's just damn funny.Why am I in a reminiscing mood? Who knows, but the truth is, I'm going to need a new banner in mere days once the Olympics are over. So in the spirit of democracry, I am soliciting your help in creating a banner befitting of BanginPanger.
Rules? None (except no Panger, and F bombs, and maybe gratuitous bestiality). So brainstorm and let's make this thing happen.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
A Simple Solution to the NBC Crisis
Now, luckily for us hockey fans, the Nothing But Curling television stations have exclusive rights to broadcast all International Olympic Committee events at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Now let's note that the National Hockey League is providing well over $2 billion worth of their product for these Olympic games, shutting down the League for weeks at a time, eschewing an "all-star" game for the sake of patriotism, and risking millions in injury. K?
Now let's assume NBC is treating this opportune time to promote it's broadcasting partner as second, third, and fourth rate to the likes of a Women's Curling match between Denmark and Japan, Men's Figure Skating, and John effing Shushter, relegating these prime matchups to "sister" stations MSNBC, CNBC, and USA network, many times without HD capabilities.
Now, stick with me here, let's say that Team USA has been playing at 3 PM (EST) for both its games this round, when most (take that 10% of Americans!) are at work, not sitting in front of a television at Applebees.
Now let's assume for one moment that the National Hockey League is at the forefront of all the major sports leagues in providing their product via virtual means to their consumers with GameCenter Live.
Now many of these games have been offered via streaming at NBCOlympics.com, but for many, they can't use that service, since you must have a unique username and password for your service provider in order to access the stream.
If you've not used GameCenter yet, why yes, it is at it's lowest price of the season /plug, but it really is the best way to view online. Now, it only seems logical to me, but maybe that's why it's never been discussed.
The benefits of using GameCenter over the NBC offering, or even in conjunction with, um yeah, plenty.
First off, you'd have to charge, what, a $10 pass to access the Olympic games, then why not subtract that $10 from the full season GameCenter, offering a special deal? Extra money for the NHL? Check. Extra exposure for your league? Check.
NBC's issues? Ads? Just throw them onto GameCenter, you take a smaller cut of the $10 fee, assume the ad revenue, since they're yours anyway. Problem solved.
Then the IOC, you know they, and by extension, the IIHF, want, hell they need the NHL to participate in these games in 2014, and beyond, as it's one of the biggest, if not the, of the entire games.
This "partnership" between these three entities will obviously need to compromise to ever make something so obvious/simple happen. Obviously there's more pros/cons than what is listed here, this is just riffing off the top of my head, but what do you guys think?
Would you prefer a GameCenter offering than putting up with NBC/CNBC/MSNBC? Would you be willing to pay $10 to watch all the games, without missing a faceoff? Would you then turn around and buy GameCenter based on the discount for getting the Olympic games?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Finnish Flash: The Man, The Myth...The Mileage
Only needing a single point to become the highest scoring player in Olympic history; the 39 year old Selanne looks to achieve that mark tomorrow night against Germany. The assist last night, on a slick pass to Saku Koiku, who in turn fed Olli Jokinen, was his 16th in his Olympic career, spanning 5 Olympics, starting in Albertville, France, and presumably ending here in Vancouver. Couple those 16 assists with his 20 goals, he sits tied with 3 players. According to TSN...
The assist was the 16th of Selanne's Olympic career and, combined with his 20 goals, tied him for the career Olympic scoring lead with the Soviet Union's great Valeri Kharlamov, Vlastimil Bubnik of Czechoslovakia and Canada's 1924 scoring hero Harry (Moose) Watson.Can you imagine; Teemu Selanne played against the USSR in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville. He played against Team USA that year too; guys on that team? How about Scott Gordon and Joe Sacco, the current Head Coaches of the New York Islanders and Colorado Avalanche.
This guy's career has been pretty amazing, and frankly, he deserves that scoring record far more than Moose Watson, whoever the hell that is.
(Side note: How awesome is that two hand he gives at the 0:22 mark of that video?)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Miller Keeps "Matt Man"
You can see where "Miller Time" used to be, there's now some blade tape with a USA decal on it, but above that, well you can see he was able to convince the IOC that Matt Man means more to him than...selling mats?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Jaromir Jagr Wears Ladies Pants
You know what the problem is, we still don't have an ambassador to the Czech Republic in office. If we had somebody, Bob Dole for instance, ambassadoring the hell outta that country, Jaromir wouldn't have had to smile all pretty for the camera.
On second thought...maybe he's used to it?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Classic Blind Shot
Well like I got blindsided, the Phoenix Coyotes have totally Sandra Bullocked the league this year. But this time, the jokes on them, as Gilbert Brule totally joked Vernon Fiddler. Peep it.
Where I come from, that's called pwnage.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The Saga of Ilya Kovalchuk Continues...
Nobody really knows what's going to happen over the next 2 weeks, where he's going to end up, who's he going to play for, if he's going to pull another Latrell Sprewell.
One thing we can be sure of? That man is going to make a shit ton of money.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Different Look; Same Shit
It's funny cause they're squatting awkwardly so they don't Gaborik themselves.
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