Weekly football post #12

What a horrible week in Tommy's football world, eh? It started with tears on the high school pitch, and would include what the media calls the largest upset in the history of Notre Dame. It was tough, but in order to be strong, we need to relive it.

After learning that Servite bowed out of the playoffs on a bad overtime decision, Fountain Valley saw their path to their first CIF championship since that storied 1988 season. However, they needed to get through Orange Lutheran, a studly Trinity League team, to advance. Unfortunately, O. Luth had the perfect answer for the Barons streaking goodness. They were able to stop the run, and that is all that matters about my Mighty Mighty Barons. The obvious sign of the issues in the game is that Junior standout Kyle Middlebrooks finished with just 24 yards on the ground. 24 YARDS! FV finished with just 3 first downs and only 69 total offensive yards. 69 YARDS! How many exclamation points will it take?! Despite sucking it up, Fountain Valley held with just a 7 point deficit at the half, but when you don't score, you don't win. Those Lutherans finished with a 28-0 victory over the offensively challenged Barons. It was a rough end to the season for a solid Fountain Valley team, a group that many around the county have felt were the best since that 1988 squad. We now look to 2009 when Kyle Middlebrooks will be back in action as a senior battling for a that sweet college spot (Notre Dame, perhaps?). Big ups to the Barons. I was proud of the game you put on the field this year, and I can't wait for '09. 

Notre Dame came into the game against the 'Cuse as 19.5 point favorites at South Bend. That would make the 24-23 loss to the Orangemen the largest (supposedly) upset in the history of Notre Dame pigskin. I wish someone would fact check this item, because I don't really believe it. With 42 seconds to go, Orange QB Cameron Dantley tossed an 11 yard TD pass with 42 seconds left to stun the Irish, and prompt a very sad text message from my father to me: "How close can you get and still lose?" ND was up 13-10 at the half (a little too close for my comfort), but a 23-10 lead after three quarters made me feel a lot better. What a moron. Jimmy Clausen's numbers were pretty nice, going 22/39/291 with 2 TDs and no INTs. He wasn't the problem. Golden Tate finished with 7/146 with 2 TD catches and was complimented by Detroit, MI native (give him a bail out!) Grimey getting 83 through the air. The running game didn't get much, however, with Armando Allen nabbing just 52 yards on the turf (the next best Irish jogger only earned 5). Adding to "good stats" was that ND won the turnover battle with a +2 margin. What the heck went wrong? The defense fell asleep in the final frame, another possible coaching error by Charlie Weis (he just let's the guys get let down over and over when they have a lead), and the Orange nailed two TDs to steal the win. Pathetic. At 6-5, and still bowl eligible may I remind you, the Irish come up against the #6 University of Southern California Trojans on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Hopefully the Irish players won't be stuffed with stuffing, because they'll need to steal the show and surprise the world. My prediction? ND by 6. Write it down; we're going 7-5. 

3-27, the Rams dropped their game against Chicago. The Ramies have lost five straight games since Steven Jackson went down with a thigh injury in the win against the Cowboys. My boys were booed off of the field at halftime, again, after getting trounced by the Be-ars (Last Comic Standing from 2 years ago reference!). It was 24-3 at the half in favor of Chicago after Matt Forte rushed for 2 TDs, Kyle Orton passed for another, and their kicker nailed a pig between the uprights. The Rams could only manage a three point play thanks to Josh Brown midway through the second quarter. That would be all the Rams would get. Finishing with 13 first downs, you'd think they would have done better, but St. Louis only nabbed 207 total offensive yards. Rough. Four different players attempted at least a play at QB (Green, Bulger, Berlin, and Jones), not that it helped. Trent Green had the best part of the day going 16/30/219, but he tossed 4 INT and zero TDs. Really, really bad. Tory Holt had the best day catching leather with 4 catches and 84 yards. Awful. I need to bust out a thesaurus to continue getting words out that show how bad this team really is. After the game, interim coach Haslett said, "I will do anything I can do to help these guys be successful. Anything. But I can't tackle for them anymore. I can't take care of the football." When were you ever tackling for them? I just don't get it this year. I predicted that the Rams would finish 8-8 this year, and here we sit at 2-9 staring another last place NFC West finish right in the face. The Sunday after Thanksgiving it is a match against the 6-5 Miami Dolphins, who have surprised a lot of folks this year. They'll be coming off of a loss against New England, a team they beat earlier in the year. I think it would be a stretch to even hope that the Rams beat the Fish next weekend. Ugh. 

Since the BC Lions are done (by the way, the Calgary Stamps won the Grey Cup after beating the Lions to get there), we quickly jump to what the rest of the world calls football. Celtic just keeps on winning, this time beating St. Mirren 3-1 in their SPL clash to stay four clear of Rangers. This time it was a crazy game that the Saints led 1-0 at the half. It was followed up with second half Hoop's goals from the Gorgeous Greek Georgios Samaras, Mr. Ninja Warrior Shunsuke Nakamura, and super sub Cillian Sheridan. It was even a game that included a a yellow card to Artur Boruc, in a thrilling victory that continued the Green & White's push toward repeating as SPL champs. Today is a Champs League match between the Celts and Aalborg BK (some random bitch team I've never heard of), and then next weekend the SPL battle continues against an Inverness CT squad that sits in the 8 spot out of 12 in the league. Celtic are a thrilling 13-1-1 squad (40 points in 15 games) to really make all of us Sligo alumni proud. 

Newcastle United went into a LSF battle against top of the table Chelsea over the weekend, and came away with a huge tie that will embarrass the Blues for years to come. It was a frustrating 0-0 draw at Samford Bridge for the home team, but Newcastle could walk out with their heads held high. Shay Given was making some quality saves with the Blues constantly pressuring, and the game was pretty much just a lot of stopping by the Black & White with very little attempts on goal going the other way. Interim coach (did you notice how a lot of my favorite teams have interim coaches? It just means that they suck) Joe Kinnear was proud of the defensive showing, but you have to be frustrated that back-from-injury Chester native Michael Owen was pretty much absent from the showing. The draw wasn't good enough to get Newcastle out of the relegation zone, however, and sits at #18 with 14 points in 14 games played (pretty crappy compared to my Celt boys, I mean bhoys). The Saturday after the American Thanksgiving, the Boys in Bars line up against #10 Middlebrough, who share the feeling with Newcastle about not having more wins than losses. 

Finally, Chivas de Guadalajara got decimated in the Copa Sudamericana by Internacional 0-4 last Wednesday. Despite 5 shots (2 on goal), the Goats were stopped cold by one-named opposing keeper "Lauro". Lauro is from Brazil, and was damn good against the boys from Chivas. While he didn't get a goal, at least Culiacan, Mexico native Alberto Medina got a red care. Despite this not being a Primera Division match, it continues to be somewhat rough going for Medina and the Red & White south of the boarder. Chivas Guada didn't make La Liguilla in the Primera Division (which is the playoffs), and their season has abruptly come to an end. The way all of my favs have been playing this season, this weekly football report is just going to keep getting shorter and shorter. 

I know it's not football, but I may not be able to make another post until after Thanksgiving. So, I want to step it out and give love to Curtis Sanford and the Canucks for beating the Red Wings 3-2 thanks in part to Sami Salo's game winning one timer goal in overtime. I know it wasn't a regulation win, but it was a win, and that's all that matters. That makes us 5 clear in the Northwest. 

God, is anyone besides me ever going to post again? 

Canucks top Malkin's Mellons.

The Canucks bested "Anthony's" Penguins on Saturday morning with a nice 3-1 victory over the East Coast squad. The win was the least important of the story lines as the Blue & Green walked out of the Mellon Arena, however, as just five minutes into the match, Roberto Luongo went down with what appeared to be a groin injury. Curtis Sanford was able to step in and play well enough to win, for the second straight time in as many games, but 7th Canucks around both nations are holding their breath as we gear up to battle the Red Wings. 

The Canuckleheads came away with a single goal in each period of the battle, including two from Pavol "Po Po" Demitra (who advanced from last game's #2 star to this games #1 star!). PD opened the whole thing up about 18:05 into the game with assists from both H-Bomb and Nintendo DS to get Vancouver on the board. This was a much needed goal with the injury to Lu early on. It looked as though Bobby made a normal/easy save off of a shot from Philippe Boucher, and then collapsed to the ice. He was helped off the ice, looking like he didn't have the ability to put any weight on his left leg. Sanny strapped up and "saved" the day (you like what I did there?), and recognized his backup role after the game, "You hate to see your teammate down on the ice like that, he's the biggest part of our team." That's right Sanny; now save our team until he gets back. Luongo is scheduled to undergo an MRI today to see the extent of the injury, so hold onto your hats 'Nucks fans. The first period also saw a nice fight between Jannik "Great Dane" Hansen and former LSF fav and Canucks himself, Matt Cooke. Both players were ejected from the game after the solid fight that was clearly won by Vancouver youth. The second period would see yet another goal from recently streaking Daniel Sedin. DS crashed the net and swatted away at the puck while Pitt keeper (and another former Canuck) Dany Sabourin (man, this game was way deeper in Canuck/'Guins rivalry than I realized!). D-Twin was able to swat the post in and tick off a grip of Pitt fans around the league. Despite Mike Zigomanis getting a goal 22 seconds into the final frame, it was Po Po getting his second goal of the game (seventh of the year) on an empty netter that just looked pretty (pictured above). Daniel and Hank assisted on the second PD goal as well. 

My Penguin breakdown shows: Matt Cooke finishing with 25 seconds of ice time (just jumping off the bench to start shit with the new guy on his old line?), your boyfriend Sidney Crosby finishing with a -2 rating (just take him off the commercials already), and even my favorite 'Guin Malkin finishing with a -1 rating on 23:55 pathetic minutes and seconds of ice time. I'm sure you're ready for the LSF stars, right? The Jewish media (sorry, that's not even a funny joke) picked 1) Po Po Demitra (2 goals), 2) Daniel Sedin (1 goal and 2 assists), and North York, ON native Mike Zigomanis (the lone 'Guin goal). Luckily, there is the LSF run media to help sift through the stats and determine who the REAL three stars should be. 1) Curtis Sanford (17 saves on 18 shots, filling in for Lu when reports were that he ate a huge lunch before the game because he didn't expect to play), 2) Mattias Ohlund (the most underrated +3 rated player in the entire game), and 3) Hank Sedin (assists on all three goals to climb to 18 assists this year, which is good enough to tie Ryan Getzlaf for the Western Conference lead). 

The 13-6-2 (28 points) Canucks are quickly pulling away from the rest of the pack in the Northwest Division (and they'll need that cushion if Lu is out for more than 1 game). Minnesota and Cal-gay-ry (its been a while since I busted that one out) sit at 23 points (-5), with Edmonton at -8 of the lead, and Colorado a huge (and some would say insurmountable) 10 points shy of the best division leaders in all of hockey. Monday evening the Canucks travel back to BC to battle the 14-2-3 Detroit Red Wings. The Wings lead the Central Division with 31 points, and despite how much I hate them (and you better hate them too), it is crazy to think that they have only lost two regulation games this year. The Wings are 1-0-1 against my boys thus far in 2008. 

Just to update the LSF NHL battle: 1) Canucks (28 points) 2) Hawks (25 points) 3) Sabres (21 points) and 4) Leafs (19 points). If we want to throw Karen's home team into the mix, the Sharks would beat us all with their NHL-leading 35 points. 

If you are interested in a quick taste of the NCAA Basketball season, the Gauchos dropped their battle against the #1 Tar Heels 67-84. However, true freshman James Nunnally (from Stockton) lead the team with 22 points to make us proud in defeat. Junior Jesse "Larry" Byrd (a USF transfer) went with 12 to be the only other double digit scoring Gaucho. The 1-2 'Chos will try and rebound (oh!) against the USF Lancers on Monday, and being that he transfered to the better school, Jesse Byrd is expected to go big on his former pals. Meanwhile, the ND Dribblers escaped with an all-to-thrilling 65-54 win against the Loyola Marymount Lions over the weekend. Junior Luke "Luuuuuuuuuuuuuke" Harangody lead the team with 27 points and 17 boards to dominate the match, and Buena Vista HS graduate Tory Jackson grabbed buckets earning a total of 16 points. The undefeated (2-0) Notre Dame Hard Wood Boys match up against the University of Indiana, who are 2-0 after a big win against some school called IUPUI. 

Stay tuned for a really depressing weekly football report, scheduled to drop on Tuesday morning. 

Different goalie, same glorious result.

My 'Nucks played back to back games over the two previous days, and despite starting two different keepers, Vancouver came away with two quality road wins to turn the road trip around and grab first place in the Northwest. It started with Roberto Luongo completely embarrassing Henrik Lundqvist in the "goalie matchup of the year" with a 6-3 result, and it ended with Curtis Sanford getting his first win since December 2007 in a 3-2 squeaker against rival Minnesota. What a end to the week!

All we heard about going into the game in Manhattan was how Roberto (the shutout king) and Lundqvist (the win king) would be throwing down in a tight lipped save-a-thon. I'll admit, I was buying into the hype, if you read the last blog post. However, just 5:33 into the second period, the Canucks chased the Swedish Lundie to the bench, quite literally after he allowed 5 goals on 17 BC shots. Luongo kind of stood up for him, showing goalie pride, saying "You never know in this game. Things happen." Bobby Lu is just a nice guy. I'm not so nice, and I'll say "You do know in this game. Lundqvist and the Rangers are way overrated based on their record." It all started with my boy Kyle "Cult Classic" Wellwood getting his EIGHTH of the year on an assist from Mattie Ohlund, on a huge breakaway. He was joined just over 5 minutes later by Alex Burrows on a huge shorthanded breakaway. It was a bad Rangers pass that led to AB's streak down the ice, and Lundie had no chance against big 1-4. Four out of the first five Canuck goals were scored on New York turnovers. In the second, it was more AB, netting his sixth goal of the year, and he would quickly be joined by Ryan "Shot Block" Johnson getting his first on a behind the net turnover that was fed to him by Taylor Pyatt. After the Johnson goal, it appeared that the 'Nucks scored again, and the replay proved it was over the goal line. The refs gave the Rangers a chance by calling it no goal, and even the MSG announcers were shocked with the decision. It wouldn't matter in the end. Luongo would get touched up by Chris Drury on the power play less than a minute after Johnson's netter, but Pavol Demitra would smash a goal about 2 minutes later on a Vancouver advantage that sent Lundqvist sprinting to the bench. The Rangers net minder didn't think twice; after the rubber touched the twine, he got up and immediately skated to the bench. He would later say that he got the call from his coach, but it was pretty obvious that he was the one making the call. The goalie battle was over. Aaron Voros would end the period with a goal for the Rangers at 8:33 of the middle frame, but the Canucks were feeling good up 5-2 on the Broadway Blues. Despite a Ryan Callahan power play goal 7:45 into the third, it was Daniel Sedin earning the empty netter with 3 seconds on the clock that finally chased the Manhattanites out of the MSG. A big 6-3 win that not only proved Lu is the man between the pipes, and Naslund getting just 1 assist in his 22:44 of ice time proved that the 'Nucks don't need their traitor captain (the 35 year old has 6 goals/9 assists so far this year). Bobby Lu finished with his busiest night of the season, grabbing 39 saves on 42 shots in the game, making save after save to make the game look easy for Vanc-a-tesh. Sorry Daniel. 

My boys boarded a commercial jet (not like those Detroit auto-beggers) and flew business class to the home of Al Franken, Minnesota. Due to the back to back fever pace, Curtis "Sandman" Sanford got the call between the pipes to give Roberto the night off after 14 straight starts. Would 7th Canucks around the year bite their nails down to the bone? It had been 11 months since Cu-San won a game, and exactly that long since the 'Nucks pulled off wins in back-to-back nights (excited by the foreshadowing?). Outside a fight that Shane O'Brien clearly won against Detroit, MI native Erik Reitz (who may now be seeking a bailout), the first period was quiet. Chances for both squads ended up with either Backstrom making the stop of Sanford getting the lucky deflection to the outside of the net. In the second period, though, the lid would come off. Mikko Koivu was able to work hard for his fourth of the year at 7:16 to break things open. Do you remember Steve Bernier? Well, Steveie B (aka Karen's favorite Canucks) nailed home his fifth goal in a mess of players in front of the Minnie net at exactly 12 in. The puck was dropped with sticks flying, and Stevie got his wood on the thing to surprise Backs for the BC goal. It was Bernie's fifth of the year. On a power play thanks to the aforementioned Erik Reitz's trip on Ryan Johnson, the Canucks committed an awful turnover that led to a Mikko Koivu breakaway. I was screaming, "Stop it Sanny! Stop it Sanny," but it didn't work. The Finish center beat Curtis for his 18th point of the season, and the Wild were back up. Luckily for the 'Nucks, it was the luck of a player getting back at his old team that would squad things up before the end of the middle brick. Pavol "Po Po" Demitra (is that catching on yet?) got credit for the goal when his attempted pass deflected off of a defender's stick and then off of the back of Backstrom and into the net. It was a power play goal, and although it wasn't pretty, it evened this division clash up. It would take 11:41 of the final period to decide a winner, and it was decided on a one timer off of the stick of Daniel Sedin. Po Po had the puck along the goal line and fed a pass right to the stick of Nintendo DS who just blasted a hard wrister past the Minnesota keeper for what would stand as the game winner. Despite Daniel then going off for hooking with 7 second left, and Minnie pulling Backs to make it a 6 on 4, Sanny and the Canucks stood strong to hang on for the 3-2 win that earned a temporary top of the division mark. Here I do have to point out the absurdity of the three stars as picked by the liberal Minnesota media. The actually had the nerve to put it at 1) Koivu 2) Demitra and 3) some bitch from Ontario named Cal Clutterbuck (not a joke). Are you freaking kidding me? Clutterbuck has three shots over 9:34 of ice time, and nothing else. NOTHING ELSE! What the hell?!? Here now are the clear three stars of the game as voted on by your ol' pal "T" and the LSF media: 1) Daniel Sedin (the game winning goal on 5 shots in 19:49 on the ice), 2) Henrik Sedin (2 assists in 18:22 on the ice; more assists than any other player in the game), and 3) Curtis Sanford (28 saves on 30 shots to earn the first back to back win since December of 2007!). Can anyone argue with those stars over Clutterbuck and company? Is it surprising that the Wild would pick Po Po with the second star as the only 'Nucks up on the board? Ridiculous. One thing that isn't crazy is the amazingness of the Po Po-Sedins line that has been solidly sweet as of late. 

As I said, the win has my 12-6-2 Vancouver Canucks leading the division with 26 points. 'Couv are now three points clear of Minnie/Calgary, six clear of Edmonton (as they crash to reality), and ten huge past Colorado. The Canucks are now 6-0-2 over their last 8 games, and even more important are on a run against division foes with a 5-0-1 record in the next six games. The impressive thing about our recent success is that it has been without Kevin Bieksa, who is answering Brandon's question about his propensity for the injury big with one to three more weeks off with a fractured left foot bone. I always like to compare Canucks stat leaders with the Western stat leaders to give perspective. Goals: Daniel & Wells with 8 (Setoguchi/Iginla still lead with 11). Assists: H-Bomb with 15 (Anaheim's Corey Perry with 17). +/- rating: Willie Mitchell is an amazing +14 this year (Willie lead's Chicago's Aaron Johnson's +12). Wow. Go Willie. 

Saturday morning will feature a battle on Pennsylvania between the Canucks and "Anthony's" Penguins. The 'Guins are 12-4-3 and just 3 points shy of division leading New York (but we say how tough those first place Rangers were), and have the devil himself, Miroslav Satan leading with 9 goals. Amazing, Russian Evgeni Malkin leads the team in points (31) thanks to his amazing 24 assists on the year. Did anyone notice how I could point out the best players on the Penguins squad without mentioning Sidney Crosby? Crosby doesn't even had more goals than Kyle Wellwood, so let's stop giving him head, NHL Network. It should be a fun matchup, however, as Roberto Luongo v. Marc-Andre Fleury is quite an underrate keeper matchup. 

On my way out of this huge post, I want to touch on NCAA basketball, which is finally into swing. After a nine point opening season win over Cal State Los Angeles, UCSB stumbled against Utah State 59-61 to drop to 1-1 on the year. The Aggs scored with three second remaining to stop an oncoming rush by the Gauchos. James Powell drained a "tree" with 32.7 seconds left to pull the game to a 59-59 mark, but Utah State was able to take back the game. "The Alaskan Giant" Chris Devine and Pomona's James Powell led the squad with 14 points a piece in the loss. The Gauchos return three starters overall from last year's UCSB-record 23 win team (and Big West regular season co-champs), however Devine and Powell are the only one's of those three playing for the rest of this year after Justin Joyner had season ending wrist surgery (he's got one year left though, so don't cry for him). The 'Chos will need everything they can get tonight as they take on the #1 team in the country, the North Carolina Tarheels at the Thunderdome. You know there is going to be a grip of my drunk alumns up at this one to jeer Hansbrough, and try and cheer this Gaucho squad to what would be the most impressive win in NCAA history (any sport). My DirecTV tells me the game is on 614 (ESPN-U) tonight at 7, but I don't get that channel, so I'll only get to watch the highlights. 

My other favorite college hardwood squad, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, are 1-0 on the year after a 94-58 drubbing against South Carolina Upstate. The 1-0 Irish enjoyed 30 points from returning Schererville, IN native Luke Harangody and 18 from Senior Luke Zeller. Staten Island, NY boy Kyle McAlarney also contributed 10 in the win. Next up for the Irish is a battle against my cousin Daniel's alma matter (and most difficult college for Karen to pronounce) Loyola Marymount tonight in Los Angeles. ND, finally getting respect with the #8 ranking in this great nation, are keeping their eyes looking toward February 21 when they face off against extreme rivals in the Providence Friars. 

Okay, I'm tired. Enjoy your Friday. 

Islanders prove they didn't need Luongo.

As if his years of success haven't been enough, Roberto Luongo went into Uniondale, New York looking to make the team that picked him #4 overall in 1997 feel stupid for letting him go. It didn't exactly end up that way, however, as the Isle's backup goalie Joey MacDonald stood his own ground in a 1-2 (officially, although I think the game should be a tie) shootout win for the New York team that didn't beat the Canucks in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. 

So, what happened in this game, besides finally spotting Richard Park after all these years? Well, the Canucks scored early (notice I didn't say "early and often"), which always has people smiling. Pavol "Po Po" Demitra got some time with the Twins, and it paid off quickly. A feed from Daniel Sedin along the blue line led to a one time slap shot that simply baffled Joey Mac. The shot beat him early, giving the 7th Canuck hope for a win thanks to the unbreakableness of "Roboto" Luongo. Until about 3/4 of the way into the middle frame, that was the mindset. However, Doug Weight nailed his fourth of the year on a power play (thanks to a slash from Mason Raymond). The goal may have deflected off of Port Hope native Shane O'Brien to beat Bobby Lu on a fluke of sorts, but the point counts. Despite being handed two power plays through the remainder of the game, the Canucks were held scoreless, and after a scoreless OT we headed to that blasted American hockey invention of a shootout. The 'Nucks trio of Wells/Po Po/Burrows was stopped each time by MacDonald, while Luongo got beat by Frans Nielsen (who, guess what, went top shelf on the backhand; Lu's shootout weakness, as we've seen), ending the game in an official 1-2 finish. The loss shows, again, that the Canucks (while considered "strong" during this month) have shown that they just can't win without a clean sheet from Lu. Vancouver has won just one game over the month of November (out of four wins) while giving up any goals at all (the 4-2 stomping of Toronto). I hate to agree with the media, but you can't rely on your keeper to get shutouts to that extent. 

Despite suffering through a loss, I still bring the "underrated three stars" to your brain. The liberal media picked 1) Isles keeper Joey MacDonald, 2) shootout scorer Frans Nielsen, and 3) our very own El Roberto. I laugh in the face of those three stars! The Underrated 3 Stars as voted on by the LSF media (which is simply your ol' pal "T") read off as 1) Czech native Pavol Demitra (1 goal on 3 shots with a +1 rating), 2) "Back on the Sedin Line?" Steveie Bernier (who put the pressure on with 5 shots on goal and 3 hits in 16:17 of ice time), and 3) Henrik "H-Bomb" Sedin (1 assist, +1 rating, and an overall game leading 68.2% faceoffs won). I guess you will start to notice that only players from my supported squad can earn the underrated star marks, obviously. 

The tie (or loss, if you're a bitch) puts the Canucks at 10-6-2 on the year with 22 points in those 18 opening games. Minnesota has captured the lead at 23, with Calgary (21) and Edmonton (20) hanging close. We still can take pleasure in the 8-9-0 Avalanche bringing up the rear. In case you're wondering, Wellwood still leads the team in goals with 7 (compare that to the Western Conference leading Devin Setoguchi (Karen's boy)/Jarome Iginla (a real "Man's Man") at 11). In about 4 minutes, the Canucks will match up in one of the better goaltending matchups of the season. My Vancouver Canucks take a taxi from Long Island to Madison Square Garden to battle my cousin Daniel's favorite team (and perennial enemy since 1994) the New York Rangers. The Broadway Bombers will be matching up well with Swedish supermodel Henrik Lundqvist battling Luongo between the pipes. While we all know that Lu leads the league in shutouts (5), we may not know that Lundie leads the NHL in overall wins (12). January 3, 2008, Luongo beat the Rangers 3-0, and as we foreshadowed, it may take that perfect of a game to get another win against the Blue & Red tonight. The Rangers lead the Atlantic with a 14-5-2 mark, and the 'Nucks will not be taking them lightly. Did I even mention that this will be the first time that the Blue & Green will match up with Markus Naslund on a different squad? Don't get me started. Don't even get me started. 

There is so much more to this game than just "1 of 82", and you know that text messages will be flying back and forth between my cousin and I over the next 2.5 hours. 

Weekly football post #11.

Another week, another weekly football post (although this one is coming slightly early for all of you loyal readers). It was another week of ups and downs for this guy's favorites with the foot, and it is time to get you all caught up on my favorite squads that play a game with the name: football. 

Fountain Valley came out to end their regular season on an ultra high note this weekend with a Thursday night battle against dismal Marina. I think the 42-0 final score would indicate to you how this may be the greatest team to ever grace Fountain Valley's Yellow & Blue uniforms. Read even further than the final score, and you may come to realize that Kyle Middlebrooks may be the greatest running back that the Barons have ever seen, and he's only a junior. Total domination would be the way to describe the final regular season game for my alma matter. The Barons kicked things off with a 28-0 first half lead on the heels of 3 Kyle Middlebrooks TDs (from 1 yard, 29 yards, and 28 yards), and even we even grabbed a TD off the arm of sometimes passing QB Dominic Ragland. Nyko Gonzalez was on the receiving end of that 20 yard beauty. While we wouldn't see any more scoring from everyone's favorite Junior, we did still add to the lead with two second half TDs (a 99 yard kickoff return and a 21 yard TD run, both by Dylan Garcia). When it was all said and done, the crowd got to be a part of a 178 yard rushing day from KM, a relatively high passing day for Ragland at 44 yards, and the largest FV blowout of the season (which really eases the pain after the loss to Edison last week). Now at 7-3 (3-2 in the Sunset), the Mighty Mighty Barons turn their attention to the post season. Round one will see a battle between FV and Orange Lutheran, and the winner of that game will match up at either Notre Dame (S.O.) or Compton. O. Luth are 8-2 on the year (4-1 in the Trinity League), and sport big wins of JSerra, Jon Bosco, and Mater Dei. However, they did lost to the Servite Friars, so maybe FV does have a chance. Either way, it will be an exciting first step to Pac-5 glory for the boys from Gospel Swamp.

The now 6-4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish got a big win this weekend to. A game that used to be gimmie has turned into somewhat more of a nail biter now that the Irish are more human. However, a 27-21 win over a hopeful Navy squad did its best to squash the pride of our armed forces and to make ND bowl eligible after a miserable 3-9 year last year. There really isn't much of an excuse for the game being as close as it was, however. ND was up 24-7 with time winding down, and Navy was able to put together some action, including two recovered onside kicks to make it close. I hate to say this because he has brought us back to so-called glory, but Charlie Weis clearly has a problem with getting players to appreciate a lead that they have and continue to fight to keep that lead around. The ND defense was in full effect early on, getting the first touchdown on a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, and then it was the conservative running game that took pressure off of Clausen and made good things happen. Jimmy "Nobody messes with the JC" Clausen only finished with a 15/18 110 yard day, tossing no TDs and 2 INTs. What a golden boy! It was the ground attack of EA Sports multiple Heisman winer James Aldridge (16 for 80), Robert "For my brother" Hughes (13 for 64 and a TD), and Armando "AA Degree" Allen (8 for 60 and a TD) that made it all happen for the Irish. There was none of the usual attempts at flashy long bombs to tall and fast receivers, mostly because J Claus just wasn't on. It was positive to see the team plan evolve and still pull off a win, but Weis needs to figure out how to keep these guys in a winning mode for the entire game. I mean, he's supposed to be really good, right? And again, I hate to say it, but since Willingham's recruits left, I've seen a very small number of games where Charlie Tuna has been able to keep his guys jacked from kick off to whistle. He'll need to do that come Thanksgiving weekend. However, he gets a reprieve again this week as ND tries to further their bowl hopes against a hapless 2-8 Syracuse team. The Orangemen don't even stand half of a chance against Notre Dame, and the Irish will be taking a 7-4 record into Souther California with a chance to make the most surprising upset of the year. If not, I smell Insight.com bowl. 

Quickly, I'd like to point out that neither the Rams or the Irish will finish with records I predicted at the start of the season. 

How many examples of how bad they suck do the Rams need to give us? The latest is a 16-35 blunder at the hands of the equally crappy 49'ers (which, I might add, really hurt me in the LSF standings!). Marc Bulger had a 34/53 295 game, which doesn't sound bad until you add that he had just 1 TD and 2 INTs. The loss of Steven Jackson continued to be felt way more than it should have, with Akron, OH native Antonio Pittman taking on all of the running duties (14 carries for 95 yards). Tory Holt again finished with baby numbers of just 60 yards in the game, with the lone passing TD going to Dane "Ricky Proehl" Looker on an 8 yard toss by "No Longer Mr. Fantasy" Bulger.  In the end, it was a 28 points 9'ers second quarter that did the trick on my Ramies, and despite a shutout second half, there was to be nothing good coming for the Blue & Gold. So, at 2-8-0 (tied with Seattle for last place), the Rams look to Chicago for their next opportunity to prove how bad they are. The Bears may just be a 5-5 squad, but that sounds a lot better than 2-8, so I'm not expecting much. 

22-18. That was the final score of the West Division Final in the CFL over the weekend. The BC Lions had chance after chance and just couldn't capitalize against Calgary. Not a single TD in the match was scored by the Orange & Black. Six field goals by Paul McCallum got them their 18 points, but not scoring a TD in the game that directly precedes the Grey Cup just isn't going to get it done. South Dakota grad Stefan Logan had 18 caries for 130 yards against the Stamps, but he just couldn't break free on any of his jogs to get to the elusive end zone. At the end of the first half, BC had 15 first downs to Calgary's 4 and controlled time of possession by an amount of 2-1. However, score is the only thing that matters in sports, and only leading 12-9 despite those kind of stats is pretty rough. Buck Pierce (who makes me think that we'd be looking at a Grey Cup berth if Jarious Jackson got the start) finished the game with a 16/29 262 kind of evening, tossing 0 TDs and 1 INT. The Stamps must be excited to go up against Montreal in the CFL's Super Bowl, but for BC it is just another wasted chance, and another long winter sitting in front of their TV. Good luck, Montreal. 

The rest of the world calls soccer "football", in case you didn't know, so let's look at that. The Scottish Hoops took it to Hamilton Academical 2-1 over the weekend to increase their SPL lead over the hated Protestant Rangers to 4 points. Glasgow's own Paul Hartley blasted home the late winner that pushed Celtic to the win after a sketchy game tying goal. Richard Offlong, of Hamilton, scored the opener against Boruc to grab the surprising lead, but a penalty awarded to Shunsuke Nakamura helped the Hoops cancel that out. Although the challenge in question was clearly outside the box, Mr. Ninja Warrior took advantage of the refs mistake to tie things up. Then it was up to Hartley and the shut down keeping of Boruc to push things to the win category. The win makes it 10 straight for the Hoops against SPL opponents, all since a loss to Rangers back in August. Next up for the 12-1-1 squad (an amazing 37 points in 14 games) is a battle against a St. Mirren side that holds the SPL's second to last spot. 

Another Newcastle match, another celebration over a draw. A 2-2 dealing with Wigan Athletic has Black & White fans cheering after just a messy season thus far. It was former Newcastle stud Titus Bramble earning the equalizer for a 10 man Wigan side in the 89th minute. Newcastle nabbed goals from oft injured star Michael Owen and one of my personal favs Obafemi Martins. The Mags gave it all they could, but sometimes when a former player returns to enemy territory, there is nothing you can do to foil the plans of the soccer Gods. The draw helped the Boys in Bars to temporarily climb out of the relegation zone (now #17) with their 13 points in 13 games thanks to a 3-6-4 record (W-L-D). Oba leads the charge with 5 goals to Michael Owen's 4, but this squad is going to need to get more goals than they can even imagine next week when the face off in a LSF battle against Brandon's Chelsea Blues. The Blues lead the EPL table (along with Liverpool), and it would be quite an embarassment for them to drop a test with 'Castle. However, hope is strong with this one, and I'm confident that Newcastle will realize that a loss against Brandon's boys would drop me to the basement of the LSF table. That just wouldn't be acceptable. 

Since Chivas USA has dropped out of the MLS playoffs, my Chivas coverage will shift to the Mexican side. The Goats dropped Indios de Ciudad Juarez (who have a bad ass logo, in my humble opinion) 2-0 with goals from Fabian Jhonfai and usual suspect Alberto "El Venado" Medina. At 6-4-7 (W-L-D), the 25 points side is just one point back of leading UNAM Pumas, and will be up in the Copa Sudamerica match against Internacional on Wednesday before returning to Mexican Premier action. 

In addition, one plus one is two. 

'Nucks beat Laughs, proclaim LSF glory.

The return of Pavol Demitra and the Great Dane Jannik Hansen, and the amazing stylings of DJ Roberto were just too much for the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs of Andrew fame on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. The two teams hadn't met in three years, and the Blue & Green, debuting the brand new third jerseys, wanted to come out strong and assert their West Coast dominance over the floundering East Coast product rumored to be hiring the former 'Nucks GM. That might be the only thing that can save them after the poor showing they gave the GM Place crowd in the 4-2 win for the good guys. 

Hey Leafs, do you want some help? No problem. Toronto had 10 shots on the board before the Canucks registered 1, and they finished with a 30-15 victory margin. Too bad we've been focusing in shooting percentage lately. Only take shots that matter! Even a first period 5 on 3 that lasted for 1:57 wasn't enough assistance for the lowly Leafs. Luongo lost his stick during the 3 on 5, and was able to simply smothering things as practically the lone penalty killer in the whole mess. At 7:13 into the opening period, former East Coast standout Kyle Wellwood continued to be this year's cult classic in BC. Wells scored his team leading seventh goal of the game on a perfect feed from Pavol Demitra that he tipped with pride over the shoulder of Finland's brown headed stepchild Vesa Toskala. Karen's former favorite keeper finished the night with a 55.5% save margin. Pathetic. Less than eleven minutes later, and following 1) Toronto's laughable "too many men" penalty (which I though was outlawed by Prop 8) and 2) a fight where some kid named Luke Schenn got jacked in the head by St. Catharines, ON native Rob Davison (0.0% owned in ESPN fantasy leagues) and had to be rescued by the zebras, the Canucks got a big goal from Ryan Kesler. Kes and the 'Nucks were on the power play after Jeff "Bad Fingah" Finger committed a trip. Mattias Ohlund got the feed from Pavol Demitra (who would finished with 3 points in his comeback game) and slapped a huge shot that got a huge rebound. The rubber came right to Ryan Kesler (as it usually does, wink wink!), and he knew what to do with it (that's what she said!)! His fifth of the year really made the Maple Leafs feel like they were out of it, but it would get worse. The second period saw goals from Willie "Speak Softly, But Carry A Big Stick" Mitchell (his first of the year at 3:35) and Brandon's favorite Daniel, Daniel "Nintendo DS" Sedin (his sixth at 8:31). The Sedin goal was just beautiful, as he streaked into the slot and got the tape to tape from Lawrence Nycholat (whose name is not pronounced similar to this, which makes me sad). Ten minutes deep into the final frame, Luongo had to have a return to shutout glory on his mind. Unfortunately, "the Toronto Maple Leafs never give up" (just ask the CBC announcers)! Ian White (3rd at 14:53) netted one from the aforementioned Curb Your Enthusiasm reference, Jeff Finger, and Matt Stajan scored on the power play (by kicking the puck in, I might add) for his fifth on the year at 17:30. Toronto's final period made the game look a lot closer than it really was; oh wait, actually Toronto would have dominated this game if it wasn't for good ol' Bobby "Very Nice" Lu. All I can say is, sorry Andrew. Based on the brand new LSF rankings, this ended Andrew's undefeated run in this season's head to head LSF match ups. 

I think what I'm going to start doing after games (now that I'm sick of my "Tommy Point" routine, for all you faithful readers) is giving my "Underrated 3 Stars" for the games when they're all said and done. The "real" media gave the three stars to 1) Luongo 2) Mitchell and 3) PD (yawn). The "Underrated 3 Stars" of the game as voted on by the LSF media are: 1) Ryan "1984" Kesler (1 PPG, +1, 2 blocked shots) 2) Port Hope, ON native Shane O'Brien (1 assist, +2 rating, and 20:29 on the ice to help out in the absence of Bieksa) 3) Kyle "My Mom is a Firefighter" Wellwood (1 goal on 1 shot, giving the finger to his former team). Honorable mention goes to Ryan Johnson, who had 2 blocked shots in his push toward repeating with that title. 

The win over Andrew's love affair has boosted the 'Nucks back up into the lone ranger role when it comes to first place in the Northwest Division. At 10-6-1 (21 puntos), my BC Boys jumped up 2 on the Minnie/Flamer conjoined twins, 4 up on the young Oil Drillers, and an impressive 7 up on the Versus-Lanche. The Oilers and 'Lanche match up on game #2 of Hockey Night in Canada, but I'd rather watch TMZ. Did anyone else enjoy the constant "Leafs Suck" chants at GM Place. I'll always stand by my statement that Vancouver has the classiest fans in the NHL. Next up for Vancouver is a Monday night match against a team rocking quite frankly the ugliest jerseys in the NHL (at least based on tonight's highlights against Ottawa). The New York Islanders will welcome my Canucks to Long Island to try and tackle their last place squad (6-9-2, bringing up the rear of the Atlantic). Who the F is Trent Hunter? He may be leading NY in goals scored, but his picture looks like one of the pics from MLB 2K7 where they make up a fake player with a combination of two actual names. Hopefully the 'Nucks can beat the Isles down so they won't be much of a match for the Sabre-Slugs next Saturday. "Good looking out."

And we roll on. 

The Avs, who I hate, beat the Canucks, who I love.

Roberto Luongo tried his damnedest, but the Canucks offense couldn't answer the call in a game where he gave up more than the magic number of zero. Budaj bested him, sort of, and I had another match that taught me how much I simply hate the shootout. Let them tie you American NHL official bastards! Oh well. The Blue & Green finished with a 1-2 shootout loss to their hated rivals from the Versus Network (this game was oddly not on Vs., by the way). 

The first goal of the game was scored just 2:43 into the second period by none other than Taylor Pyatt (2). The Thunder Bay, ON native netter his second goal of the season (fifth point) on a penalty shot created by a hook on a breakaway. Pyatt didn't look like he was on a complete breakaway, but I was glad to see the ref point to center ice. Pyatt busted Budaj for the game opening goal, and with Luongo between the pipes on the other end of the rink, I thought it would me enough. Unfortunately, the unbreakable/unbeatable/often imitated/never overrated/simply better/Irish setter Bobby Lu was bested about one complete period later. The P.O.S. from Czechoslovakia, Marek Svatos, earned a power play goal just 1:28 into the final frame after a a Mason Raymond tripping penalty ended the third period. Damn! Roberto Luongo's amazing goal stopping streak came to a tough ending after 242 minutes and 36 seconds of glory. He beat his (and the Canucks) all-time record of 210:34 from last season. He may be no Brian "Bobby" Boucher, but he's still pretty great. The shootout came on after the end of the scoreless overtime frame, and the Canucks lost 2-1 on the shootout after Alex Burrows was the only Canuck able to muster enough against Budaj to get the biscuit in the basket. Meanwhile, Luongo was jacked by Wojtek and somebody named Svaots (oh yeah, he already scored), and the Canucks fell in the tie. 

The overtime loss pits our favorite BC hockey team to a 9-6-1 record (19 points), which is good enough for a first place tie with the Wild of Minnesota (which Karen pointed out is a dumb mascot, and I agree) in the Northwest Division. I guess Calgary has 19 points as well, if you want to be honest, but I hate them, so who cares? Edmonton has 17 and Colorado is in the basement with a lowly 14, despite beating my boys. Vanc-a-tesh will unveil their brand new third jerseys tonight against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs (of whom I call rivals just to point out that for some reason NHL Network and ESPN seem to say every game is a rivalry between two of the biggest rivals in the world). Well, this time around, with the Canucks playing the Laughs, they may be right. As far as TLSF is concerned, this is one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports. It's kind of funny when you look at goaltending, there just isn't much of a chance for the Leafs. Vesa Toskala has a 3.07 GAA and Roberto is sitting at 2.23. Is this going to be a joke, or what? Thanks again to the NHL Network for striking a deal with CBC's Hockey Night in America for hooking up the game. Sorry for the inevitable loss, Andrew. 

Just a quick note: The Angels let the exclusive signing/negotiating period expire without making a single inking on a contract. The Angels' owner Artie Moreno said that the Angels will be "turning the page on Frankie Rodriguez", indicating that they won't even make an effort to sign the saver. However, don't buy into the hype that the Angels are going to target Manny. I think the only reason this rumor is on the board is because the Dodgers are going after Man Ram, and there can't be any rumor about players going to one LA team without a similar rumor about the other LA team making the same kind of move. 

Prayers out to those in the Santa Barbara area suffering through the fire. 

November 14 is coming.

11/14/08 is just a couple of days away, and the Angels are needing to come up with some big decisions to help them either keep their free agents or move along. That's okay, though, because TLSF is here to help Tony Reagins make decisions, and have we ever steered this squad wrong? Well, we've never steered this squad, so the answer would be no. Here we go:

(Just a quick note in case you haven't read this blog or talked to me about the Halos: I don't care for my team spending money and I have a lot of faith in the minor league system, which means that I probably overrate the talent of the youth. But, I don't care. I like things the way I like things, and the readers will have to deal with it.)

1. Mark Teixeira: Let's take a look at this. Last year he made $12.5 million off of the Angels (or maybe the Braves), and he'll be looking for more in 2009 and beyond. The Angels had a payroll of $118 million+ last year, and the word on the street is that they may bump things up to $120 million, but Moreno said he wants to keep it the same if he can. Teixeira was a slugging giant after the Angels traded for him, just ask Angels fans. MT hit .308 with 33 jacks and 121 RBI. He had an OBP of .410 and slugged .552 between Atlanta and LA. You would have to expect that he is going to be asking for around $15 million per year starting in 2009, and I'm not exactly sure that it's worth it. I mean, I know you'll call me an idiot because you like how Teixeira can hit homeruns, but that's a lot of money. He would easily be the second highest paid Angel in 2009, possibly the highest, and that wouldn't make many happy around the clubhouse. 

Decision: Let him go. Unless you are going to let all of our other free agents go, then I would keep him. But I'm saying adios to MT and hola to Kendry Morales. A Cuban super stud, Kendry will be earning $600,000 as the Angels 2009 starting first baseman. 

2. Garret Anderson: This one will be a little harder because GA is my favorite Angels player current, even if he isn't currently on the squad (officially). The 38 year of Los Angeles native has been the biggest offensive presence in the history of the Angels. From 2002 forward, his batting average has been: .306/.315/.301/.283/.280/.297/.293. He has been a consistent force in the lineup no matter where he has been placed (even #2, despite my protests). While most fans around Angels Nations complain about GA because of his defense (which is a joke), what they don't realize is that he has been the guy who continues to hit doubles when others go into slumps. The three time all star had his $14 million option bought out by the Angels for $3 million. So, if they did the honorable thing and brought back the lifetime Angel, you would have to subtract the three million from his one year contract price. With that in mind, I say what the hell. 

Decision: Bring him back. Sign my boy to a one year $7 million deal and have him play a back OF/DH role. I know we have too many OFs, but we have for a while and its been working, so who am I to mess with it?

3. Francisco Rodriguez: 62 saves. Fatty Pants is the MLB's all time saves goliath, after he really put on a show in the final year of his contract. Born January 7, 1982 (a good year), the Caracas, Venezuela native has been a fixture of the Angels franchise since he emerged on the scene in the Championship year of 2002. After a 2.24 ERA and 1.29 WHIP season, you have to admit that Frankie has been the dominant closer in baseball for sometime. He did make it exciting a lot of the time last year, but he was solid when you look overall. He finished with a $10 million salary last season, and he'll be looking for a giant contract as fat as his double chin this time around. The word around Angels Nation is no, and it is kind of hard to argue, isn't it?

Decision: Have fun in New York. While the Mets are the rumored team to be going after Frankie, you and I have always known that #57 would end up playing for the Yankees. So move on and have fun. You've been great, but if you're going to be looking at the highest contract on the team to play the ninth inning every once in a while, your silly. Most fans think that up and comer Jose Arredondo will take over, but I'm leaning more toward Scot Shields in '09. Vote Bob!

4. Jon Garland: When the Angels traded OC for JG, I was not too stoked. However, Garland went 14-8 with a 4.90 ERA and he was a pretty darn good guy. When he would hit the hill you were okay with it. However, if we are going to make this short and sweet, there are plenty of other starters that the Angels can pick up if they are interested in getting a 4.90 ERA kind of guy. How about Mark Prior, Ben Sheets, Mark Mulder, Livan Hernandez, or A.J. Bernett. Without looking at any of their stats, I'm just going to pretend that I've made my point. 

Decision: 5th starters are a dime for 12. It was fun having Garland around, but we can pick up a Garland anywhere. Admit it. 

5. Darren Oliver: 2.88 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, and only owned in 4.6% of ESPN fantasy leagues? Who could it be? None other than 38 year old Darren Oliver out of Kansas City, MO. He made just $2 million to be one of our most underrated bullpeners in 2008. He is a lefty, which everyone knows we need, and he's a studly old guy. Can you argue with any of that?

Decision: Keep him for barely over $2 million. He's a great guy, especially after the All Star break, and I would be sad without him. 

6. Juan Rivera: Have you read this blog? Guarenas native JR hit .246/12/45 last season with a salary barely over $2 million. Out of all the players on the squad, most know that I think Juan is the most underrated Angel on the roster. Again, you can point out that we have too many outfielders, but Juan is going to be the guy that we put in RF when we decide that Vlad has dropped off too much to handle (by the way, next year's edition of this post will talk about how we need to get rid of Vlad, and I'm sure that will be a problem for a lot of people). Despite how much I loved Jose Guillen ("I've got one word for you..."), the trade to get JR and Ma$e was one of the better trades the Angels ever made (agree?). If we let Rivera go, he'll be playing every day for some other team, and we'll see him lighting up the scenes on ESPN's Baseball Tonight. Well, I for one don't want that to happen (even thought I don't watch Baseball Tonight). Just to spite that hypothetical "other team", and because I love him, I want JR back.

Decision: Didn't you hear what I just wrote? See you in '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, and '23 Juan. 

A quick rumor note has that the Angels are thinking about trading Chone Figgins to the White Sox for Paul Konerko if they decide not to sign Teixeira (and they won't, since TLSF told them so). Any thoughts?

Weekly football post #10

Looking at my favorite football squads this week, the American footballers were less than impressive when compared to the one's on the soccer pitch. It all started on Friday with the Battle for the Bell that ended up being so close I could taste it, the bell, that is.

Fountain Valley and Edison squared off at Orange Coast College for what is easily considered the greatest high school rivalry in Southern California by most intelligent football fans. Edison was heavily favored before the game began, with Vegas giving them a win -21, I think. Fountain Valley was out to make all those betters suffer even more in this difficult economy by continuing their recent streak of surprising wins. Through three quarters of play, the two teams were all squared up at 0. That is damned exciting. Even more exciting was that Fountain Valley "Stud of the 92708" Kyle Middlebrooks opened up the fourth quarter with a two yard run to cap off a decent drive that pushed the Barons to a 7-0 lead that had fans of the Blue & Yellow living full of hope. However, Edison would strike back with two TD passes in the dying minutes from QB Matthew Viles, a three yarder and a sixteen yarder that would lead the Chargers to the bell saving victory. Green & Yellow bitches rushed the field, Blue & Yellow bitches remained crying in the stands, and fans of the good guys everywhere gave up hope for future upsets in any sport ever. The reason that we didn't win? The Fargers simply shut down Kyle Middlebrooks in this tilt. KM went just 47 yards on the ground, with QB Dominic "No arm"Ragland beating him with 100 total yards rushing. Edison knew the game plan they needed to pull off to keep the Barons quiet, and shutting down the Fountain Valley Walter Payton worked quite well for them. Even with this difficult loss to our rivals, my FV Boys are still running at a positive 6-3-0 (2-2-0 in the Sunset). I know it doesn't seem like a good season if it doesn't include a win over Edison, but we have had a pretty nice run this season with victories of Los Al, Newport Harbor, and Palos Verdes. The Kings of Gospel Swamp can make it a solid 7-3 with a win against ailing 2-7-0 Marina. Anthony's former high school is weak as all hell this year, and shouldn't stand a rats chance against my boys on November 13. 

Waking up on Saturday, and then waiting until 5 pm, to get some cheer from my Fighting Irish in the college ranks didn't work well either. Notre Dame matched up against Catholic rivals Boston College, and looked like the 2007 Irish in a pretty sad 0-17 loss that has me concerned about bowl eligibility. It was the sixth straight time that Boston College has bested their Vatican loving foe. The turning point in the game was a Clausen pass that was picked by Paul Anderson (who is engaged to Milla Jovovich, I think) and run back for a 76 yard Soaring Eagles touchdown. Of course, Clausen and company were just allowing this to be one small example to a game's worth of negative play. It was a slow moving game, with ND falling behind just 3 points after 1 and only 10 points at the end of the half. However, everyone knew that once BC made it 17 clear, Irish eyes had no vision to see a comeback. Jimmy Clausen was the story in the loss, I'd have to say, finishing the night 26/46 for 226 yards with 0 TD and 4 INT. 4 INT! I know this isn't the "Go Daddy.com Lake Forest Bowl" (or wherever the Irish will be headed after the regular season), but come on. You can't play that poorly against a rival like BC in a game where a win gets you a shot at an actual bowl game. Armando Allen, who also had no ability in this one, finished with just 6 rushes for 24 yards in the loss. Freshman Monster Michael Floyd and Golden "Dome" Tate combined for 11 catches and 135 yards, but it sure as hell wasn't enough thanks to the enormous amount of picks thrown by the bum from Westlake. It was a pathetic showing for the second straight week by the now 5-4 Fighting Irish. The solid ND season is starting to dwindle. Next up is last year's 44-46 shocker, Navy. The Midshipmen are 6-3 after a big win over Temple, and with Notre Dame needing 6 wins to punch their ticket to a bowl, things are making me nervous. 

3-47. 3-47. I didn't think there was a loss that would knock the pitiful Clippers off of the LSF top banner, but then I saw it. Hoping that my Rams would make Brett Favre pay for not staying home with his soon to be single cougar wife, I was severely let down by the final score of 3-47. It was the largest win in Jets history; not over the Rams, just ever! After the game, Farve tried to make us all hate him more by saying, "It's proof positive of what this team (meaning "I") is (meaning "am") capable of being." Douche. Sort of Rams coach Jim Haslett said, "It was embarrassing." Hey, if Josh Brown would have donked the field goal at 9:51 of the third quarter, that would have been embarrassing. If you had a coaching contract that violated NFL rules and got caught, that would have been embarrassing. Wait. Marc "I was raised Catholic" Bulger, who was quickly replaced by an equally bad Trent "Mr. Julie Green" Green, finished with a 6/13 day with 0 TDs and 1 INT. Green had scary similar numbers, but with five more passing yards. Bulger, your fantasy stud, finished with a QB Rating of 29.3. I'm not sure what that means, but compared to Farve's 117.7, it sounds pretty daunting. Can I get away with the "No Steven Jackson = No Rams win" argument? Good. My 2-7-0 Rams will take on their arch rivals, the 2-7-0 49'ers, in a battle to remember November 16. I know I can't wait, how about you?

The BC Lions have advanced to the Western Conference Final! They were not favored to beat last year's Grey Cup champs from Regina, but Buck Pierce led the Orange & Black to a 33-12 blowout win in the semis. Pierce, who still isn't as good as Jarious Jackson, finished 23/31 for 221 yards and a TD. South Dakota graduate Stefan Logan was the real story of the game, however, running for 153 yards on 18 carries in the big playoff win. Jarious Jackson did get a chance to throw one pass in the game, and he made good on it. The ND stud connected with Maryland's all time receiver Geroy Simon for a 31 yard TD pass in the third quarter to make his QB rating 1,000,000,234.746. That has to be some kind of record, right? Well, not in the CFL, but if you transfered it to the NFL it would be ridiculous. The Western Finals will be  familiar battle between downtown Vancouver's own BC Lions and the hated Flame-loving Calgary Stampeders. Of course, the Stamps have take the season series 3-0-0 from BC, so I'm a little nervous. TSN "experts" are saying that the Lions can win if they avoid turnovers. Actually, this is what expert Matt Dunigan says, "The Lions can win if they can tackle, not give up the big play, and hand on to the football...Duh." That is an exact quote. I love Canada. 

The rest of the world calls football; blah, blah, blah. Celtic came back in Champs League to earn a 1-1 draw against the hated Red Devils. Take that Andrew? And then came up big in their weekend SPL match to earn a 2-0 win over Motherwell. No love for you, Mother! Hometown boy Paul Hartley knocked home the game opening goal in the 45th minute. A red card was shown in the 57th to Mother's David Clarkson, which really opened things up, leading to the sealing goal by Aussie boy Scott McDonald in the 70th. The win hooks the Hoops up with 31 points in their first 12 games, as they hold a +18 goal differential on the rest of the SPL. Booyah! The muppets of Rangers sit with 29 points in their first 12 games, despite having a +20 goal margin, and continue to look up the skirt of my Catholic Sligo boys. 

Meanwhile, just up the island, Newcastle had a stop put to their winning ways by Fulham, 1-2. Despite getting out to the early lead on a goal by 17th president of the United States Andrew Johnson, the Mags fought back with a netter from Shola Ameobi, whose real name is "Foluwashola". It was the Nigerian's third goal in nine games thus far, and it made fans of the Boys in Bars happy, for a little bit. Danny Murphy scored for Fulham not too long after Michael Owen got close to giving the Mags the lead on a near miss, and Newcastle couldn't rebound. It was a tough loss to have hit after getting some winning going, and now Newcastle has dropped squarely back into the relegation zone (#18) with just 12 points in 12 games. At 3-6-3 (W-L-D) hope continues to dwindle for a +.500 season, but we still have to have hope to fight out of the relegation area. Oba still leads the squad with 4 goals on the season, but Shola earned his third, which puts him square in the thick of things for 'Castle. Next up is a battle against Wigan Athletic. The Wigs drew with Stoke City (Stoked!) 0-0 last weekend and currently sit at 3-6-3 as well. Watch out for Amr Zaki, the Wigs goal scoring stud with 7 on the campaign. Who knew the Egyptian Premier League could produce such talent?

There isn't really much I want to say about the second leg of the opening playoff round for Chivas USA. Just know that Real Salt Lake was able to earn a 2-2 draw in the second leg to win on a 3-2 aggregate total, pushing the Red & White right out of the MLS' second season. Anaheim's Sacha Kljestan scored the opening goal on a penalty kick at 30 minutes, but two goals followed from RSL, which provided a 2-1 lead 77 minutes in. A goal by Justin Braun gave the Goats hope with 7 minutes to go, but Chivas couldn't knock in the goal that would have pushed the thing to a shootout. Despite another strong showing in the regular season, it is again all over for our boys from Carson. So, we turn our Chivas love to the Mexican Football League now, where Chivas de Guadalajara sit in the five spot in Group 2 (luckily with America sitting in the six spot) with a 5-4-7 (W-L-D) record after 16 games. Can we see a push toward the top?

Does anyone else think that Ryan Miller looks like a serial killer without his mask on?

Luongo gets consecutive shutout #3.

It can't get much better than Bobby Lu. Being a fan of a team with this talented goaltender is pretty damned easy. El Roberto continued his thrilling run toward the NHL's all time shutout run with his third consecutive clean sheet and his fifth of the season, the Vancouver's 2-0 show stopper against the Minnesota Wild. It was far and away Bobby's best shutout of the streak, with thrilling kicks, spectacular gloves, and outrageous blockers, and his 29 saves were all fairly decent. 

13:36 into the game, we got our first goal of the season from the "Finnish MacInnis". Turku, Finland native Sami Salo got a pass from Kevin Bieksa that he simply blasted his patented slap shot past fellow Fin Niklas Backstrom (because the Salo family totally hates jerks from Helsinki). The super slow mo (or, "x-mo", if you will) showed that Backs just was late sliding over with the cannon blast from S-squared. I already mailed my thank you card to BC local boy Colton Giles for the boarding penalty that led to the opening goal. It was funny that at that point, me and 7th Canucks all around North America thought about Luongo earning a 1-0 shutout. We were close. The scoring was halted all the way until the third period. Bobby was making thrilling saves throughout the time in between the two Canucks goal, including an amazing kick save where he pulled the splits to save the day. He was playing that kind of game where you just new something special was going to happen. We waited almost until the end of the game, 17:20 into the final period, for Daniel "I was born six minutes after Hank" Sedin to earn the 2nd goal of the game and his 5th netter of the campaign overall. It was Hank and the X-Man getting the helpers (again!) on the Daniel goal. MoDo pride. Sweet stuff to make a solid night by Backstrom look worse than it really was. 

When the final horn sounded, Luongo stood tall with 201 minutes and 8 seconds straight without allowing a single goal. The Canucks franchise record, which is owned by Luongo himself, is a full 212 minutes and 12 seconds (which he set last year), and I have this great feeling that it is going to fall and fall hard. Adding more positives to the squad is that bronze medalist Pavol Demitra and Great Dane Jannik Hansen are both returning from their injures to come back to practice, and hopefully get back into the lineup as well. Will PD hit the ice to bring back the Mason/Taylor/PD line? Will Hansen send a charge back to the Burrows/Kesler/Hansen line? What will become of Kyle Wellwood? The injuries have led to an interesting combo on the lines, especially with the shift of Bernier, and it is always tough to bring injured players back when the team gels without them. However, you can never have too many studs. Right? Just ask the Angels. 

The win against Minnie did exactly what we hoped it would. The 9-6-0 Canucks (18 points) have pushed their way to the top of the Northwest Division. Of course, things are a little bit tighter than we'd like it to be. Minnesota (8-4-1), Edmonton (8-6-1), and Calgary (8-7-1) are all wrapped up with 17 points. That makes it a little tough to get excited about the pole position, right? Well, the Canucks continue their interestingly long home stand against the former Versus darlings from Colorado. The Avs are 6-8-0 (12 points) on the year, but most recently added to Nashville's pain by blanking them on Saturday. The 2003 Bud Light Plus/Minus award winner Milan Hejduk leads the 'Lanche with 8 goals, 5 assists, and a -1 rating (doesn't look like he'll be drinking the Bud Light at the end of the season this year). Will my BC boys be able to clean up against the bottom of the barrel Nordiques?

Just remember this thrilling 2008/2009 Vancouver fact:  My Canucks are a perfect 4-0-0 against division opponents so far this year. 

Does anyone realize that Karen's San Jose Sharks are the best team in the NHL with their 13-3-0 record (26 points)? Lucky Nor Cal fool.

Luongo gets consecutive shutout #2.

With Vancouver's on and off season, many have doubted El Roberto's abilities here in 08/09. With back to back shutouts, however, and four overall on the year, Bobby Lu leads the entire NHL in clean sheets with a 4-2 advantage over Buffalo's Ryan Miller. The latest installment of Luongo's magic came in the form of a 1-0 win against the Coyotes of Phoenix. 

For my BC Boys, it was defender (and possible X-Man) Kevin Bieksa earning a huge goal at 11:56 into the first period. Ryan Kesler fed a break for Bieksa and Alex Burrows. AB fed a pretty pass across to Bieksa, who easily wristed the puck into the open net. It would be the only time that USSR native Ilya Bryzgalov would let his team down. It is kind of funny that the Russian Breezy is 100% owned in ESPN Fantasy Leagues, being that he has a 4-5 record and just a .913 save percentage. As I said, the goal scoring was quiet the rest of the match with Luongo and Ilya trading off huge saves. Roberto was just so solid in the match, but you have to believe that Canucks haters will be talking about the lack of offense. Sometimes, when you have such a solid keeper, the offense can be minimal and you can still keep the Nation happy. 

As usual, I like to point out my "Tommy Points" for the ways that the 'Nucks keep winning and winning. This time around, much like the last time, I have just a couple of crucial reasons. The Canucks outshot the Dogs 32-28 and escaped with 8 less penalty minutes. You have to realize that when Vancouver gets less shots on goal, they are pretty much headed toward a loss. The other important key for victory, as I have pointed out in many recent wins for the Blue & Green, is that Kevin Bieksa led in ice time with 25:16. I haven't really explored in the losses, and I don't want to because I don't want to prove myself wrong. KB had two shots on goal to get him the big game winner, and the 9 point scoring Grimsby, Ontario native is continuing to prove that June 1981 was a great time to be born. I'd also like to point out that Brandon's boy Michel Ouellet (who is surpsingly owned in 0.8% percent of ESPN Fantasy teams) finally got on the ice, skating around for 11:51 and taking a shot on goal so start his Canucks career. He was leading Manitoba down in the AHL in goals and points, and may be the right wing addition that we need to keep marching up, up, and up. 

Canuckleheads and 7th Canucks all around North America are excited to see our squad slowly creeping toward being the great team we knew they could be. At 8-6-0, Vancouver have 16 points, and are marching toward the Northwest's ceiling. My squad now sits 6 points clear of last place Colorado, 3 clear of sadly no longer upstart Edmonton, and just a point back of the usual Northwest tandem of Calgary and Minnie. The chance to make the leap to first could come as early as Saturday, as the Blue & Green welcome Minnesota to GM Place for a NHL Network televised battle royal. I hope my couch is ready. 

On my way out, I'd like to give huge golden props to my fellow red hate Torii Hunter. Big Game earned his eighth gold glove yesterday after making a ridiculous grip of game saving catches in the 2008 season. He'll be back for more, with or without my best fried Garret Anderson. Huge golden poops to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who fell to my sweet, sweet Celtics. The Green have now improved to 4-1, leading the Clippers in the biggest battle in sports history to 4.5 games in favor of the good guys. 

It's funny/enjoyable to me that I still refuse to proofread. 

Canucks beat American team moments after Obama wins.

Obama is the new president? Kyle Wellwood earned first star in last night's game against the Preds? The Canucks had 15 more shots than their opponent? What kind of world are we living in? The Canucks did more than make their Nation (meaning, Canucks Nation, of course) proud with a nice win at GM Place last night, trouncing the squad from Nashville by the score of 4-0. Kyle Wellwood was once again the unlikely offensive hero, and Bobby Luongo was the amazing Borat-type character between the pipes, in the gigantic win that pulled the Blue & Green back above .500.

After a quite first period, it was Kyle "I'm amazing since being reclaimed off of waivers" Wellwood smashing home a goal at 9:10 of the second on the power play. He was out with the cycling power of Daniel and Henrik Sedin, which made him feel like Richard Park or Anson Carter. Wellwood skated with the puck toward the goal, got stuffed on a backhand, but was able to pound home the rebound before getting dropped on the ice. It was KW's fifth of the year, and he would be back for more. Late in the second period we thought we'd get a goal from Henrik on a semi-breakaway, but the puck flipped over the net as he slid past the crease and crashed into the boards. Good enough for some excitement, though. Entering the third period with a narrow 1-0 lead, the 'Nucks knew that they couldn't hang back. My BC Boys put together a sweet threesome in the final frame. The scoring started at 5:36 when Kevin Bieksa bombed a slapper toward the net. Rather than trying to tip in a goal, Steve Bernier took the puck and passed it back to a wide open Mason Raymond. Ma$e had the entire net wide open, and easily doubled the lead. Just 59 seconds later, Kyle Wellwood would strike again on the man advantage. The puck came to KW at his skates, and he was able to shift the puck forward and backward on a short amount of distance, easily putting his wrister over Ellis for goal #3. Even TSN called it "an amazing goal by Wellwood." It would get finished off at 14:57 of the third when assistant captain Willie Mitchell blasted a slapper from the blue line that came to the twins. Henrik basically bounced a missed shot off of Daniel that got passed Ellis for the big fourth goal to seal the deal. With all this great offense, let's not count out the fact that Roberto Luongo pitched a shutout for his clean sheet (double cross sports reference!). 

The "Tommy Points" for last night's big win over Nashville, TN include the total ice time clue. Kevin Bieksa finished with 28:16 of total time on the rink, showing once again that having your most solid defender on the ice more than anyone else helps to keep the defense going well. I'm sure Luongo would agree. It is also the fact that he is able to play so much with only finishing with two penalty minutes. He had a big assist as well, which continues to help us realize his worth. My other point of the game has to be the fact that the Canucks made the right decision by giving Kyle Wellwood another shot. How could anyone disagree? KW is all alone atop the Vancouver scoring table with his 6 on the year, including 4 total on the power play. Are you kidding me? The 25 year old Windsor, ON native may be the pride of Eastern Canada, but he is quickly becoming the cult classic around British Columbia as he keeps this up. 

At 7-6-0, the 14 point holding Canucks now hold the third spot in the Northwest all by their lonesome. One point clear of fourth place Edmonton, four clear of the hated Avs, and amazing only one point back of the Minnie/Calgary tandem at the top. Of course, the Wild have the edge because they have played 2 less games than either Calgary or Vancouver, but you have to be encouraged with this march toward the top despite the Canucks being summed up by the words on the bathroom faucet: hot and cold (slam!). Next up is a home game against the 5-5-0 Phoenix Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets. The Dogs have 10 points in their division, trailing the crazy hot San Jose Sharks (11-2, 22 points), and will be bring the heat of the Shane Doan/Olli Jokinen combination (23 points) into GM Place. They beat the Flamers last night, denying Iginla his chance to grab first place, and they are getting ready for a Thursday night letdown when they fly into BC. 

On a political note, with only 97% of precincts reporting, my guy Bob Barr finished with 483,993 popular votes in the presidential election (I'm one of those!). Barr received more votes in Orange County than any other third party candidate, really making me proud of my county. It may not have been the 4% us Libertarians were hoping for, but it at least shows that there continues to be a growing number of Americans who are ready for an actual change. 

Weekly football post #9.

Who would have believed that I would rely on Newcastle to save a rough football weekend? The weekend's football madness started with a thriller in high school and ended with a thriller on EPL's Monday Night Football. Let's get the review started. 

The headline reads, "Fountain Valley stuns No. 2 Los Alamitos in OT". Damn, that's a nice headline. Down by 14 at the break, it looked like the Barons had no chance against the second best team in this great Nation. However, Kyle Middlebrooks grabbed 74 of his 99 yards in the second half and scored two amazing touchdowns. The hero of the game, of course, was Ryan Steadman, who ended the game with a crazy INT along the goal line in the extra session. Dominic Ragland actually came through with a stunning 30 yard TD pass to Artie O'Keefe, which started the comeback in period number three. Middlebrooks was able to get the easy 1 yard TD run to seal the deal in the extra session, with Steadman picking the ball off when Los Al got their shot at scoring in OT. Barons fans rushed the field, and finally have a win that will get them some headlines across California. Can you believe it? Now we start to believe that FV may have a chance at regaining the bell this year against Edison on November 7. The game is set to be at OCC, and after two big back to back wins, Barons Nation is ready to make it an unforgettable season with a "Chuck The Fargers" style victory. 

Notre Dame also went to an extra session in their game against the University of Pittsburgh, but with results that weren't as kind. ND had a sweet lead against Pitt with a 17-3 difference at the break, but Pitt scored two TDs within 83 seconds to eventually force the Irish to overtime. Each team traded field goals in the first three OT sessions (reminders of the Canucks/Ducks clash), before ND's Brandon "I Don't Think I Could Suck Much More" Walker bricked a field goal, which led to a game ending Pitt kick between the uprights. This game boils down to the fact that ND got the led and let up. To me, this is purely a coaching issue. I love you Weis, but I really think you have to take the majority of the blame for the squad letting up against a Pitt team that they had beat. Don't you all agree? Clausen finished the game with a 23 for 44 afternoon for 271 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs in one of his most underrated games of the year. Armando Allen continued to assert his dominance on the ground with a strong 73 yards on 19 rushes, while Golden Tate lead the way with 111 yards through the air to just beat out ultra freshman Michael Floyd and his 100 yards on 10 catches (although Floyd had two TDs to Tate's one). I don't care what you say, we should have won this game. Evidently, Notre Dame will continue their journey toward proving that they shouldn't be ranked this weekend when they travel to Boston College for the battle of two pretty nice Catholic schools. At 5-3, ND still needs one win to get to be bowl eligible. When will it come?

The two win Rams knew that they needed a win against Arizona to turn their season around for the better. Instead, they decided to be the team that they are this year, a bunch of losers. The Cards dominated the whole way after scoring 24 points in the second quarter to really seal the deal against my Ramies. Marc "Not Really Tommy's Favorite" Bulger finished the morning with a 16 for 33 game with 2 TDs and 2 INTs, which is simply less than impressive. Steven Jackson returned! He finished with an exciting 17 yards on the ground! How fun! Stanley led the squad with 80 yards in the air on an 80 yard TD catch from Bulger in the opening frame, and then things kind of quieted down overall. Kurt Warner really burned us man. The Ramies are now 2-6-0 on the 2008 season, with hope dwindling for any hope of anything happening. Next week, however, we have a chance to trip up Brett Favre (does he still play?) and the 5-3-0 Jets. Let me just say, "R!A!M!S! RAMS! RAMS! RAMS!"

Saturday, the 11-7 BC Lions match up against the 12-6 Saskatchewan Rough Riders in the Western Conference Semifinals of the CFL on Saturday night in Saskatchewan. It will be fun to see if this team, that most didn't really give a chance to a serious season, can make a run toward the Grey Cup Finals and make British Columbia one damn proud conference. Only time will tell. 

The Mighty Celts made good use of the weekend, beating the pants off of Hearts 2-0 to improve their record and keep the Hoops 3 points clear of Rangers atop the SPL. Shaun Maloney and Gary Caldwell got the netters in the match to prime the squad, and there was no need to look back thanks to another solid SPL keeping effort from Artur Boruc. Does this make the squad ready for the Wednesday rematch against Manchester United? Well, I know that van der Sar won't be between the pipes for the match against the Hoops, so my hopes are somewhat elevated. Of course, someone is going to have to cover that Berbatov cheater, and Naka is really going to have to make something happen. Get ready for the texts, Andrew. 

Newcastle has won two games in a row! Their Monday Night Football match against Aston Villa ended in a 2-0 win for the good guys thanks to the foot of Obafemi Martins. Maybe people should be voting for Oba instead of Obama today! It was a much anticipated clean sheet for Shay Given in New U's third victory to improve their record to 3-5-3 (W-L-D). The win against Villa has vaulted the Boys in Bars out of the relegation zone (soft cheer) to the #14 slot in the EPL table thanks to have a huge 12 points in their first 11 games. The yellow cards were large for 'Castle, just showing how serious this squad has gotten in their determination to win and win and win and win. Newcastle is now actually playing their next game against a squad that is below them in the table, Fulham! Let's keep it rolling along boys. 

Not much to say about the Chivas USA first leg playoff loss to Real Salt Lake, 0-1, over the weekend. All I can think is: really? Real took 20 total shots with 7 of those falling on goal, while Chivas managed just 3 total shots with 2 on goal. That is the different. RSL went after things, being the home team, and Chivas kind of just sat back and hoped they could come out with a draw. Big mistake. Now we head back to the HDC with our playoff hopes hanging in thin air. November 8 will either be the end of the big start of Chivas USA's playoff push. Can they grab a pair and win 2-0 this weekend to earn the overall victory against their MLS twin, or will RSL surprise Goat Nation in a playoff upset that the Red & White will not soon forget? Man, I hope it's the former. 

Let me just say, since I have already voted this morning, that the people running the polls are really idiots, and I think that they should force volunteers to have to pass some kind of aptitude test before they can start "helping". I'm sure they are all the type of people who vote for Obama because Jimmy Rollins told them to. Best of luck Barr, I hope you get 5%. 

The So. Cal sweep for Johnny Canuck.

Holy hell, has this been fun or what? The Canucks muscled their way through Southern California this week, and laid the negative Nancy's negativity to rest. A 4-0 drubbing over the Los Angeles Kings followed by a ridiculous 7-6 win over Anaheim that took 13 shootout rounds to decide has the Canucks feeling like a pretty damned confident second-to-last-place squad. With a crucial game upcoming against the Red Wings tonight, point king Ryan Kesler and company see a chance to regain a fraction of their dominance from early in the season among the Division of the Northwest. 

The oncoming power play of the Canucks went 2 for 5, while an equally upstart PK held the Kings scoreless in seven opportunities in Roberto Luongo's 40th career shutout, and the first career shutout for the Canucks when visiting the Kings ever. A hooking penalty by Matt Greene at 4:07 led to the opening goal for the Canucks from Henrik Sedin. He would be joined in the first period by Mason Raymond's fourth goal, and the Canucks would add Kyle Wellwood's power play marker (his third overall of the year) and Taylor Pyatt's first goal of the year from blueliners Mitchell and Salo. Luongo was the story of the night, however, stopping 28 shots when the Canucks only put 18 on goal at the other end of the rink. Also, it was another game where Kevin Bieksa led the time on ice stat with 26:23, which proves that solid defensive play really helps Bobby Lu play at his best. Can I also just point out that Wellwood really makes the most of his 15 minutes every night?

Then it was time for Roberto to suit up for his 500th career game down the freeway in Anaheim. Has there been a more exciting game this year? The easy answer is no. Of course, if Vancouver would have found some way to lose this one, I'd still be crying 48 hours later. The Ducks were flying high with a 2-0 lead, and were still pretty happy with their 2-1 advantage heading into period number two. Of course, the Canucks jumped out to a 5-2 lead with amazingly quick goals from Kesler (7:57), Burrows shorthanded (11:23), Ohlund on the power play (14:38), and Kevin Bieksa (15:19). All goals were against Giguere save the last one, which was scored with Hiller between the pipes for the no longer Mighty Ducks. Man, I was feeling great. Then Anaheim decided to go on a nice little run of their own to close the middle frame out. Goals from Montador (15:37), Pronger (16:00), and Teemu on the power play (17:17) completely shifted momentum and had the game knotted going into what is usually the final period. Karen's favorite Canucks, Steve Bernier scored a really nice power play goal just 8:34 into the third, but it would be negated with just 57 seconds to go in the game and with the Anaheim net minder on the bench for the extra attacker. Of course I said, "This never works," right before it worked. You know I love to curse myself like that (you don't have to read far back on the LSF to see my haunting repeat of Brandon's words about J.D. Drew not having the ability to be clutch when it matters). The game went through a silent overtime period and swiftly headed into a shootout. The shootout was all about the keepers. Kyle Wellwood (there he is again!) and Ryan Getzlaf were the only players to tally a shootout marker in the first three rounds, and off we went to extended play. Man, the NHL really hates a tie. It took 13 rounds, my DVR stopping, and Karen finding the highlight on the internet for the game to be settled. In the end, it was Mattias "I'm still the best offensive defender on the team" Ohlund scoring as the 26th shooter to give the Canucks the gigantic win, and leaving the Ducks fans with a clear feeling of "Eh, let's go to Hooters," feeling in the gut of their stomach. 

So, despite Pavol Demitra still sitting on the shelf, the Canucks were able to pull their record up to an enjoyable 6-5-0 after their visit to Southern California this week. With 12 points, my BC Boys are 2 clear of now last place Colorado, and trail the division leading Wild/Flames by a measly 3. Tonight at GM Place, it's a 16 point Detroit team coming into town that the Canucks beat by the score of 4-3 on October 16 in Hockey Town, USA (even though I think it is wherever Sarah Palin lives). A win tonight at home would start off a November that is really full of promise for the Green & Blue. 

This last part if just for Jon: I have decided that I'm going to try and keep track of the battle between the youth of Chicago (that you and ESPN think are so great) and the youth of Vancouver (that me, myself, and I think are so great). I'm picking three players from each squad to compare for the current time. Patrick Sharp (age 26) currently has 7 goals, 6 assists, and a +/- of 0. I'll match Sharp up with Alex Burrows (age 27) who currently has 4 goals, 5 assists, and a team leading +/- of +6. Patrick Kane (let's just say age 20) currently has 6 goals, 7 assists, and a +1 rating. I'll match Kane up with my boy Mason Raymond (age 23) who currently has 4 goals, 4 assists, and a +1 rating. Finally, I'd like to submit Brent Seabrook (age 23, and yes, I realize he plays defense, but surprisingly you're young forward talent really isn't that deep), who has 3 goals, 1 assist, and a -2 rating. I'll slap him up against Stevie Bernier (age 23), who currently has 4 goals, 3 assists, and a -2 rating. So, today's Chicago Youth vs. Vancouver Youth will stack up this way: Chicago has 16 goals and 14 assists (30 points) and a combined rating of -1; meawhile Vancouver has 12 goals and 12 assists (24 points) and a combined rating of +5. I'd say it's a pretty exciting race to determine the squad with the best youth talent. Of course, I'm not really mentioning Ryan Kesler, Jannik Hansen, Alex Edler, or Taylor Pyatt when I talk about the Vancouver Youth. Kesler leads the entire Vancouver team with 10 points to speak of this year. I can compare him to the most famous Chicago Youth I omitted, Winnipeg Jets fan Jonathan Toews. Toews has 0 goals, 6 assists, and a -2 +/- rating, which doesn't put him up there with the rest of the pack. What do you think, Jon, close call, eh?

I'll take this final opportunity to remind all of you out there to seriously consider voting for Bob Barr. One day Libertarians will be running the country, so why not cut to the chase and make it happen now?