Thomas Vanek
Jul 31, 2008 NHL
Thanks to valorfaerie at flickr
Sabres.com put up a feature on TV’s stats from this past year, and it got me thinking about him again. I’ve defended him in this space before, and I must’ve inspired him as the next month he ripped it up big time. Here’s a few key things for the sourpusses out there to consider this season:
- Thomas Vanek was credited with 9 game-winning goals, 2 of which were OT winners. Remember that the Sabres only won 39 games last year…so he had the winning tally in nearly 25% of games. Chris Drury had 5 last year, and 9 in his last Sabres season BTW. Briere had 3 last season and 4 in his final season in Buffalo. By the way, check out the sponsor for Danny at Hockey-Reference.
- 19 goals on the power play, behind only Alexander Ovechkin.
- 20 points in February, when the Sabres really needed to make up ground in the standings. Everybody mentions how he struggled early in the year, but you don’t hear much about that.
- 36 goals, in a season when he had that rough start (and the eyes of every fan and media member drilling into him).
- He’s missed only 1 game since making the big show after the lockout. He works in front of the net a lot, and still manages to stay in the mix night after night.
I’ll be accused of fanboyism, or of having a mancrush, but whatever. I like the guy, and I’ll be very happy when he scores 40+ goals this season.
Tags: alexander ovechkin, briere, buffalo, drury, Hockey, hockey-reference, NHL, ovechkin, sabres, thomas vanek, vanek
Stamkos Contract Fun
Jul 30, 2008 NHL
Considering Stamkos is pretty much guaranteed to make the Tampa Bay Lightning roster day one, contract details like this always make me laugh:
This doesn’t mean that Stamkos has made the team as he could still be sent back to juniors if he fails to make the team out of camp or is sent back before he plays 10 games next season. If he doesn’t make the team, or plays less than 10 NHL games, his contract would then kick in starting next season, although the 10 percent signing bonus is his to keep. Maximum yearly base is $875,000 with an additional $2.85 in potential bonuses available each year.
From Erik Erlendsson at TBO.com. By the way, if you’ve ever wondered what the performance bonuses available for the Entry Level contracts are, here you go (max of $212,500 can be assigned to each one):
(i) Ice time (aggregate and/or per Game). Player must be among top six (6) forwards on the Club (minimum 42 Regular Season Games played by Player and comparison group). (Note: an Entry Level SPC may contain bonuses for both aggregate and per Game ice time; however, the maximum aggregate amount the Player may receive on account of the ice time category is $212,500.)
(ii) Goals: 20 Goal Minimum
(iii) Assists: 35 Assist Minimum
(iv) Points: 60 Point Minimum
(v) Points Per Game: .73 Points Per Game Minimum (minimum 42 Regular Season Games played)
(vi) Plus-Minus Rating: Among top three (3) forwards on the Club (minimum 42 Regular Season Games played by Player and comparison group).
(vii) End-of-Season NHL All-Rookie Team
(viii) NHL All-Star Game (selected to play or plays)
(ix) NHL All-Star Game MVP
These are the details from the CBA, specific to forwards. H/T to Puck Daddy for getting me started looking at all this.
Jay McKee IS Walking Through That Door…
…but he’s dressed as Marilyn Monroe:
If only the weird-o-meter stopped buzzing after the guy who played Andy Kaufman showed up dressed as a Communist dictator. As Hinote pointed out in his groom’s speech: “You must be a bunch of screwed up people to dress up like the ’50s, right? I have a teammate dressed as a woman.”
That teammate would be St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay McKee. Who showed up to the wedding in “a blond wig, ‘Seven Year Itch’ white dress and heels.” As Marilyn Monroe.
This was all from St. Louis Blues forward Dan Hinote’s wedding to Amy McCarthy, the Playboy playmate sister of former Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy. The Communist dictator mentioned was Jim Carrey as good ol’ Fidel Castro. I’d make a joke, but I’m not the one who’s going to tell Jay McKee what he can and can’t wear.
Tags: amy mccarthy, blues, hinote, jenny mccarthy, jim carrey, mckee, st. louis
Sabres Ticket Prices Rise
Jul 28, 2008 NHL
Sabres.com has the pricing up for this season’s tickets, and it’s gonna cost you a bit more. They’ve added a ‘Platinum’ tier to the variable pricing for the games against the Leafs (and one Friday night match-up with the Canadiens). I guess they really want to stick it to the border crossing crowd. There are 3 Value, 9 Bronze, 15 Silver and 10 Gold games. Hit that link to get the exact prices, but in general, Gold pricing is down 15%, the rest are up about 12%. It was bound to happen, I just hope it doesn’t bite ‘em, what with the increased price of gas and other things eating even more of our money up nowadays.
Tags: buffalo, Canadiens, Hockey, maple leafs, Montreal, NHL, sabres, schedule, toronto
NHL 09 - Hell Yes
Jul 28, 2008 Console Games, NHL, PC Games
NHL 09 might just be the first game I buy for my Xbox 360 (using it more for media stuff and demos so far). The EA Sports Hockey League component of the game, a sort of Diablo II-esque ladder system for teams of hockey players (basically an in-game version of yourself complete with name) that EA wants to become the next Madden Nation type event. Gamespot has a serious interview with David Littman, one of the games producers (and a former pro hockey player, although he only had 3 NHL games, 2 with the Sabres). Puck Daddy Greg Wyshynski has part 1 of a slightly more irreverent interview here. Yes, Wysh, I spelled your name out. No copy/paste, here.
Tags: buffalo, Console Games, games, Hockey, NHL, pc games, pc gaming, sabres, Xbox360
Cuil Search Not Ready For Primetime
Cuil search engine needs work:
We didn’t find any results for “buffalo sabres”
Some reasons might be…a typo. Please check your spelling.
your search includes a term that is very rare. Try to find a more common substitute.
too many search terms. Please try fewer terms.
Finally, try to think of different words to describe your search.
Versus this from Google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,610,000 for buffalo sabres with Safesearch on.
Safesearch was on for both. Cuil is the latest challenger to Googlefor search supremacy, and they claim to index more pages than the Goog. I’ll wait a while to see if that actually pans out, but it would help if they could actually find something I’m searching for…
edit: okay, I’m getting results now. Guess they are getting hit pretty hard.
Tags: cuil, google, search, search engine
Nightmare Fuel
Jul 26, 2008 Wacky
I’m borrowing that phrase from Deadspin, for very good reason. I took a peek in the spam folder in my Gmail today, to make sure nothing important got sent there…and came across this:
Mccain sex tape surfaces
/brain scrub
Moving on, it appears that some spammers have switched to humorous subjects for their offending mails, perhaps for the pity click for the joke:
Bulimia Not The Same As Being A Greedy Bastard, Say Doctors
Stupid woman buys iPhone for 5000
Bush And Putin Agree To Restart Cold War During G8 Summit
Capitalization is theirs.
Portland Pirates Coach
Jul 26, 2008 NHL
The Portland Press Herald has an extremely detailed report on the coaching situation for the Sabres’ AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates. Since Randy Cunneyworth joined the Atlanta Thrashers staff, Buffalo has switched gears and is talking to Kevin Dineen, who coached the Pirates for the past three seasons. Dineen is also in the running to coach the Ducks’ new affiliate (the now-famous Iowa Chops) or become a scout with Anaheim. The Ducks were the parent club for Portland last year.
Tags: ahl, anaheim, atlanta, buffalo, cunneyworth, dineen, ducks, Hockey, NHL, pirates, portland, sabres, thrashers
Lucas is Meddlesome
Jul 25, 2008 Media
Jeffrey Katzenberg, speaking to ComingSoon.net, revealed that Darth Lucas is ‘investing in technology’ to turn the Star Wars movies 3D. My favorite bit:
Katzenberg remarked in the interview that Lucas “isn’t going to put a product out, I think, that isn’t anything other than first rate.”
Yeah, EP1 was first rate, all right. UGH.
NHL Winter Classic Logo
Jul 24, 2008 NHL
Badass
This is the logo for the next Winter Classic game to be held at the friendly confines January 1, 2009. I LOVE it, combining Wrigley Field with the Winter Classic script seen on last year’s logo. Only thing is, it’ll probably get some butt-ugly sponsor logo added to it once one signs up (AMP again?).
Tags: Hockey, NHL, outdoor game, winter classic
