Troubles for Mike Milbury

The ballad of Mike Milbury is an interesting one, I honestly have to say he's the American version of Don Cherry. They are both former Bruins head-coaches believe it or not, and both played in the NHL. (Of course, Cherry only played a single NHL game) They both are a little radical with their views sometimes when it comes to the studio between periods, but I think Cherry is much different. Cherry is a celebrated part of HNIC, some love him, some hate him. If the Leafs aren't the focal point of HNIC broadcasts anymore, Cherry is still there. Over the years, he may have said many things that have thrown his followers off the bus, let's have a look...

and he's had many other shining moments of controversy, none of which haven't made me laugh. We've heard about the french, the europeans, even what he thinks of Air Canada & VIA for threatening to cancel their NHL sponsorship after the Pacioretty-Chara hit. ("What a phony they are!") Now we turn to Mike Milbury, let's see his shining moments

I find Cherry to be a little old-fashioned sometimes with his viewpoints, but polite? He's certainly more polite than Milbury. Remember the Cup Finals in 2010 when Roenick started to cry? Milbury still didn't seemlike the most heartwarming person towards him, and his comments are quite heartless in general sometimes. NBC tried their best to get a good Cherry-like figure on their broadcasts, it definately hasn't held up. Now with Milbury's alleged incident with a 12-year old at a hockey game, I think this is NBC & CBC's opportunity to say "hey, you're done." Of course, if the CBC has kept Cherry this long, you never know with Milbury, he could be there yapping away for years. Maybe he'll replace Cherry on Coach's Corner someday.

Then of course, CBC did get rid of Dave Hodge quite quickly...

The Battle of Alberta

Jerome Iginla leads the Flames with 11 goals this season

Saturday night was Oilers @ Flames on Hockey Night in Canada, and the first Battle of Alberta I’ve watched in its entirety. Iginla had 2 goals, one of them an empty net, in Calgary’s 3-0 win over Edmonton. Being more of an Oiler/Nugent-Hopkins fan, I was a bit disappointed, but it was an exciting and scoreless game for the first 33 minutes. The two teams seemed pretty evenly matched until midway through the second period, when the shots were announced in favor of the Flames, 24-11. That’s when Tom Kostopoulos scored from right in front of the net, on a power play caused by his stick getting slashed by Gagner. Despite the surprise from the commentators that Khabibulin wasn’t playing, Dubnyk did a pretty good job, making 31 saves. (He had quite a good retro-like mask too)

I think I have to say from the standpoint of a Leafs fan in the Eastern time zone, the battle of Alberta is THE NEW battle of Ontario. For one thing, CMU’s dorm cable for some reason gets the Montreal feed of CBC instead of Windsor or Toronto. (I don’t know why) So on Saturday at 7p.m. I’ve recently ended up with the Montreal game, unless of course they’re playing the Maple Leafs. Toronto doesn’t even play on every Saturday night anymore. The west coast HNIC games are pretty much my version of Saturday Night Live. It’s a sneak-peek into the Western Conference, which I don’t see much of besides the Red Wings and whoever they’re playing from out there. So whoever it is playing, Vancouver, Edmonton, or Calgary, I usually really enjoy watching it. And if it’s any of these Canadian teams playing one of the others, especially Calgary & Edmonton, it’s a BIG deal. Even if I’m only tuned in a little while, it’s something I don’t get to see very often. Plus, since I hope to someday call play-by-play for hockey games, Mark Lee is one commentator I love to hear, even more than Bob Cole at this point. A hybrid sound of Lee and Cole is what I hope to someday sound like.

It’s an exciting time in Edmonton, great young players like RNH, Hall, Eberle, Paajarvi, and a better start than they’ve had in the past seasons. A playoff spot is possibly on the way.

The Travel Box

Ahhh yes, the semester of Fall 2011 is over. It's been almost an entire month since anything's been posted on this blog, I didn't have any time or energy to find something to put together. But now I'm home on Christmas break for an entire month, plenty of time now...

This was the first semester I had my car up at college with me, basically meaning I was doing all packing & loading to come home by myself, up and down a flight of stairs about 15 times until I had an entirely full car. (And I drive a Buick, I took home A LOT of stuff) It took about 45 minutes or so, but I was glad to at least have complete control of the handling of my stuff down some stairs and at the curb. Ever have someone help you with loading/un-loading a car, and you purposely give them things you don’t mind them carrying? (Pillows, laundry, etc) Then you grab the luggage items you NEVER let anyone else lay their hands on, just to make sure it’s safe?

Yep, for me it’s a 10x10x8 cardboard box. I remember packing for my freshman year at CMU, and I found this box. There couldn’t be a more perfect size for small items that aren’t electronics, cords, or CD’s. It usually includes: 1) My 80’s alarm clock/radio, 2) My most recent journals, 3) A Langenscheidt’s Pocket Dictionary, 4) Whatever book(s) I’m reading for leisure, currently “Travels With Charley” by John Steinbeck, 5) A photo album, and 6) A picture frame, (in the bottom left of the box in this picture) currently holding a photo of me on a long Dryden, Mich. bike ride in 2010.

The best part? Everything always seems to fit. There’s always the right amount of stuff to make it work. I’d hate to know what I would do without this box. I have massive laundry bags for clothes, obviously a backpack for all my schoolwork, a nylon bag I use for small electronic things (CD’s, camera, phone charger, some cords, etc), then boxes for my desktop computer that I transfer back and forth at the start/end of each semester. This 10x10x8 box is perfect for everything else. Wouldn’t let anyone else carry it…