NHL Examining Rule Changes - A FB Post from August

The below was a post I put on Facebook as a note (as I had done at times) prior to having a blog.  I might be putting a few more such posts on the blog now from FB here and there.  This one written last August was in regards to the NHL looking at potential changes to the game I love.  I still feel pretty much as I did about the contents now as I did when I wrote it and maintain that the game doesn't need to be changed to fit the desires of those that aren't really fans, and it doesn't need changed for the sake of change, but there is nothing wrong with looking into ways of improving the game and in making it safer just as long as the changes that do come about make sense and improve either the quality or the safety of the game.

My Top 10 Avs

A recent episode on the Puck Podcast (worth listening to even for casual hockey fans ... http://www.puckpodcast.com/) had a section in which they talked about how the Sharks did a poll of their fans to find out who the fan favorites were and how Dany Heatley wasn't even in the top 10.  After listening to this I decided that I would soon create a post (and voilà, here it is) in which I tried to lay out my top 10 favorite Avalanche players of all time.

Now there are a couple things worth pointing out at the very beginning.  First this is not a list of the 10 greatest Avalanche players of all time; it is my list of 10 favorite Avs of all time.  Second, while I watched an occasional game prior to the 2000 season it wasn't until then that I went to my first live game and was completely hooked on hockey, thus my list will show this by the lack of players from the time before that and I know there were some greats that I didn't fully appreciate because I didn't get to see them play regularly like I have the players since then.

Destination Truth

The new season of Destination Truth started on SyFy not that long ago (just about 2 weeks ago in fact) and I've begun watching the first season on Netflix as well because I didn't know what I was missing until I caught a later season.  I have to say that of all the "truth finding" shows that are out there this one is my favorite by far.  Unlike many other shows (such as Ghost Hunters which is 2nd on my list and Ghost Adventures), this show began not hunting paranormal but hunting other legends such as Bigfoot.  It wasn't many episodes in before they did their first paranormal investigation but they still hunt more "legends" than ghosts.

An Avalanche of Help on the Way

Ok, corny title I know but I stuck with it.  The Avalanche have lost a lot of games over the past couple of months as well as traded away two very popular and young players along with a starting goalie that may or may not have given up on the team.  Needless to say it has been rough being an Avalanche fan.

However of late the organization has begun signing a number of its top flight prospects to entry level contracts of late.  Specifically they have signed Joey Hishon, last year's surprise first round pick, defensemen Tyson Barrie and Stefan Elliot, and goaltender Calvin Pickard.  The team has also brought Super Joe (Sakic) in as part of the management team, but I'm looking at these signings in this writing.  Now odds are none of these four players makes the team out of camp next year, however it is possible that at least a couple of them will get callups at some point during next season and we'll surely get a good look at them in training camp.  So just who are these players?

When Losing Becomes Winning

When does losing in sports, professional sports specifically, start to become better for the franchise than winning does?  Is such a thing really even possible?  Fans get upset, ticket sales decrease, overall interest wanes ... but at some point does losing become beneficial?

At the beginning of the Avalanche's epic collapse I was upset with each loss the team suffered.  At the time it started they were right in the thick of the playoff race.  Two months later the Avalanche had managed just one win in those nearly 60 days falling from playoff possibility to 2nd last in the entire league.  They have won their last two games now, both in shootouts, pulling to 28th in the league rather than 29th, but the season is nearly over and the playoffs have long been out of the picture.

A Stirring in the Realms - Past Meet Present prologue

The year is 1369 DR.  It was a particularly harsh winter but the snow is starting to melt as Spring has once again come to the lands.  Although the Gods themselves have returned to where they came from after their war the people are left behind to deal with the devastation as is normally the case.  Families are torn apart, many are homeless, and thousands are dead.  Zhentil Keep where most of the battle occurred is nearly entirely destroyed but the Zhentarim continue to exist and insist the Keep is not destroyed and will be rebuilt.  However those of Hillsfar are pushing their advantage and claiming territory, though the winter has halted their advance.  Mulmaster has positioned their ships to cut off supplies to Zhentil Keep, an effort made easier by the fact that much of the Zhent fleet was destroyed.  It would seem that the Zhentarim are weakened considerably right now.

Face Off - SyFy

Two nights ago the season finale of the SyFy series "Face Off" aired.  I missed the first episode of this series despite being very interested in seeing it from the first preview I saw.  The premise behind this reality competition show was one that hasn't been done before (to my knowledge) and actually looked interesting.  In this series "aspiring make-up artists" would go into each week with a challenge that would see them putting their skills as movie special effect make-up artists to the test, and each week they were judged by some pretty well known Hollywood names from the effects world and one person would be sent home until in the end only one remained and of course that person would get the awards.