hockey

Labor Day Weekend 2020 – Pandemic Edition

by

Normally we’d be spending Labor Day Weekend over at Disney, our end-of-summer family tradition. But (no) thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic we cancelled our annual passes last month and for the first time since 2012 we’re spending the holiday weekend at home. I’ll be barbecuing on Monday, though, so there’ll be some semblance of normalcy.

At least sports are back! I haven’t been watching the NBA bubble since the Cavs aren’t in it, but on the baseball side the Rays are solidly in first place in the AL East (5 games ahead of the Yankees) and the Indians are currently tied for first in the AL Central with the White Sox. It’s a little weird that we’re halfway through the abbreviated season that started back at the end of July. I actually went ahead and purchased an MLB.tv subscription (through Amazon Prime) so I can watch more of the Tribe.

Even weirder, though, is Stanley Cup Playoff hockey in September!! 😮 The Lightning (in the Toronto bubble) started as the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference and after a record-setting 5OT Game #1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, went on to win the first round in 5 games (revenge for being swept out of the first round round by the Blue Jackets last season!). In the second round the Bolts faced another familiar foe, the Boston Bruins. Boston was in first place in the Eastern Conference when play was suspended back in March but went 0-3 in the preliminary round and was seeded 4th. I almost think that might have been on purpose to get the other teams to underestimate them, and you should never underestimate Boston. It was tough, but the Lightning came out victorious, winning the round in a double overtime Game 5 thriller. On to the Eastern Conference Finals in Edmonton … go Bolts!! (they’re still awaiting their opponent, Game 7 between the Flyers and Islanders is tonight)

Happy New Year 2019! (with a sports update)

by

Happy New Year!

Last year on New Year’s Eve my Cleveland Browns finished their perfect 0-16 season. They closed out the 2018 season just shy of a winning season with a 7-8-1 record and Baker Mayfield broke the record for most touchdown passes by a rookie quarterback in his first season.

Baker Mayfield sets rookie quarterback TD pass record

Both the Browns and Bucs will be looking for new coaches this year (Hue Jackson was fired back in October and Derek Koetter was fired on Sunday after the Bucs finished with another 5-11 season).

The Lightning closed out December “unbeaten” (just a single overtime loss) and are the #1 team in the league going into the new year.

The Cavs are back to losing now that Lebron James is gone (again), sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with an 8-29 record.

The Rays aren’t getting a new stadium anytime soon, which is making people wonder how much longer they’ll be in Tampa Bay.

Coming up in 2019, the Indians will host the All-Star Game for the first time since 1997 when Sandy Alomar, Jr. hit that homer and was named the game’s MVP (I was watching down at the Field of Dreams at Nautica). I hope to get up to Cleveland in July to attend (I’ve already got my annual Arizona spring training trip planned).

What about my New Years’ resolutions? I’m going with something counter to the norm. Instead of drinking less (which I don’t do a lot of anyway) and inspired by the drinks I had on our Thanksgiving cruise, I’m going to learn how to make more cocktails! 😀

 

Long Memorial Day Weekend at Disney

by

Last Wednesday night my Tampa Bay Lightning lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Washington Capitals, so there will be no Stanley Cup Finals games here in Tampa this year. 🙁 Go Vegas?

With the end of the hockey season also came the end of the school year for my daughter. So with the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend, we headed over to Orlando for a mini vacation at Disney World. The 2018 hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1 but already the first named storm of the season (subtropical storm Alberto) was threatening to rain out our plans!

Read more

Spring sports playoffs

by

I love spring … baseball has just started and now it’s time for the Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs.

My Tampa Bay Lightning are the Eastern Conference champs for the first time since the 2003-04 season (the last time they won the Stanley Cup). They start round 1 tonight against the New Jersey Devils.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a #4 seed in the east and will take on the Indiana Pacers in the first round starting on Sunday.

Go Bolts! Go Cavs!

2018 NHL All-Star Weekend

by

2018 NHL All-Star logoThe NHL 2018 All-Star game was here in Tampa this weekend (the last time was back in 1999, before I lived in Florida) so I had to take this opportunity to experience All-Star weekend first-hand! I got tickets to both days: the Skills Competition on Saturday, and the All-Star Game on Sunday. This weekend was also the Gasparilla pirate festival so the Bay area was quite the happening place. If you also count that the NFL Pro Bowl was over in Orlando, Florida was quite the epicenter of professional sports on Sunday.

Read more

Another spring sports letdown

by

Usually in May and June I’m watching baseball but this year was different because both my Tampa Bay Lightning and Cleveland Cavaliers were in their respective playoffs, both teams making it all the way to the finals. Unfortunately, a strange pattern emerged as both teams ended up falling short of a championship, losing in 6 games:

Game Bolts vs. Blackhawks Cavs vs. Warriors
1  1-2 (L) 100-108 (L OT)
2  4-3 (W) 95-93 (W OT)
3 3-2 (W)  96-91 (W)
4 1-2 (L) 82-103 (L)
5  1-2 (L)  91-104 (L)
6  0-2 (L) 97-105 (L)
7 N/A N/A

Both teams had injuries and weren’t playing at full strength. Bolts goalie Ben Bishop was clearly hurt in Game 2 (I was there!) when he left twice (and now we know he was playing through a torn groin) and Tyler Johnson was playing with a broken wrist.  The Cavs lost Kevin Love in the first round to a shoulder injury, and then Kyrie Irving broke his kneecap in the first game of the Finals.

The good news is that both of my teams had great, exciting runs and have a great chance of being contenders again next year, assuming they stay healthy and don’t have too many lineup changes in the off-season.

Cool note: the Tampa Bay Lightning are the first team in history to face an Original Six team in four consecutive rounds of the playoffs in the same year: the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks. Too bad they couldn’t have beaten the fourth one. 🙁

So my spring sports bonanza is over … time to watch some baseball. How are the Rays and Indians doing? Wait, the Rays are in 1st place? I need to start paying attention!

AL standings

Two Weeks in NYC

by

I just got home from a two-week business trip to New York City.

I was here last October for a software systems upgrade but this time I was assisting with moving the office (corporate headquarters) from Park Avenue to 1 Rockefeller Center. This ended up being 15 straight days in the office, averaging 13 hours a day, as we set up the new office (the first week) and then handled all the support issues (the second week). I was supposed to come home the Friday before Memorial Day weekend but ended up staying through Monday to finish everything up.

It was a grueling trip, but did have some highlights: I watched part of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers in “Rangertown” in Bryant Park down the block from my hotel (the Lightning won 6-5 in overtime) and since my trip was extended I got to go to Game 5 at Madison Square Garden where the Lightning won 2-0.

 

Gotta love October: sports, politics, and more

by

Today is my birthday and while it’s not as cool as past ones, there is a ton of stuff going on today.

2013 MLB PostseasonBut the best gift is post-season baseball, and this year it’s a mixed blessing. Two years ago, the Rays’ push for October baseball came down to the last day. This year, the last day of regular season play on Sunday had three teams all fighting for the two AL Wild Card spots. My hometown team, the Cleveland Indians ended up clinching one of them but my current town team, the Tampa Bay Rays, ended up tied with the Texas Rangers. But last night, the Rays beat the Rangers 5-2 in the tie-breaker game in Arlington. The Rays now travel to Cleveland for another one game playoff, the winner of which continues on to play the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS.

That’s right, my two favorite teams finished second in their respective divisions, are in the post-season, and they’re playing each other in a single game tomorrow night. It seems like a win-win situation. My Indians haven’t played October baseball since 2007 when they lost to the Red Sox in the ALCS. My Rays had eliminated by the Rangers on their last two October pushes in 2010 and 2011 (so it was a welcome victory in game 163 for multiple reasons). Either way, I’ll have a team to root for when the ALDS starts on Friday. The Indians are my childhood team, and I still haven’t lived in Florida as long as I lived in Ohio, so tomorrow night I’ll be wearing Wahoo and cheering on the Goon Squad. Go Tribe!

As if that weren’t enough Cleveland/Florida sports excitement, both my Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are dealing with quarterback controversies early in the season having recently benched their starters in favor of new blood. This has worked out better for my Browns (who are  now 2-2 and will be starting Brian Hoyer for a third time) than the Bucs (who’ve started out 0-4 and have now announced (leaked?) that Josh Freeman has ADHD).

Quite a first day of October! Oh, and thanks, Google, for the custom birthday Doodle! 🙂

Google birthday Doodle

Lightning strikes!!

by

After going down 3 games to 1 to Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup playoffs quarterfinals, the Tampa Bay Lightning have won 7 straight games and just completed a sweep of the #1 seeded (Southeast Division champions) Washington Capitals. Incredible!

The Bolts now await the outcome of the Boston/Philadelphia series (Boston currently leads 3-0).

I had tickets to Game 6 of this semifinal series against the Caps, but I’m more than happy not to get to use them. Instead I’ll try to snag some finals tickets.

GO BOLTS!!