3rd Star (1 pt):
The third star is going to Joe B tonight. He had a typical performance that you come to except from him. There were a few stand out moments that pushed him into a scoring spot. First, his game intro was all about blood. It was filled with blood and medical puns. In a night where Joe B clearly had violence on the brain the Caps did not disappoint. There were a ton of scrums during the game and a few fights erupted early on, so clearly Joe B was onto something. Joe B goes on to let us know that Green could be back next week, which was good news. He gets in a nice burn about some fans stupid looking mohawk and also invades Locker's telestrating room. This may be a CSN first, so needless to say when I saw Joe B jumping up and down behind Locker during the telestration I was pretty excited. Finally, in the postgame Joe B threatens to "punchout" Alan May over a comment May made about his glasses. Points for bravery Joe, but that is a fight your not going to win.
2nd Star (2 pts):
Rob Carlin. Kind of a surprise here considering Carlin started off the night poorly. He tried to make fun of Alan May for the millionth time and was shut down. When will he learn. After that slight blunder during the pregame the best thing about Carlin was his candy cane tie. However, he really got his act together during the postgame. He is really excited about the Cap's victory and it doesn't seem fake or forced. He points out the importance of the fast start and sets up May to talk about the importance of the early goal nicely. Carlin also makes sure Voko gets his due as he points out that without his stellar performance in net the Caps would not of been able to pull out the win. Carlin ran through the game highlights tagteam style with May and they had a nice pacing and back and forth with each other. Even when they brought Joe B and Locker into the discussion Carlin was able to hold his own and didn't make himself look like an idiot. Every time I see him I like Carlin more and it really seems like he is learning more and more about the sport of hockey.
1st Star (3 pts):
Alan May. A return to form tonight for the great Alan May. Started out with a discussion about concussions in the NHL this season. His suggestion to cut back on them was to allow heavy hitting in little kid hockey to prepare them for the pros. Classic May answer. Rob Carlin tries to make a joke about May still suffering from a few concussions and May tells him to spot talking. Carlin quickly shuts up. May breaks down what hasn't been working with the offense and wants the Caps to keep the puck off the boards and use their speed. Doesn't seem to like this new dump and chase style and I gotta agree with him. Alan then gives a shout out to Semin and his recent hot streak. All of the broadcasters would make reference to Semin's recent upswing in production but May was doing it before it was cool. Total hipster. In the post game May has a lot of good things to say about the Caps performance. He runs through the highlights with Carlin without missing a beat. My favorite part of his work tonight was when he proposed a race between Chimer and Johansson to see who was the fastest Cap. This is an awesome idea and something I want to see happen. Nice work tonight Alan.
Other Participants (0 pts):
Jill Sorenson: Did a brief rink side spot about the team looking for revenge.
Al Koken: Bites of the Nites and interviews. Nothing spectacular.
Locker: Lost some points for coming up with "Tic-Tac-double big Toe" when describing the Backstrom goal.
Chris Miller: Was pretty okay tonight. Lost all chance of scoring a point by being paired off with Jenkins though.
Chuck Gormely: I know, I know. But he talked about Kuznetsov tonight and that made me think for a second. Do I think he knows anything about Kuznetsov? No. Does he have the personality of cardboard? Yes. I believe he is now under the "Sarah Palin" effect. He has set the bar so low that when he does throw up all over himself I consider it a win. He did have some help from Jenkins though...
Last Star (-1pt):
Michael Jenkins. Jenkins what are you doing? It was a home game which means I have already have written Chuck Gormely into this spot. But you had to go and fuck that up didn't you. Just to keep things interesting. Maybe just to keep me on my toes. Jenkins handled the first intermission tonight and he didn't do much. He had no highlights to present, mentioned Kuznetsov (something Chuck had already covered), and then talked a bit about Tebow. Wow, nice job Jenkins but I guess I should be happy you weren't creepy. Jenkins is back from the immediate post game and he doesn't do any highlights once again. All he does is "check in" with team USA at the junior world championships. However, at this point it has already been well established that team USA was eliminated so Jenkins just comes off as a jackass. I am also quite certain he doesn't know a thing about hockey. Later when he was in studio with Miller, Miller refers to them as "team extreme". This must of made Jenkins think he was part of some cool buddy cop style team cause he suddenly felt motivated to run through some highlights. He crashed and burned cause he likes to try and sound excited and knowledgeable but came off as fake and stupid. On a night where he was mostly just dead weight, his late performance really cemented Jenkins into the last spot. Chuck should take you out to dinner this week as a thank you.
Points to Date for Participants:
Locker: 10
May: 9
Joe B: 7
Carlin: 5
Smokin: 3
Jill: 3
Miller: 0
Jenkins: -2
Gormely: -3
Check out the complete standings in the top right!
It feels good to be back in the swing of things. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the Caps played a back to back and I am suppose to go out for New Years tomorrow. I am trying to get someone to cover the game for me, but if I can't I apologize for missing another night. Maybe I'll throw a post up about my New Years adventures instead.
Thanks for reading,
@dru90 (Twitter)
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