Caps v Bruins (Mar 29th)

So what is it with this team?  One night they get blown out by the team they are fighting with for a playoff spot.  The next they play the defending champs tough and win in dramatic fashion in an OT shootout.  If this season has taught me anything, it's to not ask questions.  I have no idea who is going to show up every time the Caps take the ice.  I have a feeling they don't know themselves.  Four games left until we find out if the "good" Caps showed up enough to get us to the playoffs or if the "bad" Caps paid us a visit one to many times...

I was able to follow the scores and highlights tonight but had to leave my TV after the 1st intermission.

Therefore points are going to be short and sweet and pretty seat-of-pants thrown together.

3rd Star (1 pt):

Joe B.  Joe B rarely lets us down.  He did let us down in the first period.  He also loves goals and drama.  The Caps sure gave us that at the end of the game so I'm confident Joe B had several great moments then.

2nd Star (2 pts):

Locker.  Locker had a pretty crazy suit-tie combo on tonight.  I enjoyed his back and forth with Joe B during the first period.  He was also handling intermission interviews tonight and I always find his interviews more enjoyable than Smokin Al's.

1st Star (3 pts):

Jill Sorenson.  Jill doesn't get enough credit.  She knows her stuff.  She gets air time every night, though its normally very brief for pre or post game interviews, and she probably deserves to be on camera a lot.  I am always saying she seems a little to "business" like whenever she handles the intermission breaks so I have a hard time connecting with her.  Still, she is a hell of a hard worker so she gets some much deserved recognition tonight.  Also I left after her intermission break so I apologize to whoever her partner was if they gave the broadcast of their life tonight.

Last Star:

Tonight this goes to me.  That's right, the editor in chief himself.  I left my television to go out for pizza with friends.  I have let you all down.  Actually...last time I watched the Caps they got killed.  Tonight they got a win.  On second thought, I probably did you all a favor by skipping out early tonight!


That's all I got for tonight.  Sorry for the lateness of the post.  We only have 4 games left, with the last being on NBC.  That means only 3 CSN games left!  The race is heating up and I'm pretty excited to see how things are going to turn out.  Check back tomorrow during the day because I'll be putting up a post how the end of the season "awards" are going to be handled and what to expect during the off season.

PS.  I am also writing over at   http://woefulnats.blogspot.com/ now.  If your a baseball fan/ nationals fan check it out sometime!

Thanks for reading!
-dru

Caps V Leafs (Feb 25)

Tonight the Caps looked to keep the moment rolling on the road in Toronto.  They did not disappoint.  With a strong 4-2 victory tonight the Caps are keeping themselves in the playoff hunt and giving us reasons not the throw in the towel as fans.  If this team can play like they did tonight and add some much need pieces at the trade deadline (see Alan May's comments) then I like what they could do down the stretch.  However those are two HUGE ifs and ones that this team has given us no indication they are capable on fulfilling.  Lets hope I'm wrong!  Read what we thought of the CSN crew below:

3rd Star (1 pt):

Tonight’s third star is Locker.  Locker spent the pregame talking up the city of Toronto, sending zingers at May (though not as many as he received), and highlighting the outstanding play of Neuvy of late.  As the game got underway, Locker explained the importance of teams trying to get certain matchups out on the ice in such an important game and how that would be effecting the line changes during the night.  He went on to talk about MoJo and how he has had to fill in for NB19 and what his speed brings to the team.  During the first intermission, Locker interviewed MoJo and asked if it was "your" best road period in a long time. Not sure if Locker meant "your" as in his personally, or "your" as in the team’s collectively. Johansson chooses to interpret it as the latter. Good, unselfish attitude. Locker also calls him “the king of wraparounds.”  Locker also interviewed Aucoin in the second intermission and it was really nice to see a guy who has paid his dues down in the AHL to get some recognition.  The thing that kept Locker from scoring higher tonight was a few contradictory statements he made.  First: “The 4 on 4 play should benefit the Caps”, followed by, “The Leafs great team speed should really be an advantage on this 4 on 4”.  Second: “The Caps cannot let the Leafs get on the PP tonight if they want to win.”, followed by, “The Leafs are 1-15 in PP over the last few games.  Their PP has really fizzled of late.”  What gives Locker?            

2nd Star (2 pts):

Alan May.  May was paired up with Dave Johnson tonight, so you know it was going to be a good show.  May spent the pregame show making fun of Toronto fans for being “flat”, taking shots at Locker, and talking about how important it is that the Caps make a move to acquire a player at the trade deadline that can fill the 1C/2C gap on this team, long term.  AMEN.  We like to think May’s particularly high volume of zingers aimed at Locker tonight was because both men are currently 1-2 in the AOTI standings as we enter the home stretch of the season, and May appears quite intent on going in for the kill. Locker seemed really want to be friends with May postgame: After being asked whether he preferred aggressive or passive play, Locker said, “Aggressive. Remember? You and I are on the same page.” May’s response? “You must be drinking that Canadian beer.” Translation: Nice try, Locker, but I’m bringing this thing home. I also rather enjoyed May’s description of playing aggressive hockey: “Two ways to go into a fight: Either go in throwing punches, or wait for the other guy to hit you. I’d rather be the guy throwing punches.” Well said, Alan, well said. Hopefully the Caps take note.

1st Star (3 pts):

Dave Johnson. Been a while since we’ve seen Johnson working with May, but their chemistry is as strong as ever. Nothing against Rob Carlin, but he just doesn’t bring the same kind of fellow tough-guy demeanor to the table, and he always seems a little bit intimidated by Alan May (and really, who could blame him? May is a scary fucker when he wants to be). Johnson, on the other hand, shows no fear. Even on top of his rapport with May, Johnson seems to have made a noticeable effort to improve his hockey knowledge since we saw him last. While he’s never been shy about offering his own commentary and analysis alongside May’s, tonight he seemed more insightful and in the groove than in the past. Also made me laugh: “It’s warm in February in DC, Winnipeg is leading the Southeast Division, and Alan and Locker agree. The world is obviously coming to an end.” No argument here. Take note, CSN. Keep these guys together. They’re great.

Last Star (-1 pt):

Jill Sorenson.  This was the first time in awhile that Jill was behind the CSN anchor desk and we were pretty excited to see her.  She always comes off as one of the more knowledgeable members of the CSN anchor crew.  Everything she wore tonight was a shade of red (mostly pink), which was a little much but still I like the team spirit.  She showed us her trademark “knowledgeableness” (sure that’s a word) by sounding surprised that the Caps were winning on the road.  She also had trouble saying “Southeast division-leading Winnipeg Jets” with a straight face and had to suppress a chuckle.  Unfortunately for Jill, she ruined an otherwise decent outing by talking about a Neuvy going for the shut out...in the second period.  With how much she clearly knows about hockey you’d think she would of know not to jinx him like that.  In the postgame Jill started out by giving us an apology from the bottom of her heart for jinxing Neuvy, which was nice and shows that she realized what she did and probably won’t do it again.

Thats what we have for you tonight.  As you know, the NHL trade deadline is this Monday.  That day we have something special planned for you guys.  My associate blogger Murshawursha is going to be Live-Blogging the entire day to keep you up to date with all the moves that go down along with his own commentary on the happenings of the day.  I'll be assisting him, but he lives for the trade deadline and this is going to be mostly his thing.  Look for a potential post setting up the Live-Blog coming sometime tomorrow, or if that doesn't happen just be prepared to jump right in to it on Monday morning.  It should be pretty great and I hope you all check it out!  The only other news is there is a new post up over at Fantasy Town, USA.

Thanks for reading!

-Dru

Caps v Bruins (Jan 24th)

Tonight when all the attention was focused on the suspension of Ovie and how the Capitals were going to get rolled by the Bruins the Caps stood tall.  They didn't roll over and die.  They stood toe-to-toe with the Bruins and thanks to a huge performance by Mathieu Perreault (a favorite of AOTI) the Caps sent the Bruins out of town with a loss.  A side story to tonight's game was Tim Thomas and how he skipped visiting the White House.  Whatever, I don't want to get into that because I don't like politics mixed into my sports.  Something several of tonight's broadcasters didn't seem to understand.  The Caps showed some heart tonight and so did these members of the CSN crew:

Third Star (1 pt):

Smokin Al Koken.  This man interviewed Matty P at the start of the game.  He interviewed him after the second period.  He interviewed him after the game.  He also interviewed Denis Widemen.  Notice anything.  Yeah that is all people who scored goals.  Big time points for that one.  Koken was also there to offer Matty a towel when he got a shaving cream pie to the face during the post game, via Ovie.  Really enjoyed each of his interviews tonight and thought he asked good questions that the players could answer.  Nice work from Smokin tonight. 

Second Star (2 pts):

Jill Sorenson.  She did appear much tonight.  In fact she only had a brief spot during the pregame.  But its quality, not quantity that matters here at AOTI.  Jill had a interview with Hunter before the game and also talked about how the team would need to step up without Ovie and Backstrom.  Jill seemed to think that Matty P,  getting an opportunity to play on the top line, might be the guy to step up.  Well guess what...she was right.  Just about as right as it is possible to be.  I’m not sure Jill thought that Matty would net three goals tonight but she believed in him and comes off looking like a genius after this game.  When you make bold predictions that come true you earn some respect (and points) from us!    

First Star (3 pts):

Julie Donaldson. Julie got first intermission and postgame duty tonight. First intermission started a little rough when the sound cut out, but she didn’t miss a beat. Made sure to talk about the fisticuffs in the Rangers/Jets highlights. Good ol’ Julie, always making sure she shows us the fun stuff. Also showed highlights from an uneventful Sabres/Devils game. Made no mistakes and signed off with a smile. Also, bonus points for not mentioning that the Caps were missing people, since that had been done to death already. Opened her postgame spot with, “Hey, who needs Ovie?” Indeed. We respect that. Certainly a nice change from doom-and-gloom “we’re-toast-without-him” kind of talk.

Other Participants (0 pts):

Alan May: Said guys needed to step up.  Guys stepped up (Matty).

Joe B:  Game intro was about "Malkin-Mania".  Yuck.

Locker: Telestrating and was all about triangles tonight.

Rob Carlin: Meh pregame.  Good postgame.  Feeding off those good team vibes as always.

Chick: Nothing terrible about his performance tonight.  Had a nice red tie on.

Last Star (-1 pt):

It’s no surprise that this spot goes to Chuck Gormley.  When he shows his face during a CSN broadcast it is almost a given that he will be in the last spot.  Two appearances ago he found himself in last but didn’t lose a point.  This is because we at AOTI felt he should decent improvement and an effort to better his craft.  However, his last time out he was back to his old ways and seemed to have regressed.  Tonight confirms that Chuck has forgotten everything he seemed to learn.  He was flat, uninteresting, and obviously reading off a teleprompter.  Its really mind boggling that CSN keeps sending Chuck back out there.  His job is to drum up interest for his blog stories.  There are two ways to accomplish this: have controversial or thought provoking topics or be a engaging and interesting dude.  Chuck consistently does neither.  His story tonight, Ovie’s suspension.  Who didn’t see that coming?  That story has been all over the news and covered to death.  Chuck’s fatal flaw tonight was choosing to compare himself to Alan May.  He opened his spot by letting us know that Alan May and Chuck Gormley are all about the old school hockey hits.  Then he lets us know that he disagrees with May on this particular topic.  This brings up serious complications.  First, it implies that Chuck Gormley has seen hockey before he got his blogging job and knows about the “old school” NHL.  Don’t buy it.  Second, it makes me compare Alan May and Chuck and makes me realize how awful Chuck really is.  Also have some courage to outline your views Chuck.  Saying “I disagree with...” isn’t telling us anything.  Take a stand and that’ll get your stories some views and inspire debate.  Finally, up until now I’m not sure May even knew who Gormley was but Chuck may have just woken a sleeping giant.  If they get into a war of words it’ll be a massacre, and that’s something that everybody can enjoy.  Just don’t kill him Alan, we need him here at AOTI.

As mentioned at the top, Matty is something of hero/fan favorite here at AOTI.  That said, here is a profession of that love:

GOLD STAR (for awesomeness):

Mathieu Fucking Perrault. So, coming into tonight’s game, the talk was all about the fact that the Caps are now playing without their two best players and two-thirds of their top line, as Nick Backstrom is out with a concussion and Ovechkin is serving a suspension. The million-dollar question from every media/blog/anyone-with-a-computer source out there was “Who’s going to step up?” Well, Matty P answered the bell in a big way tonight; he was a force almost every time he was out on the ice en route to his first career hat trick. The goals themselves were the result of hard work; the first was a beautiful passing play, the second was an unassisted wrister that started with a beautiful pickpocket, and the third came as a result of Matty going to the net and scoring on a rebound. Admittedly I’ve always been a shameless Matty P fan, but after watching his effort and energy tonight, coupled with the fact that the smile on his face after he scored that third goal was so goddamn big that there’s no possible way one could NOT be happy for him, he’s pretty much cemented himself as my fan-favorite. (Murshawursha)

Thanks for reading!  Next game comes next Tuesday.  Enjoy the All Star break and see you then!

Caps v Devils (Dec 23rd)

Happy Holidays everyone.  Tonight the Caps traveled up to New Jersey to face the Devils in their last game before the mini-holiday break.  It was ugly through the first two periods, but those who managed to stick it through got to witness a pretty exciting Caps comeback and shootout.  Unfortunately, they didn't pull off the shootout victory but they showed some real heart in 3rd period and overtime.  Here are you stars from the CSN crew:

Third Star (1 pt):

Jill Sorenson was back tonight and it seems she has taken our comments about showing some emotion and energy to heart.  She ran through the highlights from around the league without stumbling, as usual, but she actually sounded interested and engaged in what she was doing.  He voice changed pitches several times and it really felt like she was interacting with the audience rather than dictating to them. She didn’t even wear all black tonight, though there was no red or green in her outfit.  Why you no like Christmas Jill?  Actually there was a lack of red and green with all of the crew tonight so I guess maybe it was a company mandate or something.  Why you no like Christmas CSN?  It was a solid night for Jill and a step in the right direction for her to become a serious contender. 

Second Star (2 pts):

On a night where Joe B had a great performance you know that Craig Laughlin can’t be far behind.  Not to be outdone by Joe B’s intro, Locker got into the rhyming action with his “wishlist” for the game, “I want 8 and 28 to be great”.  During the first period Locker was all about the biscuit.  He hasn’t been using that term as much in the past few weeks but tonight he made up for it.  Maybe he had KFC for dinner?  He had a nice first intermission interview with Alzner about plus-minus versus points.  Alzner said he cares about the plus-minus but Locker set him straight by saying its all about the points.  In the second intermission, Locker did some telestrating.  He only had 4 “hold-it-here’s” so that wasn’t to terrible.  He was the tag-team partner with Joe B, and managed to keep the game watchable throughout the first two periods.  It was a good overall performance for Locker tonight and he has gotten himself a little bit of separation in the standings.

First Star (3 pts):

Joe Beninati.  Whoever writes Joe B’s game intro monologues is a genius.  Since we don’t know who writes them, credit has got to go to Joe B himself.  Tonight’s was a variation on The Night Before Christmas and was quite impressive.  Joe was also rocking a light purple tie, and he pulled it off quite nicely.  As the game got underway Joe B was forced to watch the poor excuse for a team that was the Caps through the first two periods.  You could tell how sad he was as he talked about how low scoring the team is.  Clearly, he misses fire wagon hockey from the days of old.  As the game limped forward Joe B had some great back and forth with Locker that kept the game watchable.  It’s a good thing they did.  In the third period Joe B noted that the Caps looked like a different team.  He made a pseudo-pun/prediction by saying the “Laich is a likely candidate” to get the scoring started.  Lo and behold, in the following minute Laich buried the puck in the net to get the Cap’s comeback started.  As the game went into overtime, you could tell Joe B was into it because he broke out his favorite term, “flamethrower”.  A final interesting note from Joe B’s performance tonight, he loved saying “Err-bomb”.  Very similar to the way he liked saying “Hammmerlick” last season.  Guess we should look for Alexander Urbom to join the Caps next season. 

Other Participants:

Alan May:  Was a hair shy of getting the third star tonight.  Good work from him as always.

Al Koken: Seems way more comforatble with May than Carlin does.

Last Star (0 pts instead of -1, Christmas gift):

Chris Miller. On a night dominated by Joe B and Locker but without any standout bad performances, Chris Miller gets the last star by process of elimination. Came out to do the first period highlights and did a passable job, though he seemed a half-step behind the action on the screen with his calls. We’re willing to mostly chalk that up to rust and give him a pass. However, we will NOT give him a pass for saying we should root for Pittsburgh to beat Winnipeg at the beginning of the postgame show. I don’t care how many points we or another team may have; rooting for Pittsburgh in December is never okay.

Point totals for Participants:
Locker: 10
May: 6
 Joe B: 6 
Smokin: 3
Jill Sorenson: 3
Miller: 0

Happy Holidays.  Next game is Monday. Twitter @Dru90.

Caps v Predators (Dec 20th)

In a game that I thought the Caps would struggle to score 1 goal, they put up 4.  Big win for the team at home.  Fair warning, I was driving home from College today and got stuck in traffic, so I missed the pregame!  Here is your stars for the night:

Third Star (1 pt):

Alan May.  May was back after his long absence from the broadcast during the road trip.  Paired up with his normal partner Rob Carlin, he handled the post game show.  In a night where everyone was talking about how great of a game the Caps played, May made sure to keep us grounded by pointing out how the team disappeared during the 2nd period.  In talking about Knuble's 1,000th game, Alan said he looks like a male supermodel.  Rob Carlin took that opportunity to take a shot at May, who was not amused.  Later in the show, Carlin made another bad joke when Smokin' Al's mic wasn't working and May gave him a death stare.  Big points for May's three keys to the game.  He said Ovie needed to score more and the powerplay had to produce.  Check and Check.  Does Alan May know hockey, or does he know hockey?

Second Star (2 pts):

Locker gets the nod in the 2nd spot tonight.  Good job color commentating, no stand out calls but no major blunders.  He was also back on the telestrator for the first time in awhile and he didn't miss a beat.  His "Hold it Here" count for the night is 9.  Keeping that in single digits is quite a feet for Locker so he definitely gets points for that.  Early in the game Locker told the fan's not to worry, "the goals will come".  Surprise, surprise a few minutes later Ovie buried the first goal of the night.  Four more would follow, with all the big stars getting in on the action so its safe to say Locker called it.  Locker was also wearing a big "22" button on his suit jacket, which was a nice show of support for Knuble.

First Star (3 pts):

Julie Donaldson.  Julie was back in championship form tonight.  She handled the first intermission and the intimidate post game show tonight in a really nice black dress jacket and dark blue shirt that said "I'm ready for business".  She ran through the highlights with emotion and precision.  She not only got the calls right, but it really seemed like she loves what she is doing.  People like Jill Sorenson could take a page out of her book on how to not seem like a robot.  (I'd say Gormely, but he is beyond fixing and may, in fact, be a robot).  Julie never stopped smiling all night and her sign off was "Go Caps".  Its always nice to see some team spirit.  With all the other Sportsnet anchors it seems like a job, but with Julie its feels like a passion.  She even had the ability to make me forget that Jenkins was her co-host, so I very much appreciated that.  Inspiring stuff tonight.

Other Participants:
Joe B:  "Hey. Hey guys. Guys. Guys, Guys, Guys.  Did you know it's Knuble's 1,000ths game?"

Carlin:  Stop trying to make jokes. May is not amused, will never be amused, and you are not friends.

Smokin': Does he spray tan?

Jenkins: Wearing a vest and pink tie without a jacket.  Had a "no that's not a roofie I put in your drink" look on his face the whole night.

Jill Sorenson:  Wore all black and stood in front of an all black background. Meet Jill the floating head.

Last Star (-1 pt):

Chuck Gormely.  Ehhhhh Chuck we missed you.  On a big night for Mike Knuble, Gormely decided it would be appropriate to make his segment about Knuble.  Good thinking Chuck, how could you screw that up.  Well bringing up Knuble's dead Dad was a good way to do just that.  Out of all the fantastic, hockey-related, achievements of Knuble's career Chuck decided to talk about his Dad who died when Knuble was 15.  He didn't even make an effort to tie it back into hockey.  Nope just dropped the "dead-dad" bomb and walked away.  He didn't even show a shred of what could be called an emotion.  Heartless.  Cold.  However, I did learn something new from Chuck's performance tonight.  I was so confused that he decided to talk about Knuble's father, instead of anything else about his playing career, that I asked myself, "how does Chuck Gormely do his research."  Well in the third sentence under "Playing Career" on Knuble's Wikipedia page it mentions his father's death.  Mystery solved.  Apparently all it takes to be an inside blogger is Wikipedia.  You may now refer to me as, Dru "Capitals Insider".

Twitter is @Dru90. Next game on Friday in New Jersey.  See you then!

Points of Participants to date:
Locker: 8
Alan May: 6
Julie: 4
Joe B: 3
Smokin: 3
Carlin: 3
Jill Sorenson: 2
Jenkins: -1
Gormley: -3 

Caps v Avalance (Dec 18th)

The last game of the Caps road trip was suppose to be a showdown with last-year Cap Varlamov.  Unfortunately that didn't happen.  Also unfortunately the Caps didn't win.  However, it was a strong game all around for the Sportsnet crew, which was working with a limited roster yet again.  Highlight was a surprise breakout performance by tonight's number one star.

Third Star (1 pt):

Tonight the third star goes to Locker and Joe B.  They both had solid games and neither really deserved to get the last star.  Plus they look o-so-good side by side.  Locker began the broadcast with a cool stat, only 149 out of 7,000+ games since 2005 have ended 1-0.  He went on to have a solid night of color commentating and handled the intermission interviews once again. Matt Hendricks was a questionable selection for the 2nd intermission interview given that the poor guy had just gotten the crap beaten out of him; he still seemed a little out of it. Then again, maybe he just still hadn’t recovered from the shock of that softie Neuvy gave up in the first. Or perhaps it’s because the poor dude has infant twins at home. Regardless, hope Hendy gets a good night’s sleep tonight; he earned it. Apparently Smokin Al isn’t important enough to fly out on road trips.  He made a bad joke about Varley’s back being injured from all the red lights in San Jose that nobody, including Joe B, laughed at.  The highlight of his night was his ample use of the phrase “Knuckle-puck” during the 2nd intermission highlights.  Guess he watched Mighty Ducks on the flight into Denver.  Joe B had a solid night calling the game and was all about stating the obvious.  He let us know on multiple occasions that Varley wasn’t playing goal, told us to have a happy holiday (alot), and made sure we remembered that other power play sucks.  He was also really into trains for some reason.  During the 1st intermission he said that the Caps had to get their “Choo-Choo” going, and he introduced the Coors Light Freeze Cam by saying “Chug-Chug-Chug” (maybe that one was about alcoholism and not trains).

Second Star (2 pts):

Jill Sorenson. Came out for the 2nd Intermission rocking the red, which is always a great way to score some brownie points right off the bat. Pretty businesslike while she ran through the highlights, but got through them without incident. She finally remembered to crack a smile as she signed off, presumably just to assure us she isn’t a robot. She led off the (very brief) post-game show. The best description she could come up with for McLeod’s goal was “It was floating!” after mumbling a bit of gibberish, but we’ll pardon her loss for words, because if we’re honest, we couldn’t have done any better.        

First Star (3 pts):

Rob Carlin.  Carlin was flying solo tonight and he looked pretty nervous during the first intermission break away from his normal partner Alan May.  However, once the highlights started going Carlin started to shine.  He handled some of the most difficult names in hockey without stumbling once.  Carlin did better as an intermission host than he has ever done hosting along side of Alan May, which makes us think May might just intimidate him (who can blame him).  With his performance tonight Carlin made a strong case to see more time as a intermission guy but if that happens who will replace him alongside of May?  Hopefully Jenkins cause we’d love to see May eat him alive. Also of note, he pulled off wearing a light brown suit which is not an easy task.  

So there you have it.  Solid performances all around for a bare bones Sportsnet crew.  If you came here looking for rage, fear not!  Next game is at the Verizon Center and I have a feeling everybody's favorite Capitals Insider will be making an appearance.  (See you Tuesday Chuck!)

Points to Date for Participants:

Locker: 6

Joe B: 3

Carlin: 3

Sorenson: 2 

Follow me on Twitter @dru90 to see when the posts go up!

Caps v Flyers (Dec 13)

The return of Jagr to Washington did not go like Caps fans had hoped. Rough game for the team but there were a few bright spots on the Comcast Sportsnet crew.  I don't have a firm time table of when I am going to get these things up after each game but, if you have a twitter you can follow me @Dru90 and I'll try and tweet once a post goes up.


First Star (3pts):

Alan May. He started off strong in the pregame. His partner Carlin and on-ice-reporter Jill Sorenson were talking about how good the Flyers are and that rubbed May the wrong way! Alan vented his rage on Carlin who he called out for wearing an orange and blue "Islanders Tie" and, when Carlin tried to come back with a snappy comeback about May's suit, Alan just stared him down and asked if that was the best he could do. Carlin quickly backpedaled and cut to commercial, presumably to grovel for forgiveness or get a good cry in. Most likely both. Postgame, May brought down the hammer as he called the Caps out for playing soft and letting the Flyers do whatever they wanted in front of the Caps net. Then, in a show of good will and generosity, Alan asks Locker a hockey question about defensive formations. Of course Alan knew the answer, but he likes to make his fellow broadcasters feel useful.  He is just that kind of guy.  May finished up the post game by talking about how Mike Green doesn't suck.




Second Star (2pts):

Craig Laughlin. Locker was down between the benches tonight and sounded a bit dishearten early on that he wasn't standing shoulder to shoulder with Joe B.  Or maybe it was the fact that the puck tried to kill him three times.  Who knows.  Either way, he began to loosen up and seemed to cope with his separation anxiety by trying to fight some old guy who was with the Flyers twice during the game.  That made for some good TV because honestly, who doesn't love a good old guy fight?  I was a bit disappointed that it took Locker till eleven minutes into the second period to call the puck a "biscuit" but, he made up for it with two pretty good on ice interviews with Knuble and Alzner. The thing that really pushed his performance over the top tonight though was his ability to call plays correctly. On the Flyers second goal, Locker repeatedly insisted that he saw it go off Matty-P.  On the Flyers controversial fifth goal, that went to the secret Toronto review bunker, Locker insisted that it went in. He turned out to be right on both occasions so he scores some major points there. Finally, he gets bonus points for awesome adverb usage during his description of the Flyers fourth goal: "The caps were good positionally defensively.”  Well said Locker, well said.



Third Star (1pt):

Julie Donaldson. Julie did the first intermission break and the immediate post game. She didn't quite seem to be herself tonight and I can't put my finger on why. Maybe its because she was wearing all gray which made her seem sad. Maybe it was because she was worried because the producers had stuck her in the studio with the Jenkins.  Can't blame her for that one.  She did a good job running through NHL highlights and showed off some real hockey knowledge by calling the Pens arena by its nickname, the "Igloo".  She also showed a clip from the Rangers game of a goalie getting completely destroyed in a collision and didn't even fuck it up with a stupid comment along the lines of "wow that must of hurt" or "that's gonna leave a mark".  During her her postgame highlights she didn't mention the painful Caps loss because she knew the wound was still fresh.  She knew we were in need of compassion and comfort after the beat down via the Philly so her sign off was accompanied with a really nice smile that made me feel a little bit better about the loss.  That was nice of her.  Even when she isn't 100%, Julie comes ready to play.



Other Participants (0 pts):
Micheal Jenkins: Wasn't THAT creepy. Maybe they told him to stop trying to act "cool".

Joe B.: Called a 90pt season for Backstrom.

Rob Carlin: AKA Alan May's Bitch.

Jill Sorenson: Like her haircut. Didn't like her apparent love for Jagr.

Al Koken: For a strange reason I keep picturing him as Wayne Newton.

Last Star (-1pt):

Chuck Gormely. Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Why do we always run into each other here at the bottom of the list. I have a feeling it's because you are terrible at your job. Actually I'm positive it's because you are terrible at your job.  Chuck made an appearance during the first period and I got to say I was pretty pumped.  I could just tell from his empty void of a stare that he was really excited about bringing us some insider news. Then he screws up right off the bat by mispronouncing Dale Hunter's name as "Daal Hunter."  Come on Chuck.  You know Dale Hunter.  He is the guy who is our coach. He is our new coach whose name has been all over the media. Surely you have heard his name pronounced once or twice before.  Anyways, Chuck goes on to give us his hard hitting journalism of the night, which is something about Hunter being enemies to friends to enemies with a Flyers assistant coach. There is no context given to the statement and he delivers it in such a deadpan manner that I don’t care enough to investigate further. So good job Chuck.  I hope the server that supports your blog is ready cause I'm sure you just inspired a million people to rush on over....  Finally, Gormely almost lets out a laugh near the end of his time on camera despite not making a joke. If he had laughed it would not of been a joyful jolly laugh. Chuck's laugh is more of a soulless awkward laugh of a man that knows his life is meaningless and his career is a sham. I'm sorry for that last one Chuck. I'll cut you a break next game.

NOTE: Next game is on the road and Gormely doesn’t seem to ever appear during road games.

Points to Date of Participants:
Alan May: 5
Al Koken: 3
Craig Laughlin: 2
Julie Donaldson: 1
Chuck Gormely: -2

See complete standings in the top right side of the blog!