Thursday, July 21, 2005

"There's Something About Sidney"

Sidney Crosby's playing the lottery just as much as the teams are. THe bigger the market the bigger the bucks.

But since normally the worst teams in the NHL (rightfully so) get first dips a lot of the new young talent is on small market team. Imagine if some of the young marketable talent were on teams that got more attention. Columbus's Rick Nash, Calgary's Jarome Iginla, or even Atlanta's Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk. Not to mention no one can pronounce Iglinla's name, and Heatley's carrer was darkened by an auto crash with him behind the wheel ending in the death of a teamate.

Still have the gut feeling he will be a Ranger. Because well I never thought I would say it, but the Rangers have got a lot of balls.


Related Article from TSN.

"Comcast Hockey Net"

The NHL has no cable network home. Which means it likely the end of the beloved national hockey night theme. Which makes me really sad. There is a slim chance that ESPN might get a deal dirt cheap.


However, I think more than likely the NHL will end up on a smaller channel like SPIKE. Because, of fear of a ratings slump.

But the last week I am leaning towards Comcast stepping in. Comcast sportsnet is just regional in major cities. However, they are carrying the draft lottery when even ESPN won't. This comes on the heels of Flyers owner Ed Snider slamming ESPN, saying they sucked at promoting the game anyway. Which I thought was a lousy thing to do, since there was still as hot of ESPN and the NHL making up. Not to mention I totally disagree with that statement. If anything ESPN stood by the NHL too long from business prospective.

It's clear Comcasts goal is to have a national sports network. This would be a step in the right direction. They tried to buy Disney last year. So, I guess if you can't buy them. Build your empire and one day mop the floor with them. 5 years from now Comcast Sportsnet could easily be not only a national sports channel, but knock ESPN off its throne. Now, the whole Monday night football thing makes more sense. Almost, like a pre emptive strike.

"New Record!"

Tropical Storm Franklin has set a record fo named storms in the month of July. The peak of hurricane season is still roughly 4 weeks away, and we are already on the letter F. Although, these storms have been strong, they have mostly fizzled once they hit land. They could have been a lot worse. Even the resent Emily who hit Mexico broke apart easily.


Meanwhile, record highs are showing up all over the country. The ocean in New England the great lakes are near 10 degrees above normal.


Do you think this is Global Warming in action? Or just a hot freaky summer?

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

"Crosby a Ranger?"

So the NHL Exteme will hold its draft a week from Saturday. But since there was no last season they must have a lottery. Which will occur on Friday to detemine the order of the teams.

Now each team gets 3 balls for the lottery, but loses one for each playoff appearance in the last 3 seasons. However, they all must have one. Translation the Flyers will have one ball bouncing around. The Rangers will have 3. Now whoever gets number one will take Sidney Crosby, because he is said to be the best player to be drafted since Super Mario. I cant recall the last time an hockey player got this much hype before the draft.

We should know Friday afternoon, but there I really think Crosby is going to be Ranger. Simply, because its the biggest market, and I think they may rig this thing.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Summer Movie Files 204: Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four doesn't have the brand name power that Spiderman or Batman has. In fact during the peak of my comic book reading days I would guess I read a total of two issues of this title.


Never the less Comic book movies are the Hollywood trend right now. Several years ago we merely had the Superman and Batman movies. However starting in the late 90s the trend caught fire so we have almost an entire bell curve ot the comic book films.

Of course that means there are some let downs such as Spiderman. In addition some real dogs that usually merit one viewing such as Sin City, and even worse the Hulk in which the film makers forgot that comic book movies are supposed to be fun.


At any rate I knew very little of the origin story of The Fantastic Four and altough Im told it was altered a bit, it was certainly a good starting point for viewers who know know the story. In fact 80 percent of the movie is the four soon to be super heros trying to figure out their powers, and the best way to deal with them.

Apperently a space storm of some sort altered their DNA and gave them all different powers. One can turn transparent, another morphed into a huge rock type thing, another get fly short distance and turn into a ball of fire, and yet another can stretch his limbs to the extereme.

Although, it may lack the heart the say Richard Donner's Superman or the creative vision of Tim Burton's Batman it is still wildly entertaining. Playing out almost like X-men lite. Packed with more jokes than the X-men, but that is part of the fun.

There is not much of a show down between the villian and the fantastic four, but that in this case is a refreshing change since that part of the film usually drags. Sure it might be mainly a B-cast, but the acting is pretty good for this type of film.


The movie is generally a fun 2hours in the theater. Oh, yeah and Jessica Alba looks great. I already forgave her for Sin City.