I totally twitter-jinxed this game: Minnesota @ San Jose, Nov 10, 2011

Twitter is a very useful and powerful tool. A single tweet can set off a chain reaction of events that could (hypotheticaly) destroy the universe!! (in a "butterfly effect" sort of way, minus Ashton Kutcher [@aplusk]). I was blissfully ignorant of its actual power and I'm sorry for that, but I totally jinxed it on Twitter today.

Perhaps it was when I first tweeted the photo of my impulse buy at Target today:

Hey! I bought a baseball cap of a hockey team!!

Not only was I shirtless (and not in a Fabio attractive kind of way), but I was totally jinxing it. Introducing a new piece to my game-day outfit while the Wild are on a hot streak?? WHAT WAS I THINKING?! (If they say that players don't wash their jock straps when they're on a hot streak, well you can call it a half jinx because I changed my underwear every day during the 5-game streak)

Exhibit two:

Late in the 2nd period, the Wild were down 2-0. The frame was winding down, and I thought "nothing better than a goal to spark up this team!!" You know, momentum going into an intermission. (and by intermission I mean where the players sit in the locker-room for 17 minutes not playing hockey)

I tweeted this ambiguous cry for action:

Oh I got my wish, alright.

Not sure exactly how much time passed between that tweet and Torrey Mitchell blasting a one-timer off a faceoff that surprised Backstrom... but it was less than your average Looney Tunes short. It wasn't until I saw that puck cross the goal line that it hit me: I had totally jinxed it.

I'm not gonna go as far as to tweet sweet nothings in the Los Angeles Kings' ear, but I should start using these powers for good, and not evil.

Flyers strategy for facing 1-3-1 worse for hockey than the 1-3-1 itself

So today's Philadelphia Flyers @ Tampa Bay Lightning game featured the famous (or perhaps notorious) 1-3-1 defensive zone trap that got the Bolts to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, the Flyers brought a strategy to the table that was a little interesting..



Basicly, just skate around in a circle with the puck in your defensive zone for 30+ seconds.

Yea, okay guys, we know you do not like the 1-3-1. WE GET IT. And guess what? The people that hate it are numerous and in the majority. But PLEASE don't pull this stupid boring fucking shit.

This is a nationally broadcast game on Versus in the United States, a country that does not have as many hockey fans per mile² than Canada does per km² (so less hockey fans in a larger area). During the NBA lockout, there are people who might decide to flip on a hockey game, looking for something to keep entertained while waiting for the return of Lebron James. Or a casual sports fan might tune in after seeing that the Flyers are the #1-ranked goal scoring team in the league.

And I have a feeling a lot of those "Casual Sports Fan"-type and "Potential new NHL Fan"-type people tuned out 10 seconds in. Thanks to a message the Flyers wanted to send about the 1-3-1 trap. Message received.

New beginnings

My blog is now powered by blogger. This serves a couple important purposes:

1) No longer share my blog with my MySQL server, which probably doesn't like a webserver running along side it [also, less connections to MySQLd without requests from my blog]; and

B) Larger audience being on Blogger than some obscure unknown website, more people reading/commenting/stroking my ego;

See? This is a total win!! [I guess you could also include point Gamma]

Γ) Hopefully I will be more inclined to update this with a new platform.. I'm a superfan of new things.

Ignore the very vanilla design while I roll out a new layout for both this blog and my website. And judging my my procrastinationness, that could be a while.

Out with the old, in with the new.