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Hockey in Unexpected Places

6 September, 2010 / Kat

It’s Labor Day morning, and my husband is golfing. This results in an extremely rare occurrence for me – TV time. And even rarer, I found actual, factual music videos on TV. Shock of all shocks.

While watching Fuse (a channel I’m always fond of because it’s across from Madison Square Garden), I saw the video for Mike Posner’s Cooler Than Me. Wasn’t I shocked when I saw the Duke University graduate sing on my television in the following jacket:

Mike Posner, a Red Wings fan?

A Detroit Red Wings logo on the rapper/singer’s leather jacket. After some quick Wikipedia-ing, I realized this wasn’t a random placement, but a shout-out to his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. I guess when your only consistently high-performing sports team is your town’s NHL team, you rep it all over in your debut music video.

I wasn’t a giant fan of the guy before, but Mike Posner just became that much cooler…than me. (Ooh! Punny!) But no, really, he became cooler than me because I followed his video up with a DVRed Toddler and Tiaras marathon.

Thoughts from a Train Without Wi-Fi

11 August, 2010 / Kat

I wrote the following Tuesday morning on the train, but didn’t have internet to post it until Wednesday.

The man in front of me has a Verizon Mi-Fi card. I have been staring at this card and his MacBook for three straight hours, as he command-1-2-3s from Gmail to TweetDeck to Excel, and my iPhone and Mac keeps telling me, “Hey, there’s internet right in front of you – but it’s password protected. Haha!”

Mean, Mi-Fi. Mean, mean, mean Mi-Fi.

I’ve written one article – a piece for the Brookline Patch about the birth of Skating magazine – because all of the sources were hard copy Skating magazines from two years ago, along with one email from Ben Wright (someone I never in my life ever thought would email wanna-be journalist me, but there it was, Sunday morning in my inbox…ask my husband, I fell over in my chair) that I was able to bring up on my phone.

But can I post this piece and assure my editor that it’s done? No, because Amtrak doesn’t offer internet. Greyhound, of all means of transportation, now offers internet, but Amtrak can’t. And because I’m too chicken to ask the man in front of me for access to his Mi-Fi in exchange for five bucks. (Yes, I’m willing to pay at this point.)

There he goes again. Command 1. Command 2. TweetDeck, Excel, GMail. Mean Mi-Fi.

So while he justly hogs his internet, here are some sports related thoughts: Continue reading

“We Want Cusick” Campaign: Just Say Yes to “Score!”

2 August, 2010 / Kat

Days of Y’Orr is a cleverly named Boston Bruins blog who is leading a very good fight. Thursday, writer Jonathan Fucile posted his well-justified request to the Bruins organization to have longtime late announcer Fred Cusick honored by using his famous “Score!” clip after every Bruins goal.

Said Fucile:

Just imagine hearing Cusick’s voice after every Boston goal. Fans would love it. We here at Days of Y’Orr definitely feel it would add a little something after the goal. Think of the Bruins scoring a huge goal in the playoffs followed by Cusick’s “Score!” with every fan in attendance yelling the same. We can’t think of a better way to honor Fred Cusick.

I completely and wholeheartedly agree, and I wasn’t even born and bred in Boston.

To help Days of Y’orr further their cause, you can sign their petition, download a flyer to distribute, or contact the Bruins directly by phone or email (the information about the last two are on the original blog post.) It makes little sense for the Bruins not to oblige – I just hope they give Fucile and the rest of the blog’s crew the credit they deserve when they eventually do.

An Analysis of Every Train Song Ever (Or, I’m a Suburbanite)

1 August, 2010 / Kat

I have become a suburbanite. The one thing I never wanted to become, I have become. It was time to move out of Allston after a neighbor turned our apartment building into an art studio, complete with an 125 attendee opening night party that involved a huge piece of bad art being placed in front of my door, a full carpet of Miller Light cans left on our front stairs (Where did your taste go, young art goers? Go with Molson if you want a cheap beer.), having the artist-neighbor tell my husband that the artist-neighbor is “a f— horse,” non-existent security after some was promised, and people playing slide on our interior stairs with margaritas in their hands.

The morning after, my husband had to go take an ax he had borrowed (he needed to cut up our broken futon in order to remove it from the apartment) back to his parents house, and while taking it to the car, scared off the homeless man picking up the carpet o’ beer cans. He had to run down the street – with the ax – to convince the homeless man that he wasn’t threatening him, just taking an ax to his car, and to encourage him to please take all the beer cans. Luckily, this happened at 6:30am on a Saturday morning, otherwise I think this would have become more of a problem than it was.

So we moved to the ‘burbs. (Truthfully, it was in the works way before this art opening/ax incident, but it helped seal the deal.)

Moving to the suburbs means I now have a long-ish commute on the commuter rail, which in turn leads to me spending much quality time with my iPod, which in turn has led me to the following conclusion:

Every Train song is the same. Continue reading

A College Hockey Geek’s Guide to Day 1 of NHL Free Agency

1 July, 2010 / Kat

Derek Stepan is just one of 8 former college players listed in today's Transactions. (Photo: BroadwayHockeyDaily.com)

Thursday’s start to the NHL Free Agent signing period was a nice pace of busy – just enough to keep die-hards engaged, but not so much as to seem like free agents were being tossed like slippery fish in Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle.

For us college hockey fans out there, many of the giant moves of the day had little to do with college hockey alumni. That isn’t to say that college hockey alumni stayed still – some moved, one officially left early, and we found a blog favorite swapped right before bedtime on free agency eve. A few quick notes for college hockey fans looking to keep up with Day 1:

– University of Vermont hangs with the Gophers and Badgers. Of the eight college hockey players (my own hand count – feel free to call me out if I’m wrong) changing hands or signing deals since late Wednesday evening, two were from the University of Vermont: Martin St. Louis (whose four year contract extension with the Lightning was previously announced but officially went through today) and The Swedish, blog favorite Viktor Stalberg (who found himself a part of a giant deal where he was swapped with others by the Maple Leafs in exchange for Chicago Blackhawks Kris Versteeg and Bill Sweatt, a Colorado College alum.) The Catamounts tied with the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota for the most amount of former college players listed on the transaction wire in the past 24 hours (2 each). Now about that “former players” bit, Badgers….

– Derek Stepan officially ended his college career today. Stepan, the WCHA leader in points and assists this past season, ended his collegiate elgibility by agreeing to terms with the New York Rangers (quite the college hockey friendly franchise, eh?) He played two seasons for the Badgers, and captained the victorious squad at this year’s World Junior Championships. Not a shocking early leave, but still a early college departure in a season chock full of them…

– The State of Hockey gets one of their own. St. Cloud State alum Matt Cullen was signed to a three year deal by the Minnesota Wild today, after playing with the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators this past year. Cullen is from Virginia, MN, giving him what is sure to be the “Little Boy In Minnesota” dream trifecta: grow up in Minnesota, play college hockey in Minnesota, then play professional hockey in Minnesota. Awww. I’m such a sucker for those stories.

Your list for Day 1, with help from TSN.ca (Happy Canada Day!)

– Toronto swapped Viktor Stalberg (UVM-Hockey East) and two others for Bill Sweatt (CC-WCHA) and Kris Versteeg from Chicago.

– Martin St. Louis (UVM back during the ECAC days) signed a four-year contract extentsion with Tampa Bay.

– Derek Stepan (Wisc.-WCHA) agrees to terms with the New York Rangers officially, thus ending his elgibility two years early.

– Matt Cullen (St. Cloud State – WCHA) signs a three year deal with the Minnesota Wild.

-Adam Burish (Wisc. – WCHA) signed a two year deal with the Dallas Stars after spending three seasons with Chicago.

– Jordan Leopold (Minn. – WCHA) signs a three year contract with the Buffalo Sabres.

-Jonathan Matsumoto (Bowling Green – CCHA) signed a two-year, two-way contract with Carolina. He’s spent his four pro seasons in the Phantoms organization in the AHL.

-Paul Martin (Minn. – WCHA) signed a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins, after spending his entire pro thus far with the New Jersey Devils. (I initially forgot this, and didn’t see it listed when I was investigating the TSN transactions list Thursday evening, but big thanks to Laurel for reminding me.)

Kat Cornetta