Preds Win Game 3 (and more)

"Breaking News" - not only did the Preds win game 3 tonight, but the Metro Council finally has the new lease out of committee and looks ready to vote on it today (tomorrow...er...Tuesday the 15th). Good timing!

I'll leave it to those smarter than me to dissect the game fully (or you can just watch highlights below). Sufficed to say, Trotz made adjustments, something he hasn't done well in the past. The adjustments in lines and match-ups freed our players to do what they needed to do, and they got the job done.

You will also hear much regarding the crowd tonight. Once again, there were several long standing ovations, and the final 3-4 minutes was probably the loudest i've ever experienced at a sporting event of any kind (and i've been to San Antonio Spurs games in the NBA Finals, etc). I'm not going to say it was the loudest ever in history...but it was pretty nuts. To put it in perspective, i'm a drummer, and i was afraid of having some serious hearing damage.

Major kudos to the arena crew once again for knowing when to let the crowd go. There was more than one time that the crowd started a "Lets Go Predators" or other chant and the arena crew quickly muted the techno or whatever music they were playing in favor of letting the crowd feed off the natural hype. They also finally traded the commonly used red lights during pre-game for blue and yellow (gold) ones. You'd think this was a no-brainer, but it hasn't always been. These 'little things' did not go unappreciated!

I'm also uploading all the pictures that Christy took at tonights game. She's been grabbing better shots than me lately, so i'm letting her have the camera from here on out i think (besides, we win when she's shooting).

Of course, i took this shot during pre-game warm-ups:
They always show the pretty girls in the crowd ya know :-)

I also have to apologize to David Legwand. During warm-ups i took this picture of his skates (right), which to me showed he was clearly a decoy and not going to actually play. Thank you for proving me very wrong, Leggy.

And finally, this is now my new favorite Preds picture (that wasn't taken by me or Christy).

Predators make the Playoffs!!!

I'll try to blog about it more tomorrow.

Right now i've got to try to come down off this adrenaline rush and get some sleep.

Preds won. Vancouver Lost. We're in the playoffs!

Lots of pictures here (courtesy of my lovely bride, who took all the shots at tonight's game), including pictures of Titan's quarterback Vince Young, who was at the game and threw out t-shirts to the crowd.

And a video she shot of the amazing spontaneous crowd response is here:

Nashville Thanks the Predators

(If the video isn't working, that's because it's still converting on Vimeo's server...check back a little while...)

The crowd rose to give the team a standing ovation during a TV timeout after a great effort in the 3rd period. And they wouldn't stop. For a solid 2:30, the crowd just stood and cheered and waived their t-shirts* (think about it...just sit in your chair and do nothing for 2:30. That's a long time). The arena crew was smart enough not to interrupt with any videos or music. Just let the crowd thank the team. It was amazing. The game wasn't even over at that point. Gave me the chills.

Detroit vs. Nashville will start sometime next week.
Let's go Preds!

* By the way, the t-shirts look great and are way cooler shirts than past giveaway shirts

Predators/Hockey News (with attendance update)

I was widely quoted as being a pessimist about the attendance for the Predators when i made this post back a few weeks ago (something about titling it "Bad News for the Predators' Future"). Since I posted that, i figure i owe everyone an update:

Through 28 games, the Predators had averaged 12,756 in paid attendance. In the last 5 games, the Preds averaged 14,190 in paid attendance (including a few sellouts that were at about 15,200 in paid attendance). That's a significant increase, and something to be proud of. That brings our average through 33 games to 12,973 per game. Still not where it needs to be, but an improvement.

So, now we must average 13,750 in paid attendance to reach the 13,125 needed to qualify for the revenue sharing we need. Looks like a very do-able number, especially since we've averaged well better than that lately (and the current race for the playoffs, free food night, and a few games against Detroit won't hurt).

Unfortunately, it looks like my other predictions from my earlier post were pretty accurate. Even if the Preds sold out every game from here on out (assuming that translates to 15,200 in paid attendance out of the 17,113 capacity, as has usually been the case) that would only pull the average up to 13,408. Far, far short of the 14,000 needed to keep the current lease intact.

So, it's a good thing Freeman and the new ownership crew finally got the new lease over to the Sports Authority after all. That agreement keeps the team here for at least another 3-5 years (depending on attendance) and I am beginning to trust this new ownership group to do what it takes to win over fans and businesses in the community...

UPDATE: A blogger on the Tennessean's website (only works in I.E.) is also reporting that the new ownership has rescinded the "cure clause" for attendance this year. Meaning that, technically, even if the new lease isn't put into effect and the 14,000 in paid attendance isn't reached, the team still can't move. The same blogger says that the Sports Authority will be reviewing (and voting on?) the new lease terms tomorrow morning. Still awaiting any official confirmation...

UPDATE 2: Just talked to my ticket rep and it looks like the March 20th Detroit game and the March 22nd Chicago game will be sellouts, and several other games are going fast. Looking good!

---

Which reminds me, it turns out that local good-guy Gordon David Freeman is the largest shareholder after all. He owns 32.63% of the team, while the "outsiders" from California, Boots Del Biaggio and Warren Woo own only a combined 31.58%. That is a significant change from what we were led to believe earlier.

The fact that the outsiders (with eyes for a franchise in Kansas City) don't actually own most of the team, with locals just holding a token share, really means a lot to me. Conspiracy theories about them just playing nice and having a plan all-along to move the team (and Freeman just being a guy they talked into being a local front/mouthpiece) aren't going to go away... but this sure looks better, especially when you take into account that the remaining 35.79% is owned by other Nashville locals (making the total local share nearly 70%). I'm kinda surprised the team hasn't made a bigger deal out of it.

---

The first two sentences from an article in the Tennessean today regarding Martin Gelinas:

Predators forward Martin Gelinas will undergo surgery on Wednesday to repair his torn ACL, putting an end to his season.

Gelinas had suffered the injury Feb. 21 against Vancouver, but was hoping that — after the swelling had gone down — there would still be a chance he’d be able to play without the ACL this season.

Really? I'd love to have seen him try to play with a ligament completely removed from his leg. He's a tough player, but i don't think anyone would be able to pull that off.

On a more serious note, it is too bad that we've lost Jelly Gelli Gelinas for the season, and i honestly wonder if his career is done. He was playing very well for us this year, but he's getting up in years, and recovering from ACL damage this bad won't be easy, even for a fitness and conditioning nut like him. If he were under contract, i'd say he'll be back. But i don't know many teams that will take a 38 year old 3rd-liner recovering from a bum ACL. Great player, but that may be it for him.

---

I didn't get a chance to watch the Washington Capitals clean the ice with the Boston Bruins tonight, but...wow. Of course, everyone's going to be talking about Ovechkin's 5-point hat-trick-with-2-helpers night, but just take a second to check out the box score. More than just the 10-2 slaughter stands out to me...

Boston players Zedeno Chara (who i have on my fantasy roster), Marco Sturm, and Phil Kessel all played 16 or more minutes (nearly 20 for Chara) but ended up even in plus/minus. Kessel actually ended up plus-1 for the night!? I know 4 goals were on the power play (so they don't count toward plus/minus), but 6 goals were at even strength! How do you end up on the bad side of a 10-2 drubbing and still end up plus-1 for the game? Wow.

Conversely, with 6 goals scored at even strength and only one even strength goal allowed against their team, Sergei Federov, Brooks Laich, and Alexander Semin somehow ended up minus-1 for the game. Ouch.

Ovechkin got his 5 points, but the Caps really spread the love tonight. Every single player in the Capitals roster registered at least a point (either a goal or an assist) except poor Jurcina and new arrival Sergei Federov.

Besides the horrible minus-1 and no points for Sergei in the game, he didn't draw a complete goose-egg on the otherwise packed box score...he had a single shot on goal. Woooow. I'm sure he was one of the 3 stars for this game...

Chara not only pulled off an even plus/minus for my fantasy team in this game, he also pulled in an assist, a shot on goal, and 9 PIMs. And someone just offered me a trade with him for Jonathan Cheechoo. Ha! Yeah right!

What's Your Number?

People seem a bit confused about new Predator Brandon Bochenski…or at least what number he will wear while on the Preds roster.

The Predators website says he will wear #12 (the number he wore in Anaheim), however it also still lists Scott Nichol as continuing to wear #12, and Bochenski has been in the league a shorter time than Nichol, so I don’t see him bumping Scooter of his number. Yahoo sports page lists him as wearing #13, which seems logical given his previous wearing #12…but I seriously doubt a hockey player would wear #13. (by the way, Sports Illustrated's site still says he's on the Duck's roster)

The most authoritative evidence we have is probably from the pictures my wife took at the open practice this afternoon. Practice jersey's don't have numbers on them...but helmets do. Zoom in close and you can see that he's got #24 on the back of his helmet (picture at right). Yup, Scott Walker's old number. I bet there will be more than a few fans not thrilled at that prospect, though he did get a warm welcome at practice today. Christy said he seemed genuinely surprised when several fans asked for his autograph as he was headed to the locker room after practice. Guess they don't do that to non-superstars in Anaheim.

Let's just hope he can help out the team that needs...something.

We'll find out Sat night as the Preds take on Dallas (will be in HD on Fox Sports South).

(For the record: the other new Pred, Jan Hlavich, is wearing Scott Hartnell's old #17. While Scott was well liked while here, i think it is safe to say that he was not as universally loved and appreciated the same way Scott Walker was/is.)

Cruise Pictures

Well, finally back to posting. The holidays were great and i pretty much totally took time away from the PC for a while (though i did get a new Blackberry so i can't exactly claim to be totally unplugged)... and then of course i was out of town and then on a cruise for quite a while. Internet on the cruise was slow and $0.75 per minute - so you didn't get updates. Yeah. Sorry about that. Or not.

Anyway. Pictures from the cruise are starting to go up!

I took a lot of pictures. A whole lot. Like...around 400 i think. While not all of them are keepers (bless you digital camera technology), i still have a lot to sort through, crop, stitch panoramas, etc. So slowly but surely i've been uploading them, one "day" of the trip at a time.

First 3 days of the trip are now up - New Orleans (where my sister Amy was helpful in tagging and mapping pictures after showing us the town), boarding the ship, and the first day at sea. Go check them out!

Here are a few of my favorites for those of you too lazy to actually visit my Flickr site to see ALL 112 PICTURES i've uploaded so far:

never ask 'where' again

This is pretty awesome.

A small GPS device that you carry around in your pocket. You simply sync its clock up with the one in your digital camera, stick it in your pocket, then walk around taking pictures (for up to 5 hours). Then when you're done, pop the SD card from your camera into the device. It automatically looks back on the stored GPS data from your day's travels and compares it to the time stamp on the pictures you've taken. Then it writes the data to the pictures exif info. Instant GPS equipped photography.

Given that i geo-tag every picture i ever take (yes - all 4,400+ pictures in my Flickr stream), this is definitely something i could get in to. Now i just hope that Flickr goes back to the old way of viewing (like the map on the right of some of my photos) the maps of my photos. It wasn't perfect before, but it is better than the new method.

published pictures

Eastwood Neighbors just came out with their 13 month calendar, featuring not one, but two shots by yours truly. Now, i haven't seen the calendars, so i can't speak to their overall quality and such. (I certainly am not responsible for the proofreading ability of whoever posted the announcement) But i'm pretty proud of having pictures selected just the same.

These two shots were selected for the calendar:

"Waiting Semi-Patiently"

and

"East Park Gym"

By the way: If you're interested in buying one, you can visit their site for info. But don't buy one on my account. I won't see a dime and it's not that big a deal for me.

While i'm on the topic, i'll go ahead and brag some more that my pictures have been used a few different places. Two other print-based tour guide books have contacted me about using my pictures (though neither has sent me a copy yet) and two other web-based sites use my shots. One is a shot of the railroad bridge over the Cumberland River in Shelby Bottoms Park (at the right) featured on Schmap!'s sports grounds page, another is a picture of downtown (focus on Broadway) that serves as the shot of Nashville for an international based tour site, Geoglob. That one i am particularly happy with, though i don't think either of these sites is particularly well trafficked or famous, it's cool just the same to have my pictures singled out. I've also had a bunch of my Predators photos grabbed and posted all over the place, particularly the Predators Fan group on Facebook and on the Predators message boards... though they generally don't ask permission.

And while i'm on the photos topic, i love that Flickr finally, FINALLY started including real stats for pictures and photo streams. It still isn't as deep-dive or robust as i'd love it to be, but it is better than nothing. Enough that i can brag that since Flickr started keeping stats my 4,426 photos have been viewed 47,814 times, and that on Nov 30th alone, i had 916 views of my photos. Yay :-)

proof it wasn't a dream

Some of you who know me and have heard me talk about the Predators, have heard me tell the story about the night the Predators Flying Tiger (seen in its normal state here) got stuck in the rafters at a playoff game. It was actually the first every home playoff game for the Preds on April 11th, 2004 (a game we won handily by the way).

Basically what happened was this: The Flying Tiger was doing its usual thing, flying around and dropping passes for free stuff to fans. Then all of a sudden the crew directed it down over the ice, which it never does. They flew it lower and lower until someone went out on the ice and grabbed its "tail" (mooring cable i think) and began to lead it gingerly to the zamboni entrance floating about 6 feet above the ice. Then, all of a sudden, the whole fan/motor system on the bottom just fell off. Of course, all the weight of the fans, batteries, etc was the ballast for the balloon, and now it weighed far too little. The keeper holding the cable was unprepared and the whole thing shot straight up in the air and jerked the cable out of his hand. It flew straight up and jammed itself in the catwalk and remained there for the rest of the evening (probably a great view from there actually).

Well, i was just digging through a whole bunch of old pictures in my archive folders, and i stumbled upon video that i actually shot of the occasion on my old Sony Clie UX50. It's not pretty, but it's proof! You can definitely see the Flying Tiger motionless at the top of the arena, stuck in the rafters above the ice.

So here ya go. Enjoy!

Predators Flying Tiger stuck in the rafters from Paul Nicholson on Vimeo.

I fell for it

I just paid $0.89 extra for a large combo i very much didn't need, just to get a free download that normally cost... $0.89. Stupid.

It's a little slow today

It's been a little slow at work today.

pic of the week

This is, by far, the picture of the week year so far for the Preds.
(Original found here)

The expression on the Panther player's face, Vokoun lying flat on his back, and the celebration of the Predators players. Great stuff.

Pictures of Me

At first i was thinking this would be a post in poor taste. A little too self-centered. Then i remembered that the entire concept of a blog is pretty self-centered and, well, being self-centered isn't something i struggle with - i give in regularly. So here goes.

My friend Jeff just posted some pictures he snapped of me at a Preds game. Wanted to share.

This one is of me talking to the NHL refs, down from Toronto to watch the game.

And this one is of me taking pictures.
So now you know where all these come from.

THANKS JEFF!

the other part of the show

(Sorry for the long post, especially about something this trivial. But hey, it’s me)

In addition to being a big hockey fan, i am a media/marketing/entertainment geek. I also have a painful attention to detail sometimes (I say this not as a boast, but…well…”it’s a blessing and a curse”). Combine these two and…well…I study things like the videos and entertainment packages at the Preds games waaaay more closely than they are intended to be studied. Oh well. I am what i am.

Anyway, here’s what I noticed last night.

Quick mention: Lots of really cool new graphics that we didn’t see during the pre-season. New filler animations, Power Play animations, Goal animations, “Preds Win” animations, and “Thanks for Attending” animations. Also new “Kiss Cam” graphics, though these seem pretty plain. I’m guessing those will be tweaked in the near future.

There were also a few changes around the arena. The column at the attack twice end that used to be painted like a giant can of Edge shaving cream is now painted with the Signature Tower on it (the soon-to-be mega-sky-scraper that is planned for Church Street downtown). The Signature Tower also sponsored the t-shirts we were given last night. The interesting thing is that not only has the Signature Tower not been built yet, but it is years away and may not even happen. They are having trouble selling the last set of apartments needed to secure financing, etc. But apparently they are going to be huge sponsors of the Preds this year, which is great (for both i think). They are enough of a sponsor that the new opening video now features the as-yet unbuilt tower, but i’ll get to that in a second.

First, there’s a nice new opening video (that I tried to record and goofed for some reason and didn’t catch…I’ll see if I can get it on Sat) with all the players and cool highlights. Very nice video, very well done. Really hypes the crowd.

That then transitioned into the new Intro video (which i did record and will upload soon). It’s basically the same as previous years…hockey players representing other teams land on the frozen Cumberland River (they now arrive in meteor format, not skating down the river, and they don’t beat up the General Jackson) and a Big Cat/Predator (is that considered Gnash?) comes into downtown and beats them up, then climbs up to the top of a building and roars. Only now it climbs the Bellsouth/AT&T/Batman building (like it used to), and from there it jumps up to the Signature Tower and climbs it (picture on the right). Kinda cool really. Funny thing is, they don’t have the new Bass Berry and Sims building visible in the shots around downtown, even though it is actually being built right now and is quite close to the arena (picture on the left, above). You also can’t see the Signature Tower in the background of the long shots of downtown (picture on the left, below). Only in the close-up final shot when the Predator is climbing it. I am sure while the organization is putting things together they may think of some of these things but think “nah, no one will notice that, it’s just on the screen for half a second”. Sorry guys.

There was also a new concession stand on the lower level I had never seen before, and they are apparently remodeling some of the concession stands on the lower and upper levels. I’m interested to see what’s going in there (they better get them finished soon!). I was surprised that they weren’t finished for opening night.

All in all the new arena experience is great. The franchise is very much moving in the right direction.

Oh yeah – and the Predators played AWESOME.
Mason was great. Defense played well. I could really tell the experience of our youngsters combined with the new veterans meant much more responsible, positional hockey. Very few times did the Avalanche get any really strong scoring chances and those were mostly in the 1st period. The power play clicked on the first go, though later attempts didn’t look too strong. As my wife called it, the “power play kill”. Lots of work to do there, but if we get anything close to that effort on a consistent basis (which I think is more likely again, due to the young players having yet another year under their belts and the new vets) we’ll be just fine this year.

TF2 Review

I keep meaning to make a post about Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately, ever since it was released made available for beta testing to people who pre-ordered the Orange Box, i haven't stopped playing it long enough to make a post about it. I haven't been playing it a scary amount, but given the choice of using my spare time to blog about TF2 or actually play TF2... the blog kept getting put off.

Sufficed to say this game is immensely fun. And i don't mean it is well done and engrossing and realistic...i mean it is FUN. Goofy, laugh-out-loud fun. Don't get me wrong, it is also engrossing and immersive and all of those good things that games should be. But most importantly it is the one thing that so many games aren't these days - a real pleasure to play. This game isn't about realism. It is about chaos, ridiculous situations, rocket-jumping, bunny hopping, and all those other things that made old-school deathmatch gaming so fun - but with great team dynamic and balanced gameplay like i've never seen outside of Day of Defeat. Over and over again while playing this game, i find my self laughing outloud - usually when i've just been blown away. That tends to happen when the 'death cam' shows you the person that just killed you looking like the screenshot on the right. Any player can instantly put their character into a 'taunt' at any time. It's great fun to hit that button right after you kill someone so you know they are being forced to watch you dance. There are also many times when the game will also helpfully identify the parts of you that are laying at your enemy's feet (see image at the left). These shots also show off another cool aspect of getting killed - the game always gives you updates on what you've done well. The game is a statistician's dream and tracks the amount of damage you do, kills you get, kill assist you get, healing you perform, captures made, buildings made, buildings destroyed, etc, etc. After you are killed it told you what was particularly good about that last round, for you. You may be like me and stink at the game, but hey, you got closer to your record for damage in a round as a soldier that time than you've been in a while. Playing this game and being killed manages to be a constantly rewarding and reaffirming experience, without being condescending.

One of the other things that is really nice is the concept of the kill assist. The most obvious version of this is when a Medic is healing a Heavy or some other player and that player kills someone. The Medic clearly made it possible, so they get partial credit for the kill and receive points. The other, really nice kill-assist is when you've done a large portion of damage to an opposing player and one of your teammates comes along to help and finishes them off. Well, you may have done 250 points in damage to that Heavy (who has 300 hit points) but in most games your teammate that did the final 50 points damage would have gotten sole credit for the kill. In TF2, you both get credit. Your name gets flashed along with your teammate's.

Another fun/competitive element thrown into the game is the concept of a "nemesis". If someone kills you 5 times without you killing them, they are said to be "dominating" you and they are now your "nemesis". They will now have a special icon above their head (only for you) and you'll get double points if you can manage to kill them (a "revenge kill"). I've had the pleasure of being on the giving and receiving end of these multiple times and it just adds another layer of fun to the game.

My one request/complaint is that they took away the nifty muzzle flash effects we saw in the trailers. This whole game as a very cartoonist, straight-outta-Pixar look to it (but is surprisingly easy on the system requirements). In all the trailers - right up to a few weeks ago - all the muzzle flashes were very cartoonist as well. However, in the 'beta' version we've all been playing, they decided to covert the muzzle flashes to use the same nifty particle effects technique they developed for the Pyro's flame thrower.

Original muzzle flash effect

New muzzle flash effect.

There are dozens of other awesome things i'd love to say about this game. It has a great commentary track from the makers of the game, cool intro videos you can watch to help you understand the basics of each map before loading them, a really nice achievement system...and don't get me started on the intricacies of playing the engineer. But...i'm gonna go play more now.

If you want to track my personal game stats, you can always see them here.

Predators Marketing

Caught this on the phone pole at 5-Points in East Nashville. Sign reads "IF YOU LIVE IT THEY WILL STAY. 10/4/07 IT BEGINS". And it lists www.nashvillepredators.com, www.savethepredators.com, and www.ourteamnashville.com

I'm not sure if this is official from the Predators or not. If it is - wow, amazing, awesome, and it's about dang time.

Unfortunately i'm pretty sure this is an unauthorized fan creation. Either way, great to see.

LAN Port

Yes, some cities are rolling out municipal wifi. Nashville is rolling out municipal wired-based broadband. At the base of every telephone pole there will be a RJ-45 LAN port.

OK, ok... I Couldn't resist painting out the "D". It is actually a sign for the bus station downtown.

Beautification Power

One of our councilman over here in East Nashville is working on passing an ordinance that will help clean-up Gallatin Rd. I'm all for the concept of making it look nicer. Though i am a little libertarian to love the idea of limiting the types of businesses that can be along the road (with no schools, etc anywhere near by), i personally don't love them so i guess i can live with it. Besides limiting the types of businesses that can be along the road, they also want to restrict the placement of parking lots (they can only be at the rear of the property now, with vehicle access from side roads, etc). That one makes less sense to me...but ok, whatever. Lastly, they want to restrict signs. They can only be attached to buildings or low-lying on the ground - small, unobtrusive, etc. Fine. I'm all for a little height restriction, but overall sign clutter doesn't really seem to bad.

Here's the deal people. You want to make Gallatin Rd look nicer (and the rest of Nashville while you're at it)...

Get rid of the above-ground power lines.

They are ugly, messy, way more 'cluttered' looking than any signs. Not to mention they make for a trashy power system. Above-ground power lines are full of electrical noise and are more prone to outages than lines that are all above ground. Not to mention the health problems associated with above-ground power. Bury them like any modern city. I'll have less wear-and-tear on my electronics, have to buy fewer power filtering adapters, and not have to put a UPS on everything i own because the power goes out when it gets windy outside. Most of all, it will just plain look nicer.

The Australians are burying their lines. There are studies and papers being written on the advantages all the time. Besides the fact that nobody wants above-ground power.

Here's a little fun i had with photoshop for comparison.

Click for a larger version (2MB)

Which do you think looks better? Lower signs, or no power lines?

But oh yeah - here's the trick. One cost the city money, the other cost private business owners money. Guess which one we're gonna get...

Preds vs Thrashers with Video!

Here it is, video of our awesome new scoreboard. Wow. This thing is amazingly sharp and huge!!! I think it must be even higher than HD resolution (1920x1080). It looked amazingly sharp, even right up close. That's the other thing - it is so huge that it looks up close no matter where you are.

Best of all, replays are actually worth something. You can actually see the puck! For some reason the horn/music after goals was off all night. Hope they get that fixed soon. Ditto for the shot counter. It was off all night (3 shots to 5 in the 1st, 0 to 0 in the 2nd, 6 to 2 again in the 3rd...).

Here's the video!


Nashville Predators new scoreboard from Paul Nicholson on Vimeo.

For all my friends behind firewalls, you can download the mpeg2 video here.

Also got a bit of video of the one fight. Tootoo and McCarthy did more than just scrum. McCarthy had Tootoo down and was wailing on him, the refs were moving in to break it up, just about then Tootoo regained his feet, and body slammed McCarthy over his shoulder, then started wailing on him. That dude is strong.



Jordin Tootoo bodyslams the opposition from Paul Nicholson on Vimeo.

I also took a ton of pictures at the game. I feel like i'm getting better and better at working with the right settings for shooting hockey. Check out the full set here.

Injured Penalty

I'm looking for some clarification here. All you hockey bloggers and hockey fans, help me out.

In yesterday's pre-season opener, Martin Erat was penalized for interference. David Vborny was injured on the play (he'll be out "2-3 days"). According to the way the refs called the game (and this article) there can be or should be (still not clear on if it is discretion or mandated) a major penalty and game misconduct if an injury occurs as a result of the interference.

I have a huge issue with this, especially as it played out last night and in the Nashville series against San Jose last year.

In my understanding, historically an "injury" has been determined to occur when a player draws blood. There was no blood drawn yesterday, and rarely in the San Jose series. Yet we had players thrown out of games and suspended because an "injury" occurred - even when said injury was not severe enough to keep the opposing player off the ice.

But here's why i have the biggest problem with this: If the same action is committed by a player, and in one case there is an injury caused, in another case there isn't, the penalty for the action should be the same. By determining the severity of the penalty based on the offended players reaction, you are taking control out of the refs hands and putting it in the hands of players. Never a good idea.

The NHL has an issue with diving right now as it is. Since the refs are calling games tighter (which i like, by the way), many players are learning that they can dive and get a call, much more than they used to. Now with this injury change, i could easily see a 4th liner go out, wait to get hit by a star player, go down with an "injured" knee, and the star gets tossed. The 4th liner doesn't come back out, maybe he does. Makes no difference. Conversely - there may be a nasty penalty committed that doesn't injure the player (because of luck, better conditioning, whatever).

Of course, i'd love to be more informed on this, but the NHL's website hasn't listed any changes to the rule book this year (still says "New for 05-06!" in several places). The article in the Globe and Mail cites Rule 56 as dealing with the change to the interference call, but Rule 56 in the official book deals with fighting and instigating, and never mentions interference at all.

---

In other Predators news...pictures!

New ice is down at the Sommet Center
(note the new sponsor logo and name-change):

New scoreboard, turned off of course
(bad picture - i'll hopefully take better ones myself soon):

New uniforms in use (we haven't actually seen them on with pads until now).
I can live with it - not as good as i hoped, but it'll work:

Aussie Rules

Got to watch a bit of the Nashville Kangaroos take on the Louisville Kings game this afternoon. Much fun.

It was pretty hot, but i managed to hide under some of Elmington Park's nice shade trees for most of the game, so it wasn't too bad. I used to watch Aussie Rules on Fox Sports World years ago. I was hooked. So much so that when FSW stopped airing games and i was desperate for a fix, i actually downloaded the demo version of EA Sports Aussie Rules game, AFL 99. I couldn't get the controls right, so i just set players to zero and watched it play itself. Repeatedly. Yes, i am a loser.

It is a really cool game though. I always describe it to people as the closest thing in the world to real Calvinball. The ball and field are both oval/oblong. You have to dribble the ball on the ground every 15 meters as you run, you can only get the ball to your teammates through an underhanded punch (like vollyball) or kicking it. You score by kicking through tall uprights at the far end of the field. The umpires throw the ball in the air like a basketball jump-ball, except they throw it about 30-40 feet in the air. It is pretty much chaos.

By now i have to admit i have forgotten many of the specific rules, and things were a little hard to follow. Probably would have been better if i could have heard the announcer they had on a PA system calling the game - but he was on the other side where there was no shade. But today was mostly about going out a supporting the teams a bit...and of course for the photo opp. Nice sunny day + violent sport + no face masks = really cool shots. At least i think so.

For those of you who have never actually seen a game, i shot video of one quick segment. Normally there is more time in between a starting toss and a goal, but thankfully it made for a good, quick demo. And it was pretty indicative of how dominant Nashville was in the game.



Next 'Roos home game is Sept 8th against the Milwaukee Bombers. According to the website, they have never beaten Milwaukee in 4 tries, so the game should at least be more interesting than this blowout. And the weather should be cooler.

For the record, the Kangaroos club also has an associated Netball team (sort of Australian version of basketball). My friend Matt and his wife played on that team for a while just for fun. We got to see them a while back at one of Nashville's Australian Festivals. Don't know if they still play or not.

---

Oh, and for those keeping track at home, i uploaded this video to Vimeo. Going to start switching over. It looks like video on Flickr may be a while in coming, if ever. One nice thing about Vimeo - you can download the original source video if you want to see a higher quality version of anything. Much better than Google Video or YouTube.

Last random note on that topic: Google just closed down its Google Video store and is supposed to be getting out of the video business somewhat. Blogger just added 'upload video' to the editor where you can not just embed video stored somewhere else, but now upload videos straight to Blogger (like it has always done for photos). Google owns Blogger. Explain that one to me.