GodsendJen

I don't typically find much to complain about at the NHL website.  Sure its poorly organized and sometimes cumbersome to navigate but they make tons of high-quality material available to the masses for free.  I can listen to their daily radio show in the morning or games at night, etc.  Today my visit was to cast an All-Star ballot.  As a relative hockey newbie I made some false assumptions about what I should expect from this process.  For starters I assume it would work like the MLB All-Star voting does.  Do it online or at the stadium.  Choose from pretty much any player on a teams roster at the beginning of the season.  Choose to cast the maximum number of votes for any position or only cast votes for players I give a flying fig about. You know, standard All-Star voting stuff. Boy was I wrong.

My first shock came when I learned that you could vote only online.  This might not seam like a big deal given that wide availability of internet service these days, but its an important distinction.  The casual fan who attends a game for the social experience, because a friend had an extra ticket or because they landed the company tickets for the night is likely to cast some votes if an usher spirit girl hands them a ballot at the beginning of the game and collects it near the end of the second period.  Chances are this fan will cast some votes for players on the team he came to watch and maybe punch a few chads for other names he recognizes on the ballot.  This same casual fan, despite spending 8 hours a day in front of a computer connected to the internet, will probably never take the initiative to go out and find the All-Star ballot online and vote. 

But what happens when he does go online to vote? The ballot itself is pretty. It features 10 baseball-card style photo frames with a position listed under the frame and a drop down list of players you can vote for to fill that spot.  When you select the player you can see their photo in the frame and even choose to watch some choice highlights.  There are 5 frames for each division divided into 3 Forwards, 2 Defensemen and a Goalie for each conference. So far, no beef.  I go to cast my votes and find that rather than choosing from all forwards in the eastern conference I'm limited to 30.  Thankfully two of my guys (Kovalchuck and Hossa) are on the list.  No problem.  Frame one goes to Hossa, frame two to Kovalchuck.  Frame 3?  Well I want to write in Slava Kozlov.  He's been on fire and should get some recognition.  I go down to the single write-in slot for the easter conference and choose Slava from the list.  I don't care so much about the defensemen.  None of our guys are on the list and I've already used my write-in spot.  No big deal, our defensemen are improved, but I wouldn't call them All-Stars.  I choose Kari from the list of goalies and go hit submit.  I expect a "Thanks for voting" message.  What I get is an error alert.  It turns out the geniuses at the NHL HQ decided that you must vote for someone in each position slot shown.  I can't help my guys at forward out by not casting a vote for one of their competitors in that third frame.  I can't even make my write in vote for Slava at forward count for that third frame.  I also have to vote for defensemen AND I have to cast a vote for someone at each position in the Western Conference.  My knowledge of individual hockey players is limited to the guys on the Thrasher's roster, a few guys who played for the Caps when I lived in DC and some choice players with our Southeast Division rivals.  All I can say is I hope the NHL honchos enjoy the fruit baskets they are getting from the players at the top of each drop down list this Christmas.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who voted for them just because I had to cast a vote.

NHL All-Star Ballot

I like to occasionally fool myself into thinking people care what I think and even take action.  Another opportunity for this has arrived as there have been 2 recent additions to the Thrasher blogging world.  Someone named Austin has started a Thrashin' blog at http://atl-thrashin.blogspot.com/ and Britt has started one called Girls-LOVE-Hockey-Too at http://girlslovehockeytoo.blogspot.com/.  For those keeping count that raises the known total to 3.5 Thrasher's blogs.  Nine more and we can even it up with the Caps.

I spend way too much time surfing through sports blogs when I have slow time at work.  Some of them are just places I've found thanks to Deadspin, others are devoted to my teams.  The problem with the latter is that some of my teams just don't have a lot of bloggers.  A blurb by Eric McErlain over at Off Wing Opinion really illustrates this.  It appears that the Caps have at least 12 dedicated blogsites of which he is aware.  And those are real fan blogs, not team or local newspaper sponsored blogs.  That's 12 sites for a team that doesn't have much to crow about once you get past Ovechkin.  How many dedicated blogs do the Thrashers have?  As far as I know we only have two.  The overly named Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons blog run by a stat-geek who calls himself The Falconer.   (Yes boys and girls.  Our best Thrashers blog is run by a math nerd whose screen name makes you wonder if it was taken from our Football team.) The second is the rarely updated blog called Thrash Talk run by Brett Lang that mostly rehashes stuff the team put out on its own.

No disrespect to The Falconer, but I think we are better than a 1 and a half blog team.  Jump in the game and get something going.  Unfortunately I don't know enough about Hockey yet to be a jumper-inner but I'd like to think some folks in the feuding tribes at the Nest and the Chicken might have something worthy to say. 

The real stat of the game is that we held the nation's top scoring offense to 7 points and only 80 yards rushing.  Coming into this game Clemson averaged almost 250 rush yards/game.  The Hokie defense was amazing to watch.  I don't know what Bud Foster saw ahead of time but we knew what play to expect on every one of Clemson's offensive snaps.  Everyone knows that the Tiger's tailback tandem carries the workload for them, but we kept managing to send 8 guys to the same side of the field their back chose to run from.  Foster is incredible and watching his unit work when they feel like they have something to prove is always a treat.

After the BC game 2 weeks ago he took away the coveted defensive lunch pail.  When Erin Andrews asked Bud after the game if he was going to give it back to the players now he was non committal.  His response is classic and I hope he was serious.  It was something like "I think I'm going to hold onto it until the players out work me, and they haven't done that yet."  Way to go Bud.  After that performance I'd say you earned the right to carry the lunch-pail another week.

A solid running game and incredible defense.  That is the Hokie Football that made a name for Virginia Tech and I'm so glad to see it return.

My morning blog surfing turned up some intersting theories about what makes a hockey team successful.  My favorite is from Uni-Watch (via Puck Update).  It seams that teams with a "target shaped" logo have goalies with higher save rates than teams with asymetrical logos.  The theory is that a rounded target on a goalie's chest has the unconscious effect of causing oposing players to shoot the puck directly at the goalie.  There aren't any real stats to back this up--or at least uni watch didn't provide any--but it could mean that changing to that new powder blue home sweater will give us a bump in the stats as well as in the marketing budget. As nice as that sounds I'm not sure the argument as a whole is that sound.  Just check out the stat sheet for the Sabres....I don't think of thier new slug logo as symetrical but they are blocking pleanty of shots.

The AJC is offering up a different prediction for what we are hoping is road success this year.  The switch from pizza and wings after road games to protein shakes and peanut butter on bagles. (I thought getting to eat like a college student forever was one of the great benefits of being in good shape.)

That's right.  You heard it here first.  (And I heard it on the radio this morning.) At least one NHL team is taking dead aim at the core NASCAR fan-base.  NASCAR is hugely popular and how has hockey decided to tap into it?  By celebrating mullets!  On October 21st the Vancouver Canucks will be in Nashville taking on the Predators. Its not unusual for the Preds to have country music stars sing the National Anthem.  They even have a whole web page listing all the crooners who have come to Honky Tonk at their Gaylord areana. Fans at the Canucks game will be treated to the musical stylings of Billy Ray Cyrus who will also judge a "Best or Worst Mullet" contest between periods. I'm not a Billy Ray fan but I think this might beat the heck out of the junk we get on the jumbotron at Philips.

Announcement on Billy Ray's Website.

Wednesday marks Coach Beamers 60th birthday.  Boy do I hope none of our players decides to shoplift a gift for him.  We have a couple of wide receivers who haven't been suspended for a game yet.  I just hope they aren't feeling left out.  Of course petty theft isn't something our boys are known for.  We get DUIs, mouth off to police and break windows on vehicles.  Maybe I shouldn't dwell on such things...but it isn't like there are any recent stats I would prefer to mention.  Two but-whoopings and 6 personal fouls so far this year.  So much for the effectiveness of fining players a portion of their bowl stipend for such fouls.  Aaron Rouse is up to 3 personal fouls all by himself.  What happens when his fines exceed the stipend?  Does he need to hold up a McDonalds and start paying out of pocket? 

So just how bad are we doing?  The four teams we beat so far this year have 6 wins between them (3 of those wins belong to the Cincinatti Bearcats).  Our next 4 opponents have 19 wins between them.  Then we face 6-1 Wake Forrest. (And oh what a sad year it will be if we loose to the Demon-Decons!)  All kinds of proud "trends" are ending.  For some time Frank has held claim to being the 3rd Most Winning Active coach.  Last weekend Jim Tressel tied him for that mark.  With the way Ohio State is playing we can expect Tressel to pass us with our next loss.  We hadn't lost an ACC road game since joining the conference...until last Thursday. We had also posted 11 straight Thursday night wins on ESPN.  We've dropped from the rankings in both the AP and the USA Today coaches poll.  We aren't included in the BCS rankings either--and Tulsa and Rutgers are listed. 

So who is to blame?  Is it the "757" for giving us players with a week work ethic and a penchant for getting into trouble?  Is it the 4 new coaches on our staff?  Maybe Bryan Stinespring for our lack of offense? Or whomever continues to play "consistent passer" Sean Glennon at QB instead of using "very athletic but with off field issues" Ike Whitacker? (Though rumor is Ike is getting more reps in practice this week...so maybe a change is in the works.) Spin the wheel and take your pick. 

Me, I'm blaming Daryl Tapp.  For years we've been hearing about and seeing that blasted lunch pail our defense passes around to reward work ethic.  Tapp kept it for most of the last two years...so what did he do after getting drafted?  He took it out to Seattle where it probably sets in his locker.  We have 25 former players who are active on current NFL rosters and as far as I know Tapp is the first one who thought it would be "ok" to take that lunch pail with him. I don't care the Foster gave it to him.  It was a bad move and Daryl should rectify it.  Sure, we got a replacement tin can....but it obviously lacks the mojo the previous one had.  So please Daryl, for the love of God, fed-ex that lunch pail back to Frank with a birthday card.  I think we need it.

In our most successful years the Hokies have won with excellent defense and special team, assisted by a two back running game on offense.  This year circumstances have forced us into an offensive scheme where we use a single back and several wide receivers.  The problem isn't that Brandon Ore isn't good enough to go it alone.  The sophomore is in his first year as a starter, but he's capable of getting some big runs and reliably picking up 3 or 4 yards on other caries. 

The problem we face is two-fold.  Because he's the only back we can't run as often as we have in the past.  Even with great durability you don't want to push your luck with your only running back--and lets not forget he had shoulder surgery in the offseason.  Even more troubling, imho, is that having a single back makes the oposing defense's job so much easier.  Two backs usually means two running styles.  One back will be the speedster who makes the big runs.  The other is the locomotive who might not be as fast but is strong enough to pick up yards with a couple of defenders hanging onto his leg.  The defense has to work harder and either shift plans based on the offensive personel or play a more generic defense that would do an ok job of defending against either back but not a great job against either.  Our opponents don't have to worry about that this year.  They can count on Ore being the only runner to stop and plan accordingly.  Through in some problems getting the passing game to work reliably and you have the makings of a really crappy season, at least by our standards.

I'm not ready to burn my tickets yet, but I sure am less enthused about watching them right now. Unfortunately I get the same feeling about our defense.  They are so unenthused by what the offense can do to keep us in the game that they are slacking off and not bringing the pain on every play.

I'm all for any kind of novelty that helps get buts in the seats at home games.  Really I am.  But this one just makes me laugh.  For tomorrow's game on Friday the 13th the team is giving away Goalie Masks. This can't be the first time an NHL team has done this kind of promotion.  Of course this year what should really give other teams pause isn't stands filled with horror movie bad guys.  It's that we have the league leader in GAA, Points, +/- and have the best record in the NHL East....all while Ilya Kolvachuck hasn't even scored a point yet.

Meanwhile if thoughts of Horror movies and Halloween have you itching to reminisce about your favorite horror flicks check out this cute "find the hidden scary movie" game over at the  M&Ms website.

Last night I was faced with a choice.  Watch Monday Night Football or watch Hockey...and I didn't choose the football.  This is strange for me, and probably an indication that I've let my friends get me too caught up in this.  The problem is the game was really excellent last night.  Everyone said that the team focused on improving defense in the off season and that defense looked incredible against Tampa Bay.  I was yelling happy things at my tv after the finished the 2 minutes of 5 on 3 penalty kill. Kari made some great saves and everyone else was there doing everything they could to help protect him.  We are only 3 games into the season, but I'm starting to see why there has been so much talk about Kari's potential.  Lets just hope the team can keep it up, and maybe even find a little offense to go with that mad D.

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