Monthly Archives: July 2020

Through The Exhibition, On To The Ice

NY Rangers

The exhibition game on Wednesday with the New York Islanders went as I expected it to. Neither team went full force, saving the energy (and avoiding injury, except for Brendan Lemieux who felt that–even though he’s going to sit for a 2 game suspension from the regular season–a fight was necessary to get into ) to make sure the start of the tournament on Saturday will be the strongest each team can be. Islanders beat the Rangers 2-1 so the Rangers were able to compete for the full hour.

The first period was the best for the Rangers, the Islanders didn’t pick up their standard game until the 2nd. Fast, some decent hits, and more shooting than average from the Rangers. While they had some opportunities here and there, the Rangers never found their stride. No streaks of good plays, more like the parts of the team working independently than together. Once the Islanders cinched up their defense, the Rangers couldn’t get anything done. The Islanders have a defensive system (smother) that the Rangers don’t know how to handle.

Shesterkin let one goal in on 7 seven shots and Lundqvist let one in as well. Igor’s was a pretty soft goal while Hank’s was blistering shot across that was right on the money. Really hard to stop. Both goalies looked good but the team has work to do. The penalty kill was terrific–5 for 5–but the power play did nothing of note. Panarin and Zibanejad were on the ice but hardly visible.

With the best of 5 series with Carolina starting tomorrow, whatever team plays like a team first will win. It could go either way but the Rangers have to play like they were at the end of the season or they have no chance. Kreider is back to 100% and Kakko is well-rested and looks more relaxed so these two pieces could make the difference with 2 of Carolina’s most potent defensemen injured.

I have high hopes–as I always do–for the Rangers and the long term stats are in the Rangers favor. The Rangers swept Carolina in the regular season. The Rangers are always a challenge for Carolina to beat. But this tournament isn’t a regular tournament. These teams have now played one hockey game in 4 months. There is no room for error, 3 games to win and that’s it. The pressure is high as ever because this is the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s a treat to have hockey back!

DC Universe

Movies, TV,

DC made their own media streaming service a little less than 2 years ago. A collection of all things DC (with major exceptions because of prior licensing deals with networks for tv and movies) it was designed for major DC fans to come to one location. There’s a comic book reader with an ever-changing library, movies, TV shows, merch and a community section.

I’ve been a subscriber on and off since the start. The big draw to the service is the comic book reader and the original programming. Getting access to a big comic library that’s easy to read is great but it’s pretty limited. Many story lines aren’t complete, only a few issues of a series are available. The reader is very good, much better than when it first started. There are multiple ways to navigate a page which is really welcome.

I write this not for the comics, but to talk about the original shows and what’s going to happen to this services. Long story short, I don’t think DCU is going to stay open until the end of the year. WB, who owns DC, has given birth to its future recently and that is HBO Max. They’re downsizing all of their apps (HBO Now and HBO Go) into one (the way it should have always been) and DCU is kinda left floating around looking for mainstream popularity. Some programs have already made the move: Doom Patrol and Harley Quinn. Stargirl, the first live-action project for this character was meant as an exclusive has been also airing on The CW network. So the expansion is already happening. And that’s good because more people need to see this stuff. Being on DCU, it’s pretty buried.

Titans was the first out of the gate with the launch of the platform. It’s arguably the weakest of the batch. It’s not Teen Titans, which has an enormous fan base, but follows mostly those same characters (Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, Hawk and Dove who aren’t in the cartoon) at an older age. Timeline wise, Robin has broken ways with Batman and is more or less on the verge of going solo (creating Nightwing). The show starts with a very strange tone. There’s cursing that usually feels misplaced. Like the writer’s got permission to curse and they just stuck in f bombs because they could. It feels unnecessary I guess you could say. I did enjoy the first two seasons even if it’s a bit slow. Robin is a terrible leader, there is a ton of internal strife in the group because of a previous mission gone terribly wrong and Raven is a whole new world of trouble discovering her powers. I think season 2 was quite a bit better.

Swamp Thing is awesome. It frequently leans into horror which you don’t see much in this genre (especially live action comic book adaptations). There’s not much else out there like this, which made it really refreshing. I liked everything about this show and it got cut off at it’s knees. It cost a fortune to make and apparently the executives in charge got nervous about it and bailed. This came out right after Titans and I think a low subscriber count made them want to cover other expenses. The season was cut short and the show canceled. The season ended with a limp and it’s so disappointing for this to have happened. My big wish is that somehow, this show comes backs.

Young Justice: Outsiders is an animated show that continues the hugely popular (and stupidly cancelled) Young Justice. Those first two seasons were awesome and while this run is good, I don’t think it meets the story standards of the series. Great animation though.

Doom Patrol is weird and that’s why I love it. An atypical team superhero group, nothing that happens on this show is expected. Misfits and broken people, the group is held together by Chief (played by Timothy Dalton!) who has more than his fair of flaws and secrets. It’s really hard to explain this show, you really need to see it to “get” it. It turns the super hero genre on it’s head and shakes it to make the candy come out. I think for people who don’t like super hero anything, might get a real kick out of this. Now that it’s on HBO Max, it’s much more accessible. Please check it out so they make more (season 2 is airing now).

Harley Quinn is a riot. Animated and filthy, this is the closest answer to the Deadpool movies that DC has right now. It goes way further than the Birds of Prey movie and is really funny. Where Doom Patrol is a weird thinker, Harley is anarchy come to colorful life. A ton of DC characters show up and the way they are portrayed is brilliant (I love Bane). Long time fans are sure to eat this up as they will get all the inside jokes. Not to say it’s unacceptable to new comers, but it helps some of the jokes land harder. The writers got permission to do pretty much whatever they want, so don’t think every character will make it through a season alive. There is literally nothing like this on American TV (the closest might be Rick & Morty) and I was shocked at how well this turned out. Hits HBO Max in August, please check it out so more are made!

Let’s Go Hockey!

NY Rangers, , , , ,

I haven’t written a word about the NHL since the season was stopped in march for COVID-19 because it was impossible to say anything concrete about what was going to happen with the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season. There’s been a lot of behind the scenes action in the last two weeks or so that’s become official. The run for the Stanley Cup is scheduled to start on August 1st. That’s only 2 weeks away.

The pandemic has borked every sport on Earth. Everyone is trying to get the ball running and the NHL is on the cusp of starting play. Training Camps opened on Monday. As for the Rangers, the entire team has been coming back to New York over the last two weeks or so. Because of their standings at the cutoff, they have enough points to enter the Cup Qualifiers with the other 5 bubble teams. August 1st will be the pop off date for the best of 5 series against Carolina. The non-bubble teams that had enough points to make it into the playoffs at the halt of the regular season will play a few round-robin games to establish seeding.

The two hub cities for all games are up North in Toronto and Edmonton. One for the East and West conferences. The Cup Finals will be played in Edmonton.

So now the goal is to keep everyone healthy into the travel date to the Hub City for everyone. Once there, the bubble is made. Players and staff won’t be able to go out much besides the rink and hotel. Family won’t be allowed in until well into the playoffs to keep outside contact to a minimum.

This also means the pressure is on. No one has played a hockey game in more than 4 months. In two months, it’s hit the ice hard or GTFO. This is for the Cup! The teams that can come together the fastest will have a huge advantage. With a best of 5 series to start, the bubble teams have no room for error. Lundqvist has to hit his apex in camp to earn his spot to play over Georgiev (Shesterkin is a shoo-in (skate-in?) to be back up goalie at the very least). The Rangers beat Carolina every game this season but with that momentum gone, it’s anyone’s game. Take a team for granted and you’re going to get beat.

This whole ordeal has spun the finances of the NHL into a black hole. A ton of money has been lost and that makes the payroll cap for every team a huge question mark for the next few years. Right now, the 2020-2021 season is scheduled to start in December. That’s if everything goes well. The NHL is going to be reorganizing things for the next few years so any kind of “normal season” is way down the line. The foreseeable future is going to be an effort in keeping the lights on (many teams make very little profit or operate in the red). Right now we can only hold tight and see what happens. I am so excited for hockey to come back.

It’s been a while

Life, ,

I didn’t write a blog post for all of June! I don’t think I’ve missed a month in years if any. Time to break the dry spell. The good news is, I was busy. I picked up an editing gig and that took up a lot of my time.

This is the 4th book and 3rd author I’ve worked with and my system of content editing is improving with each one. It’s always interesting to navigate through someone’s work for the first time. A lot of notes are necessary, especially for a first draft, which is what I worked on. A lot isn’t clear or well defined so it takes some extra time to put the dots together when they are often too far apart or even non-existent. First drafts tend to be overwritten and also lacking in detail. What an author thinks is important, may not be to the reader. In most cases, the author thinks they’ve covered enough of a topic or idea for a reader when they haven’t. The second draft is largely filling in those gaps, moving things around, overall getting the pacing right.

Writing the report is an effort of giving useful advice and suggestions without being terrible about it. It’s easy to criticize and when it comes to first draft, there’s a lot of it. That can be brutal to read through so much negative feedback. So writing the report is about become a teacher. Explain things well, don’t just say “this is wrong.” That doesn’t help and it’s not wrong, it’s just not complete. Finishing the first draft doesn’t mean the story is done. That’s the basis I use for all of my notes. Why don’t I think this works and what can be done about it? Say what works and how that can be expanded.

I can frequently find the thread that an author lays out. My job is to grab it, shake it to see what sticks to it, and then do my best to figure out how the author can get more to stick to the thread so they can get their intended message across. One of the worst things to hear from a reader is that they see a character completely different from the way you intended. That has to be fixed.

I handed all the material back last week and it has been received positively. Mission complete!